How can God turn into a human if He's God?!

http://www.reasonablefaith.org - William Lane Craig answers a question about the incarnation of Christ and the misunderstanding of it.

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[charvelgtrs]

My question is why did God wait over 100,000 years of human existence before he decided to send Jesus? Also, why did he only send one prophet in the middle east of all places? What about places where people actually knew how to read and write, so they could record everything that was taking place. Hmmm

[drcraigvideos]

@charvelgtrs *SIGH* Yeah, I heard Hitchens make that same argument too. If you look at the course of human history the message of the Gospel has been spread far and wide. Furthermore, even during Jesus' day people did not believe in Him. What more do you want? Do you want God to force people to love Him?

[charvelgtrs]

@drcraigvideos

BTW, God does force people to love him, because he uses hell as a scare tactic in the Bible.

[drcraigvideos]

@charvelgtrs Really? So, if I said, "Hey, don't take another step off that ledge or you'll drop 100 feet down to your death!" then I'm forcing him to make a choice? If hell is so scary to you why not enter Heaven then? I mean, duh!

[Sirstingray]

I bet Richard Dawkins is watching this at home shaking in his boots. Or maybe he's doing something he would find interesting or useful.

Given the reality of the world we live in today, with it's myriad problems and injustices, it still amazes me that this sort of inane chatter is the seriously debated and discussed.

[drcraigvideos]

@Sirstingray Uh, yeah, that's why Richard Dawkins decided to "debate" the issues in his shallow-minded book The God Delusion. You're too fast for us, sirstinkray.

[drcraigvideos]

@flabbyhabbybabby1 LOL! So NOW you admit he isn't a creationist. But you're trying to butch up by saying "by the strict definition of the term". He isn't a creationist PERIOD! You understand? Talk about being childish. And what would you suppose as an alternative to the universe? That nothing created the world? We've been through that: watch?v=OvqSlggxRiA.

[HaShim383]

@drcraigvideos I am shocked to see people actually try to argue God FORCES people lol it is obvious that He does not because THEY THEMSELVES do not believe in Him lol so what are they really arguing?

What can we conclude that God "forces" people to love Him? lol nothing in fact they only proved God exists lol

[TheEctomorph]

@Crosshair84 [Continuing on from my previous 'post] debates/discussions about the Christian faith.

[TheEctomorph]

@Crosshair84 [Continuing on from my previous 'post'] "Why is waiting 100,000 years such a problem? How do you know how long humanity will exist? For all you know, humanity could exist for another 10 million years. For the people then, Christ's first coming would have been very early in human history."

I must admit that you have made a valid point there - even though, as a very non-religious person myself, I do not like conceding points to members of the 'other side' in

[TheEctomorph]

"Why did God wait over 100,000 years of human existence before he decided to send Jesus?"

You reply to that question by saying: "For the same reason you don't try to teach a 6 month old baby how to read and write. Humanity had not yet developed to the point that it was ready."

No offence ... but I would suggest that, that is sheer speculation (of a theological nature) on your part.

However, I was impressed by the final paragraph of your recent 'post' on this You Tube board. You wrote:

[TheEctomorph]

@drcraigvideos [Continuing on from my previous 'post' about the Christian God] to do so. But surely that is not the case. By proving His existence, the God of Christianity could force every human being on the planet to believe in Him; He could also, no doubt, force every human being to FEAR Him. But, at the end of the day, human beings would surely still have a choice as to whether or not to LOVE this deity. One is reminded of an old adage about religion: "Believing in the existence of a

[TheEctomorph]

@drcraigvideos [Continuing on from my previous 'post]  Moreover, it is probably true to say that, if the Christian God were to provide ABSOLUTE PROOF of His existence to the human race, then all people on the planet would be obliged to FEAR Him.

That said, I do not understand the logic of the argument which goes like this: If the Christian God were to prove His existence to the human race, then no one would any longer have any choice as to whether or not to love Him; they would be FORCED to

[TheEctomorph]

@drcraigvideos If the Christian God really does exist, then presumably He is capable of PROVING his existence beyond any doubt WHATSOEVER to the human race, and thus of totally eradicating atheism (and even agnosticism). However, even if He were to do this - i.e. prove his existence beyond any doubt - human beings would still have a choice as to whether or not to LOVE this deity; although obviously they would no longer have a choice as to whether or not to believe in. Moreover, it is

[Crosshair84]

@charvelgtrs What about places where people actually knew how to read and write, so they could record everything that was taking place.

The Apostles, most of the time, didn't have a clue what Jesus was saying before his crucifixion. Anyone writing before then would have no idea the relevance of what he was saying and what or how to write it down. Only after the crucifixion did things start to make sense. Plenty of people could read and write then, given that we have the NT in the first place.

[Crosshair84]

@charvelgtrs Also, why did he only send one prophet in the middle east of all places?

Because that was where he had prepared, via the old covenant, for Jesus to come. Why just Jesus? Because that was all that was necessary. God does not care if you believe that he exists, what he cares about is having a relationship of love and trust with us that we freely enter into with him. In order to allow us to truly chose freely there has to be some ambiguity. God must stay at arms length, so to speak.

[Crosshair84]

@charvelgtrs "why did God wait over 100,000 years of human existence before he decided to send Jesus?"

For the same reason you don't try to teach a 6 month old baby how to read and write. Humanity had not yet developed to the point that it was ready.

Why is waiting 100,000 years such a problem? How do you know how long humanity will exist? For all you know, humanity could exist for another 10 million years. For the people then, Christ's first coming would have been very early in human history.