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Kenosis and Hypostasis

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annsni

Well-Known Member
Site Supporter
He knew many things as prophets did in the pass. And the pass prophets had not divine atributes.

Jesus did nothing on his own power, but on the power of the Lord.

Jesus totally did it on His own power. And He knew because He was God, not because God told Him. I don't know where you got these ideas but they are not biblical at all. ;)
 

Goinheix

New Member
Of course there is biblical support. It is right here:

John 11:11-15 (NASB) 11 This He [Jesus] said, and after that He said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep." 12 The disciples then said to Him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover ." 13 Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that He was speaking of literal sleep. 14 So Jesus then said to them plainly, "Lazarus is dead, 15 and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him."

There is no way that Jesus could have known that Lazarus had died. The message he received earlier from Mary and Martha indicated that he was just sick.

John 11:1-6 (NASB) 1 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. 3 So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, "Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick." 4 But when Jesus heard this, He said, "This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it." 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was.

Jesus even knew when He received the first message that Lazarus would not be dead once He completed His ministry before His disciples, but in human terms, Lazarus did indeed die and was prepped for the grave and placed there for longer than the typical Jewish mandate, at which time one was not to open the grave. Jesus, however, did something that no human could do -- first He knew His plan in advance, second, He knew that He would ultimately raise Lazarus from the dead to build the faith of His disciples, third He waited until He knew (though no further human messenger was sent) that Lazarus was indeed dead and buried, and fourth, He supernaturally walked through an area with His band of disciples where He should have been killed in order to raise up a man who was 3 days dead.

I loose the point. What are you trying to prove? If it is about how many things Jesus knew...I can replay with how many he did not know. He didnt know that Lazarus were sick and was necesary for Mary to send a messanger.
 

webdog

Active Member
Site Supporter
,
now i feel like we are having an inteligent talk.

Both, hypostasis ans kenosis are in the bible. For some reason christians tend to take only one and exclude the other.

First it is necesary to explain what i think of god. I understand that god is god, as he say i am. God is god because he is god, and the solely fact that he is god is enough for him to be god. There is nothing aditional for god to be god as the simple fact of him being god.

We can complement by adding that god is the creator of all that exist. But god was god even before the creation and did not became god because the creation. God do love us, but god is god besides if he loves us or not. For god to be god do not depend in the fact that he loves us.

In the same way, we can search in the bible for some characteristics of god. We cal them divine atributes. We learn that god is eternal, is saint, is allmighty. Those are detail of god, partials trues about god. God is not just eternal, he is more than only eternal, he is god. God is god by himself, because he is god. God is not god for being eternal, but he is eternal for being god.

Now the queation is: Can god sease to be saint and continues to be god? To be saint is one of the characteristic that we descover studying him. Can god be god and yet not be saint? Is not being saint enough to for god to stop being god. Is god because he is saint, or is he saint because he is god?

Satan had that question. Satan thot that probably, if god seaced to be saint he will seace to be god. Satan thot in the possibility that god taking over him all the sins of the humanity will seace to be god. Because having such contact with the sin will means that is not anymore saint. Will the ñack of one divine atribute destroy god?

The answer was no. God proved that he continues to be god despite and besides havings this and that divine atribute. God is not god for having divine atributes and will be god independently of the divine atributes.

This is how i understand kenosis. Kenosis is emptying. It is a total and absolute emptying. It is not a partial lessening or seting aside, or veiling for a while. Kenosis is emtying to zero. Emptying of what? Emptying of having the divine atributes. Is that meaning to quit being god? Not at all. Being god and having divine atributes have litle conection.

What is the conection between being god and having divine atributes?
If one is not god, can not have divine atributes.
If one have divine atributes, must be god.
If one dont have divine atributes, still can be god.
If one is god, might have divine atributes.

In the other hand, it was necesary for god the son to live as man and without sin. In order to liove as man, it was necesary for god the son to empty himself of all divine atributes. Otherwise, he would not live as a man.

Then, kenosis is the first part: To give up on all the privileges and advantages of having divine atributes. The second part is god the son became flesh and be god in a human body.

In concecuence: God lived as man; being the man named jesus of nazaret. But jesus of nazaret, being god did not have any divine atributes.

