[cheekopekman]

For me it doesn't matter whether the sentence is written in the active voice (I forgive your sins) or in the passive voice (Your sins are forgiven {by Me}), there's no denying that Jesus is the Great Forgiver of humanity's sins, and is deserving of our praise and worship.

I've posted some scriptural passages attesting to the divinity of Christ but you chose to ignore them and you kept harping instead on the ambiguous wording of that prayerful John 17:3 verse in your vain attempt to disprove His divinity. There are more of such verses which I'll post from time to time.

Your thoughts articulated in your second paragraph is a bit muddled, esp the part where you say Christians sided with the Pharisees who accused Jesus of claiming to be God. Let me put my thoughts articulately into the debate between the Pharisees and Jesus about the significance of the Old Testament patriarch Abraham who was the father of the Israelite nation.

The Pharisees were convinced that all was right between them and God because they were physical descendants of Abraham. But Jesus burst their bubble by insisting that a person must be a spiritual descendant of Abraham by demonstrating the same obedience to God that Abraham did. "Surely You are not greater than our father Abraham, who died? the Pharisees asked (John 8:53). Jesus's answer sent them reeling, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day, and he saw it and was glad" (v 56).

Now the Pharisees were utterly confused, "Abraham has been dead for almost two thousands years, and you aren't even fifty years. Yet you are claiming to have seen Abraham? How could that be? Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am" (v 58). Jesus wasn't only claiming to have lived prior to Abraham, but by using the phrase "I am" Jesus was making the ultimate declaration that He was in fact the God the Pharisees professed to love and worship.

Jesus's use of "I am" to describe His relationship with Abraham was not lost on the Pharisees, as shown by their violent reaction: Therefore they picked up stones to throw at Him (John 8:59). With just two little words, Jesus was making the grandest pronouncement about Himself: "I am God."

Another example of Jesus claiming to be the one and only God of the OT was during His trial prior to His crucifixion. The high priest Caiaphas asked Jesus: "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One? (Mark 14:61). Jesus answered with the two words: "I am" (v 62). To drive His point home (as well as drive His accusers crazy), He quoted a passage from the book of Daniel: "And you shall see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming with clouds of heaven (Mark 14:62).

Of course, anyone can claim to be God, and your stock reply would be "A beggar claimed to be I am." The thing is, none of the other founders of major world religions ever did or ever linked someone's eternal well-being to their belief in that founder. But Jesus did. Even the Pharisees who worshiped the one true God, Yahweh, and attempted to follow His laws were not exempted from Jesus's condition for salvation: "Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins" (John 8:24)

I'm a busy bee with many calls on my time, and so I don't have the luxury of time to discourse lengthily. After quietening down at night, I'll take a moment to read the postings before chiming in with my opinions. I hit the sack in the dead of the night.

Busy people no time for such meaningless arguments and debates lah!  No end no finish one leh!