Open Theism Discussion Board

Before Christ, man was the sole hypostasis for the world's hypostaticity, in Christ the Logos appeared, that hypostasis, having shared with man the common hypostaticity, having the Sophanic nature in both its aspects. In him occurred the union of both aspects through the ground of the Church, uniting the earthly with the heavenly. And the human created hypostasis in the manifold aspects of his repetitions is united in Christ with the proto-image, and becomes his church. The human image merges with the proto-image, and disappearing in it as a spark in fire, man, as it were, declines his created hypostasis for the eternal hypostasis of Christ, in which connection the "salvation" of every man consists precisely in this, that "having ruined his own soul," to find eternal life with Christ and in Christ, and thereby to realize in himself the unconditional hypostasis, i.e. having overcome his own multi-hypostaticity, to conquer in love created limitedness, having melted his own I, to pour it into the ocean of trihypostaticity ("we will come and create a home with him," Jn 14:23).

Christ has the Body-Church, the house of God (1 Tim 3:15); hypostaticity in Christ possesses its own hypostasis and in that sense in the Church each man is one with Christ, is Christ, living in all. Nevertheless his body itself is not Christ, but only of Christ, it belongs to him in self-surrendering love.

I believe Satan's main operation of deceit is skewing our perspectives of our actual theandric, theocentric relationship with Uncreated Reality in misrelation via a two-storey universe. Speaking in Loderian terms, Satan take our focus from a right relationship with the "Holy" and places it upon "environment", "self", and "the Void" (which render the "environment" and "self" meaningless without the "Holy" ). And it's THIS fundamental "lie" that the Incarnation of the John 1:1 Word into human flesh has destroyed!

If we allow it, the Chalcedonian doctrine of the Incarnation shows us ALL this.

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The Abrahamic Religions Common “Tradition”

Torah-asserted, Jesus-affirmed Commandments from God (Deut 6:8-9; Lev 19:9-18)

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

Torah-asserted, Jesus-affirmed Criteria for "Loving Your Neighbor As Yourself"(Lev 19:9-18)
1) When you gain from your work, don't just think about yourself. Think of the poor and the wayfarer.
2) Don't steal.
3) Don't operate by false pretenses or motives.
4) Don't lie to each other.
5) Don't oppress or rob your neighbor.
6) Don't mistreat the physically (or mentally) challenged.
7) Don't promote injustice or partiality. Judge righteously.
8) Don't slander others.
9) Don’t threaten the life of your neighbors.
10) Don't hate your brother (or sister) "in your heart."
11) Don't take vengeance for yourself.
12) Don't hold a grudge against your neighbor.

The "New" Commandment from Jesus...

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another."

"This is my command: Love each other."

Verification of Jesus' teachings by His followers...

"For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another." --1 John 3:11

For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” --Galatians 5:13-14

The Core Message of Jesus as God's Prophet and Messenger:

Human beings are to express singular worship of and submission to the One Uncreated Creator by a) thanksgiving, adoration and glorification to the Creator and b) works of loving-kindness and compassion to others and ourselves. In this, we are also to consecrate ourselves and be holy, compassionate, merciful, and loving because our Creator is holy, compassionate, merciful and loving.

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Marcus J. Borg
Jesus: A New Vision--Spirit, Culture, and the Life of Discipleship.
Chapter 6. Jesus as Sage: Challenge to Conventional Wisdom
"The Way of Death"
Pages 112-115

The central image of the Christian tradition is an image of death: the cross. To be sure, the cross is also an image of life because of its intrinsic connection to resurrection; Good Friday and Easter belong together. Undoubtedly the cross is so central because of the way Jesus' historical life ended. Yet what it symbolizes--death and resurrection--was also one of the central images for the path of transformation taught by Jesus himself.

In one of Jesus' best-known sayings, he spoke explicitly of the path as the way of dying: "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cros and follow me." Using the language of a path or way ( "come after me," "follow me" ), Jesus starkly indentified that path as "taking up the cross." Before Jesus' death, "cross" was obviously not yet a Christian symbol but referred to a method of execution used by the Romans. It was customary for the person sentenced to be crucified to carry the horizontal beam of the cross to the place of execution. Hence, "taking up one's cross" meant walking the road to death. The meaning of the saying is clear: to be a follower of Jesus was to embark upon the path of death.

The same point was made with other closely related metaphors. Jesus asked his disciples, "Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am baptized?" "Drinking the cup" and baptism were both images for death. Similiarly, Jesus said, "Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it."

