Logos
To understand a discussion of the Logos, we need a slight background in philosophy. Are there any among you that would admit to despising wisdom? I thought not. So, for those of you with an extreme fundamentalist upbringing, you need to let go of your fear of philosophy and accept God's role in it. Now we all call the Bible "the Word," which is proper and good. The Logos is not only the Word of God but the Reason of God. For John and all thinking people at that time and for centuries beforehand, Logos as the Reason of God and the Word of God were on their minds. There are of course Christians that despise all philosophy as vanity but the fact remains that philosophy in its purest forms will lead us to the knowledge of God and it is in this knowledge that is the aim of Theosis. The more we know and understand Him, the more we are to become like Him. In the Bible, wisdom, knowledge and understanding are very often grouped together. This is not the vain philosophy or foolish arguments we were warned about but simply the love of wisdom that leads us to knowledge which in turn leads us unto the understanding of truth. The understanding of true philosophy can be a guard against the false teachers who reject knowledge. The excellency of knowledge is that wisdom enhances life to them that have it and it is through our God given reason through faith that we may arrive at knowledge and understanding. While endless philosophical arguments should be avoided, the philosophy that leads us to knowledge is for the receiving of wisdom, truth and revelation. "How much better is it to get wisdom than gold and to get understanding rather to be chosen than silver!" Proverbs 16:16. A person of knowledge should increase in Spiritual strength but the Lord says that "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you shall be no priest to Me: seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children." Hosea 4:6. The Greek word for lack of knowledge is ignorance. The aim of Spiritual knowledge is truth and not for those that walk in darkness. All knowledge and all wisdom must be related to truth or the pursuit of it is in vain and the Bible speaks a lot about it. Knowledge is the best treasure that a person can secretly hoard up in life. Godly knowledge makes a man honest, virtuous and endearing to the society and Church community. Knowledge is in the holiest of the holies; shorn of knowledge a man is but an animal. Pray with Paul that "your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment" Philippians 1:9. And of his desire "that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you might be filled with all the fullness of God." Ephesians 3 17-19. Philosophy is the Greek word for the "love of wisdom." If you are a Spiritual Christian and able to appreciate philosophy, you are already free from Puritan ignorance. We need only understand that there is the wisdom of this world with its seducing spirits, and the wisdom of God. I can't really explain philosophy except to best advise you to find out for yourself with an open mind and you will understand. Theology is the study of God and if studied through the tutelage of the Holy Spirit, leads us to the knowledge of the truth of God. Christian philosophy takes that knowledge and through man's God given rational processes seeks the same truth. The love of God is the discernment gained to know the difference between truth and error and make proper assumptions based upon faith, reason and revelation. I see philosophy asking why and how we got there, wherever there is. We believe; therefore, we know, we hear and receive confirmation. There is a true philosophy of God that can harmonize human endeavors to truth and the will of God. Philosophy also aims to clarify and to explain. Bertrand Russell once said that philosophy consists of the questions we don't know how to answer. Philosophy is not a doctrine in itself but a methodology. Because everyone wonders about the nature of things, we are all philosophers. Thoughtful persons demand answers to the problems that are part of our very lives. For mature Christians, philosophy never veers from the truth of the Bible and is used as a tool for a further search toward truth and understanding. Don't despise the classics either, they are created in the same image of God that we are. Aristotle teaches that "It is right that philosophy should be called the knowledge of truth. For the object of theoretical knowledge is truth, whereas of practical knowledge it is action (praxis). But we do not know truth without some knowledge of its causes." To those that love wisdom and can meditate with the Spirit of God, it is divine knowledge of an eternal source and naturally points to the Prime Mover. Is there a wisdom of God? Can we share in that wisdom? Of course: "But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God." 1 Corinthians I :23-24. "But of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption." 