Three addenda to my previous posts:
#1 Lest our readers think I'm trying to introduce non-orthodoxy with my observations, I'm trying to give an example that we can all read the text and make such observations. Mine are no better or more compelling than anyone else's. And my keying in on angels might be partly in reaction to a strict "no angels allowed" Protestant youth, perhaps as Martin Luther and John Calvin reacted to RCC abuse and imbalance. But a reaction to someone else's imbalance isn't truth per se, but merely reaction.
#2 Back to the sinless Christ as an example of bedrock Christian truth, or universal understanding, even the seemingly self-evident truths may dissolve on examination, and lead to further unanswered (or even unanswerable) phenomena. Notice how John the Baptist introduces Christ in John Chapter 1. Twice (vv 29, 36) he calls him the Lamb of God, and the first time he says, "who taketh away the sins of the world". John knew something, eh? Is he not implying sacrifice and atonement?
So, why did John then ask, through his disciples, "Are you the Christ or should we look for another?" If John knew that Jesus was the sinless Lamb of God, given for the expiation of the sins of the world, then how could he logically imply with his question that something was off when Jesus hadn't sprung him from the gaol? How was Jesus' sinless status going to redeem us all without Jesus' death? And if so, why should John the Baptiser, who introduced this notion, deny it later? It looks like the Baptist of John 1 is different than the one in the Matthew 11/Luke 7 story. One knows of the sinlessness and coming expiation, the other doesn't (or has forgotten).
#3
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bible-believer
It's blasphemy.
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Not sure what the current standards for blasphemy are, but I bet that WL was flirting with them here, if not outright over the line. Only Jesus can say, "I am/have God's oracle" in the singular. All of us can participate, all can prophesy, all have tongues and interpretations, but for a follower of Jesus Christ to speak as he did is delusional and flirting with blasphemy. Again I ask, what supposed revelation is worth that? And, what Christian in their right mind would follow it?
Imagine going to any professor of Christian religion at any College or Uni or Theological School, and asking them for support of the notion that God's oracle is invested in only one Christian believer, and when that believer dies the age turns and there's no more oracle? He or she will say that this isn't Christian at all, not by any stretch of the imagination. Anyone who insists that it is, is delusional.