Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uflorida!gatech!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian
From: kodak!isctsse!mcmahon@cs.rochester.edu (Brendan McMahon)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Who do you say Christ is? (and other questions)
Message-ID: <Sep.7.04.37.15.1989.17812@athos.rutgers.edu>
Date: 7 Sep 89 08:37:16 GMT
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Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu

First some background:

I am a practicing Catholic, confident that I am following the teachings of
Jesus to the best of my ability.   My wife of 4+ years was raised with no
religious background, and is not baptized.  It has always been my hope, and
is in my prayers that one day she may convert, but I have always felt that
it would be counter-productive to try to force my religion on her.  We have
a very strong marrige, the only area of concern for me is the topic of this
posting.

About a year ago there was a knock on our door and lo and behold who was there?
A Jehovah's Witness.  Slowly over the course of the year my wife has been     
getting more and more into the bible.  For this I should be, and am thankful.
She is currently metting with this person every other week.  The trouble is
that JW's are very anti-Catholic.  But what can I do.  She says she just wants
to find out the real truth, and it can't hurt to investigate all sides from
all angles.   So despite being deeply troubled over these mettings, I can
only allow them to continue.

This is where things currently stand:
She says she is ready to be baptized as soon as she finds out which Christian
church is the "true" church.   She has eliminated the Catholic church mainly
because of the trinity doctrine (influenced mostly by the JW's "Should you
believe in the trinity" publication.)  Thankfully, I have been able to show
the flaws in the JW's beliefs, so she isn't ready to become a JW.  Thankfully
because I don't know if any family could survive such opposing religious
view points (although I know there have been Christian/Jewish marriges).
The main thing that she is struggling with is the Divinity of Jesus.
The JW's say that Jesus is not Divine, not God, not worth of worship, because hewas just a man on this earth and is just a spirit higher than the angles now.

Now for some questions:
     
     o) Do not most Christian churches teach the divinity of Jesus?  What 
        churches other than the JW's teach otherwise?  Mail from another
        reader of this news group explained the John 1:1 "..Word was God"
        vs JW's "... Word was a god" controversy.  What are some other 
        references that might point to Jesus being God?

     o) How do other Christians who profess Jesus as "one in being with the
        Father", account for apparent Biblical contradictions such as "the
        Father is greater than I", "Why do you call me good, only the Father
        is good", ... others indicating a separate Father.  One book I read
        said that theologians and students of Christology have contemplated
        how much of Jesus's divinity was able to show through to his total
        humanity.  Indicating he did not know his exact nature, until his
        resurrection.  This might be supported by his asking his disciples
        "who do you say that I am?",  and asking that man "why do you call 
        me good only the Father is good?", at least he is not denying his
        divinity, and after his resurrection he accepts Thomas's worship
        "my lord and my God".  ( I may have answered my own question, but
        am interested in the opinion of others. )

     o) Can some one recommend a book or better yet break down the different
        Protestant religions and their main articles of belief.  We have
        no idea what the differences between a Baptist, Lutheran, ... are.
        How does a person in my wife's position go about finding a Church that
        best accomadates(sp?) her beliefs?

I am ready to suggest to her that she stop getting instructions from this    
person because they (JW's) are obviously not Christ's true Church, and
suggest to her that we start attending different denomination's services 
around town.  (I would just attend an early mass beforehand.)  Despite the
recent posting "Protestantism as the Church",  I don't feel the differences 
between Protestants and Catholics are nearly as sharp or conflicting as the
JW's.  Anything I can do to steer her out of that approach will be a
great relief to me.


Any help appreciated!

--
Brendan McMahon     ...!rochester!kodak!ektools!kadsma!mcmahon