Quote:
Originally Posted by Evangelical
Because Jesus is God and one with the Father if we speak of Jesus we are already speaking of God.
Jesus declared He was the I AM of the Old Testament in John 8:58.
Also the bible indicates that belief that Jesus is God is necessary for salvation:
John 8:24
“I said to you that you shall die in your sins, for unless you shall believe that I AM, you shall die in your sins.”
That God is Triune was already defined hundreds of years ago against all viable alternatives.
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This really doesn't cut it. The blind man, whom Jesus healed also said "I am" is he also the I Am of the Old Testament? “Therefore the neighbors and those who previously had seen that he was blind said, “Is not this he who sat and begged?” Some said, “This is he.” Others said, “He is like him.” He said, “I am he. ””
**John *9:8-9 *NKJV The translators added the he for the blind man but not for Jesus' statement. The discussion is really about Jesus being the Christ. He is the Christ. By believing that Jesus is the Christ, and that he died for our sins, and that God raised him from the dead, we receive salvation. How can we be sure of this? Because this is what was preached in Acts, what Romans is all about, Paul's statement of his gospel in 1 Cor 15, Galatians, and Peter's statement of who Jesus is, which Jesus said the Father revealed it to him, and upon that truth he would build his church.
As I have stated before, the NT does not contain a gospel about Jesus being God- which would mean the tens of thousands who believed the apostles' gospels were going to die in their sins.
Jesuit himself said “as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”**John *17:2-3 *NKJV. This was in John's gospel- pretty strange thing for Jesus to say if in fact Jesus is that only true God! John sums up his writing in this way “but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.”
**John *20:31 *NKJV. John does not say that you may believe that Jesus is God, or God the son.
If you consider the NT writings, all the writers spoke of Jesus as the Christ and the Father as God, and spoke extensively of God and all the work He has done and is doing to bring us into the fullness of His son. To pretend that talking about Jesus is talking about God, doesn't match the scriptures.
To say "That God is Triune was already defined hundreds of years ago against all viable alternatives.", is to relegate God to a logic formula. As I said before, the apostles did not give us such a teaching, nor did Jesus or Moses. You are basing your theology of a hypothesis that doesn't match the clear word by Jesus and Paul that the Father is the One True God.