Jesus' Wife?

[Razgovory]

Give it a rest, cross thread stalker.

[11B4V]

Give it a rest, cross thread stalker.

Exactly

[Razgovory]

Give it a rest, cross thread stalker.

Exactly

No, you are just dull.  Berkut is a zealot, his atheism is that of a fanatic.  You are just a shadow that follow behind him.

[11B4V]

Give it a rest, cross thread stalker.

Exactly

No, you are just dull.  Berkut is a zealot, his atheism is that of a fanatic.  You are just a shadow that follow behind him.

Never took him as a zealot on atheism. Perhaps a pigment of your imagination.

[dps]

Give it a rest, cross thread stalker.

Exactly

No, you are just dull.  Berkut is a zealot, his atheism is that of a fanatic.  You are just a shadow that follow behind him.

Never took him as a zealot on atheism. Perhaps a pigment of your imagination.

There are a few posters here that I would consider zealots on the subject.  Berkut's not one of them.

[Valmy]

Unitarians do not use a Bible at all, except perhaps as a reference.  When you attend a UU church, in the pews you will find (I forget what they call it) a book with hymns and prayers from all sorts of different religious traditions.  To the best of my recollection, the majority of them are Christian in origin but there are also Jewish, Buddhist, and Muslim prayers and hymns (translated to English) included.

We actually use the bible quite often.

But where are going with this? Is the fact that Christians have a wide sivergence on what they think Christianity is reason to just presume that the word means literally nothing? That there is ZERO informative value to the term "I am Christian"?

A Christian is a person who practices a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.

[Valmy]

Right - the synoptics being generally recognized as preceding John in time, and all three drawing on a common "sayings source" (the hypothesized Q source) put together not that long after Jesus' life.  So if someone was looking to find whatever is closest to the words Jesus actually spoke, one would look in the synoptics and not John.

Needless to say John requires some dancing around for people like me

[Martinus]

A Christian is a person who practices a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.

I would think that recognising divinity of Jesus Christ is also a prerequisite.

[Valmy]

I would think that recognising divinity of Jesus Christ is also a prerequisite.

Heck even John wrote that if you believe in what Jesus is about you can do even better things than he did. Kind of a weird thing to say if he needed you to believe he was a super human god being and you were a mere mortal.

[Tamas]

My issue is that if you decide to ignore a part of the supposed holy book of your religion as being nonsense, like the divinity of Jesus, how can you then go ahead and consider other parts as true and correct?

I mean, I know the answer, because you personally happen to agree with those parts, but that's a bit of a stretch to build such a monumental thing as a religion on now, isn't it?

[Tamas]

I would think that recognising divinity of Jesus Christ is also a prerequisite.

Heck even John wrote that if you believe in what Jesus is about you can do even better things than he did. Kind of a weird thing to say if he needed you to believe he was a super human god being and you were a mere mortal.

is the book of John puts Jesus' status as son of God up for interpretation and personal preferences, or states it as fact?

[garbon]

A Christian is a person who practices a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.

I would think that recognising divinity of Jesus Christ is also a prerequisite.

I was looking at wikipedia's page for nontrinitarianism. Of course it is wiki but of all the various beliefs/communities it outlines, it on quick read looks like only once you hit the modern beliefs/groups do you get groups denying Christ having some sort of divinity.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nontrinitarianism#Beliefs

[Valmy]

My issue is that if you decide to ignore a part of the supposed holy book of your religion as being nonsense, like the divinity of Jesus, how can you then go ahead and consider other parts as true and correct?

I mean, I know the answer, because you personally happen to agree with those parts, but that's a bit of a stretch to build such a monumental thing as a religion on now, isn't it?

Because of the nature of the scriptures. They are all interpretations of events, written with a particular agenda in mind. So you have to coax out spiritual lessons and truth from them. There does not exist a Christian sect that does not do that, so I guess therefore there are no Christians?

[garbon]

My issue is that if you decide to ignore a part of the supposed holy book of your religion as being nonsense, like the divinity of Jesus, how can you then go ahead and consider other parts as true and correct?

I mean, I know the answer, because you personally happen to agree with those parts, but that's a bit of a stretch to build such a monumental thing as a religion on now, isn't it?

Because of the nature of the scriptures. They are all interpretations of events, written with a particular agenda in mind. So you have to coax out spiritual lessons and truth from them. There does not exist a Christian sect that does not do that, so I guess therefore there are no Christians?

Christ's divinity has been a pretty core tenet to most adherents though, no?

[Martinus]

I think Jesus being the son of God is absolutely central to being a Christian. In fact, from a Christian perspective, it is the main thing differentiating Christianity from both Islam and Judaism.

A person who believes in the god of the Bible, but considers Jesus to be just one of the prophets (even if the most important prophet) is simply a (very progressive) Jew.