Hi! Pleroo
No brother, wrong! Jesus Christ was Christ/Jehovah/Word/God in the flesh, not of the dust of the earth like ours but a heavenly body specially prepared for Him. "....who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross." (Phil.2:6-8).
He is very much God and very much man at the same time.
Roy UK
Roy, both you and Craig have expressed belief in the "kenotic doctrine." Many Trinitarians use Phil.2:6-8 to show how Jesus became a man, and gave up his deity. The problem is it completely goes against the Chalcedon Creed which you both agreed with. Chalcedon Creed (451 AD)
Therefore, following the holy fathers, we all with one accord teach men to acknowledge one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, at once complete in Godhead and complete in manhood,
truly God and truly man, consisting also of a reasonable soul and body;
of one substance with the Father as regards his Godhead, and at the same time of one substance with us as regards his manhood; like us in all respects, apart from sin; as regards his Godhead, begotten of the Father before the ages, but yet as regards his manhood begotten, bearer; one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, recognized in
two natures, without confusion,
without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by the union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence,
not as parted or separated into two persons, but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ; even as the prophets from earliest times spoke of him, and our Lord Jesus Christ himself taught us, and the creed of the fathers has handed down to us.
This shows how little people understand their creeds. People try to use the "kenotic doctrine" it in defense of the trinity. But it is in total contradiction to the Chalcedon Creed. The Kenotic Doctrine says that Jesus emptied himself of his deity. Well, you can simply read in the Chalcedon Creed that it defines Jesus' nature as fully God and fully man at all times, without division, without separation. You cannot say that you believe in the trinity and use this excuse. If you subscribe to the kenotic doctrine, then you have already rejected the trinity. You cannot be both.
Even the Pope, who we all know is a Trinitarian agrees. In 1951 at the 1500 anniversary of the Council of Chalcedon wrote the following:There is another enemy of the faith of Chalcedon, widely diffused outside the fold of the Catholic religion. This is an opinion for which a rashly and falsely understood sentence of St. Paul's Epistle to the Philippians (2:7), supplies a basis and a shape. This is called the kenotic doctrine, and according to it, they imagine that the divinity was taken away from the Word in Christ. It is a wicked invention, equally to be condemned with the Docetism opposed to it. It reduces the whole mystery of the Incarnation and Redemption to empty the bloodless imaginations. Encyclical of Pope Pius the 12th on the Council of Chalcedon September 8, 1951 (paragraph 29).
You also create another problem, a very BIG problem. If the second part of the Godhead becomes a man, then so does the first part! ( two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation). One can not become flesh with out the other. This Chalcedon doctrine has God the Father also becoming a man. Heresy of the highest order!
When you combine all the creeds you can see theological mental gymnastics at it's best.
My belief is easier... The LORD our God is one! ... No mental gymnastics required!