Protestantism

» Brian Tubbs - Jesus is God

Migisi, what you say is correct about the biblical references to Jesus' deity. However, were I to entertain doubts about the OT passages, it would probably be along PaperTurtle's lines.

PaperTurtle is taking the position that the OT authors incorrectly justified their actions by attributing certain commands to God.

She talked earlier about these folks being mistaken, and you responded that that lets the Israelites who carried out the genocidal campaigns "off the hook." I think this was an unfortunate misunderstanding between the two of you. When PT says "they" were "mistaken," I don't think she's talking about the Israelites who actually carried out the conquests. I recall her describing those Israelites as committing reprehensible acts.

I think she's more referring to the AUTHORS of the OT Scriptures which talk ABOUT those conquests.

We know that oral tradition was a major deal in ancient Jewish culture. I would imagine that the oral tradition passed down through the generations from the Canaanite conquests was basically: "God told us to do it - so we did it." PaperTurtle is arguing that this is how the OT authors recorded it - based on oral tradition.

While I can't fully embrace her position, I do respect and understand it. And were I to start doubting the canonization and infallibility of the Bible, I would probably wind up in her camp.

I think you, Ollie, and Pink are presenting Christians with a false, exaggerated choice here -- Embrace the whole Bible or be an atheist or agnostic.

There are many, many, many Christians who believe in God, believe in Jesus, and yet don't fully embrace the complete infallibility of the Bible. (Martin Luther, for example, rejected the book of James. Yet I doubt many Christians today would question Luther's commitment to Jesus Christ).

Paul makes clear that salvation comes from trusting Christ as Savior, not in embracing the full biblical canon.

Now, I want to make clear for my readers that I myself DO embrace the biblical canon. But I respect the fact that there are millions of Christians, including PaperTurtle, who have some reservations about it. (She has a right to be wrong. )