God Retakes His Throne

God Retakes His Throne

God Retakes His Throne

The most scandalous belief in all of Christianity is that of the incarnation: that God would decide to take on flesh and live the human life common to mankind.

It is not lost of Christian’s how outlandish, almost preposterous, the belief sounds. It has been the criticism of orthodoxy since the very beginning, and it’s this very claim that caused the crucifixion in the first place.

Muslims, for example, leverage this attack upon Christians often by claiming that Christian’s have abandoned God’s transcendence and indivisibility. However, Christians reject this criticism by virtue of God’s simplicity and personality. 

For example, a sphere is an astoundingly simple geometric shape.

It is as homogenous as a shape can be, yet it still nonetheless possesses 3 spatial dimensions. Analogously, God exists possessing 3 persons that, like length, width, and height, are all co-equal.

However, the 3 spatial dimensions are not actually independent “things”, like a platonist might argue, but rather are our descriptions for the dimensional differentiation that exists within the homogenous and unchanging space they describe.

Nonetheless, length is still distinct from height or width in its descriptive power even if it is referring to the same essence of space as the latter two. Similarly, The Father and The Son are different expressions of the multi-personal divine essence that is God. And, since God is personal rather than geometric, the expressions of his divine essence are likewise personal and distinct while sharing in that divine essence. This is the doctrine of Consubstantiality in a nutshell.

Now it would be a denial of God’s immutability to claim that God became man in the sense that we typically imagine becoming.

Rather, it is the Christian assertion not that God put up his divine hat one day and decided to retire on the planet he created, but rather that God put on flesh while unchangingly remaining God.

More specifically, that one of the persons of the divine essence decided to live as a human being.

I will spare you the long church history of debate and the ecumenical councils that arose as a result and remind you that this is partly still a mystery to me–grasping higher dimensions is a difficult skill when we are talking about only mathematics, let alone the creator of the universe.

 

However, I would like to at least posit one reconciliation: that of neo-apollinarianism. 

Normal Apollinarianism is a heresy that argued that when the Logos, the Son, incarnated, Jesus possessed a human body, but that the human mind was replaced by the Logos.

However, this means Jesus was not fully man and thus denies the humanity of Christ.

Neo-apollinarianism, however, is a Christological model proposed by Dr William Lane Craig that argues that within the Logos are the components of humanity that allow the mind of the Logos to indwell the human body while maintaining the entire humanity of the person of Jesus.

He appeals to our having been made in the image of God, and thus the Logos’s personage can be conceived to be that of the archetypal man.

A way to perhaps understand this would be the difference between a working copy and an original. The working copy is degraded, used, written upon, ect., but the original is untouched, unchanged, and still holds all of its original meaning.

In the same way, God’s decision to make man in His image and likeness intrinsically facilitates the incarnation.

However, I heard a more recent objection to the incarnation by my Jewish mother.

It was not a theological or philosophical objection like I typically hear, but rather one that concerned motivation and ultimately legality: if God has appeared as a man in the past to Abraham before Sodom’s destruction, to Jacob when he wrestled til morning, or even when Moses when he asked to see Him, then why be born of a woman like Christians claim?

Surely an omnipotent God that wished to rule as a man like Christians claim could come down any time he wants, wave his hand in some displays of power, and then sit upon his throne uncontended.

He’s come in similar ways before, so why Jesus?

If all else was accepted, why should we accept that a perfect, Holy God would choose to endure the humiliation of human life in all of its ugliness. 

My first thought was: “How Jewish of an objection!”.

And I completely understand: Jesus had to be breastfed when he ate, he had to have his butt wiped when he defecated, he had to program his brain to learn to walk, and he had to endure the failure of his flesh when it would get tired and exhausted.

Surely the LORD of all creation need not take such a roundabout method to incarnate.

This is a really good contention, and one that I find particularly fascinating.

There is much to be said concerning atonement and salvation and the requirement of Jesus’s hypostatic union, but I would only get lost in the weeds getting into those discussions as there is a gap between Jewish and Christian understandings of sin and atonement.

If we accepted the plausibility of all Christian metaphysical claims about God, at the end of the day, why can’t God just take his throne?

Well, I responded, because the Jews rejected him as king!

No, not when Christ walked the shores of Galilee, but all the way back in Judges before Israel ever had a King: 

“And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.” (1 Samuel 8:7,  ESV).

Israel in its desire to be like the other nations dethroned God Himself, however even though God in his grace and mercy granted the request, God desires to rule over His people.

