Welcome to Defenders, the teaching class of Dr. William Lane Craig.

Today, the Doctrine of Christ, part three.

For more information and resources from Dr. Craig, go to reasonablefaith.org.

In our study of the incarnation, we've been looking at two competing schools of Christological thought among the church fathers.

First, the Alexandrian school, which held to a one-nature Christology or monophysitism,

one nature, having divine and human elements in Christ, and on the other

hand, the Antiochian school of Christology, which held to a diaphaite view of Christ, that Christ had two natures, one human and one divine.

Now, the Antiochian Diofocite view of Christology implied that Christ had two complete natures,

human and divine, that Christ possess two complete natures, human and divine,

that Christ possess all of the properties which are essential to a complete human nature,

including both a rational soul and a human body.

One of the most prominent of the Antiochian soul and a human body.

One of the most prominent of the Antiochian theologians was Theodore of Mopswesia, who was the

author of a treatise on the incarnation called On the Incarnation. And in this work, Theodore thinks of the

incarnation as a very special form of indwelling on the part of the Lagos. By means of this

indwelling, the Lagos, or the second person of the Trinity,

attached himself to the man, Jesus, at the moment of conception in Mary's womb. Now, because God

is omnipresent and provident over everything that happens in history,

Theodore says that God is present in his essence to all things, both in their existence

and in their operation.

But by his good pleasure, he chooses to be more intimately related to some things than to others.

So while God is essentially present in the existence and operation of everything, he is specially present in Christ according to his good pleasure.

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