Hi dj dave,
You quoted, “In the begining was the word and the word was with God and the word was a god.”
Catholics believe there is only One True God - do you believe there are more than one true God? Because if Jehovah is the One True God - and yet Jesus is another god… what does that make Him, a false god? Or a second true God?
Catholics believe there is only One True God - do you believe there are more than one true God?
Jesus also said that there was one “only true God” and separated from himself
Jo 17:3 "
3 This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ."
As you may know we usually quote 2 Cor 4:3, 4 to show that there are other God’s
"3 If, now, the good news we declare is in fact veiled, it is veiled among those who are perishing, 4 among whom the god of this system of things has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, that the illumination of the glorious good news about the Christ, who is the image of God, might not shine through."
But there is only one True Almighty God. Jesus is spoken of as “mighty God” Isa 9:6
“6 For there has been a child born to us, there has been a son given to us; and the princely rule will come to be upon his shoulder. And his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.”
(Notice also that he is “Prince” not “King” of peace.)
NOW, the grammatical construction in John 1:1 involves an anarthrous predicate, that is, a predicate noun without the definite article “the,” preceding the verb, which construction is primarily qualitative in meaning and indicates that “the logos has the nature of theos.” He further stated: “In John 1:1 I think that the qualitative force of the predicate is so prominent that the noun [the·os′] cannot be regarded as definite.” (Journal of Biblical Literature, 1973, pp. 85, 87) Other translators, also recognizing that the Greek term has qualitative force and describes the nature of the Word, therefore render the phrase: “the Word was divine.”—AT; Sd; compare Mo; see NW appendix, p. 1579.
WE BELIVE THAT JESUS WAS DIVINE BUT HE WAS NOT ALMIGHTY GOD.
Compare “(2 Peter 1:4) . . .Through these things he has freely given us the precious and very grand promises, that through these YOU may become sharers in divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world through lust.”
Then, at Colossians 2:9 the apostle Paul says that in Christ “all the fullness of the divine quality [form of the·o′tes] dwells bodily.” Here, again, some translations read “Godhead” or “deity,” which Trinitarians interpret to mean that God personally dwells in Christ. (KJ, NE, RS, NAB) However, Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon defines the·o′tes in basically the same way it does thei·o′tes, as meaning “divinity, divine nature.” (P. 792) The Syriac Peshitta and the Latin Vulgate render this word as “divinity.” Thus, here too, there is a solid basis for rendering thei·o′tes as referring to quality, not personality.
A consideration of the context of Colossians 2:9 clearly shows that having “divinity,” or “divine nature,” does not make Christ the same as God the Almighty. In the preceding chapter, Paul says: “God saw good for all fullness to dwell in him.” (Col 1:19) Thus, all fullness dwells in Christ because it “pleased the Father” (KJ, Dy), because it was “by God’s own choice.” (NE) So the fullness of “divinity” that dwells in Christ is his as a result of a decision made by the Father. Further showing that having such “fullness” does not make Christ the same person as Almighty God is the fact that Paul later speaks of Christ as being “seated at the right hand of God.”—Col 3:1.
There’s more…to come on this. I’m out of room on this post. I’ll be right back.
He he…