Thanks paulchen for your comments. There are so many, I’m not sure I can respond to them all. But overall, I’m wondering what you are trying to say about Jesus. That he is distinct from God the Father goes without saying. That he is in his own person God, seems to be a point of agreement between us.

The various verses quoted from Hebrews 1 seem to me to be saying that Jesus is God just as God (the Father) is God. I don’t think we should be confused just because the kind of distinctions between them used elsewhere are not filled in. ‘God’ and ‘God’ in Hebrews 1:9 are not necessarily one and the same.

That Jesus speaks of himself as God in John 8 seems to me implied in his final statement - John 8:59, but also in various things he says in the dialogue before that (he is to God as the Pharisees claim thay are to Abraham; he gives life etc). You would need to read the threads to see all that has been said (so far) on John 8. (Is Jesus God Almighty?)

In Colossians 1:16, who else can be creator other than God?

Not all the references include the Holy Spirit as part of this picture of God; eg 1 Corinthians 8:6, Philippians 2:6-11 and Colossians 1:15ff only speak of God (the father) and Jesus. But the ‘trinitarian’ verses mentioned do include the Holy Spirit.

So we seem to be led towards a trinitarian position.

However, I come back to your posts, and wonder again - what is your own view? If Jesus is (to you) divine, how then do you see him?

I mentioned the 3rd & 4th century viewpoints simply to suggest that later periods bring to Jesus ways of seeing him that were not in the minds of the New Testament authors. To me, it is an interesting exercise to ask what the NT authors were trying to do. By looking at that, and comparing with our own inherited ideas of the gospel, we might find the differences instructive, and helpful, in developing an approach which might address the needs and mood of our time more effectively.

I’m not personally interested in ‘emerging church’, and an ‘emerging theology’ for its own sake, and actually do not wish to throw away the wisdom of any age since the 1st century. I think it’s always a good time to ask whether we understand things quite the way they were presented in NT times. I think we always need to ask how the faith is packaged and communicated so that it is best received and understood by the culture of the age in which it is presented. (We also need to ask what the nature of ‘the faith’ is).

I’m at heart conservative, but wanting to ask all the time whether we have got things right. So if someone comes with a different theology, I want to ask whether it stands up to close investigation. There is no excuse for believing something just because it is ‘new’, or more ‘relevant’, if when you look at it carefully, it doesn’t hold together.

However, if something comes along which is both saying something new, and seems to hold together, I am interested. That’s why I’m interested in the work of N.T.Wright - who, I think, is playing a part in bringing about a genuinely new slant on biblical theology, and bringing into question things which people like myself just take for granted as true.

I’m sorry this doesn’t answer all your points in detail - but I’ll try to bring some more responses if there seems to be more that I can say.

Meanwhile, I wonder how you see things.