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Yes, I read the whole bit which is why I posted all of it. I don't post things I haven't read. Admittingly, I could have written this differently to get across what I meant:
The gnostics believed that what was seen at the crucifixion was the appearence of Jesus suffering and the appearence of Jesus dying. The didn't believe that Jesus actually died. They believed that his body died, but that he did not. Christians hold the idea that the soul and body are one, that a person is one soul/spirit in and united to one body. The gnostics did not see Jesus as a divine soul in and united to a human body. They see Jesus as a divine hand in a human puppet. Because of this, for them, their is no human nature at all to Jesus. So, when the Body of Jesus died, it was not Jesus who died, but only a flesh coat that was not significant to Jesus at all. Thus, the death of Jesus is essentially denied from the Christian viewpoint and it isn't really a salvific event at all. That is why for them, "salvation" comes not from the crucifixion, but from secret knowledge of who Jesus "really was."
The way this thread was being reasoned out was leading in a gnostic direction, or at least so I thought. As I said, I could have worded my original statement better, and in retrospect, should have kept it along the lines of "why do we say only his human nature died..blah blah" but I didn't. That's my fault. Of course GOD can not die. But Christ died. Christ is God. So we have to work that out in more ways that "yes/no/confused" can allow. So yes, God died, but what does that mean? This:
I'll try to be more mindful of the way I state things next time. Thanks for keeping me on my toes.
If we say that only Christ's body/human nature died on the cross...well..hello gnosticism
The way this thread was being reasoned out was leading in a gnostic direction, or at least so I thought. As I said, I could have worded my original statement better, and in retrospect, should have kept it along the lines of "why do we say only his human nature died..blah blah" but I didn't. That's my fault. Of course GOD can not die. But Christ died. Christ is God. So we have to work that out in more ways that "yes/no/confused" can allow. So yes, God died, but what does that mean? This:
Thus it was God the Son who died—not, of course, in his divine nature, which cannot know death and which holds the universe in existence, but in the human nature which was so utterly his. Death, remember, does not for any one of us mean annihilation. It means the separation of soul and body, a separation that at the last judgment will be ended. Upon Calvary, the body that was God the Son’s was separated from the soul that was likewise his. And on the third day they were united again. In his human nature God the Son rose from the death that in his human nature had been his.