, Julie Ferwerda"]Is Jesus God?
Hey Westernlions,
I didn’t want to tackle this subject when all the other doctrines were crumbling, but God kept putting it in front of me. I ended up devoting about 2 months of daily study to the topic and looked at it from every angle I could (history, scripture, what other people have written). I came to the solid conclusion that the trinity is bogus and Jesus is not “the God.”
It’s so much to unravel but I’ll give you my conclusions and let you know of a resource or two that might be helpful. Beyond that, you can email me privately if you are interested and I will send you a compilation document of verses and thoughts I gathered during my study. Nothing official or even all that organized, but still worthwhile.
I have come to the conclusion that God is the Father from “out of” which the firstborn Son came (whenever I use quotes, this is literal translation from the Greek or Hebrew Scriptures). It is “out of” the Firstborn Son that all of the rest of mankind has been “generated.” Jesus never once claims to be “the God,” but only the “Son of God.” Paul says “yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom are all things and we exist for Him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through Him.” (1 Cor. 8:6).
Divinity is spoken of Jesus as “a god,” but I believe this is a divinity based on His being “out of God.” In fact, Jesus includes others as “gods.” Gods can be rulers or express divinity, without being blasphemous of claiming to be “the God.” Articles are very important in the Greek studies. Definite articles “the” indicate supremacy in speaking of “the God.” Whereas all of the places referring to Jesus or others as “gods” have the indefinite article “a.” For instance look at the article usage in this passage:
The Jews answered Him, “For a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be a god.” 34 Jesus answered them, "Has it not been written in your Law, I SAID, YOU ARE GODS'? 35 "If he called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), 36 do you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world,You are blaspheming,’ because I said, `I am the Son of God’? John 10:33-36
Anyhow, a couple great resources are:
When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome by Richard E. Rubenstein
When you look into it, pretty much every verse that is used to support the trinity can be debunked satisfactorily.
Julie
JulieFerwerda.com
OneMillionArrows.com 
I’m all for asking difficult questions, especially of mainstream Christianity who have obviously made some huge mistakes in regards to the nature of hell, the love of God, etc! I’m also personally aware how when we have such a paradigm shift of thinking in taking up Christian Universalism, we naturally need to reevaluate everything else we’ve been taught.
However, it seems we’re holding now holding very different positions on the divinity of Christ? 
As we’re both keen on seeking the truth (like the Bereans ) and believe the Bible is an important primary source, I’m really hoping she will be interested in wrestling with this a bit more with Jason Pratt (an Evangelical Universalist & Trinitarian Theologian). I think it would make for a worthwhile discussion.
Just so you know, I’ve been friends with Julie for a few months on FaceBook & like the fact she’s keen to engage with difficult questions, even when she persecuted for it. I also appreciate her accessible book on UR called Raising Hell, however, if she takes on Arianism (?) she puts herself outside orthodox Christianity & Evangelicalism, as far as I know 
THAT’S IT , now where did I leave my pitchfork 
.on a serious note and one which I was contemplating doing a post on is ‘‘universalists have an image problem’’ its hard enough to gain the attention needed for those inside traditionalism to give universalism [what I call ] a fair and unbiased hearing 
situations like this certainly don’t ‘‘help the cause’’ 
