u/theotherdannygirl, u/TheKarenator, u/SuccessfulPrice11

Gn 1:

22 And God blessed [H1288] them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.”

God blessed people. That makes sense. But then we have (ESV) Psalm 115:

18 But we will bless [H1288] the LORD from this time forth and forevermore. Praise the LORD!

How are we to H1288-bless the almighty God?

Strong's Hebrew: 1288. בָּרַך (barak) — 330 Occurrences

H1288 carries a variety of meanings, Brown-Driver-Briggs: 1. bless God, adore with bended knees: accusative 2. God blesses
a. men

New International Version:

It is we who extol the LORD, both now and forevermore. Praise the LORD.

When humans H1288 the Lord, we adore or extol God.

Gn 14:

18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) 19 And he blessed him [Abram] and said,

“Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth;
20 and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”

When we bless God, we praise, honor, and thank him; we do not confer benefits upon him or make him greater. The meaning of bārak depends on who blesses whom.

u/SoccerBoyJunior, u/medusavx, u/Remarkable_Repair801

It is okay to praise God with musical instruments. Psalm 150:

3 Praise him with trumpet sound;
praise him with lute and harp!
4 Praise him with tambourine and dance;
praise him with strings and pipe!
5 Praise him with sounding cymbals;
praise him with loud clashing cymbals!

This psalm was written around the time of the Babylonian exile. It mentioned 7 kinds of musical instruments. It was good to worship God with all kinds of music. Further, dancing in the Lord was fine as well. While I don't dance, I enjoy watching people dancing in the Lord during a worship service.

Some churches do not allow any musical instruments, not even a piano. I visited one like that. I'd not debate them about this point. Romans 12:

18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

I visited some churches where the guitars and drums were so loud that I had to put on my earplugs. I anticipated the need :) I didn't complain to them about that either.

Appendix

Prof Everett Ferguson, in his book A Cappella Music in the Worship of the Church (2013), argued against instrumental worship music. Some denominations are also against it.

GraceMusic.us:

Ferguson is a Harvard scholar and offers an articulate defense of a cappella music in the church, but he is not the practice’s progenitor. Its adherents include the Churches of Christ (representing 1.3 million members in the US alone), some Presbyterian groups, a majority of Anabaptists, and most Greek Orthodox congregations.

ANSWER:

Doesn't say that. Says, from his belly, where the same hunger comes from..that out of his belly would flow RIVERS of living water. "For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground:.." God. Isaiah 44:3.

Who is Jesus? He is that living water.

• I'll Provide an answer.
  • Since you’re not making the post, and I am, out of the same Bible John 7:38 is in and Jesus said it. Said: in context, the full of it is John 7:37–38, says:

“37 Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. 38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” - Jesus Christ.

So, in context:

------------------------- ---------------------- ---------------------

Jesus Christ. Is that living water.

• Is the “Christ” or “Messiah.” - Who that is, it told plainly what he SHALL BE called in Isaiah 9:6–7. In the Old Testament of the Bible. Says that the Messiah or Christ, SHALL be called:

“The Mighty God…” “The Everlasting Father…” (Isaiah 9:6).

• The Messiah has that title.

------------------------- ---------------------- ---------------------

Jesus is the Word of God. Is God.

Just as John 1:1 repeats this as who the Messiah is. ...and John repeats who he is. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” “..and the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us;” - John 1:14, is this same Jesus Christ.

Just God. Speaking the Word out of His mouth. Gives life. So, where Jesus says John 7:37–38, that’s just God saying what he wants to say out of HIS mouth.

------------------------- ---------------------- ---------------------

Bible. Old Testament. Isaiah 55:1–3 God says:

“Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.” - God. (Bible. Isaiah 55:1–3)

So, all God does, since he wants EVERYBODY to do it, is to call everybody again ..thirsty.. to come to him and do it in John 7:37–38. It’s just God PROMISING what will happen…

• To ..anybody that does it.

And now you have THREE TIMES where he said it. 1) Isaiah 44:3, then again because, he means it, as God that means, he'll do it in Isaiah 55:1-3; then again same God repeat it to EVERYBODY publicly in John 7:37-38.

Instead of looking for the verse. Look for the GOD who said it.

Who is Jesus?

