Do you believe in the divinity of Christ?

Nope.

I believe he was just some really popular guy that people made stories about.

Yep.

No, not really. Nice guy, though!

Divinity as in he’s God? No.
Divinity as in he’s part of a Trinity? No.
Divinity in the sense he’s God’s Son, a separate individual? Yes.

“I do not believe in the divinity of Christ, and there are many other of the postulates of the orthodox creed to which I cannot subscribe.”

William H. Taft

No. I don’t care for divinity candy either.

damn you chuck…

There is only One of us.

No. Heck of a nice guy and great prophet though. Great role model. But just a guy, no more divine than you and I.

To me as a Jew, he was one of the better prophets.

@essieness: I listened to that interview with Bart Ehrman.

To recap, for those who missed it: He was discussing the contradictions between the gospels. His new book is Jesus Intereupted.

Anyway, to answer the question: No. But I’m sure he was very inpirational to many.

What was facinating, is that Ehrman is confident Jesus was an apocalyptic (as was John the baptist). PS: Ehrman (a religious historian) was a lifelong Christian and former evangelical turned agnostic.

I work in a library, and I am actually heading up to the third floor to pick up a copy of Misquoting Jesus because of that interview.

cute new avatar supermouse. :)

He was a cool guy but that’s all I think he was.

Jesus was a great guy, but he was just a guy.

Jesus certainly represented a quantum leap in consciousness. his ideas about error is the first noted where behavior was noted to have originated within the consciousness. In other words, if you hate in your heart you have already murdered. “The Kingdom of God is WITHIN YOU.” “You are the TEMPLE OF GOD.” “You are gods”...yes he said that.
Religion at the time hated him because HE PUT THEM OUT OF BUSINESS.
Also the word HELL does not exist in the Old Testament-
The idea was mistranslated most erroneously by the King James Version. Also it contained text and holy observances no church would recognize today.
Abraham, Moses, David, and the peoples of the Old Testament only knew one place where all people went, good or bad . . . Sheol, the grave, the place of the departed.

if he even existed, he wasn’t devine, that’s for sure, if he was, why did it happen then and only then ? why aren’t there other divine people among us today ? yeah i know he was the son of the other fictional character but still, maybe his cousin or something ?

Amma is one but most people will not recognize a true teacher.

We’re all divine, Jesus was just much further along the continuum.

@iwamoto – there have been several.

no, i mean really turning water into wine guys, i mean the whole package, just like jezus, rising from the dead etc. not some guys saying they are…i want to see stigmata !

@Triiiple wow, tell us how you really feel, champ.

@eponymoushipster Like someone who just smoked a blunt of krip?

@Triiiple wow. super.

You’re a lovely human being.

I very much believe in Jesus Christ, he was the Son of God, the Savior of the World, and my Redeemer. I owe him more than i can pay back.

Have you ever seen Jesus? Has he given you that hug?

Walk by faith not by sight. Honestly im not going to debate about my faith. Ive done that enough here.

@iwamoto: If God created the world and everything in it, I think he’s likely capable of turning water into wine.

@Triiiple: Jesus died over 2000 years ago. Why would you expect anybody you speak to today to have seen Jesus?

http://www.uniquedaily.com/potato-chip-jesus/

i have seen him!

@Triiiple: Obnoxious and ignorant aren’t traits most people strive for.

@willbrawn: You should never have to debate your faith, that is yours to own – unquestionably.

@critter1982, wow, that’s exactly what i DIDN’T mean, i was talking about the following, according to the worlds oldest book on fairy tales, jezus could turn water into wine, heal the wounded etc. and well, even if that is true, i haven’t seen anybody today do it, feed a whole croud with a bread…if that was real why did it happen only once ?

@Triiiple: As an agnostic, I too doubt the divinity if Jesus, but -do you think there’s a snowball’s chance in hell you could be respectful of other’s opinions?

That’s how it works ‘round here.

@cprevite: I just read @Triiiple ‘s profile. He’s “a stoner and bad ass here to destroy us all.” We obviously had the bar set too high. Our mistake.

