Disclosure of Secrets

Originally posted by gumUnderfoot ↑

Well there are a good many verses in the Bible that try to express the nature of Jesus and His relationship with God.

Something a little less ambigious but very ambigious depending on perspective.

³⁷Even after Jesus had performed so many signsin their presence, they still would not believe in him.³⁸This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:
“Lord, who has believed our message
and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”^[h]
³⁹For this reason they could not believe, because, as Isaiah says elsewhere:
⁴⁰“He has blinded their eyes
and hardened their hearts,
so they can neither see with their eyes,
nor understand with their hearts,
nor turn—and I would heal them.”^[i]
⁴¹Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus’ gloryand spoke about him.
⁴²Yet at the same time many even among the leaders believed in him.

Following

But because of the Phariseesthey would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue;⁴³for they loved human praisemore than praise from God.
⁴⁴Then Jesus cried out,“Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me.⁴⁵The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me.

Seeing the arm?
and then what they thought about the arm of the Lord.

³³“We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.”

Jesus represented God,

Yes, as the arm of God. It can be ambigious. It doesn't have to be believed. The passages say most won't believe and some won't openly acknowledge it.
For whatever reasons. I can see a good percentage is just from an anti Catholic position. But the scriptures are clearly written

and in so doing 'was God' in the sense that Jesus expressed the Will of God

Ok, you do recognise Jesus was God. In the narrative sense, still is. Always was, is and will be.

But stepping back from that we see that this in no way suggests that Jesus was literally God,

You did.

By suggesting Jesus was God we have reduced God to the imperfections of human form, to a being that needed to eat, defecate, had body odour and bad breath, had dirt on His body and was put to death by mere humans. That is a really strange version of God and it takes little insight to realise that this belief is as close to heresy as one can get.

A heresy as a means to reconcile man back to God.
You have picked up why Jesus was crucified. It reveals you would have likely picked up the stones to stone him as well back in the day. With little insight.
Not seeing Jesus as the arm of the Lord as the arm of the Lord.

As narrated and as studied to inspire Trinity Doctrine.
It may have been political but the verses to support are written.

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I appreciate your post, but it contains nothing that supports your belief.

I do not hold an anti-Catholic position, nor an anti-religious position, though I do abhor some of the behaviour of the CC and other religions. I think that religion is humanities best hope of not annihilating itself, but not via any of todays mainstream religions which have all lost their way.

As for blinded eyes and hardened hearts, the only real enemy of Christendom comes from its followers. Their eyes and hearts are just as likely to be subject to the infirmities mentioned. Non-Christians have almost no bearing on the state of Christianity and who can really blame people for being inoculated against religion with its appalling track record and teaching endless dogma and superstition?

Now regarding the hypostatic union of Christ, that is that Christ was fully God and fully human.

Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good–except God alone. – Mark 10:18; Luke 18:19; Matt 19:17

No one has seen God at any time – John 1:18. John makes it abundantly clear than any scripture he wrote previously does not and was never meant to suggest the Jesus is God.

“For whoever does the will of My Father who is in heaven, he is My brother. – Matt 12:50

I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. – John 14:16

In Matthew 24:36, Christ is questioned about his return. He responds, “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.” Jesus cannot be the All-Knowing God, because Jesus cannot both know and not know something simultaneously.

As for the Holy Ghost, this is not something independent from God. God is a spiritual essence, does a spiritual essence have a ghost. Of course not, the Holy Ghost is God as a dynamic force, just as when you do something it's still you. God and the Holy Spirit is the same thing, so the Trinity is lost right there alone.

As for Jesus, He is like a perfect mirror who reflects the essence, perfections and Will of God from God to humankind. God does not descend from absolute perfection down to imperfection, nor divide into parts to direct His Will upon humanity. Jesus is the perfect man who reflects God, represents God, has the authority of God, but at no time is He God.