"God is perfect" is often used as a justification for the belief that God never became God, but that rather, He never changed, but simply always was God, and always was perfect.
What is the Biblical justification for the claim that "perfect" means that God always was God and never changed, seeing as Jesus commands us to be perfect, "even as our Father in Heaven is perfect"?
I confess I am struggling to understand your question. I agree that “God is perfect” but how does that have anything to do with your claim that this “is often used as a justification for the belief that God never became God, but that rather, He never changed, but simply always was God, and always was perfect.” I have never heard such a thing said by Christians who do not accept the belief of Latter Day Saints who say “God was once a man”.
Yes, Christians believe that the Almighty, Creator God whom we worship has always been the Almighty, Creator God and always will be the Almighty, Creator God. He is perfection personified, yet your premise is that "perfect" means that God always was God and never changed? God’s perfection is not in question.
Because your question is based on a premise that you have failed to verify, substantiate or bears any resemblance to Christian theology, then I can only conclude it is a “straw man” argument.
The biblical context in accepting the truth that God does not change can be found in Lamentations 3:22-23 – but it is all about His character, His integrity and that He is always true and faithful. Below are the words to a great Christian hymn written by Thomas Chisholm in 1923:
Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father; There is no shadow of turning with thee; Thou changest not, thy compassions, they fail not; As thou has been thou forever will be.
Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest; Sun, moon and stars in their courses above; Join with all nature in manifold witness to thy great faithfulness, mercy and love.
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth; Thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide; Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow; Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside!
The words of this great Christian hymn are so inspirational and uplifting that I want this hymn to be sung at my funeral. God does not change. He has never been anything other than the Lord God Almighty, full of compassion and grace, whose mercies are new every morning.
According to the Bible the Lord God Almighty did not start out as a spirit son of some heavenly father and mother, who is known by Latter Day Saints as Jehovah, who then came to earth to be born as Jesus in order to progress to his own godhood. Your question, Sir, makes no sense to me. Which God do YOU speak of?
The quality of perfection is a matter of character. It is a matter of integrity. It is a matter of being true to one's self.
We are not commanded to achieve some sort of legal perfection. Because 'I am dead to the law' and 'redeemed from the law' and 'redeemed from the curse of the law'.
Love fulfils all law. If I love another, I need no law. I care for them. I long for their good. I focus on their well-being. I seek their best interests. I make sacrifice, myself, for their benefit.
I need no rules to do this. Love conquers all.
For God is love. That is the manner in which he exists. That is how he is perfect . . .
. . . . and he never deviates.
He changes not.
He is, always, and ever has been - Love.
God is true to himself. He cannot deny himself. He is what he is and he does not change. He is true to what he is.
God spoke the truth when he said, 'I am the Lord, I change not'. He was being true to his own nature - an eternal nature.
When the Angel of the Lord appeared in the burning bush, and Jehovah looked, and Elohim spoke, then three aspects of Deity are described and God said 'I am that I am'.
'I am' is Person ; 'that I am' is nature. God is what he is. And he does not change - for he is . . . . God.
If someone denies these fundamental truths, if they do not accept what the words mean, at their face value, if they attempt to 'wrest' these words (as Paul describes it) then I would have nothing to say about anything else in religion.
It would be pointless, if these fundamental truths are not accepted.
And I would feel unable to go further and discuss anything at all in regard to the one whom Mary dressed in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger in Bethlehem.
It would be pointless, for only those are invited to the manger, who accept that Glory is to God in the Highest, higher than all the angelic host.
Who is, thus, God alone. (And there is none other and there can be none other.)
Who is, thus, God alone.
And always is, and always has been, and always will be - exactly what he is . .
. . . . . Love, in perfection.
I have loved thee with an everlasting love [Jeremiah 31:3 KJV]
Amen.
I don't have any justification for that claim. (Because of that, I don't believe that claim)
I do have something to say about "Be ye perfect, even as our Father in Heaven is perfect."
The Western meaning of the word "perfect" is to do absolute perfect.
The definition of "perfect" (in verb form) from the Oxford Dictionary is to
make (something) completely free from faults or defects, or as close to such a condition as possible.
In this verse, perfect is translated from the Greek τέλειοι, meaning mature (like a tree bearing fruit), full grown, having reached its end, complete, etc.
This is very different from flawless performance.
Perfection is a state of being. Jesus is saying to be perfect, not to do perfect. This is a huge difference.
If a tree is is not producing fruit when it is young, is it not doing perfect? It is not doing perfect, but it is being perfect to the best of it's abilities. You be perfect by doing your best. You are perfect by being flawless in all aspects.
Jesus was saying to do the best we can at all times and all places. (like our Father)
Our best will certainly not be anything like the Father's best because he has different capabilities. Our capabilities are very different from the Father's capabilities but we can still do the best with our capabilities.
Note: I take a considerable amount of ideas from Perfection: Being vs. Doing. Please read it to get a fuller understanding of what I am saying.
There is none. The reverse is proven by the Bible and the very meanings of words.
Latin "perfect" means "whole or complete" or "thoroughly done; well made". Is it possible to be complete without ever having endured a process of becoming whole or complete? The root verb behind perfect, facere, means to "make or do". Anything that is made or done, logically must have undergone a stage in which those things were being made or done. The word itself tells us so: the -fect root is the past participle of "make/do", stating unequivocally that the condition or event spoken of was accomplished in the past. Not only was it accomplished, it was thoroughly accomplished, leaving nothing undone, per the prefix per-. In fact, this meaning is so thoroughly baked into our language (which God determines the trajectory of) that the very name of the past tense for a thing completed is the word "perfect" itself.
If we can become perfect, "even as our Father in heaven is perfect" (Matthew 5:48--proving that it is the same "perfect"), then perfection cannot be used to contradict change or progression in the past. In fact, the word itself testifies of past progression towards and culminating in completion. If any of us becomes perfect, it must be through repentance, change and progression empowered the Savior's grace. The Savior promised that we can become perfect, even as the Father is perfect. If we cannot do so, that would make the Son of God a liar. But we know He cannot lie.
Therefore man can become perfect--an attribute of God--and the reality of God's perfection and thenceforth unchanging nature does not and cannot rationally or in any way contradict that God had to do something to become our God.
For additional witnesses, in Matthew 19:21 the Lord invites the rich young ruler to become perfect by following Him. Therefore the exact same perfection that the Father has is available to us, and therefore God the Father's status of perfection cannot possibly contradict past progression on His part.
The Savior frequently reflected on and expounded the meaning of His Sonship towards the Father and His Living Inheritance from the Father: "All things that the Father hath are mine" (John 16:15), "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father." (John 14:7), "Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel." (John 5:19-20), and so on. "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together." (Romans 8:16-17) "And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was." (John 17:5)
The joint inheritance with the Son is more than a fatted calf, a ring and a robe, it is, in the express words of the Savior, it is to be like the Father in every respect even as Jesus is Heir to all the Father's attributes, and to have all that the Father has. A child of God cannot be perfect unless he becomes like God.
