Jehovah's Witness and Christology

[MyApologies]

Thank you for all your help and resources. Too bad the friend I was talking to doesn’t want to dialogue about our differences anymore, but I’m looking forward to the next time I get to talk to a JW and try to share some of this with them along with everything else I’ve been learning. Please pray for my friend!

 

[MyApologies]

Thanks for the Aquinas. I could let my mind meditate on this for a few days lol.

 

[Cathoholic]

SeekerOfTruth7 . . .

The Divine Nature of the Son did not change.

Good answer SeekerOfTruth7.

HEBREWS 13:7-9 7 Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God; consider the outcome of their life, and imitate their faith.
8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and for ever.
9 Do not be led away by diverse and strange teachings; for it is well that the heart be strengthened by grace, not by foods, which have not benefited their adherents.

One God.
Three Divine Persons.
Since the Incarnation, Jesus has two natures. Divine and Human.

 

[SeekerOfTruth7]

Since the Incarnation, Jesus has two natures. Divine and Human.

Yes this is what I have been arguing with @AlNg about.

 

[Cathoholic]

Someone once asked . . . .

How does human reason understand the belief that Jesus is both FULLY human and FULLY divine?

Humans cannot “reason” this.

With God, there will be truths that are ABOVE mere human reason.

You CAN know somethings about such truths.

You can probe such truths.

But you can never fully understand such truths via human reason.

Such truths that are ABOVE reason are called “mysteries”.

The one error that atheists (nobody on this thread) all have is they DENY the existence of truths that are above mere human reason.

If everything associated with “god” was reducible down to mere human reason . . . . you can bet this is NOT God.

So in other words, we would EXPECT mysteries or truths that are ABOVE reason.

Q: OK Cathoholic. But HOW do you know about such truths if they are ABOVE reason?

A: We must have them REVEALED to us by God.

He can do this directly or indirectly.

The Incarnation or Jesus as True God (I Am Who Am) and True Man (taken flesh of the Virgin Mary to Himself by the Holy Spirit 2000 years ago) is such a truth. It is above reason. It is a mystery.

Other mysteries include the Trinitarian nature but preservation of “one” with God.
Why an all good God, allows evil.
And others.

Baptism allows us to believe these truths in a way we could not believe them without Baptism (which is part of the reason why Baptism is sometimes called “The Sacrament of Faith”. We have a supernatural faith, hope, and charity poured or sprinkled into us when we are Baptized. With Baptism we are re-birthed of water and the Spirit. With Baptim we have the Spirit of God sprinkled into us in a special way (as Ezekiel says we would).

EZEKIEL 36:24-28 24 For I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all the countries, and bring you into your own land.
25 I will sprinkle clean water upon you , and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you.
26 A new heart I will give you, and a new spirit I will put within you ;
and I will take out of your flesh the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And
I will put my spirit within you ,
and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to observe my ordinances. 28 You shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers; and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

Q: OK Cathoholic. But HOW do you TRUST such truths so as to “reveal” them to us?

A: The Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The Resurrection and reliable witnesses (martyrs) to the Risen Christ along with grace.

 

[Cathoholic]

Thank you for defending this truth SeekerOfTruth7.

ROMANS 1:3-5a 3 the gospel concerning his Son,
who was descended from David according to the flesh (His human nature)
4 and designated Son of God in power according to the Spirit (His Divine nature) of holiness
by his resurrection from the dead (miraculous event with witnesses or “martus” to His Resurrected self),
Jesus Christ our Lord, 5
through whom we have received grace (enabling us to believe such truths that are ABOVE reason in a most excellent way) . . .

Parenthetical additions mine.

CCC 467 The Monophysites affirmed that the human nature had ceased to exist as such in Christ when the divine person of God’s Son assumed it. Faced with this heresy, the fourth ecumenical council, at Chalcedon in 451, confessed:

Following the holy Fathers, we unanimously teach and confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: the same perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, the same truly God and truly man, composed of rational soul and body; consubstantial with the Father as to his divinity and consubstantial with us as to his humanity; “like us in all things but sin”. He was begotten from the Father before all ages as to his divinity and in these last days, for us and for our salvation, was born as to his humanity of the virgin Mary, the Mother of God.91

We confess that one and the same Christ, Lord, and only-begotten Son, is to be acknowledged in two natures without confusion, change, division or separation. The distinction between the natures was never abolished by their union, but rather the character proper to each of the two natures was preserved as they came together in one person ( prosopon ) and one hypostasis.92

CCC 479 At the time appointed by God, the only Son of the Father, the eternal Word, that is, the Word and substantial Image of the Father, became incarnate; without losing his divine nature he has assumed human nature.

CCC 480 Jesus Christ is true God and true man, in the unity of his divine person; for this reason he is the one and only mediator between God and men.

CCC 481 Jesus Christ possesses two natures, one divine and the other human, not confused, but united in the one person of God’s Son.

CCC 482 Christ, being true God and true man, has a human intellect and will, perfectly attuned and subject to his divine intellect and divine will, which he has in common with the Father and the Holy Spirit.

CCC 483 The Incarnation is therefore the mystery of the wonderful union of the divine and human natures in the one person of the Word.