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About Jesus - Steve (Stephen) Sweetman Unified
Plurality Genesis
2:24 reads: "That is why a man
leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become
one flesh." Genesis
2:24 portrays marriage between one man and one woman, two distinctly
separate people, existing in a unified plurality.
Might the concept of two being one extend beyond a marriage
relationship in God's mind? Genesis
1:26 says that God created us in His likeness and image, suggesting that
God's nature was reflected in us at creation.
As Father, Son, and Spirit, for example, are a unified plurality,
God's intent for a husband and wife is to be a mirror image of God in
this respect. Of course, the
mirror image became foggy and distorted, as seen in Genesis 3.
Nevertheless, God being a unified plurality is an underlying
motivation for all He does, as seen in His relationship with Old
Testament Israel.
The
prophet Hosea portrays God to be In
Jesus' Jewish culture, a man left his parents to marry his wife, after
which he returned home alone to prepare a comfortable home for her.
When all was fully prepared, he returned to his wife, took her
home, and consummated their marriage.
In like manner, Jesus left His Father to marry His bride, after
which He returned home to prepare a dwelling place for His bride
until such time He returns to take her home to consummate their
marriage. Of course, things
seldom change. James 4:4
reads. "You adulterous
people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity
against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world
becomes an enemy of God."
James
4:4 refers to church that couldn't wait for its eternal home prepared by
Jesus. Like the Jews of old,
it committed adultery by marrying the world.
The same is true with the Laodicean church (Revelation 3:14 -
22). In both instances,
church preferred the instant gratification the world offered instead of
the eternal blessings that are being prepared for us by Jesus.
Understanding
that which we call church is not necessarily how the Bible defines
church, much of the church in the West is no different than the Jews of
old, the
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