Jehovah-Jesus by C.H. Yadon

[pelathais]

Originally Posted by Sam

A couple of brief quotes from "God in Christ Jesus" by John Paterson copyright 1966, pages 7-9

"Now what is a "word"? is it not the expression of an inward abstract thought in a substantial concrete form? It means this in English, but, as a matter of fact, the Greek word Logos means not only the expression of the thought, but also the inward thought itself. So we conclude that the Word was the visible expression of the invisible God --in other words, the invisible God embodied in visible form; and not only this, but the Word was, essentially, nothing less than the Eternal God Himself,...

...the One who showed Himself to Abraham, and to Moses, and to the elders of Israel was none other than the eternal Spirit in a visible, personal FORM under the exalted name of Jehovah, the Word.

From the Scriptures quoted it should be obvious that the Word was not merely an impersonal thought existing in the mind of God but was, in reality, the Eternal Spirit Himself clothed upon by a visible and personal form, mercifully veiling the fulness of His glory from His obedient creatures...

That seems to be the "Christophany" teaching. This is the idea that the man Jesus was to become was the "Ideal" of all men and possessed an appearance even before the Babe was born in Bethlehem.

This teaching is rooted in Platonic philosophy though most Christians who espouse it deny the connection. But Plato taught that everything that possessed any kind of form in the natural world had an "Ideal" in the realm of the Spirit or highest thought. Thus, for all of the horses in the world there was one "ideal" horse which was the pattern that all natural horses attempted to assume.

The same worked for ideas themselves. Our attempts to comprehend justice, for example, are the clumsy and defective natural attempts to replicate the ideal of "Justice" which exists in the Spirit realm or the realm of "Pure Thought."

So, Jesus was the "ideal man." He was the man who possessed all of the qualities that we feebly attempt to imitate. He has always existed and represents the "Ideal" form that all of humanity groans to achieve.

At least that's what they say.