Thus, God promised to king David:

“When your days are fulfilled to walk with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, one of your own sons, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for me, and I will establish his throne forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. I will not take my steadfast love from him, as I took it from him who was before you, but I will confirm him in my house and in my kingdom forever, and his throne shall be established forever.’” (1 Chronicles 17:11–14, ESV)

The Throne of David is to last forever and to be occupied by one of his offspring forever–an eternal dynasty.

This passage right here is the legal reason Jesus had to be born of a woman, because it was by birth that a King is given his throne.

In order to possess the birthright he promised to David;s line and fulfill his promise to the beloved King while also taking back His own throne, God thus had to be born in David’s line.

The only way this could happen is if He not only appeared as man once again, but appeared as the smallest and most humble form of man: an infant baby born of a woman.

With this plan, God is again King and Israel gets a human leader like the other nations. 

Everybody wins.

 

God Retakes His Throne

Go here if you would like to view the podcast of Justin and John talk about this subject.

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Heavenly Father: Can I Trust Him?

Heavenly Father: Can I Trust Him?

Heavenly Father: Can I Trust Him?

Imagine a parent is a really good, competent parent dealing with a child who for no good reason, distrusts the competency of the parent!

Put yourself in the place of that parent.

Let’s say you have 2 kids, ages 6 and 8. You provide a good safe home with structure and rules but still give them a lot of freedom to learn and yes, make mistakes.

You are years ahead of them in maturity and experience. You yourself have been hurt by a hot stove or a fall down a flight of stairs.

The parents have seen and understand consequences better than the kids (and it doesn’t change that fact no matter how much the children dismiss the wisdom of the patents).

I find that with our Heavenly Father; (yes, He is invisible but not His creation), we tend to distrust Him to a paranoid level about almost everything.

We can’t create life…

…but we have been given an environment where we can take care of ourselves by growing food, etc. In fact, in America, we have the ability to meet most of our physical needs abundantly.

But why do we not naturally trust and rest in God’s infinite love, power, knowledge, wisdom and intentions for us?

If we had the same level of distrust for our earthly parents, we would go crazy.

Now, some have bad, unreliable parents but even they can be depended on for some things. You might even find consistency in their inconsistencies.

But living in anxiety and fear with a lack of gratitude would be nuts if dad is wonderful.

I’ve seen people fight their parents to the death for the right to self-destruct choosing by an act of their will to give into irrational, insane sin and suffer severe sequences. And that’s even without the parent’s discipline as an excuse to rebel.

Humans have a bent to rebel, stubbornly resist guidance and instruction, and even help from God. They don’t believe He is good, at least their actions don’t show that.

Who is my Heavenly Father, and can I completely trust Him?

So, is God good?

 

Heavenly Father: Can I Trust Him?

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Delight Yourself in the Lord

Delight Yourself in the Lord

Delight Yourself in the Lord 

This blog post was written by a friend of mine whom I will leave anonymous.

 

“Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” — Psalms 37:4

 

How doggedly I pursue joy and pleasure; it drives my choices almost minute by minute.

Things that I do:

  • Watch TV. 
  • Converse with my wife or the kids.
  • Visit my grandchildren or look forward to their visits. 
  • Golf, practice golf, buy golf clubs and I think about golf. 
  • Work out for the pleasure of losing weight or being thin.
  • Work puzzles, I volunteer at church, and I go for walks.
  • I go to Dunkin’ Donuts for coffee.

These are just “neutral or wholesome” things I do for pleasure.

But I don’t want to consider all of my negative or unwholesome or sinful actions that I pursue for pleasure.

Are the wholesome pleasures and desires that “Psalms 37: 4” promise me if I delight myself in the Lord?

I think not!   

In fact, I think that conclusion is to misunderstand God’s Word here.

I believe my “focus objective” and dogged pursuit should be to pursue God Himself for pleasure.

Perhaps this one area is where I can be completely self-centered and seek personal pleasure while simultaneously obeying God and pleasing Him.

I needn’t even ask if it refers to unwholesome desires.

I expect that as I pursue God doggedly, even without the pursuit of pure or highest motives at the start, that I will over time, become more and more astounded at…

His glory, His love, His mercy, His compassion!

That I will begin to become so righteously enamored with Him that my pursuit for pleasure will become a pursuit of pleasure in Him.

At that moment I will have delighted so much in the Lord that He will have given meet the desires of my heart, which will be sweet, unhindered fellowship with Him.

So, what should I conclude?

I am free to choose, for my own pleasure, to pursue God relentlessly…

…and it will please Him.

