The Gospel of Thomas

guno said:
God is One and that He is a most perfect and absolute Unity.

It is written, "Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one" (Deut. 6:4). This is a positive commandment to believe in God's unity. This commandment depends on thought and can be fulfilled at any time.

Although the universe contains many galaxies, each consisting of innumerable stars and planets, there is one God who is Author and Creator of them all. It is absolutely impossible to conceive of more than one Absolute Being.

Although there may be many other universes, both physical and spiritual, God is One over all. It is thus written, "Your kingdom is a kingdom of all worlds" (Psalms 145:13).

Judaism emphatically rejects any concept of plurality with respect to God.
Judaism emphatically rejects any concept of plurality with respect to God. It therefore rejects the Christian concept of the trinity, in which God is depicted as three persons in one, corresponding to His manifestation in creation, redemption and revelation.

Since any additional quality would add an element of plurality to God's essence, we conceive of Him as being absolutely simple. His simple essence, however, implies every attribute with which He created and rules His universe.


As Creator, God's power in His universe is unlimited. We therefore speak of God as being omnipotent, and refer to Him in our prayer as "King of the universe.' It is likewise written, "All that God wishes, he does, in heaven and earth, in the seas and all the deeps" (Psalms 135:6).

We do not, however, ascribe to God the power of doing that which is categorically impossible, such as duplicating, annihilating, corporifying, or changing Himself. Judaism therefore rejects the possibility that God could have ever assumed human form.

Since God is the Creator of all matter, it is obvious that He does not consist of matter.

Because of God's antithesis to all material attributes, He is called Pure and Holy.
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when you cut and paste something provide the link to the source.....
https://www.aish.com/jl/p/g/48942416.html
 
Cypress said:
1,800 years ago, there was no accepted consensus on what constituted an authentic Christian.

Same today. Some conservative evangelicals do not think Catholics are Christian, and since Unitarian Universalists do not accept trinitarian theory, they are even more suspect.
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well no.....since 1800 years ago we accepted a consensus of what constituted an authentic Christian......Catholics meet the standards established then.......those like the Unitarians that deny the existence of a "Christ" obviously fall short of the standards of "Christ"ians......it isn't complicated.......
 
PostmodernProphet said:
well no.....since 1800 years ago we accepted a consensus of what constituted an authentic Christian......Catholics meet the standards established then.......those like the Unitarians that deny the existence of a "Christ" obviously fall short of the standards of "Christ"ians......it isn't complicated.......
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Your knowledge of early Christianity is obviously virtually non-existent.

1,,800 years ago was the early third century AD,. That was
even before the Council of Nicea and the formulation of trinitarian doctrine.

At best, in the early third century there was a type of Christian proto-orthodoxy which competed with other contemporaneous strains of early Christianity: Arianism, Marcionites, Nestorians, Gnostics.

The German Goths who overran Italy and Spain were nearly all Arians.

Emperor Constantine was baptized on his death bed by an Arian Christian priest.

And if I am not mistaken, elements of Marcionism continue to exist in the Coptic churches of Egypt and the Orient.


I leave you to start frantically googling for information.
 
Cypress said:
1,800 years ago, there was no accepted consensus on what constituted an authentic Christian.

Same today. Some conservative evangelicals do not think Catholics are Christian, and since Unitarian Universalists do not accept trinitarian theory, they are even more suspect.
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Many fundies do not believe that Mormons are Christians either.
 
PostmodernProphet said:
well no.....since 1800 years ago we accepted a consensus of what constituted an authentic Christian......Catholics meet the standards established then.......those like the Unitarians that deny the existence of a "Christ" obviously fall short of the standards of "Christ"ians......it isn't complicated.......
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Your knowledge of early Christianity is obviously virtually non-existent.

1,,800 years ago was the early third century AD,. That was
even before the Council of Nicea and the formulation of trinitarian doctrine.

At best, in the early third century there was a type of Christian proto-orthodoxy which competed with other contemporaneous strains of early Christianity: Arianism, Marcionites, Nestorians, Gnostics.

The German Goths who overran Italy and Spain were nearly all Arians.

Emperor Constantine was baptized on his death bed by an Arian Christian priest.

And if I am not mistaken, elements of Marcionism continue to exist in the Coptic churches of Egypt and the Orient.

EDIT to ADD: the word "Christ" is from the Latin derivation of a Greek word meaning messiah.

A messiah can be a man or a prophet - it does not have to be God. So, as far as I am concerned, the Unitarians are entitled to their interpretation of the meaning and significance of Jesus.


I leave you to start frantically googling for information.
 
