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#hypostatic union
wisdomfish · 6 months
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Ten truths about the Incarnation
These essential truths help us better understand the “hypostatic union” – the message of the Incarnation in which the eternal Son of God becomes flesh, adding sinless humanity to His deity, never relinquishing His deity nor abandoning His humanity.
Jesus Christ is one person possessing two distinct natures: a fully divine nature and a fully human nature. Thus, Jesus of Nazareth may rightly be called the God-Man.
Christ is the same person both before and after the Incarnation. As the writer of Hebrews notes, He is the same “yesterday, today, and forever” (Heb. 13:8). The difference is that before the Incarnation, Jesus had but one nature (divine). In the Incarnation, He added a human nature, one that exists together with the original divine nature, which did not and will not disappear.
Through His divine nature, Jesus is God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, who shares the one divine essence fully and equally with the Father and the Holy Spirit. For example, when Jesus declares, “I and the Father are one,” He clearly means one in essence, not just purpose. The unbelieving Jews who hear these words get the meaning, for they want to stone Him for blasphemy (John 10:30-33).
Through His human nature, Jesus possesses and exhibits all the essential attributes of a true human being. He gets tired, hungry and thirsty. He feels pain, experiences abandonment and dies.
Jesus, as one person, retains all the attributes of both natures. For example, through His divine nature He is omniscient, while simultaneously and voluntarily, through His human nature, He may lack knowledge.
The union of Jesus’ two natures is a true and personal union. In other words, it is not simply the indwelling of the divine presence in a human being, as is the case with Christians whom the Holy Spirit indwells. Rather, in Jesus, the divine and the human come together in one person. In essence, as Kenneth Samples points out, we may describe the incarnate Christ as two “whats” and one “who.” That is, Jesus possesses both divine and human natures (the “whats”) in one person (the “who”).
The two natures form a perfect, complementary union. The human nature of Jesus is never without the divine nature, nor the divine without the human. To deny the deity of Christ at any point in eternity is to undermine His eternal existence as the Creator and Sovereign. To deny the full humanity of Jesus at any point after His miraculous conception in a virgin’s womb is to refuse His necessary sacrifice on our behalf as the Word who became flesh (John 1:14).
Jesus’ two natures – divine and human – are distinct and inseparably united in one person. The two natures retain their own attributes or qualities and thus are not mixed together.
The human nature is not deified – that is, Jesus’ humanity does not become divine – and the divine nature does not suffer human limitations.
 The word “nature” refers to essence or substance, and these two natures are inseparable, unmixed, and unchanged.
These truths also assist us in separating biblical truth about the Incarnation from numerous heretical views that emerged early in Christian history, many of which continue today.
~ Samples, Kenneth Richard. ‘Without a Doubt: Answering the 20 Toughest Faith Questions.
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Jesus Christ, the condescension of divinity, and the exaltation of humanity.
Phillips Brooks
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theexodvs · 1 year
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Before dating someone who claims to be a Christian, you need to know how they respond to all of the following questions.
1. Is Jesus the uncreated God? 2. Are Jesus, God the Father, and the Holy Spirit three coeternal persons? 3. Is Jesus fully divine and fully human? 4. Are all people born in a state of sin, inherited from Adam and Eve due to their transgression? 5. Are believers justified through faith, by the free grace of God? 6. Is the institution of marriage a lifelong covenant between one man and one woman, dissoluble only through death, abandonment, or adultery? 7. Is sexual intercourse a practice strictly for married couples?
All of these questions are either first-order matters of doctrine or would indicate how a dating relationship in particular would end up. In addition, there are questions I would ask about second- and third-order matters (limited atonement, spiritual gifts, infant baptism, etc). What additional questions you would ask would depend on your Biblical hermeneutic and how closely you would want a partner to agree, but I have made the mistake of not gauging previous partners’ doctrine.
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He has not assumed a body as proper to His own nature, far from it, for as the Word He is without body. He has been manifested in a human body for this reason only, out of the love and goodness of His Father, for the salvation of us men. -Athanasius
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jamestippins · 5 months
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Was Jesus Really God and Man?
Recent Question: Did Jesus stop being God when He became a man? Some thoughts: We’re delving into the nuanced question of Jesus’ nature as both divine and human. Scripture offers rich insights into this mystery. Starting with His divinity, Hebrews 13:8 reminds us of Jesus’ consistent nature across time, affirming His eternal divinity. Colossians 2:9 further states that in Jesus, “the whole…
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Mary isn’t the Mother of God? Interesting. So Christ isn’t God, then?
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andrewpcannon · 1 year
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How Could God Have a Son?
On Wednesday evening, one of our students asked how God could have a son. Here is my answer. Ask any questions by contacting me.
