tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450449516025723817.post2198559000819238661..comments2009-10-06T04:51:14.499-07:00Anthony Buzzardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03148092715058623143noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450449516025723817.post-39187169188549010232009-10-05T19:07:59.239-07:002009-10-05T19:07:59.239-07:00Ditto that Keith...check out this great quote from the German historian Loofs:<br /><br />“The Apologists [‘church fathers’ like Justin Martyr, mid-2nd century] laid the foundation for the perversion/corruption (Verkehrung) of Christianity into a revealed [philosophical] teaching. Specifically, their Christology affected the later development disastrously. <br /><br />By taking for granted the transfer of the concept of Son of God onto the preexisting Christ, they were the cause of the Christological problem of the fourth century. They caused a shift in the point of departure of Christological thinking—away from the historical Christ and onto the issue of preexistence. <br /><br />They thus shifted attention away from the historical life of Jesus, putting it into the shadow and promoting instead the Incarnation [i.e., of a preexistent Son]. They tied Christology to cosmology and could not tie it to soteriology. The Logos teaching is not a ‘higher’ Christology than the customary one. It lags in fact far behind the genuine appreciation of Christ. <br /><br />According to their teaching it is no longer God who reveals Himself in Christ, but the Logos, the inferior God, a God who as God is subordinated to the Highest God (inferiorism or subordinationism).<br /><br />In addition, the suppression of economic-trinitarian ideas by metaphysical-pluralistic concepts of the divine triad (trias) can be traced to the Apologists” (Friedrich Loofs, Leitfaden zum Studium des Dogmengeschichte [Manual for the Study of the History of Dogma], 1890, part 1 ch. 2, section 18: “Christianity as a Revealed Philosophy. The Greek Apologists,” Niemeyer Verlag, 1951, p. 97).Xavierhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00497753051548808248noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1450449516025723817.post-1447021951510558362009-10-05T17:09:31.303-07:002009-10-05T17:09:31.303-07:00It seems that history has been forgotten, or overlooked, by most christians today. You are absolutely right in pointing out that most evangelical preaching is heavily influenced by Luther&#39;s ideas about the gospel; I was for many years, but I didn&#39;t know it. <br /><br />Having recently discovered the truth about the true nature of Jesus as the human son of God, I have also come to realize that my understanding of the bible has been affected in other areas as well. <br /><br />Thank you for doing what you do. I have learned much over the past year by reading your articles and listening to your podcasts. May God continue to bless you and make you a blessing to others who sincerely want to know the truth.Keithhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15785137252336021661noreply@blogger.com