well in the book of hebrews there is a conversation recorded between the father and the son. and all through the gospels we see Jesus speaking to the father and the father communicating back.
Jesus constantly confirmed that THE FATHER was many things that was not, and could do and know things he could not do, and did not know.
Jesus said only the father knows the day of his coming, Jesus said not even the Son of man, jesus himself, knew that day.
so the father knows things Jesus doesnt know, they arent same person.
Jesus constantly said he did nothing, and could do nothing outside of the THE FATHER. he was dependant on the fathers power, he did not have his own. again, they arent same person.
Jesus once answered a man who had called him "good" by saying "who is good except the father" Jesus said that he wasnt even "good" like the father is.
im not trying to say Jesus was a sinner, but he wasnt same as the father.
Jesus could not be the father, becuase they are so very diffrent, they dont know the same things, cant do the same things, arent the same things, according to the scripture.
calvinism....
someone else can talk about that one. i only certain aspects of it that i dont agree with.
the old testament.
paul told the new testament churchs that the things written before hand, speaking of the old testament and the stories of moses and the prophets,where written before hand for our benefit, as examples, encouragement and strength to us.
we need them, they greatly elaborate on issues of the new testament.
and books like psalms and proverbs are filled with never ending wisdom, insight and encouragment for all peoples, they should never be disregarded.
Jesus constantly quoted the old testament, and the rest of the apostles did too, yes we need it.
paul said the scriptures were inspired by the lord, and given to make man perfect.
at the time that he said that, i think many scholars agree that, basicly no new testament writings had even been completed yet, he was certainly saying that the old testament was given to even us by God.
The only things of the old testament that we no longer need are certain rituals that the old testament did.
there are many things they did, that we dont do, and many things they did, that we do still need to do. the way you understand which ones are gone and which are not, is to know why somethings were done away with.
the reason is that the bible says somethings were "shadows" or "pictures" of the coming Christ.
like sacrifices, them sacrificing lambs and bulls was a representation or picture of what Christ was going to do on the cross.
so, when Jesus came and did that, we didnt need sacrifices anymore, before they were only a picture of shadow of what Jesus did, so they were finished.
other things like "thall shall not murder" are still true, and never will cease to be true. becuase that was not a shadow or picture of anything, it was Just Gods law that will never change. its still wrong to murder today, becuase not murdering wasnt a shadow or picture of anything, it was just Gods law and it still is.
the things of the old testament that we dont need now are things like rituals that are clearly only representations of the coming Christ, and were needed only up untill he came.
the things you dont do away with are things that werent just pictures of the coming Christ, but just how things always ought to be.
see what im saying?
like tithing, that was certainly a part of the old law, and even though the bible says all the old law was done away with, Jesus told the pharisees to tithe and we should still tithe today becuase we still have need of that today. tithing wasnt a picture of the coming Christ, Christ did nothing to fullfill tithing like he did to fullfill animal sacrifices, tithing was and is how things ought to always be.
somethings they did are gone, somethings are not, you have to know which things were only pictures of the coming Christ, and which things were just how it always ought to be.
some people seem to think that all old testament teaching is no longer relevant and that is far from the truth, Jesus used it to teach and confirm nearly all that he taught, and so did paul and peter and people after him.
