Son of Man or just a man?
Whenever I go to church, I usually assume that everyone I speak to is a Christian. However, I’ve started to realise that is not the case. Maybe it’s just that at my last church, those people seeking to know God kept their thoughts quiet. Maybe there isn’t enough of an opportunity for them to ask questions and have them resolved.
At my current church, there is a gentleman who described himself as a Christian / Buddhist / Hindu / Atheist philosopher. I wasn’t sure how that could be! From my limited discussions with him, he takes the philosophies that he likes because philosophy is the main thing he is interested in. (However, part of me thinks that perhaps, he is seeking to satisfy his social needs by coming to a church.)
I guess, I’m curious how a person can go to a church for over six years and still not be persuaded to believe in a deity.
In our limited discussion, I found out that he does believe that Jesus was a real person but didn’t believe that Jesus was the Son of God. That started making me think about the ramifications of what it would mean to me if Jesus wasn’t actually God. I’m sure this is the sort of thing that we really ought to think about so we can answer people with different beliefs (if I recall correctly, Jehovah’s Witnesses believe that Jesus was just a human and not also God). Yet really we ought to have the basics fully understood.
If Jesus was not God:
- Jesus would be just human and still be a sinful human - in the Gospel of Luke, we know that John the Baptist was born with the Holy Spirit yet we know that like all humans other than Jesus, he was still sinful (see Romans 3:23)
- Thus, Jesus would not be a perfect sacrifice of God and thus mankind’s sins would not be atoned
- Jesus would be a liar in saying that he is one with the Father
- Thus, what Jesus said and his promises would be unreliable.
- Thus, Christians would be wasting our lives following a liar and believing in the promise of Salvation.
- Thus, what Jesus said and his promises would be unreliable.
- Jesus would not be able to speak with the fully authority of God
Ah, you get the picture, right? When something fundamental is disbelieved, the whole orthodox Christian beliefs collapse in an ugly heap that includes millions of people dying for it.
Yet, I suspect my disbelieving acquaintance is a “cherry picker”.
Anyway, just in case you are wondering, I am not having a crisis of faith just because I’m pondering these things.
Hi Elwyn,
There is a series of things called ‘Dogmatics’, you might have seen the movie ‘dogma’, which I remember seeing before I was a Christian. For the average Christian, if he or she denies anything in the ‘dogma’ section of Christian theology, that would disqualify him/her as a Christian. Because theologians over the years have worked out the ramifications of these, hence have set down the rules.
Some of these include: personal works of Christ, Christ’s divinity, humanity, justification by grace alone through faith alone, sin, the Trinity etc.
For a more chunkier reading, here is Herman Bavinck’s series on this subject.
http://www.amazon.com/Reformed-Dogmatics-Vol-1-Prolegomena/dp/0801026326/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208388106&sr=8-1
Lawry