01-04-2012, 07:54 PM
Alan G77 Wrote:What I disagree with is your objection to God dying on the cross, if Christ is God then God died, hear me out. The divinity of Christ did not die, for how can the divine nature die? But even though it was His humanity that died, we should never forget that Christ in His humanity was still God incarnate. The church of the east maintains that the divine and human Qnume were preserved in their natures without co mingling or confusion and that they were undivided and inseparable.
The reason (shamasha Paul can correct me here) that we do not state the term 'mother of God' or affirm that 'God' died is due to the fact that in semetic terms it would imply that God's divinity was born and God's divinity died.
This is the hardest part about Christology. The realization of the duality of Christ's Natures forces us to wonder about the extent to which each nature shared in the experience of the other. When we declare that there is no "co-mingling or confusion" with the two natures, we mean that God's nature is impassible. It cannot suffer death, it cannot be tempted by the evil one in the wilderness, it cannot bleed on the cross, it is not mortal.
And likewise Christ's humanity cannot raise the dead, it cannot forgive sins.
Each nature is preserved in its own Qnuma, in One Person whom we call Christ.
While "Theotokos" is not technically incorrect, it is horribly incomplete. It only tells half the story. She was not merely "Mother of God". She was Christotokos - "Mother of Christ", who is both God and Man. Isn't that a more respectful and complete title?
+Shamasha