Who is better, Jesus the god, or Jesus the man?

As some of you may know, I don't really consider myself religious. I'm mostly an agnostic who flits around between theist and atheist. That said, I really like some of the teachings of Jesus (I also like some of the teachings of the Buddha, but that is for a different day). I especially like what Jesus had to say about love, forgiveness and charity. Now, many Christians I have talked to have this view of a Jesus who is infallible. Jesus the perfect, godlike being who knows all. I never liked that Jesus. It especially annoys me when these Christians then say we should follow His example. How the heck can any of us do that? We are all flawed, ignorant, humans who constantly make mistakes. How can we even begin follow the example of an omnipotent, omniscient God?

No, I prefer the human Jesus. The Jesus who loses his temper with the money changers at the temple. The Jesus who is tempted by Satan. The Jesus who asks God to "take this cup from me" when he is about to be tortured to death. It is this Jesus whose example I would rather follow. The Jesus who gets angry, afraid and has doubts, yet still has the courage and will to do the right thing.

What Jesus do the rest of you prefer?

(Note to the antitheists, please don't hijack my thread with a bunch of "Religion is EVIL!" or "Jesus was not real!" comments. There are plenty of threads already about that.)

 

Well, it depends on what for. If I'm watching a movie of him, I might prefer one, if I want him to convey a perfect concept of morality, I might prefer another.

 

Jesus the myth!

 

I think one is dependent upon the other to represent the total purpose for Jesus. Looking at it from this perspective shows how difficult a challenge we have as humans to do God's will.

 

This is a very important question since Jesus was the son-of-man, but Christ was the son-of-God.

They represented two different concepts.
Jesus became the messiah ben Joseph, called the suffering messiah by the Jews.
But after Jesus was baptized by John, the spirit of God, in the form of Elijah came down and entered into Jesus, and he became The Christ.

Most people call the Greek word "metamorphosis" a Transfiguration, but it means that Christ left Jesus and joined back with Moses.
The son of man then was crucified.

 

Obviously it's impossible, a point I've made many a time. If Jesus is God, He was never tempted, and His exhortations to virtue are about as credible as the martial arts expertise of John Cleese in the old Monty Python skit where he's teaching self-defense against raspberry-wielding assailants.

 

many need to understand Jesus was NEVER a God or the GOD as in Father. Jesus said himself he is the “Son” of God, who was “sent”, by God ,(John 3:16). and I totally understand and agree what you're saying. one of the reason Jehovah sent him and made him to be a human. Was because it was a human who cost us our life, which he was created perfect ,Adam! But his disobedient brought imperfections to ALL humans, which also brought on dead. Jesus had to be a human, and do as HIS Father and God ,(John 20:17) , commanded. Jesus WAS “god-like” ,in the way he lived, and taught. And he did lived a perfect life unlike us. Meaning he didn't live his life as the world did in his time. And he taught his followers not to do the same ,(John 17:16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world).

He could have live as many christians today live ,straddling the fence. But he know doing this could have cause him to lose OUR lives, Since he was sent here to save us. And because Jesus WAS human, (on earth), he had the emotions and feelings of a human, He can get angry, and did! Because those men were cheating people and at his Father's house. We seen when his friend Lazarus died, Jesus cried. MANY don't believe Jesus though knowing what would soon have to happen. Can even become a little distressed, this is why GOD,(Jehovah Exo. 6:3), HIS Father, sent an Angel to comfort and strengthen him ,(Luke 22:41-43 And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed. Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him).

We see from MANY pictures of what Jesus suppose to look like. He and his Apostles. Dressed very well. With what man wants to believe wearing a “halo” over their or his heads, These pictures are so NOT true. Jesus was a modest man even in the way he lived. He didn't even have a home, so why would he even cared about the expense of his garments? Jesus was about his Father work, NOT the things of this world. he knew it wouldn't be here for long ,(Matt. 6:19-21). so I’m Glad Jesus was about being more like a human, then what he was in Heaven.
The example he gave us in which ways to walk. ISN'T hard for ANY human to do, unless they're about themselves and NOT the one they claim to worship, Jesus ,(Luke 9:23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me). peace

 

Interesting post. Thank you.

