I find it truly amazing that a Nestorian can with a straight face say that Jesus Christ is one but not one. On the one hand, they will say that Jesus is God but he's really not God--he's just a man because God cannot be limited in knowledge or grow or limit Himself in time and space. The implications of this escape the simple-minded. They cannot fathom that their irrational position implies that Jesus Christ is merely a man.
But Scripture clearly presents Jesus as both God and man in one person. The man Jesus Christ is ignorant at times and at other times He knows things supernaturally because He is also fully God. The kenosis crowd says that Jesus emptied Himself of deity and the divine attributes. So Jesus is just a man. The Nestorian agrees with the kenosis view but does so by dividing the human nature from the divine nature by way of calling the two natures "persons". So there are two persons instead of one person. This would imply that there are more than three persons in the trinity since the "man" Jesus Christ is worshipped as God--yet the Nestorians say that Jesus is a human person and not God because it is impossible for God to not know certain things or to be limited in power, etc. So they explicitly deny the complete deity of Jesus Christ. But when they are called on it they will say that Jesus is God.
How do they get out of the logical contradiction? They must come up with definitions of "person" and "nature" that somehow justify their irrational views.
The orthodox position expoused by the Council of Chalcedon in 451 said that the Logos assumed a reasonable human soul into the divine nature and so Jesus is both fully human and fully divine in one person. This explains how in his human soul and nature he can be ignorant at times but in his divine nature he is never ignorant or weak.
Those who denounce Chalcedon as Catholic assume that their own view is "Catholic." Chalcedon simply utilized Scripture and tried to make sense of propositional truth recorded infallibly in Scripture. In fact, all attempts to reconcile the implications of deity and humanity in one person are based on Scripture. The real question is which view is most biblical and which view is the least self-contradictory? In my opinion the Nestorian error creates a multitude of problems regarding the substitutionary atonement, the unity of the divine nature, idolatry (worshipping a mere creature), etc., etc.
I have yet to arrive at home and read the two books by Gordon H. Clark, The Trinity and The Incarnation. However, I am looking forward to the exercise and hope to refute those who openly reject the teaching of Scripture that there is one Lord Jesus Christ and one mediator between God and men. (1 Corinthians 8:4-6; 1 Timothy 2:5; John 20:28; Hebrews 2:9-18; 13:8; ).
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son : and to the Holy Ghost;
Answer. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be : world without end. Amen.
Answer. As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be : world without end. Amen.
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