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pursuing the upward call with fear and trembling

just a 44 year old man seeking to share my meanderings with the world at large or the blogosphere at small

Thursday, March 12, 2009

Flux

A state of flux, change. I am moving and drifting in this state now, thankfully so. I am so thrilled by how many great people I have met in varying levels via blogging, whether we have gotten to interact or not, so amazing how this allows us to get to *know* one anothers mind heart and soul in such a cool way.

I think God likes to hide in plain sight alot of the time. Traditionally we have held to a belief in satan,the devil.lucifer,beelzebub as a supernatural fallen angel who was cast out of heaven along with others who followed him in rebelling against God and trying to pull off a coup de"tat. I am bucking tradition.

The book of Isaiah speaks of lucifer. In Hebrew the word is *heylel* which means bright morning star and refers to Venus, brightest planet apart from the sun. When the LXX or Septuagint, the Greek translated Bible was made in 3rd century, *heylel* was translated as *phos* where we get our words phosphorous,luminous,brightness. In the 4th century Jerome made a translation of the Bible into latin, known as the Latin Vulgate and became the authorized version accepted by the Roman Catholic Church. Jerome in his translation of phos transliterated it into the word lucifer. Tradition has lucifer/bright morning star being satan the fallen angel, helped along by the language used in the verses in Isaiah. Careful exposition of the passage reveals Isaiah is referring to nebuchadnezzar, king of babylon and NOT some supernatural fallen angel!!! Satan means adversary,devil means accuser. many places in the Bible these words are used and translated as adversary and accuser. However, in places where the translator felt the need to place emphasis upon a supernatural fallen angel, satan and devil are used as opposed to adversary or accuser.

3 things are the overall totality of what encompasses sin. Lust of the eyes,lust of the flesh,boastful pride of life. Jesus was taken to the desert by the Spirit to be tempted by satan. Jesus fasted and went without food in the desert. Lust of the flesh- tempted to turn stones into bread. Lust of the eyes-He knew all the kingdoms of the world had been prmised Him as Messiah, He could have used His power to take them and avoid the cross. Pride of life- Jesus could have had angels take Him into the Temple and be the political superhero Messiah many expected and hoped He would be as opposed to a suffering servant. The *satan* tempting Jesus was His own thoughts, since Jesus had to be tempted in all ways as we are, yet without sin. James 2 tells us temptation comes from our own desires, our sinful flesh we inherited from adam and eve.

Jeremiah 17:9 says the human heart is wicked and evil above all else. Hmmmm do we really need a supernatural devil to tempt us anymore than we s do to ourselves as it is??? Personification is a literary tool used a great deal in the Bible. Proverbs is full of them, wisdom especially is spoken of as a woman many times. Satan or devil spoken of as a being is a way to personify the nature of sin and opposition to God. What is the true enemy that came into existence once eve disobeyed Gods command??? SIN Paul tells us in Romans and elsewhere that sin entered the world through adam. Adam??? What about satan??? Jesus came to destroy the *works of the devil* SIN Jesus removes all sin by His death on the cross!!!!! I have alot more but i want to see what response occurs first.

2 Comments:

At 10:46 PM, Blogger jennypo said...

Sorry, Robert, but I have to disagree with you here. The thoughts of the Lord Jesus are of vital importance. Jesus could not have been tempted by his own thoughts and also been "without sin" because the Bible makes it clear that sin takes place in the thoughts. (Proverbs 24:9) Jesus suffered the difficulties of one who resists temptation, but never could he have entertained the thought of sin. God says that hating is the same as killing - it is not action, but thought, that concerns him.

It is torture to know that you could satisfy your hunger and won't; it is mental agony to feel that you could know acceptance instead of rejection and power instead of weakness, but won't. Jesus suffered the pain of temptation and the weakness of the flesh that becomes tired and wants food (such weakness is human but not sinful), but he was altogether different from us in that there was never a possibility of him giving in. His spirit always ruled his flesh.

We have too easily believed the lie that part of being human is being sinful. We were not created sinful. We are not garbage. We were created in God's image. Though we have been broken by sin, sin is not an essential part of being human.

If Jesus has a single flaw, then He can be a commiserator, but never a Saviour. Let us not give over that "yet without sin" too easily. :)

 
At 2:37 AM, Blogger Tracy Simmons said...

Robert, I'd highly recommend you read "Recovering Your Good Heart" by Jim Robbins. Both Joel at Grace Roots and Aida at Forgetting the Former Things have reviewed this book a lot, plus Jim has his own blog as well (google it!). The old "our heart is wicked and evil" stuff is done away with at the cross. This book does a great job exploring the heart issues....

 

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