1 Corinthians 1:30. "Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out. For who has known the mind of the Lord? or who has been His counselor?" Romans 11:33-34. Saint Augustine taught that knowledge depends on wisdom and not the reverse. He taught us to "believe in order that you may understand." Many misunderstand the verses of Paul in Colossians 2:8, "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." We are never spoiled through philosophy or the traditions of men if we are truly seeking "after Christ," and have the Spiritual discernment to avoid error and endless arguments. When an ignorant populous and clergy lost these things, we fell into the dark ages. The wisdom was almost lost by an ignorant Church but revived and preserved through the Arab philosophers and again taken up by the Church which led to a profound Renaissance in literature and theology and the dark ages came to a close. There are of course others in which philosophy is abused or misunderstood, there have always been reactionary minds and pseudo-intellectuals that give it a bad name but there are also pretentious simpletons and narrow theologians throughout Church history that condemn philosophy as impractical. In the 11th Century, Otloh of St. Emmeram forbade monks the study of it; they, he said, having renounced the world, must occupy themselves only with divine things. St. Victor went so far as to say that philosophy is the devil's art. Leo XIII wrote that "If philosophy is rightly and wisely used, it is able in a certain measure to pave and to guard the road to the true Faith. It is able, also, to prepare the minds of its followers in a fitting way for the receiving of revelation. Hence it has not untruly been called by the ancients an education leading to the Christian faith, a prelude and help of Christianity, and a proper schoolmaster for the Gospel." The operative words in that remark are if philosophy is "rightly used." Philosophy is for the most part, an excellent preparation for theological studies but it is not the primary interest of a Christian. His primary interest, or should be, is to "seek first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness." Matthew 6:33. I came to philosophy through the study of St. Thomas Aquinas, an example that convinces us that philosophy can be a Divine calling. It should not be surprising that philosophy holds the place of honor in the completion of studies and that it is the apex of knowledge. It is written in the Proverbs: "A wise man will hear, and will increase learning. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction ... Wisdom cries without; she utters her voice in the streets: How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? ... For the Lord gives wisdom: out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding...when wisdom enters into your heart, and knowledge is pleasant unto your soul; discretion shall preserve you." We are created in the image of God; this is the first step toward Theosis. As we grow, the imagination is aroused, reason and perception become sharp, intelligence rises to new heights and the pursuit of truth and justice find its completeness. The development of mankind to our full potential as persons through our nature in Christ is what the progress of mankind depends on; it is our completeness. The world is a mess and we have ignorant people to blame for it. Those who ask disturbing questions and are intensely curious about the answers have an absolute responsibility in taking us all into the light of knowledge. When we engage in this activity systematically and use rational methods which are of themselves open to critical scrutiny, we are called philosophers. It is not our business to preach, praise or to condemn, only to illuminate. First Cause is that part of philosophy that ascribes to God as being the first cause and prime motivator of creation. The 12th century Jewish philosopher Maimonides explained it this way: "It is clear that everything produced must have an immediate cause which produced it; that cause again a cause, and so on, till the First Cause, viz., the will and decree of God is reached." Aquinas: "If there was not a first there would not be a last, or anything in the middle... we must postulate a First Efficient Cause; which all men name God." Heraclitus was one of the most famous of the ancient philosophers and came from Ephesus. He was called the "weeping philosopher," his explanation of his tears was that no one could live in Ephesus without weeping at the incredible immorality that was seen on every side. Heraclitus was the first Greek philosopher we know of to bring up the idea of a "Logos," years before Plato and Socrates did. Logos is an ancient Greek word literally meaning a word through thought or discourse, implying reason. In Greek philosophy, centuries before Christ, Logos the "Word" became the Divine ordering principle, the supreme principle of the world, the mind of the cosmos as well as humanity, the creative Prime Mover. Logos, the Word, was the principle of order under which the universe continued to exist. He also thought the Logos as Reason gives us the discernment between right and wrong, it included thought and creation, the principle of all rational knowledge of truth, not as a passive power watching from a distance but dynamic and personal. For both Aristotle and Plato, man possesses Logos which is the power of speech and reasoning which makes us superior to the animals. While the Old Testament contained the philosophy of the