Christendom's inconsistent beliefs #6: is Jesus your God and your brother at the same time?

[Eloi]

To all who believe Jesus is your God (as most religious leaders teach in Christendom): Can you answer this question, do you consider Jesus your brother at the same time?

John 20:17 Jesus said to her: “Stop clinging to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God.’”

[myth-one.com]

Strictly speaking, the question you ask in the OP isn’t applicable to me. (My God is the Father alone.) I see my God in the Messiah. I consider the Messiah to be my brother. I don’t consider God to be my brother.

I responded to your OP because I believe there are a couple of instances in scripture where the Messiah is called elohim / theos. My theological position is that the Messiah exercises a functional equality with God.

Thank you for telling us about your theological position. It is interesting and I agree with some parts of what you post ... However, it is a position rarely seen in Christendom.

I am a Jehovah's Witness, and since there are many different groups of people who claim to be "Christians" and I do not want to contradict them if they think they are, I separate all the people who are led by the theologians from the religious schools around the world and their views so dissimilar to those of the Witnesses. As we also consider ourselves "Christians" and some of those groups say that we are not, I separate our Christianity from Christendom ... and so everyone in peace, with some exceptions .

Can you tell us which religious group you identify with?

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That's incredibly sad that you feel the need to separate "your" Christianity from Christendom. I guess you have your reasons.

On a larger scale; God is Love, but three of the world's greatest religions worship that same God, and otherwise seem to hate each other. Go figure.

A Christian is a person who believes in Christ as their Savior:

And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.

Oftentimes, a person's religious affiliation is simple an accident of birth anyways.

We do not typically reach a certain age, perform a worldwide study of all religions, and then decide which religious affiliation we will join. If I had been born into a Jewish family, I would probably be Jewish. Or if I had been born into a Muslim family, I would probably be a Muslim. I was born in a "Bible belt" state in the United States -- so I am a Christian.
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The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ ...

Paul wrote Romans as a letter to the believers in Rome. So "we" in the above verse refers to Christians.

If all Christians are joint-heirs with Jesus Christ, then Jesus Christ really is our brother.

But it also makes all Christians brothers and/or sisters to each other! We are all one big family with the same God the Father.

You cannot separate yourself from that, brother!

[2timothy316]

That's incredibly sad that you feel the need to separate "your" Christianity from Christendom. I guess you have your reasons.

On a larger scale; God is Love, but three of the world's greatest religions worship that same God, and otherwise seem to hate each other. Go figure.

A Christian is a person who believes in Christ as their Savior:

Who are really Christ's disciples? Is it simply believing Christ is their savior?

"I am giving you a new commandment, that you love one another; just as I have loved you, you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples—if you have love among yourselves.” - John 13:34, 35.
As you mentioned major religions don't mix well with each other. They even hate each other. WWI and WWII show that even though many called Christ their savior, calling themselves Christians, went out and killed each other. Millions dead at the hand of other self proclaimed Christians. Same goes for places like Ireland where for many years, people that called themselves Christians killed each other indiscriminately.

"Many will say to me in that day: ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and expel demons in your name, and perform many powerful works in your name?’ And then I will declare to them: ‘I never knew* you! Get away from me, you workers of lawlessness!’" - Matt 7:22, 23
Jesus separates himself form those that call his name but are working in lawlessness. I for one, do the same. I do not want to be lumped in with those Jesus says, "Get away from me." because of their lawlessness. Those that hate their fellow 'brothers' are not believing in Christ. For anyone hating their brother is committing murder. (Matt 5:21, 22)

"And I heard another voice out of heaven say: “She has fallen! Babylon the Great has fallen, and she has become a dwelling place of demons and a place where every unclean spirit....“Get out of her, my people, if you do not want to share with her in her sins, and if you do not want to receive part of her plagues. For her sins have massed together clear up to heaven, and God has called her acts of injustice to mind." - Rev 18:2, 4, 5.
While some might think it sad that I feel the need to separate what I call Christian from what others call Christian, that sadness is misplaced. According to the Bible it is necessary we get out of what the Bible calls the unclean and unjust "Babylon the Great" so as not to 'receive part of her plagues'.

[bjs1]

To all who believe Jesus is your God (as most religious leaders teach in Christendom): Can you answer this question, do you consider Jesus your brother at the same time?

