On being a Christian, I believe that, before a person can be a good Christian, he/she must first hold to the most fundamental principle of Judaism: Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is one: beside him there is no other!
The contribution of Judaism was/is monotheism. As a Christian, unless I want to descend into polytheism, I must have my Christology, my theology of Christ, controlled by the monotheism of Judaism. When we sort out the Spirit of God from God, add Jesus Christ as the begotten of the Spirit of God, extend our worship to the mother and the grandmother of Jesus, and then add saints as objects of adoration and recipients of prayer, we certainly take on the appearance, if not the reality, of polytheism--don't we? And I have not yet mentioned Satan.
I don't mean to imply by the use of the word "reality" that there is any reality to polytheism. There isn't. God is one, and there is no other. Not of wood. Not of stone. Not of silver. Not of gold. God is spirit. And as the Holy Spirit, he gave life to Jesus and indwelt him. What does that mean?
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