Jews, the Alexandrian Jews had learned to greatly appreciate the philosophy of the Greeks. So great was their admiration that they soon conceived Plato to be in their Law and their Law in Plato. They argued that since the Old Testament was their revelation, all the best Greek philosophy must be in the Old Testament, of course the best of it is. They used Greek philosophy in interpreting the Old Testament which included the allegorical method of interpretation. This eclectic tendency was brought to completion by Philo Judaeus, the most notable philosopher of the first century. All we know from Philo is from what he has written. Eusebius dates his birth at about 20 AD. and living until around the beginning of the second century. He was a Hellenistic Jew from Alexandria and perhaps made the most lasting contribution to Jewish philosophical tradition. He was of a noble family from the sect of the Pharisees. Especially popular around the time of the apostles, his influence on Jewish and Christian thought was very profound and was considered a master of all learning of all time. He held that the Logos was the oldest thing in the world and instrumental in the process of creation. He was familiar with the Old Testament through the Septuagint (LXX, the Greek translation from Hebrew), and decided to make it even more acceptable to Greek intellectuals by putting Greek clothing on Jewish revelation. Philo saw two elements of creation: on the one hand a formless chaos which God determined to fashion into a universe and the other a "being greater than all goodness, holier than all holiness, more beautiful than all beauty, of whom man may know indeed that He is, but hardly what He is." Philo was out to prove that Judaistic thought was the supreme philosophy and the Jewish Scriptures the original storehouse of all truth. Currents of thought of the Logos come together in Philo's doctrine. Because the human soul stems from the "Divine Source," it is capable of conceiving of the nature of Divinity itself through the Spirit of prophecy or inner mystic meditation. When Philo speaks of "the Divine Logos", his thought is predominantly of the Divine Reason and not of the Divine Word. The Son of God in the Epistle to the Hebrews uses the same language. Although God created the world argues Philo, He did not influence the world directly but through Logos, that is, the Word. Philo did not know the Lord Jesus; however, Saint Paul would base his Christology on some of these very ideas. About AD 50, before John wrote his Gospel, Philo began to use the word Logos and lumped all the knowledgeable things about God into a single package. In this word was compressed all that the Greek and Jewish philosophers knew of the reasonings and manifestations of God. Philo described the Divine Logos as an emanation of the one true God. It was a useful term and people soon began to refer to the Logos rather than any specific deity. Here is an excerpt from the fourth century church historian Eusebius concerning the Logos: "And who except the Father would ever clearly conceive the ante-mundane light, and that wisdom which was intellectual and real before the ages, the living Logos who was, in the beginning, God by the side of the Father, the first and only offspring of God, before all creation and fabrication, both visible and invisible, the captain of the Spiritual and immortal host of heaven, the angel of great counsel, the minister of the ineffable plan of the father, the fabricator of all things along with the Father, the true and only begotten child of God, the Lord and God and King of all begotten, who has received lordship and might, together with Deity itself, and power and honor from the Father, according to the mysterious ascription of Divinity to Him in the Scriptures." "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not" John 1:1-5. When the apostle John speaks of the Word here, it is the Greek word Logos. The word "word" in the Bible is translated from two Greek words, Logos and Rhema. Logos is the word used denoting collecting or a collection and also used to describe the Reason and the Word of God, those things that are put together in thought, collected together and expressed as words. As you collect your thoughts with the gift of prophecy, God communicates to us and to others through us. This is the Logos Reason of God that has existed from the beginning and collected in the Bible as a record of Divine progress. The Bible translates Logos and Rhema as the single word, "Word", and confused by some. The Rhema is the spoken Word of God, especially through someone. Rhema is the Divine instruction by the preachers of the Gospel, words of prophecy and prophetic announcement Many churches teach the "Word" of God and pride themselves in teaching directly from the Bible. We are indeed to do this but so often the Rhema as God's Spirit is not taught nor practiced. A church in correct teaching will let the Rhema Word of God have His way in the service, this is the prophetic voice of God. The Rhema in the congregation is the Spirit of prophecy, the word of knowledge, tongues and interpretation, the pastor or teacher speaking as an oracle from God. It is our responsibility to encourage the release of the Rhema