authority
Cards (11)
- there are different views about Jesus' authority:
- Jesus' authority as God's authority: Son of God; Son of Man
- Jesus' authority as only human: approaches from different Christian movements; liberal approach
- classical Christianity upholds the belief of Jesus' authority as Son of God
- Jesus is shown to have total authority from God as he says:
- "all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me"
- Jesus is clearly referred to as the Son of God in the Nicene Creed:
- "we believe... in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God"
evidence is also seen in the trinity:- Jesus is God incarnate
- some see the relationship between God and Jesus as like a father-son relationship
- "thou art my beloved Son; with thee i am well pleased"
- "this is my beloved Son; listen to him"
- Jesus himself often refers to himself using the title Son of Man
- emphasises his humanity
- a way for Jesus to delay his charge of blasphemy
- Messianic Secret:
- the idea that Jesus purposefully hid his identity as the Messiah
- those who closely interacted with him were urged to conceal their understanding of his divine powers
- Jesus made himself more relatable to humans:
- "foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head" - Jesus being subject to the same human hardships as anybody else
- there are 4 sects that deny the divinity of Jesus, seeing him as only human:
- Adoptionism
- Arianism
- The Cathars
- Unitarianism
- there are around 7000 Unitarians in the UK. Unitarian belief about the authority of Jesus:
- once creation was complete, God ceased to act within the created order
- Jesus has a special place as a great man + prophet of God, but he is only human + has no divine authority
- liberal approach to Jesus' authority:
- Jesus is only human
- Jesus was 'someone close to God' rather than his son - he was an exceptional human being, a great teacher, healer + spiritual leader, but was not literally God, nor his son