I'm going to try to put this succinctly, to say what has already been said, just different words.

Jesus "in the flesh" was a veiling of his divine glory. It was the blessing of the disciples and those others who saw the Lord THEN (as we will LATER) to take what they were given and to see through the veil and commune with GOD through the Lord. Don't miss this: Jesus came to "show us the Father," his incarnation was to reveal divinity. What do we think John means when he said "we beheld his GLORY"?

The utter, total failure of any and all pictures, images, etc. of Jesus is that they CANNOT do this critical thing: they cannot reveal GOD to us, to our minds. They merely show us how in some man's mind Jesus is like him! But that is the OPPOSITE of why Jesus came to earth, and took on flesh! He became like us SO THAT (purpose) we should be like him, as like him as creatures can be. And I can say that while in no way denying that he came to DIE in that flesh like we ought to have under the curse of judgment.

We will one day--when our own bodies are glorified, be ABLE to see him as he is, and will see him each one for himself. And we will, as the disciples did, be seeing him not do much for the manner in which we have become like him in glorified bodies, but how DIFFERENT he still is from us, even then. We will be penetrating with our now glorified eyes beyond to see so far as we are enabled to more of the glory of the Father.

This is how our Bible functions. It isn't filled with pictures of Jesus. What it presents to us of him, especially when we read the gospels, when they are preached to us (not exclusively of course) is JESUS. And as we read of him, we are not given the LIBERAL's Jesus, a great MAN, the BEST MAN EVER. NO! God is showing us HIS revelation, this is the DIVINE one! We are encountering GOD. In other words, in the Bible we are encountering that Divine One as well or BETTER than the disciples did! Dare I say that? Well, that is what PETER says! 2 Pet. 1:17-19.

It has always Always! ALWAYS!! been the essence of idolatry to bring God down to our level, to represent him as LIKE us in some way. Same with these movies. They are NOT (the Bible says they CAN'T, so I don't care what anybody else CLAIMS) lifting our minds up to the divine, and to the extent we act as though they are, we are worshiping according to idols.

"Little children, keep yourselves from idols." 1 John 5:21

__________________
Rev. Bruce G. Buchanan
ChainOLakes Presbyterian Church, CentralLake, MI


When posting friends, kindly bear those words of earthly wisdom in mind:
Oh, that God the gift would give us
To see ourselves as others see us.
--Robert Burns, 1786 (modernized) ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions? --