Based on the findings related to the provided teachings of EPR in Butare Parish related to the two natures of Jesus Christ it was revealed that Presbyterian church in Butare Parish teaches that Jesus is the son of God as it was said by the majority of respondents at 49.1%, this is also confirmed by Presbyterian writings saying that John hesitated to baptize Jesus because he found in himself no capacity to baptize the son of God but being baptized by him(E.P.R, 2006, p. 64); and this teachings is rooted from the bible as it is said that “God spoken to human being by his son. Hebrew 1.2”.
It was revealed that Presbyterian church in Butare parish teaches that Jesus is God as it was shown by the 26.5% of respondents, and this is connected with what Musemakweli said that “Dieu a cessé d’être loin des homes ils’est approché d’eux en Jésus-Christ, le vrai Dieu,means that God was far from humans he came near them through Jesus Christ the true God (Musemakweli, 2007, p. 24), and this is true that jesus is God because in 2peter 1:1 it is shown that Jesus Christ is our God and savior.If we consider those who affirmed that Jesus is the son of God and also considering what the Pastor Th. H. answered to the asked question about how he understand the name son of God attributed to Jesus, the pastor Th. H.
answered that the name son of God attributed to Jesus affirms that Jesus is God, and also because of all who responded that Jesus is the son of God none who said that the name son of God attributed to Jesus implies that Jesus is man or Jesus is God and man, 75.6% of respondents confirmed that the Presbyterian church in Butare Parish teaches that Jesus is only God. Only 20.7% of respondents confirmed that the presbyterian church teaches that Jesus is God and man, and this is the true teachings because in the eathly time of Christ he lived as others human being(John 1:14), Jesus performed divine works like changing water into wine as it is found in John 2:1-11; As 75.6% of respondents said that EPR/Butare Parish teaches that Jesus is only God, the humanity of Jesus Christ are not taught in right way in presbyterian church Butare parish, and this is connected with what a researcher said in chapter two that the teachings of the present humanity of Jesus Christ in presbyterian church can confuse christian church members of Presbyterian Church because of the use of the past tense as it is shown in presbyterian books like ” Jesus was born, was crucified, was died” to illustrate the humanity of Jesus Christ, this results to the understandings that Jesus became man for the mission of saving people, but today Jesus is only God because the mission was over as it was said by the evangelical commission’s President Jen. H. that “Jesus had the shape of human when he was living on the earth doing with people, today Jesus is not man because he finished his task of saving people, he is only God”. Presbyterian Church does not teach to their church members that Jesus is only man because only 5.5% of respondents said that Presbyterian Church teaches that Jesus is only man, this is their own understandings, and we cannot attribute it to the Presbyterian Church. Findings discovered on the understanding of the Presbyterian Church members in EPR Butare Parish about the two natures of Jesus Christ, 73.5% of respondents are not understand that Jesus is both God and man, they understand the natures of Jesus Christ differently, some understand that Jesus is the son of God not man and not God, others that Jesus is only God not man, and the others that Jesus is only man not God.
A researcher is grief of how among of these 41.5% of respondents who understand that Jesus is the son of God, 28.3% of them understand that Jesus is not God and not man, as it was described in chapter four in table7 and table8, they reasoned that Jesus is not God because he has the father who is God, it cannot work to have two Gods this shows that Presbyterian church members of EPR/Butare Parish does not know even the doctrine of the trinity which is the problem, Presbyterian church members need to read Titus 2:13 because is where it is explained well that Jesus is God, the problem of misunderstanding the deity of Christ is connected with what Elise Musemakweli claimed that the church is facing with problems related to the doctrines of the church which are the results of the missionaries, because most of missionaries came in Rwanda were not all theologians(Musemakweli, 2007, p. 21), to mean that they were not able to teach the doctrines of the church including the doctrine of the natures of Jesus Christ; can we say that this is the reason why the teachings and the understanding of the natures of Jesus Christ is problematic today in presbyterian church? Or there are the others attacks of the natures of Jesus Christ? TWONGYEIRWE has shown that today there are the attacks such as The Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons who hold a very Arian-like position on Christ’s nature (TWONGYEIRWE, 2018), so there are the attacks of the doctrine of the two natures of Christ even in the whole world, now if there are, what a contribution of Presbyterian Church in Rwanda to handle the problem related to the attacks of the deity and humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ which is disturbing Christianity over the world? What Presbyterian Church in Rwanda is doing to make its Christian church members strong in their faith so that they may be confident with Jesus Christ who has both human and divine natures? What a skills does Presbyterian Church in Rwanda gives to its members about the two nature of Jesus Christ so that they may be strong against the attacks of their faith? The knowledge about the Nicene Creed can give the responses to these issues, Presbyterian Christian church members of Butare Parish need to learn the Nicene Creed clearly. 