Word and firmly ground it in the Logos Word so that the congregation is truly edified, in order and the Holy Spirit is in control. By the time John was ready to start his Gospel, the term Logos was already the common way of referring to God's revelation of Himself. The word was relatively ambiguous and would signify either reason or word along with attributes of a creative being. The thinking world was using the term Logos to indicate the existence of this yet unnamed God and the teachings of Philo were so compelling that it was starting to get more attention than the message of Christ. The apostle John appropriated it as a terrific opportunity to present the truth of Jesus. For the apostle John, the Logos is the Divine purpose for the creation and the redemption of the world, the One in whom all things created find their origin, purpose and ultimate perfection. John began his Gospel with "In the beginning was the Word" (Logos). Without apology, John states in effect that this Logos that people are talking about is a person and I am going to reveal Him to you. He is none other than Jesus, the Christ of God. Here included is the preexistence of Christ but wait, there's more. "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us." John 1:14. John has just turned the philosophical world on its head, disarmed Philo and all the Greek and Jewish philosophers and removed any reasonable doubt that what he is saying is that Jesus is the incarnate Logos and the light of the world. Can you imagine the shock to the educated Jews of that day! Those that describe the Word of God as the Bible are only being partially correct, to be more precise, the Bible is a collection of the Words of God as revealed to man through His prophets and recorded, the Logos and Rhema words of God collected as a unified document. The Logos "Word" did not become the Bible, the Logos became flesh and dwelt among us. The Bible is not God, it is the Word of God, the Logos is more than that. Logos is to be interpreted as regards to the thinking of God but also in the speech of God with the kind of explosive power that speaks creation into existence. The Logos Christology also emphasizes the unity of the Scriptures as the revelation of Jesus, the Word of God and Word incarnate and the unity of the Logos activity in both inspiring and interpreting the Scriptures. The distance between the interpreter and the Scriptures are overcome as you step into that Logos revelation knowledge. This Logos worked in the prophets, but more eminently in Jesus and now, Jesus through you. This Logos Christology had ended the discussion of the day and satisfied the religious and the philosophic needs of Christians. John had stolen the thunder of Judaistic philosophy and Greek wisdom and gave it over to Christian Theology. Paul Tillich writes that "Every theology includes three elements. The first is Theos, God, or rather God in so far as He makes Himself manifest, the element of revelation. The second is Logos, rational discourse about what God communicates when He communicates Himself. And the third is Kairos, the proper moment in time, the time when a theologian must speak to his own age."
The term Logos was extensively employed by the early Christians as they thought about the relation of Jesus to God. They believed that the Divine Logos inspired the Biblical writers through the Holy Spirit but also continued to work by leading us to true understanding and revealing the hidden meaning of the texts. Always, there has been God. And always there has been Another with Him, who is to God what a man's word and thought are to a man; through whom God acts; and by whom He expresses himself. It is the Logos who creates; and all things that exist were made by Him. The Logos is the rational discourse which helps us in the communication of ideas from God to man. Jesus was the Word of God, the light of reason, and memory, and conscience, and hunger for God. These things are gifts to us from the Logos, and proofs that he is always striving to break in to us, seeking to lead us farther on. For those who received Him, He gave the power to become the Sons of God.
Starting from a scrutiny of the world within and without, Greek thought had arrived at the conception of an active central idea and re-scrutinized until it passed the review of no contest. This central idea represented the unity of the Supreme Principle of the world, the Prime Mover, the First Cause of everything, of thought of Divinity itself as a creative and active power. Jesus Christ is a cosmic figure, the pinnacle of creation, which was in the beginning and the final thing which will triumph at the end of all things.
Jesus as the Logos lives through you in that same creative power. Your word of testimony is the Logos speaking through you. It is in having the Mind of Christ and then speaking your own rational mind in truth and in Spirit. Once you are able to do this, you become a willing vessel and the Lord will give you the confidence and wisdom to speak His Word to believers and non-believers alike. From now on, we know who the Logos is, what He is doing and His relationship to us, enabling us into our Theosis Holy of Holies.
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