Our Divine Savior

By George Pfautsch

It is the belief of most Christians of the world that Jesus Christ was true god and true man. It is difficult for us as humans to understand that belief and, therefore, helpful to attribute everything in the human nature of Jesus Christ to his divine person. That includes not only his miracles but also his sufferings and even his death.

The purpose of this book is to provide the reader with a greater appreciation of why the attribution of Christs human nature to his divine nature is an important aspect of the Christian faith.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Jan 5, 2016
• ISBN: 9781504971737

George Pfautsch

George E. Pfautsch spent most of his working life as a financial executive for a major forest products and paper company. His final years with Potlatch Corporation were spent as the senior vice president of finance and chief financial officer. Following his retirement, he began writing about the national morality he believes was intended for this nation by the founding fathers. He is the author of nine previous books covering the subjects of faith, freedom, morality, and justice. In addition, he is the coauthor of a book written by Melitta Strandberg, which is the story of her family’s quest for freedom before, during, and after World War II. He is also the coauthor of a book written by Leroy New, “the Guitar Wizard,” of Branson, Missouri. He is married to Dodi, his wife of fifty-three years. He has two children and four grandchildren.

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© 2016 George Pfautsch. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 01/04/2016

ISBN: 978-1-5049-7174-4 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-7173-7 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models,

and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Scriptural passages have been taken from The New American Bible - Saint Joseph Edition and all catechetical passages have been taken from the Catechism of the Catholic Church

Contents

Chapter 1 The Early Heresies

Chapter 2 Human And Divine

Chapter 3 The Boy Jesus In The Temple

Chapter 4 The Miracle At Cana

Chapter 5 The Miracles Of Compassion

Chapter 6 The Beatitudes

Chapter 7 The Sermon On The Mount

Chapter 8 Scriptural Messages Of His Divinity

Chapter 9 The Passion Of Our Lord

Chapter 10 The Crucifixon

Chapter 11 The Resurrection

Chapter 12 From Resurrection To Ascension

Chapter 13 True God From True God

INTRODUCTION

Since the human birth of our Lord and Savior, many books and articles have been written on the subject of Christology and the Mystery of the Incarnation. Before such writings, the Church in its infancy struggled many hundreds of years in order to properly define and describe Jesus. After such efforts and following several Church councils, the fourth ecumenical council at Chalcedon in the year 451 AD confessed the following:

Following the holy Fathers, we unanimously teach and confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ: the same perfect in divinity and perfect in humanity, the same truly God and truly man, composed of rational soul and body; consubstantial with the Father as to his divinity and consubstantial with us as to his humanity; like us in all things but sin. He was begotten from the Father before all ages as to his divinity and in these last days, for us and for our salvation, was born as to his humanity of the virgin Mary, the Mother of God.

We confess that one and the same Christ, Lord, and only-begotten Son, is to be acknowledged in two natures without confusion, change, division, or separation. The distinction between the natures was never abolished by their union, but rather the character proper to each of the two natures was preserved as they came together in one person (prosopon) and one hypostasis.

In the Catechism (CCC 468) of the Catholic Church we are told that everything in Christ's human nature is to be attributed to his divine person as its proper subject, not only his miracles but also his sufferings and even his death. In that same paragraph the Church provides a quote from the 5th ecumenical council which was held at Constantinople in the year 553 AD which states, He who was crucified in the flesh, our Lord Jesus Christ, is true God, Lord of glory, and one of the Holy Trinity.

As a matter of our faith, we believe the above regarding the Mysteries of the Incarnation, the Trinity, and his two natures because it is provided to us by Sacred Scripture and Apostolic Tradition of the Church and as such is inspired by the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, our Lord having two natures will always remain a mystery. How one person can possess two natures is simply impossible for the human mind to fully comprehend, and thus it is through faith that we accept and believe.

During the first five hundred years that it took the Church to provide the beliefs of our faith regarding the two natures of Jesus, there were some heresies advanced regarding our Lord.

To this day there are many who wish to further explain the two natures of Jesus, but some still do so too often by trying to view separately the human nature of Jesus. The problem of doing that is that we try to acknowledge one of his natures without the other. As Chalcedon taught us we must acknowledge the two natures without confusion, change, division or separation.

Because we are human beings and not capable of fully comprehending a mystery, the tendency is to explain our Savior in regards to his humanity only. When we do that without the accompanying attribution to the divine Person, we provide an incomplete portrayal of our Lord.

The title of this book is Our Divine Savior. It is not possible for this writer or any writer to fully understand or explain our Lord's divinity. It is only possible to point to Sacred Scripture and Apostolic Tradition as to those matters which are otherwise impossible for humans to fully comprehend as regards the Mystery of the Incarnation and of his two natures.

In a book such as this it is important to acknowledge that there are many things about our Lord that I and other humans cannot understand. We must accept many things by faith and thus lean heavily, as just noted, on that which is provided us in Sacred Scripture and Apostolic Tradition, which is