O
Orthodox Christian
Guest
Student, with all due respect, this is a silly statement. "unlike Christians, we believe in God who is perfect." It is the intent of the entire gospel to show that God is perfect, and we ourselves flawed.TheStudent said:
Male and female, in His image, He created them...The Student said:
We understand God to be our Father based upon His relationship to us. We do not assign him the limitations of our race or gender.
This is a strawman argument. Christians do not proclaim that God had sex with Mary, or that Mary is God's wife. "The power of the Holy Spirit OVERSHADOWED Mary." Even Muslims agree that Mary became with the child Jesus by the miraculous work of God.The Student said:
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You know, for example, in Psalm 2:7, that 'begotten' is a translation from the Hebrew root yalad, which means to bring forth. When you think of 'bring forth,' you think of action in time. God does not do action in time, but brings forth within Himself.
As for John 1:14, the Greek monogenes means 'one of a kind.' Certainly, an interface between God and man in the form of a man who contains God is 'one of a kind.' He was truly begotten inasmuch as a woman gave birth to Him.
Has it ever occured to you that you and I were not a capricious thought that dawned on God one day? It wasn't like He hummed along through eternity and suddenly got an inspiration to make stuff. He, out of who He is, brought us forth from who He is.
We humans He brought forth into time. He did so by means of His Word. In doing so, there became time- and there was the elapse of time, and then there was time when we weren't.
But the Word, which brought forth us into time transcends time, and therefore was never 'created' or began. God's Breath (Spirit) gives life to that which His Word speaks forth. God the Father is the source from which both the created and uncreated comes forth.
Let's use a terrible analogy: Let's consider God in the shape of a man, and say that God has hands. Are His hands just as much God as are His eyes? Is His Word not the absolute perfect representation of His heart?
Now let us abandon such foolish anthropomorphism. Let us consider God as He is- unknowable, unsearchable. Is His Word that He speaks- 'Be' any less Holy or powerful than He? In fact, this Word derives its (His) nature from God, and is the absolute faithful radiance and essence of Him.
My Word is 'less' than me inasmuch as it is I who issues it. It is as great as me inamuch as that it carries my personhood, my essence, my voice, me, me, me. When I speak words to my wife, telling her I love her, the words fail to carry the fulness of my word. But my word is true. My "word" is the voice of what I really mean and who I really am. My 'words' are symbols that seek to display my "word."
The Word of God is God, as is the Breath of God. The scriptures are the words of the Words. Men fail to understand God's words in black and white, but His Word is Truth. Is it not so, Student? Is not God's Word faithful and true? Prophets speak the truth as best they can with words, but God's actual Word is perfect.
Then I ask: Is God's Word contained in a book (Koran) or is God's Word transcendant of human language, impossible to contain in a book? And I ask again, what of all God's creation can perceive beyond mere words? Look in your heart, are there not things within you inexpressible with words, yet true? Do you not worship God with groans inexpressible, a glory surpassing the limits of any human language?
I tell you truthfully, I understand things that I cannot express in words. Why? Because my "word" is greater than my words, and my "word" is truly, truly me.
Blessings
Iakovos
