Five leading theologians recently visited Saddleback for a teaching series titled How Do I Know I Can Trust the Bible? We asked our friends on Facebook and Twitter to submit their answer to the following question: If you could ask a Bible scholar any question about God, Christianity, or the Bible, what would it be? Read on to hear the speakers answer your questions.
Today, we’re hearing from Frank Turek as he answers the question, How Could Jesus Have Been 100% Human, and 100% God? Can God Die?
Frank: “This answer to this question is tied up in the trinity. The trinity says that there is one God, one nature of God, but there are three persons in that nature. So if you want to think about this as a triangle, that God has one nature inside the triangle. But there are three corners to the triangle, three persons, there is a Father, a Son, and a Holy Spirit corresponding to each of the points of the triangle.
Now you can picture attached at one point of the triangle is a circle, and that is the human nature of Jesus. So Jesus was one being but he had two natures, he had a divine nature and he also had a human nature. The divine nature is represented by the triangle, and the human nature is represented by the circle which touches the triangle.
So whenever you ask a question about Jesus you have to ask two questions. Did Jesus get hungry, as man yes, as God no. Did Jesus know all things, as God yes, as man no. Did God die? No God did not die, the divine nature of God didn’t die, the triangle didn’t die, in our illustration, but the circle attached to the triangle, the human nature died. So when Jesus died, his human nature died, his divine nature didn’t die.
Jesus has always been God. His divine nature is eternal, but his human nature for Jesus was created about 2,000 years ago, and that nature died and was later resurrected. Jesus is one person with two natures and God is three persons with one nature. This is known as the orthodox view of the trinity. So God can’t die but the human nature of Jesus did die. And thankfully he did, he paid the price for us so we could be reunited with God."
Missed the teaching series? You can watch all of the Ahmanson messages here.
Have more questions about the Christian faith? Don’t miss Examine the Evidence, a free one night class for skeptics and believers that will discuss why it's important to ask questions and seek the truth by exploring a variety of common issues such as the existence of God, the historical accuracy and alleged contradictions in the Bible.
January 9, 2012 from 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. in the Refinery on the Lake Forest campus.
For more information, click here.
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