If this were true, they could not then, contradict the previously complete Word, now could they? Tell me this: Why are the bodies of believers in the graves where we lay them? Why haven't they gone up to heaven like Christ's? After all, God is the God of the living and not of the dead. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
How do you explain the warning in the book of Revelation, wherein Christ says, and Christ is the One giving the Revelation, isn't He, not to add to words of this book or all the plagues will be added to you? As a believer, don't you have nightmares of what's going to eventually happen to all of you?
I still think that you read the completed Word backwards through Mormon tinted glasses, and you want all of us to agree with your view. Mormonism is the same as gnosticism in that it is new revelation and man-centered, not God centered. Like the charismatics you want a new experience, and you have a Jesus that the true apostles did not preach. When your texts clearly conflict with what God said and revealed, and then closed the books, you have error, for God is holy and cannot lie. You still haven't told me why it's so important to prove that God has a fleshly body. You bring God down to man's level when you preach this and that is a sin. It's Humanism, true Greek philosophy and you are the one viewing the True Word through Greek glasses.
They don't contradict. However, since you disagree, produce some specific examples, and we will consider them one at a time. As far as closing the books, see the next post.
You continue: Tell me this: Why are the bodies of believers in the graves where we lay them? Why haven't they gone up to heaven like Christ's? After all, God is the God of the living and not of the dead. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
They are absent from the body now, but their resurrection will come when the Lord wills it:
1 Corinthians 15:21-23
21 For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.
22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.
23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming.
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17
16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Your last sentence is not quite a direct quote:
2 Corinthians 5:6-10
6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:
7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)
8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.
9 Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him.
10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
Paul does not enjoy being away from the presence of God. He thus implies that he lived with God before he was born, and now is away. He looks forward to the time when he will die, leave his body behind until his resurrection, and go to be with Jesus. For now, he knows he has his mission to fulfill until his work on earth is done.
Think about the way you worded that last sentence. Sinners in hell are absent from the body, yet are not present with the Lord.
No, l$mp, you are not thinking about how the Bible came to be, nor the authority God gives to apostles and prophets to write Scripture, nor the fact that Christ said the same thing in Deuteronomy, referring to the Law of Moses, as He said in the Book of Revelation, referring to the Book of Revelation.
Here is the relevant portion of an earlier post of mine:
Stay close to those whom God sends to you -- apostles and prophets -- and if you believe that there are none such on the earth today, ask God to send some, with a commitment on your part that you will give diligent heed to their teachings.Deuteronomy 4:2When God sends them, they of course have the authority to write Scripture, which you can study along with the Scripture you already have. Don't be in the position of those in Isaiah's time who said the Lord cannot sent a prophet to warn them of their impending captivity, or to testify of the coming Christ.
(But Deuteronomy 4:2 says the canon of Scripture was closed in the time of Moses, you can't add or take away anything!)
Don't be like those in Malachi's time who said the Lord cannot send a prophet to tell us of the coming of Elijah, and the Second Coming of the Messiah. Don't be like the Jews of 40 AD who said there had not been a prophet for 400 years and so the time was forever past for God to send a prophet, who would not receive Peter and Paul as prophets because they taught the Law of Moses was fulfilled and that animal sacrifice should cease because the Great and Last Sacrifice had been made.
See also an excellent analysis (an excerpt from a published book) in this post.
You are entitled to your opinion, but I do not agree.
Mormonism is the same as gnosticism in that it is ... man-centered, not God centered.
Not true.
you have a Jesus that the true apostles did not preach
Not true.
You still haven't told me why it's so important to prove that God has a fleshly body.
Yes, I have, abundantly. It is important to have a correct understanding of the nature of God, so we know who we are, so we know why we are here, so we understand what God wants us to be doing, so we understand our relationship to Him, so we understand the importance of marriage and children and family, and so forth.
You bring God down to man's level when you preach this and that is a sin. It's Humanism, true Greek philosophy and you are the one viewing the True Word through Greek glasses.
Not true. You are arguing with the New Testament here. You are not going to win that argument.
My experience with many posters at FR is that when they run out of other things to say, they just toss out accusations they don't bother to back up. Easy and quick for you.
This conversation is degenerating already on your side. Let's be more careful and thoughtful, and back up your points with Bible quotes, or else there isn't much point in continuing.
I have made many very good and sound points, and others can read your views and mine and make up their own minds.
Bump!