Some Jewish people today, may see some rabbinic validity in teachings that Christians ascribe to Jesus. However, the influences of the Roman Empire and Greco-Roman adaptations in Christianity, are too far away from Jewish monotheism. This may be true for even the early Jewish followers of Jesus...
I can consider a concept that God worked in Jesus, but not the concept of the trinity. The trinity teaching teaches that God became a man and then it teaches that well "God the Father really didn't, but He did, but He didn't, but He did, but He didn't..."
See the typical creed. In one sentence...
The Jewish Scriptures also teach that we are created in the image of God and in one of the Ten Commandments: "You shall not kill."
If one reads the context of the Scriptures that include "God is not a man", one finds that this passage is generally in reference to human character flaws...
Respectfully, it's true that the chief Roman god was "Jupiter", which means "father in the heavens (sky)". It is logical to see the use of this depiction of Jupiter in the "Our Father" prayer as a help to Romans to adapt to monotheism. However, in the creed the "true God" as Jewish people...
The context of the first two appear to be in reference to the trustworthiness of God as compared to man.
The third appears to show that God does not seek revenge as man might.
The fourth appears to show that man must revere God.
(The teachings ascribed to Rabbi Jesus all correspond to those...
Why do people believe that the New Testament is authoritative? For example, what does "inspired by God" mean? Why do you believe that it is inspired by God.
This is not from an atheist perspective. I believe in God.
I believe that the New Testament has some objective truths. I also believe...
Catholicism teaches it and in Catholicism, the teachings of Tradition are on par with Scripture.
To make real progress we have to understand why people consider the Bible authoritative to begin with. Isn't it really from Catholicism, the idea that the Bible is to be listened to?
So true. I'm not superstitious about it, but I don't like using the word "Sun"day, knowing that it based on the "Sun" god. I use the word, of course and perhaps we can simply give it a new meaning in our minds, but still, it's the same word that we do use to mean the sun when speaking of the...
I pray to God, using the word "God". I don't use the name "Jehovah". I already showed that YHWH was one of the multiple names used during polytheistic periods of Judaism. Prior to that, do we know what religion it came from? The point is that even Judaism probably inherited the name from a prior...
Catholic article:
https://www.catholicmom.com/articles/mediums-more-dangerous-than-they-seem
"While the desire to connect with the dead ... may seem perfectly Christian, the practices condemned by our faith actually corrupt those good desires and lead us further away from God."
Apparently, some people believe that God should be called "Jehovah" as extrapolated from YHWH. I'm not aware of anything wrong with using that name for God. I do know that because of reverence for God and the consideration in Judaism that "YHWH" is a sacred name, that the use of the name in...
It's petitions and requests to saints, similar to what is in prayer to God. However I don't think that saints are prayed to for mercy, so a distinction in the kind of prayer is made. Regardless, I believe that any attempt at a form of communication to "spirits" other than God, is seriously...
I believe in praying only to God and never attempt to pray to another. I don't believe in praying to humans that have passed on.
I believe that the Roman Church used saints as a replacement for polytheistic gods.
I see that you are possibly presenting this practice in Catholicism, as an...
Yes, the symbolism used to establish authority, I can understand. Thanks! Where I think we may diverge, is that when Jesus is depicted in Scripture as speaking of the Father or praying to the Father, I think that the intended message of the Scripture authors is that the Father means God.
True!
I don't believe in the Trinity. However, if I did, the lack of certain specific words would be of little relevance, because concepts can be gleaned without specific words being present. Models of belief can vary. Does the model of belief that you use, require that a literal word must be...