Man is Just a Water Bottle?

[OBW]

Last Summer, i sort of dropped out of Facebook. I manage to visit about once every 2 or 3 months now. And the last time I looked (yesterday) the following was posted by someone in the LRC.

When God looks at the earth and He sees man, all He sees are water bottles - some are empty, some are full, some are filled with something other than water. When God made man, He made man as a vessel to contain something, and the something that God designed man to contain is God Himself.

The tree of life, presented to man in the beginning, is God Himself as man's supply; indeed, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, as shown to us in Genesis, is actually the only other item with which man has been given to fill himself.

When I see a man on this earth, I have learned to try and see him the way that the Lord sees him - his vessel is empty, or his vessel is filled with something other than God, or by the Lord's mercy the vessel is filled with God. Actually, when we go to the movie theaters, or listen to music from the world, we are simply vessels trying to be filled. Being filled with the wrong thing is just as wrong as being empty. And, also taking God's view of the situation, if a man is empty, he must be in excruciating pain - since man isn't made to be empty - or if he has somehow filled himself with the wrong thing, he also must be in excruciating pain, for his purpose is fulfilled in vanity by a lie.

Even when I fail, or sin, I have learned to realize that I am just acting on the fact that I am a vessel and that I need to be filled with something. A vessel that is not filled with what it was made to contain is living in vanity, and a vessel that is filled with the wrong thing is living a lie (also inherently vanity).

So, what does this mean to us? We should accept God's original design, and take God as our content. When we do take God as the content of our vessel, we enjoy a rest, a peace, a satisfaction, and a reality that cannot be replaced, replicated, assuaged or synthesized.

Even if we sin, or even if we fail, it is all based upon the fact that we are vessels and we are trying to fill ourselves with the wrong contents.
But, HALLELUJAH!! If we take God as something we take in and eat, eat Him, and enjoy Him, and fill our being up with Him, we don't even LOOK anywhere else to be filled, or look for anything else. Our need is met! Our desires are satisfied!

- And we also enjoy an amazing realization that God is also satisfied. -

This is because for every need we have, there is a corresponding need in God to fill the order with Himself. May we learn to be good water bottles, being filled with the rivers of living water flowing from the throne of God, so that we also can have our thirst quenched, God's heart's desire can be fulfilled in us, and we can help quench the thirst of others.

A verse in the Bible which is a quotation from God Himself says, "My people have committed two evils: they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters; to hew out for themselves cisterns (wells) - broken cisterns which hold no water."

Can you see what God's view of the situation is? And how different it is from almost every man's view of good vs. evil?

I have no problem with the person who wrote it. And I presume that it is far from original thought.

But when I was reading it, while I see aspects of truth in it, I also see something very untrue in it. A kind of theology that presumes that the man created was not really "very good" because he had not yet filled himself up with God.

And it begins with a gross error in the second paragraph. How does anyone conclude that scripture (or history) shows that man only has "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, as shown to us in Genesis . . . [as] the only other item with which man has been given to fill himself." Where did this come from? There was a garden full of things to eat and Genesis is somehow showing us that man only has been given (or given to) the "tree of knowledge of good and evil"?

But back to the whole bottles theology.

The thought this brings to me is one that suggests that man was not made for here and now, but for something beyond. We are not to be righteous (good) here rather than unrighteous (evil), we are to escape here into a realm that is beyond.

That means that God did not progressively reveal his plan, first in demanding righteousness, then in providing he way, but rather in demanding righteousness, then saying "it's not really important. You just need to be spiritual and escape this place."

If that is why he made earth and man, then it was not yet "very good." It was only partly made. If the goal was to get inside of man, then there was no need of a "fall" to establish that it had not yet happened. Before that, God came and talked with Adam at times. He was not "in" Adam. And there is nothing in the brief record suggesting that it could not go on like that for ages to come. And nothing in the record after the fact suggesting that it was God's will that there be a fall so that the already "very good" could eventually become better.

Everything else is speculation. And this kind of pop theology is just garbage that relegates the purpose of man to being a way for God to be happy with himself for being found in all these otherwise empty containers.

God loved the world. Enough to experience the pain, even death, that comes with it. Those are not the actions of the kind of narcissistic God that just wants to see more of himself everywhere. That is not love — other than for himself. And the record does not reflect that kind of God.

Man was created to represent God. To be his image bearers on earth. Not to just be him on earth. He could do that without us. And unrighteous people who think that right and wrong is pointless do not represent him.

I've ranted enough. And I hope that whoever wrote that does not think I am griping at them. Same for whoever posted it on facebook.

I'm sure there is more to see in this. But I will leave it to you to read, comment on, or ignore.

[ZNPaaneah]

When I look at the Earth I also see water bottles. Most aren't full, but they often do have some liquid within them. It wasn't always this way. I used to see those plastic ties that they put a six pack of soda or beer into. Thankfully those have been done away with (I think). Also, years ago it was more glass coke bottles than anything else, it seems they really didn't start using plastic water bottles until later. But does this mean that all these water bottles that I see should be filled? Or does it mean that more people should be throwing trash away properly? You could even conclude that people should stop drinking water out of plastic because we are what we eat and eventually by that reckoning one day we will just be a plastic water bottle.

[Cal]

It's just a very simplistic metaphor which tries to give the impression that it is more profound than it is.

Yes, man is a "container" of sorts. But man is a lot of things. Simply calling him a bottle and acting as if that goes to the depths of what is profound about mankind is just naive.

If you look around the earth and just see bottles, then you're not seeing people as God sees them. Does anyone really think that God just wants to be surrounded by bottles containing himself for eternity? God is complex, and man is complex, too.

This speaks to one of the most annoying things about LRC theology. It tries to pretend it is so profound, so above what anyone else has ever considered, when actually it is often quite simplistic and shallow.

LRCers believe that we are just supposed to "contain" God. But actually, proper "containing" can only come about by getting to know the Lord and beginning to look at things the way he does. It's not just about being filled, it's about getting to know. The filling part is easy, it's the transformation part that is interesting.

Originally Posted by Igzy

It's just a very simplistic metaphor which tries to give the impression that it is more profound than it is.

This speaks to one of the most annoying things about LRC theology. It tries to pretend it is so profound, so above what anyone else has ever considered, when actually it is often quite simplistic and shallow.

I believe this view is why they dis counseling and psychology. If their theology worked the LC system would be a utopia by now but we know otherwise. They suffer the same problems as the rest of us but we are free to seek wise counsel from those qualified to give it Until they recognize that the ministry of Witness Lee is extremely limited in it's scope and application they will remain as sheep without shepherds.