@bythebay: a stoner AND a bad ass?!

Well then in that case…I’m truly impressed.

do I really need one of these: ~?

@bytheway I’m referring to how people say “but this or that” it’s my faith no question. Regardless of others lack there of.

@willbrawn: I respect your conviction.

Why are we even giving any attention to Triiiple? Has he contributed one positive thing so far? if so, someone please show me where it is and I will retract what I just said. Why do we feed trolls?

And Yes.. I am a believer. maybe not the best example, but I believe all the same.

@scamp – i laughed at his reference to “krip” – does that count as one good thing?

@Triiiple
More surprising to me is that people eat potato chips for dinner?

@fireside hey, as long as someone feels entertained, who am I to argue??

How come no one is talking about what divinity means? It is used in so many different ways, and I suspect everyone puts their own spin on the term.

When I think about the way we use divine to describe something like chocolate, or a dessert, it seems to mean that it is something that is beyond any other example of it’s kind.

Well, you could apply that to a human being. Someone like Gandhi might deserve the description, it seems to me, although he did have his problems in his personal life.

I can certainly see people saying that Jesus, the individual, was more humanly than any other human. So human he was beyond human. Although, what that beyond would be, I don’t know.

Still, divine doesn’t have to mean supernatural. A person can be divine while remaining a person. So Jesus could easily have been divine, and even been so divine that people considered him the son of their god. I mean, no one could be that good if they were purely human, right?

I believe Jesus could have been a historical figure. I suppose he could have been divine, but I doubt it. I’m pretty sure, that if he existed, he was a great organizer, a great storyteller, extremely compassionate, and very charismatic. I think those qualities, if they all appeared in one person, could easily be an excuse to describe someone as divine.

So I believe the character of Jesus, as described in the documentation of his life, could well be described as divine. However, I don’t believe in the deification of the character, except as a symbol of an important myth. So, in a religious way, I don’t believe in his divinity.

@Daloon
“he was a great organizer, a great storyteller, extremely compassionate, and very charismatic.”
Sounds like he was a cross between Martha Stewart and Oprah!
All In Fun..
‹(•¿•)›

@iwamoto: Jesus fullfilled over 300 prophecies about the Jewish Messiah referenced in the Old Testament. The prophecy was not to have multiple Messiahs, it was one and only one. Regarding turing water into wine, Jesus laid claims to be part of the trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). In essence 3 in 1. It was God who gave Jesus the capability to perform his miracles (this is why I said if God has the capability to create our universe then turning water into wine would likely come pretty easy for him)

According to the Doobie Brothers he was just alright.

Divine
http://home.att.net/~puppetparts/images/Divine-Doll-2006-wb.jpg

@SeventhSense at least its not eating a dog shit

Is that a dig regarding a previous post Ep?

@SeventhSense it’s a reference to Divine.

What’s with all the dupes?

Refresh, Eambos.

Hahahah! Oh ya that.

I just had some interesting thoughts as to the nature of ideas after they have been quickly squelched. Like my crazy Aristocrats rant on the kinky thread. There was an immediate error that there was some necrophilia in my writing when in fact it simply involved some scatology, bestiality, incest and sodomy…real vanilla stuff…ok whatever..:)
But I was thinking how the early organized political religious figures disposed of tons of material that was ascribed to Jesus but that they deemed the masses couldn’t handle. So no doubt there were things that we may never know as to the nature of his writings that may have shed light on many of the contradictions. I know one thing for certain and that once you have a spiritual experience like your third eye being opened all seems quite perfect but simply filtered through imperfect lenses.

@SeventhSense: Hey! The post had been removed by the moderators. Can I help it if I… um… embellished things a little? Or maybe I didn’t. Maybe you’re the one who is… trying to make it seem less incendiary than it was. Didja ever think of that? Huh? Huh?

Anyway, it would be difficult for me to categorize outrageous sex acts as divine. Call me an old fuddy-duddy. Yeah. Go ahead. My kids do it all the time.

