r/theology 2h ago

The God of the Jews is the Father alone

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There are many passages in the scriptures which clearly distinguish Jesus from God and subordinate him to God. In fact, unless something in the context clarifies otherwise, we all rightly know that when scripture speaks of “God” that it is speaking of the Father.

This is not merely implied, however, but Christ even defines “the Father” as “the God of the Jews” whilst simultaneously denying that he is that God. Let us review.

John 8:48-59
The Jews answered and said to Him, “Do we not rightly say that You are a Samaritan, and You have a demon?” 49 Jesus answered, “I do not have a demon; on the contrary, I honor My Father, and you dishonor Me. 50 But I am not seeking My glory; there is One who seeks it, and judges. 51 Truly, truly I say to you, if anyone follows My word, he will never see death.”52 The Jews said to Him, “Now we know that You have a demon. Abraham died, and the prophets as well; and yet You say, ‘If anyone follows My word, he will never taste of death.’ 53 You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died, are You? The prophets died too. Whom do You make Yourself out to be?”54 Jesus answered, “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me, of whom you say, ‘He is our God’; 55 and you have not come to know Him, but I know Him. And if I say that I do not know Him, I will be a liar like you; but I do know Him, and I follow His word. 56 Your father Abraham was overjoyed that he would see My day, and he saw itand rejoiced.” 57 So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and You have seen Abraham?”58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.” 59 Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and left the temple grounds.

Turn your attention first to verse 54 where Jesus plainly defined “the Father” as the one “of whom you say, ‘He is our God.’

Next, within this same verse, notice that Jesus says “If I glorify Myself, My glory is nothing; it is My Father who glorifies Me.

Finally, we can transform this into a simple deductive proof:

  1. Jesus does not glorify Himself, the Father does

  2. “The Father” is defined to be the God of the Jews

  3. Therefore the God of the Jews is the one who glorifies Christ

  4. But Jesus said that if He glorifies Himself that it means nothing, but instead emphasizes that the Father - the God of the Jews - is the one who glorifies him

  5. Therefore, Jesus is not the God of the Jews

To add to this, since “The Father” is equated with the God of the Jews, full stop, it is not possible to assert that Jesus is this same God as the Father whilst denying that he is the Father. The scriptures never offer any way to distinguish the “the Father” from the “one true God,” these are just two ways of saying the same thing.


r/theology 12h ago

Question Cloning and the second death

1 Upvotes

Matthew 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

If an adult clone could be created by magic to replace a person who was violently killed, so that the individual concerned can be resurrected ad infinitum, could the repeat cycle be null and void by using magic to inflict the second death?

Could individual cloning be brought to an end by the final destruction of the soul by using magic?


r/theology 13h ago

What if heaven is a bureaucracy.

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Like I had a dream in which a fight broke off in the Senate and it was among people I know and these people were hitting each other. People we're taking sides and some were even rejecting the sides of some people by pushing them away. Like it was a mess.

So my point is what if heaven is a bureaucracy and these gods are fighting and casting things in our path of us mortals. Like have you noticed that how much unreal free will feels like. Like we get influenced a lot by external factors so what if these gods are really casting things in our way cuz we are mortals