"I and the Father are one" seems to be a pretty clear God claim (John 10:30). If they are one, then he was part of the creation.

A God who can be one of us yet infinitely more complex than us is necessarily hard for us to comprehend. Our inability to fathom the infinite has no bearing on its truth or falsehood. Our limitations necessitate taking some things on faith--not blindly, but humbly. A God we can fully comprehend is no God at all.

Regarding the phrase/name "I AM," you are onto something *super* important, so bear with me on this longish reply.

"I AM" is the holy name of God, revealed in the book of Exodus to Moses at the burning bush when he asks, "who shall I say sent me," God answers with the name "I AM WHO AM," or simply "I AM." This holy name is written in the Hebrew with four letters known as the tetragrammaton, YHVH, often transliterated into english as "Yahweh."

This holy name was NEVER spoken aloud except once a year by the high priest in the Holy of Holies in the temple on the Day of Atonement. The name was so carefully guarded that today we do not even know how it is truly pronounced because we only have the Hebrew consonants (written Hebrew does not include vowels, and ancient Hebrew was a dead language so the oral tradition of its pronunciation was lost after the end of the temple priesthood).

Jews of today use the word "Adonai" or "Lord" to speak aloud passages or even prayers that contain or address God to protect his sacred name from being misused.

It was an *unthinkable* blasphemy for *anyone* to speak this name aloud let alone *claim to BE this name* which is precisely what Jesus did.

Our oldest copies of the New Testament are written in Greek, not Hebrew, so we have to look carefully at how they are written to determine what Jesus actually said. There is an excellent article at this link that breaks down all the passages where Jesus says, "I am," in the New Testament. The first section is very helpful to pull out those where he specifically says "ego eimi" which is emphatic and absolute.

http://catholic-resources.org/John/Themes-IAM.htm

We can look at the reactions of the people he is talking to and see that he must have spoken the *actual sacred name* in at least some of these instances:

In the Garden of Gethsemane, when Judas brings the soldiers to arrest Jesus in John 18:3-6 (caps are my emphasis):

So Judas, procuring a band of soldiers and some officers from the chief priests and the Pharisees, wen there with lanterns and torches and weapons. Then Jesus, knowing all that was to befall him, came forward and said to them, "Whom do you seek?" They answered him, "Jesus of Nazareth." Jesus said to them, "I AM." Judas, who betrayed him, was standing with them. When he said to them, "I AM," they DREW BACK AND FELL TO THE GROUND.

Why would the officers of the chief priests fall to the ground if Jesus was only saying, yes, I am the person you are looking for?

And when Jesus is brought before the Sanhedrin and questioned by the high priest and elders of the Jews in Mark 14:61-63:

But he was silent and made no answer. Again the high priest asked him, "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" And Jesus said, "I AM; and you will see the Son of man seated at the right hand of Power, and coming with the clouds of heaven. And the high priest TORE HIS GARMENTS, and said, "Why do we still need witnesses?"

The tearing of clothing is seen throughout the Bible as a physical expression of grief or indignation in the face of grave sin, in this case blasphemy in the first degree.

This is just a small sampling of what you can discover of Jesus' divinity by simply following the thread the of divine name through the whole Bible. You are on the scent of Truth!
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Regarding praying the "Our Father," Jesus did not tell us to pray out loud the holy name of God, YHVH, so it was not blasphemy in that sense. It was audacious to the people of his time because he was teaching that the almighty God of the universe has an intimate, familial, in fact, Fatherly relationship to us. This is old news to us now, but at the time it was absolutely mind-shattering. Many reacted violently against this notion.

But again, if we look at the very first revelation of God's intimate nature to humans at the burning bush with Moses, God says that the people (Israel/Jews) will be his first born children (an intimate familial relationship). And as with all revelation from God, this beautiful notion would unfold over time into a fuller and fuller understanding.
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These are the kinds of threads that if you honestly study and follow them with an open heart will unlock faith and understanding of God's nature and love for us and all that he offers us.

I hope this helps shed some light!

Leila,

Since Obama won the majority of the Catholic vote in both 2008 and 2012, I doubt if we can draw the political and religious fault lines quite as precisely as you seem to imply.

And I doubt that Joe Biden or Nancy Pelosi (who both continue to be eligible for communion as far as I know) would have any problem fitting in at one of those parties!

Of course it's your website and you are entitled to post what you like.

Christians have the added problem that Evolution has made the Adam & Eve story of Genesis impossible, so no Original Sin and thus no need for a redeemer.

TheGreek is actually in John 8:58 is "ego eimi". "I AM",the first person present tense of the verb to be, so Leila Miller's quote id accurate while I was is not true to the literal text.

Thanks, Quanah, this is something I've been struggling with (I'm Catholic) but haven't been able to articulate. I've been searching for the proper word and I think transformation is it. Often I'm caught between the notion of conjuring, i.e., asking religion to do something for you...manipulating God or nature through prayer and the Christian notion of grace which somehow isn't manipulation, and isn't a guarantee or anything, but helps in someway, but is not necessarily perceptible, but we trust that something happens, but it's not the same as conjuring, etc. We are transformed but to expect something perceptible is asking too much and Truth is Truth regardless of whether we think we're transformed....sigh it's too much sometimes. That's a lot of gobbledygook I know....

Well, Mark--seems this would only hold true if one really believed that *Catholics* believe that "those in special need" are *also* "in league with the devil." As a Catholic, I'm pretty sure we don't believe that all those in special need are Satanists... :-)