I don’t know if there would have been a story about Jesus had they NOT made him into a god but I might be wrong.
What would have been the rationale of the New Testament had Jesus not been made into a god?
You can’t take one without the other. If you only considered Christ in the light of being human and not of being god made man, you lose his true essence, don’t you?
I think Christ would have been placed among the pantheon of Greco-Roman philosophers (although standing out as the first Hebrew to be recognized in this tradition).
I don’t believe the true essence of jesus is god…I think you can separate the two ideas…the important one is usually missed…
The NT does not equate Jesus to God. It actually makes a clear distinction. The Catholic Church raised the idea of Jesus being God. And recently they have (and are) promoting that Mary is the “Holy Mother of God”, thus a “Goddess”.
But the actual NT doesn’t support those titles. And frankly I suspect that Mary would be embarrassed and offended by such a title.
That’s right, in the Council of Nicaea, wasn’t it? Wasn’t it a solution to the problem of the first commandment–that they were worshiping two gods at once?
I believe that their intent with “The Holy Trinity” was to try to make it clear that there are three common ways of looking at or conceptualizing God, but in reality they are all actually the same thing, merely spoken of differently. The RCC was saying that it didn’t really care which way you look at the issue as long as you agree that the principles Jesus espoused were an accurate reflection of God.
at the council in 325----I don’t remember them talking holy trinity…just holy jesus
James S Saint
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James, unless I am misunderstanding you, I am not so sure that’s true. Or maybe it’s just the way in which you’re wording your thought. The NT actually does equate Jesus to God - if that were not the case, Jesus would be no more than a typical prophet or good man. Insofar as the NT goes, Christ is BOTH human and divine. The second person of the blessed trinity. I don’t know where you got your notion from.
The ONLY clear distinction about it is that Christ is both God and Man at the same time.
James, that wouldn’t even be rational on the part of Catholics or any christians. To do that, the whole structure of christianity and Catholocism would colllapse. Christ is God at the same time as being FULLY human - FULLY man. Don’t forget I was a catholic and I haven’t forgotten anything.
For Catholics, Mary has ALWAYS been the holy mother of God. But they don’t consider her a goddess. lol
bugman123.com/Bible/JesusIsGod.html
Take your pick here from the NT
As for Mary being a goddes, yes, mary was supposedly a really humble servant of the Lord and would emphatically deny that kind of a title.
Always nice talking with you James.
how can you be fully human and fully god at the same time…that doesn’t sound rational or reasonable…
Lol that’s the part which is accepted on faith alone. I myself am not capable of doing that though many others are capable.
Whoever said that religion or even one’s spirituality for that matter has to be rational or reasonable, turtle?
Faith means that you either accept it or not.
But if one can believe in a theistic god, why not just take the next step forward and believe that this god could send someone to Earth, i.e., his son, who “issued forth from him” and became man while at the same time not losing his divinity?
That takes loads of faith, sometimes blind faith.
I think the Christian has a problem…the Christian says my human guy is the only guy god on earth…the rest of you out there in other religions have it wrong…our guy is SPECIAL…he is god on earth…our jesus guy is therefore superior…
James is right. The nature of Jesus was a major source of dispute in the early church. Needless to say, the trinitarians won and as a result … Jesus is God (and not God) . The texts which opposed this view, were simply left out of the Most Holy Bible.
And there is a definite Cult of Mary in Catholicism.
Why do Christians have a problem? Muslims say that Mohammed is the last prophet of God. Jews say they have a special link to God.
Why not? A hide-a-bed is both fully a sofa and fully a bed at the same time. You just have to have all the traits sufficient to count as one thing and all the traits sufficient to count as the other thing at the same time. Maybe what it takes to be a god and what it takes to be a human are perfectly compatible in a single being.
phyllo… the muslim has a guy…he is not the god…how do people feel when they are told there is only one way…my way…the jesus god way…the only god man now…get real
That’s why these are classified as beliefs. If there was one correct, indisputable way, then it would be called knowledge.
There are some who will say that their own beliefs are actual, absolute knowledge. They are a small minority. The majority swim in a sea of uncertainty, doubt, indifference and irrelevance.
phyllo,
I think it’s just a bit of caffeine withdrawal on my part here but you sound a bit like a conspiracy theorist here. 
It just struck me funny.
Define god.
You people think you know the characteristics of a god? Lol go play D&D and use some imagination. If there was a god, you would all surely know.
Artimas
Do you know how many times those words have been uttered in here?
What’s D&D?
The characteristics of a god are based on intimate knowledge of self. lol and [dem] simmballs.
Well, that’s actually what happened. There were many Christian sects, each with it’s own ideas about the divinity of Jesus. Each with its own texts and/or oral tradition.
There was a need to determine what the correct Christianity was. What was orthodoxy and what was heresy?
So they had the First Council of Nicaea and other meetings. The decisions would form the official Christian doctrine.
Texts were approved and texts were suppressed. Ideas were embraced and ideas were rejected.
We have the winners’ version. I wouldn’t call it a conspiracy… it’s just how life works. It’s not as though the authentic words of Jesus glowed in the dark. Humans beings had to decide on what seemed to be true and false. And of course, the truth was not the only consideration … they had other human agendas.