cow_le_moo said:
About this self/free-will. If we indeed have a will of our own does this give us the means to go against Gods plan? If we are really able to choose them we are able to choose to reject God and there is nothing He can do about it.
I don't recall the father chasing after his prodical son. He simply waits for him to return.
cow_le_moo said:
As for the deamons. You say people back then had to be told things in parables because they had no knowlege of mental illness. This may be true but still, why the pigs, what is the whole point of the deamons asking Jesus if He could allow them to go into the pigs instead of the abyss?
Well, I try not to touch these matters. Origen states that there were events that were historical and did happen, and there were events that could have happened but did not. They were written in the story because the meanings had spiritual significance. The NT was not meant to be a history book, and it's not a feat of perfect literature. It contains a spiritual message, and uses symbolism, esoterica, to keep the true message and secrets of God away from the carnally minded for many purposes. I propose that there is in fact, a symbolical coding which I can show people, and it is a coding relating to the twofold nature of man, that being physical and spiritual.
cow_le_moo said:
It dosn't make sense to me. On mental illness are you sure it existed back then.
Yes, people had genetical defects, mental problems, mental disfunctions caused by disease. I'm sure it wasn't as common, but they existed from my assumption. Lepers, children born blind, etc.
cow_le_moo said:
If we believe in creation and not evolution there has to be a gradual decline in 'perfectness' of the body from the fall until now. If this is so it is quite reasolable to suggest there may not have been any such thing as epilepsy. This certainly explains the age of peolple like Noah etc.
A belief in a literal "fall" is superificial understanding. The garden of Eden is not a creation story, it's describing one end of a spectrum by using esoterica, like a single point on a circumferance of a circle, the spectrum or circumferance being the macrocosm. There is no beginning or end, but the beginning is the end and the end is the beginning. Creation is a continuous process, and the end of it is a continuous process. Time is simply a point on the circumference. It's forbidden to teach the actual meaning. Not that I know the whole meaning, just parts of it.
cow_le_moo said:
Abraham was stoped by the angle of the Lord from killing his son at the last minute. Why not God himself? Is this any less viable? even to the "superficial and superstitious" people of the old testiment.
Still there is esoterica involved. Angels can represent many things.
cow_le_moo said:
I just think if demons and angels are only a state of mind God, Jesus and others could have come up with just as plausible explainations using just the nature of God and not worrying about making up these spiritual beings.
It contains a spiritual message, and uses symbolism, esoterica, to keep the true message and secrets of God away from the carnally minded for many purposes. What is "spiritual" does not have structure or form, it is untangible. That is why pure water is seen as a symbol of spirituality, as even Jesus states that one must be born of water and spirit. The spirit, the water, and the blood are all symbols representing the same thing, they are the same thing. The kingdom of heaven is an invisible reality, a spiritual reality, having no structure or form. In the beginning there was One, and that is how the end will be. In the kingdom, no one has material possessions, no one is greator or lesser than the other, older or younger, we are all one and the same. That reality is already here, you just have to realize it and you will enter this kingdom. There is One fish, One pearl, One small seed, a small portion of yeast. It is the self that forms a barrier which conceals this knowledge, it is selfishness; Satan that hides it from you. When you become closer to God, you will find self dissolving into the All, self eventually dies. [font=Arial, Geneva, Helvetica]
Luke 17:[/font][font=Arial, Geneva, Helvetica]
33 Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.[/font]
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Matthew 13:10 [/font][font=Arial, Geneva, Helvetica]
And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" 11 He answered and said to them, "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. 12 For whoever has, to him more will be given, and he will have abundance; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. 13 Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand.14 And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled, which says: 'Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, And seeing you will see and not perceive; 15 For the hearts of this people have grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, And their eyes they have closed, Lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, Lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, So that I should heal them.' [/font]