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From: west@sdcsla.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: query: God=Father & Christ=Son
Message-ID: <484@sdcsla.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 22-Dec-83 22:18:06 EST
Article-I.D.: sdcsla.484
Posted: Thu Dec 22 22:18:06 1983
Date-Received: Sat, 24-Dec-83 04:42:57 EST
Lines: 45

<<<___>>>

In replying to Laura Creighton, Dave Norris brings up a point that I've
been curious about (off and on) for some time:

----: begin quote :----

	Bad choice of words on my part; it would appear that I meant Jesus did
not exist before He was born (which of course is contrary to Christianity). 
Maybe it would be better phrased as "Jesus came to earth as a man".  Christ-
ianity teached that Christ has always existed just as God has always existed.

----: end quote :----

My questions are:

1) So why wasn't Christ mentioned earlier in the Bible?
2) What was he doing before coming to earth?
3) What exactly do you [not just Dave] believe the Trinity to be?
4) Are God and Christ two separate individuals [in your view] or
   two facets of the same being?
5) Why the emphasis on the Father/Son relationship between God/Christ
   if in fact they are supposed to be ``the same''?   Or rather, what
   is the meaning of the terms Father and Son in this case?
6) Did God exist before Christ?
7) Given the existence of God/Christ, is it unlikely that the Father/Son
   relationship is a convenient fiction [like `good' and `evil'] used
   to convey the closeness of Jesus to God?   That is, since I doubt anyone
   will respond to #5 by saying that God literally fathered Christ,
   is the Father/Son relationship more symbolic than literal?   This
   question is probably more pertinent to those who believe in the
   absolute literal truth of the Bible.

I'd be interested in serious replies.   I'll leave it to you whether
this should be done on the net or by mail...


			-- Larry West   UC San Diego
possible net addresses:
			-- ARPA:	west@NPRDC
			-- UUCP:	ucbvax!sdcsvax!sdcsla!west
			--	or	ucbvax:sdcsvax:sdcsla:west

Actually, I'd be interested in humorous replies, too.   Didn't
mean to discriminate.