SteeleRedux,

<<I have a real affection for the Bible and will take issue with anyone misusing it as you appear to want to do.>>

An affection for the Bible will not get you into God's kingdom. However, this will: 'Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, unless you are born again [or, born from above], you cannot see the Kingdom of God” (John 3:3).

God writes the rules as to who will make it into His kingdom. Having a real affection for the Bible is not one of them.

<<What did I say that constituted an anti-christian presupposition as opposed to an investigation of the history of the Bible?>>

Go back to your post from earlier today when you said: <<That you and Mr Lewis find sustenance from said cult is fine. Whatever gets you through the day. You can go about telling all and sundry what you believe in but you really don't get to pass it off as fact. 'Jesus was a part of the Trinity. Why? Because his cult says he was.' doesn't really fly does it.>>

So Jesus, one person in the Trinity, is a member of a cult and that 'doesn't really fly' with you.

I'm not so naive as to think your earlier post is not a put down of Christianity.

Dear Ozspen,

Sigh.

You wrote; “So Jesus, one person in the Trinity, is a member of a cult and that 'doesn't really fly' with you.”

No Jesus was the object of the cult. Stop trying to twist my words.

Then you said; “I'm not so naive as to think your earlier post is not a put down of Christianity.”

No it is only a put down to someone like yourself who is trying to assert a matter of faith as a fact. Please stop. You are being creepy enough as it is.

As to the divinity of Christ I will refer you to th good teacher's words, from Mark 10, my favourite of the Gospels;

17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. 

That is the kind of humility you could do well to take note of.

To SteeleRedux.

Noticed you are quick to ask questions that challenge people, or exaggerate the topic, but when asked a question yourself, you remain silent.

Does your silence mean you acknowledge you were wrong?

Dear NNS,

I will admit to not reading your post to the end and therefore missed the question you put to me.

I got as far as Issy and SSM then bailed. BTW you never seem to even take into account that publicly and widely demonising and denigrating homosexuals by famous people may well lead to harm through bullying, condemnation and suicide. I know a number of Christians who act in a way that shows they are mindful of this and I respect them for it.

You appear to be a different breed.

To your question.

“Does having Scott Morrison go to church (or even just be part of the Pentecostal denomination) mean that Australia is a theocracy?”

Going to church? In and of itself no. Being part of a Pentecostal denomination? The answer gets a little more murky.

We are technically living in a theocracy at the moment. Our ultimate head of state is also the head of our major religious order.

We also have a third of our students in faith based schools, pretty well a record in the developing world I suspect. Further we have federally funded and universal chaplaincy program in every secondary school.

So as a collective, including the fact our Prime Minister is a clap happy, speaking in tongues, end times believing more fundamentalist style of Christian than we have ever had does push the theocracy indicators higher than they have been for a very long while.

SteeleRedux,

<<As to the divinity of Christ I will refer you to th good teacher's words, from Mark 10, my favourite of the Gospels; 17 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 18 “Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.>>

There is not a word in these 2 verses or the context that refutes Jesus as God. This shows your cherry picking of verses to suit your presuppositions about Jesus. Matthew and Luke call this man rich and a ruler and he is known as the 'rich young ruler'.

(continued)

Rationalists and Unitarians use these verses (particularly v. 18) to try to demonstrate that Jesus is not God. You seem to be in that category and it is a superficial reading of Jesus' words. To highlight Jesus' answer he points to what goodness really means (as is articulated in v. 19). It is predicated only on God.

Jesus' statement is a long way off denying his Godhead. He actually asserts that, contrary to the common meaning of 'good', good really applies to God.

SteeleRedux,

(continued)

Note the man's question, 'What must I do to inherit eternal life?' He wanted an answer that had everlasting impact for his life. He was not talking with a Johnny-come-lately who could provide him with a good schooner of XXXX at the local pub. He wanted 'good' from the one who grants eternal life.

Jesus' response was a radical difference between the good way to live ordinary life and the good life that only God can give. So, he told the young bloke that he conceived of good on a superficial level.

Besides, SteeleRedux, to discover the nature of Jesus and whether he is God or not, you need to take a more comprehensive read of the New Testament. There you'll discover:

God, the Son, is regarded as God. He has the attributes of deity:

(1) Eternity (Jn 1:15; 8:58; 17:5, 24);

(2) Omniscience (Jn 2:24-25; 16:30; 21:17);

(3) Omnipresence (Mt 18:20; 28:20; Jn 3:13);

(4) Omnipotence. ‘I am the Almighty’ (Rev 1:8; Heb 1:3; Mt 28:18);

(5) Immutable (Heb 1:12; 13:8);

(6) He does the actions of deity: creator (Jn 1:3; Heb 1:10; Col 1:16); holds things together (Col 1:17; Heb 1:3); forgives sin (Mt 9:2, 6); raises the dead (Jn 6:39-40, 54; 11:25; 20:25, 28); he will be the Judge (Jn 5:22) of believers (2 Cor 5:10), of Antichrist and his followers (Rev 19:15), the nations (Ac 17:31), Satan (Gen 3:15) and the living and the dead (Ac 10:42).