But what kind of death was this? Clearly it was meant metaphorically and not literally. The "way of death" did not mean physical death, even though some of the early followers of Jesus were martyred. Rather, it was a metaphor for an internal process, as Luke made clear by adding the word "daily" to the saying about taking up one's cross. This internal dying or death has two closely related dimensions of meaning. On the one hand, it is a dying of the self as the center of its own concern. On the other hand, it is a dying to the world as the center of security and identity. These--the self and the world--are the two great rival centers to centering in God, and the path of transformation thus involves a dying to both of them. The "world" to which one must die is the world of conventional wisdom, the world of "culture" with its preoccupying securities; and the self which must die is the self-preoccupied self. Then is born a self which is centered in God, in Spirit and not in culture.

"Dying" is a striking metaphor for this process. It points to the radicality of the change, of course; this radical recentering brings about a change so sharp that is can described as dying to an old life and being born into a new life. "Dying" may have a further nuance as well. Because the heart which is centered in culture cannot be changed by the mind or the will (for both are slaves of the heart), a hardened heart must in a sense die in order that a new heart may be created; it cannot change itself. "Dying" is something that happens to the self as opposed to it being something that the self accomplishes. How this dying occurs varies greatly from person to person; for some, it may involve an inrushing of the Spirit, for others a severe life crisis, for others, a long, gradual journey. But, in any case, the central movement in dying is a handing over, a surrendering, a letting go, and a radical central in God.

This transformation brought about through an internal death is at the heart of the early Christian tradition. Paul describes himself as having undergone such a death: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me." It is found in John's theology: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." Baptism, the early church's ritual of initiation, was understood as a death of an old self and a resurrection of a new self.

This widespread attestation of the motif in the tradition is to some extent due to the way Jesus' historical life ended. But it is also a continuation of what Jesus himself taught. In a quite historical sense, Jesus not only taught the way of death as the path of transformation, but his life and death became an incarnation of the way which he taught. Indeed, it is this remarkable congruity between the teaching of Jesus and the way his life ended that accounts in part for the power which his figure has had over the centuries. Thus the cross is an extraordinarily rich image, pointing both to the death of Jesus and to the heart of his teaching: the path of transformation is a dying to the self and the world.

There is thus a world-denying and culture-denying quality to the teaching of Jesus. The statement needs to be guarded against three possible misinterpretations. It was not a world denial based upon a dualistic understanding of the material or natural world as evil, and the world of Spirit as good. Jesus took delight in the natural world as the creation of God. He was not an ascetic in the usual sense of the word; he was reputed to enjoy both food and drink, and was known for banqueting with outcasts. Though he spoke of abandoning the family as the center of one's loyalty and security and apparently was unmarried himself, there is no reason to think that he was opposed to sexuality. Indeed, he sanctified the family more than his tradition did. In short, it was not the natural world or the finite itself that was evil; consistent with the Jewish tradition, Jesus saw that as created by God and therefore good.

Second, his challenge to conventional wisdom was not a complete overthrowing or disregard of tradition. He was, in an important sense, neither anit-law nor anti-convention. He was a Jew who treasured his tradition. He quoted Scripture, explicitly affirmed the Ten Commandments, and so far as we know observed the Jewish law all his life. Rather, his challenge to conventional wisdom was a challenge to what may be called "enculturated religion": religiou accomodated to conventional wisdom and increasingly shaped by those who were the beneficiaries of conventional wisdom. When this happens, religion becomes a legitimator of a way of life rather than invitation to a new way of lofe. In short, it was the world of conventional wisdom as the center of identity and security that was negated. In this sense, the teaching of Jesus is world denying; the world of culture as the center of existence comes to an end.

Third, Jesus' challenge to conventional wisdom must always be kept within the framework of his perception of reality as gracious and compassionate. His challenge must not be seen as a new requirement; when it is, his teaching becomes another form of conventional wisdom, sometimes a very severe one. Rather, his challenge is an invitation to see things as they really are--namely, at the heart of everything is a reality that is in love with us. Thus, though his way was the narrow way, "the eye of the needle," it was also somewhat paradoxically the easy way. It was hard especially for those who were secure within the framework of conventional wisdom; for them to die to the world meant letting go of a world which pronounced them "blessed." Yet his way was also the "easy yoke" for some, for those who were burdened by the world of culture: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest; for my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

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See the Christ picture...

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Post Edited (One Love) : 2/27/2012 3:50:34 PM (GMT-6)