Courage and Godspeed,
Chad
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Common Objection #14- "Jesus' Disciples were Uneducated and Illiterate."
Footnote:
1. Bart D. Ehrman, How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee (New York: Harper One, 2014), 3 as quoted by Nabeel Qureshi in No God but One: Allah or Jesus?, p. 275.
Comments
The resounding and consistent message throughout the NT is that "Jesus is the ***SON** of God" -and that this confession *and this confession ALONE{i.e. nothing added/nothing taken away}* is the evidence that one abides in God [cf. 1John4:15].
Indeed, the very "bedrock" upon which Jesus -Himself- stated that He would build His Church was the confession: "You are the Christ -Son of the Living God." Jesus *expressly and explicitly,* emphatically even, affirmed Peter's confession stating that His Father [whom Jesus calls "the *ONLY* true God"{John17:3}] gave Peter this revelation... ...which begs the question: If God wanted us to perceive that Jesus was, indeed, Himself "God" -then why wouldn't God have revealed as much to Peter.
You will not find that *DOCTRINE*{i.e. an express and explicit attempt to identify and teach that Jesus is "God"} in any part of Scripture. Shortly after the Apostles were martyred and the Apostle John died -the Church abandoned the express-ness and explicitness of the texts of Scripture in favor of the more "learned's" inferences. Indeed, the majority of Trinitarian scholars will admit that the doctrine of Trinity is a doctrine of inference lacking any express and explicit conveyance in Scripture.
Why did the Church abandon Jesus' very words-- "This is how to have eternal life: to know YOU -the ONLY TRUE GOD- and Jesus Christ whom YOU have sent"{John17:3}
How could the Church have ever presumed that Jesus is God when Jesus *expressly and explicitly* declared that HIS GOD is our God[cf. John20:17]... ...by definition, God cannot have a "God."
How could the Church have ever presumed that Jesus is "very God of God" essentially one-and-the-same and thus equal to God when Jesus *expressly and explicitly* declares that His Father {whom He affirms is God(John17:3)} is greater than Himself? [cf. John14:28]
And how could the Church ever have presumed that Jesus is God when we are *expressly and explicitly* told that Jesus' authority was given to Him by God -ALBEIT- **God exempted Himself from the authority which He gave His Son?!?! Thus, God cannot be Jesus and Jesus cannot be God [cf. 1Cor15:27-28]
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The post-Apostolic Church had to convene a special Council to resolve the question: If Jesus is God; how does "God" die on a cross?" -thus the contrived extra-biblical doctrine of "Hypostatic Union" emerges to account for the absurdity... ...if you research -not JUST the doctrine of Trinity- but its origin in the making... ...you'll discover what I did nearly two years ago after over two-decades of teaching the Bible from my Trinitarian-based training: The idea of "three persons - one being" originated from pagan ideology... ...and was amalgamated with Christian doctrine by the "Catholic" Church in much the same way the Catholic Church amalgamated pagan rituals into Christian "holidays" to gain followers.
...Jesus explained that "salvation is of the Jews" -don't you think, then, that the Jews had it right with: "Shema Yisrael Adonai eloheinu Adonai echad"? The creed of the Jew has always been: "The Lord our God is ONE Lord" -this Jewish creed is strictly unitarian and not one reputable Trinitarian scholar will argue that... ...and it was Jesus' creed as well-- Mark12:29