Thanks to Bertrick for introducing us to a new Hillsong credal hymn today. I wonder a bit though...
Our Father everlasting
The all creating One God Almighty
Through Your Holy Spirit
Conceiving Christ the Son
Jesus our Saviour
Is it possible that, through the determined effort to avoid mentioning the source of Jesus's human nature (his mum) this song has descended into grammatical nonsense and a particularly weird kind of heresy? Answers on a CD please. (Hint - I think the word required here was "begetting").
I wondered about it, until I remembered the Apostles' Creed:
ReplyDeleteI believe in God, the Father almighty,
creator of heaven and earth.
I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Spirit
and born of the virgin Mary.
I think the song is more Apostles' than Nicean.
It's the lack of the Virgin Mary in that point that makes it sound weird.
DeleteIt does say "I believe in the virgin birth" later on; it just doesn't say who the virgin was
DeleteMaybe it sounds better musically than it reads, but there is no sense of rhyme and rhythm to that.
ReplyDeletePossibly Docetism as the heresy; by denying Jesus's human parenthood, we deny his humanity.
I'm torn between Docetism and Arianism. Certainly the avoidance of reference to his Blessed Mother suggests a denial of Christ's humanity. But it also almost seems to be suggesting there was when the Son was not (to crib from Athanasius).
DeleteTo be fair I'm going for "trying to avoid mentioning the Virgin Mary in case it sounds a bit Catholic"
DeleteYeah - fair. Though it does illustrate the issues of avoiding her rather well!
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