[Thankful Jane]

Originally Posted by Peter Debelak

Why didn’t God just go ahead and redeem us, without sending His Son? Was He incapable and “inadequate”? Why was Jesus tempted by the devil before He could be the worthy Lamb? Was He “inadequate” or was that episode just for our reading pleasure?

I’ll go further: why the need for the re-birth? Why wasn’t Christ’s death on the Cross sufficient? It gave me access back to God just as Enoch had. With the Scripture, I also have the Word of God which contains the pattern of Christ, which I can imitate. Why the need for re-birth by the Spirit? And, by the way, in that re-birth, who indwells me? The Spirit or Christ? Or the Spirit of Christ? Or the….

For the record, these aren’t just questions in the wind. The Word has some things to say about them – even if it leaves some things a mystery. Asking these questions doesn’t require creating a “science of God.” It doesn’t require everything to be reduced to little morsels to “intake”. Lee can still be wrong, even if there is something to “humanity” being “added” to God (but really, there needs to be a more Scriptural articulation)

Peter, the slippery slope I was referring to was that of teaching anything that makes the I AM sound like the “I WILL BE” or the I USED TO BE BEFORE I BECAME ... All the questions you posed are related to what God DID for us and how we experience that, not who He IS.

I agree that there needs to be good, spiritual, articulation of all the things we believe about Christ’s redemptive work, and this is not just for mental apprehension in itself, but so that our walks with God and our experience with Him can be helped. How we think about something controls our behavior. (As a man thinketh, so is He.) If we have wrong thoughts (beliefs) about God and how He relates to us and we to Him, this will affect our experience.

Honestly, I believe this is the very reason that the devil has carefully constructed this monstrosity of Lee theology that we tangle with daily like some kind of a killer tar-baby. He wants nothing more than to frustrate our walks with God. His way is to infiltrate Christian teachings with false beliefs, which have been introduced in a way that sound like the truth. (Go back to the garden of Eden for his M.O.) If you want to do case studies in frustrated walks with God, the LC has produced boatloads of such cases. I am involved with one of the most heartbreaking I have seen in a long time right now. They believed and practiced Lee’s processed Triune God teachings, but I can assure you they did not exhibit Christ’s “uplifted humanity.”

I may not be able to understand or explain the ins and outs of new birth, but I believe I have been born again. My deadened spirit has been made alive to God. I am able to walk with Him in an intimate way. I can hear his voice and follow Him. In so doing, I am supplied by His Spirit (who by the way is the same Spirit who walked with Enoch.) We are different from Enoch in that we have been set free from the penalty of sin by believing in the redemptive work while we are still on the earth; however, I think Enoch got the same benefit from believing the promise of God’s salvation that was foretold. He found grace in the eyes of the Lord and God took him. I believe Enoch’s God is the same as ours. I don’t think we got an upgraded model. (No offense meant by this language, that's just an easy way to say it.)

What do you think Christ had that Enoch’s God did not? Ability to sympathize? He had that before He came, we just couldn’t understand this without Him showing us. This wasn’t some newly acquired ability. Longsuffering? Meekness? Gentleness? Love? Joy? Peace? He had all these and showed us He did. One point I can think of is that the Bible says He learned “obedience.” However, I don’t think this means He didn’t have the ability to obey, but He had never had to use His obedience before in the way He did as a man in the flesh.

Just what about Jesus had to be “added” that wasn’t already there when God said “I AM?”

Thankful Jane