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To: Forest Keeper; blue-duncan; the_conscience; wmfights; Dr. Eckleburg; Mad Dawg
They may not have gotten everything, but you appear to deny what Jesus said to Peter: Matt 16:17 : Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven

Not at all. Christ told +Peter that he had an epiphany. But obviously +Peter did not realize what he said. None of the Apostes at that point treated Christ as God Incarnate; they did not pray to Him; nor did they worship Him.

Een after the Resurrection, just before His Ascension, not all believed, as Mat 28:16-17 tells us

In the Jewish mindset of the 1st century Middle East, it was unthinkable that any man, let alone a poor carpenter, could be God, or that it is possible for man to be God.

They also could not find any support of this in their scriptures. Jesus does not fit the "profile" of the Jewish meissiah. Out of seven, He fulfills only one—being Jewish.

Finally, calling someone divine other than the invisible God was punishable by death. Christians could not, even if they wanted to, preach divine Christ.

So, it was a leap of incredible faith for any man in those days in Israel to see Him as God-Incarnate, as one Person, fully divine and fully human, including His own disciples.

It is only later, towards the end of the century, that His divinity becomes fully revealed, which is why +John wrote his Gospel so late. Writing a Gospel that emphasizes Christ's humanity as a Jewish messiah was already covered by the other three Gospels. The revelation of His full divinity was the next step in seeing through the looking glass, dimly, and discerning what was in front of them all along.

4,340 posted on 03/19/2008 4:23:25 PM PDT by kosta50 (Eastern Orthodoxy is pure Christianity)
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To: kosta50; blue-duncan; the_conscience; wmfights; Dr. Eckleburg; Mad Dawg
None of the Apostles at that point [Matt. 16:17] treated Christ as God Incarnate; they did not pray to Him; nor did they worship Him.

That's pure speculation, Kosta. We can't know exactly how that worked. From the evidence of the Bible, I can't think of when Jesus commanded the Apostles to treat Him that way while He was with them (before the crucifixion).

Even after the Resurrection, just before His Ascension, not all believed, as Mat 28:16-17 tells us ...

Well, I'm not certain that "doubt" absolutely equals "disbelieved". But in any event, I thought it was generally accepted that solid belief as we understand it, was not fully formed until Pentecost.

In the Jewish mindset of the 1st century Middle East, it was unthinkable that any man, let alone a poor carpenter, could be God, or that it is possible for man to be God. They also could not find any support of this in their scriptures. Jesus does not fit the "profile" of the Jewish messiah. Out of seven, He fulfills only one—being Jewish.

No, Jesus is described all over the OT, so the scripture IS there. Some to many did not see it. We just read this passage in church not two hours ago:

Luke 24:25-27 : 25 He said to them, "How foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! 26 Did not the Christ have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?" 27 And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

It doesn't get any clearer than this. He called them fools for not seeing what you say isn't there to see. :)

4,601 posted on 03/30/2008 10:51:22 AM PDT by Forest Keeper (It is a joy to me to know that God had my number, before He created numbers.)
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