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Yes, I apologize to everyone here. I reacted to the accusation of intellectual dishonesty with more color than was called for. My skin is usually thicker.

Are you seriously accusing me of intellectual dishonesty? I don't give a damn about what "some modern day translations" do or don't choose to render in upper case or lower case English. Luke didn't use upper case and lower case! Point out an ancient Greek Codex containing his gospel that uses...

Quite true. But Chapter 1, verse 43 has the opposite implication. Ditto for chapter 2, verse 11.

Stewart, welcome to the forum. You are certainly right that human understandings of religious matters evolve over time. But in the case of Christianity I would not call even half of those evolving understandings "negotiations," as though they were debated and dickered over. Some such...

I don't know what "divine necessity" adds to the argument, but doesn't Mark 13:24-27 give the timing? Tribulation comes first, and THEN comes the Lord for His elect? To me, that's the end of the discussion.

Not sure I follow you, my friend. I'm happy to presume a connection between Matthew's account and Jesus' actual words. Indeed, I'm happy to presume that Matthew accurately recorded all of the goings-on at the crucifixion, even though it does not appear that he personally was present. (I might...

Let me offer a different suggestion. Jesus was in the throes of agony, felt forsaken, and quoted the Psalm simply because its words came to mind (particularly after he saw the soldiers dividing his garments by casting lots and heard the chief priests and scribes mocking him with his apparent...

Yes, I'm aware. But that's not what you said. You said you had a private conversation on the subject. I'm just curious about the particulars.

The concept of giving one's body to be crucified with Christ is foreign to my experience. What did you say to Him and what did He say to you?

Interesting phrase, "gave my body." How did that work exactly? Did you physically hand over your physical body somehow?

While I agree that "the ‘most holy’ is indeed a temple," I do think it is indeed a physical building -- and so I think it's quite a stretch to equate Dan. 9:24's "most holy" (qödeš qodäšîm) with a "grafting in" of Gentiles into "the Church." Rendering qödeš qodäšîm as "anoint the most holy" --...

Actually, I'm not aware of any such Rabbinic expectation prior to 1 Enoch. But I'm happy to be educated. Seems to me this would blow Jewish monotheism out of the water, but I'm happy to be educated.

I don't view the words of the gospel as the literal words of the Holy Spirit. So in my view, a quote of Jesus claiming to be God (if accurately quoted) is more probative of the point than a statement by a gospel author concluding that he was God.

To "make Himself the Speaker in Malachi" Jesus would need to retain the first person, not switch to the second person. Who do you think the "you" is that Jesus is referencing by revising the OT passage?

I'm trying, but I don't get your point about Jesus' changing προσώπου μου (as written in the LXX in Malachi) to προσώπου σου (as written in Matthew 11:10). As a declaration the Jesus is Yawheh, would not staying with προσώπου μου have been the stronger self-reference?

I wish you would help me. I'm not seeing any quote of Jesus' words in the synoptics in which he is claiming to be God.

I'm not seeing more than a reference to Jesus as the Messiah in these passages. That's a far cry from the deity of Jesus.

Although I am a Trinitarian, I don't see anything in Mark 10:17-18; Matthew 19:16-17; and Luke 18:18-19 that the authors meant us to interpret as Jesus' declaration of divinity. If that were indeed what the three synoptic writers were trying to convey, they have been wildly obtuse! Matthew...

In fairness, the difficulty of wrapping our heads around the nature of God plagues all of us, Trinitarian and anti-Trinitarian alike. The incorporeal Divine substance is largely incapable of expression in human language. If we juxtapose God and the created universe -- i.e., there's "God," and...

Yes, Arius's writings in their original form were largely destroyed, but because his detractors quoted Arius a number of times, we can discern his theology tolerably well. These include Arius's Letter to Alexander of Alexandria Arius's Letter to Eusebius, Bishop of Nicomedia Alexander of...