Take the heretic test
I noticed this challenge on the blog of Peter Ould: Three quick questions Susan: i) Is Jesus 100% divine and 100% human, now and for all eternity unchanged in that hypostatic union, in a way that no other human being could ever ever be? ii) Is Jesus the only way to the Father, in that…
I noticed this challenge on the blog of Peter Ould:
Three quick questions Susan:
i) Is Jesus 100% divine and 100% human, now and for all eternity unchanged in that hypostatic union, in a way that no other human being could ever ever be?
ii) Is Jesus the only way to the Father, in that it is necessary to have personal faith in HIS saving power in order to dwell with the Father in eternity?
iii) Was Jesus’ defeat of sin and sin’s power demonstrated by an unequivocal physical resurrection from the grave of the exact same body that was crucified days earlier?
If you can’t answer “yes” to those three questions then you demonstrate why schism will happen. I challenge you to permit this comment onto your blog and then to answer all three questions.
[Look at Peter’s post for the full context]
Leaving aside the fact that I dislike it a bit when people put pressure on other people to sign something or take some kind of a test to prove whether they are a proper question, I thought I’d take Peter’s ‘orthodoxy’ test to find out whether I am a heretic or not.
Question i)
Is Jesus 100% divine and 100% human, now and for all eternity unchanged in that hypostatic union, in a way that no other human being could ever ever be?
Yes. I agree. Though I had to look up ‘hypostatic union’ as it is a few years since I underwent theological whathaveyous.
Question ii)
Is Jesus the only way to the Father, in that it is necessary to have personal faith in HIS saving power in order to dwell with the Father in eternity?
Is Jesus the only way to the Father? Yes. How does this work. I do not know. The ‘necessary to have personal faith in HIS (Jesus’) saving power’ bit I struggle with. What of those people who die before they are old enough to understand anything about ‘having personal faith’? What about those who can’t understand anything about ‘having personal faith’ because they have a learning difficulty? What of those God fearing people who never in their lifetimes meet a Christian or hear anything of Christianity? I could think of many more examples. The truth is that if I am to be honest I have no final answer as to how God will decide who will ‘dwell with the Father in eternity’. See also the former discussion ‘hell etc‘.
Question iii)
Was Jesus’ defeat of sin and sin’s power demonstrated by an unequivocal physical resurrection from the grave of the exact same body that was crucified days earlier?
I believe that Jesus was physically resurrected. As to the nature of his body after he was resurrected – I don’t know. It seems to me that he was in some way different – the way he ‘disappeared from their sight’ (Luke 24 verse 31) and seemed to be able to walk through locked doors (John 20 verse 19). But then again perhaps he could do those things before his death and resurrection. It is evident from the Bible accounts that he was not just a ghost (Luke 24 v 39) , but I don’t know whether his body took exactly the same form. I don’t think I can be certain.
So Peter, heretic or not?