GOD Did Not Die

Even momentarily, GOD never died. GOD never even died on a cross at Calvary.

Scripture does record that "Christ died" in Romans 5:6,8 plus 14:15 and I Corinthians 8:11 and 15:3. Put another way, one can safely say that the Messiah died (and was resurrected, of course). It is legitimate to declare that the Father raised His Son from the dead, instead of Jesus raising Himself from the dead.

Though Jesus was "one with the Father" (John 10:30) and was of the ancient "I AM" (Exodus 3:6-15 and John 8:58) who spoke from the burning bush in the desert which burning-but-not-being-consumed bush fascinated Moses, and our Lord was in in the form of God (Philippians 2:6-7), He was never the totality of the Trinitarian Godhead (i.e. the Holy Trinity) during His earthly ministry. "The LORD said to my Lord....If David thus calls Him 'Lord,' how is He then His Son?" (Matthew 22:45). In Philippians 2:7 The KJV states that when the no-beginning always-preexisting Son of God took bodily form in Mary, He became a servant. The RSV states in that passage that Jesus "emptied Himself" of His omnipresent and omnipotent nature and essence (use of the word "essence" is not needed, and please forget the materialistic word "substance" here). Similarly, infant Jesus birthed by Mary was never the totality of the Trinitarian Godhead (i.e. the Holy Trinity). Thus, it is wrong and improper to say that "GOD" died at Calvary, and improper to state that Mary was the Mother of GOD.....and consequently presuming that the universe was being held together and run by a suckling infant interested simply in both the milky breasts and other purely-human functioning.

The distinction separating Jesus the Son of God from His Heavenly Father was made clear many times in the New Testament record, such as when Jesus cried out "My Father, My Father, why have You forsaken Me?" (Matthew 27:46 and Mark 15:34) and "Father, into Your hands I commend My spirit" (Luke 23:46).

Concerning the latter point, Mary never originated nor birthed either The Father nor The Holy Spirit. Indeed, she never even originated nor birthed the Son of God, even though she did participate and cooperate in the origin and birth of the son of man Jesus, which Jesus was fathered by His Heavenly Father through the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit. In fact, all three Persons of the Holy Trinity Godhead originated and created sinner yet temporary-virgin redeemer-saint Mary herself.

The Lord Jesus spoke both of Hades (with reference to the rich man and Lazarus parable in Luke chapter 16) and Paradise (Luke 23:43) before He died on His cross. What Jesus immediately and initially descended into upon His bodily demise was neither Hades nor Paradise nor "purgatory" but what the precise text in Ephesians 4:9-10 states, which is: the lower parts of the earth. That "lower parts of the earth" is probably what the Old-Testament authors called "Sheol" and "the Pit" (i.e. the abode of the dead) and not distinguished in the Old Covenant with the distinctive differentiation of "Hades" and "Paradise." When Jesus ascended, the KJV has Ephesians 4:8 read that He "led captivity captive" whereas the RSV for that Scripture reference states that He "led a host of captives." One wonders exactly where saints of the Old Testament who existed before the sacrificial-atonement crucifixion death of Jesus went when they died, though one can safely assume that those good guys were not being tormented with the flaming torture of Hades upon their deaths. Indeed, we remember the glorified state that both Moses and Elijah were on the Mount of Transfiguration before Christ's crucifixion death.

It would be accurate to state in both major creeds of the Christian faith that Christ descended in the lower parts of the earth like the Bible states, rather than descending into Hades or hell!

It is similarly errant to presume that Christ died in the sense of momentarily becoming non-existent. None of us humans, also made in the triuine "image of God" (with body, spirit, and soul) even momentarily become non-existent either, being that upon our bodily death, our spirits return to God who gave us them, and our souls go either to Hades or Paradise awaiting the resurrection when the trinitarian parts rejoin as Scripture describes.

Pertaining to the human nature of the God-man Jesus compared to our human nature, James 1:13 reminds us that Jesus as God "cannot" be tempted with evil and He Himself tempts no one.....but assuredly us non-God humans can (and frequently are) lamentably tempted with evil and regrettably tempt others. The KJV renditon of Titus 1:2 states that God cannot lie and the RSV translation of Titus 1:2 instead states that God never lies. Which do you prefer? Does believing that God cannot do something make Him inadequate and inferior and violate His free will? Is it that He "cannot" be tempted and sin because He WILL NOT be tempted and sin? A speculation into God's capacities and intentions is avoided by simply declaring that the Lord does not (i.e. NEVER) is tempted nor sinfully gives in to the temptation.

When the Lord went into the temple and overturned the tables of the cheating (and perhaps irreverently noisy) moneychangers, He was not "at that time abrogating the Jewish animal-sacrifice system," as one errant and confusing pseudo-theologian has mis-claimed. The animal sacrifices ceased only at the time The Ultimate Sacrificial Lamb died on His cross, and has ceased ever since. [How many Jews do you presently know of who now yet sacrifice animals for their sins]? Jesus got angry and took violent action against the temple officials for the cause the precise Text states: "My house shall be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of robbers."

That errant and confusing pseudo-theologian I referred to previously has also incorrectly asserted that events in Biblical history did not happen at a particular time in history because "all history is simultaneous with God." Divine pre-knowledge is obviously NOT identical nor synonymous with omni-occurrence. "At the right TIME Christ died for the ungodly" (Romans 5:6) "WHILE we were YET SINNERS" (Romans 5:8).

He has also absurdly stated that religious iconic images (e.g. paintings, sculptures, etc.) which in fact merely symbolize who and what they symbolize.....are "instead the actual and real event or person they symbolize."

Besides that, he has (in his pathetic non-genetic stupidity and ignorance misusing microbiological terms) non-scientifically and anti-scientifically asserted that Adam and all men thereafter came from Eve's maternal RNA and DNA.

Cultic-Catholic PSEUDO-"Bible" Verses:

Leviticus 19:28? = You shall not tattoo any marks upon you, so tattoo little temporary ashen crosses on your foreheads on Ash Wednesday.

Matthew 6:16? = Be like the hypocrites who disfigure their faces with little temporary ashen crosses on Ash Wednesday so their fasting can be seen by men.

Matthew 23:9? = Call no man your Father on earth, for you have one Father who is in heaven. Therefore call cultic catholic "priests:" Father.

Luke 1:48? = Hencefore all generations will call Me the Blessed Mother of GOD as Maternal Intercessor and Co-Redemptress.

Luke 11:27? = Blessed is Mary's womb which bore you, and Mary's breasts you sucked. And Jesus replied, "Blessed indeed is the Mother of GOD, instead of those who hear the Word of God and do it.

Luke 23:43 = Today you shall be with Me in Purgatory.

Acts 11:26? = ....in Antioch the disciples were for the first time called Catholics.

Romans 8:26-34? = The spirit of Mary intercedes for us with sighs too deep for words. The spirit of Mary intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. Jesus Christ and Mary, raised from the dead and at the right hand of God, indeed intercede for us.

I Timothy 2:5? = There are at least two Mediators between God and men besides Christ Jesus, including the Virgin Mary, St. Peter, and a cadre of other canonized saints and purported saints with diverse names.

II Timothy 3:16 = All "scripture," including the plagiaristic koran-like apocryphal books of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus are inspired by God.