One God, Many Paths

Yahweh kid said:
it almost seem as if you are suggesting that Christians added to the Word
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People who were part of the early Christian movement wrote the Gospels and everything in the New Testament. As time went on, the early Church developed theology and as time went on further, theologians further developed theological ideas that they said was supported by the New Testament writings, going beyond the text at times and using terms like Trinity and explanations that are not stated in the text themselves. Believers often say they feel the theology is sufficiently supported by the words in either or both the Old or New Testament.
 
Yahweh kid said:
What is the definition of a Christian? Are mormons Christians? Many call themselves Christian, but Jesus says in Matt. 7 "Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven"
Even some universalists calls themselves Christians... 😁
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And the debate rages on - yes Mormons consider themselves Christian, for them I can see an argument for saying they are a distinctive Abrahamic faith in their own right due to additional material they report to be revealed scripture and the unique and distinct theology and worldview.

Since the earliest years of the church there have been universalists within the church, even some of the founding thinkers.
There were Christian Gnostics who supposedly believed in reincarnation. Some people have said they though Origen believed in reincarnation, but I'm not sure that is the case, more that he believed in the pre-existence of souls.
Conditional immortality is believed by some Christian denominations. Some but not all such denominations are non-Trinitarian.
Theologians of these denominations self-report being "more true to the bible than traditional Christianity" which of course traditional Christians disagree with.
(interestingly all of these various theories about the afterlife are considered plausible by some Jewish theologians)

Whether or not people "call themselves Christian" well, that starts going into discussions of things like self identification, labels, who accepts what label, how important is a label, who is a gatekeeper or authority for what the label means, and on and on.

And discussion rolls on...
 
TheLightWithin said:
People who were part of the early Christian movement wrote the Gospels and everything in the New Testament. As time went on, the early Church developed theology and as time went on further, theologians further developed theological ideas that they said was supported by the New Testament writings, going beyond the text at times and using terms like Trinity and explanations that are not stated in the text themselves. Believers often say they feel the theology is sufficiently supported by the words in either or both the Old or New Testament.
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The Bible is sufficient for me... :) I believe Christians are followers of Christ, believing He is God and that He is the only One who can Save us....The Trinity is also one of the core beliefs of a Christian.
 
Yahweh kid said:
You are correct, because they are non trinitarians 😁 ..... They choose to believe Jesus is not God, but they are not following the Scriptures..... “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”
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Ah, that one. Nontrinitarians do not in any way consider this statement a proof of the trinity.
In this case, when Jesus says "I am" what do you think he means? Do you think he is referring to himself?
That the words "I am" refer to the speaker somehow?
Or no... to YHWH - which means "I am" or "I will be what I will be"
Jesus is saying "Before Abraham, YHWH"
G-d himself came before Abraham.
Think of the context of the entire chapter, Jesus refers to G-d as having sent him.
 
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