Jesus never claimed to be God.

Please let us not allow our debate to be stale. I will address each and every point that you make so I kindly request that you offer me the same courtesy. In round two I explained to you why Jesus saying "Before Abraham was I am" cannot be given as evidence of Jesus claiming to be God. You must either concede that it is not clear evidence of Jesus claiming to be God or provide a counter argument ideally based on Biblical evidence to my explanation. If you do not do this then it appears that you are not paying attention and engaging with my arguments and therefore our debate will be stale and meaningless. Let me make it clear that I am approaching this debate with the belief that the Bible is true however it cannot always be taken literally, it is often misinterpreted and in some places mistranslated. If I did not think that it was based on truth then our debate would be rendered pointless. I will address all of your points individually. 1) In John 14:9 Jesus says, "Don"t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, "Show us the Father"? " If we read the following verse (John 14:10) then it becomes clear that Jesus is not saying that he is God, he claims no ownership over what he says and does, he clarifies that it is not from him but from God. 'Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak NOT OF MYSELF: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. ' 2) I have previously refuted this point in round two. 3) Isaiah and many others preceding Jesus also referred to God as their Father yet we do not see this as an indication of any of them being divine and equating themselves with God. 'But now, O LORD, thou art our father' (Isaiah 64:8) 'Doubtless thou art our father, though Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not: thou, O LORD, art our father, our redeemer; thy name is from everlasting. ' (Isaiah 63:16) 'Thou shalt call me, My father; and shalt not turn away from me. ' (Jeremiah 3:19) 4-5) When the disciples received the Holy Spirit they had the right, the absolute authority to forgive the sins of anyone; "Receive ye the Holy Ghost: Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained. " John 20:22-23 It is made clear that the disciple"s authority to forgive anyone"s sins is accredited to by their receiving of the Holy Spirit. It is the presence of the Holy Spirit forgiving the sins of anyone. God had invested his Holy Spirit in Jesus in John chapter 1 verse 32 to 33; "And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost". God"s spirit descended and remained in Jesus without measure; "For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. " John 3:34 The Bible does not read that Jesus had the power to forgive sin because he was God. Jesus was not assuming the place and role of the entire Temple sacrificial system authorized by God, it is the Spirit of God invested in him that forgave the sinners. Jesus did not think of himself in God's appropriate place if it is by the Spirit of God that the forgiveness takes place. Jesus cannot be a broker between man and God for forgiveness when the very Spirit of God abides in him without limits. The teachers of the law knew that the scriptures stated that only God can forgive sin making it blasphemous for a man to forgive sin but the Bible reads that Jesus was neither blaspheming nor claiming divinity as he attributed his power to forgive sin to God not to himself. "Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. " John 17:7 The teachers of the law did not think that Jesus ought to have the power to forgive sin but there is no reason to believe that they accused him of claiming to be God. The huge crowd of witnesses to Jesus forgiving sin did not result in them believing that Jesus was God; on the contrary the Bible reads that it was God that gave Jesus the power; that is at least what the crowed were lead to believed; 'But when the multitudes saw it, they marvelled, and glorified God, which had given such power unto men. ' Matthew 9:8 6) The doctrine of the trinity is not found in the Bible. There is no Biblical evidence for its existence whatsoever. If you want to use the trinity as prove of Jesus being God then you need to provide clear Biblical evidence of it being defined. I will give you clear Biblical evidence that only the Creator is God and believing that anything or anyone else could be God is pagan and is breaking Gods first commandment. Old Testament 1. "there is no one like Yahweh our God. " Exodus 8:10 2. "Yahweh, He is God; there is no other besides Him. " Deuteronomy 4:35 3. Yahweh, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other. " Deuteronomy 4:39 4. "Hear, O Israel! Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one [echad]! " Deuteronomy 6:4 5. Yahweh is God; there is no one else. " 1 Kings 8:60 6. "You alone are Yahweh. " Nehemiah 9:6 7. "Before Me there was no God formed, And there will be none after Me. " Isaiah 43:10 8. "I am Yahweh, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God. " Isaiah 45:5 9. "I am Yahweh, and there is none else. " Isaiah 45:18 10. "Is it not I, Yahweh? And there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Saviour; There is none except Me. " Isaiah 45:21 New Testament 1. 'Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is one Lord; " Mark 12:29 2. "you do not seek the glory that is from the one and only God? " John 5:44 3. "For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus," 1 Timothy 2:5 4. "You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. " James 2:19 R1) Mark 14:53-65 Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One? " "I am," said Jesus. "You write, 'Jesus claimed to be God right there. He didn't even just say "yes. " He said "I am" as in "I am God. "'The high priest did not ask him "are you God" and Jesus said "I am". That is not how the conversation went at all. The high priest asked him "Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One? ". The Gospel of Mark states that Jesus confirmed that he was the son of God and the messiah, not that he was God. In the Gospel of Mark he is documented as confirming this by saying "I am". In the Gospel of Matthew he is accused of being 'the Christ, the Son of God', Jesus confirms that he is by saying, "Thou hast said". In the Gospel of Luke Jesus is asked, Art thou then the Son of God? He confirms this by saying, 'Ye say that I am. ' As you can see he is not documented as saying 'I am' in all of the Gospels and as I pointed out to you in round two it makes no sense concluding from Jesus saying 'I am' that he is claiming to be God. The Bible does not state that being the Messiah and/or the son of God is the same as being God. The messianic expectations were not that the Messiah would be God. The Bible teaches us that it is not possible for any man to be God - ' God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, (Numbers 23:19) 'for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of thee:' (Hosea 11:9) In order for you to believe that Jesus is God then it is you that must believe that certain parts of the Bible are untrue, like extremely important verses that disagree with your personal belief about Jesus being God. If you want to follow the teachings of Jesus then listen to what HE ACTUALLY SAYS. 'If I honour myself, my honour is nothing: it is my Father that honoureth me; of whom ye say, that he is your God:' John 8:54 "Most assuredly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master; nor is he who is sent greater than he who sent him. " (John 13:16) "For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. " John 12:49 "for my Father is greater than I" (John 14:18) "My Father is greater than all". (John 10:29) And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God. (Luke 18:19) But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God (John 8:40) "Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment. There is none other commandment greater than these. And the scribe said unto him, Well, Master, thou hast said the truth: for there is one God; and there is none other but he:" When you take the time to study what Jesus said it becomes irrefutably clear that he never equates himself with God. I look forward to your response, many thanks.