Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohio
John was a simple man who spoke with plain words. The opening to his gospel was well constructed with much deliberation.
Yes, the Logos is the thought, the idea, the message, the story, the narrative of God. Paul, however, called Him the image of the invisible God. These in no way conflict, rather provide complementary descriptions.
While John's message is simple, yours requires endless wordsmithing to explain away his message. Where is your foundational basis of scripture that declares Jesus is not God? There is none. There is only your understanding that the Son of God cannot also be God. This is exactly why John wrote what he did, nearly 70 years after Jesus died and resurrected. John clarified some false and prevailing errors that had developed over time.
Thus John made it so clear that Jesus, the Son, was God eternal. The Word, in the eternal beginning, was with God and was God. This Word created all things. And this Word became flesh and tabernacled among us. In his gospel, John repeatedly brought this truth up:
- He is in the bosom of the Father (1.18)
- The Jews killed Jesus because He made Himself equal with God (5.18; 10.33; 19.7)
- He and the Father are one (10.30)
- Thomas worshiped Him as God (20.28)
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I would offer you to really consider that John 17:3 was written by John, quoting Jesus and it follows what Paul stated in 1 Cor 8, which is a clear and concise statement about God and Jesus. I don’t think it is good to say I should have to prove something that does not exist as being false.
I don’t think my explanation required very much wordsmithing but is quite an easy explanation if you consider that no one in the early church preached the kind of Jesus you are stating John is relating to the believers- who was John’s audience? Was it the church in Ephesus, where Paul beseeched them to keep the oneness of the Spirit by acknowledging one God the Father? If your explanation is correct and I am wrong, then John definitely contradicts Paul and what Jesus so clearly says-at the hand of John in 17:3.