Steve Ray has a list of more than 35 loaded Questions for "Bible Christians" (quotation marks his)(link to the whole list). I originally planned to respond to just 35 of them, but the series seems to have been of interest, so in this extension, I'm responding to three more numbered questions in his list, plus fourteen "bonus questions" that take the form "Where does the Bible say ... ." I'm trying to provide the answers in the same common format as the original series, for easy reference. This is number 14/17.
Where does the Bible . . .
. . . .tell us Jesus Christ was both fully God and fully man from the moment of conception (e.g. how do we know His Divinity wasn't infused later in His life?) and/or tells us Jesus Christ is One Person with two complete natures, human and Divine and not some other combination of the two natures (i.e., one or both being less than complete)?
Simple Answer(s):
1) We know that Jesus was the Lord in his mother's womb at least from this verse:
Luke 1:43 And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
2) We also know that Jesus was conceived by the power of the Holy Ghost by this verses:
Luke 1:35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.
3) The same verse above tells us that Jesus is God ("the Son of God") and another verse in the immediate context also shows that Jesus is both man ("the son of his father David") and God ("Son of the Highest"):
Luke 1:32 He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David:
Important Qualification(s):
There are many treatises that examine this important Scriptural doctrine in much greater depth, especially those by Athanasius and the men of his generation, the generation before him, and the generations immediately following him. I've tried to give a simple and concise answer, but many writers from ancient times down to modern times, have given much greater and more comprehensive exegeses of Scripture to thoroughly demonstrate this same truth.
Another verse pair I could have included above, and perhaps should have, is the following:
Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Matthew 1:23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.
The reason for this name is that Jesus was not just a child (a human) but also God. He was really both things, not a hybrid, but God and man in two distinct natures and one person.
- TurretinFan
Friday, February 26, 2010
3 comments:
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How about John 1?
ReplyDelete"In the beginning was the Word... and the Word was God.... And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us."
It's a good verse that shows that Jesus was both the Word and Flesh. It is less focused on the timing relative to Jesus' conception, but certainly a good verse for the second part of the question.
ReplyDeleteAgain, when summing up these questions in toto, each time, especially as each one is put forth and not responded too, it leaves one to doubt the Faith once delivered to the Saints.
ReplyDeleteWhat does the Scripture teach? Our salvation comes to us by the powerful Gifts of God. So that is what, it seems to me, these questions go towards undermining; our vital Faith.
It makes sense to me that this approach is also used; and equally as dangerous, as all other methods employed, by the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who works in the "children of disobedience" to attack and undermine the Righteous.
Those created, coming from the Heart of God, foreknown and predestined, shouldn't be surprised then, at the variety of methods that come at us to discourage us and isolate us from True Fellowship and Communion with God and the Saints. The Gift is "Eternal Life" that saves us. You can see from these questions that their source is from where all evil comes?
God has testified in various places that the "Just" shall live by Faith. And anyone who dishonors one who does, brings upon themself a curse.
Now, I do not believe anyone so naive would run headlong into such reality as to desire that curse from God?
It would be blantant as wickedness is that a human would so run headlong?
Pro 12:5 The thoughts of the righteous are just; the counsels of the wicked are deceitful.
Pro 12:6 The words of the wicked lie in wait for blood, but the mouth of the upright delivers them.
Pro 12:7 The wicked are overthrown and are no more, but the house of the righteous will stand.
But to the point of Abraham and his directed offering up of his miracle son, Isaac, then. What happened and what did Abraham see? He saw the coming of Christ when he was offering up Isaac. Christ, the True offering of worship by the sacrifice offering is the revelation given to Abraham when he was asked to make his son the worship offering. During that, God provided him a "fully grown" ram, [caught in the thicket] thus giving him a sense of what was coming upon all "his" posterity, us, who walk by Faith and not by sight.
Here's another "work" of Righteousness, found as a witness to the Faith once delivered to the Saints come from the loins of Abraham:::>
1Sa 17:45 Then David said to the Philistine, "You come to me with a sword and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.
1Sa 17:46 This day the LORD will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the dead bodies of the host of the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and to the wild beasts of the earth, that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel,
1Sa 17:47 and that all this assembly may know that the LORD saves not with sword and spear. For the battle is the LORD's, and he will give you into our hand."