Did I want to pick a verbal fight, no...no...ok yes. And then someone went and replied on another BLOG about the same topic. Well I had to respond (yes had to). So instead of rewriting the entire response in the form of another post I am mearly going to repost my responce here. It's not cheating. It's my BLOG and I can put what I want in it. ttthhhhppppp. (thats the sound of a resberry if you couldnt tell). So here is the topic guerunteed to garner some lively debate. The trinity. And FIGHT... (ding ding ding)
The question of a succinct Christology is a distinctly Greek concept. There is a level of mystery surrounding who and what Messiah is that should be maintained or we risk dethroning G-d in our own hearts and minds. We are not meant to understand everything. Search out yes, completely understand no.
That being said there is a way of looking at the G-dhead that has always worked for me. At the risk of putting the Most High into a box it is this.
"And God said; Let us make man in our image, after our likeness"
“tselem, dĕmuwth” image and likeness. The most predominant use of the Hebrew word tselem throughout the Tanak is when people make idols or in other words physical representations of the appearance of something here on earth. And that is what G-d did. Not make an Idol, G-d forbid. But he made something in the physical and made it with attributes like himself. We come to understand that man is made of body, soul, and spirit. And no spirit and soul do not mean the same thing. Pneuma and psyche in the Greek, or ruach and nephesh in the Hebrew. In the whole of the Bible there is a line of demarcation between these two concepts, between our being or essence if you will and our thinking or consciousness. There is also a physical component.
That is how The Most High created us in his image, having three essential components. We alone in creation have all three of these components and are therefore the only ones made “in his image”. Now does this mean that G-d is, was, or ever will be a man “just like me”? G-d forbid. What it does mean is that the most high has these three essential components. But wait, the sages teach us that God has no shape or form, and is utterly incomparable. Well in the scriptures we read,
“And he gave unto Moses, when he had made an end of communing with him upon Mount Sinai, two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.”
Again when Daniel explains the vision of the Hand of G-d writing on the wall of king Belshazzar,
“and the God in whose hand thy breath [is], and whose [are] all thy ways, hast thou not glorified: Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written.”
This paring of the word “Yad” (hand) indicates that there is a connection between the two actions. G-ds hand was not glorified and so G-ds hand was sent to convey a message.
I’ve chosen these two verses because they cannot be argued to be allegoric or anthropomorphic in nature. They are examples of a physical aspect of G-d interacting with the physical realm in a way that was plainly observed. Now Yeshua is another example of G-d interacting in a physical way with the physical realm in way that could be plainly observed. Was that G-ds hand writing on the wall, of course not. It was The Most High humbling himself, or to put it another way purposefully limiting himself, in order to interact with humanity in way that man could understand (and not kill him with the mere presence of The Most High in his fullness).
To what can the relationship between man and G-d be likened? It is like Star Trek the Next Generation. Data is made by a man. In fact, he can be argued to be mans crowning achievement in that fictitious world. He is made in his makers image (two arms, two legs, etc.) and in his likeness (he looks like him, has some of his charicteristics on a more personal level). And though he has what appears to be a spirit (he is programmed to think) and a soul (he develops the ability to dream), he can never be like his maker. He can never be human. He will always be a shadow of humanity. He will always be a robot. He will never in his entire existence even truly understand what being human really means.
As always I could be completely wrong about all of this.
Be blessed.
