(Abstract) “All humanists agree that religion is not based on reason [1].” This statement, in many different forms, has been popularized for hundreds of years. A major purpose for the modeling procedures I introduced into theology is to establish that all such statements are false. In this article, Jesus is related rationally to the Biblical God via an interpreted mathematical model. (No actual mathematics appears in this article.)
The intuitive notion of “God or Godhead” is not totally describable in any language. This observation is based upon the fact that such an assumption leads to “logical” problems that imply that our languages are inadequate to express completely this concept. Moreover, the mathematical model I use implies this as well. However, God displays His attributes in many different and partially describable ways. These attributes include His intelligence, knowledge, ability-to-act, patients, kindness, trustworthiness, . . .

In 1978, the attributes of God that are comparable with those of His created were mathematically modeled and it is shown that His attributes can be but partially described via any humanly comprehensible language. Many of His attributes are manifested (i.e. displayed) in various ways. He displays His attributes by restricting them to various realities, various environments.

In 1983, I found the following facts about how God is described within the Old Testament.

In order to express the transcendent truth that the one Spirit of God (Al) [Subjector] acts through several channels, yet is the same Spirit of subjection, the plural form, Alueim or Alueim (without the m in Hebrew), takes a singular verb. It may be incorrect grammar, but it is truth that transcends the rules of grammar. [9, p. 15] The Hebrew’s concept denoted here by the term “subject” means “one who is under the authority of an entity, the subjector, and to submit to its control.” “Subjection” means being subjected or the process of subjecting.

Biblically stated and implied attributes can be grouped into two or more categories. Relative to three well known categories, what does it mean to state that Jesus is the Son of God (The Son)? This statement occurs over forty times in the New Testament. The term “son” need neither correspond to a biological son nor an adopted son. If an individual A essentially has the same characteristics as an individual B, then B can refer to A as his “son” and A can refer to B as his “father.” Such a son is entitled to the same trust and respect accorded B. This is how “Son” should be interpreted in these many cases, but in the strongest possible sense.

For thousands of years and relative to a particular environment, objects have been linguistically defined by listing their characteristics, their attributes. Moreover, spatially separated objects are classified as indistinguishable at the same moment in time if each has the same space independent attributes.

The New Testament is written in the common Greek of the times. No alterations in the meanings of any of the Scriptural statements should be allowed nor should there be some sort of hidden meanings that can be known, at a much later date, by a chosen few. Would the Apostles be saved if hidden meanings or future revelations are required? Is Rev. 21:14 incorrect? The wall of the city had twelve foundations, and on them were the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. (NIV) Further, Paul implies, in 1 Cor. 15:1-2, that no such information is required. Salvation comes from following the doctrine of the Apostles. Any other doctrine is of no significance if it does not contradict the specific Biblical requirements for salvation. Hence, neither additions to nor deletions from the Bible should be allowed. If one is allowed to make any Scriptural alterations, then the Bible is a worthless document.

Modern translations have altered the meanings or even added words to the oldest extant manuscripts in order to insert into Christian doctrine concepts that God specifically forbids. For those seeking more details as to the findings briefly mentioned here, they are presented in my important web-article reference [****].

A church’s doctrine should have no adverse affect upon salvation if an individual follows the teachings of Jesus and the Apostles as originally presented and church doctrine does not contradict these teachings. In the original manuscripts, the meanings of the terms are as understood during the first-century A.D. These meanings need to be maintained and should not be altered.

The Scriptures state that “Christ is the image of (‘the invisible’ in the Sinaitcus Codex) God,” 1 Cor. 4:4, and He is the image of the invisible God, Col. 3:10. Relative to these two Biblical statements, Vine [3] states, that this image is essentially and absolutely the perfect expression and representation of the Archetype, God the Father, and that Christ is the visible representation and manifestation of God to created beings. Vine has restricted this to “God the Father” attributes.

