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Originally Posted by zeek
The problem comes when some of those Jesuses are contradictory and therefore mutually exclusive. Like the pacifist Jesus and the one who leads Christians into war. Or how about the reticent Jesus of the synoptic gospels and the self preaching Jesus of the Gospel of John? These are problems for people who find contradictions illogical. The greatest of these is the problem of the claims that Jesus was both man and God. I maintain that there is no rational way of explaining that claim.
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Virtually all of the aspects of Jesus that you describe as contradictory are overlays. Jesus was not decidedly pacifist or leading to war. "Onward, Christian Soldiers" is metaphorically questionable. But those who declare a pacifist Jesus are also extending beyond what is written. As for reticence v self-preaching, that is a matter of topic and coverage. Neither is an absolute to the exclusion of the other. They are all aspects of Jesus.
Where is the contradiction? Taking one position in a certain set of circumstances and a different position in different circumstances does not create a contradiction. It provides an insight to a complex truth that is coherent and non-contradictory. We may not fully understand it. But to assert otherwise is to suggest that God is random, arbitrary and capricious.