"Why? You said it's just a parable. It's not a literal image, but a symbolic one?
I said Gen 1 is parable. A parable is a story used to convey, or to communicate some truth. A few particular truths conveyed are that God is a person that created the universe and man in His Image. Another is that male and female are from the same Image. The truths that were not conveyed are the myriad of details regarding what was done. ...like evolution, neurology, physics...
Re: "It makes absolutely no sense that a composition of persons is not a person, or that man which is an instantiation of the Image, is not a person, because the Image does not represent a person.
" Why would God have to be subject to human standards? You must have missed the part of the Bible where God supposedly says his thoughts and ways are not like man's.
God didn't create Himself.
"In the Old Testament, God never said he was a person,"
That's, because He knew there were some folks that would pick up on that all by themselves by using the gifts He gave them. The rest get a facepalm.
Re: "John 2:19, "Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and I will raise it again in three days.”
"And this is supposed to prove what? It only proves that John is talking past Paul and Luke and Peter, etc.
No, not John. It's Jesus that's talking. Read the first words in the verse again and try to comprehend them. In order to understand anything in the Bible, His words must be known and understood before anything else is attempted, because He is God and the others can not overrule Him. Else, you'd never know, or understand. I already pointed out that some of the laws Moses gave in the name of God came from Moses according to God.
"Overwhelmingly, the New Testament testifies that Jesus was raised by God and didn't raise himself. Clearly, the Gospel references to alleged Jesus' words that he would rebuild the Temple in three days is not a reference to his resurrection, or the Bible contradicts itself big time!
Christians believe Jesus is God, so there's no contradiction.
Well, that's what you believe and I don't. Why do you believe John?
In order to understand anything in the Bible, His words must be known and understood before anything else is attempted, because He is God and the others can not overrule Him
This is Bible babble. He is God to you. That doesn't mean he is. Christians believe Jesus is God, so there's no contradiction
Then the raising of the Temple in three days does not refer to his Resurrection because overwhelming NT evidence shows that the the most prominent apostles and Luke agree that he was raised by God and didn't raise himself.