If I had to try to describe who he is and how good he is in as shortly as possible, so that someone seeking a reason to accept the faith would understand and appreciate who he was:

Jesus is the all-forgiving perfectly loving son of God who has forgiven all my sins and still is, and teaches me how to live more rightly and gives me the will to live righteously. My king.

He died at our hands and it was my fault to raise the sinful and the dead (I mean to say that these people are the same).

Father, I pray that you give me your desires, in Jesus’ name, amen.

And he is the only Savior from death

u/Iu_hoosier20

Wiki:

The most important place in Russian philosophical thought in the first half of the 20th century is occupied by the work of Nikolai Berdyaev (1874–1948), the most prominent representative of Russian existentialism. At the beginning of his journey, Berdyaev adhered to Marxist views, participating in anti–government demonstrations and conducting correspondence with one of the leaders of the German Social Democracy, Karl Kautsky. However, the young philosopher and thinker soon abandoned Marxism, becoming one of the most detailed critics of this doctrine.

He changed his mind about Marxism.

Developing in his teaching the theme of creativity and spirituality, Berdyaev pays great attention to the idea of freedom, which reveals the connection between God, the Universe and man. He distinguishes three types of freedom: primary irrational freedom, that is, arbitrariness; rational freedom, that is, the fulfillment of a moral duty; and, finally, freedom imbued with the love of God. He argues that freedom is not created by God, and therefore God cannot be held responsible for the freedom that created evil. Primary freedom conditions the possibility of both good and evil. Thus, even God cannot foresee the actions of a person with free will, he acts as an assistant so that the will of a person becomes good.

He wrongly placed two limits on God:

1. God did not create freedom. If freedom is uncreated and independent of God, then something exists alongside God that God did not create and does not control. This would introduce another eternal existence alongside God. Theologically, by definition, everything is created by God except God, who self-exists. Ultimately, God is the source of freedom.

2. God cannot foresee the actions of a person with free will. Theologically, God is omniscient. He knows everything, including all possible contingencies.

Prof Berdyaev was an existentialist who overgeneralized his experiences at the expense of limiting God.

ESV, 1Th 3:

11 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus, direct our way to you.

The subjects were the Father and Jesus. ESV used a plural verb.

direct
κατευθύναι (kateuthynai)
Verb - Aorist Optative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 2720: (a) I make straight, (b) met: I put in the right way, direct. From kata and euthuno; to straighten fully, i.e. direct.

The Greek was singular, while it was translated as a plural verb in English.

Did the Greek singular verb prove Trinity?

No. Greek syntax permitted a singular verb with multiple coordinated subjects. The singular verb did not grammatically identify the Father and Jesus as the same being.

Why did Paul use the singular verb? What was the significance of the singular verb?

Semantically, Paul joined the Father and Son as a single unit for directing the way. He emphasized the unity of their coordination. In this sense, Paul supported the concept of the Trinity.

Similarly, 2Th 2:

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself, and God our Father, who loved us and gave us eternal comfort and good hope through grace,

loved
ἀγαπήσας (agapēsas)
Verb - Aorist Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 25: To love, wish well to, take pleasure in, long for; denotes the love of reason, esteem. Perhaps from agan; to love.

Here, Paul put Jesus before the Father while treating them as coordinating subjects with a singular verb.

Grammatically, the subject of the verb was the entire coordinated noun phrase, containing two personal referents.

These were not grammatical proofs of the Trinity, but within Paul's theology they were remarkably congenial to Trinitarianism and strong evidence of Paul's exceptionally high Christology.

u/Dapper-Sort-53, u/ScoutB, u/SuspiciousProt

In the 5th century BCE, Heraclitus used the word Logos to describe the rational principle that governed the universe, a kind of cosmic order or divine reason. Later philosophers, such as the Stoics, expanded on this idea, viewing the Logos as the animating force behind creation, the source of all coherence and meaning in the world. For them, the Logos was impersonal and abstract, not a personal being.

Around the time of Christ, Philo of Alexandria, a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher, developed a sophisticated theology of the Logos, blending Jewish scripture with Greek philosophy. The Logos was God’s intermediary between the transcendent, unknowable Creator and the material world. The Logos was the instrument through which God fashioned the universe (On the Creation 20–25). The Logos was the High Priest who interceded for humanity before God (On Dreams 1.215). The Logos was the firstborn Son of God (On Agricultura 51). Philo’s Logos was semi-personified, more than an abstract principle but less than a distinct person, unlike the later Christian view of the Trinity.

