Deification of man

Jesus said to the disciples that the Holy Spirit in the future would lead them into all the truth. The apostles and prophets serving the Lord were utilized by the Holy Spirit.

Apollos strongly testified and convinced more Jews to believe in Christ. Perhaps he used metaphors of which we have no knowledge of now. However, the Spirit of God used his teaching to lead men into the truth. Stephen was said to be very persuasive in gospel preaching. Likely, he used some unknown metaphors that God used to convince his audience. We have no record of them now.

We do no have all the letters of Paul, Peter, and John. Very likely they used metaphors of which we have no record. Though such unknown metaphors are not in the canon of the Bible, it is reasonable to assume the Holy Spirit used their teaching to lead people to the truth.

The artificial rule that using metaphors is a No-No is being used here as an excuse some atheists are grasping at to discount Christians using them to teach the truth.

This last statement will be quickly grasped as me saying I KNOW that I am being used by the Holy Spirit. That is not what I said. I simply affirm Christ's words that there will be the leading of the Holy Spirit of the believers into the truth, including things which He did not say while with them physically.

"I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of reality, comes He will guide you into all the reality; for He will not speak from Himself, but what He hears He will speak; and He will declare to you the things that are coming.

He will glorify Me, for He will receive of Mine and will declare it to you." (John 16:12-14)

Now watch what happens. This quotation will be used by some critics to accuse me of claiming some automatic authority, carte blanche.

"Oh, sonship. So YOU are saying that every word you write on this Forum is the speaking of the Holy Spirit. And you are some automatic authority." [paraphrased and expected]

Readers are asked to pay attention to what I said and what also I did not say.

So an organism of the triune God does have basis in the Bible. Its basis is in John chapter 15.

Now I will go on to ANOTHER example of something teaching Christ and His believers become one organic unity.

Whoever cannot take it, just stay there with your inability to see it.
some of us must keep moving forward. We have to leave you there. We have to go on.

In First Corinthians chapter twelve.

Christ AND His believers which are parts of His mystical Body are TOGETHER referred to as THE - Christ.

"For even as the body is one and has many members, yet all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also is the Christ." (1 cor. 12:12)

Notice:
Here Paul could have said "so also is the church". But he did not.
Here Paul could have said "so also is the Body of Christ". But here he did not.
Here Paul could have said "so also are" something else. But what does he write?

"SO ALSO IS THE CHRIST"

THE Christ is not only the Head of the Body but the members of the Body.
The Head Christ WITH the members (the Christians) are one organic corporate Person - "THE Christ".

This is much the same as the true vine and the abiding branches IN the vine being one as "an organism of the Triune God." Only "the Christ" is exactly what the Apostle Paul wrote.

Now, let me take a minute to discuss why something like "an organism of the Triune God" is objectionable to some minds.

Many theists including Christian theists along with Moslem and Judaism theists may regard God only as:

Objective,
Apart from man,
Out There,
Up There,
Too good to be touched by us.
He is aloof, distant, untouchable but objective.

The truth is that God is objective and He can be eternally and intimately subjective. He can even be our life.

But the fuller revelation of the Bible is about God dispensing those communicable aspects of His nature into man. His non-communicable attributes for example, His ominopotence, His omniscience, His omnipresence, His dwelling in "unapproachable light", His being Creator of the universe, or His being the eternal Father . . . these are attributes God cannot and will not share with anyone.

But He dispenses His life into men who partake of His extensive salvation purchased by His eternal redemption. They do not climb up to God and grasp at what is not theirs. He Himself imparts something of Himself INTO His redeemed people.

This is a statement on several things:

1.) How tremendously effective His redemption is in Christ.
2.) How greatly His love is for those whom He has redeemed.
3.) How much work He has to do to accomplish this dispensing, this sharing.

But we know that He will accomplish this dispensing of Himself into man. He will accomplish this building of man into God and God into man.

Paul suffered more than Job. Why was Paul so totally upbeat? It must be that Paul KNEW that God cannot fail to accomplish His eternal purpose.

John is forever positive as well as Peter even though both suffered a great deal. It must be because they KNEW that it was all going to be done. In fact from God's transcendent point of very it all has ALREADY has been done.

John SAW the New Jerusalem. He saw and marveled that at the end of history God would accomplish His eternal purpose to unite with man in all of His communicable attributes. It is unrighteous for God to NOT be able to fulfill His plan. His faithfulness to why His Son died and rose cannot fail to be accomplished. And everything the enemies of God do to prevent this only go sovereignly to help Him do it. Praise the sovereign and almighty God.

"But to Him who is able to guard you from stumbling and to set you before His glory without blemish in exultation . . . " (Jude 24)

@ghost-of-a-duke said
Bump for sonship.

@ghost-of-a-duke said
Sorry sonship, but this is a lie. When I quoted 'organism of the Triune God Himself' you reacted as though you had never heard it before and demanded that I give the source to prove Lee had said it. Now you claim to have first heard it in 1974.

@sonship said
@FMF

I'll try again. Does the presence of metaphors in the Bible allow believers to create their own metaphors and then speak about them as if they were in the Bible too?

1.) Yes, believers may refer to metaphors in and not in the Bible. But he should indicate that created metaphors do not have the same weight as those inspired to be written in ...[text shortened]... to be careful and more thorough to address the issue within the length of a reasonably worded post.

@sonship said
Now, let me take a minute to discuss why something like "an organism of the Triune God" is objectionable to some minds.

@sonship

'BOSTON GATE.'

When I quoted 'organism of the Triune God Himself' you reacted as though you had never heard it before and demanded that I give the source to prove Lee had said it. Now you claim to have first heard it in 1974. You stated:

"The first time I heard this expression I do recall. It was about 1974 in a conference in Boston. It was a fantastic time for me. I had never experienced such a feeling of one accord among Christians."


Have you been caught in a lie Sonship?

@Ghost-of-a-Duke

Have you been caught in a lie Sonship?

@sonship said
@Ghost-of-a-Duke

Have you been caught in a lie Sonship?

No. You've been caught desperately scrapping the bottom of the barrel for
a conspiracy.
You are so eager to think you have SOME kind of moral high ground that you invent slanderous lies, concoct conspiracies out of your imagination.

I asked for the source of the comment. ...[text shortened]... misrepresent my familiarity with the term.
I just asked you for a quote of its usage.

@sonship said
@Ghost-of-a-Duke

Have you been caught in a lie Sonship?

No. You've been caught desperately scrapping the bottom of the barrel for a conspiracy.

@sonship said
@Ghost-of-a-Duke
No.

@ghost-of-a-duke said
Why would you require validation of the quote if you already heard it decades ago in Boston?

You are so eager to think you have SOME kind of moral high ground that you invent slanderous lies, concoct conspiracies out of your imagination.

There is nothing left here but a game of cheapo whack-a-mole.
To just keep me scrambling around putting out little flaming comments, that's all
these would-be critics have left.