How do Catholics believe God is eternal if Jesus died on the cross?
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I'm going to answer with an earthly illustration and then tie the scriptural doctrine to it at the end, so bear with me.
Suppose there is a video game developer. He spends his days typing the computer code that is the game. He experiences the game from the perspective of a programmer.
He knows how the graphics will be drawn to screen and how all the pieces will interact. Then the game developer decides to experience the game differently. He hits the preview mode button (f12 perhaps) and now when he types on the keyboard a character jumps and moves around. He is experiencing the game world as a player through what is called an avatar.
Something happens in the game and the avatar 'dies', which is to say that the game code prevents the developer from experiencing the game world through the avatar anymore. At this point the game developer can...
A) Hit ESC and go back to experiencing the game as a programmer, looking at code
B) Wait (or use a shortcut key built for developers) for the avatar to respawn.
In either case the developer exists even when the avatar is surrendered or lost.
Now for the Scriptual doctrine tie in...
The Spirit of the Son as 'developer':
1 Corinthians 8:6 "Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live."
Hebrews 1:2 "his Son [Jesus]... through whom also he made the universe."
John 1:2-3 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; >without him nothing was made that has been made.
The Spirit of the Son then limited itself to experience the created universe through an avatar:
Philippians 2:5-7 Christ Jesus, 6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, 7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
The Spirit of the Son was able to hit the 'respawn' button, resurrect the human body avatar-
John 10:18 18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.
Ephesians1:19-20 according to the working of his great might 20 that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead
Returning to overseer of the 'source code'-
Ephesians 4:10
10 He [Jesus] who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.
1 Peter 3:22 Who [Jesus] has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him.
The existence of the Son is not threatened by the loss of an avatar.
Remaining questions
The above is a cheap painting of doctrine that is common among many Christian denominations. Opinions diverge on the details of the Son's relationship to the human avatar.
Did the Spirit of the Son leave the human avatar when it died and re-enter it on resurrection, or did the Son stay bound to the avatar and wait for resurrection 'in the dark'?
Did the Son return to whatever the Son was before the incarnation, or is there something different about the Son after that experience? In other words, does the Son continue to bind itself to a immortalized version of the Jesus body?
You can find the second question discussed briefly HERE
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Source: stackoverflow.com
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