NOOOOO….I’m not trying to justify my post. I knew it was a crazy rant. Just using it to make a point here…
and a like your hiney…relatively speaking

@all Looks like this turned into an interesting discussion. Thanks for the great reading after a crap night at work :)

Thats a big negative for me.

Yes.

though i do believe in jesus after some DMT, right NaturalMineralWater :P

@uberbatman I doubt it. =)

sure but then I also believe in the divinity of you and me.

Just thought I’d chime in on my own question here. I believe that Christ was just as divine as you and I. We all are sons and daughters of God and we all have God inside us. I do, however, think that Christ was a more fully realized human being than most of us. More enlightened.

@essieness Sorry to say this, but the mere mention of anything even hinting at anything pertaining to God or religion will bring similar responses. Some will go as far as saying you are trying to cram your religion down their throats.

While fluther prides itself on not censoring people who post here, I have yet to see one question in the year I’ve been here where religion was discussed without ridicule and nonsensical answers.

I know this sounds like whining, but I just wanted to give you a heads up so you will be prepared for the (reception?) this type of question usually gets.

@scamp: I respectfully disagree with that assessment.

There are many athiest and agnostic Flutherites who discuss and debate religious topics with intelligence and respect. augustlan, daloon,cwilbur and AstroChuck spring to mind.

Similarly, there are many Christian Flutherites who do the same (TrustingLife, willbrawn, critter1982, cdwwrn).

Don’t judge us non-believers by the triiiples of the collective and we’ll be sure not to lump you in with the more seVen-like amongst you.

PS: you may have noticed where I chewed out mister triiiple above

@cprevite Thank you for disagreeing with me in such a respectful manner. Please feel free to include links to such intelligent and respectful discussions minus the ridicule and nonsensical statements, because I seriously have not seen them.

I take exception to cprevites comments. I don’t do anything that evokes intelligence and respect.

@scamp These discussions are here, just filled with additional, non respectful comments in between. Many people try to give good answers or arguments, all while many other people post garbage.

If I had time to dissect this question, I guarantee that I’d be able to show you a very civil, intelligent conversation.

Once again, I’m with @AstroChuck. I do wish I could say things as concisely as he does. Really. I do.

@Eambos I understand what you are saying. People crack jokes on lots of threads. I’d just like to see one of the mainly respectful and intelligent discussions cprevite was referring to. I would like to see a thread were someone discussed religion without getting chewed up by the masses.

I’ll check back later to see if anyone can show me what I asked for.

@cprevite

31“To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? 32They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other:
” ‘We played the flute for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
and you did not cry.’ 33For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ 34The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and “sinners.” ’ 35But wisdom is proved right by ALL HER CHILDREN.”
LUKE 7: 31–35

No. It’s a nice story, I suppose, but I don’t believe that it was anything more than that.

I believe 120% in the divinity of Christ. For there is none like Him. Love you, Lord.

-Sellz

I heard someone say once, “We experience more than what we think; we think more than what we believe; we believe more than what we understand; we understand more than what we can say; we say less than what others perceive.” How true this is, I’m not sure, but it resonates with me as I contemplate my own feelings regarding Jesus Christ. For me, I believe I have experienced Christ in my life in very real, palpable, meaningful ways, though I’m the first to concede that I cannot offer any proofs or reasoning to support these experiences in any general system or for anyone else. I’m content with letting the divinity of Christ remain something to be experienced individually, and invite anyone else to seek him out with confidence that such odysseys (though difficult, perhaps) will not prove meaningless or unfruitful, and I take no offense by either believers with different Christian experiences or skeptics with legitimate reasons to not accept the divinity of Christ.

Completly I do.

If he was a real person (historians don’t really have a verdict on that) than I think he was a possibly a prophet, definitely a teacher. I think his teachings are wonderful lessons on peace and love. If he wasn’t real then whoever created the teachings attributed to him is awesome for the same reason. I think his lessons are good to remember and good to be passed on to others, but no, I do not believe he’s the “son of god”.

