The Forceful Kingdom. Support for the reconciliation of all?

[Guest]

Homer, the basic meaning of "logos" is "an expression". If a brother gives "a word" at a Christian assembly, he expresses himself. The logos of God is the expression of God. Jesus being the Son of God, the very image of the Father, expresses the Father fully as no other can do.

The historic Christian church has always understood the logos of God in John 1 to refer to this chief expression of himself, that is, his Son.

It is true that the word "logos" can mean "reason". From this we get the English word "logical".

But why do you speak of God without Christ? There was never a time that God was without Christ. God was not temporally prior to Christ. Yet there was a beginning of time when the Son was begotten. There were no events before that moment, as there was no "before".

I know this is difficult to comprehend, but for me it is far easier to understand than believing either that time extends infinitely into the past, or that there is some mysterious non-temporal entity called "eternity past".

[Guest]

Paidion,

You wrote:


But why do you speak of God without Christ? There was never a time that God was without Christ. God was not temporally prior to Christ. Yet there was a beginning of time when the Son was begotten. There were no events before that moment, as there was no "before".


I am unsure what difference you find in your claim Jesus was "begotten" as opposed to created. If there was no "before", did God exist "before"? And if He did, was He "expressionless"? And what of the long periods when God apparently was "silent", i.e., nothing revealed to prophets, etc., as far as we know. During those periods when God was "expressionless", did Jesus exist? It seems to me the main point of the use of logos as descriptive of Jesus prior to His incarnation was to show that God and Jesus are coeval.

And you wrote:

I know this is difficult to comprehend, but for me it is far easier to understand than believing either that time extends infinitely into the past, or that there is some mysterious non-temporal entity called "eternity past".

Why is this any more difficult to comprehend than an "eternity future"?

[Guest]

If there was no "before", did God exist "before"?

The question is meaningless. If there was no "before" then we cannot meaningfully speak of "before".