Re: Is God a person?
 

But we aren't talking about pagan religions. In fact, many pagan religions have "saviors" who rose from the dead, conquring death. For that reason do we throw out the resurrection?

Christ had his own human body, human mind, human will, human soul, human spirit, .... the Son of God was a genuine 100% human being. However, on an unexplainable level, this human being, the man Christ Jesus, was one with the Father from conception. Their "oneness" is such that they share in one another's nature. It is also important to note that the human person of the Son is the express image of the Father's own person made humanity. The Son reflects the Father in every way. The two are one.

My issue is that when we say "God became a man"... that demands that God ceased to be God. Why? Because he "became a man". Then you have a theology where the Father becomes his own Son and prays to himself, loves himself, and bares witness of himself. However, if we accept that the Father never "became a man", but rather took upon himself full humanity via the incarnation, combining his own being and person, with his Son at the Son's conception... then we see that the Father is the Father, the Son is the Son, and the two are one. That Father didn't "become a man" or "become the Son", the Father incarnated himself in the Son, the man Jesus Christ at conception.

Take the following verses at face value....

John 1:14
14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (KJV)

John 3:16
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (KJV)

John 3:18
18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. (KJV)

I Jn 4:9
9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. (KJV)

John 10:30
30 I and my Father are one. (KJV)

John 10:38
38 But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him. (KJV)

John 12:45
45 And he that seeth me seeth him that sent me. (KJV)

John 14:7-10
7 If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.
9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?
10 Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. (KJV)

John 17:10
10 And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. (KJV)

John 20:17
Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God.

There is only one "divine person", the Father. And the Father took the Logos (his word, thought, plan, expression) and made it flesh in the womb of Mary. From the moment of conception the Father was one with that zygote. That zygote grew into an authentic, genuine, human baby. That baby was born fully human, the Son of God. That child had to learn his ABCs and 123s, had to learn Torah, had to learn to pray, and developed a deep relationship with the indwelling Father. That child grew into the man, Jesus Christ. The man Jesus Christ was more than just a man... he was one with God. The Son was one with the Father. The Bible doesn't tell us that all the fulness of Godhead became Jesus or "is Jesus". But rather the Bible tells us that all the fulness of the Godhead is in him. Jesus is the human tabernacle of all of God's fulness. God is perfectly manifested, incarnate, and revealed through Jesus. God being invisible can only be seen in his Son, the man Jesus Christ. The very human person of the Son is the express image of the invisible God. The two are one. In the human person of the Son, the man Jesus Christ, we see the one and only divine person of the Father fully revealed.

I know that isn't Modalism... but that's how I see it after reading Scripture.