Christ didn't come as a baby

 We don't seem to know what day, or even what year, Christ was born, but he was born.

Christ didn't come as a baby. He came as an embryo. Did He retain any of His divine omniscience and omnipotence during that pre-natal period? I don't know, but I suspect that He didn't retain all of it. The Bible teaches that He was tempted like we are. I don't know if fetuses are tempted. However, to really be like us, He must have had an experience much like ours, and I suspect that that meant, after He was born, not being able to speak for a year or so, and, before He was born, giving up some of his powers and awareness. Was this easy for the Creator of the Universe? I wouldn't think so--the cross wasn't.

If He gave anything up, He did it for me, you, and everyone else.

P. S. December 8, 2023: Christ came a long time before coming as an embryo, as creator. See John 1, and, as Paul put it:

Colossians 1:16 For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things are held together. (World English Bible, public domain)

To sequence a baby's genome, or not?

National Public Radio reports on the dilemmas of deciding whether or not to sequence a baby's entire genome -- it can be done, and will get cheaper as time passes.

There are things about my own genome that I'd rather not know. Do I have a predisposition for Alzheimer's? I hope not, but I'd rather not know that, I guess. Or at least I would have rather not know that when I was a thirty-year-old.

Knowledge is a wonderful thing, but it always brings more responsibility. Perhaps we should never sequence anybody's genome, unless there is a compelling medical, judicial or scientific reason for doing so.

Thanks for reading. Read the article.

Christ didn't come as a baby, re-posted

We often say that Christ came as a baby, but this isn't true. Why not? Read on.

Christ didn't come as a baby. He came as an embryo -- probably as a one-celled embryo*. Did He retain any of His divine omniscience and omnipotence during that period? I don't know, but I suspect that He didn't retain all of it, and it is possible that He didn't retain any of it. The Bible teaches that He was tempted like we are (Hebrews 4:14-16). I don't know if embryos and fetuses are tempted. However, to really be like us, He must have had an experience much like ours, and I suspect that that meant, after He was born, not being able to speak for a year or so, and, before He was born, giving up some of his powers and awareness. Was this easy for the Creator of the Universe? I wouldn't think so. The cross wasn't easy, either.

If He gave anything up, He did it for me.

*Does a soul inhabit a one-celled embryo, or does a soul not appear until there is an embryonic brain complex enough to house it? I don't know, and I don't think anyone does, although there is no lack of opinions. If the latter is true, perhaps Christ didn't inhabit His body until the pregnancy was fairly well along. Or, if it is true, perhaps Christ gave up consciousness entirely for a few months. We don't know.

Thanks for reading.

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Feb 6, 2008: Parableman has published on a related matter -- he proposes that Jesus, like other children, acquired language skills gradually, making errors in the process.