I’ll leave it to the scholars to work out. There’s a lot of debate over whether he ever claimed to be the “Son” of God but he did say that in the OT, God said “Have I not said, Ye are gods”. I go with the wisdom he taught, if someone says he’s a liar then that person doesn’t know, either.

And I’m not a scholar so only know what I’ve read and that Jesus was probably the wisest man to have existed. I could care less if he was the ‘one and only begotten son’. His teachings are all that truly mattered and that’s what I follow in my life.

And what you call “trendy” isn’t new (or “tired”) and is well-known to anyone who has actually studied the history of the Church. I have but that doesn’t make me a “scholar” so I don’t claim to be. I do know enough about the history of the Church to know it’s not what is taught in modern (or ancient) Christianity. And I know, from what Jesus said to a follower, that he would be appalled to learn that people worship him rather than God, since God the only one who is “good”, not Jesus. I’m not going to look up the book and verse but it’s there for anyone to see if that person actually reads to NT.

I guess I should at least add this:

"Cast not your pearls before swine because they'll trample them into the dirt then turn on you as well".

I assume, since you're so well-versed in the Bible, that you'll grasp what Jesus meant in that parable..

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