steve (steve)
10-11-2005, 03:42 PM
On the CCG board this morning, John writes,<blockquote><font color="0000ff">I live in a fog oft times, and do not pay attention as I should. After the thousands and thousands and thousands of words written on the subject here I have to admit I am quite confused.
Jesus is God isn't He?</font></blockquote>It is not surprising that you're confused, John - the Chapel teaching on the subject was confused. Technically it taught that Jesus was both God and man (the "dual nature doctrine"), but the teachers there sometimes spoke as if Jesus was by nature God, and other times spoke as if his deity was due only to God dwelling in him. In the years since the Chapel, many ex-Chapelites (including apparently Don himself) have taken the step of saying the second description is really the accurate one and that Jesus himself is not God but only a man. This takes them even further into heresy than they were at the Chapel.
So, to answer your question simply: yes, of course Jesus is God. The Bible states it plainly, and historically Christianity was correct in developing Trinitarian doctrine to counter the many challenges to Jesus' deity in the early centuries of the church.
As you note, I've written at length about the Chapel's original teaching of Jesus as God and ex-Chapelites later departure from it. One of my articles about it from several years ago is at http://home.comcast.net/~sr_born/Chapel/dualnature.htm.
Jesus is God isn't He?</font></blockquote>It is not surprising that you're confused, John - the Chapel teaching on the subject was confused. Technically it taught that Jesus was both God and man (the "dual nature doctrine"), but the teachers there sometimes spoke as if Jesus was by nature God, and other times spoke as if his deity was due only to God dwelling in him. In the years since the Chapel, many ex-Chapelites (including apparently Don himself) have taken the step of saying the second description is really the accurate one and that Jesus himself is not God but only a man. This takes them even further into heresy than they were at the Chapel.
So, to answer your question simply: yes, of course Jesus is God. The Bible states it plainly, and historically Christianity was correct in developing Trinitarian doctrine to counter the many challenges to Jesus' deity in the early centuries of the church.
As you note, I've written at length about the Chapel's original teaching of Jesus as God and ex-Chapelites later departure from it. One of my articles about it from several years ago is at http://home.comcast.net/~sr_born/Chapel/dualnature.htm.