Question

INCARNATION

In his discussion of the centuries-long uproar about the doctrine of Incarnation, Smith explains the problem as being the conundrum of having to preserve both the full Divinity and the full Humanity of Christ. Why was each side of that god/man conjunction too important to discard?

Answer 1

Jesus Christ is considered to be a fully God and fully human figure in Christianity thus it becomes very important to make the birth of Christ as a divine one thus making it more appealing by creating a story that he was born of a virgin mother by God himself. Both theologians and historians would agree that Jesus was a complete human when looking at the background of Jesus. Jesus was visibly talking against the Roman Empire trying to liberate the Jews from the clutches of the Romans. He was also speaking against the illogical, superstitious and hypocritical life of the high class Jews of his time thus questioning his own religion. During that time, the world was limited to the distances they travelled thus their world during his time was only Jerusalem, Bethlehem and most probably Egypt. Jesus never talked out of the Jewish context thus making it more local. Today, the Church needs to maintain the fact that Jesus is a God because the Church needs to survive. Although most of the doctrines of the Church was put to test and proven wrong, the Church holds on to them because accepting the new truths would shake the foundations of the Church itself. The interesting fact is that whoever talked against the doctrines of the Church were killed mercilessly thus repeating what the Romans and the Jews did to Jesus during his time. He was crucified for talking the truth.