 

Delight Yourself in the Lord 

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Missing God in Baby Jesus

Missing God in Baby Jesus

Missing God in Baby Jesus

Christmas time is a time for celebration. As humans, we look for things to celebrate or to party for. We want a break from our normal lives and want to participate in something larger than ourselves.

As Christians, our focus should be on the birth of Jesus and not Santa Clause, gifts, Christmas lights and a tree to decorate. We reflect on the baby in the manger and we may even understand what it took for Mary and Joseph to arrive at that place in time and space along with the shepherds and wise men.

“The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us” John 1:14

This baby had made His entrance into the world in all the usual ways that all human baby’s show up. He had grown inside of Mary from the smallest organisms. Did God inject Himself as a sperm into her womb and then fertilize her egg that started the whole process? We know Jesus grew all his body parts in His human mother and when He had come to term, He was born on a specific moment in time.

If so, that sperm made Him fully God and that human egg from Mary made Him fully human. That sperm had all the DNA and knowledge of God Himself in this teeny tiny package that would mix with the human egg cell with all of the DNA of humanity.

Wrap your head around that.

Why God decided to design human life to exist on this planet in this solar system in this universe is only something He knows. The possibilities must have been endless. God’s Middle knowledge is something only He has. When you factor in man’s ‘free will’ this existence that we are living in realy is the “Best Possible of All Worlds”. 

I know I am playing Monday morning quarterback here because I know how this story ends but for all those people that lived and had contact with Jesus, I do not think anyone truly understood what they had in their midst until He died and was resurrected from the dead.

Here was a small helpless baby with many different types of people staring down at Him. Each one of them had thoughts dancing in their heads of who and what this baby represented and meant for them and everyone else, but I think the full understanding was elusive to them.

Missing God in Baby Jesus

Missing God in Baby Jesus

 

Can you imagine being right there and hearing this baby cry or watch His mother feed and change His dirty diaper? God in the flesh? Who can grasp that concept? One moment you could gaze down on this little helpless human baby wrapped in small blankets and the next you could walk outside of their dwelling and look up into the nighttime sky and realize that baby made ALL of that!

A sky that was so clear and, in a place, and time that no city lights could dim the view of the universe. An amazing perspective with the billions of galaxies all swirling about just out of reach above your head.

“The heavens declare the glory of God” Psalm 19:1

To many of us, we have heard this story of the birth of Jesus so many times that its true impact can be lost on us in the mundane. I try to unpack this truth not only at Christmas time but at other points in time when I am trying to understand the creator of this universe and what He has done for humanity and me in particular.

I am trying to make it fresh. Peel away the God onion and look deeper into what it is we worship. I love exploring God’s universe and checking out all His creative ways. The natural world just cries out Intelligent Designer from the largest to the smallest and everything in between. The complexity of it all is truly breathtaking in its scope.

Who is this entity that we call God?

“When I consider Your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon, and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” Psalm 8:3

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Two Measures Foolish are a Christian Apologetics group of writers that write from a Christian Perspective and Christian World View using the Bible as our core.

We all travel on an individual journey on this planet earth that God has put into motion from the day we were formed in our mothers’ body. We all have deep questions that need to be answered. Why are we here? Is this all there is?

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The Kingdom of Randy

The Kingdom of Randy

The Kingdom of Randy

Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Randy, who, because of extreme emptiness and loneliness, decided to set up a kingdom to try and fill this empty world.

It seemed like a very dark and kind of scary place, so he decided to fill it up the best he could with various temples and shrines and gardens.

He had a temple to Pleasure; it included all the pleasure of sensuality, sex, fantasy, taste, drink and thus that alter the senses.

He had a temple to Self-Respect; pride, feeling good about one’s self, competition no be better than others and achievement. He set up a temple to Love and that illusive dream of finding another person to fill the void.

There were a number of temples to control, power, happiness, and golden things to fill up his kingdom with. But the gods of the temples were not kind and actually very dangerous.

Some took control.

Randy sat on a broken throne in rags, with a broken crown. The kingdom he built was dark, scary and filled with the stench of death. He blamed all the Kings and Queens that had the same kind of kingdoms around him. He was blind and became more self-deluded.

He lost control of his kingdom, but he continued to lie to himself that “Everything will get better if I just find that magic idol.”

The Kingdom of Randy

The Kingdom of Randy

 

One day a message came from far away that a great King wanted to visit Randy’s kingdom. The emissary from this great King made it very clear that the King had no intention of coming unless He was invited.

