[Vision2020] Logical vs. physical impossibilities

[Michael]

Thanks John D.  Unlike some conservative Christians, I don't mind seeing
bible verses on Vision 2020 :-)

 

 

'Jesus was God'

"God is not a man"  Numbers 23:19

"for he is not a man" 1 Samuel 15:29



Me:

Yes, God was not a man; and in many important respects he still isn't.  The
Word has become flesh; Christians have never held to a mono-God Form, but a
mutually indwelling Trinity.  Without the Trinity, I would imagine that the
Incarnation would be more difficult to align with these passages.

 


'The cosmos is not static in nature and neither is the Trinity'

"For I am the LORD, I change not"  Malachi 3:6



"the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness" James 1:17



Me:

Malachi is referring to faithfulness; The Lord does not change, therefore,
"Return to Me, and I will return to you" (3:7). "I am going to send a
messenger, and he will clear the way before Me, And the Lord, whom you seek,
will suddenly come to His temple; and the messenger of the covenant, in whom
you delight, behold, He is coming" (3:1-3).  

 

The context of James makes clear that the point is not metaphysical.  "Do
not be deceived, my beloved brethren.  Every god thing bestowed and every
perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, which
whom there is no variation or shadow of turning" (James 1:16-17). Once
again, the point is personal faithfulness. 

 

Interestingly enough, as one liberal scholar put it, this is the one place
where Athanasius borrowed more from his Plato than his eating and breathing
scriptures. Athanasius grounded the faithfulness of God in terms of a
metaphysical 'unchangeableness.'  But this is not a biblical understanding
of God.

 

Thanks

Michael Metzler

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