Hot answers tagged incarnation
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The problem that you run into is John 1 - in which it says of Jesus, that by him all things were made, and there is nothing that was made that He didn't make. This is why the Nicene Creed is so careful to say he was begotten not made. If God the Father made Jesus, then John made a boo-boo.
The incarnation, on the other hand, is merely putting flesh to that ...
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Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (as he then was) wrote about this article of the creed for the Mariological Congress in March 1995. The essay is reprinted in Mary: the church at the source by him and Hans Urs von Balthasar (Ignatius Press, 2005). He speaks about the centrality of the incarnation to Christian faith:
In manifesting himself, God shows that he is ...
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Signs in tradition and scripture, can have two basic senses. In the first sense, they are often miraculous indicators of the speaker's trustworthiness, which encourage the listener to believe. In the second sense, they embody or represent a larger or more transcendent truth. The general formula for signs in my first sense is that the speaker first delivers a ...
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In historical Christian belief (of almost any type), it would be considered heresy to say that God the Son was created.
You can use a neat term here "nicene christianity".
Regarding your question - Christ has a complete human nature (human body and human soul) and this nature is created. Christ has accepted our nature with all sinless weaknesses of ...
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Part of the reason seems to have been wanting to minimize the drive to direct the Messiah toward worldly goals. Many people wanted a worldly king, e.g., John 6:15 (NIV):
Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again into the hills by himself.
and there was a desire for "bread and circuses" (well full stomachs and ...
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All three persons of the Trinity are in a perichoretic union. Hence, the Holy Spirit is called the Spirit of the Father (Matt. 10:20 cp. Mark 13:11) and the Spirit of the Son (Gal. 4:6), yet there are still three persons of the Trinity (Matt. 28:19).
The Son said, "I and my Father are one" (John 10:30), to which the Jews picked up stones in order to stone ...
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For a God who always seeks to woo and not to overwhelm, this is exactly what you would expect. God could, if he chose, bring more power to bear than any of us could handle. He could force himself into everything, if that were His nature. But, as a person (not a force) who seeks to love and be loved for who He is, this makes perfect sense.
As King Henry ...
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Once - in two different ways depending on our definition of 'begotten'
There seems to be some confusion on the subject because "only begotten" a theological term does not mean "begotten" a biblical term.
But to answer your question, if thinking 'begotten' as in 'only begotten' it gains prominence in Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325 representing Christ’s ...
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In Trinitarian orthodoxy,
יהוה (YHVH), commonly referred to as "the Tetragrammaton," is the name of God.
The Father is God, and thus, the name of the Father is YHVH.
The Son is God, and thus, the name of the Son is YHVH.
The Holy Spirit is God, and thus, the name of the Holy Spirit is YHVH.
As there is only one God, there is only one name יהוה shared by ...
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On other "virgin births" predating the concept of a virgin birth in Christianity:
The notion of the virgin birth in Christianity predates the actual birth of Christ too; it was prophesied explicitly some centuries earlier. Certainly in Isaiah, we have:
Isaiah 7:14 (MSG):
So the Master is going to give you a sign anyway. Watch for this: A
girl who is ...
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Just a Christmas treat for those who enjoy this sort of thing.
Of course finding the infant, as lead by the star shining over the animal house, wrapped up and placed in a feeding-trough (φάτνη) is a striking thing to see. The contrast of this earthly, helpless child to the heralding angelic glory announcing his birth is breathtaking to say the least.
But ...
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Galatians 3 and 4 explains how God sought to lay a foundation for the coming of the Messiah, through the Jewish Law. The Law was to make people understand the depth of their sinfulness (in that they were incapable of keeping the Law) so that they might more readily accept the cure for that sin through Jesus the Messiah (Galatians 3:22-23; Romans 3:19-20).
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We do not know. We only know that He came at the appropriate time. Galatians 4:4-5:
4 But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, 5 to ransom those under the law, so that we might receive adoption.
From this we know the well-known facts that at the time of His coming:
His mother, Mary, born of Saint ...
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My answer on a related question covers much the same ground. I like this question better, because it is more generic, but the specifics of that answer still hold true here.
Key points:
God desires 1 sacrifice, and 1 sacrifice only, for all time (Heb 10)
God chose to come "at the right time to die for the ungodly" (Gal 4)
Too early, and people wouldn't ...
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One classical definition widely accepted among Christians : God is a pure spirit, infinitely perfect, creator and ruler of all things and beeings.
1)There are a lot of explanations, please focus on one or some theologies. One would have to start from the original sin. One explanation is that the world had to be somehow prepared. And God doesn't send ...
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It is obvious that Jesus' body was created, or perhaps a better word is, "made." I choose to use the verb "create" with the subject "God" alone. We humans cannot create anything. We can make many things.
In the beginning, God created all things, that is, all matter in the universe. From that existing matter is made all things that exist today. I can make a ...
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