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webdog

Active Member
Site Supporter
Don't know why it didn't post, but what I said was "good human thinking(well, not really) but not biblical support"
 

DHK

<b>Moderator</b>
First it is necesary to explain what I think of God. I understand that God is God, as he say I am. God is God because he is God, and the solely fact that he is God is enough for him to be God. There is nothing aditional for God to be God as the simple fact of him being God.
God has divine attributes. You need to know them and define them, otherwise you do not know who God is. Is Jesus God? Yes or no? If yes, then how do you know? Who is God the Father? How do you define who He is? What characteristics does he have.

If God is simply God, without "divine attributes," then which God do you worship:
Allah? Buddha? Ganesh? Vishna? Which one is your god? If God is god, he must be defined in some way, defined to differentiate Himself from all the other gods of the world.
We can complement by adding that God is the creator of all that exist. But God was God even before the creation and did not became God because the creation. God do love us, but God is God besides if he loves us or not. For God to be God do not depend in the fact that he loves us.
Muslims will say the same thing about Allah.
In the same way, we can search in the Bible for some characteristics of God. We cal them divine atributes. We learn that God is eternal, is saint, is allmighty. Those are detail of God, partials trues about God. God is not just eternal, he is more than only eternal, he is God. God is God by himself, because he is God. God is not God for being eternal, but he is eternal for being God.
The Muslims have 99 attributes for their God, Allah. How is your God any different than their God? Think of that--99 divine attributes of Allah! What are the divine attributes of the God you worship?
Now the queation is: can God sease to be saint and continues to be God?
This is akin to a Mormon belief. Do you mean that God was once a man? What do you mean by "saint"? Where does it say God was ever a "saint"?
To be saint is one of the characteristic that we descover studying him. Can God be God and yet not be saint? Is not being saint enough to for God to stop being God. Is God because he is saint, or is he saint because he is God?
God is not a saint. A saint is a believer who has set himself apart from sin.
God was never an unbeliever and was never in sin to be set apart from sin. To suggest this is blasphemous.
Satan had that question. Satan thot that probably, if God seaced to be saint he will seace to be God. Satan thot in the possibility that God taking over him all the sins of the humanity will seace to be God. Because having such contact with the sin will means that is not anymore saint. Will the ñack of one divine atribute destroy God?
God never lacks anything. The Bible clearly states that.
Satan was deceived and was kicked out of heaven.
The answer was NO. God proved that he continues to be God despite and besides havings this and that divine atribute. God is not God for having divine atributes and will be God independently of the divine atributes.
God is not and cannot be independent of his attributes. His attributes are what define him. He is what he is because of his attributes. Does God have divine attributes or Satanic attributes. Why or why not? How does the God that you serve have different attributes than Allah or does he? Perhaps he is more like Buddha? Is he? That all depends on the attributes that he has. Is he a God of hate or of love? Who is God? We know him by his attributes.
This is how I understand kenosis. Kenosis is emptying. It is a total and absolute emptying.
If it was a total emptying there would be no God left. That doesn't make sense. God is spirit. How do you empty a spirit?
It is not a partial lessening or seting aside, or veiling for a while.
Yes, it was partial. He left the glories of heaven. He emptied himself of the form that he had: spirit form. He became a man.
Kenosis is emtying to zero. Emptying of what? Emptying of having the divine atributes.
That is not what it says. Go and read Barnes again. Also read the account as it is given in the KJV, a much more accurate rendering.
Is that meaning to quit being God? Not at all. Being God and having divine atributes have litle conection.
You are wrong and very confused. To be God, God must have divine attributes; if He does not have divine attributes he is not God. So is he God or is he not God. If He is God, then he has divine attributes. You cannot get around this.
What is the conection between being God and having divine atributes?
They are inseparable.
If one is not God, can not have divine atributes.
No. I am not God and therefore do not have divine attributes.
If one have divine atributes, must be God.
Only God has divine attributes.
If one dont have divine atributes, still can be God.
No. God must have divine attributes, else he is not God.
If one is God, might have divine atributes.
God always has divine attributes; they are the characteristics that define him as God.
In the other hand, it was necesary for God the Son to live as man and without sin. In order to liove as man, it was necesary for God the Son to empty himself of all divine atributes. Otherwise, he would not live as a man.
False. He was totally man and totally God at the same time--having all of his divine attributes also. He chose not to exercise them at times. He told Peter to put up his sword. Then he said, "Do you not know that I could (exercise my divine attribute) and call 12 legions of angels."
Then, kenosis is the first part: to give up on all the privileges and advantages of having divine atributes. The second part is God the Son became flesh and be God in a human body.
No it isn't. It was simply to give up his glory, his place in heaven, his form or spirit; not his deity or divine attributes.
In concecuence: God lived as man; being the man named Jesus of Nazaret. But Jesus of Nazaret, being God did not have any divine atributes.
If he didn't have divine attributes he wasn't God. It is his divine attributes that characterize him as God. He is and was divine with all the attributes displayed to prove it.
 

