ArchivedVirgin Birth of JesusPeace to you Alexei and OneGod and thankyou for responding to my posts.
I was in church this morning and our "sermon" was amazingly enough, about the Glory of God. I want to share this with you both and then in my next post will answer your questions/comments. I appreciate the discussion we are having and pray that all of us will come to a clearer understanding of what we believe through these discussions. We give God glory when we praise Him, but you know, we don't need to. His glory is Himself and we can't add or subtract anything from God's glory because it is God Himself. When we praise God, we acknowledge that glory. We have been talking about God being transcendent these past few days.. It's His glory which makes Him transcendent. Moses asked at one time if He could see God's glory (Exodus 33:18). God replied to Moses tat He would show his goodness (one of his attributes) to Moses, (mercy, compassion), but when his glory (I have passed by) passed by, God would put Moses in a cleft in a rock , for no-one could see God and live. I'm sure at this point you both and I all agree on this. Now, there is another form of glory which we give to God.. it's different to the glory that He has within Himself. This glory is what we call ascribed glory. 1 Chronicles 16:29 tells us to " Ascribe glory to the Lord, the glory due His name" We are also told in 1 Chronicles 16:24 to "declare his glory amongst the nations." As believers in God, we have two things we MUST do.. give God glory our selves ( that is acknowledge Him as God and then declare His glory (God Himself) to the nations of the world. Now.. if God is unknowable, how can we obey that command to share his glory to the earth? If we are told to declare Him, we must know Him ourselves, for how can we declare something we ourselves do not know? Jesus Himself answered this question when he attended the funeral of His friend Lazarus in John chapter 11. He tells those gathered at the funeral, that the reason he wanted the stone removed from the tomb of Lazarus, was so that if they believed they would SEE the glory of God Jesus in His prayer in John 17 vs 6, said "I have revealed you to the those whom you gave me. Hebrews 1:3 declares The Son is the radiance of the God's glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word. So, now we are beginning to diverge in our understanding of why Jesus came. Alexei you said Yet, the Bible declares that Jesus came to be the manifestation of the Father's glory on this earth..as the EXACT representation of His Being? Now, assuming this is true, where does this take our discussion 1. We all believe in God's transcendence.. He is above all! There is nothing or no one who can or will equal Him in all of creation. 2. Yet, this same God who is all Powerful and all Glory, commands us to go and share His glory with the nations of the world. 3. What is His glory? His glory is His attributes, the sum total of all He is.. yet Muslims say He is unknowable! I have said in another forum that God has said one thing through the prophets that He desires above all else Hosea 6:6 For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings. and 4. So how do we know Him? If He says He is knowable, yet we both agree He is transcendent, how can He be knowable? Now, we need to discuss His immanence to know HOW we can know Him and therefore declare Him. 5. The bible declares in Colossians 2:9 that "In Him (Jesus) dwells all the fulness of of the Godhead in bodily form. You see, God declares Himself knowable in Christ. That as we look at Jesus and see all of God's attributes in bodily form, we see His glory and majesty in a way we can understand. John 1 declares that the "word became flesh and dwelt amongst us." We could also say "God's holiness became flesh and dwelt amongst us" or that "God's love became flesh and dwelt amongst us." Jesus said, when we have seen Him, we have seen the Father (John 14) He told Philip that from this time forth, no one would need to ask about what the Father looks like for "if you really knew me, you would you would KNOW my father as well. From now on, you DO KNOW Him and have seen HIM. So, may I suggest to you both, in answer to your comments, that Jesus came to this earth to reveal the Father's glory.. His attributes, His very person in a bodily form, that would make it possible for you and I to both know and to understand this transcendent God we worship. I await your comments. Carol [/quote] |
🌈Pride🌈 goeth before Destruction
When 🌈Pride🌈 cometh, then cometh Shame