 

you seem pretty intimately acquainted with jesus the man. tell me, did he have s@x before he died? I'd hate to think he went to his pretend death a 33 year old virgin. Have you spent alot of time researching and wondering about jesus' 'personal' life? I expect you have, since the man was the sole representative on earth of an omni-everything god.

 

I"m confused. What does "the spirit of God, in the form of Elijah" mean? Did God turn into Elijah? Why didn't the spirit of God just enter Jesus, why take some other form first?

 

Some of the gnostic texts have more about Jesus's personal life, like when He was a kid, He and His friends made of bunch of clay animals which Jesus then brings to life.

 

there you are, y'see. I think that suff is important, and lends weight to his actual existence. but I'd stiil like to know if our fellow poster thinks he ever got to get some rumpy pumpy. I guess I'm trying to draw them on whether they prefer to pretend he was a virgin, and if so, why? We are talking about what would have been, then, a middle aged man.

 

In the Gospel of Phillip (another gnostic gospel) it says "And the companion of the savior is Mary Magdalene. The savior loved her more than all the disciples and used to kiss her often". Hmm...

 

In the Infancy Gospel of Thomas Jesus KILLS multiple people as a young person. No wonder the details of MOST, yes, MOST, of his time alive is not mentioned by the Bible (age 12 to 30, 18 years, that's MOST of his life.) If he is a murderer, that kind of messes up the whole fairy tale.

 

Yeah, but he brings them back to life again with the warning that you better not mess with Jesus!

 

It's much much easier to believe that a young person could KILL multiple people than to believe that a young murderer could magically, defying the laws of science, bring them "back to life" somehow, don't you agree?

 

Frodo rides on the back of a gigantic eagle, too.

 

I bet when you were a kid, you were the type that when two kids were arguing over whether Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny was better, you would tell them that they were idiots because everyone knows that it's really the parents that do it.

 

Not with young kids, but with adults who believe in something far far more insidious than Santa or some imaginary bunny, YES.
Can you answer the question in #16 that you passed up?

- - - Updated - - -

PROVE that Santa's not real. And prove that Zeus is not real.

 

Sorry, I missed that one.

It depends, in the gnostic gospels, Jesus kills the kids with magic, so I would say killing someone with magic and then bringing them back with said magic is equally unbelievable.

Prove there is not a floating tea cup in orbit around Mars. Come on, you know darn well you can't prove something DOESN'T exist.

You know, it is annoying when I ask people not to derail my thread because they don't believe but they refuse to pay heed.

 

It's 2015 and we are still having ridiculous superstitious debates about stuff like this.... lol

 

Good. We both agree that "prove that GOD doesn't exist is a silly demand that theists have of atheists", then.

No more derailing.

 

You can't prove that God doesn't exist though, because it's all in the Bible.

Kind of like how you can't prove that Spiderman doesn't exist, because it's all in my Spiderman comics. If you don't believe me, I'll cherry pick some quotes out of context to support my thesis for the existence of Spiderman.

 

What do we know about "Jesus the God" such that we can make a comparison ?

Do we claim that Jesus is the God of Abraham or that he is divine. One of the reasons that I can not accept that Jesus was the God of Abraham is precisely because the two are so markedly different and contradictory.

 

You bring up Elijah: in 1 Kings 18:40 Elijah had all, repeat all, 450 prophets (not warrriors, prophets) slaughtered....not a nice guy. So much for the Bible being about love - it's not, it's about hatred. Brutal like Moses and Mohammad, etc.
If there had been 6 million prophets, he probably would have killed all of them as well.....making him about as moral as, well you know.

Then Elijah commanded, “Seize all the prophets of Baal. Don’t let a single one escape!” So the people seized them all, and Elijah took them down to the Kishon Valley and killed them there. - 1 Kings 18:40 New Living Translation (NLT)