Definition of incarnate

Was Jesus incarnate? 

All words, just like people who exchange them, have a history. Incarnate is a word from Latin. 

The root of the word is carnal, which we know as flesh. It is a great word I've found in comprehending how Jesus, dramatically, became a man in the seen changing world of the flesh.

Mary was herself not at the beginning of Jesus, as God. It did not start with Mary, because Jesus was at the beginning as the Son of God. As an aside, her cousin was the mother of John the Baptist. of which John, the author of John, speaks of "as the Baptist," in the Gospels as the heralder of Jesus. 

Alpha and Omega

Mary is referred to by those knowledgeable in the discussion as the virgin God bearer. Jesus however was with God, as the begotten son of God, in the beginning. God did not have only a beginning, but is both beginning and ending. Maybe a mobius strip might serve as an illustration here. This would make God both the beginning and the ending, meaning to me, forever.  

Mary then, remains in her time. But by emphasizing her as the mother of God, she is easily thought, by association, to be before the beginning of the Son, or at least, in the beginning. This beginning would suggest the only beginning, even before God Himself, which of course is untenable. 

It is important not to lose the understanding that Jesus

was God, as the Son of God, before the time of Mary, who herself was the "God bearer" in the process of God becoming a Man. Did I say that correctly?

The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us 

As a child, it was presented to my understanding by association that Jesus began born of His mother Mary. This would be true, but because Jesus was God from the beginning, it was only true when Jesus became a man, from which He would return as God in the beginning. Always the emphasis was on the seen rather than on the unseen spirit.

There, I've said enough for this entry. I'll chew on this for a time, which takes me back to the beginning of this effort beginning with the introduction of the word incarnate.  

Reincarnate carries the image of us living our lives over and over in an effort to get it right, without grace. This sounds to me like someone in a prison locked in a bubble of time that is self repeating from which no one is ever free at last.

Incarnate rather is a single individual event in which God becomes Man for time. A time when He suffers stripes for our healing and dies for our sins as the last sacrifice, totally deserted by God. He then, after dying on the Cross, while still dead for three days, goes down into hell to preach to those lost in the flood, from which He returns, is seen by hundreds, and ascends to heaven. I know of no story anywhere or at any time to even come close to match anything like it. 

Between the subject and the verb

I will continue comprehending it. How does one believe it? A belief is a doctrine, inert and still, but believing, is as action, bringing it into existence just like God, who believing spoke everything into existence. That exhilarating task is my never-ending hope, all the while praising God for His Existence and the existence He has given me.

next definition

Tomorrow, I am preparing to post an entry attempting to understand the incarnation of God. How God became Man and became God again. It is my view of what I assumed or was inadvertently taught in church about the central story of the birth and resurrection of Jesus. 

It was the word incarnate that brought me to a sharper understanding. It is an example of how we put the emphasis on the flesh rather than the spirit in pulpits, at least it was in my experience. In this entry I am setting up for tomorrow I shift my emphasis. It was by forcing myself to concretely express my view that I personally came to a clearer, more precise, understanding.

When I came to a turn in the road, I took it

 

Today's entry has been misplaced...

Cannot find it

I have no set publishing routines. I enter them as they come. Then I edit them at will, indefinitely, including revising them more extensively.  

Revenge is mine says the Lord

Faith is first 
Faith is final 

The first reason I am urged to forgive anyone who hurts me, is because it does further damage to me to hold resentment, which is damaging to my mind and body.

The second reason is that if revenge belongs to God, it belongs there for a reason. The reason is very likely because if I hold resentment I am acting in the place of God. So, if that is true then I am acting as if I myself am God, and not the Holy Spirit of Existence, the great I am.

The third reason is the word itself. Resentment, as the word itself suggests, means to send back to myself the very hurt sent me by the one I should forgive. Looks to me one more indication God is simple while we are complex. Sometimes I think the truth cannot be told by those who know. 

Maybe that is the fourth reason. I should forgive whether I understand it or not. Now my thoughts have taken me right into the very core of faith.

Tendency to think one knows it all

There is a tendency to think one knows it all when one only knows everything...everything that is known so far. 

Just knowing everything so far is quite a feat. But what is known so far is so far from the full facts story it would make anyone's head spin no matter how loosely it could be screwed on.     

Just recently heard a man claim he is not a believer in God because he, himself, is a physical scientist and only believes in the facts. Apparently he thinks all the facts are already in, and are known already. He is assuming he is the only one who knows them. Probably just me jumping to conclusions again. 

It amuses me when someone tells me I am smart because they never tell me what I am smart in. I often respond, You are so right! I am so smart I've outsmarted myself, just yesterday alone, millions of times.

Working out your own salvation

My grandmother used to say, I am told, that one had to work out their own salvation.  I am working out here my own salvation. Everyone works out their own salivation, one way or the other, according to their own diligence in the matter.

All readers here are working out their own salvation. I am working out my own salvation, no one else's. No one can be persuaded by anyone else, even if they are just go alongers. 

We all persuade ourselves, just as I am doing here for myself. If anyone says anything that is to me in any way persuasive, I still am the only decision maker in the equation. No matter who it is, I am the lone decider and I take all the credit or any discredit. 

I am the only one responsible for whatever happens to me, even if it may have been my decision to go along with, for instance, a doctor. One can say the doctor was to blame if they want, and that my be true enough, but his life does not respond to the consequences. 

Only mine does.  I am the responder and I am the only one responsible who will really suffer or rejoice in the consequences. I am convinced we will all work out our own salvation, whether we wanted to or not. 

 

New addition to Expanding Horizons

Credo Magazine,  another newly discovered link I have not yet investigated, but which may be of interest to those who are attracted to God's own definition of Himself about Himself, as in this, my personal blog, Sunset Stroller. 

definition of transcendant

 My definition of transcendent is the spiritually unseen world as opposed to the physically seen world subject to time. 

It is virtually impossible to conceive of being outside our world we are in and in the world we are going too that is at the same time not subject to time. That is one over riding reason why physical science cannot agree in defining time. The unseen forces were not in their equations but now is inching into their awareness as black holes. This concept I understand was introduced first in science fiction literature. I myself recall was promptly laughed in by traditional physical science. The idea of seeing is believing is itself quietly being slipped under the rug and the black holes are incorporated as more mere physical photography. Just my view, so far at least.

in the left column

Featured Link

From Expanding Horizons: Self Existing God  is a great link focusing on the same subject of this blog, the definition of God.  It is a good idea starter in any event to go in your own direction whether one agrees with every dot and tittle one runs into or not. BTW I think aseity, means in the Latin "and self, to dwell within", or immanence. A fine distinction similar to transcendent. 

"If God is self-existent, eternal, and pure, then He is, by definition, transcendent. He’s a higher order of being. It is for that reason that God calls Himself “I AM.” When we consider the transcendence and aseity of our God, we will respond in worship and awe — just as Moses did at the burning bush."  Quoted from Moses and the Burning Bush by R.C. Sproul

edited entries

The longer a posted entry remains in evidence, the more likely that it will be edited for clarity of ideas or correction of inadvertent typing errors. For more complete explanation please notice the paragraph directly below the introduction, the painting Days End, and immediately above the list of other active sites in the Sunset Stroller.