Cypress said:
Your knowledge of early Christianity is obviously virtually non-existent.

1,,800 years ago was the early third century AD,. That was
even before the Council of Nicea and the formulation of trinitarian doctrine.

At best, in the early third century there was a type of Christian proto-orthodoxy which competed with other contemporaneous strains of early Christianity: Arianism, Marcionites, Nestorians, Gnostics.

The German Goths who overran Italy and Spain were nearly all Arians.

Emperor Constantine was baptized on his death bed by an Arian Christian priest.

And if I am not mistaken, elements of Marcionism continue to exist in the Coptic churches of Egypt and the Orient.


I leave you to start frantically googling for information.
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His ignorance is astounding for supposedly having a Masters in Divinity.
 
Phantasmal said:
His ignorance is astounding for supposedly having a Masters in Divinity.
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Conservative Evangelicals are not generally known for the quality of their theological or higher education. That is why the elite Christian universities in this nation are Catholic: Notre Dame, Georgetown, Boston College, Fordham, etc.
 
Phantasmal said:
Enoch is the scripture the gospel writers had Jesus quote. I would love to see the argument presented at the council that concluded it wouldn’t be included as accepted scripture.
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I did a (very) brief research and see that Enoch was an OT guy, and it says "is wholly extant only in the Ethiopic language." As in Ethiopia?
 
ThatOwlWoman said:
Many fundies do not believe that Mormons are Christians either.
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I generally think people should be allowed to reasonably self-indentify however they want.

I do not know that much about Mormons, but if they self identify as Christians, I am not going to have a heart attack about it.
 
Cypress said:
I generally think people should be allowed to reasonably self-indentify however they want.

I do not know that much about Mormons, but if they self identify as Christians, I am not going to have a heart attack about it.
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They do. The full name of the sect is the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-Day Saints.
 
I suspect that everyone would be much better off if we all referred to the blind guesses we make about reality as...BLIND GUESSES, rather than "beliefs."

Some people blindly guess there is at least one god...and make other blind guesses about the nature of that god...about what pleases it and what offends it.

Other people blindly guess there are no gods.

You hear both sides assert their blind guesses as, "I 'believe in God' and blah, blah, blah (about its nature."...

...or "I believe there are no gods." Some of the later use, "I do not 'believe in' God", but actually seem to be saying, "I believe there are no gods."

Nothing wrong with guessing either way. One is almost certainly correct...either there is at least one god or there are none.

But why not just characterize the blind guess as a blind guess...rather than disguising it as a "belief?"

Why not?
 
Frank Apisa said:
I suspect that everyone would be much better off if we all referred to the blind guesses we make about reality as...BLIND GUESSES, rather than "beliefs."

Some people blindly guess there is at least one god...and make other blind guesses about the nature of that god...about what pleases it and what offends it.

Other people blindly guess there are no gods.

You hear both sides assert their blind guesses as, "I 'believe in God' and blah, blah, blah (about its nature."...

...or "I believe there are no gods." Some of the later use, "I do not 'believe in' God", but actually seem to be saying, "I believe there are no gods."

Nothing wrong with guessing either way. One is almost certainly correct...either there is at least one god or there are none.

But why not just characterize the blind guess as a blind guess...rather than disguising it as a "belief?"

Why not?
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Happy holidays to you, Frank.

I have no quibbles with those who say "I believe in ____" because they are not stating that whatever it is they believe in is a fact. I'm more leery of those who state their belief/disbelief in something as though it is real. Example: "There are no gods." Or "God created the Earth."
 
Ah, Apisa is up!

You're even a little older than I, Frank.
I just now had a thought.

Do you remember light switches on the wall that were round on and off buttons rather than actual switches?
They appeared in a recent dream of mine. I often dream about our old North End apartment.
But for some reason, recognizing the light switches had a super comforting effect for no explainable reason.
 
Phantasmal said:
Enoch is the scripture the gospel writers had Jesus quote. I would love to see the argument presented at the council that concluded it wouldn’t be included as accepted scripture.
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Apparently it wasn't regarded as canonical by most Jews at the time of Christ, which often holds sway.
 
NiftyNiblick said:
Ah, Apisa is up!

You're even a little older than I, Frank.
I just now had a thought.

Do you remember light switches on the wall that were round on and off buttons rather than actual switches?
They appeared in a recent dream of mine. I often dream about our old North End apartment.
But for some reason, recognizing the light switches had a super comforting effect for no explainable reason.
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I do remember those button light switches. I have not thought about them in years.

Your post gave me an idea. Gonna do a thread on old time stuff at some point.
 
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