My bible tells me that the only name that man will get a responce from God is the name Jesus . There is no other mediator between man and God . It also tells me that Christ is the head of the church . The pope is the head of A denomination not the head of the church . The church is the body of Bornagain believers . There is only one way into the Kingdom of God {you must be born again} Jesus words recorded in book of John chapter 3 . We are told by scripture not to follow blindly the teachings or traditions of man but to test everything against scripture .We are also told to submit to our leaders .So if our leaders lead us to do ungodly things who is in error . For me the buck stops with me so I do as Jesus did and get alone with my heavenly father and talk with him . He comanded me recently to leave the church that had been my spiritual home for over 20 years and I was quite upset at leaving all my friends . After 6 months he gave me the reasons
1 . I am going into new terratory and my pastor cannot lead me and I needed a more mature Pastor {in the Word} and also I needed to trust God more for my physical strength is no more since a stroke and I can no longer live in my own strength . His word is alive and means diferent outcomes in my life . God DOES NOT change , I must or my relationship is dead .
2 . Obedience is better than sacrefice and God only wants the very best for his children .
We must allow God the Holy Spirit to lead us and then we are true sons of God . The price is full commitment but the reward is Joint Heir with the King of Kings and Lord of Lords not to be taken lightly or carelessly .

Richie 10,
I can accept your sincerity, but I believe Oliver is debating who has the power to authorise what title is used of "God" in Church worship.

If you were in a Christian Church in Indonesia you would use a different name to mean Saviour. Jesus means saviour or deliverer. In many Churches today the nature of the spirit of God worshipped is not more than a glorified hero called Jesus or Jesus is my best friend. It fails to grasp the infinite, creative and eternal concept of the Almighty.

Names identify character and the title "Lord" or in Heb "Adonai" represent a concept of Character that commands total attention and devotion. Jesus always addressed himself as "son of man" and pointed worship to his father - Theo (Mathew 4: 10). Though he uses concepts such as 'way', 'life', 'truth', 'good shepherd', 'door' etc to express concepts about the nature of Christ the Lord. God was in Christ, his spirit expressed the very mind (the word) of the eternal God.

It is only through the action of Jesus that man can be saved. But it is only through the approval Of God that the atonement of Christ is effective. Christ dies for sin not his own, approved of as atonement because God so loved that he gave man salvation through the total sacrifice of Christ.

It is true Jesus was the human sacrifice that effects reconciliation between God and the man whom we must mediate through. But his humanity is not divine. It was God in him reconciling the sinners to Himself. A mediator identifies one standing between an agrieved party and another.

I was not debating the atributes of Gods Nature .All the atributes of God are in Jesus "God the son" one of three in the Godhead {father.Son.And Holy Spirit} And are all interchangable as the three are One . Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. The spirit of Jesus is the Holy Spirit . Fully God not a little god or a power source as the J W presume .

Richie 10,
God is not three anywhere in scripture God is unity, not diversity of persons. The name Father Son and Holy Spirit in Matthew 28: 19 is one name (supported by the singular article in the Greek text), one God; not three persons even as Isaiah 9: 6 is one name bestowed upon one, one God who can be revealed in a child born. God is revealed by His spirit in those born of His spirit and are so called 'sons of God'. Yet it is the same spirit that is revealed in each life so identified by the life of holiness, compassion and purity.

Rich 10,

Do you or I have the commission to commence a church or a denomination of a church?

The Seventh Day Adventists, probably correctly, given what I have read from translations of the dead sea scrolls, maintain Saturday as the Sabbath. (actually scrolls state folks stated sects would wind-down on Friday)... I believe that based on historical and astronomical data that the person whom Christians call, Jesus, was born 7 BCE. Do I have the commission to frame a church on that presumption.

Philo,

You are quite right. The Protestants need to justify their claim.

Universal Christianity arising form Christian Judaism occurred during the time of Hadrian, when the faction (in Pella)required a Latin bishop (Marcus) to enter the Holy Land, from which Jewish religion was banned. This transformation was an expansion, to assimilate the Gentiles, breaking free (except the OT) from Judaism, yet retaining connection to the fifteen (Jewish) popes/bishops going back to Peter. What is significant here, is the line of succession is not broken.

Rich 10,

With Protestant reformers, whom may have had some valid critiques regarding eccliastical error, it is noteworthy others, not Peter, started their own game, rather than work to reform, within the frame of the Mother church.

The Church of England et al., certainty would not have as strong a counter claim regarding its foundation, against Catholicism, as would the Eastern Orthodox churches, as the latter have common roots in their foundation, wherein the differences are focused essentially on the nature of ousia of the trinity.

Rich 10, BTW, if you don't know me from other threads, I maintain one can merely hold a position on theism or athesism, as a hypothesis, that the held belief is the alternative hyothesis and a null hypothesis should first entertained. On the evidence, I have found, thus far, my null hypothesis for the existence of god is currently rejected.

-cont-

Herein, I posit, it is "probable", that the alternative hypothesis god does not exist is true. I shall retain the alternative hypothsis, whilst I test the null hypothesis.

Because it would require an infinite set of information,to determine that god absolutely does not exist, I maintain the lesser proposition
that the probability of god's existence is highly impropable.

Moreover, mathematically, I assume that the existence of a named god (e.g., Jesus, Zeus, Oden) taken from a random sample of gods named is less likely to be, a god or the god, than the basic case that god exists