The First Commandment, page-626

Part 2

We see from the Jewish prayer of the “Shema” Det 6:4 is embedded Jewish concept of God, that God is one, there is no other period, not even for a Son. To love God with all your heart is a way of life. We have no understanding of the nature of God. The only access we have to God is via His Teachers. In the case of the Jews it was Moses, for Christians it is Christ. To then love God with all your heart can only be reflected in how you treat your fellow human, without prejudice, judgement, sexism, etc, etc. So this has nothing to do with Jews becoming Christians. For the most part it was how Christians lived their lives that attracted people. Even the Romans were eventually defeated by the love, kindness, tolerance, compassion of Christians, primarily through Christian women who built bridges to the Roman women who then influenced their husbands. Christianity was powered by women while the men argued over words.

The Jews consider that making the claim that Jesus is God is pure idolatry. The Oneness of God is not effected by Moses, or Jesus, or the return of a Jesus figure who will fulfil the prophecies of the OT as required to be considered the Messiah. The confusion comes about because the Bible attributes prophecy to both Jesus and the figure who returns and is like Jesus. We can conclude this because Jesus clearly and without question, did not fulfil the prophecies required to be considered the Messiah of the Jews. He was of course the Messiah of Christianity.

Its very clear in the OT only God saves, yet Christ death and resurrection is the turning point of where salvation now can be found, no human can ever save especially if Christ was only a prophet, Paul describes it, “then if this is the case our faith is in vain”. To be saved means you have enriched your spirit with the love of God, via love of Christ, obedience to His Teachings, precepts and the morals, virtues and deedful life that then flows on from that. Each human spirit is immortal, but the quality of that immortality is subject to how we live, in the case of a Christian, in accordance with the Teachings of Christ. Drawing nearer to God is life and moving away from God is death.

Christ is a Manifestation of God. The opportunity to develop one's spiritual capacity is best found in obedience to the Teachings of Christ and in this sense one is saved. The resurrection of Christ is a spiritual concept. See my response to Gum.

Later People started putting different takes on Christ nature, a simple look at the heresies of the time confirms this, when we bounce off the different take of these it becomes very clear what the main body of Christianity believed in, and that was the Trinity.

There is a Trinity, but not in any literal sense. God, the divine force of God and a pure individual who becomes the Primal Point for the dissemination of the Will of God with complete obedience and self-sacrifice. God is beyond descent into the realm of relative imperfection. Even Jesus was imperfect compared to God. I appreciate that the church attempted to define the Christ in relation to God, but in going too far and declaring Jesus some third aspect of an indivisible God was a grave contradiction of their belief in God. It had far reaching effects on humanity and caused much of the oppressive colonialism of Christianity and the obliteration of many wonderful cultures.

The concept of the Trinity of today has only came about because of these heresies. Yes, it was a defensive position, not a reality.

As for my take on the Trinity being addressed. I have read on this subject extensively.