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Last week, in my post Does It Matter if Jesus Is God?, I wrote:

In particular, it’s far from clear whether the gospel authors themselves considered Jesus to be God…as it turns out, this belief is never explicitly stated anywhere in the Bible.

I thought I knew all the verses that were used to justify Jesus’ Godhood. Verses such as: “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” All these were, in my opinion, veiled and indirect references. I thought there was nowhere in the Bible that came right out and said it.

But as commenter (and longtime friend) Jimmy Taco pointed out, I was wrong. There are at least two places where it’s spelled out pretty clearly.

First, there’s the famous John 1:1.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

I knew this verse well, and knew it had been used as an argument, but I wasn’t convinced “the Word” really referred to Jesus, as mainstream theology claims. What I did not remember was this later verse, John 1:14.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Clear as day. Of course, there are questions about the translation of John 1:1 as well: some say the Greek phrase for “the Word was God” is better translated as “the Word was a god,” or “the Word was divine.” But saying a Bible verse is controversial is like saying an ocean is wet, and I’m far from knowledgeable enough to puzzle that one out on my own. I’m willing to accept the standard translation.

Another quote worth quoting is Colossians 2:9.

For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form…

This is from one of Paul’s letters. I like this one even more, because Paul is (to me) much more reliable than the anonymous author of the so-called Gospel of John. The Gospel of John is believed to have been written around 90 AD, sixty years after the death of Jesus. Paul, on the other hand, probably wrote just twenty years after Jesus died.

So the Bible does make a clear statement that Jesus is God. But of course, that wasn’t my question. My question was: does it matter?

Based on the comments I received, the answer seems to be that it does indeed matter – insofar as Jesus must be God in order to act as Savior.

In other words, we all agree that the central point of Christian theology is the salvation offered by Jesus. The question of Jesus as God, on the other hand, is only important as a corollary: because (it is argued) he must be fully God in order for Grace to make sense.

I don’t necessarily accept this latter argument, but I’m not sure it’s the kind of question that debate can properly resolve. The mechanics of the Divine seem largely inscrutable.

So, that’s my latest attempt at armchair Biblical analysis. Thoughts?

Keyboard shortcuts are one of those little things that just make your life easier. Below are the ones I use on a daily basis, the most basic and useful essentials of navigating in a Windows environment. You may know some or most of these already, but then, you may find some new ones, too.

• Ctrl+C – Copy.
• Ctrl+X – Cut.
• Ctrl+V – Paste.
• Ctrl+S – Save file.
• Ctrl+N – Create new file.
• Ctrl+B – Turn bold on/off (in most text editing programs).
• Ctrl+I – Turn italics on/off (in most text editing programs).
• Ctrl+U – Turn underline on/off (in most text editing programs).
• Ctrl+A – Select all.
• Tab – Move to the next field in a form.
• Shift+Tab – Move to the previous field in a form.
• Ctrl+Z – Undo.
• Ctrl+Y – Redo (does not work in as many programs as Ctrl+Z).
• Windows Key + D – Show desktop.
• Windows Key + L – Lock computer.
• Ctrl+Alt+Delete – The classic. Allows you (hopefully) to end a program that’s locked up.
• Hold Alt and press Tab repeatedly – Cycle through all open windows.
• Home – Move to the beginning of the line. A very basic but underused function.
• End – Move to the end of the line.
• Ctrl+Home – Move to the beginning of the document.
• Ctrl+End – Move to the end of the document.
• Shift+Arrow Key – Highlight text.
• Shift+Delete – Delete a file without putting it in the Recycle Bin. (Use with caution.)
• Ctrl+T – In an Internet browser, open a new tab.
• Ctrl+F – Search for text in a document.
• Shift+Enter – In many programs (like some instant messengers), hitting “Enter” performs a command (like sending the message) instead of adding a new line. If all you want is a new line, Shift+Enter is the way to go.
• Print Screen – Another very useful key that’s often overlooked. Take a screenshot of the current screen and copy it. You can then paste it into any graphical editor (like MS Paint).
• Alt+Print Screen – Take a screenshot of just the window that’s currently active.

Those are the ones I can remember off the top of my head, but I’m sure I missed plenty of good ones. If I left out any of your favorites, how about sharing them in the comments?

Image found here: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Armadillidium_vulgare_2419.JPG

You’ve seen these things, right? Little gray bugs with lots of legs, and when you touch them, they roll up into a ball.

They’re invading our house right now. Last night alone we must’ve found half a dozen of them in various rooms, cruising around our carpet like they own the place. Which isn’t so bad – they’re totally harmless, don’t bite, don’t do much of anything that I’ve ever seen. I used to let them crawl over my fingers when I was a kid.

Here’s my question: what do you call these things? I always called them one name growing up, and then I learned a second name when I got older, but my wife calls them yet a third thing. What about you?

I graduated from college back in 2007 with a bachelor’s degree in computer science. I had a job lined up and I wasn’t looking back. Now, after five years of working in the “real world,” I’m returning to school (albeit a different university) to get my master’s in the same subject. Still working full-time, but now I’ve got classes in the evenings too.

