Well the entire bible is gods/jesus word so if you believe in jesus but not his word you are essentially saying jesus is a liar. And if you don't believe in word of god then you dont really believe in him.
Since his identity is tied to his word.
Jesus is the Word made flesh
John 1:1, 14
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, can we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Thats how it works you can't cherry pick the bible its either all true or none of it is. You are just window shopping based on what you like to hear.
I was very careful with the wording I used, I explicitly said 'I believe that Jesus existed' instead of 'I believe in Jesus'. I repeated it many times. Yet you still write this:
Quote
if you believe in jesus
I patiently explained my position numerous times. I explained that there is some overlap but that I don't fully subscribe to Christian doctrine. There isn't anything unusual with that, as actually many people think that way.
Quote
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, can we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
This line refers to God's word (which could also be interpreted as 'thought') becoming reality. Like, when He said 'Let there be light, and there was light'. It describes how God's word/dreams/thoughts turn into reality. That's what it refers to.
Yes, I can believe that Jesus existed (newsflash, most of historians also do, and many of them aren't Christian). Yes, I can agree with lines like:
"Do to others as you would have them do to you."
"Love your neighbor."
etc.
That doesn't mean I have to agree with every verse from the Bible (well if you are a Christian, then it's a different story, but I already explained I don't see myself in that regard).
Imagine a person who has never even heard of Christianity, yet still he believes that one should love his neighbors and treat others as you would want them to treat you, and his core belief sometimes overlap with Christianity.
Now do you think you could actually go to him and say 'You can only believe that IF you also believe everything else in the Bible (that you have never even heard of), otherwise you cannot believe that'
?
Do you realize how ridiculous that would be? That is what you are doing to me.
Without meaning to be disrespectful, you'll have to excuse me, but I have to drop out of this conversation. I can't spend even more time explaining the difference between 'believing in Jesus' and 'believing that Jesus existed'. Tbh, I don't have that much free time anyway, and this takes more time than I thought it would.
This post was edited by kin198989 on Jan 19 2026 07:03am