Quote from Alvin Plantinga

God can create free creatures, bu He can't cause or determine them to do only what is right. For if He does so, then they aren't significantly fee after all; they do not do what is right freely. ~Alvin Plantinga. God, Freedom, and Evil pg. 30~

Musings on the Incarnation

No matter how much or how long we engage the discussion of the Incarnation, due to our finite nature, we will still find ourselves wondering about certain issues. I do not think the Incarnation is illogical or logically contradictory but is hard to understand as humans or with the information that we currently know in our time-space-matter continuum.

When we say that God became a man (John 1:14) we are not saying something logically contradictory. We are not saying that a triangle is a circle or that the color orange is blue at the same time. We are conceding a difference between God and man but we are also admitting that they are not logially incompatible. We are suggesting the Incarnation is more akin to an orange triangle. God and man are ideas from two logical worlds but are not incompatible. We are saying that something is both a triangle in shape and orange in color--no contradictions.

In John 10:30 Christ says that He is "one" with the Father. Not "one" as merely an agent or the acknowledgment of a separate entity or person. One here refers to a unity of God and Jesus Christ. If God was united with Christ he would have been more than one simply granted authority to act upon His behalf. This union gave Christ the ability to speak and act with divine prerogative. He was the one God in the flesh.

This divine prerogative is seen in John 2:19 where Christ assures us that when His temple is destroyed "I" will raise it up. Such a feat cannot be done by Jesus if some inseparable union of deity and humanity did not exist. It also shows Christ speaking with divine prerogative. The "I" of John 2:19 cannot be separated from the same singular, eternal, transcendent deity of the Father who Incarnate in the Son. The only God the Father of the Old Testament is Jesus, the Son. He was the Son of God through the virgin womb of Mary (Luke 1:35). The begotten Son of God.

The Incarnation is our glimpse into the world of God. Today we experience and know what those of the Old Testament saw prophetically or maybe partially. God entered our human existence and has given us a way of escape. The Incarnation lets us know that God has come. He is Jesus and He will come again to take His Bride away; destroy evil and bring justice.

The End of Evil: Quote from Christopher Wright

"When the reign of God extends over every corner of the universe, when the earth is filled with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea, when the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ, when heaven and earth are renewed and united under the righteous rule of Christ, when the dwelling place of God is again with humanity, when the city of God is the center of all redeemed reality—then we will have been delivered from all evil forever...The cross and resurrection of Christ accomplished it in history and guarantee it for all eternity." Christopher Wright, The God I Don't Understand

Quotes from Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (The Broken American Male)

I recently received Rabbi Boteach's book The Broken American Male And How To Fix Him. Here are some good quotes I've read so far. I highly recommend this book for every man out there!

Men today are angry because, as psychologist Warren Farrell points out, they are not allowed to be human beings but instead are conditioned to be human doings. pg. 4

I could no longer appreciate myself because I had bought the great American lie that life is about the endless pursuit of wealth. If I didn't have the cash, then I hadn't lived. I could not take pride in my achievements because they were too modest. pg. 7

Amid the many challenges facing the American family today, soulless capitalism, along with its destructive effect on men and women, is the biggest problem of all. pg. 10

Does a country with a 50-percent divorce rate deserve to call itself civilized? pg. 11

It is not normal for a man to come home after a long day's work at the office and feel more comfortable watching TV than talking to his kids. pg. 12

When Did Jesus Speak As The Father?

Recently I was asked, "When did Jesus speak as the Father." Of course this question was driving at problematic use of terms in Oneness theology which says that Jesus is the Father. I avoid saying that in an equivocal sense because it does not seem logical or coherent. To get to the question, however, I would say the deity of the Father was Incarnate in the Son (e.g. Heb. 1:1-3). Jesus even said the Father was in Him (John 14). John 3:34 also tells us that the one whom God has sent utters the words of God. I would say, in order of revelation, it is easier to find Him speaking as the Son of God, or Daniel's "son of man".

