Quote:
Originally Posted by Evangelical
God's economy simply means God wanting to dispense Himself into man, so that may might become god.
|
God speaks the word to humankind, which word is Spirit and life (even Jesus is called the Word), and this Spirit (which is God) operates in the human vessel to transform them into the same image. Okay, fine. Redemption, transformation, transfiguration; okay, fine.
So just masticate the processed and consummated Triune God and become God in life and nature but not in the Godhead, right? Fine, right?
But, God also speaks the word to angels, who are vectors of the divine will. And is God's speaking to angels a different word, or a different Spirit? I daresay no. Additionally, Angels are made in God's image (Rev 21:17; Gen 18:1,2); angels are also called "sons of God" (Psa 82:6 [cf Jo 10:34]; angels even appear in a kind of proto-trinitarian expression of glory - the glory of the Son and the Father and the holy angels (see e.g. Lu 9:26; Mark 8:38).
And angels obviously are never argued in orthodox Christianity as "god in life and nature but not in the godhead". For scriptural basis see Heb 1:4,5; see also the angel's response to John's awe at his glorious appearance - "Do not worship me; worship God" (Rev 19:10; 22:9). Angels are ministering spirits, not god either in or out of the Godhead.
It seems as if Lee was saying, "Based on this, and this, and this, we see 'x'." So I say, Fine, but based on this, and this, and this, we also do
not see 'x'. So we're reduced to making a sort of special pleading, or case, simply because we prefer it to be so. That's the only 'simply' here. God's economy simply means 'x', because Lee simply preferred it to mean 'x'. Otherwise, it isn't so simple at all. As Jesus simply told the scribes, "Do you not know the scriptures?" That's what someone should have said to Lee. But nobody could say that, because, as we all know, he was Deputy God. Don't question Lee - even when he's wrong (which is often). Anyone who ever tried to point out the emperor's lack of apparel got ejected forthwith from the assembly.
What happens with Lee's teaching is that instead of humanity restored as a an agent or vector of the divine will, to obey and serve God, we're given a story of "Grace on steroids", in which we don't have to do anything but be filled with the Triune God, and then we become God in life and nature. Obedience - who can be obedient? All men have sinned. Etc. Righteousness - we don't care about right and wrong! We just care about life! Etc. It just becomes a case of swapping words around, and getting dazzled by or emotionally invested in our own sleight-of-hand tricks.