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HOUSMAIL HM087 4
September 2001 THE DOCTRINE OF
“CELESTIAL FLESH” Late
last year, when researching the life of Michael Servetus, I encountered for
the first time, the term "Celestial Flesh". (Also sometimes
referred to as "Heavenly Flesh") Further research revealed that it
was taught by such well known 16th Century names as Melchior Hofman and Menno
Simmons. As would be expected, it was normally found only amongst
Trinitarians and Arians. Consequently it came as a total surprise to discover
that it is also listed amongst the charges brought against Michael Servetus,
for which he was tried, condemned, and murdered. [1] [2] (Servetus did not
believe in either the Trinity or the personal pre-existence of Jesus.) According
to E.A. Green [3] "it emerged as a Reformation-era explanation of the
theological problem of the sinlessness of Christ". As
reported by Green, it appears to be largely just one more clumsy variation of
the Catholic doctrine of the "Immaculate Conception of Mary". Depending
on who you read, it seems to take various forms, and
is not necessarily quite accurately reported by those with an
«anti-Anabaptist axe» to grind. Accusers howling for blood, are seldom to be
relied on for strict and impartial accuracy!! (Remember? In their
desperate attempt to condemn Jesus, the Jews hired false witnesses giving
perjured testimony -- didn't they?) In
the Catholic version Mary was claimed to have been born free of the taint of
«Original Sin», so that Jesus could derive His flesh from her, without being
subject to «Adamic Condemnation» on account of his humanity. In
Calvin's "Reformed Theology", "Original Sin" is replaced
by "Total Depravity". Others call it by different names, (such as
"sin-in-the-flesh", or "inherited sin" or "sin
nature"), but it usually amounts to pretty much the same thing! i.e. All
men are said to be born with some built in factor, allegedly added to Adam's
nature after the Fall in Eden and passed on genetically to all his
descendants. For various reasons, (again depending on who you hear it from)
this becomes the subject of God's displeasure and requires
"Atonement" just as much as personal sin! And since it also says
that it prevents men from ever truly overcoming sin in this life, of course
it becomes a monstrous excuse for personal sin! (I personally suspect that
THIS latter point is the real reason underlying its "invention"!) Briefly,
"Celestial Flesh" explains the sinlessness of Jesus, by saying that
he brought His flesh with Him from Heaven, rather than from deriving it from
Mary. Thus of course, they can then claim that He had no "Original
sin" coursing through his veins! -- and was thereby both able to
overcome temptation, and at the same time, be under no personal
"condemnation" for His humanity. The
name of this teaching seems
to be little known amongst "ordinary believers" in the 21st
century. However I have encountered it under different "guises"
from time to time, amongst those who wrestle with the question of how Jesus
could have been perfectly obedient, when all other men failed. e.g. For many
exponents of the doctrine of the Trinity, Jesus has become a two natured
god/man, able to overcome because he is "God". Sadly,
some Unitarian believers in the ONE GOD of Moses, have managed to invest
Jesus with a specially created, divinely strengthened "genetic makeup"
derived from His miraculous Divine begettal, which enabled him to resist the
temptations in which all other men failed. i.e. Jesus was some sort of
"divine/human hybrid", not quite the same as other men! This is
just another version of "Celestial Flesh" under a different name! And.
when you think about it, that also, just as much as the Trinity, or Arianism,
or Oneness, amounts to another subtle variation of the ancient "Spirit
of Antichrist heresy" reported by John in his first Epistle. Although
Jesus is said to have "flesh", intellectual honesty will quickly
recognise this is mere lip service to words! Specially created genetically
different flesh is clearly NOT the same flesh as that of all other men. And it is to be rejected, along with all other teaching which
excuses sin by making the nature of Jesus subtly different from that of other
men! Allon Footnotes:
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