[Cal]

Originally Posted by Drake

Igzy,

I only know how to quote everything in a post such as above. I don't know how to quote part of a post other than cut and paste like I usually do.

Just delete the part of the quote you don't want. I use Chrome which shows the {QUOTE} tags. NOTE: The tags actually need square not curly brackets. You can add a close quote tag {/QUOTE} to break off a part of a quote, and comment on it as I have done here. You then can add a open quote tag {QUOTE} to continue the quote as I have done below.

Also you can highlight any text and click the quote button (speech balloon) in the editor to wrap it in quote tags.

I understand Brother Lee's meaning this way: in eternity past God purposed and planned to join Himself to and express Himself through the man He would create. Because He is Triune everything follows from that. He creates a man to dispense Himself into. A physical rock will not do. The glove is a better illustration of man to contain and express God as the hand.

I understand the glove analogy, but I think God's relationship with man is meant to express God through more than him shining through us and us being like him. I think he is also expressed through our relationship with him and our relationship with each other. God is mainly expressed through how we treat him, others and ourselves. This is why the two greatest commandments are love God and love people, and why Jesus say when we love our neighbor (as ourselves) we've fulfilled the law.

Since we were talking about the Father, Son, and Spirit it occurred to me to think of a triangular peg. A corresponding triangular hole was needed. Frankly, my initial thought was that man is tripartite to match the Triune God. It's not a very good analogy because a triangular hole does not express the triangular peg as a glove would. Thrrefore, I took it no further thinking its probably a dead end.

I think we are triangular because we have a self (father) and self-image (son) and a relationship between the two (spirit). This matches the triuneness of God. We are all little trinities like him. We are more like God than we thought.

Note that when God created man he specifically summoned the whole Trinity in on creation, showing that man was to himself be an expression of the Trinity. I don't think the body, soul, spirit collection is it. It think it is self, self-image, spirit. Where we really live is where we really know and connect with ourselves in the holy way God intended. That's our spirit. (I will wrap the following quote in quote tags.)

Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness;

Pretty cool stuff.

It seems I'm talking about a person with a split personality. But that only happens when the self and self-image are in conflict, which does not happen in God, nor in us when we are in sync with God. But we all have relationship with ourselves, as does God. A person is completely healthy and happy when his self and self-image are in perfect sync, i.e. his spirit approves of both, which means they are in sync with God. This is what it means to have a saved soul.

A person in hell is in complete conflict with himself, with no hope for reconciliation, which makes the conflict worse, and on and on. Which is why his soul is lost.