I am not going to respond to any more of your false accusations. — Fooloso4
So, you’re finally conceding defeat. I could have told you that from the start. Christianity is a tremendous force in this world and it is rather ridiculous for any one person to presume to defeat it. It just won’t happen.
The fact is that Christian tradition acknowledges several levels of scriptural interpretation:
“For as man consists of body, and soul, and spirit, so in the same way does Scripture.” - Origen
Such levels are (1) somatic/literal, (2) psychic/ethic and (3) pneumatic (spiritual)/allegorical. There are others but they can only be learned from a qualified teacher.
So, of course, seen in this light, “Son of God” can have more than one meaning. That was precisely what I explained to you in my previous post which you chose to ignore and put a spin on it to “prove” your point. Kings David and Solomon were “Sons of God” in the sense of “appointed as representatives of God”, whereas Jesus was the Son of God in the sense of “brought into being” as well as “appointed to a certain position or mission”.
“Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds …” Hebrews 1:2
Jesus himself spoke in parables and for a very good reason which he himself explains by the parable of the sower and the seeds of which some are eaten by birds, others fall on barren soil and others on good soil. The seeds symbolize the words of a spiritual teacher.
By the way, this is why true Christianity is totally against forced conversion. Forced conversion is morally wrong and does not lead to salvation. True Christians lead by example. In the early years of Christianity Pagans converted because they were impressed by the Christians’ moral conduct.
Anyway, you need to remember that the whole point of Christianity is to expand our mind and elevate it to higher levels of experience that eventually lead to salvation. If you stubbornly cling on to ”history” you stay stuck at the somatic/literal level that doesn’t get you anywhere. You get bored, disappointed, frustrated, angry and give up. You might even turn against Christianity and attack those who believe in it. And all this just because of your inability to understand.
The identity of Jesus as a spiritual or divine being is absolutely crucial to the correct understanding of Christian teachings. This is why the Gospels give no physical description of Jesus (and why it is wrong to refer to him as "Jewish rabbi"). The only time he is described in the Gospels is when Jesus and some of his disciples ascend a mountain, the Mountain of Transfiguration, and on reaching the top Jesus’s face “was shining as the sun, and his garments became white as the light” (Matthew 17:20).
This scene actually encapsulates what Christianity is about
at its core: the ascent of the soul to higher planes of experience and its transformation into a spiritual being of light.
The symbolism of light is central to Christian teachings:
Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
And because God is light, the light of truth, order and justice, to love God in the literal sense means to obey his law and carry out his will, whilst in a higher sense it means to love him as spiritual light, as the light of intelligence, of wisdom, and of life. On that higher level we embrace that light and welcome it into our life that it may lift us up and take us out of darkness.
This is why love of God necessarily takes precedence over love of our neighbour and spiritual concerns take precedence over material ones.
“Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness” – Matthew 6: 31-33
Obviously, people do care about those things to some extent, but the way I see it they are not the primary concern in philosophy in general and in Christian (or Platonic) tradition in particular.
In any case, if we want to interpret Christianity correctly, we must interpret it in a way that is consistent with its own teachings, not according to neo-Marxist theories of historical materialism and relativism.