Quote:
Originally Posted by Zezima
Is there biblical evidence to support the notion of Gods economy is to make man the same as he in life and nature but not the god head? I ask because as I break free from the teachings of LSM I am realizing that I don’t see this in the Bible. We are clearly being made like God, but the same? Is this a doctrine worth keeping?
|
Hi Zezima,
There are a couple paths that come to mind for me about your question.
The first is to talk about God's economy. So let's look at the main verse regarding God's economy, in 1 Timothy 1.
The Greek word for what Lee translated as "economy" is "oikonomia". It is usually translated as "management, stewardship, administration, etc". It can also be translated as economy, sure, with the understanding that it's not referring to a country's GDP. Economy in this sense means management, stewardship, administration.
It can also be translated as "dispensation". And dispensation in this sense means "a special period of time", but it is not the primary meaning of the word.
However, as is apparent, that is not the same word as what we know as "dispensing". "Dispensation" from oikonomia and "dispensing" are two different words that in English just happen to sound the same. But they don't mean the same thing, and they don't refer to the same thing. There is no form of the Greek word "oikonomia" where we would end up with "dispensing" like a liquid being poured as the translation.
But Lee didn't care.
He ran with it. He said that everyone had missed the key of God's economy, that God is dispensing Himself into us. But look at the verses in 1 Timothy 1!
3 Even as I exhorted you, when I was going into Macedonia, to remain in Ephesus in order that you might charge certain ones not to teach different things 4 Nor to give heed to myths and unending genealogies, which produce questionings
rather than God's economy, which is in faith.
5 But the end of the charge is love out of a pure heart and out of a good conscience and out of unfeigned faith;
6 From which things some, having misaimed, have turned aside to vain talking,
7 Desiring to be teachers of the law, though they understand neither the things that they say, nor concerning what they confidently affirm.
8 But we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully
9 And knows this, that the law is not enacted for a righteous man but for the lawless and unruly, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and those who strike their mothers, for murderers,
10 For fornicators, homosexuals, kidnappers, liars, perjurers, and whatever other thing that is opposed to the healthy teaching,
11 According to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, with which I was entrusted.
There's more to the chapter, but this is enough for me to ask "where do you see "God dispensing Himself" in this very passage about God's economy? Where?"
Someone else on this forum....maybe OBW?.....noted a while back that if you crack open Lee's
The Economy of God, Lee's big support of his definition of God's economy towards the beginning of the book goes something like this:
"A survey of the scriptures will reveal that God's economy is to dispense Himself into......."
That's all. That's Lee's big scriptural support. He doesn't provide any other evidence. And then spends the rest of the book acting like his claiming it automatically makes it true.
"oikonomia" shows up in some other parts of Scripture. In Eph 1:11 it is the context of God's plan. In Eph 3:9 it is in the context of the gospel reaching everyone, both Jews and Gentiles, and that all can have boldness to approach God's throne. And again in Colossians 1:25, Paul refers to a "commission" (oikonomia) he was given, to proclaim that God has chosen to include Gentiles too.
Go read the portions I'm referring to -- test all things, including what any of us say here! (
www.biblehub.com is a great resource where you can see numerous translations of a verse at once, as well as look at the Greek and how the Greek is defined.)
Nowhere is oikonomia anywhere in any passage that implies, describes, or points to "God dispensing Himself into us".
But with the foundation of God dispensing Himself into us, it's a short little leap to "you are what you eat" or "you become what you take in"....and all of a sudden we are becoming God (in L & N but not in the GH, of course). But the Bible doesn't say God is dispensing Himself, so the little leap Lee took has no foundation either.
I'll post a little later about the other path that came to mind.
Trapped