[quote=“Reggie_O_Donoghue, post:19, topic:38755, full:true”]
Coming to think of it. I will concede that perhaps God’s commands do not have to exist for all time. God gives Noah and his sons permission to eat ‘all’ animals, then proceeds to tell the Israelites to avoid animals which do not have cloven feet or chew the cud. So maybe this language was merely about asserting human dominance over the earth and over wild animals, by force if need be, whilst not necessarily endorsing environmental destruction. [/quote]
You are getting the concept. Remember, Man developed Veterinarians who are specially trained for helping Animals which are in difficulty. No other animal is capable of doing that.
And Humans can build new forms of old animals, through “selective breeding,” which no animal ever planned, and carried out, yet the species continue to improve through the grace of God and Man’s help.
[quote=“Reggie_O_Donoghue, post:19, topic:38755, full:true”]
God gives Noah and his sons permission to eat ‘all’ animals, then proceeds to tell the Israelites to avoid animals which do not have cloven feet or chew the cud.[/quote]
That was because God chose one Man’s Family to bring into covenant with God, with a view toward producing Messiah, who would one day sacrifice Himself for the species “Man.” That one Man was “Abraham,” who became the progenitor of several families, so that in His seed, all Humankind would be blessed.
And understanding the Old Testament is the story of One Man’s Family, helps us to focus on the wider picture, than the other perspective which has us struggling to follow any one of several trails for understanding.
And God dealt with a HUGE issue of which trail of descendants to follow, from Abraham to Messiah. And He developed a plan whereby Messiah could dwell in believers, to aid and comfort them; and gave it a name - “The Logos Of God.”
And when Men begin to comprehend this blueprint, and adapt it for their life-guide, others will see the change in the life of that man, and understand the power of God’s love for Mankind.
And this is basically what that plan consists: When any Christian will conform to the pattern of life taught by Jesus, of self-sacrifice and service to others, Jesus’ Spirit will dwell in that person, and make Him/Her stronger in The Faith.
Most beginning bible studies, in churches accross this nation, will turn to the bible, New Testament section, Life of Christ "synoptic Gospels, and John’s gospel as the logical starting place to understand what it is God wants us to know and do.
Then, upon completing the “beginner’s” Bible study, almost invariably, indoctrination begins with the concept of “In the beginning was the logos, and the logos was with God, and the logos was God” [John 1:1]; “And the logos was made flesh and dwelt among us.” [John 1:14] As though John 1:14 follows immediately John 1:1-3.
It does NOT. There are eleven verses between vers 3 and verse 14, which cover the entire history of the Christian experience of the first century, from the advent of Jesus, to the writing of John’s gospel in 96 a.d.
The doctrine developed from the study system which starts with “In the beginning” of John’s gospel, not only misses the entire truth of scripture, it misleads generations of Christians into believing Jesus is the eternal logos of God who became flesh and came down to live among men.
God appointed one person to “fulfill (fully preach) the Logos of God.”
That one person was given a mission specifically designating him to “FULFILL (FULLY PREACH) THE LOGOS OF GOD.”
And he preached to the whole world that when they reached that level of perfection that it is no longer “I” that live but “Christ liveth in me,” (That was the focus and scope of the logos of God) - THAT is when the Logos was personified among men.
THAT mission was given to the Apostle Paul.
The sixtieth anniversary issue of Life Magazine, page 42, states: “Colonel Charles Lindbergh, who flew solo from the North American continent to Europe, is the American Dream made flesh.”
Now, I think it safe to say, we still recognize there is an “American Dream.” And that the American Dream can still be personalized and personified and lived among men to this day. The whole point here is to demonstrate how the development of the personification of the Logos was understood by the first generation Christians.
In 48 A.D. Paul preached “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” [Gal 2:20]
See the personification of the logos, in Christians, as Christ lives in THEM? THAT was God’s plan in the beginning of the new covenant. And THAT is what Paul preached to THE WHOLE WORLD.
Twelve years later, in 60 A.D. Paul says he was given a commision to “FULFILL (FULLY PREACH) THE LOGOS OF GOD,” and, that he preached it to the whole world. “If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which WAS PREACHED TO EVERY CREATURE WHICH IS UNDER HEAVEN; whereof I Paul am made a minister; 24 Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:” [Col 1:23-24]
PAUL SAYS HE WAS MADE A MINISTER TO FULFILL (FULLY PREACH) THE LOGOS OF GOD:
"Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to FULFILL (fully preach) THE LOGOS (word) OF GOD;[Col 1:25]
Paul goes on to explain that the logos of God was hidden in a mystery, from ages and generations: 26 Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: 27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles;" [Col 1:26-27]
And Paul tells us that this mystery, this “LOGOS OF GOD” is “CHRIST IN YOU,” [Gal 2:20] and that this (“christ in you”) is the hope of glory. “which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: 28 Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:” [Col 1:23-28]
Not until 69 A.D. was the “logos of God” tied to Jesus, and that was by name. “The Logos of God” is NOT who Jesus was. It is a NAME Jesus was GIVEN. And the record of this transaction was not made public until 69 A.D. So the New Testament generation of Christians had no such understanding that “Jesus is the logos of God.”
AT LEAST 36 years (two generations) passed prior to John’s writing of the apokolypse, in which he tells us of a name given to Jesus which NO MAN KNEW but he HIMSELF - “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. 12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. 13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The LOGOS (Word) of God.” [Rev 19:11-13]
“Christ living in me” IS THE LOGOS OF GOD; “Christ living in me” is how the logos became flesh, and THIS is how the first generation Christians had it presented to their understanding.
When John penned his gospel in 96 a.d., he spoke of that logos of God, and of its being personified in Christians, “became flesh and dwelled among men,” and between the two sections, informed us of all that took place over the 60 to 70 years interim between the two concepts.
After introducing a cousin of Jesus as the prophet of God, John tells us of the Israel’s reaction, and the Gentile world’s reaction, to this “Jesus of Nazareth” spoken of by John the baptist.
John 1:11 “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.”
This did not happen overnight. This is an encapsulated account of all that is written in the New Testament accounts concerning Israel’s rejection of Jesus. It is told in eleven simple words. “He came unto his own, and his own received him not.” This speaks of the rejection and the hunting of Jesus by the Sanhedrin council, the attack by the Pharisees, and the denial by the high priest of the Jews, and their decision that it was better that one man should die for the nation." ALL of this is covered in eleven simple words.
Then John covers in forty seven words, the entire history of the struggle of the first century, to expand a little band of 120 believers into the new and exciting movement known to the world as “Christianity.”
John 1:12 “But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
ONLY THEN does John tell us that the logos has been personified in Christians who let Christ into their lives so that the logos is personified among men, as Paul preached in Galations and Colossions. And the “beginning” of which John speaks, is not the beginning of creation as is commonly and popularly believed, it is the beginning of the gospel of John.
Read all of John’s writings and you will see that he references the beginnig of the gospel, not the beginning of the world. Even Jesus spoke of it - John 15:27 “And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning;” and John 16:4 But these things have I told you, that when the time shall come, ye may remember that I told you of them. And these things I said not unto you at the beginning, because I was with you.