UnclePenn
You seem to want to keep the reincarnation subject completely out of the biblical discussion, yet this was believed by some jewish sects in that time and area, namely the samaritans, gnostics and essenes. As well, the middle east was a nexus for trade from the far east w the west. So, eastern thought would have been heard there. Reincarnation was nothing new to jesus' ears. You will recall that one of his first missionary journies was to samaria.
Incarnation: (1) : the embodiment of a deity or spirit in some earthly form (2) capitalized : the union of divinity with humanity in Jesus Christ. - mariam-webster dictionary.
'in the *spirit and power* of Elijah' Lk1:17 You say john came w a spirit LIKE that of elijah. The gerome biblical commentary says this comes from malachi4:5, and that there was a tradition that elijah really was supposed to be a latter messenger, since he was said to have been taken up bodily. If john came in, or with elijahs spirit as some translations say, then as elijahs spirit dwells in johns body, it matches the definition of an incarnation.
Even the scribes believed elijah was coming. Mt17:10-13 'I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him' You don't either.
John9:2,3 Jesus healing the man born blind, and the disciples asking him, "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" They thought his blindness was a result of sin. They thought it could have been a result of his his own sin. If so, the sin would have nessesarily preceded his birth, at which time the results of the sin ie blindness was apparent, so sin would have been commited, in their opinion, either in the womb or before conception - you decide.
Jesus supposedly incarnated once at 2-6bc, died about 33ce, his spirit was out of his body for about 3 days, it then reposessed the body. Let's see, first incarnation @ 2-6bc, second incarnation 33ce. The second time one does something, it can be said to be redone, so the second incarnation was a REincarnation. Even the word resurrection has the idea of a 'standing up again'. You falsely acuse me of twisted thinking. You mistake twisted thinking for objective thinking.
'Heb 9:27 Just as man is destined to die once' Didn't lazarus and all the other resurectees die twice?
Reincarnation remained popular among middle eastern christians and jews. Some groups that continued its belief after jesus were the essenes, ebionites, followers of origen, and gnostics. Zohar, the jewish writing of 100ad, taught it. The nicene council was an attempt to unify the various christian sects. While it was largely successful in extinguishing these, it fail to qwash reincarnation belief. In fact, reincarnation gained so much popularity, that in the 5th general council, convened by emperor justinian in 553, it was specificly denounced as a heresy, later punishable by death. You have the catholic church to thank for the absence of reincarnation in the christian corpus.
You said 'Love is selfless.' Do you believe god has selfless love for humans?? Not.
'If I love my neighbor but I let Him be mugged while I stand there, then that is not love. If God ignores the killing of 6 million Jews then that is not love. In fact, it is the anithesis of love.' God stood there and did nothing while 6 million jews died, so by your words he didn't love them, he hated them (antithesis).
'SO, now God has adopted the thoughts of modern psychologists and psychiatrists?!? Now, it's not really Hitlers fault that he killed all those people, he was a victim because of some insecurity or fear?!?' Not a victim, just bad decisions and enterpretations, then overreaction. Some psychs are able to do what your god can't. It would appear that the psychs have a love that is closer to unconditional than your god does.
'I think you would see it differently if you were humiliated and stripped of everything you had, stuffed into a camp with thousands of people , sitting in your own urine and being starved to death and given a common burial.' Likely i would, but then i'm not god and i don't have unconditional love for anybody.
This discussion was about unconditional love. The dictionary defines unconditional as: 1 : not conditional or limited : ABSOLUTE, UNQUALIFIED. You have repeatedly insisted on injecting your concept of justuce as a limiting factor in to your gods love. Thus you have not been discussing unconditional love. While i don't have it, you havn't grasped the possibility of its existence. We have been discussing two different things.
SS