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Hello again feedm3,
Not if you accept that the term 'god' can have more than one definition, again which is found in lexicons such as Mounce's Dictionary, where "god" can be used in a lesser sense. Your argument above is somewhat like saying, the USA has only one president, therefore all presidents of companies, etc, are false presidents. It's a false choice.
Not if you accept that the term 'god' can have more than one definition, again which is found in lexicons such as Mounce's Dictionary, where "god" can be used in a lesser sense. Your argument above is somewhat like saying, the USA has only one president, therefore all presidents of companies, etc, are false presidents. It's a false choice.
Now lets use the correct words in your illustration.
the USA has ONLY on TRUE president. This would in fact imply that all other presidents must be false.
It would not necessarily imply that for PAST presidents. but that is not the argument here.
Jesus is God presently, with the Father, so your illustration is not valid.
Did God make Moses a false god? Are the angels false gods? These are all scriptural examples I brought out in my first post.
Nothing in the context of John demands me to interpret God as meaning something other than what it means.
Some passage do, yet the context demands it, like angels. etc.
But you all cant explain Jn 17 without going outside of Jn, just as I cant prove it means true God, so the passage itself proves nothing for either side without the remote context of scripture.
Again, this is proof that you're being too rigid with the words, they are not always used in the most absolute sense! It's just like seeing no difference between the President and merely a president. Titles have different usages and levels!
The passages say ONE GOD and ONE LORD. If ONE GOD excludes Christ from being God, then ONE lord excludes God from being lord.
That is just consistency. Unless you do not use this as a proof text, then you have no problem. If you do then you must be consistent.
Paul says there is to us one God, the Father, and there is to us one Lord, the Son. (1 Corinthians 8:6) This means that Paul, like Jesus, recognizes the Father, Jehovah, as the Almighty God and recognizes the one that hemade our Lord, or master, Jesus Christ. (See Acts 2:36)
1 Corinthians 8:4 we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is none other God but one.
6 - But to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we in him; and one Lord [kurios] Jesus by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.
Mt 6:24 No one can serve two masters [kurios]; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.
Notice that Master/Lord is used interchangeable with God the Father who is in heaven when Jesus speaks.
So the Father is also our Master/Lord.
Yet Jesus said no man can serve two Masters.
Does that mean we cannot serve the Father and the Son?
Well, again, this is a point I made in my first post. The Father is "the only true God" in the sense that he is "the Most High God", "the Almighty".
Representatives of his are called 'gods' in scripture in a relative sense because they derive their power from him. Same goes for salvation. Jehovah is indeed the only true source of salvation. In the past he provided it through Ehud and Othniel, among others, making them saviors in a relative sense. And now he provides it through his Son. Still, Jehovah is the source.
Do you recognize that others in scripture, besides Jehovah and Jesus, are legitimately called 'gods' and 'saviors' by God himself? This seems to be the point you are glossing over because you are just trying to equate the Father and Son, yet missing the absolute/relative distinction elsewhere.
Do you recognize that others in scripture, besides Jehovah and Jesus, are legitimately called 'gods' and 'saviors' by God himself? This seems to be the point you are glossing over because you are just trying to equate the Father and Son, yet missing the absolute/relative distinction elsewhere.
Well then, if true, then that would lead me to understand ONLY savior, or no ohter savior, is not a term that excludes God, Christ, or the people you mentioned. In fact it would make sense that it must be comparing God to the pagan idols, and not demanding their is no other, but no other comapraed to idoaltry.
So then by this understanding I should also understand this to be case in Jn 17:3 and in I cor 8: etc.
Jesus could Call God the ONLY true God. He was on earth, and he was meaning it in the sense of everything else (paganism,ect). Just because he refers to God in this sense does not exclude himself.