Let L be the original languages in which the Bible is written. The “Father” is a set of all describable and, hence, “knowable” aspects of God (1 Cor. 8:6) (NIV) as Biblically described by members of L. Classical implications based upon these meanings are also included as members of this set of knowable Father characteristics. Further, without altering the basic meanings of the words or adding to or removing words, John 14:9-10 and 16-18 state that the Father characteristics that God displays within the created universe are attributes of Jesus. Due to the use of the Greek “allos” (another) even John 14:16 implies this relative to the Holy Ghost attributes. [****] When the attributes of God are being considered in what follows, these, obviously, refer to knowable attributes as described via the language L. Certain well defined terms implied by the mathematical model are added to L.

Jesus has two collections of physical attributes. The first collection characterizes the man Jesus. He displays all of the characteristics of a human being and never relinquished these attributes during His physical existence. A second collection of physical attributes are those physically displayed by the glorified Jesus.

It has been establish that we have partial knowledge about God’s attributes. This is often emphasized by Paul.

“. . . not with the words of human wisdom – least the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.” (1 Cor. 1:17. NIV.)

“For now, we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as I am known.” (1 Cor. 13:12. KJV.)

How many individuals actually take Paul’s obvious advise? How many individuals accept Biblical statements without attempting to add to them human wisdom that changes the basic meanings of the terms used? Indeed, various attributes are infinitely greater than comparable human attributes and the strength of these attributes can be partially measured. It in shown in [6a] how this is done. But, recently it has also been shown that we cannot give an ultimate mathematical measure for the strength of God’s attributes [6b]. An ultimate strength for His attributes is mathematically immeasurable. But, via scientific generalization, it is rational to assume that such an ultimate measure exists. Theologically, this is the “faith” step.

These results signify that the notion of “attribute-displays” can only be generally described. What can be known is that God acts through an immaterial medium. Is this medium His Spirit? Is it a part of His Spirit? Is His Spirit part of this medium? It appears that we cannot know the complete answers to these questions using only human intelligence and human languages. Part of the mathematically established result symbolized below by an equation shows that from the viewpoint of God’s higher-intelligence none of His attributes can be separated one from the other.

Prior to ascension, Jesus presents to the physical world a set of God’s attributes and His ability-to-act that can be displayed, manifested, within a physical universe. These manifestations vary with the circumstances. These manifestations yield a complete set of the Father’s restricted and knowable attributes. God does this in such a manner that Jesus displays various Father-attributes to any desired degree or various ones are totally suppressed and not displayed. None of God’s attributes is created and each differs in strength from any others that can exist. One simply states that these attributes exist and they rationally characterize an entity that exists. The Bible specifically details how these manifestations are to be viewed, that is the forms that they take.In Phil 2:7, Paul uses a term that signifies various notions associated with the concept of “to empty.” There have been many variations in the interpretation of this term. Paul’s use of the term often translated as “emptied” has yielded literally libraries of discussion from theologian who seem to believe they are as intelligent as God and can explain its use fully. However, it is the same term used in the above 1 Cor. 1:17 verse.

Consider these interpretations made Himself ‘nothing’ (NIV), of no reputation (KJV); emptied Himself (RSV), stripped Himself (Phillips Modern English), laid aside (Living Bible), gave it all up (Todays English Version). Why these variations? Paul tells us in the every next sentence what he means by this term. From the most ancient Greek manuscripts Taking the form (morphê’) of a slave (servant). The form morphê’ means “characteristics.” It does not indicate any alterations in His non-human characteristics.

It has been rationally argued, via mathematical means that model specific Biblical statements and employing the Biblical notation of a “complete” (perfect) set of attributes, that God’s attributes cannot be separated one from another from God’s rational viewpoint. The mathematics also states that we, in our present form, cannot perform the logical steps that lead to this conclusion. Significantly, this means that if, not from the viewpoint of very partial human comprehension, a single attribute of God is manifested either directly or indirectly within the physical world, then it represents all of God’s attributes. When one considers Jesus’s statements made in Matthew 5:1 – 7:27 and the various miracles He performs there can be no doubt that He displays attributes of the Father under various circumstances as well as those only of a human being. Although these facts may be but slightly comprehended, they definitely need to be accepted.

