Can Christians agree on this?

[Lovette]

God is present with His people not only when about two thousand years ago the incarnate Jesus Christ was among them, but afterwards too:

(Joh 14:23 NKJV) Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

Yes, the Holy Spirit has taken His place, the promsied Helper, He himself has ascended to heaven. Thus three presences.

 

[Lovette]

Lovette:
I like your gift for the obvious. It is entirely possible that the massive and continuing proliferation of Christian sects is that it's core, though unstated assumption, is that God is rational - accessible by human reasoning, proof texting and argumentation. The best scholar, the best bible student and the best theologians are where we turn to craft a "God in our box" based theologies.

Where I might quibble with you is that IMHO one can read the scriptures as man's attempt to capture God in human history. Or one can read the scriptures as a sign that within the world-wide community of mankind, there is an irresistible innate desire for the divine.

Perhaps a very crude metaphor would be salmon. They left the place of their creation with almost no intellectual connection to the rock in the riverbed of their creation....but are drawn instinctively back to their point of creation driven not by logic but by something much more reliable, a sense of purpose and direction.

To many the bible is just 700,000+ pages of confirmation for what they have already chosen to believe. It not about a call to personal meaning, purpose and direction in life, but only the worship of the God in their sect's box.

BTW, another difference is that in Orthodoxy, God is mostly taught through showing and performing, he's being sought and pursued through his signs and wonders, their famous iconography serves as a portal to heaven, at least an illustration of what God and his people look like; in Catholicism and most Protestant sects, on the other hand, God is mostly taught through theorizing and reasoning in abstract concepts. Both have their pros and cons, but on trinity, I think the Orthodox view is more acceptable.

 

[GWH]

What you have in mind as the "image of God" might be closer to the CHARACTER of God - or virtues of God, instead of model or archetype of God. I'm just saying that a person cannot be called a person without emotions, tempers, physiological needs, physical body and gender. This might be another far stretch, but I think this is relevant, these separate real human from AI robot.

Yes, but animals have some of those things you listed, so you may want to think about what separates humans from animals,
which IMO per Scripture (beginning with Gen. 3:1-6) is God-consciousness and moral conscience/MFW.

 

[Lovette]

Yes, but animals have some of those things you listed, so you may want to think about what separates humans from animals,
which IMO per Scripture (beginning with Gen. 3:1-6) is God-consciousness and moral conscience/MFW.

What separates human from animals is creativity, we're tool builders. A lots of animals can use tools, only humans can make tools.

 

[GWH]

What separates human from animals is creativity, we're tool builders. A lots of animals can use tools, only humans can make tools.

So, you do not agree that God-consciousness and moral conscience separate humans from animals?!
I agree that creativity goes along with having more brain power and also can be viewed as reflecting the Creator.

 

[biblestudent78]

Delvianna:
One cannot become become partakers in the divine nature of God without obedience. That is exactly what "partakers" means. See 1 Corinthians 13, Galatians 5 and Matthew 25 and tell me this is your understanding of "obedience." But I connect to your Eastern Orthodox understanding of the 3 tiered supremacy of God the Father, Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit a component of God the Father but not the Son for not particular reason than it is "harmonious".

Delvianna,
In presenting the major Christian traditions I am not endorsing any particular one. What I am attempting to do is challenge all to think clearly about what they believe and perhaps why they believe. I am also hopeful that all Christians can see truth and inspiration in other Christian traditions.