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akacatholicism · 1 year
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The Church is the Mystical Body of Christ
Pope Pius XI, Lux Veritatis, 1931:
37. We spoke more fully, indeed, on this unity of the Catholic religion, a few years ago, in Our Encyclical letter Mortalium animos; still it may be useful to recall the matter briefly here; for the hypostatic union of Christ, solemnly confirmed in the Synod of Ephesus, bears and sets before us the image of that unity with which our Redeemer willed that His mystical body, that is to say the Church, should be adorned; “one body” (I Corinthians xii. 12) “compacted and fitly joined together” (Ephesians iv. 16). For if the personal unity of Christ is the mystical exemplar to which He Himself willed that the union of Christian society should be conformed, every wise man will see that this can only arise, not from any pretended conjunction of many disagreeing among themselves, but from one hierarchy, from one supreme teaching authority, from one law of believing, and from one faith of Christians.
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bristolchurch · 2 years
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How could Jesus be both fully human and fully divine?
In order for God the Son to fulfill the role of Christ, he had to become a man. So, he became incarnate as Jesus. As a result, Jesus was both man and God — one person with two natures in hypostatic union. He had all the essential attributes of a human being, and all the essential attributes of deity. But these realities can seem hard to reconcile. When we speak about Jesus as the God-man, the…
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enviousjam · 5 months
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I spent an hour trying to understand the difference between miaphysitism and dyophysitism and. I don't get it. Aren't these ancient bitches describing the same thing with slightly different wording? did they really rip into each other over a translation issue
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thinkingonscripture · 5 months
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Who Crucified Jesus?
The question is sometimes raised as to who crucified Jesus? According to Chafer, “Closely related to the contrast between the divine and human sides of Christ’s death, is the question: Who put Christ to death? As already indicated, the Scriptures assign both a human and a divine responsibility for Christ’s death.”[1] According to the testimony of Scripture, Jesus’ death on the cross was the…
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wisdomfish · 6 months
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The hypostatic union
The hypostatic union is the biblical doctrine that in the one person of Jesus there are two distinct natures: the divine and the human. Each nature retains its essence and attributes and were not lessened or changed in the person of Christ at the incarnation.  Yet, there are not two persons, but one person who is Christ.  Furthermore, the attributes of both natures were ascribed to the single person. This is called the communicatio idiomatum. It means the “communication of the attributes.” So, Jesus, who had two natures, claimed the divine attributes when he said, “Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was,” (John 17:5). He claimed human attributes when he said, “I am thirsty,” (John 19:28). So, we see that Jesus is both divine and human. He is divine so that he could offer a sacrifice of divine value. He is human so he could sacrifice for the sins of people.  Jesus is the Word made flesh (John 1:1, 14).  The Word was “joined” with humanity (Col. 2:9).  Jesus’ divine nature was not altered. ~ Matt Slick
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cogentranting · 4 months
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Ok @magpie-trove here's some more fleshed out Creator thoughts for you.
I think the Vibes thing you were talking about is encapsulated in the two (why are there two of them??) scenes of animals accidentally blowing stuff up. The moment where the dog "fetches" the grenade and blows up the police robots and the moment where a monkey pushes a button and blows up a tank. They're both weirdly silly and so out of place, to the point that it almost made me think we were gearing up to a "we made robot animals too" twist
The other side of the Vibes thing is that fundamentally the movie wants you to view the Robots as people and therefore care when they get hurt. But also they're not totally consistent in THEIR attitude toward the robots dying and they DO often treat it as of less importance than if a human was dying. And the dog accidentally blowing up the robots is one of those moments.
The movie is weirdly negative toward people. But maybe the key is in the East vs West distinction? (Because if there is one thing this movie is more negative toward than... humanity in general, it's America). Because the movie is pretty accepting of the East where they embrace the robots. But you have the Western soldiers coming in and because they hate the robots so much they're also incredibly willing to terrorize and kill the humans. So maybe they're shooting for something like... when you hate and kill and dehumanize some, it doesn't stay limited to that one group, you lose the ability to care for even the ones you originally said you were for. Maybe.
They went ALL IN on those biblical figures. The child of the Creator who is named Alpha and Omega, and who is there as a sort of prophesied savior, and who has a sort of hypostatic union thing going on--fully man and fully... AI. Except you might expect a weird 'AI as a sort of God' thing, but instead if you look at Alphie as AI Jesus (which she is) it becomes this thing where her AI nature is analogous to Jesus's human nature, and Alphie's human nature is analogous to Jesus's divine nature (which makes sense, since the Creator is human). And I think THAT is what completely makes the themes go wonky. Because the humans are both portrayed extremely negatively, and kind of portrayed as divine. Which is why I truly don't know if they know what they're trying to say? It feels to me like a movie that stuck in some biblical figures and stopped at just saying "see the child is AI Jesus! Isn't that clever?" and didn't quite but together what they were trying to SHOW with that.
I'm frankly shocked that they didn't just call the protagonist Joseph
But also if you're not looking at themes, at just a narrative and character level I think the movie works well and is very entertaining.
And then there's the moment at the end where Joshua tells Alphie that he's going to Heaven because she made him good? That it's her goodness that saved him and not his own? That part is good. That part makes me a little insane.