The Father’s knowable manifestations include His comparable attributes. These are attributes that He shares with humankind such as wisdom, intelligence, just, etc. as mentioned above. Humankind has other attributes that are not shared such as death, our physical construction, being created, etc. At present, all that we can state about God are His attributes and actions. Let a set of describable and pre-ascension physical-universe-restricted Father attributes and ability-to-act (i.e. the ability to perform necessary actions) be denoted by FA. This set contains all of knowable attributes comparable to human beings. Let the collection of Jesus’ describable and restricted attributes and ability-to-act be denoted by RS.

For us, the major attribute is “Saviour.” The Old Testament identifies God as the Saviour in Ps 106:21; Isa 43:11, 45:15, 49:26. The Saviour attribute is displayed, in restricted form, by Jesus via His teachings and His suffering and death on the cross. This attribute is qualified by using the term “great” since the term “savior” need not mean an “ultimate Saviour.” Mathematically, the modeled strengths of the salvation notion leads directly to the ultimate Saviour – Jesus. The word Father is used for God 265 times in the KJV of the New Testament. I think this is vast evidence that viewing God in His personal mode as Father is the correct view for a Christian.

God’s Spirit needs to be differentiated from others. This is done via the “omni” statements. For “omnipotent,” the phrase “all powerful” is used and, for “omniscient,” the word “all knowledgeable” is used. Unfortunately, these terms have no rational meaning unless one comprehends the “logic” required for the word “all” to yield “truth.” (See [6c].)

Properties of the General Grand Unification model (GGU-model) are used with a special term that is qualified by the word “larger (and)” in order to model omnipresent. The method employed mathematically models omnipresent for any physical universe. It follows rationally from the construction of the GGU-model and how the results are discussed from the “meta-world” viewpoint, as Biblically interpreted, that it is a trivial fact the God is not constrained in any manner by physical space and time.

The Scriptures state that there is an important attribute that is not activated prior to Jesus’ ascension. It has been shown that once Jesus is “perfected,” (i.e. completed) then, from the viewpoint of the Third-Heaven, there is no difference between all of Jesus’ comprehensible Third Heaven attributes and a set of comprehensible Third Heaven attributes for the Father, whether displayable or not. (More details can be found in reference [5].)

The man Jesus has human characteristics that are not Father attributes. Jesus always displays human attributes as well as Divine actions. This is not a contradiction since Divine actions employ a non-physical immaterial medium. When Jesus “speaks” or behaves in various ways, one needs to determine whether He is displaying His physical and non-Father human characteristics or actions, or His Father characteristics or actions or, indeed, under certain circumstances, both simultaneously. In all cases, the action of “speaking” is a human action.

I repeat some of the above discussion. When Jesus speaks or acts as a man, various Divine attributes are not displayed. At other times Jesus speaks as God would speak or performs actions that display Divine attributes. As mentioned, this is all relative to the circumstances under which His attributes are displayed. His human attributes are displayed most often during His earthly existence. But, His Deity defining attributes are not altered simply because He displays other attributes. As pointed out by Colin Brown [4], this is consistent with both Phil 2.7 and Isa 53, which, relative to speaking, state only that Jesus does not deceive and, under certain circumstances, He remains silent. Neither the gospels nor Phil 2 present the picture of the abandonment of any divine attributes. However, as shown by the lack of knowledge portion of the mathematical model, complete human comprehension of the exact relation between the human and the divine attributes of Jesus may not be possible while we are in are present fallen state. In certain respects, this counters those individuals who seem to believe they are as intelligent as God.

The most important step is to realize that RS and FA are the same set of attributes and ability-to-act. Or in symbolic form (equation (1) in [5])

RS = FA.

This is how, at this stage, God and Jesus are united. If you do not agree with Vine’s definition, then this does not change the major results obtained since one only needs that members of RS be members of FA. That is, RS is a subset of FA.

Under certain mathematics principles, Jesus’ restricted and displayable Father attributes can be described as potentially infinite in strength. There is a great difference between having been accorded certain attributes and actually displaying them. Various FA attributes are displayed during His physical life-time. Jesus shows that, for an FA attribute or His ability-to-act, He has control over the degree to which the attribute or action is displayed.