The deity and humanity of Christ was united inseparably, just as you or I cannot be separated from the genetic contributions of our parents without harm. Therefore isolating the properties of the Incarnation will further confound the complexity of the Union altogether. Trinitarians should readily admit this to be true from their perspective as well, especially concerning the properties of the divine persons of the Trinity.

I believe there is only one person of God, and that person was Incarnate in human nature (Heb. 1:1-3). As far as I have found, no other meaning is provided in the text of Scripture. Pronouns and prepositions do not necessitate the meaning of plural persons especially in the normal understanding of the term person. It does not demand that corporeal realities are present since that would violate monotheism. Special meaning is the only retort for Trinitarians here but this contradicts theology since when it is properly appropriated is meant to transmit a reasoned understanding of the study of God. The Trinity contradicts such an outcome.

The Incarnation is a wondrous work of the Divine yet it cannot be fully understood. There are some things such as the prayers of Christ that may never be satisfactorily explained by anyone (see Matt. 17:46 or John 17:5). In John 2:19 it is recorded of Christ that when his body or temple is destroyed "I" will raise it up. This is said in light of the Incarnation but it also shows Christ speaking with divine prerogative. Jesus is the One who is fully human and fully divine. Jesus also speaks as no mere man as he pronounces before Abraham was "I AM" (John 8:58). The "I" of John 2:19 cannot be separated from the same singular deity of the Father who was Incarnate in the Son of God through the virgin womb of Mary. Jesus was the visible image of the very being of God (Heb. 1:3) and his divine nature is identical to that of the Father. Every characteristic of the Father is also characteristic of Jesus, the Son. There is no distinction between the Father and Jesus except those produced by His humanity.

In the John 17:5 text we are not forced to conclude that communication there is only between two persons, especially in the traditional sense. The prayers of Christ are probably given to us as examples of Christ's life of obedience and humility. In this text the Father is not speaking. In this text Jesus is praying, as God manifest in flesh, to God whom He knew was also somewhere other than Himself. This can only happen by the miracle of the Incarnation. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself (2 Cor. 5:19). If so, then God was in Christ as He prayed. This does not mean that Jesus prayed to a different divine person who is also God but as a man "approved" by God praying to God before His disciples. This is something Christians do to this day. God is inside of us yet we pray upward to Him as well. Jesus cannot be our perfect sacrifice if he was not human in every way. This means that Jesus had to pray (Ps. 65:2).

Oldest extant Hebrew writing discovered and deciphered

Here is a great article about archaeology and the Bible from Jason Dulle at Theosophical Ruminations. Click here to read it from his blog.

"Approximately 18 months ago archaeologists discovered a 3,000 year old pottery shard containing an ink inscription written in proto-Canaanite script. That script has now been positively identified as Hebrew, making this the oldest extant Hebrew writing ever found. It is from the 10th century BC, which would be around the time of King David’s reign. Interestingly, it was discovered 18 miles west of Jerusalem in a building near the city gate at Elah Fortress, in the valley where the Bible describes David’s historic battle with Goliath.

The translation of the text is:

1 you shall not do [it], but worship the [Lord].
2 Judge the sla[ve] and the wid[ow] / Judge the orph[an]
3 [and] the stranger. [Pl]ead for the infant / plead for the po[or and]
4 the widow. Rehabilitate [the poor] at the hands of the king.
5 Protect the po[or and] the slave / [supp]ort the stranger.

The importance of this discovery is two-fold. First, it proves that Israelites had the ability to write in the 10th century, silencing critics who claim that certain books of the Bible could not have been written as early as the internal witness suggests because the Israelites lacked the ability to write. Secondly, it proves that the fortified city in which it was discovered was a city of the Israelites (the most ancient Judean city discovered to-date). Its massive size indicates the presence of a strong kingdom, and thus this would serve as physical evidence for the existence of an early united monarchial kingdom in Israel (a fact denied by many skeptics)."

by Jason Dulle M.A. Exegetical Theology