It was completely up to Randy. No pressure, no force, no threats. This King did things differently.

Randy thought about it and even though he was fearful, decided to go ahead and extend an invitation. Maybe this King would bring him a present of some sorts, maybe something happy to brighten up the kingdom. Maybe some paint. Maybe a few soldiers to help control things.

Well, the day arrived that the foreign King arrived. He brought with Him his councilor, best described as something like a shining ghost. He could move through objects, and more importantly move through people.

He also brought a host of 10,000 soldiers, which was actually exciting because Randy only had soldiers he had painted on cardboard. He never saw anything like this.

 

The King was less intimidating than he expected…

…actually very humble and kind with an ever-present smile. Randy knew this King had special powers he didn’t understand.

A tour of the kingdom was requested, and Randy was really scared about the condition of the place. He had no idea how bad it really was until the King and His entourage moved around.

They were filled with light, and the light shone on the crumbling temples and broken idols. He saw filth, sadness and decay. Nothing was as it seemed to him.

One by one, each temple was exposed to the light, and Randy grew more and more alarmed at the true condition of his kingdom. Then, they kindly King brought in a mirror from His Kingdom, and for the first time Randy looked into the mirror.

What he saw brought a bucket of tears, as he had no idea how ugly he was. He was dirty, wounded, bleeding, covered in bruises and sores. He cried, “Oh my God, who could ever save anyone like this?”

He fell to his knees in despair without hope in himself or his broken kingdom. But then, the kindly King lifted him up, held him close and whispered in his ear, “I love you. I can help you heal. May I take over your kingdom?” Randy couldn’t believe his ears.

There was this great King who could create a new kingdom in Randy. He simply said yes. That’s all it took.

Just a simply yes.

The Kingdom of Randy

The Kingdom of Randy

 

And then the work began. One temple at a time came crashing down.

Great fires burned up the many idols. The King’s water was brought in to irrigate and plants started growing with real fruit unlike any that Randy had ever tasted. Each day the light in the kingdom grew brighter and brighter.

Soon there were adventures as the great King taught Randy about the real truth and how things were run in the His Kingdom. Randy’s healing and training took many years.

He had a tendency to think about the old idols, but the new King would remind him gently about those old things. The King always gave Randy a choice about things. He wasn’t pushy. So Randy grew to see the wisdom in turning it all over to the new King.

Near the latter part of Randy’s life, he discovered he was growing to love his King more and more, even to the point that he couldn’t bear to leave His side.

He was becoming his life total.

The story was shared about what it cost this King to do all of this for him, and to this day, he still ponders a love that causes a many to lay down his life for a friend.

Randy became a friend of King Jesus, his Heavenly Father.

 

The Kingdom of Randy

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Two Measures Foolish are a Christian Apologetics group of writers that write from a Christian Perspective and Christian World View using the Bible as our core.

We all travel on an individual journey on this planet earth that God has put into motion from the day we were formed in our mothers’ body. We all have deep questions that need to be answered. Why are we here? Is this all there is?

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Solomon Moment with God

Solomon Moment with God

Solomon Moment with God

If I had a Solomon moment with God what would I ask for?

II Chronicles 1st chapter.   

Selfishly and with complete honesty, if You Oh Mighty God , were to come to me in a communication of Your choosing, and ask me what I wanted more than anything else on earth, and that You also would grant me that deep heart desire (and I acknowledge that my wants can be motivated incorrectly by my flesh or influenced by the world or the enemy).

I can honestly say to You right now, that I want to be possessed by Your Son, Jesus Christ. 

I want to have the deepest possible love relationship with Him, so intimate, so fulfilling that nothing else in the universe would hold any appeal and to have a secret place with Him.

To know His presence and out of this love relationship His good flowing out of me, my life for Your higher purposes and glory.  

Solomon Moment with God

That I would be transformed from my closeness with Him, to see Him as He is.

To gaze at His beauty, to be spellbound by His infinite character attributes, to enjoy Him every moment, to see what He does and follow and obey. 

I am already in outer darkness when I am away from Him.

Nothing else really matters. My existence doesn’t matter.

It is all vanity and vaporous. 

This is what I would ask for, to feel His heartbeat.

 

Solomon Moment with God

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Two Measures Foolish are a Christian Apologetics group of writers that write from a Christian Perspective and Christian World View using the Bible as our core.

We all travel on an individual journey on this planet earth that God has put into motion from the day we were formed in our mothers’ body. We all have deep questions that need to be answered. Why are we here? Is this all there is?

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