Goinheix

New Member
God has divine attributes. You need to know them and define them, otherwise you do not know who God is. Is Jesus God? Yes or no? If yes, then how do you know? Who is God the Father? How do you define who He is? What characteristics does he have.

God has divine atributes...He is not divine atributes.
I know the divine atributes that God has...but I knew God before learnig about his divine atributes. I did knew and trusted is God way before knowing any of his atributes.
Jesus is God. Yes he is; and yet dont had any divine atribute.
I know Jesus is God because I read it in Jhon, the first book i read. I knew Jesus was God way before knowing the divine atributes of God. If you or anyone will wait until found a divine atribute on Jesus; then nobody will believe that Jesus is God. If Jesus as God depent on knowing the divine atributes on him, it will be impossible to arrive to the conclucion of Jesus being God. Because in the Gospels we dont read of any divine atribute on Jesus.
God the Father is the one who describes himself as I am. God is God and I describe him as being God. Hes characteristic is to be God.
 

Goinheix

New Member
If God is simply God, without "divine attributes," then which God do you worship:
Allah? Buddha? Ganesh? Vishna? Which one is your god? If God is god, he must be defined in some way, defined to differentiate Himself from all the other gods of the world.

In times of Moses it were many gods. At that time God identifies himself as being God. That is enough to make a difference between God and the gods.

What if we take a god like Zeus? If we found that the greek mytology describes him as eternal, allmighty, etc etc...will Zeus be God? God is not a colection of atributes.
 

Goinheix

New Member
Muslims will say the same thing about Allah.

The Muslims have 99 attributes for their God, Allah. How is your God any different than their God? Think of that--99 divine attributes of Allah! What are the divine attributes of the God you worship?

For your information Allah is the arabic name of the same God in wich you and I trust. It is only in different lenguage.

But you are making my point. If a false god, created by men, hapens to have 99 atributes...is that making it God? God is not his atributes.
 

Goinheix

New Member
Do you mean that God was once a man? What do you mean by "saint"? Where does it say God was ever a "saint"?

God is not a saint. A saint is a believer who has set himself apart from sin.
God was never an unbeliever and was never in sin to be set apart from sin. To suggest this is blasphemous.

Yes God was a man. God was Jesus. Jesus was a man and was God. In Jesus, God was a man.

I never say that God is a saint. I say, and the Bible say, that God is saint.

Jesus was God, Jesus took our sin on him to the cross. God took our sins on him to the cross. Being in contact with sin, God the Son ceaced to be saint.
 

Goinheix

New Member
God is not and cannot be independent of his attributes. His attributes are what define him. He is what he is because of his attributes.

In that case God is not allmighty and omnipotent. If God cannot something, then his capacity to do and can is limited. There is things God cannot do.

But God can be independent of his atributes and is. God did define himself not by his atributes but as being who he is : God. God defines hionmself as I am. God did not define never ever as his atributes.

You have backward. God have divine atributes for being God, not that he is God for having divine atributes.
 

SakranMM

New Member
It may be of some interest to note the position on kenosis taken by Orthodox Christians. Specifically, maybe I can offer something on the classic "hymn of kenosis" in Philippians 2:5-11, and then touch on some of the finer points of Christology as detailed by the great theologian, St. Athanasius. Forgive me if this a bit long, but there's a lot to cover.

Regarding the hymn of kenosis ("He emptied Himself, and took on the form of a servant..."): What does Paul intend by including this here? Is he talking about the Incarnation, about Christ's sufferings, or about something else? Well, to put it into context, if we look back at 1:27, “Only let your manner of life be worthy of the Gospel of Christ…stand in one spirit, one mind…” we can get a clearer picture.

Paul is not arguing about how one is to understand Jesus. What Paul is doing here is saying not who Jesus is, but rather they (the Philippians, and by extension, us) are to have this mind, and then he speaks about the one who was equal to God and emptied Himself.

