…I think the basic problem is that we have different understandings of what the
atoning work of Jesus encompassed. The scripture you refer to about dust to
dust and man returning to the earth was spoken by God as part of the curse. Do you
believe that we have been delivered from the curse of Adam? Adam's name in
Hebrew refers to the blood. God raised up Adam from the earth element and he
contained the divine life of God coursing through his veins. Death had no power
over his body. When that which is called the Fall happened, the seed of the
serpent entered the genetics of Adam and the curse spoken by God was passed on
from generation to generation. The curse was on the earth element that Adam had
fallen into from the heavenly realm he had inhabited (see Isaiah's description of
Lucifer - that is Adam) and that curse was carried in his DNA. You stated that
the transfiguration we are undergoing has nothing to do with chemistry or
genetics. I believe that God wants to reconcile every atom and every molecule
to himself, in particular the DNA molecule which contains the blueprint of our
physical beings. Do you remember the ladder or stairway that Jacob had revealed
to him that he declared was the house of God? Guess what? God was giving him a
revelation of the double helix DNA molecule which is shaped like a spiral
staircase. This revelation knowledge enabled Jacob years later to manipulate
the genetics of Laban's cattle. Far out? Yes. But so is God.
You also quote the scripture regarding being at home in the body as being absent
from the Lord. Apparently you interpret that the way those in the system of
religion do. Their thought is that what keeps us from the presence of the Lord
is our physical bodies and that we therefore need to go to the grave in order to
enter the invisible realm of the spirit. There they will be in the presence of
the Lord. There are so many problems with this way of viewing things that I hardly
know where to begin. Imagine the surprise of many Christians when they find
themselves in the lake of fire after they lay down their bodies as the second
death burns out of them all the fear and unbelief they would not let God deal
with in this life. The Greek word for home used in this passage is "to be
in one's own country." I don't know about you, but my current physical
body that has not been fully redeemed and the realm of the flesh that my body
tries to lock me into, is not my own country or my home. My country, my home is
in Him. It really disturbs me when Christians declare: so and so went home to
be with Jesus. These people are apparently at home in the body and not at home
in Him right now. What keeps us from the presence of God is not the mere fact
that we have physical bodies – Jesus had a physical body that did not prevent
him from having constant fellowship with the Father - but our carnal mind and
our soulish emotions.
Paul keeps trying to pull us into the realm of the Spirit because it is through
that heavenly fellowship that the new heavens and the new earth will be created
in our re-gened physical bodies. This is the divine marriage of the Spirit and
the body that results from a quickened spirit and an altered genetics. This
metamorphosis is what the creation is groaning to see. If it is invisible, then
what hope does the creation have and where will the new earth be manifested?
You say that man can only see the temporal. What happened on the Mt of
Transfiguration? When Jesus described his resurrection body, he did not say, as
you quote, THE spirit has not flesh and bones but rather he said: A spirit has
not flesh and bones. By “a spirit” he meant a vision, a ghost or apparition
that has no substantial reality. What he was instead manifesting was the new
Adam. The fact that he appeared in different bodies so that not even those who
were closest to him recognized him shows that he is now a quickening spirit -
quickening the members of his body as he appears in each of us.
You know that water is a type of the Word. It is no coincidence that God
created our bodies to be 95% water. This water which he has poured into our
earthen vessels speaks of our capacity to receive the Word and to be transformed
by it if we receive that Word infused with the Spirit. When that happens, the
water turns to wine or the blood of Jesus which contains the original divine
genetics. This is what it is to be re-birthed or born of the Spirit. The three
that bear witness on earth (our physical bodies) are the water, the blood and
the Spirit. They are in agreement. When you say that chemistry and genetics
are of the earth not the spirit you seem to be dividing up realms that God is
wanting to unite. When you say that water is external cleansing only you seem
not to understand that the water is the Word that cleanses and sanctifies the
church (Eph 5:26). In summation, you seem not to want to believe that Jesus
is the savior of our bodies (Eph 5:23). Lloyd, don't limit the Holy One of Israel
and don't try to put asunder the spirit and flesh that he has joined together
in the Sons of God!
I am not sure what point you are trying to make when you say that the
physical raising of Jesus was symbolic and past tense. It was very real and we
were raised with him and the fullness of our participation in his resurrection
is what is being unveiled. I hope you are not saying that the resurrection is
past (II Tim 2:18). What then was Paul hoping to attain to? What is the prize
of our high calling? What is it to "apprehend that for which we were
apprehended"? I believe that Paul wanted to be among those who do not sleep
but who attain to the fullness of the resurrection in this realm as we put on
our heavenly bodies (not invisible!) to do the work God has set out for us. If
Jesus could walk through walls, why can't we? More perplexing, if Philip can be
transported by the Spirit to physically appear in one place and then instantly
in another place, why can't we? Or was that just "symbolic"?
I leave you, brother with John 4:2 and a prayer that this does not apply to you:
“And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is (present tense) come
in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of anti-christ…” The flesh
he is come in is our flesh in order to restore us to the place Adam had in Him
in the beginning.