13.2% of respondents understand that if Jesus is the son of God, therefore Jesus is God but only God not man which is mistake because the Bible confirms clearly that Jesus is man, in the acts 1:6-8 when Jesus was about to ascend to heaven was talking with the disciples as man and he gave to the disciples the task of witnessing him as God and man; when we take the numbers of who understand that Jesus is only God and we add the numbers of who understand that the son of God implies that Jesus is God but not Man we obtain 39.7% of respondents who understand that Jesus is only God, so, The second part of understanding of Christian Church members of EPR/Butare Parish is that Jesus is not both God and man, for them Jesus is only God, here it is clear that Christians of EPR/Butare Parish are not in the same line of understanding about the natures of Jesus Christ and the problem is that more percentages of Christians of EPR/Butare Parish are in wrong way of understanding as it was shown by the 73.5% of respondents, this means that the natures of Jesus Christ were not taught well in Presbyterian church Butare Parish, because good teaching results to good understanding; and also, the findings have shown that only 24.6% of respondents confirmed that when the preachers of EPR/Butare parish are preaching on the natures of Jesus Christ, they say that Jesus is both God and man which is right teaching, this means that 75.4% of respondents are confirming that the preachers of EPR/Butare Parish are not explaining well the natures of Jesus Christ, the same in the prayer cells and in catechetical teachings, only 28.3% of respondents and 26.5% of respondents confirmed that it was taught that Jesus is both God and man in prayer cells and catechetical teachings respectively, the majority of 71.7% of respondents and 73.5% of respondents confirmed that it is not taught that Jesus is both God and man in prayer cell and catechetical teachings respectively, so this is why the majority of Christian church members of EPR/Butare Parish does not understand well the natures of Jesus Christ because the way of understanding depends on the way of teaching. 84.9% of respondents have shown that the divine nature of Jesus Christ is more important to their life and for the life of the church; this is the indication showing that the divine nature of Jesus Christ is understood in Presbyterian Church Butare Parish, only 33.9% of respondents have shown that the human nature of Jesus Christ is important to their life and to the life of the church, clearly the human nature of Jesus Christ is not understood in the Presbyterian church of Rwanda Butare Parish, it was shown by 73.5% of respondents that the teachings of the natures of Jesus Christ understood wrongly in EPR/Butare Parish, this is the result of emphasizing on the divine nature of Jesus Christ and neglecting the human nature of Jesus Christ in the Presbyterian teachings about the natures of Jesus Christ.
Findings highlighted the difficulties related to the understanding of two natures of Jesus Christ of church members in EPR Butare Parish, 50.9% of respondents confirmed that it is difficult to understand how Jesus is God as we know that there is only one God creator, this are the ideas of respondents who affirmed that Jesus is the son of God not man because he has his father who is God, 54.7% of respondents confirmed that no written books which is saying that Jesus is God, this results to the wrong understanding that Jesus is the son and is not God, for this a researcher says that if there are the books explaining the natures of Jesus Christ in Presbyterian church of Rwanda Butare Parish it would be easy for the Christian church members of EPR/Butare Parish to understand the natures of Christ. The difficulties related to the understanding of the human nature of Jesus Christ in EPR/Butare Parish are many compared with that of Christ’ divine nature because the findings highlighted that no written books which is saying that Jesus is man(62.2%), no preacher in the parish said that Jesus is man(60.3%), no sufficient and trained teachers who are able to teach that Jesus is man(58.4%), no reserved time for teachings of the humanity of Jesus Christ(56.6%), and It is difficult to understand how people worship man(64.1%),so, it is hard for the Presbyterian church members of EPR/Butare Parish to understand the natures of Jesus Christ rightly because the teachings of the natures of Jesus Christ in EPR/Butare Parish contains more difficulties. For the suggestions on how the two natures of Jesus Christ must be taught in EPR/Butare Parish, 100% of respondents gave good suggestions like to teach the divine nature of Christ in all categories of Christian church members of EPR/Butare Parish, to sing the divine nature in different choirs’ songs of EPR/Butare Parish, to train the teachers of divine nature of Jesus Christ and so on,50.9% of respondents reacted on how the human nature of Jesus Christ has to be taught in EPR/Butare Parish so that all Christian church members of EPR/Butare Parish may know that Jesus is man, 49.0% of respondents abstained themselves, they did not say anything about how the human nature of Christ should be taught, Presbyterian church members of Butare Parish are fearing even to suggest on the human nature of Jesus Christ, this is because they don’t understand how it can work that Jesus is man. 5.2. Conclusions of research The study on ” Presbyterian interpretation about two natures of Jesus Christ: Butare Parish as case study” has the general objective to discover the interpretation of two natures of Jesus Christ among members of Presbyterian Church in Rwanda, Gitarama Presbytery, Butare Parish considering the specific objectives, the researcher depicted the following conclusions: For the provided teachings of EPR/Butare Parish related to the two natures of Jesus Christ, the researcher concluded that Presbyterian church of Rwanda Butare Parish teach that Jesus is God, a researcher concluded also that EPR/Butare Parish teach that Jesus is the son of God, and also, a researcher concluded that the teachings saying that Jesus is both God and man are weak in Presbyterian church Butare parish because only 20.7% of respondents confirmed that the presbyterian church teaches that Jesus is God and man, the researcher concluded that the human nature of Jesus Christ is not empasized in the teachings of EPR/Butare parish, therefore, a researcher concluded that presbyterian church teachers of EPR/Butare Parish do not relate the Biblical verses, Romans 9:5; Titus 2:13; ; hebrew 1:8; 2peter 1:1 which confirm the deity of christ with Biblical verses, Mathew 28:16-18; mark 16:14-18; 20:19-23 which show the humanity of Christ.
