wavy said:
I do not believe you know what 'begging the question' is (given your imputation of it here to me), but anyway...
petitio principii - I do know what it is and yes, I am correct.
You stated: "The Father is objectively God (John xiv.6; xvii.3), Jesus is qualitatively God (divine; John i.1)."
Your argument that Jesus isn't God presumes that something can be qualitatively God without being objectively God. And I really don't think, if one thinks enough about it, that anything or anyone can be qualitatively God
without actually being God.
wavy said:
You do not understand what I'm saying. Take an ocean for example. If I gather some of the ocean in a cup, the water inside the cup is indeed like the ocean. It has all the properties of ocean water...but it is not the ocean.
So you are a polytheist. I
do understand what you are saying and while I realize that analogies are very limiting when speaking of God, this most certainly misses the mark of what John and the rest of Scripture states about Jesus.
wavy said:
The same with Jesus. Jesus is a representation (Hebrews i.3) of God. He leads us to God (John xiv.6; 1 Timothy ii.5). He's not God objectively in himself. He comes out/forth from God (John viii.42; xiii.3; xvi.28,30). One church father made the analogy of a flame from a fire. It's not the fire itself, but certainly identical to it in terms of what it's made of.
But Jesus
is objectively God and this is precisely what John 1:1-3 makes clear:
Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 1:2 He was in the beginning with God.
Joh 1:3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
From verse two we know that Jesus preexisted time - the Greek implies that Jesus was already in the beginning with God from eternity past. This is supported further by verse 3 which expounds on that idea. Logic tells us:
1) all things were made through Jesus, and
2) without Jesus was not any thing made that was made
C) Therefore Jesus could not have been made and is eternal.
The whole point of John 1:1 is to state not who God is but who the Word is, that is, that the Word
is God. This is further supported by Phil. 2:5-8 and Col. 1:16.
wavy said:
These passages have roots and commonalities with both Hellenistic and Jewish concepts (like the Logos of the Stoics and the Wisdom in Jewish sapiental poetry (e.g. Proverbs ch. viii) as pre-existent and active in creating the world, etc.; the authors of these passages interpret this theology in light of and fulfilled in Jesus). Jesus is certainly viewed as 'divine' like God, but never confused with the objective, one God who is the Father (1 Corinthians viii.6).
An object or person cannot be divine and not be God without moving into polytheism.
wavy said:
He's not viewed as one of the static persons in an impersonal trinitarian 'godhead'.
I find it really odd that you would state this as it is actually the opposite way around.
wavy said:
The Father clearly is unqualified and objective deity. Jesus is deity because of the Father. That is why the Johannine gospel emphasizes that the Word was with the God, because he is not to be confused with him. The terms are not interchangeable.
Again, polytheism. Interesting how you focus so much on "the Word was with the God" but leave out "and the Word was God". Do you know why the article is likely left out in the second instance?
Your whole argument is
precisely why we have the doctrine of the Trinity. Trinitarianism acknowledges that "the Word was with the God", but it also acknowledges "the Word was God". It acknowledges that Jesus is not the Father but that he is equal with the Father.
wavy said:
You have determine what that means. What does 'God' mean when you say this?
Does 'God' = trinity? (that can't be it).
Does 'God' = Father (that certainly isn't what you mean when you say 'Jesus is God').
So what can it mean? That he is divine. Why is he divine? Because he is a 'copy/imprint' of the Father (Heb. i.3).
What "God" means is that Jesus is, in every way, fully God, having all the attributes of the Father, but not being the Father.