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To: Alamo-Girl; hosepipe; HarleyD

A-G, thank you for your post. Hebrew concepts are helpful as an introduction, but Christianity is not Judaism, and that includes concepts of spirituality. So, I am not concerned with what the Jews believe. They reject the very essence of our faith (our Lord Jesus Christ), and there is nothing but an unbridgeable divide between us and them.

We read the same Old Testament and see the foreshadowing of Christ in it; they don't. So, what's the point of stating what they believe? We read the OT through the lens of the NT; they don't.

Saint Paul seems to speak of Trichotomy. The Church disagrees with that interpretation. The Gnostics embraced it, as is the case in some groups to this day.

13,946 posted on 05/04/2007 9:04:01 AM PDT by kosta50 (Eastern Orthodoxy is pure Christianity)
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To: kosta50; hosepipe; HarleyD
Thank you for sharing your views!

We read the same Old Testament and see the foreshadowing of Christ in it; they don't. So, what's the point of stating what they believe? We read the OT through the lens of the NT; they don't.

I would say that a bit differently, i.e. our understanding of the law and the prophets is illuminated by the person of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. It was never enough to know the Scriptures, one had to also know the power of God. (Matt 12:24)

The Torah, indeed the Tanakh, is no small matter to God. As Jesus said, not a jot or tittle will pass from the law and the prophets until it is all fulfilled (Matt 5:18, Romans 3:1-2).

Obviously, not every Jew was blind or deaf to spiritual Truth. Indeed, God chose and revealed much to Abraham, Moses, David and so on - and they were used mightily by Him.

Moreover the Hebrew word concepts I’ve mentioned - nephesh, ruach, neshama, ruach Elohim - are rooted in Scripture.

To whatever extent they were raised in the Talmud or in the oral traditions is beside the point.

These are the concepts – not trichotomy – which Paul explicates in the New Testament in Romans 8. The body is not even the issue, the carnal nature – the nephesh is.


13,984 posted on 05/04/2007 10:24:02 PM PDT by Alamo-Girl
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