On the understanding of the Presbyterian Church members in EPR Butare Parish about the two natures of Jesus Christ, the researcher concluded that Presbyterian church members of Butare parish understand the natures of Jesus Christ wrongly because 73.5% of respondents are not understand that Jesus is both God and man, a researcher concluded that Christian church members of EPR/Butare Parish understand that Jesus is the son of God, a researcher concluded that Christian church members of EPR/Butare Parish understand that Jesus is only God, a researcher also, concluded that Christian church members of EPR/Butare Parish tend to the understanding that Jesus is not man and not God because 28.3% out of 41.5% of respondents who said that Jesus is the son of God argued with different reasons that Jesus is not God and is not man but only the son of God, it seems that Presbyterian church members of EPR/Butare parish do not know even the doctrine of the trinity, a researcher concluded that Christian church members of EPR/Butare Parish do not understand that Jesus is both God and man. A researcher concluded that the Presbyterian church members of EPR/Butare Parish know the importance of the divine nature of Christ, a researcher concluded also that the majority Presbyterian church members of EPR/Butare Parish do not know the importance of the human nature of Christ as 66.1% of respondents have show that they do not know the role of the humanity of Jesus Christ. However jesus is God and man because from the old testament it was said that the messiah who is Christ is Mighty God “For unto us a child is born, unto us a child is given; and the government will be upon his shoulder. And this name will be called wonderful, counselor, Mighty God, everlasting father, prince of peace(Isaiah 9:6)” Jesus is God because he exists eternaly as it is said in Revelations 22:13 that Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega to mean that he is the starting and the end of life, and also, Jesus is man because he had emotions and sorrow ” when Jesus heard it, he marveled, and said to those who followed, ‘assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel.
Mathew 8:10″. Jesus in John 11:35 wept as human being, clearly Jesus is man even today, because in the acts of the apostles 1:11 the scriptures is telling us that Jesus ascended as man and he will back to the earth as man. About the Christian members’ difficulties related to the understanding of two natures of Jesus Christ in EPR/Butare Parish, the researcher concluded that the first difficulty is that Christian church members of EPR/Butare Parish do not know the doctrine of the trinity, that lead to the thinking that Jesus is not God because he has the father who is God and there is only one God, it cannot work to have two Gods. The researcher concluded that understandings of the two natures of Jesus Christ have many difficulties such as the lack of the books explaining the two natures of Christ, the luck of sufficient and skilled trainers of the natures of Christ, the preachers are not able to preach on the natures of Jesus Christ rightly, the lack of an organized bible study where Christian can meet to learn the natures of Jesus Christ, the researcher concluded that it is hard for Christian church members of EPR/Butare Parish to understand that Jesus is man as they know that it is not allowed to worship man. The researcher concluded that the understanding of the human natures of Christ has more difficulties than that of his divine nature.
For the suggestions on how the two natures of Jesus Christ must be taught in EPR/Butare Parish, the researcher concluded that Presbyterian Christian church members of EPR/Butare Parish suggested on the divine nature of Christ that the trainings of the teachers of divine nature of Jesus Christ are needed, that it must be taught in all categories of Christian church members of EPR/Butare Parish that Jesus is God, a researcher concluded also that Presbyterian Church members of EPR/Butare Parish need more clarifications about the divine nature of Jesus Christ, as researcher concluded that Presbyterian church members of EPR/Butare Parish need the trained teachers to teach them that Jesus is man, they need the Kinyarwanda books explaining that Jesus is man, they need the teachings about the humanity of Christ in all categories of Christians, they need the Bible study in the parish where they can get knowledge about the humanity of Christ, a researcher also concluded that Presbyterian church members of EPR/Butare Parish need the preachers who are able to say that Jesus is man. In general the interpretations of Presbyterian Church Butare Parish about the two natures of Jesus Christ is not done well, it contains various difficulties, and this results to the misunderstanding of Christian church members of EPR/Butare Parish about the two natures of Jesus Christ. Christian church members of EPR/Butare Parish need serious teachings on the doctrine of the two natures of Jesus Christ.