No, I really don’t. But I could be wrong.

I believe Jesus is God made flesh, “the only begotten of the Father” (the one and only, not the most advanced of many) as has been declared by the Bible. For me, its more than verified in many ways as a reputable source of spiritual knowledge, as well as a window into future events, many of which either have already, or are now happening before our eyes.
Such verses as John 1:1–3 and 1 Tim. 3:16 clinch it.
But hey, no controveries here! Why don’t we all just wait and ask Him when He arrives? : )

and when will he arive ? will he bring heavenly chocolate ?

@TheKNYHT I agree with you totally.

@iwamoto ANGEL food cake of course! ; D
@ ALL: God being GOD is eternal, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, etc. How would we mere mortals comprehend an Eternal and Almighty Being such as this?
The perfect solution would of course be, become a man, talk our language; know what its like experientially to be human, identify with us in our humanity.
Allow us to see His character, His heart, to hear His words, to understand in this way, the fundamental heart of God, which is Love as a father to his child.
Thus the need to be reintroduced into the family of God (via the spiritual rebirth through Christ), adopted into the beloved, and gain back all (and MORE!) of what we lost in Adam’s fall.
This is why it was necessary for God the Son, the Messiah, to become a man and walk among us; to be the kinsman goel for the human race.

@TheKNYHT Exactly. Hit the nail right on the head. Perfect elaboration.

-Sellz

I believe in the Divinity of Christ. I don’t believe he is equal to or the same as the one that he said is the only true God though.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Divinity

Jesus made it very clear that he has a God that he worships.(Mt 4:10)

(John 17:3) This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.
(1 Corinthians 11:3) But I want YOU to know that the head of every man is the Christ; in turn the head of a woman is the man; in turn the head of the Christ is God.
(2 Corinthians 1:3–4) Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of tender mercies and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort those in any sort of tribulation through the comfort with which we ourselves are being comforted by God.
(John 20:17) Jesus said to her: “Stop clinging to me. For I have not yet ascended to the Father. But be on your way to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and YOUR Father and to my God and YOUR God.’”

The Father created Jesus and then through Jesus, God created everything else.

(1 Corinthians 8:6) there is actually to us one God the Father, out of whom all things are, and we for him; and there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things are, and we through him.
(Hebrews 1:2) has at the end of these days spoken to us by means of a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the systems of things.
(John 1:3) All things came into existence through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into existence. What has come into existence http://www.blueletterbible.org/lang/lexicon/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G5565&t=NASB

(John 1:10) He was in the world, and the world came into existence through him, but the world did not know him.
(Colossians 1:15–16) He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; 16 because by means of him all [other] things were created in the heavens and upon the earth, the things visible and the things invisible, no matter whether they are thrones or lordships or governments or authorities. All [other] things have been created through him and for him.
(Revelation 3:14) “And to the angel of the congregation in La‧o‧di‧ce′a write: These are the things that the Amen says, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation by God,
(Proverbs 8:22) “Jehovah himself produced me as the beginning of his way, the earliest of his achievements of long ago.
(Proverbs 8:30) then I came to be beside him as a master worker, and I came to be the one he was specially fond of day by day, I being glad before him all the time,
(Genesis 1:26) And God went on to say: “Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and the domestic animals and all the earth and every moving animal that is moving upon the earth.”

Jesus also said that “I live because of the Father”, God does not live because of anyone else.
(John 6:57) Just as the living Father sent me forth and I live because of the Father, he also that feeds on me, even that one will live because of me.
In line with the principle at 1Cor 15:27–28, it is evident that everything, would be with the exception of himself and God, as he obviously did not create himself or God. The Bible shows that God created Jesus and then through Jesus, he created everything else.

1Cor 15:27–28 For [God] “subjected all things under his feet.” But when he says that ‘all things have been subjected,’ it is evident that it is with the exception of the one who subjected all things to him. 28 But when all things will have been subjected to him, then the Son himself will also subject himself to the One who subjected all things to him, that God may be all things to everyone.