Quote:
Originally Posted by Drake
UntoHim,
The statements you provided explain the same great scriptural truth as the ones I was asked to provide. They are consistent and any of them may be used to describe how the many sons of God become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead.... not only not as an object of worship but not in any of the incommunicable attributes of God in His Godhead. The Bible clearly reveals that God's life and nature are communicable and have been communicated to His regenerated believers. It is in this and only in this sense are we made God. The Bible illustrates the life and nature oneness between God and His believers in many ways - the Church, the counterpart of Christ, being built out of Christ as Eve was from Adam, the Vine and the branches, the universal Head and Body of Christ, the One New Man, the Spirit and the Bride, the Spiritual House of God, the New Jerusalem, the One Grain becoming many grains, and the Firstborn and His many brothers the sons of the Father, etc.. Yet, if the scriptural illustrations are not clear then His direct speaking is unequivocal:
"And I do not ask concerning these only, but concerning those also who believe into Me through their word, that they all may be one; even as you, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us; that the world may believe that you have sent Me. And the glory which you have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, even as We are one; I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that you have sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me. " John 17:20-23
This is the testimony of scripture.
Drake
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But Drake........
Eve never became Adam, the Bride never becomes the Spirit, the Body never becomes the Head, the branches never become the vine, and the many grains never become the first grain.
Adam and Eve may have been one flesh, but Eve never "became" Adam in life/nature.
The Body remains connected to the Head but the Body never "becomes" the Head in any sense. The illustration there in 1 Corinthians 12 has to do with the relationship of the members one to another and honoring each other.....nothing about "becoming XYZ in life and nature".
The branches abide in the vine and are connected to the vine but the branches never "become" the vine. There are always branches and a vine. The illustration there in John 15 has to do with love, not "becoming in XYZ life and nature".
Oh, I know you might respond, "it is so obvious that anyone reading the verses would understand and it doesn't need to be said" like you've said in other places......but the more your theology involves "I know it's not actually written in the Bible but......" the more problematic the entire set of teachings is. You are doing what Witness Lee always did - importing an overlay onto portions of text and claiming something that isn't in the text.
To be sure scripture testifies of a connection or a position ("being in"), but none of the examples in your illustrations ever "becomes" the other thing.
This is classic taking the text too far and being careless with language and the implications of language.
Trapped