"in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die" Gen 2:17
What happened? Adam lived some 400 years according to scripture. Some literalist theologies interpret that if Adam and Eve had not eaten the fruit, then human beings would live forever, physically.
But that's not rational at all. Everything that physically lives in God's created world dies. It's a natural cycle. Plants die, animals die, humans die. It's the nature of the physical reality.
So what happened? Is the scripture wrong? Of course not.
Physical life is when the body functions normally according to God's laws, in health. Breathing, eating, acting, etc.
Spiritual life is when the spirit functions properly, according to God's laws. The death cases by the Fall of Adam and Eve as the spiritual death, where, through the sin, they became cut off from being able to relate to God. Physically alive, their spirit was dead, captured and enslaved to Satan (by sin).
Whereas the body (flesh) is temporary, the spirit is eternal. In the spiritual sense - the one that really counts, because it is eternal - death is being cutoff from God and existing spiritually in the realm governed by Satan.
We can see this truth shown through the scripture. "Death" is referred to many times.
e.g. "You have the name of being alive, but you are dead". You are thought to be holy and in unity with God, but you are in unity with Satan, and under his control.
e.g "We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. He who does not love remains in death.” We experience and confirm that we have moved from Satanic dominion into God's governance because our capacity to love is regenerated.
e.g. “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace.” The spirit is designed to rule over and govern the flesh, but if you let the flesh govern the spirit, you remain in Satan's dominion.
e.g. "leave the dead to bury the dead" Here's Jesus shows clearly the two concepts of 'death'. The spiritually dead (those who were not awake to Jesus) and the physically dead.
From this viewpoint, what is resurrection? Resurrection is the process by which our spirits are brought out from the Satanic dominion and into the spiritual realms where God, the creator, has governance over us.
This explains the concept of 'rapture' too. The resurrection described in scripture that will occur in the last days is not that Christ returns on a could and believers rise into the air. (Water in scripture often symbolizes 'people') "For so great a cloud of witnesses".
Purified water evaporates and forms clouds. Christ returning 'on the clouds' symbolizes that Christ will work through believers who have fully resurrected into God's governance realms.
Resurrection is a gradual process, where, by living in unity with Christ, we 'resurrect' our spirits into greater and greater unity with him. That process will fully complete when Christ returns, so "that the dwelling of God is with men".
Conclusion: "life" in the spiritual sense is when, through unity with Christ, the full functions of our spirit are restored, our capacity to give and receive love is 100% restored, and we dwell in God's presence. This process is meant to take place during the life we live on earth, and when our physical form dies, we shed it like an old suit, and live eternally in God's presence in the spirit realms.
Resurrection for those who have already passed into the spirit realms has to take place by cooperating with those living on the earth. (just as the saints of the old testament descended and worked with the disciples as described in Acts).
Btw, the guy who wrote this wapo article is fully, completely Satanic.
HT to u/DeepDMingDeep/
"in the day you eat of it, you shall surely die" Gen 2:17
What happened? Adam lived some 400 years according to scripture. Some literalist theologies interpret that if Adam and Eve had not eaten the fruit, then human beings would live forever, physically.
But that's not rational at all. Everything that physically lives in God's created world dies. It's a natural cycle. Plants die, animals die, humans die. It's the nature of the physical reality.
So what happened? Is the scripture wrong? Of course not.
Physical life is when the body functions normally according to God's laws, in health. Breathing, eating, acting, etc.
Spiritual life is when the spirit functions properly, according to God's laws. The death cases by the Fall of Adam and Eve as the spiritual death, where, through the sin, they became cut off from being able to relate to God. Physically alive, their spirit was dead, captured and enslaved to Satan (by sin).
Whereas the body (flesh) is temporary, the spirit is eternal. In the spiritual sense - the one that really counts, because it is eternal - death is being cutoff from God and existing spiritually in the realm governed by Satan.
We can see this truth shown through the scripture. "Death" is referred to many times.
e.g. "You have the name of being alive, but you are dead". You are thought to be holy and in unity with God, but you are in unity with Satan, and under his control.
e.g "We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brethren. He who does not love remains in death.” We experience and confirm that we have moved from Satanic dominion into God's governance because our capacity to love is regenerated.
e.g. “To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace.” The spirit is designed to rule over and govern the flesh, but if you let the flesh govern the spirit, you remain in Satan's dominion.
e.g. "leave the dead to bury the dead" Here's Jesus shows clearly the two concepts of 'death'. The spiritually dead (those who were not awake to Jesus) and the physically dead.
From this viewpoint, what is resurrection? Resurrection is the process by which our spirits are brought out from the Satanic dominion and into the spiritual realms where God, the creator, has governance over us.
This explains the concept of 'rapture' too. The resurrection described in scripture that will occur in the last days is not that Christ returns on a could and believers rise into the air. (Water in scripture often symbolizes 'people') "For so great a cloud of witnesses".
Purified water evaporates and forms clouds. Christ returning 'on the clouds' symbolizes that Christ will work through believers who have fully resurrected into God's governance realms.
Resurrection is a gradual process, where, by living in unity with Christ, we 'resurrect' our spirits into greater and greater unity with him. That process will fully complete when Christ returns, so "that the dwelling of God is with men".
Conclusion: "life" in the spiritual sense is when, through unity with Christ, the full functions of our spirit are restored, our capacity to give and receive love is 100% restored, and we dwell in God's presence. This process is meant to take place during the life we live on earth, and when our physical form dies, we shed it like an old suit, and live eternally in God's presence in the spirit realms.
Resurrection for those who have already passed into the spirit realms has to take place by cooperating with those living on the earth. (just as the saints of the old testament descended and worked with the disciples as described in Acts).
Btw, the guy who wrote this wapo article is fully, completely Satanic.
Excellent, excellent post. Thank you.