I was born and raised Roman Catholic, but my wife would say I was cured.
I attended Catholic schools for 12 years and was an altar boy for 9 years.
I considered myself Christian then; and still consider myself Christian now. I have been attending Presbyterian services for the past 16 years. Presbyterians seem to vote on everything. I believe in one God. I believe in the teachings of Jesus Christ, I just am having a hard time with the concept of his divinity. My human mind is just having a hard time grasping this. From my studies, he was declared divine a couple of centuries after he died by people just as flawed as the rest of us, and did not declare himself divine. However, I respect everyones right to believe what they want to believe, even non-Christians.
Oh Yeah... We've been DVCer since 2000.
Hello - Catholic myself, not a DVC owner, though I would like to be - just not in the cards financially for our family at this time - maybe someday.
I know that there has been some reluctance to get into theological discussions here - but I wanted to reply to your post with something that might help - I have a BA in Catholic Studies and have almost finished my MA in theology - I have also taken a fairly in depth Christology course.
Although you are correct in saying that Christ's Divinity was not stated explicitly until a couple of centuries after His death, there is actually a fairly interesting approach to arguing for His divinity from Scripture.
First, understand that in Jewish custom and law, there were a number of regulations a person had to follow - times of fasting, avoiding things that would make a person "unclean", following the 10 Commandments in terms of honouring parents - etc. We also need to accept that Jesus Himself followed these requirements as a first century Jewish man - He would not have been able to go to the Temple in Jerusalem if He was in a state of ritual uncleanliness.
Now, secondly, Jewish custom and law allowed for exceptions to the requirements - for compassionate reasons, a person might be excused from fasting if they were ill.
Next, consider the scripture accounts where Christ told the person whose father had died to "let the dead bury the dead" and follow anyway. Or the situation where Christ is asked why His followers did not fast, and He said that they will fast when He is gone, but not while He is with them. On both of these occasions, Jesus is excusing people from following Jewish law on HIS AUTHORITY.
Now, consider an analogy - I own a company and have made a policy that I will ONLY hire people with a degree in Geography. One day, you come to me as a friend in need of a job, but you don't have the degree. I offer you a job anyway, since it is my company and I made the rule (which I am not changing, just making an exception in your case) - I can do that!
So, if Jesus gives someone an exemption from a Jewish Law on His own authority, there must be a reason He can do this. Since it was accepted that the Jewish Law was given by God (God was the author of the Laws and Covenant), only if Jesus was the author of the Law would He have the authority to grant an exemption.
This leaves you with two options - Jesus DID have the authority to grant the exemption as the author of the Law - and as the author of the law, He is God, Divine. The other option is that Jesus was a lunatic, with delusions of divinity.
For Christians, at least, the second option really isn't a valid choice.
I hope this helps, or at least gives you something to consider.
My apologies if posting this was inappropriate.
Feel free to PM me if it would be better to discuss this in that manner - or PM me with another thread link where you would like to discuss this.
