Welllll....this is indeed a juicy thread :)

PERICLES FIRST.

"a NSW priest, Peter Dresser of Coonamble in the Diocese of Bathurst, insists Jesus was not God and did not think he was God"

SHOCK HORROR... I better batton down the theological hatches and ramp up the 'fear and loathing' which Pericles seems so easily to link to 'disagreement'... poor begger....

Of course, what escapes our dear secular bishop is... that this bloke stands out like a SORE THUMB against the accepted wisdom, similar to that Dr Francis McNab.

Oh..by the way ..

PERICLES and DAVID F yes AMEN AMEN and AMEN! Total agreement there.
The Body of Christ (the only begotten Son of God!) has never languished through lack of state support..in fact it THRIVES.

Ok.. Pericles(David).. on the theological issue. The reason the likes of Dresser and McNab stand out so starkly is simple. They are deluded.

"Jesus did not think he was God" (Dresser)
"If you have seen ME, you have seen the Father" (Jesus)

Bearing in mind of course the context of our Lord's statement. Philip said "Lord..SHOW us the Father and THEN we will be satisfied"

The reason I defer 'heavy theological discussion' is because our Lord also pointed to his humanity and one can cherry pick one set of verses or the other to create an unbiblical Jesus who is neither man/God nor God/Man, but only 'man' or..'only' God.

The other reason to defer is that one would need to revisit the full ecclesiastical debate from the various councils.. not something 350 words can achieve.

Oh..David.. my claiming that Christ is the only begotten of the Father is hardly as dangerous as claiming "Christians did the holocaust". One is an allocation of attribute..the other is an allocation of blame.

Polycarp wrote:

"Oh..David.. my claiming that Christ is the only begotten of the Father is hardly as dangerous as claiming "Christians did the holocaust". One is an allocation of attribute..the other is an allocation of blame."

I am concerned with truth more than blame. The only begotten bit is absolute nonsense. The Christian blame for the Holocaust is fact.

Sometimes the truth is quite dangerous. It is easier and sometimes safer to deny it.