Quote:
Originally Posted by photon
that's a lot of Christians who apparently weren't really Christians (including Paul I guess?).
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I wouldn't say they weren't Christians, because clearly they believed in Christ. Maybe proto-Christians would be a better term. But those very earliest converts and believers brought with them a lot of theological "baggage" from their own backgrounds, interpreting and understanding in faith the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus in light of that background. So there wasn't one unified or consistent theology until later, when the Church leaders started putting some serious effort into developing it.
But I can tell, from going back and reading your posts that you already know this - I'm not arguing with you (I don't even disagree with you I don't think).
Do you know, by the way, of any Christian denominations that don't believe in the virgin birth? I can't think of any offhand. The reason I say that is that I don't know of any other Christian explanations of Jesus' divinity.