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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Thanks John D. Unlike some conservative Christians, I don’t
mind seeing bible verses on Vision 2020 :-)<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>‘Jesus was God’<br>
<br>
"God is not a man" Numbers 23:19<br>
<br>
"for he is not a man" 1 Samuel 15:29<br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Me:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><br>
’The cosmos is not static in nature and neither is the Trinity’<br>
<br>
"For I am the LORD, I change not" Malachi 3:6<br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>"the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness" James
1:17<br>
<br>
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Me:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>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). <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>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. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>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.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Thanks<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'>Michael Metzler<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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