When you count others better than yourself, have this mind. What he is saying is that human beings have a tendency to assert our equality as a thing to be grasped; but equality is actually emptying yourself; the expression of that is the unity of mind, the sameness of the thinking, the working side-by-side. In summary, the definition of what it is to be equal is in fact to empty oneself as Christ did.

Now, to get a bit more theological, we can still look at this in terms of Christology (although I don't think that's the main purpose of this passage.)

The whole issue centers on Christology:

It isn't so much that Jesus is "God and man"....rather, He is God become man. As God, He wills Himself to be limited as a human being is...rather than being a sign of weakness, this is a sign of great power.

St. Athanasius, struggling against the Arians, writes remarkably on this in his treatise On the Incarnation. Just to paraphrase some of St. Athanasius thoughts on this:

1. The Son is truly divine. Not by participation from the outside, but He is what it is to be God.

2. The Son is the guarantee of the presence of God in His Word. The locus of this is in the Incarnation.

3. St. Athanasius' entire argument (and this is where kenosis comes into play) hinges on the Cross. The Cross is apparent degradation, but Athanasius insists that the more Christ (on the Cross) is mocked, the more He is proclaimed divine. His degradation is actually a manifestation of His glory.

4. God proves His divinity by the works that He does. His death is not the death of another man, but it is the death of God as a man. It is a voluntary death, and by the Word coming into the body, it dies not out of necessity, but voluntarily.

St. Athanasius doesn't develop Christology as many Christians do today; many today tend to see Christology exclusively as a matter of "composition" (word and man, 2 natures, etc...) Athanasius sees the Incarnation not in terms of composition, but of attribution and predication. We know Him to be human by the things He does, and to be God (again) by the things He does.
In other words, to know that Jesus Christ is God become man, we don’t do it by “cataloging” His composition; it is by seeing the things He does – He eats/drinks/sleep; He is human. He heals/forgives/raises the dead; He is God.

Again, in regards to kenosis/self-emptying: By becoming flesh, the flesh has become “proper” to the Son. He appropriates the flesh, and makes it His own, and makes Himself known by it. Thus, all things that belong to the flesh now belong to the Word; but they belong to Him only in respect to that body which is His, not in respect to His divinity.

He is not God and man...He is God become man. What we're doing is applying human properties to a divine subject. So, when the Word becomes flesh, there is no diminution of the status of the Word; the Word doesn’t become less than what He was. He doesn’t become a servant; rather, He takes the form of a servant and transforms it. His taking of it is simultaneous with the transformation into a lordly form. Thus, it is in the form of a servant that He is shown to be Lord of all.
 

Goinheix

New Member
If it was a total emptying there would be no God left. That doesn't make sense. God is spirit. How do you empty a spirit?

.

Paul say that Christ was equal to God, and emptied himself. Christ emptied of being equal, not from being God. Christ emptied from having equal atributes of God, not from being God.

Otherwise..what did he emty of?
 

Goinheix

New Member
Yes, it was partial. He left the glories of heaven. He emptied himself of the form that he had: spirit form. He became a man.
.

If God is spirit, and Christ did empty himself of being spirit. Then he was simply a man and no spirit or God at all. You dont make sense. Kenosis implies total emptiness. A cup is empty when there is nothing in it. A theater is empty when nobody is in it. Greek kenosis and english empty impies a total emptiness, never partial.
 

Goinheix

New Member
That is not what it says. Go and read Barnes again. Also read the account as it is given in the KJV, a much more accurate rendering.

Barnes is denaying the kenosis and is missleading you giving a wrong translatrion. I really dont see in Barnes any authority at all. He is one more of the mistaken christians. I am done with Barnes.
 

Goinheix

New Member
You are wrong and very confused. To be God, God must have divine attributes; if He does not have divine attributes he is not God. So is he God or is he not God. If He is God, then he has divine attributes. You cannot get around this.

.

I am not wrong and am not confused at all. In fact, you and nobody can prove me wrong. I gave you the oportunity to signal a single divine atribute in Jesus and all of you failed. Jesus did not have any divine atribute and you can not show the oposite. But I can and did proved all the divine atributes Jesus clearly did not have.

God is God because he is God. And there is not "must" in reference to God. The atributes that you see in God belong to God but dont are God.
 

