The apostle Paul famously says,
...for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. (1 Corinthians 8:6)
Is this passage a radical transformation of, or a redefinition of Jewish monotheism? Is it an insertion of Jesus into the Shema confession, that "The LORD is our God, the LORD alone"? In this way, is Paul saying that Jesus is God himself, Yahweh, or that he is "in the divine identity," or at any rate that Jesus is divine? Is there, in short, some trinitarian juice that can be squeezed from this orange?
Unitarian Christians don't think so. In fact, this is one of their favorite verses, even suitable for a book title. Why?
Clearly, at least one side here is quite mistaken. In this episode, we hear from proponents of each side. In the next, we'll try to weigh their arguments.
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Books and videos quoted or mentioned in this episode, in order:
* Patrick Navas's Divine Truth or Human Tradition.
* William Christie's Dissertations on the Unity of God. (And his later Discourses on the Divine Unity.)
* Dr. James Dunn's Christology in the Making.
* Dr. Gordon Fee's Pauline Christology