QUOTE (Mousetrails) |
Is there a place in the Bible that clearly tells us how to tell real angels from false angels? |
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Why do you think Stephen could see the Son of man when a mob couldn't? |
QUOTE (mousetrails @ 2-Jun 06, 2:31 PM) |
Why do you think Stephen could see the Son of man when a mob couldn't? If they could have seen what he saw would they have stoned him? Wouldn't they have stood in awe? Why, if God was so close he could be seen, did he not protect Stephen? |
I believe it is possible for man to see God, if man is sufficiently humble and righteous. Job sees God when he is in a repentant state.
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I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes. Job 42:5, 6 |
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After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. 1 Corinthians 15:6 |
First God gave Satan possession of Job's children and all he owned and Satan destroyed everything. But Job didn't bend. Once again the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. (Job 2:1) And again God pointed out Job with pride, but this time God gave Satan possession of Job's body, just to prove a point. How bad did it get? When Job had boils, ...from the soles of his feet to the crown of his head his wife asked him, "Are you still holding to your innocence? Curse God and die."
Three of Job's friends came to see him. But when, at a distance, they lifted up their eyes and did not recognize him, they began to weep aloud; they tore their cloaks and threw dust upon their heads. (Job 2:12) They sat with him seven days and nights without saying a word, ...for they saw how great was his suffering. All the death, and all the suffering, to prove a point to Satan! What does all this say about the God of the Jews? This all knowing, all seeing, loving, caring, most powerful God, felt the need to prove something to Satan? Why would He care what Satan thought? If I had been Job at that point, I would have told God anything I thought he wanted to hear.
QUOTE |
After that, he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. 1 Corinthians 15:6 |
Name: Scott
Comments: I think that we see God now, and more often than we think. That's because God has a body, a corpus, called the church. "You are the body of Christ," says 1 Cor 12:27, and we are this body "because we partake of the one loaf" (10:17). In the New Testament, when Paul uses the term body, he is usually referring to the church (though occasionally to the eucharistic bread), and never to the physical body of Jesus of Nazareth. This is because Paul knew the work of the author of Luke-Acts well, and knew that after his ascension, the "body" of God on earth is the church, empowered by the Spirit. We are extension of the incarnation into time, into history, placed here as the body of the second person of the Trinity. We are not the fulness of God (due to our sin and finitude), and so are not "the light of the world," but we are called to be "a light to the nations," a taste of the kingdom.
Source 1: 1st Corinthians 10-12
Source 2: Henri de Lubac, Corpus Mysticum