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Originally Posted by ZNPaaneah
Thanks for the careful and thoughtful response. I am not really getting the "physical" versus the "spiritual" concept. Here is what is giving me the hangup, God tells Abraham to sacrifice his son, so he loads up the wood and takes his son early to the mtn, and when his son asks where is the lamb he responds "God will provide the lamb". Now that to me is a huge exercise of your faith, which I feel is a spiritual exercise.
Likewise with Joseph interpreting the dreams. I think the dreams were a spiritual language that Joseph was able to understand. Not only did he have them but he could interpret them. But even so, I have always felt that Joseph truly excelled in reconciling his family. It is hard for us to talk about how we are spiritual and they were physical, yet we cannot reconcile the LRC family the way Joseph reconciled his. That to me is truly a huge exercise of faith on his part which again, I feel is a spiritual exercise.
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Hello again, dear brother ZNPaaneah,
I am sorry that my "physical" vs. "spiritual" language may have confused the issue. My "physical" vs. "spiritual" language was not meant to imply anything beyond the normal distinction between "Old" and "New" which we use everyday when we say "Old Testament" and "New Testament". I certainly did not mean to imply that God's Old Testament people never had any spiritual experiences or that they never exercised faith. Hebrews chapter 11 certainly makes it very clear that there are lots of examples of the exercise of faith in the Old Testament.
I also did not mean to imply that God's New Testament people do not have a very real physical existence on this earth. I was trying to highlight the fact that God's mind and His purpose for His people in both Old Testament times and New Testament times has not changed. What did change, of course, was the means God has at His disposal to accomplish His goal. I believe that God has always desired to have a holy and righteous people who live lives of self-sacrificial love.
If you would, please re-read my original post with this in mind. I hope this will help things, but my original post may still not work for you. That's OK. Please understand that I thought you asked a very heartfelt question and I did my best before the Lord to provide an answer. If my answer is inadequate, and it very well may be, then I pray that someone else will supply the answer you are seeking.
I hear what you are saying about Joseph reconciling his family. It pains my heart to think that the situation with LSM will not be resolved until the Lord returns. One thing LSM has in abundance which I do not see in Joseph's brothers is a terrible spirit of religious jealousy. Both the Bible and Church History show us that dealing with such a terrible spirit is a very, very, difficult thing. May we be those who weep and mourn.