Yes, I consider Jesus to be my God, my friend, my savior, my lord, and my brother. He is the Prince of Peace, the Wonderful Counselor, and the Mighty God.

John 20:17 Jesus said to her: “Stop clinging to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God.’”

In the same chapter that Jesus called the disciples his brothers, one of those disciples called Jesus “My master and my God!”

Barring some extreme eisegesis that insists that when Thomas said that to Jesus he wasn’t really saying that to Jesus, there is no way around the fact that in this one chapter Jesus was described both as brother and as God to the disciples.

[Eloi]

[Replying to bjs1 in post #2]
The God of gods, the Most High, the Creator of heaven and earth, has no brothers, much less human brothers, much less imperfect human brothers.

That is why God is only whom Jesus calls God and Father. If God had siblings, that would mean that GOD and his siblings share a common father. Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds?

John 20:17 Jesus said to her: “Stop clinging to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God.’”

If Jesus were the God of gods to whom the entire Universe has to render sacred service, he would not say that he has brothers.

Heb. 2:10 For it was fitting for the one for whose sake all things are and through whom all things are, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the Chief Agent of their salvation perfect through sufferings. 11 For both he who is sanctifying and those who are being sanctified all [stem] from one, and for this cause he is not ashamed to call them “brothers,” 12 as he says: “I will declare your name to my brothers; in the middle of [the] congregation I will praise you with song.” 13 And again: “I will have my trust in him.”

[bjs1]

[Replying to bjs1 in post #2]
The God of gods, the Most High, the Creator of heaven and earth, has no brothers, much less human brothers, much less imperfect human brothers.

You are absolutely free to believe this. However it does contradict the text of the New Testament, as has already been pointed out.

Do you realize how ridiculous that sounds?

Fear not. I will become far more undignified than this. The God of universe became a man! He was born as a helpless infant. God needed someone to change his diapers. He cried at night and had to learn how speak. He was awkward during puberty. He suffered constipation. He worked on writing a sermon. He was mocked, beaten, and executed. Have I become ridiculous enough for you yet?

I am reminded of Paul’s word’s that the Jews want miraculous signs and the Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified.

The Jews wanted a God who would demonstrate His power and solve all their problems. They got a Messiah whose greatest victory was dying on the cross. The Greeks wanted an essay on the nature of the Divine. They got visceral act of mercy and redemption. Let me be ridiculous, because the foolishness of God has proven wiser than the wisdom of men, and the ridiculousness of my God outshines all the glory of this world.

[Eloi]

[Replying to bjs1 in post #2]
I don't know what you are talking about. You don't even use a quote from the Bible to prove anything you write ...

PD: Please, don't quote my posts without the biblical references I use on them. Thank you.

[bjs1]

[Replying to Eloi in post #16]

Please read post 13.

[Revelations won]

Dear Eloi,

What is so inconsistent with an understanding of the Godhead consisting of God the Father, God the Son and the Holy Ghost?

Perhaps the only inconsistency arises from a lack of understanding the above.

Kind redgards,
RW

[Eloi]

The Bible clearly separates the identity of Jesus and his brothers from God.

Rom. 8:28 We know that God makes all his works cooperate together for the good of those who love God, those who are the ones called according to his purpose; 29 because those whom he gave his first recognition he also foreordained to be patterned after the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. 30 Moreover, those whom he foreordained are the ones he also called; and those whom he called are the ones he also declared to be righteous. Finally those whom he declared righteous are the ones he also glorified.

It is obvious that the belief that Jesus is the Supreme God and at the same time has human brothers does not originate from the Scriptures but from the pagan myth of the god of three. What Scriptures say is totally different:

Heb. 1:3 He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact representation of his very being, and he sustains all things by the word of his power. And after he had made a purification for our sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.

According to that quote: who is the Majesty in the heavens? Is it Jesus?

Heb. 8:1 Now this is the main point of what we are saying: We have such a high priest as this, and he has sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, 2 a minister of the holy place and of the true tent (...)

[bjs1]

[Replying to Eloi in post #19]

You seem to be very focused on the verses about Jesus being our brother while ignoring the considerable number of passages about Jesus being God.

Hebrews 1:8: But of the Son He says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, And the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom.”

1 John 5:20: And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.

John 20:28: Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

Colossians 2:9: For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,

John 1:1: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

John 5:23: so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father

John 10:33: The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.”

John 8:58: Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.

Philippians 2:6: Who, though he existed in the form of God,