It's so pretty. Such good visuals.
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theexodvs · 2 years
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I have had five main pastors during my adult life. Two of them have proven themselves to be failures. The first cheated on his wife last month, and another has flirted with Arianism.
The latter said that Mary was Jesus’ “Bible teacher,” and that Scripture is silent on how Joseph instructed Him. Jesus never had a Bible teacher, because He never needed a Bible teacher. Jesus is God all-knowing. From eternity past, He knew every pen stroke that would make its way into Scripture, and its meaning, and indeed breathed it into existence, for the Bible is θεοπνευστος.
I am just so sick and jaded from hearing my spiritual influences proving their limitations in orthopraxy and orthodoxy.
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apenitentialprayer · 5 months
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Christ has two natures: what does that have to do with me? If He bears the name of Christ, magnificent and consoling as it is, it is because of the ministry and the task He took upon Himself; that is what gives Him the Name. That He is by nature both man and God, this is something for Himself. But that He consecrated His ministry and poured out His love to become my Savior and my Redeemer, that is where I find my consolation and my good.
- Martin Luther
Christ has two natures: what is that to me? — But the substantial reparation of humanity lies in that very fact. But this joining of the divine and human touches what is most profound and most inalienable in me, my very nature. Christ has two natures: what is that to me? — But every living intelligence is directly, personally, profoundly involved in this central fact of the history of being, which brings divinization of creatures. At the moment that affects the very depths of being itself, it affects the depths of my own being.
- Fr. Pierre Rousselot, S.J., in a lecture given on the passage above in 1909-1910.
On occasion [Luther and Melanchthon] freely express themselves in a paradoxical, antithetical way which one should not always take literally. Still, their language does indicate a tendency. Neither Luther nor Melanchthon —nor Calvin, for that matter— "pauses to analyze the being of the eternal Son of God made man, i.e., to describe the hypostatic union; rather, they proceed directly to the explanation of his redemptive work"; their entire perspective remains soteriological. With Luther most particularly, his customary language manifests a thought which is "less concerned about knowing Christ's inner mystery than about hearing his promises and the sovereign call of his voice" — and even, we must admit, "a certain scorn for all intellectual dogmatic statements, which he considers as only a side issue in true religious life." [...] We may, however, observe that this consequence is logical enough: if one begins with an experience in which the person of Christ tends to disappear behind his gifts, if the Incarnation is looked upon as a simple prelude to the redemption, it is quite natural to find oneself being carried away to a more and more subjective theology[, ...] an anthropocentric withdrawal.
- Henri de Lubac (The Christian Faith: An Essay on the Structure of the Apostles' Creed, pages 99-100, 101, 103), trans. Richard Arnandez, F.S.C. Bolded emphases added
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sweetmorningdew · 7 months
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Hello friends ✨
Here are 5 notable heresies, each with its own distinct nature and origin:
1. Arianism: Arianism, attributed to Arius (a priest in Alexandria in the 4th century), denies the concept of the Trinity and the divinity of Jesus Christ. It asserts that Jesus, while divine, is not equal to God the Father. Arianism was rejected as heretical at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.
2. Gnosticism: Gnosticism was a diverse movement influenced by Greek philosophy and various religious traditions. It claimed special spiritual knowledge (gnosis) necessary for salvation, considering the material world as inherently evil. Gnostics believed in a secret divine realm and considered Jesus as an emissary from that realm. Gnosticism was prevalent in the 2nd to 4th centuries AD and was rejected as heretical by orthodox Christianity.
3. Nestorianism: Nestorianism, associated with Nestorius (Patriarch of Constantinople in the 5th century), taught that Jesus had two distinct natures: a human nature and a divine nature, which were not fully united. This belief challenged the concept of the hypostatic union, which asserts that Jesus is fully God and fully human. Nestorianism was condemned at the Council of Ephesus in 431 AD.
4. Monophysitism: Monophysitism, championed by Eutyches (a monk in Constantinople in the 5th century), claimed that Christ had only one nature – a divine nature with the human nature being absorbed into it. This view denied the orthodox understanding of Jesus' two distinct yet united natures. Monophysitism was rejected as heretical at the Council of Chalcedon in 451 AD.
5. Pelagianism: Pelagianism, associated with the teachings of Pelagius (a British monk in the 4th and 5th centuries), rejected the doctrine of original sin and the idea that humans are inherently sinful. Pelagians believed that individuals can attain salvation through their own efforts and good works, without relying on God's grace alone. Pelagianism was condemned as heretical by several church councils.
It's important to note that heresy is determined by orthodox Christian authorities and their interpretation of Scripture and tradition. These heretical movements emerged due to differences in theological interpretations, cultural influences, philosophical ideas, and debates within the early Christian communities. Early Christianity, influenced by various councils and consensus among church leaders, defined certain teachings as heretical due to their departure from widely accepted (and BIBLICAL) beliefs about the nature of God, Jesus Christ, and salvation.
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