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

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God Transforms His Bride

God Transforms His Bride

God Transforms His Bride

Imagine a baby girl, who is born to a diseased, drug-addicted mother and an insane homeless man.

This pitiful young girl from the slums, not particularly smart, has no chance in h*** of ever escaping her family’s curse.

Her life is destined to be a difficult obstacle course of suffering from very little hope at all.

Now imagine if you will, an extraordinarily beautiful, poised woman seated in a palace at a pure gold piano encrusted with jewels.

She has on the most beautiful gown in the Kingdom and her perfection is unequaled in every way.

The king and the royal court await her performance, and as she plays the music of heaven.

All are moved to tears, even the mighty angels. 

The king weeps…

…because is touched by the depth of her talent, but most importantly, the depth of her character. Her external appearance reflects her beautiful heart.

The king is deeply in love with her and intends to marry her, pledging his covenant, abiding love forever.

How did the baby girl, a poor wretch of a human being, born into sin, death, and destruction, become a bride, acceptable and perfect for a king? 

And how do we, born into the slums of a broken, sinful world, become the most glorious, perfect bride for the King of Kings and Lord of Lords?

This story is being played out right before our very eyes.

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God Transforms His Bride

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Christian Baptism and Dedication Prayer

Christian Baptism and Dedication Prayer

Christian Baptism and Dedication Prayer

Dear Heavenly Father, we’re thankful for the opportunity, honor, and blessing to be here today with _________ to share in his/her baptism.  May you grow his/her mustard seed of faith and acorn of courage into mighty oaks and may Wisdom bestow keen insight and deep understanding into the blessings of living a Holy life as he/she grows and matures into the man/woman you’ve called him to be before the foundations of this world.

May the Holy Spirit bless us with His presence here today and guide _______’s  thoughts and harness his/her God given talents into powerful forces so that he/she may be a positive influence in the world, a blessing to those he/she encounters, a champion to the less fortunate, and an unwavering promoter of virtue and decency.

Lord, please build a fortress of protection around _______’s body, mind, and soul to defend against the spiritual forces of darkness and the powers of this world. Teach him/her the benefits of putting on your armor so he/she can lead a noble and victorious fight for good in a world that’s lost its way.

Teach him/her the value of your Word, the joy and peace it brings, and to the wisdom and strength of mind it imparts to those who mine its treasure.  And mold and develop a good attitude in him/her so that he/she can weather all the ups and downs of this life.

May _______ be a motivator and encourager by displaying strength of kindness and the power of grace to those you put in his/her path.  May you imbue him/her with the strength of will to stand up for what is right while providing him/her with diplomacy, shrewdness, and wisdom.

Bless his/her feet to stay on the straight and narrow path, and not be deceived by the world’s magnificent, but hollow splendor.  May he/she avoid the pitfalls of youthful indulgences that lead to the well-worn path of trouble, pain, and wasted time.

And Father please bless those of us gathered here today in support of _______ so that we may walk worthy and be courageous defenders of heavenly common-sense it takes to be a strong support system for _______.

We pray these things in the name of Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, Great High Priest, Bread of Life, Good Shepherd, Mighty One, Light of the World, The Way, The Truth, The Life, the King of Kings and Victorious One… and we all say – Amen!

Steve Oberhansly, a guest blogger, wrote this Christian Baptism and Dedication Prayer to be spoken over his grandson Isaiah at his baptism. When Steve gave us permission to publish this prayer he said “I could do worse than praying this for myself every day.”  We agreed.

You are welcome to use this prayer it if you wish. We left blacks for you to fill in with the child’s or adults name and made in gender neutral.  

You can download a PDF copy of this prayer right here.

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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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