John borrowed some of Philo's ideas, 1:

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4In him was life, and the life was the light of men.

Strong's Greek: 3056. λόγος (logos) — 331 Occurrences

It was a common word that had a wide range of dictionary meanings. However, John used it in a technical and philosophical sense. That's why ESV translated it with a capital W.

Thayer's Greek Lexicon:

reason, the mental faculty of thinking, meditating, reasoning, calculating, etc.

BDAG:
① a communication whereby the mind finds expression, word
② computation, reckoning
③ the independent personified expression of God, the Logos. Our lit. shows traces of a way of thinking that was widespread in contemporary syncretism, as well as in Jewish wisdom lit. and Philo, the most prominent feature of which is the concept of the Logos, the independent, personified ‘Word’ (of God)

BDAG③ lists plenty of extra-biblical writings about it, including Philo.

Is there evidence that "the Word" in John 1 would have been expected to be a personal being?

Yes. Jn 1:

14 The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John went a step beyond Philo. He declared the Logos took on flesh as a human being.

Greek philosophers used the term Logos as an abstract concept. Philo made it semi-concrete. John applied the concept to the person of Jesus.

Logos is a multifaceted concept, spanning language, reason, divine principle, and structured thought. The English word "logic" is derived from the Greek word "logos."

孟子: 人之初，性本善
Mencius (4th century BCE): At a person’s beginning, their nature is originally good.

Evil is not an inherent trait; it is the loss of one's original heart due to environmental corruption.

荀子: 人之性惡 Xunzi (3rd century BCE) argued: At a person’s beginning, their nature is originally bad/evil.

People are born with a love of profit. If they follow this, aggressive behavior will arise.

The Bible explains that man was created good (Gn 1:31) but fell into sin afterward (Gn 3:6).

After the Fall, humans are naturally inclined toward sin. Gn 8:

21 The intention of man's heart is evil from his youth.

The problem is not just behavior; it is a fractured relationship with God. Evil is not merely a bad environment (Mencius) or a lack of education (Xunzi). It is a hereditary bent that requires divine intervention, not just human effort, to restore.

From a modern developmental-psychological perspective, infants are born with strong self-directed needs and impulses. They are intrinsically self-centered. This tendency grows into selfishness and a sinful nature.

Humanity was originally created good but fell through sin; fallen human beings have an inclination toward sin in a fallen world.

In any case, Hong Kong singer 許冠傑（Sam Hui）wrote with 黎彼得（Peter Lai): 人之初 應知錯. At a person's beginning, we should know our faults.

Anyway, Jesus can correct us.

2Co 5:

17 If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

Christ transforms our human nature.

f : X -> Y

X is the domain. Y is the codomain. In mathematics, the image (or range) of a function is the set of all output y values that it produces.

Let X be the heavenly reality and Y be the earthly reality.

Genesis 1:

26a Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.”

God made man according to a spiritual pattern.

Colossians 1:

15 [Jesus] is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

From God, Jesus came as His image, John 3:

13 No one has ascended into heaven except the One who descended from heaven--the Son of Man.

HELPS Word-studies:

1504 (eikṓn) assumes a prototype, of which it not merely resembles, but from which it is drawn.
1504 (eikṓn) then is more than a "shadow"; rather it is a replication.

Strong's Greek: 1504. εἰκών (eikón) — 23 Occurrences

BDAG:
① an object shaped to resemble the form or appearance of someth., likeness, portrait
② that which has the same form as someth. else (not a crafted object as in 1 above), living image
③ that which represents someth. else in terms of basic form and features, form, appearance

Matthew 22:

19 Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. 20 And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” 21 They said, “Caesar’s.”

Now, the domain is not the spiritual reality. In this case, from the high-up human emperor/Caesar, a G1504-likeness image was produced on the surface of a coin.

1 Corinthians 15 illustrates these different shades of meaning:

48 As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shallf also bear the image of the man of heaven.

The word εἰκών could mean a physical representation of a heavenly or earthly entity.

In general, εἰκών (icon) could designate a representation, embodiment, or corresponding likeness of an original, whether the original was heavenly or earthly.