As examples, He directly commands and controls physical laws. In Matt. 8:3, He did not state I’ll pray to the Father to heal you. But rather He said, Be clean! and it was so. In John11:41-43 (LB), Jesus displays combined attributes in such a manner that the observers could better understand who He is. The method He chooses is for the benefit of the observers. Notice He then commands and it is done. He displays a different method in Matt. 14:25-29. He does not need to actually “speak” in order to alter physical laws. In Luke 24:31, 36-37, and Acts 1:9, He displays attributes while in His glorified form that He did not display previously. In His glorified form, visible attribute restrictions are removed and He displays physical-like attributes that can not be displayed by any other physical entity.

Throughout the Bible, Jesus’ human attributes are displayed under numerously many circumstances. It is Jesus’ human characteristics that are allowed to suffer physically and die on the cross. This allows His suffering and death to be substitutional in character.

When the RS and FA are coded and embedded into the mathematical structure one obtains *RS = *FA and each of these sets now contains attributes that are infinitely greater in strength than those described by members of RS = FA.

A slightly more complex addition is made to the above description. Through mathematical (i.e. classical) reasoning, a significant property is adjoined to the above attribute collections. In John 14: 15-20, Jesus states explicitly that the indwelled Holy Ghost will display His attributes. . . . he shall give you another Comforter, [Holy Ghost] that he may abide with you for ever; (14:16) I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. (14:18) (KJV) Holy Ghost indwelled individuals interact in special ways with the Father (Acts 2:4). This interaction displays “Spirit” aspects of the Father. These Holy Ghost attributes are clearly attributes of the Father.

As to the concept of “perfection,” in Matt. 5:48, Jesus states that God is perfect (teleios; finished, complete). Heb. 2:10 states that Jesus was made perfect through suffering (NIV) and such a “completion” is restated in Heb. 5:9 once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation (NIV).

In more detail, using mathematical analysis, it is shown using this notion of “perfect” and a basic modeling technique that, from the pure Third Heaven viewpoint, there is no “comprehensible” difference between the risen and transformed (glorified) Jesus attributes and ability-to-act, attributes of the Father and His ability-to-act, and the Holy Ghost’s attributes and ability-to-act (equation (2) in [5]). The mathematics allows us to make this general statement even though we cannot actually perform the step-by-step mode of thought that yields this list of attributes that includes the higher-attributes. This is one of God’s modes of thought that differs in strength from what we can preform.

From the viewpoint of those created beings that have been transformed (glorified), this mode of higher-thought will be fully understood. Indeed, using this same approach and from this supernatural viewpoint when “being perfect ” is included, then the mathematics can be interpreted as stating that no Divine attribute or ability-to-act can be separated from the collection of such attributes and the ability-to-act (equation (3) in [5]). Moreover, the equality of the Saviour attribute holds.

These facts on “comprehension” are significance. Individuals reject God if questions they ask don’t seem reasonably answered. It is also assumed that they should be able to comprehend all aspects of God’s behavior. They continue to place themselves on the same intellectual level as God and try to describe all facets of God’s Biblically described behavior in more detail. They try to explain in more depth in order to justify non-biblical claims. The facts are that we must accept certain statements and behavior for now we only know in part as Paul states in 1 Cor 13:12.

The mathematics employs a consistent interpretation. The interpretation, as is the usual case, uses terms that are “outside” of the formal mathematics itself. In general, individuals do not know the difference between abstract mathematics, with its rules for symbol manipulation, and applied mathematics, where the symbols take on meaningful interpretations. The mathematics I use employs certain specific methods from abstract mathematics and these are applied to languages and rational thought. This applied area is termed “Mathematical Logic.” Such applied mathematics is capable of investigating entities that when interpreted show unusual behavior. This includes the behavior of a higher-intelligence. The reason for employing such mathematics is to insure the rationality of the predictions and to maintain the same logical structure as exhibited through the Scriptures. No higher-intelligence or any aspect of the “supernatural” are used as hypotheses. All of the stated implications are predictions.

