martha said:
Was Jesus the Avatar of His Age? Was He God in human form, come to Earth to bring a Master's love to humans? Or was He the Son of God, not God at all?
I know some Christians here take exception to the idea of Jesus actually being God. I would like some thoughts on this.
Avatar is, if I'm not mistaken, originally a Hindu term meaning a manifestation of one of the Hindu deities in a particular form, and that part of this idea is that there have been many avatars for many ages in many forms. I know people who are essentially of that outlook and regard Jesus as one of many forms in which the Divine has manifested itself.
First, if any of the primary sources and eyewitnesses were trying to get that idea across, they did a stunningly poor job. And if Jesus was trying to teach it, he was a complete failure as a teacher.
Now, I can easily grasp how someone with an essentially Eastern worldview would probably see the avatar concept as the only plausible interpretation. But it is nonsensical within a Judeo-Christian worldview, (especially a Jewish one, which is relentlessly monotheistic and non-representational -- you can't make the simplest image of God, can't even speak God's name.... )
The avatar idea just does not compute in the worldview with one personal God which Jesus inherited from the Hebrew Scriptures, and taught himself, and which Jews and Christians still hold.
Again, I'm trying to give the classical Christian position here, which I hope I'm not biasing by the fact that I also believe it's true. That is: Jesus' humanity isn't a "form," but part and parcel of his essence. He really is fully a man, with every weakness and complication that implies. He really is fully God, with everything that implies. It is the most gloriously, endlessly fascinating paradox I have ever encountered.
The term "Son" of God, at least as used in classical Christianity, means the exact same thing as saying Jesus is God. Son is not the name for a different being than God, but for one of the three persons in One God (Father, Son, Holy Spirit).
I hope this is helpful. And again, I hope I'm being fair. I'll just give one more personal addition. To me, and this is my own statement, not meant to offend anyone who might disagree, but to show how important this truth is to my own experience -- if I did not believe that Jesus is both God and man, I wouldn't waste ten minutes on Christianity, and I wouldn't waste one on the church.