I apologize to Mutz for any redundancy this thread has, but I will be taking a different approach than he did, although I applaud his stirring up of discussion by means of employing a poll.
I'm going to say something that may shock you so brace yourself. The reason belief in Jesus' diety is necessary is because you can believe in Jesus and yet not be saved. You are probably saying "What?!". Oh yes, but I didn't mean quite what you thought I meant. Allow me to explain myself.
Allow me to build up a background against which to examine this.
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Your kind of belief and desires affects what you believe in in your mind, and what you serve. Let's first take an example of sin, something which we all followed after when we were unbelievers. What does James say about sin? "But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death" (James 1:14-15). What James says here is also why some genuine Christians still sin, they have stuggles with desires in themself that are not submitted under the cross of Christ. These are desires that we carry into salvation with us from our previous unregenerate way of life. And when we sin after we have been saved what we do reflects something in us which we still desire and it shapes our actions. Take note of that word "shapes" for I will apply it here in a moment to my main point.
John Bevere in his excellent book "A Heart Ablaze" preaches extensively on the fear of God and focuses alot on Exodus in parallel with the NT. One of his main points that he makes is Paralleling the command in 2 Corinthians 7:1, "Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God", with God's command in Exodus to consecrate the People of Israel for 3 days at the foot of Mt. Sinai in preparation for God's coming Glory & Presence, also pointing out that Paul's reference to "having these promises" comes directly from God's promises in Exodus to the people (which Paul just got done summarizing in Chapter 6).
Now his point is that the people needed to "cleanse themselves from the filth of Egypt", because God commanded them to "wash their clothes" in their 3-day preparatory consecration at Sinai. Paul's parallel idea is "cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of [the garment of] the flesh and spirit." Why was this command given? Because they needed to cleanse themselves from their old ways in Egypt in order to be ready for God and recieve his promises. Yet we all know how it plays out, and it becomes the basis of my main point, so let's rehash it a bit:
They all were scared of God when he came down and told Moses to speak to God for them. And as a result they gravitated away from the mountain yet Moses by contrast came closer to God by coming up on the mountain. John Bevere in his book then points out something which he takes God as saying in a melancholy tone, almost moaning. Indeed, John Bevere even calls this the saddest verse in the OT, as he takes it: "Go, say to them, 'Return to your tents.'"
Here is the context of what God said:
Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me [God moans this - John Bevere says] and keep all My commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their sons forever!
Go, say to them, "Return to your tents."
'But as for you, stand here by Me." (Deuteronomy 5:29-31)
They couldn't come near God because they didn't fear him. God, according to John Bevere, is telling them to go back to their tents and "play church", but as for Moses God told him to come closer to him and have intimacy with him.
Now getting closer to my main point. Of those who shrinked away from God's presence they enticed Aaron to create for them a golden calf, and Aaron did it. The people called it their elohim and proclaimed a feast to Yahweh, attributing the calf to being Yahweh himself who delivered them from Egypt! This is precisely the idolatry that Paul was talking about in Romans when he said, "For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. " (Romans 1:21-23). Now Aaron did this with the Golden Calf. Exodus says he "carved it with an engraving tool" he "formed" and "shaped" it, and in the process he changed the Glory of the incorruptible God (Yahweh) into a poor mockery of an imitation.
Why did Aaron create the calf and call it his God (Yahweh himself)? Because since he did not go up to the Mountain (though he was invited to go) he did not cleanse himself from the filth of Egypt and did not have himself changed by God as Moses did, the culture & lifestyle that he grew up in is what came out of him. This is John Bevere's main point in one of his chapters in A Heart Ablaze.
Idolatry was all the Israelites and Aaron had ever known in Egypt and since they were not changed by God they still desired things which they had not submitted to God, which shaped their view of God. Ezekiel 23:8 says, "She did not give up the prostitution she began in Egypt, when during her youth men slept with her, caressed her virgin bosom and poured out their lust upon her. " They never changed their idolatry, and it shaped their conception of God Almighty, and it came out of them in the expression of the golden calf.
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Now my main point: I said you can believe in Jesus and still not be saved. But I failed to say which Jesus. There ofcourse really isn't any more than one true Jesus, but in peoples minds there are. Paul warned explicitly against this saying, "For if one comes and preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted, you bear this beautifully [being extremely sarcastic]" (2 Corinthians 11:4). Gnostics believe in "another Jesus" and they are not saved no matter how many points of similarity they have to the true faith of Jesus Christ. Why? Because they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into a mockery of the real thing. John's whole point in 1 John was to refute the Gnostic heresy, and prove them to be walking in darkness. This is what destroying the diety of Christ does and John in 1 John made it necessary to believe in Jesus' diety to believe in the real Jesus else you make a mockery of Jesus and are walking in darkness. And if you don't serve the real Jesus, you don't have the real gospel (Galatians 1:6-7), or the real faith. Not all who say to Jesus, "Lord, Lord shall enter the kingdom." We must allow Jesus to transform our minds to see the truth (transform our mind from our old ways, or else we will make a Jesus after our own desires - a Jesus we "want to have")), so we do not prostitute the incorruptible image of God.
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Simply put the punch line is this: Some people do with Jesus what Aaron did with the Golden Calf, because they haven't had their mind transformed and they worship "another Jesus" of their own making. The diety of Christ is one part of believing in the real Jesus or we cannot understand who he is or what he really did for us.
"Do not be conformed [reduce to a likeness of something - like Aaron did for the calf] to this world,but be transformed [changed completely in mind by Christ] by the renewal of your mind." (Romans 12:2)
~Josh
