tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1988751924087021427.post6770048178502645490..comments2023-09-01T13:41:11.544-07:00Comments on Rejoice in Christ: The Confusion of the Nicene CreedDelirioushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01564398770468606675noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1988751924087021427.post-14263343701672504132009-12-20T22:32:23.709-08:002009-12-20T22:32:23.709-08:00Looney,
Yes, Hugh Nibley is one of my favorites. ...Looney,<br />Yes, Hugh Nibley is one of my favorites. I don't quote from him often because sometimes his discussion goes to a level most readers wouldn't be able to follow doctrine-wise. (Not to mention that he was a university professor and tended to ramble sometimes. :) But he had a photographic memory, and was very well read, so gave very interesting speeches.) But he is truly one of the gems of our church scholars. If you follow the link I provided, you can read other chapters that are equally as interesting.<br /><br />I think Looney that we look at this kind of opposite from an anthropomorphic view of God. It isn't so much that we view Him as taking on human traits, but that we view ourselves as gaining godly traits. We believe that God has a physical, perfect, glorified body. We believe that before we were born to this earth, we were just spirits, and as such, could not progress or become like our Father unless we also gained physical bodies. The obtaining of a physical body isn't, in our opinion, just a mortal trait, but one step to becoming more like our immortal Father in heaven. The 1/3 of the host of heaven that followed Satan, and were cast out during the war in heaven will not receive bodies. They can never progress beyond the level of a spirit. But those of us who chose to follow the Father's plan, have all come to earth and received a mortal body.<br />Because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, we all can be resurrected, and these mortal bodies can become immortal. Without His resurrection, we would die, and regress, or in other words, become eternally disimbodied spirits again. It is only because of His sacrifice and resurrection that we too can have immortal bodies. <br /><br />I understand that much of the Christian world believes that Jesus Christ and God the Father are one person. It is difficult for me to understand how Jesus could be His own father. We believe that Jesus can take on the title of both Father and Son, but in a different sense of the word from what much of Christianity believes. He is the literal, only begotten son of the Father in the flesh. When He atoned for our sins, he became a spiritual father to us, thereby taking on the role of Father. While on this earth, Jesus did not father children physically. But I love this scripture from Isaiah that explains how He is a father; "...when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed." Isaiah 53:10 When we make use of His atoning sacrifice, we become His spiritual children. In that way Jesus becomes both the Son, and the Father.Delirioushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01564398770468606675noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1988751924087021427.post-47019074089275965642009-12-20T21:59:42.787-08:002009-12-20T21:59:42.787-08:00Hugh Nibley goes in at the level of detail I like....Hugh Nibley goes in at the level of detail I like. My background being Baptist, we never spent any time with the creeds. Later I spent time in other creed oriented ones and it became clear that the word play was taking over, so I tired of it and went back to my Baptist views. <br /><br />That being said, I still can't think of any group which had an anthropomorphic God the father, as the implications of this are quite drastic to Judaism and Christianity. We generally view the bodily form of Christ as something which was only taken on so that the Jesus could perform the role of "Son of Man" in addition to "Son of God" and bring about a reconciliation of God and man. The bodily form of God the father simply has too much similarity to paganism for my liking.<br /><br />That being said, there are some denominations that emphasized the creeds, but then deny all the miracles in the Bible or worse.Looneyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15801436449971512320noreply@blogger.com