<< Except that in Christ God intentionally anthropomorphized His essence so that we could have a truer understanding of our Savior. >>
Well JK, that's something that just makes no difference to me. I don't care if he was God, or is God, or if he was a man, or a monkey in a man outfit. I just see this as a non-issue. It doesn't change one single fact, implication, or repercussion of his existence to me at all.
Everybody seems so concerned with that question: was Jesus God? Was he, as he described, the Son of Man? Was he "merely" man? some kind of blend?
I think that speaks volumes about humans that we would be so intensely concerned with that question. To me, asking the question is missing the forest for the trees.
For one thing, how can you know? It only comes down to belief, perception, judgement... all of which are very very unreliable and faulty, and when these things fail and are unreliable, we have no warning lights and buzzers going off to alert us to that fact. And that's how we were made: faulty, unreliable. And Jesus well knew it, too: "Forgive them, Father, for they know not what they do."
How could anybody reasonably expect anything more from us than what is within the capacities of a human? And to me, being human involves several inescapable facts: zero power, complete dependence (As Paul puts it: "What do you have, that you have not received?"), total inability to experience or apprehend anything in any "objective" way because by design, we are subjective creatures. And with THAT sort of infrastructure, we are supposed to divine the "correct" answer to the above questions? And even be held liable for discerning the "correct" answer, and espousing beliefs and such as a result?
That just makes no sense to me, and strikes me as being antithetical to my fundamental nature. But I'm not worried. God knows very well what he made when threw together some leftovers and scotch tape and paperclips and created the beta version that is me. He knows what to expect, and what NOT to expect, and he knows it far better than I do. I don't need to remind him.
<< Our praise and admiration are for our own benefit, as they help to put us into a humble state with faced with God's wonder and majesty. >>
Maybe so. I have no problem with anybody who wants to do that. Besides, there's something to be said for ANYTHING that can increase humility, whether real or dreamed up or anthropomorphized. I'd say that extends to prayer, also. I don't think God needs any game on how to run his universe from a fool like me. But it doesn't matter even if I delude myself into thinking that's what's going on, I can still benefit provided I see that the point is to put me in my place, and that the act in fact does so. In other words, prayer is for the PRAY-er.
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