My apologies to readers last night. I thought I had hit the post button and I hadn’t so I didn’t get the post up until this morning. Hopefully, we’re back on schedule now. Tonight’s post could be short as Loftus’s last objection is covered in a page and tomorrow, we’ll look at his response to Tom Morris’s response.
The third objection is that the belief of a fully God and fully man Jesus has never been consistently defined, explained, or defended. Loftus goes to the Chalcedon understanding of Christ, which is the right place to go to, but he does not find the answer there given satisfactory.
Let’s be clear on something. This belief is difficult. It is hard for us to understand. That does not make it false. If saying a belief has never been explained means it can’t be true, then we can just as well ask questions that atheists have not been able to explain well either such as the origin of the universe.
Let’s look at the four conceptual problems he presents to the incarnation.
#1-God is necessarily uncreated but humans are created. Therefore, Jesus is created and uncreated.
Yes. People who study philosophy and theology are somehow capable of making such statements….
I hope no one has a hard time answering this one as it’s really quite simple. Jesus’s humanity was created and his deity was uncreated. He took on the additional created nature of humanity in the incarnation in addition to his uncreated nature of deity. I am just marveled that someone can’t see that.
#2-God is necessarily omniscient and humans are not.
Jesus in his humanity was not omniscient. I don’t think anyone would say otherwise. In his deity though, he was. Let’s also be clear on something else. Humans are commonly not omniscient, but that does not mean it’s impossible for someone who possesses human nature to also be omniscient.
#3-God is morally perfect and cannot be tempted, but Jesus was tempted.
All one has to do is look at the James passage to see what it is talking about. The passage is saying that you cannot tempt God in that God cannot be tempted from within. Psalm 78:41, 78:56, and 106:14 even say that the Israelites tempted God. Jesus was tempted from without, but he was not tempted from within.
#4-God is omnipresent, but Jesus as a human being was not.
It’s so convenient when the other side answers the objections for you. That is it. Jesus as a human was not. As God, he was. As human, he was not.
Friends. I hope no one was fazed by these arguments. These are the kinds of arguments I see usually from people who don’t understand the deity of Christ. They’re simple and easily answered.
We’ll look at more tomorrow.
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