Divinity In Richard Rubenstein's When Jesus Became God

In the sixteenth century, the world was divided about Martin Luther. One Catholic thought Martin Luther was a "demon in the appearance of a man." Another who first questioned Luther's theology later declared, "He alone is right!"(Witherington, 1992). Both Catholics and Protestants affirm he was not only right about a great deal, but he changed the course of Western history for the better. Luther saw how the Old Testament law against idols and the New Testament emphasis on justification by faith alone are essentially the same.

Christianity has always been subjective and ambiguous, which allows for theories and speculation to develop regarding the religion’s values and characteristics. A key matter in theology seeks to understand those values and to identify a model of living that guides people away from corruption to remain in God’s image. Athanasius of Alexandria’s On the Incarnation and Friedrich Nietzsche’s The Anti-Christ address this issue with viewpoints that directly contradict each other. Athanasius examines the Incarnation to defend his position that natural human desires corrupt mankind and suggests there is nothing to prevent evil and sin other than God’s salvation while Nietzsche asserts that corruption occurs from a loss of instinctive nature and proposes

Merely a millennium later, that unity seemed to have been broken and two main branches of the once unified Christianity had come to light. The factors that lead to this division are many, starting early on from the fourth century with the Council of Nicaea, as will be seen later which did unify the churches, but did not give an end to some of the theological debates that pursued. Apart from this other factors such as language differences, power struggles, matters of liturgy, worship of objects and marital status only helped

Basic Christianity is a crucial foundation that must be deeply entrenched within the hearts and minds of believers. The essential and basic principles aid every Christian by showing and teaching them how great God’s love is for us. In John Stott’s Book, “Basic Christianity,” he reveals insight on what it is to be a Christian. He also dispels many erroneous teachings that have been brought into the Christian community. Stott states in the beginning of his book that many have held the assumption that God sits on His throne, aloof, distant, and unconcerned for our needs and problems (Stott, pg. 17). The fact that these people are unaware of is that God took the initiative and acted first as seen in Genesis 1:1, where it states ”In the beginning God….” This clearly shows that God in His omnipotence took time to create you, me, and everything in existence today. It is also stated in Genesis 1, God formed us in His image and breathed into us the breathe of “LIFE”; therefore a part of the Almighty is in the fibers of our being. Seeing that part of Him was separated, He sent Jesus Christ to die for our sins to redeem the relationship that once was.

7. Arius believed that since Jesus is called the son of God, he cannot be equal and identical to God the father. Jesus was more than man but less than God. 8. The Council of Nicaea was a meeting of Bishops (a convention of Clerical bureaucrats) to decide on a definitive interpretation of the Trinity, and setting a date for Easter along with many other important issues.

Diocletian tormented many of the Christians until they perished (Alchin). After about three hundred years, it became easier for the Christians. Constantine, the emperor of Rome at the time, converted to Christianity. This resulted in the end of the persecutions and the beginning of Christendom. In the year 313, Constantine issued to Edict of Milan.

Expectedly, the so called "old lights" and the "new lights" had several arguments concerning many issues. These constant disagreements caused the two major denominations to completely spilt, this spilt evoked the breaking of the policy of established

Athanasius defended the Trinity, which is one of the biggest beliefs and a core element in Christian faith. The Trinity is the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, all three united as one. During the fourth century, Arius went around teaching that Jesus the Son was different in divinity to God the Father. He points out many Scriptures proving that Jesus is saying that the Father and Son are clearly different, showing that they

Differences, disagreements, and distance had been laying the foundation for the Great Schism for

Elaine Pagels uses The Gnostic Gospels to consider the relation between gnostic teachings and what would become orthodox teaching. Pagels uses both texts to analyze the theological differences in terms of issues of religious authority. The orthodox and the Gnostics had very different ways of understanding what constituted truth, as they had incongruous ideas about who was entitled to preserve and teach that truth. The theological meaning of Jesus ' death and resurrection, the importance of apostolic succession, the position of women vis-a-vis men in the early Church, the question of whether Jesus and the apostles after him had passed on a secret teaching in addition to the teachings known from the New Testament--these are some of the thorny

Although, these two were so much different religiously, they become linked by setting the foundation to religious freedom that we still experience

The year after this fateful meeting, the faithful congregations and the progressive ones held separate meetings from one another, establishing the unfortunate fact of a division (Ibid.

This was controversial at this time because of the new interpretation that Calvin had of scripture. Thus, sanctification was one of the things that Calvin and Roman Catholicism disagreed

People don’t change and that proves why history repeats itself. We continue to do what we please. Page 159 “anyone perceived to be a heretic was publicly burned alive, just like the christians in Nero’s time.” Again history proving to

In the years before Christ the Greeks said there were multiple gods and they also had heroes who weren't quite gods but they were greater than humans. These heroes had to have certain qualities to be considered as one. These qualities are similar but different than those qualities of today's heroes. The greek's qualities consisted of cleverness, courage, strength, a noble birth, must have a companion or guide, they go on a journey or quest or have a goal, they meet dangers, they often face temptation and loneliness, and go to a dark place. They must also have a flaw, like acting without thinking or become angry easily.