I wrote > Never mind, Judy, I found it.
Your statement is the opinion of a preacher named Dr. DeHaan
of the Radio Bible Class, but he doesn't give his sources either. It
seems like he should have told you (and by extension us) of the
obscurity of his definition for this word.
jt: ... If I were writing
about the subject today I would not even bother with all that and
I'm not even sure that I like the "Original Sin" subject line since so
many equate this with the RCC and Augustine or whoever it was who came
up with the term.
BT: That's fine with me Judy, preferable
even. I rarely use the term for the same reason; it just so happened
that it is the heading someone(?) chose to use for this thread, that's
all.
Do you find it ironic Bill
that we get into this controversy over whether or not Jesus was born
with the old Adamic sin and death taint on him (like us) on the one hand
and then argue over whether or not he was "Emmanuel" (God with us) - on
the other which is the same as saying that God (Emmanuel) has
now taken on Satan's nature along with the rest of fallen
humanity?
BT: I will point out once again the
deficiency in your thinking via your question above. The person of
"Jesus" was not an amalgamization in the sense that his two natures
came together to form a new alloy, like copper and zinc do in forming
brass. His two nature did not fuse to become a different kind of
new substance, partly God and partly man, similar yet dissimilar from
what they both would have been otherwise. This is what you propose
above: that the divinity of Jesus could somehow be tainted by his
humanity ("that God (Emmanuel) has now
taken on Satan's nature along with the rest of fallen
humanity"). But you only think this way
because you are thinking of Jesus in terms of an alloy. But
your idea of Jesus is nothing other than the syncretism
Greek mythology with Christianity; it is their idea of a demigod
that you are upholding, Jesus being "the offspring of a god and a
mortal, who has some but not all of the powers of a god" (The American Heritage� Dictionary of the English
Language, Fourth Edition Copyright � 2000 by Houghton Mifflin
Company). The person of Jesus was not an alloy; he is
a union -- the union of two natures coming together in one
person: fully God, fully man.
This idea is not
difficult to grasp, if you will allow yourself to think of it in terms
of a Hebrew concept and not through your Greek grid. When Jesus prayed
that we would be one with him as he is one with his Father, he was not
suggesting that we would somehow become little gods, that we
would be a new divine substance similar to God. No, the
"one" to which he speaks can only be understood relationally, like a
husband and a wife come together to make one flesh. They do not become
an alloy, a new kind of substance; they become a union. That is what
happened in the person of Christ between his human nature and his divine
nature; they formed a union, not an alloy. Therefore God was
in NO way tainted by the fallenness of humanity in
the person of Jesus Christ. Instead humanity was purified in
relationship with God in Christ's person throughout his life,
the tyrants being defeating all along the way, and the humanity
"becoming perfected" in the process of learning obedience to God through
the things he suffered.
Think of the two
natures in the one person of Christ as a union and you will not ask
questions like the one above. Jesus is Emmanuel, NO PROBLEM. But
think of Jesus like the Greeks thought of demigods, and you will have
major problems with everything related to the person of our Lord. You'll
have problems with his humanity, and you will have problems with his
divinity. You will be saying things like "Jesus did not come here as
God," on one day, and he "took on part, but not all" of humanity,
i.e., "the flesh but not the blood" on the next. Repent of your
Greek concepts, Judy, and think like Jesus, a Jew. There is no excuse
for continuing in ignorance and unlearnedness once you have heard the
truth.
All it takes is Heb 13:8 to
shoot that notion in the foot - think about it "Jesus Christ, the same
yesterday, today, and forever."
Yesterday he was the second
member of the Godhead. God is a spirit (Jn 4:24). So what
part of Jesus the man was "Emmanuel" God with us?
More of your Greek mythology, Judy: Jesus
was not partly man and partly God, the flesh being one part and the
spirit part another. Jesus was human in the way that we are. Whether it
be dichotomously, as you suggest, or integrated like the Hebrews
thought, he was fully human. In other words, He had a human spirit like
all humans have (take it away and he was not human), yet at the
same time he was fully God, yes, Spirit -- the two natures
coming together in union in the one person of Jesus Christ. He
was not a demigod. He was Emmanuel, God with us in the person of
Jesus Christ.
Bill
