Biblical illiteracy

[Tonus]

Speaking of Biblical literacy, I think that Christians are especially hazy on the numerous 'Jesus is God' bits, which is the core and one of the most essential concepts for Christians to understand.

I think that issue is a good example of the difficulty in reaching a consensus on a book that is so open to interpretation. Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus and god (Jehovah) are two distinctly separate beings and that the Holy Spirit is not a person at all, but "god's active force." Which is one of those things that defies a clear definition, IMO. Still, they can provide a fair number of Biblical texts and build an explanation that seems quite convincing. The only problem they run into is any passage which speaks of Jesus and god 'being one' or a similar sentiment, which they simply wave off with "that's not really what he meant" or "that is a misunderstanding or mistranslation or misinterpretation" of scripture.

I often found that people who believed differently could provide a similarly convincing explanation (with corroborating texts) to support the idea that Jesus was god, and they could also dismiss a lot of seeming contrary evidence via the misunderstood, mistranslated, or misinterpreted claim. There simply is no way to determine with absolute certainty that one view or the other is the correct one, though the people who hold to one belief or the other insist that they are absolutely certain.