posted on Oct, 31 2003 @ 06:18 AM
More on why Jesus Christ is God....
Having acquired a firm belief in the divinity of Christ, the Apostles planted this belief in Him throughout all nations. St. John the Theologian
begins his Gospel with the revelation of the divine nature of Jesus Christ:
"In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made�
And the Word was made flesh,
and dwelt amongst us;
and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only Begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth�
No man hath seen God at any time;
the only begotten Son,
who is in the bosom of the Father,
He hath declared Him"
(John 1:1-18).
The name Word bestowed upon the Son of God reveals better than any other name the mystery of the inner relationship between the First and Second
Persons of the Holy Trinity, God the Father and God the Son.
A thought and a word are distinct from each other in that the thought dwells in the mind, whereas the word is the expression of the thought; yet the
two are inseparable.
The thought does not exist without the word, nor does the word without the thought. A thought is like a word which is concealed within, and a word is
that which gives expression to the thought.
The thought takes the form of a word to convey the content of the thought to its hearers. Looked at in this way, the thought, being an independent
principle, is the father of the word, and the word is the son of the thought.
The word cannot exist prior to the thought, yet it does not originate from without; it comes from the thought and remains inseparable from the
thought. Similarly, the Father, the supreme and all-encompassing Thought, produced from His bosom the Son, the Word, His first Interpreter and Herald
(from St. Dionysius of Alexandria).
The Apostles spoke of the divinity of Christ with complete clarity: "And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us understanding, that we
may know Him that is true; and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 5:20) � "of whom are the fathers, and from whom,
according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever" (Romans 9:5) � "Looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing
of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13) � "Had they (the Jews) known (the wisdom of God), they would not have crucified the Lord
of glory" (1 Cor. 2:8)� "For in Him (Christ) dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily" (Col. 2:9) � "And beyond controversy, great is the
mystery of godliness" (1 Timothy 3:16). And in the first and second chapters of his epistle to the Hebrews, St. Paul the Apostle proves conclusively
that the Son of God is not a creature but the Creator and that He is immeasurably superior to all beings created by Him. Angels are simply ministering
spirits.
One Person, Two Natures
IT MUST ALSO BE KEPT IN MIND that calling the Lord Jesus Christ God (Theos) in itself speaks of the fullness of divinity. From a logical,
philosophical point of view, there cannot be a "second class" God, a God "lower in rank," a "limited" God. The attributes of the divine nature
are not subject to conditionality or lessening. If He is God, then He is so completely, not partially.
Only if we assume a unity of Persons in God is it possible to join in one sentence the names of the Son and the Holy Spirit on an equal basis with the
name of the Father: "Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Matt.
28:19). "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all" (2 Cor. 13:14). "For there
are three that bear record in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit; and these three are one" (1 John 5:7). Here the Apostle John
emphasizes that the three are one � i.e., one in essence.
One must clearly differentiate between the understanding of person (hypostasis) and the understanding of nature or essence (ousia). The word person
refers to personality, to the "I," and self-consciousness. The old cells of our organism die and are replaced constantly, but the self-consciousness
remains throughout our whole life. The word "essence" speaks of nature and constitution. In God there is one nature but three Persons. Because of
this, God the Father, God the Son and God the Spirit communicate with each other and decide together. Each Person of the Trinity retains His
individual properties which distinguish Him from the other Persons. But all the Persons of the Trinity share the same divine nature. The Son has the
same essence as His Father and the Holy Spirit. The teaching about the Holy Trinity reveals to us the inner and hidden life in God, which actually is
inaccessible to our understanding, but at the same time is absolutely indispensable for the correct faith in Christ.
Jesus Christ has one Person � that of the Son of God, but two natures � divine and human. In His divine nature He is equal to the Father � eternal,
omnipotent, omnipresent, etc.; in His assumed human nature He resembles us in every way: He grew, developed, suffered, rejoiced, vacillated in
decisions, and so on. Christ�s human nature includes both the body and the soul. The difference is, that His human nature is totally free of sinful
pollution. Since one and the same Christ is simultaneously God and man, the Holy Scriptures refer to Him sometimes as God and other times as a man.
Even more so, sometimes human attributes are assigned to His divinity (1 Cor. 2:8), and divine attributes to His humanity. And there is no
contradiction here, since all these attributes belong to the same Person. .
Taking into account the clear teaching of the Holy Scriptures regarding the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Fathers of the First Ecumenical
Council decided to put a stop to all the misapplications of the term "Son of God" that lessened His divine dignity, and they therefore decreed that
Christians believe: "In one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only begotten, begotten of the Father before all ages. Light of Light, true God of
true God; begotten, not made; of one essence with God the Father, by Whom all things were made."
The Arians heatedly objected to the Greek word meaning "one essence" (homousios) because it could not be explained in any other sense than the
Orthodox one, meaning that Jesus Christ is recognized as true God, equal in everything to God the Father. For this reason the Fathers of the Council
insisted that this particular word be used in the text of the Creed.
ok I will stop here.....
For those that..........quote///because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.� (John
20:29)