oldhermit;[/B]1427777]This is nothing more than pantheism. There is not grammatical example one can point to in scripture that describes Jesus as 'A' god.[/QUOTE
You can call it what you want. But I will tell you that this comment is exactly why about 170AD our Christian scholars and doctors started to argue about the make-up of the Godhead. Up to that date most Christians believed that Jesus was the Son of God, separate and distinct from God (see Justin Martyr, 1st apologist of the Church), mainly on the testimony of Stephen, the first Christian martyr. His testimony is, that he looked into the heavens and saw Jesus standing on the right hand of God. The Jews were so angry with him that he had spoken such blasphemy by promoting Jesus of Nazareth to Godhood and standing next to God that they killed him on the spot.
After 170 the Jews and pagans were pressing the Christians with slogans such as, you are not any better than the pagans who believe in more that one god (pantheism). You believe in God and His Son, and the Holy Spirit, how is that any different from Zues, and Apollos, and Jupiter. You see their argument even admits that the Christians believed in 3 separate and distinct Beings.
What the Christians did over the next 150 years leading to Nicea was to argue away the NT Godhead and created a
"one God with 3 Persons" God to compete with the Jews "one God" and do away with the pagan slogans of pantheism.
Pantheism is obviously not a true doctrine, it gives hundreds of gods of greater or lesser ranks access to humankind for pretty much what they want to do with humankind. No wonder this doctrine lost ground to the true religion brought to us by Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
However, part of the true religion is that there are 3 Beings involved in the creation and salvation of men, God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. These Beings make-up the Holy Godhead, not the holy pantheon. There are not hundreds of gods of various rank, but there are 3 Gods of equal majesty, power and authority all working in perfect harmony, mind, will, purpose, and actions as if they are actually 1 God.
In Hebrews 1:8-9 the God of Jesus acknowledges that His Son Jesus holds the rank of God. If God is God and Jesus, His Son is considered a God, and was annointed by his God, how many Gods do you have. The answer is 2 Gods. It is hard to argue against the God of Jesus. You can call them Persons if you think that eliminates pantheism, but remember there is no grammatical example one can point to in scripture that describes God the Father as a Person. To me it is rather a slap in the face for God to be considered just a Person.
So the way I look at it we both have to wrestle with definitions. You wrestle with pantheism for me and I wrestle with persons for you. I just believe that from the beginning, there have always been 3 separate and distinct Beings (Gods) that were involved in the creation and salvation of man. God the Son came to the earth and represented God the Father, who stayed in the heavens and continued to take care of the universe. After God the Son was resurrected and sat on the right hand of God the Father, they sent God the Holy Spirit to earth to continue to witness of the truth that Jesus in the Christ and is the Son of God the Father.
Both of us are witnesses that Jesus is the Christ and the savior of the world, do not let our differences reflect away that testimony.