Disclosure of Secrets

Originally posted by wafflehead: ↑

Well there are a good many verses in the Bible that try to express the nature of Jesus and His relationship with God. When compiled in their entirety a general theme emerges of a Father, a God, a supreme being, an eternal, indivisible spiritual essence that engages with humans via a Messenger that he has prepared to deliver His Message.

Jesus represented God, and in so doing was God in the sense that Jesus expressed the Will of God as He was bidden to do so. But stepping back from that we see that this in no way suggests that Jesus was literally God, an aspect of God or part of some three part reality which is really one part, but it's three.

For humans Jesus is as close as they will ever come to God. He had the authority and expressed the Will of God, but God is transcendent from division, from descent into the imperfection of its own Creation. 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.

I do not know what directed the vote to its outcome, but it can be speculated that Constantine had a very specific requirement of his Christianity to be used politically, it was the best religion to unite his imperial cult. Clearly it was in the best interests of those bishops gathered to determine that Jesus was indeed God and part of a similar trinity to that which already existed for the Romans and that Constantine was then in communion with and directed by God Himself in the form of Jesus.

The bishop voters were under pressure to find a way of unifying Rome's three god trinity with Christian belief. In establishing the Trinity as we know it today Constantine had them blend Christianity into the Roman religion, meaning that it was but a short step for the followers of the old Roman three god religion to become Christians.

It's a history worth studying and it becomes clear why the doctrine of the Trinity was an essential outcome that was a done deal from the get-go when those bishops got together. I imagine the bishops resisted as best they could but the consequences were too great not to capitulate, so they found certain scriptures that seemed to soften the blow of bowing to the authority of Constantine.

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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.