Leisa,
May I suggest that you read On the Incarnation, by St. Athanasius?
http://www.amazon.com/Incarnation-Saint-Athanasius/dp/1456546236/ref=tmm_pap_title_0
It's a classic--probably one of the most influential books ever written about Christian theology--and it will help you to understand why mainstream Christians believe what we do about Christ. It's a pretty quick and easy read, and it will go a long way toward helping you understand "the other side."
Thank you.
In this book it says:
"....But how was He to do it? .....and through His actions done in that body, as it were on their own level, He teaches those who would not learn by other means to know Himself, the Word of God, and through Him the Father."
This idea is repeated:
"[4] Men had turned from the contemplation of God above, and were looking for Him in the opposite direction, down among created things and things of sense. The Savior of us all, the Word of God, in His great love took to Himself a body and moved as Man among men, meeting their senses, so to speak, half way. He became Himself an object for the senses, so that those who were seeking God in sensible things might apprehend the Father through the works which He, the Word of God, did in the body."
This is not sensible to me because it is my understanding that if a person did not know the Father they would not know Jesus. Not, as this writer seems to imply, that they were unable to find God in the world, so God incarnated so that they were able to know what they could not previously know, or sense what they were previously unable to sense.
We know that many Jews did not recognize Jesus. Not because they were not able to meet him personally and have discussions with him, but because they didn't know the Father! (And yet these men were well versed in scripture).
I also disagree with him that the Word of God is a separate person from God the Father. But this is trinitarian theology and so therefore I reject it.
He is correct, in my opinion, when he says that God appears to be a man:
"(16) When, then, the minds of men had fallen finally to the level of sensible things, the Word submitted to
appear in a body, in order that He, as Man, might center their senses on Himself, and convince them through His human acts that He Himself is not man only but also God, .."
However, I disagree again that he proves himself to be God through "human acts", and I disagree that Jesus is both human and God.