Theological Questions, please help (Darby, "na ling", God man)

[OBW]

Originally Posted by ByHisGrace

In the book "All Inclusive Christ", WL says:

"You may be quite clear that Christ is your food, that Christ is your living water, that Christ is your light, and that Christ is your life. But let me ask you, have you ever realized that Christ is the very land on which you are living? Christ is the land. You may feel that day by day you are living on this earth, on this piece of land, but you must realize that this earth is not your real land. Even this earth is nothing but a figure pointing to Christ. Christ is the real land to us."

This sounds a lot like Pantheism to me.. the "All Inclusive Christ", anyways, just a thought.

Not sure it is about pantheism. But it is about turning our thoughts from the concrete to the abstract. Everything becomes Christ. Not that there is no theological basis for that kind of saying. But it turns everything into vanilla. And it takes away the experience of the thing that you attribute to Christ, making the attribution less meaningful. If I have no experience of milk and honey, then declaring Christ to be a land flowing with milk and honey is rather hollow. It was a promise in the wilderness, but it was ultimately experienced. It did not simply remain a promise.

If I am only to attribute everything that I do not experience to Christ, then I am an ascetic. I am denying myself any human enjoyment so that I can attain to Christ. Where is that taught? "Deny yourself" was not merely some call to asceticism. It was a call to turn from your former way of living. To find that there is a better way.