Saturday, December 24, 2022

Norman L. Geisler and Ron Rhodes' Nestorianism in "When Cultists Ask" (1997)

 When commenting Heb 1:3, Geisler and Rhodes noted that

 

. . . Mormons fail to recognize that the incarnate Jesus is one person with two natures—a divine nature and a human nature. (Norman L. Geiser and Ron Rhodes, When Cultists Ask: A Popular Handbook on Cultic Misinterpretations [Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Books, 1997], 283, italics in original)

 

Notice, however, that they must split the single person of Jesus into two persons (at least functionally) when addressing Mark 13:32:

 

We must distinguish between what Jesus knew as God (everything) and what he knew as man. As God, Jesus was omniscient (all-knowing), but as man he was limited in his knowledge. The situation can be schematized as follows:

 

Jesus as God

Jesus as Man

Unlimited in knowledge

Limited in knowledge

No growth in knowledge

Growth in knowledge

Knew time of his coming

Did not know time of his coming

 

Hence, in Mark 13:32, Jesus was speaking from the vantage point of his humanity. In his humanity, Jesus was not omniscient, but was limited in understanding, just as are all human beings. If Jesus had been speaking from the perspective of his divinity, he wouldn’t have said the same thing. (Ibid., 139, italics in origianl)

 

As with so many Protestant apologists, they fall into the trap of Nestorianism.