I’m only three weeks in, so I haven’t started my thesis or any major research yet. In these early stages, my academic work as a grad student isn’t hugely different from what I had as an undergrad. Still, it’s exciting.

As a citizen of corporate America, here are five things I love about going back to school:

1. The focus is on knowledge. In the corporate world, knowledge is a means to an end. Training is justified in terms of benefit to the company. The ultimate goal is to make money. In school, this order is reversed: knowledge is explicitly the goal, and money is the hoop you jump through to reach it. I love learning more than almost anything else, so it’s wonderfully refreshing to return to a world centered on that.

2. Objectives are clear. When you’re managing a corporate project, you spend half your time just trying to nail down what, exactly, your requirements are – and the other half trying to keep up with the changes. (Ideally you do the actual work somewhere in there too.) In class, you know what your goals are, because they give you a sheet where they’re numbered and printed in bold. Is it realistic to expect clarity from the universe? No. Is it wonderful when it happens? Oh sweet Asimov yes.

3. You know how well you’re doing. In the corporate world, it’s very hard to figure out whether you’re doing a good job. If your project finishes under budget, maybe you’re a good project manager – or maybe your initial estimate was too high. If you miss a deadline, maybe you screwed up – or maybe the problem was just more complex than anybody realized. In practice, your own performance is so intertwined with everyone else’s – and external factors – that it’s very difficult to sort anything out. Sure, you get an annual review from your boss, but in the end, that’s just another opinion. But classes? They give you grades: simple, unambiguous grades. I never realized how nice that was until it went away.

4. Success depends only on you; failure only hurts you. Sure, classes have group projects sometimes, and researchers often work in teams. But by and large, academia (especially at the lower levels) is far more individual than corporate life. Some people might consider that a downside, but for me, it’s pretty wonderful.

5. Projects end. You turn in your homework, and that’s the end of it. You finish a class, and you never go back. Even multi-year research culminates in a thesis, and then you can move on. Contrast that with the corporate world, where nothing is ever truly over. Sure, projects have a close-out phase, but from there you just switch to supporting whatever you installed – and gearing up for the next project, which will build on the last one. Efforts are measured in decades, and early mistakes can haunt your later work for years.

Of course, everything loses its luster after a while. By the time I had my bachelor’s degree in hand, I was thoroughly sick of academic life, determined not to go back, and ready for the fresh air of Actually Doing Something. By the time I get my master’s, the pendulum may have swung back again. But for now, school is a good place to be.

How does school life compare with working life in your own experience?

Question: How hot is it inside a Tauntaun?

Answer: Luke warm.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

You’re welcome, Internet.

Image found here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Michelangelo%27s_Pieta_5450_cropncleaned_edit.jpg

Lately, my wife and I have been watching a series of video lectures on the New Testament, part of the modestly-titled Great Courses brand. Pretensions aside, the Great Courses actually are pretty good, and this particular series examines the New Testament from a historical and academic (and therefore secular) point of view. My wife is a Christian and I’m not, and we’ve both gotten a lot out of them.

One thing I like about the lectures is that they force you to step back from modern, mainstream views on Christianity, and focus your attention on the text of the gospels themselves. As you’d expect from documents that are two millennia old, their meaning in many cases is hard to grasp. In particular, it’s far from clear whether the gospel authors themselves considered Jesus to be God.

At first glance, this may seem surprising. Nearly all modern Christians, Jehovah’s Witnesses excepted, believe that Jesus was (and is) both fully man and fully God. But, as it turns out, this belief is never explicitly stated anywhere in the Bible.

Of the four gospels, John comes the closest to spelling it out. Jesus says, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” (John 14:9.) Even this is oddly veiled and, in my view, ambiguous. After all, Jesus spoke in parable and metaphor; couldn’t he have meant that he was the path to the Father?

And remember, John was the latest of the four, written probably sixty years after Jesus’ death. The earlier three are even less clear. Jesus is presented as the Jewish messiah, the “Son of Man,” and the “Son of God.” But God Himself? Hints, perhaps, but nothing more. A modern reader, examining the gospels without a prior opinion, might be very puzzled about the exact nature of Jesus’ divine status. In fact, the early Christians were equally puzzled, with prominent sects promoting the idea that Jesus was subordinate to God. It wasn’t until the First Council of Nicaea, almost three centuries after the death of Jesus, that anything like a consensus was reached.

But here’s my question: does it matter? If you are a Christian, a believer, is the status of Jesus as God really part of the foundation of your faith?

John 3:16 is often cited as an encapsulation of the Christian belief:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

A belief in God, a belief in salvation, and a belief in Jesus as Christ and redeemer. It’s striking that Jesus-as-God forms no part of this core formula.

Though I’m not a Christian anymore, I was for a long time, and it seems to me that this question – while interesting – is not fundamental. If God sent Jesus to die for the sins of mankind, surely that’s the important part. Does his precise theological status really matter?

What do you think?

Have a happy Fourth!