Tom Bryant

Well-Known Member
Yes God was a man. God was Jesus. Jesus was a man and was God. In Jesus, God was a man.

I never say that God is a saint. I say, and the Bible say, that God is saint.

Jesus was God, Jesus took our sin on him to the cross. God took our sins on him to the cross. Being in contact with sin, God the Son ceaced to be saint.

:BangHead: :mad: This is at a point at which he is here to just spread his heresy.
 

Goinheix

New Member
False. He was totally man and totally God at the same time--having all of his divine attributes also. He chose not to exercise them at times. He told Peter to put up his sword. Then he said, "Do you not know that I could (exercise my divine attribute) and call 12 legions of angels."

.

Jesus was totally man and totaly God. That is out of question. All we agree that Jesus was fully God. Jesus was fully God without divine atributes because being God and having divine atributes are independent.

No where in the Bible we read that Jesus did chose not to exercise his atributes. To call legions of angels is not a divine atribute. The concept of Jesus having all divine atributes but cvhoosing not to use it is totally false.

I can say that Paul, or Peter, or David, or any person in the Bible did have all divine atributes but he choose not to exercise it. That thinking and teaching is very easy and false,
 

jbh28

Active Member
Jesus was totally man and totaly God.

You don't believe this. You believe That Jesus ceased from being God. You play around with words, but it doesn't hide what you really believe. Skandelon gave you plenty of divine attributes that Jesus has. What makes a person a person is having human attributes. If Jesus doesn't have divine attributes, he isn't God. Your position is heresy. (oh, and you can tell the Admins and mods I told you that if you like). You deny the deity of Christ.

Here are the divine attributes of Jesus


A. Christ has SELF-EXISTENT life.


John 1:4 "In Him was life"
John 14:6 "I am the Life"
Acts 3:15 "the Prince (Author) of life"

B. Christ is ETERNAL.

Isaiah 9:6 "the everlasting Father" (or "the Father of eternity")
Micah 5:2 "whose goings forth have been of old, from everlasting"
Compare John 8:35; John 8:58; 1 John 1:2; 1 John 5:11.

C. Christ is UNCHANGEABLE.

Hebrews 1:10-12 "but thou art the same"
Hebrews 13:8 "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today and forever"

D. Christ is OMNIPRESENT.

See Matthew 28:20

E. Christ is OMNISCIENT.

See John 2:24-25 (compare Jeremiah 17:9-10);
John 6:64; 16:30; Colossians 2:3.
Examples:
Matthew 17:24-27
Luke 5:22
John 1:48
John 4:16-19
John 21:6

F. Christ is OMNIPOTENT.

See John 5:19
Philippians 3:20-21
Revelation 1:8 with Revelation 22:12-13 for identification.
Examples: Luke 4:39; Matthew 8:26-27; Mark 5:12-13; Luke 7:14-15; John 2:19-22

G. Christ is PERFECT.

(the term "perfect" as used in Scripture generally means "complete, nothing lacking")
See Colossians 1:19
Colossians 2:9-10

H. Christ is INFINITE.

See John 10:28
Ephesians 3:8
Colossians 2:3

I. Christ is INCOMPREHENSIBLE.

See Matthew 11:27
Ephesians 3:8
Ephesians 3:19

J. Christ is HOLY.

See Luke 1:35
Acts 3:14

K. Christ is TRUE.

See John 14:6
Revelation 3:7

L. Christ is LOVE.

See John 13:1
Romans 8:35-39
Ephesians 3:19
1 John 3:16 ASV

M. Christ is RIGHTEOUS.

See 2 Timothy 4:8
1 John 2:1

N. Christ is FAITHFUL.

See Revelation 3:14
Revelation 19:11

O. Christ is MERCIFUL.

See Jude 21
James 5:11 with 5:8 for identification

CONCLUSION – ATTRIBUTES

John 16:15 – "All things that the Father hath are mine" (every attribute that belongs to the Father belongs to Christ)

John 17:6 – Jesus prayed, "I have manifested Thy Name" (the "Name" of God as used in Scripture refers to God's character, that is, all that God is. Hence Jesus is saying, "I have shown what kind of a God You are. I have put Your Character on display.")

The Bible clearly teaches that in Christ all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form (see COLOSSIANS 2:9). LINK HERE>>>
 
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