Why do Christians become Christians?

[drfuzzy]

---

You're right... John has the lowest number of miracles, though it does include a few not mentioned in the other gospels.

I'm referring mainly to how the miracles are described (the shift from "the miracles occurred because the person being healed had faith", generally, to "they believed because of his miracles") and the claims of actual divinity (as opposed to inferences) which don't show up until the Gospel of John.

My reference to James wasn't about what the epistle was for, but how it referred to the legend of the Christ.

---

These are the things that lead me to believe that Jesus was a real person, a real teacher who developed a following, and that after his death the followers continued to expand on his legend until he went from "empowered by God" to actually being God. It's not a conspiracy theory, it's actual myth-building

---

... legends pop up for various reasons, and are winnowed back down into a congruent canon. That's why I gave the example of the Mormons, who went through the same process-- but in a time when record-keeping was better, and we can see the manipulation over time, as it occured. I am proposing that a similar thing happened with the early Christian church.

---

And, as we know, the "divinity" of Jesus wasn't officially decided until 325, with the Council of Nicaea, convened by Constantine.  The Council had to combat the growing "heresy" of Arianism, which stated that the Son of God came into existence at his birth, and was not truly eternal.  John is usually dated to 90-110, but there were multiple versions and revisions.  
    This is a part of the myth-building that now constantly amazes me - - that councils are convened to decide the nature of god, and what is right doctrine vs. what is wrong.  That's a long way away from the OT - god described as speaking directly to many people, pillars of fire, writing commandments, walking through the camp at night to protect his people.  Everything is a matter of debate by clergy, and god never shows up to weigh in on anything.