Well, I don't know that I would actually call Christians polytheists, but I confess I have read all of the New Testament, a number of the Church Fathers, accounts of the early councils at Nicaea and elsewhere, and some of the medieval theologians (Aquinas, Abelard, John of Salisbury, etc.) and I still don't understand how the trinity can really work. My issue is not with the Father or the Holy Spirit, or with the notion of God having different aspects-- after all, Kabbalah talks about the Ten Sefirot representing a number of different aspects or emanations of the One God, I get that. My issue is with Jesus Christ. First and foremost there is the mathematical problem that will pointed out-- how can he be 100% God and 100% human at once? Moreover, how is he fully human if he is incapable of sin? What kind of human is incapable of sin? But regardless, how can the Infinite compact itself into the most finite form of a human being?
I just can't understand how the Omnipresent could consolidate himself into one place completely (Jesus was 100% God), and yet remain in separate existence outside that one place (Jesus prayed to the Father), and to whom he, Jesus, appears to be subservient ("Father, let this cup pass from me."), even though being 100% God, he should be equal to the Father, who is also himself.....
I have other issues with a theology that has God condemning all human beings forever because of two people's sin-- if sin it was-- in such a way that no one could ever redeem themselves, but God would demand a human sacrifice that only he himself could be.... But this probably isn't the time or place to get into them....
I am also, of course, aware that my incomprehension and theological problems with Christianity might simply stem from the fact that I am not a Christian-- which I freely admit leaves me with little if any right to critique their beliefs.
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Originally Posted by ratbastid
If you want to really talk about the closest Jews have to a saint or "sub-god", by the way, it's not Moses. You gotta go Elijah.
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Elijah's not anything like a "sub-god," dude. I admit, he's a little troubling, being a uniquely liminal figure. But he's more like an angel, if anything. Do I find the idea of a human being getting transfigured into an angel theologically problematic? Yeah, actually, I do-- I have the same problem with the Metatron, to be honest. But Elijah's transfiguration to an angel is not a universal dogma of Judaism. Most Jews believe to one degree or another that Elijah's a liminal figure who has a special nature not like other people's, but not all, and the notion of Elijah becoming Sandalfon is really limited to certain schools of Kabbalistic thought....
In any case, Elijah is very popular these days, but other figures have gone through their vogues: Abraham and the other Patriarchs, David, Samuel, Rabbi Shimon ben Yochai, Rabbi Akiva.... They're all probably closer to Christian saints than anything else, although Judaism has never really had any notion of "intercession" per se. But nothing like "sub-gods," any of them....