When it comes to the relationship between God and mankind, and the Jews in particular, I can't help but shake the feeling that there was an issue of miscommunication that prevented the Jews from accepting Jesus as the Messiah. First of all, the Jewish Scriptures never (clearly?) mentioned anything about a Second Coming of The Messiah. Secondly, the Old Testament prophecies mentioned that the Messiah would do things that Jesus did not do during His first coming (e.g. bring all the Jews back to their land, revive the dead, bring peace on Earth). Thirdly, I don't think that the Old Testament scholars from Jesus' time knew about God being a Trinity (I might be mistaken about this, but they didn't seem to act as if they knew). Fourthly, Deuteronomy mentioned that God might test the Jews by sending them false prophets who would even be able to perform miracles, so in light of that warning from their Scriptures, why did Jesus (who was God incarnate) blame them for doubting that He is The Son of God? I mean, sure, He performed miracles, but so did many other sorcerers of the time, so why were the people who showed skepticism in regards to Jesus accused of an unforgivable sin? All things considered, do you think that God made Jesus' ministry a bit confusing, and if yes, did He do it on purpose?
Can you provide Scripture on the part I colored red? How confusing would it be if it turns out the Jehova witnesses or Mormons have been right after all and if it is God's fault that we called them heretics.
Nothing suggests that God is sending the false prophets.." God uses all sorts of evil we bring on ourselves to test our responses
Pharisees made that same, fatal error in relegating the clear manifesting of the Holy Spirit through Christ's miracles to false, demonic divination.
I've been watching 'The Good Place' (Netflix), and one of the characters mentions to another that they left them 1,200 clues to act in a particular way, but that the character had only understood 4. The problem isn't that God is confusing, it's that we're limited, and much, much more than we think we are. That confusion would result is understandable: revelation is 'basically' divine translation into a form humans can grasp, and maybe understand. We're just thick, for all our brilliance.
Not at all. If I, being a non-educated mostly ignorant of God's word understand it, how could the Jews, especially the Pharisees, not understand it.
Simply not a possibility. Your statement betrays a flicker of uncertainty in regards to the clear revelation of the full Deity of Christ.
That's what I believe also. But you can't be 100% sure. Same answer. I believe in the Trinity because it's obvious from the Scriptures. Can I be 100% sure? No. But I believe it. My comment to the OP perhaps can be better understood with a similar question, what if you and I had been born in a Muslim country educated in Islam, what would be the probable outcome, Christian or Muslim? I am in agreement what Ath said about our limitations and thickheadedness.
We can't be 100% certain about most things, so that standard is usually too high, but we can be as certain as we possibly could be, and I think we all are regarding the JWs and Mormons.
That's not really an argument, as there could always be personal revelation granted to various people. Why do I, also being non-educated and mostly ignorant of God's word, don't understand it?
Yes, you are right, I should have formulated my comment better and added "are right on some points after all.
I'm with the OP. This is a legitimate question. Why all the hints and riddles? Why isn't the bible explicit? "God will come down as a man and die for the sins of mankind?"