I again repeat that Paul notes that we actually do not know very much, but will know more fully when we are glorified and in His presence. We are told to be baptized “in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.” One need not ask why. One should simply obey. For the Son, His restricted attributes that led to His sacrifice on the cross, should be emphasized when individuals accept Him as their Saviour. For humankind, nothing could be more significant. But, an in-depth rather than a general understanding as to the logical process that leads to the equivalence of these attributes must wait.

The notion of “pre” “before” and other such ordering notions should mainly be restricted to “physical” creation. Past or future notions only apply to some events. It has been shown that, even for our physical universe, we cannot comprehend certain aspects of the necessary non-physical events due to an “ordering” that is not displayable within the physical world. In general, within the Second and Third Heaven environments some events may be classified via the past or future notion as we comprehended it, while other events are not so related.

As far as the Jesus manifestations of Godhead attributes are concerned and in order to have comprehension, the production of such manifestations is modeled via mental processes. It is Biblically implied that comprehension is aided by assuming that God creates by transforming thoughts into physical and other realities while retaining the original thoughts. The oldest and best Greek manuscripts are the ones I use. The best manuscripts do not have spaces between words or sentences. [7, p. 9] Thus the oldest Greek manuscripts for the Bible can be considered as one extremely long string of symbols. It is significant that sacred Greek has no such term as ‘word.’ The meaning of (λογοσ) logos [unfortunately translated as “word” in most Bibles] is expression, often considered as many ‘words’ [7, p. 9]. LOG’OS; the expression of a thought, not a grammatical but a logical word, referring to a whole account. [8], p. 331].

Thus, for God, the Greek “logos” means a complete logical expression of His thoughts. In this case, the “complete logical Jesus account.” This is the basic expansion of its Greek meaning during the first-century A.D. However, I have recently discovered (Feb. 2013) that the term was first employed to signify “thoughts,” where the consequences of these thoughts yield material entities. This underlying meaning was expressed by Heraclitus at about 500 B. C. The underlying meaning can be directly applied to this expansion. This is a direct Biblical verification for the basic GGU-model methodology and interpretation.

In this special case, the complete logical and personal expression of Himself the complete Jesus mental-like concept – the logos – exists. The Greek should neither be translated by the symbol string “word” nor the Latin “verbun,” that is unless one wishes to hide its original meaning and claim it is a code term. It should be transliterated or a term used that is closer to the actual meaning. Terms such as “expressed plan,” “the expression,” or “account” are more consistent and appropriate.

The logos does not cease to exist, from our comprehension, before, during and after the thoughts are manifested. The account includes the logically expressed entire list of all the attributes both physical and non-physical God intends to display to His created. As was common in John’s time, this full account can take on the name of its main character. For a more in-depth discussion of the logos concept and illustrated Biblical alterations, see reference [****].

The Bible identifies circumstances under which the use of the name “Jesus” is justified.

Jesus is the personal name of the Father when His behavior relates to humanity. The Father exhibits this behavior when His attributes are restricted to circumstances, whether physical or otherwise, that can or do influence human beings in any of their physical or non-physical forms. When any such behavior is perceived by any of His created, then such behavior carries this additional identification. The first Biblical instance of this behavior is His creationary activities in Genesis 1. The last Biblical occurrence of such activity is stated in Revelations 22.

For a further and more in-depth discussion of the relation between the three attributive categories and how these categories are scientifically modeled, see article [5]. How significant is extra-biblical doctrine? If church doctrine neither adversely affects nor contradicts the actual Biblical methods the Apostles teach that lead an individual to salvation, then as Paul states in 1 Cor 15:2, believing anything else (the additional church doctrine) will not lead to anything. (Jerusalem Bible). That is, such church doctrine is not significant, unless, of course, individuals spend their major efforts in attempting to justify the insignificant. It has been said,”It’s not putting forth effort and failing to achieve a significant result, it’s putting forth great effort and achieving an insignificant result that is tragic.”

(*The Grundlegend-Deductive (GD)-world model establishes the results in this article. These results can be related to the mental notion termed as higher-intelligence “adjective reasoning.”)

*** Will Myers

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