I said I was done with you because of your denial of Christ's deity, but now you're saying He is God?
What do you mean that He is not fully God? Are you just saying He is God the Son and not God the Father or God the Holy Spirit? Or do you mean something else?
I'm sorry, I am answering so many people I can't always remember what I said to whom. I went back and found the post where I pointed out the attributes of God.
Look for that here. In that post, I highlighted in bold all those attributes of God that define "deity" according to the Bible. When I deny the deity of Jesus, I deny that Jesus is infinite, self-existing, immutable, self-sufficient, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent and above all, Jesus is not transcendent (which is an attribute of God that I forgot to add to the list in the previous post.)
Jesus was born, he learned wisdom, he grew up, he got tired, he ate food, he bled, he sweated, he walked around, he was always located in a particular place. He is a human being, a man who obeyed a mother, cried for those whom he loved, suffered agony and pain, and was tempted by Satan. Paul argues that it was fitting for the Messiah to be a man, "For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted." And again he says, "For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as
we are, yet without sin."
This is also a true statement, "Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God”; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone." James 1:13. Luke records that Jesus was taken into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan, and Paul strongly argues that Jesus was tempted but without sin. James asserts that God can't be tempted. If we maintain that Jesus is God, then we are faced with a very serious and discouraging contradiction. The Bible isn't wrong that Jesus is God, but in order to sort out this apparent contradiction we need to review the principle of contradiction.
When I was debating atheists, we talked a lot about the Law of Contradiction. I borrowed the following definition from Encyclopedia.com
The principle of contradiction expresses the metaphysical and logical opposition between being and its negation. It is concisely expressed by Aristotle: "A thing cannot at the same time be and not be…" (Meta. 996b30); "the same attribute cannot at the same time belong and not belong to the same subject in the same respect…" (Meta. 1005b 19–20). Formulated in the logical order, it asserts that it is impossible to affirm and at the same time deny the same predicate of the same subject. [Encylopedia.com]
That's the key. Jesus is God in some respect, but not in the same respect as the Transcendent Creator God. The Bible never comes right out an explicitly says "Jesus is God"; rather, the Biblical view is that Jesus images God. Jesus is the exact representation of his nature, Jesus exegetes God. Jesus is the light of the world. Jesus and the Father are one. I explained what Paul means by
"Image of God" to WPM here. Image of God.
The one idea that both Christians and Jews share in common, or at least they should, is Monotheism. "Hear O'Israel! The Lord is our God. The Lord is one." Yahweh referred to himself as "I am", meaning "I am he who is." But the most important aspect of Monotheism is God's Transcendence.
The best analogy I have heard with respect to the concept of God's "transcendence" is the "author/novel" analogy. God is as to the author, as reality is to the novel. Just as the author has existence outside and apart from the novel, God has existence outside and apart from the novel. With respect to his or her novel, the author is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent; and likewise, God is omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent over reality.
We know that novels are fictional stories, but in some sense the stories have a type of reality. The author's thoughts are real, and the novel helps readers make contact with the author's thoughts. The author is more real than the novel he created; and conversely the story contained in his novel is less real than he is. If the author should burn the book, he would survive even though the reality he created is lost. Likewise, God is more real that we are. Before any of us existed in reality, we existed in the mind of God first. God, in his transcendence is more real than we are. If God should destroy our reality, he would survive even though the reality he created is lost.
With respect to his novel, no character can ever know anything about the author, unless the author writes himself into the novel. Likewise, no one in our reality can know anything about God unless God writes himself into our reality. The Bible records God making himself known through "theophanies". The burning bush is a theophany. Through the burning bush, God writes himself into the Exodus story. Moses comes to understand something about the transcendent creator through the medium of supernatural fire. God could have created a theophany to be King over Israel, but he didn't.
In the first two chapters of his epistle to the Hebrews, Paul argues very emphatically that Jesus is NOT a theophany (he uses the term "angel.") But instead, this time, God made himself known to reality through a son, a human male. Apparently Hebrew leaders believed that the Messiah would be a theophany of God, and on this basis, denied that Jesus was the Christ. He couldn't be the Christ because Jesus was a man and not a theophany. Paul argues that, indeed, Jesus is the exact representation of God's character, but Jesus is a man, not an angel. It was fitting that the messiah be a man and Paul found Biblical precedent for that idea.
So then. Jesus is God, but not in the same way that the Transcendent creator is God. In the words of Jesus himself, he is God in the sense that he perfectly represents God in every way possible for a human being to represent God. He says to the crowds, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner." John 5:19
What does this mean? Why are you always so vague?
I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to be vague or coy. I thought perhaps you were familiar with the ideas behind the creeds, and the arguments that Christian theologians make in favor of the Trinity doctrine. Based on philosophical concepts theologians borrowed from the Greeks, these men argued that God the Father and God the Son are of the same "essence." (ousia in Greek) The father and the son share the same "essential nature", which is where the doctrine of "pre-existence" finds its basis. So how can a man share the same "essential nature" with God?
Christian theologians innovated the doctrine of the "hupostasis", claiming that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one "ousia" in three "hupostasis". They are one essence in three substances, with a special meaning of "substance." Anyway, it would take an entire book to explain everything about this doctrine and it's implications for Christian theology. And I wish I could do that, but this post is getting long. I encourage you to do a bit of reading on the subject and familiarize yourself with the ideas behind the creeds. If you desire to believe the creeds, at least you will be familiar with the rational basis behind them.
Is anything impossible with God? No. So, if Jesus is God, as you are now saying He is, then why would it not be possible for Him to be both God and man at the same time?
Good question. While we say that nothing is impossible with God, we except the illogical. Is it impossible for God to create a square circle? We can't answer that question because by definition, circles are round. For that reason, we say that a square circle is a meaningless concept. With respect to God the son, reason dictates that God the Son is not God the Father in the same way under the same circumstances, because by definition a man and a deity are two different things. Numbers 23:19
Do you believe that Jesus existed as God before He was born of the virgin Mary? Do you believe that He was created?
Jesus, like every other thing in this reality, existed in the mind of God before he entered into reality. Did Jesus have pre-existence as a living person before he was born? No. Did God create Jesus? Yes. "He is the first born among all creation."
You said before that Jesus needed to be saved. Why would God need to be saved in any way, shape or form?
Even those who believe in the
Hypostatic union must admit that unless the Father raised him from the dead, Jesus the man, would cease to exist. Jesus died and he had to be delivered (saved) from death.
Can you please start answering these questions? The way you are so vague and the way you don't seem to want to answer our questions makes me suspicious that you are hiding something or are ashamed to acknowledge what you really believe.
I'm sorry. I have a regular day job and I also know that folks like short posts. For these reasons I tend to abbreviate my answers, thinking that readers are familiar with the material. I apologize for being unclear. That is my fault and I will try to do better.