One thought on “Rerun: to whom is Moses speaking in Moses 1?”
It was really interesting to read the link from the FAIR site about uses of the different terms/names for God. Thanks for sharing that.
From ‘BrianJ’ ‘s comment back on that post in 2010:
‘There was a discussion of this on my blog where Jim F defends the position that (paraphrasing) “It doesn’t really matter whether it was the Father or the Son because they are One, but the text at least presents itself as being words from the Father; thus, we should ask why the text presents itself that way and not who was actually speaking.”’
I think this is the vital thing here. We can get caught up in wrangling the scriptures on this, concerned with what the ‘right’ interpretation is. The investiture of authority is obviously an important, and seemingly eternal, principle. But I think it’s just really hard for our mortal minds to understand. It matters to be aware of, and leads to or explains similar things that might occur in God’s kingdom on earth.
But in the end, what matters? What we learn from it. We know God is good, He’s not actually trying to confuse us, and His purpose is our development. So the point from ‘Jim F’ is the salient one: why does the text present itself that way, whatever it means? How does it help us learn about creation, God’s relationship with His children, etc.? Eventually, we are also to become ‘one with’ God, as the Godhead are ‘one’ – aligned completely with their purposes; like Them in light and truth and love. If the Son is invested in our progress, in how we see ourselves, and in what we know about His and the Father’s purposes for this earth and us on it, then so is the Father, and so is the Holy Spirit. So is the rest of Heaven. It then becomes a little nitpicky to worry too much about who exactly is saying it. What matters more is what they’re saying…
It was really interesting to read the link from the FAIR site about uses of the different terms/names for God. Thanks for sharing that.
From ‘BrianJ’ ‘s comment back on that post in 2010:
‘There was a discussion of this on my blog where Jim F defends the position that (paraphrasing) “It doesn’t really matter whether it was the Father or the Son because they are One, but the text at least presents itself as being words from the Father; thus, we should ask why the text presents itself that way and not who was actually speaking.”’
I think this is the vital thing here. We can get caught up in wrangling the scriptures on this, concerned with what the ‘right’ interpretation is. The investiture of authority is obviously an important, and seemingly eternal, principle. But I think it’s just really hard for our mortal minds to understand. It matters to be aware of, and leads to or explains similar things that might occur in God’s kingdom on earth.
But in the end, what matters? What we learn from it. We know God is good, He’s not actually trying to confuse us, and His purpose is our development. So the point from ‘Jim F’ is the salient one: why does the text present itself that way, whatever it means? How does it help us learn about creation, God’s relationship with His children, etc.? Eventually, we are also to become ‘one with’ God, as the Godhead are ‘one’ – aligned completely with their purposes; like Them in light and truth and love. If the Son is invested in our progress, in how we see ourselves, and in what we know about His and the Father’s purposes for this earth and us on it, then so is the Father, and so is the Holy Spirit. So is the rest of Heaven. It then becomes a little nitpicky to worry too much about who exactly is saying it. What matters more is what they’re saying…