I don't. It's a fairy tale that didn't appear in scripture until many decades (if not a full century) after Jesus died.
John 10:30 says "I and the Father are one". In John 10:33, the Jews were made at him because "He was claiming to be God". John 8:58 has Jesus saying "Before Abraham, I am." In John 20:28, Thomas calls Jesus "My Lord and My God" to which Jesus didn't object to. Matthew 16:16 has Peter telling Jesus, "You are the son of the Living God", and Jesus not only doesn't object, but he rewards Peter for his answer. It's clear that if Jesus really didn't want to claim divinity or be known as just a man, He woulda corrected his disciples. He would have said, "Guys, chill out, I ain't no Messiah." But he didn't.
Since I don't believe in the validity of the new testament this has no bearing on my beliefs. I hope that all of you guys understand that I might disagree with all of you but I have no hatred or anger towards you. I just pray that we can all work together, look out for each other and respect each other. Where all gods children and I pray that we all can focus more on loving each other instead of everything else.
If you don't believe the validity of the new testament then why the heck have you been calling Jesus a 'great man' and a "follower of god" if almost all the information we have on christ comes from new testament documents? Regardless, i'm pretty sure no one has any hate in their words here lol, just a cool discussion.
During his earthly ministry, Jesus frequently allowed himself to be worshiped. There are numerous passages which portray the Lord in this light (see Matthew 8:2; 9:18; 14:33; 15:25; 20:20; Mark 5:6-7; John 9:35-38). It will not do to argue that these texts only show that some merely “reverenced” Jesus in much the same way one would honor any important dignitary. Consider, for instance, the case of the disciples’ demeanor after Jesus had walked upon the Sea of Galilee. When the Lord entered the boat, these men “worshipped him, saying, Of a truth you are the Son of God” (Matthew 14:33). They were honoring him as a divine being—that is beyond dispute. Further it is not without great significance that when folks bowed before the Lord and worshiped him, in not a single case did he ever rebuke the worshipers and suggest that he was unworthy of such adoration. Christ thus stands in dramatic contrast to Peter, who refused worship (Acts 10:25-26), and even to angels, who similarly did not allow themselves to be so revered (Revelation 19:10; 22:8-9). Even the angels worship Christ. In one of his foundational arguments designed to show the superiority of the New Covenant over the Old, the writer of Hebrews affirms that all of the angels (through whom the Mosaic law came) worship Christ (the author of the new law): “Let all the angels of God worship him” (1:6). Since angels worship Christ, and as we are “lower” than they (Hebrews 2:7), it follows that our worship of the Lord is entirely appropriate. Surely no one can carefully study the fifth chapter of the book of Revelation and not see that the Lamb of God is worthy of the worship of the entire creation. In fact, Jesus is given the same sort of adoration as the Father (see 5:13b). Paul explicitly states that Christ is so exalted that, in his name “every knee should bow” and every tongue confess that he is Lord (Philippians 2:10-11). The reference to bowing the knee is an obvious allusion to worship (cf. Isaiah 45:23; Romans 11:4). Clearly, Christ is worthy of worship. Those who are voicing objections to such are in error.
Isaiah 7:14 English Standard Version (ESV) 14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.[a] Footnotes: Isaiah 7:14 Immanuel means God is with us In the scriptures 500 years or so before Jesus.
Look bob where not going to agree about this but can we at least agree that we all need to do a better job of protecting and taking care of each other.basically loving one another.
No offense, but are you just trying to be obstinate? Do you really believe what you are saying? If you do, then it is nice to have met you. If not, is this just a mental exercise?
Tacitus, Suetonius, Lucian, and Pliny the Younger are the only other pagan historians that mention Jesus in their writings. And even then, their comments don't make any mention about the nature of Jesus. Rather, they simply mention that Christians of the time were worshiping Him as God. So you obviously can't make any inference of the type of man he was through their writings. The biggest historical writing on Jesus was Josephus. Someone earlier mentioned how later Christians would make additions to his writings. But what he wrote before the tamperings (or what is believed to be what he wrote), was that he gained a great following from Jews and Greeks, was crucified by Pilate, and Christians were still around. So if you're making your view of Jesus based on non-christian writings, then you really can't measure whether he was a good man or not, as you say he was. All you can say is that Christians believe in him, and he was the leader of the new religion. That is of course, if you're not muslim, to which you would see Jesus as a great man...
Yes I do. I'm not here to insult or degrade anybody and regardless of your views I respect you because you have a real interest in helping people and that makes you one of the good guys. As I have said before in my beliefs anybody who has gods children best interest in mind is doing the right thing.
I would rep you for this if I could: must spread reputation around before giving it to bobmarley. God Bless!
As I said in another post, an alternate theory I've read is that she was an unmarried version and it got misconstrued into her being a virgin, possibly due to it being translated from language to language.
I do hope one day people question their beliefs more. I had a good friend that's even very intelligent that said on Facebook that the Bible is 100% real and true. About 30 people hit the like button. It's kind of disturbing. Even if you have high confidence in it's validity, 100% real and true? People feel they have to justify every aspect of something like this for it to be viable, not just in religion but also areas like politics. Nothing wrong with having confidence in what you believe, I know I have some but you have to be willing to question everything if you expect to grow mentally and spiritually imho.
Jesus believed he was a messiah. That does not prove he believed in the trinity as Christians practice.
I actually learned this theory in the opening scene of Snatch <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/89sD6StyzXk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
The missionaries I met in Africa made me sick to my stomach. Leave their culture alone. Missionerrorist is the term I like to use.