"Why Does the Church Teach That Jesus is God?"
The so -called American Catholic Church's response to this question is a resounding:
NO! To Jesus as God
And then, it's a sort of vague, wishy -washy almost Duh?! kind of:
NO! To the Existence of God Himself
Meanwhile, The Roman Catholic Church's answer, and the answer, too, of many other believing Christians, will be what follows after we deal with the apostate Catholics, first!
Now, the Roman Catholic answer -- as well as the original question above! - we've adapted from Insert M - 1 of The New Catholic Answer Bible, available from Sister Nora and her fellow St. Magdalene's Catholic Parish Charismatic Group, which meets on Mondays.
We'll give it a little later.
Preliminary note:
First, we'll check what the so -called American Catholic Church teaches on this subject from our 'ole buddy Dr. John J. Pilch in his book: Cultural Tools for Interpreting the Good News. Collegeville, Minnesota: The Order of St. Benedict, Inc. 2002.
Plus, to be sure!
Pilch's book has the usual rubber stamps of approval, including an Imprimatur by one John F. Kinney, Bishop of St. Cloud, Minnesota. April 8, 2002.
Pages 39 - 40.
"Jesus is moved to repentance by the preaching of John and submits to his baptism.
"Perhaps his manual labor was less than perfect, perhaps he cheated a customer, even if unintentionally.
"John was announcing forgiveness of sins using a word, forgiveness, which in peasant experience was always linked with forgiveness of debts.
"Even Jesus as an artisan could plausibly have need forgiveness of debts.
"At the same time, John's baptism inserted the candidate into a transformed community which John announces."
No doubt he [Jesus Christ!] also learned the basic skills of a Holy Man from John...
"No doubt he [Jesus Christ] also learned the basic skills of a Holy Man from John [the Baptist] an experienced, successful, and to judge by the crowds he attracted, highly respected Holy Man.
"Once initiated, the Holy Man becomes increasingly familiar with the adopting spirit [as in a Palo Mayombe Nganga??!! Cool! ] and the spirit world.
"Because God [Wow! So, Who -- or What! -- is He? :) ] and the spirit world are involved in this experience, anthropologists call it a religious trance.
"In the life of Jesus, these would include the testing (Mark 1:12 - 13); walking on the sea (Mark 6:45 - 52 ); the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2 - 28),
"For his followers, all experiences of the Risen Jesus are instances of religious trance.."
Part II will be the real deal Roman Catholic answer to this question:
"Why Does the Church Teach That Jesus Is God?"
See ya!
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