Subject: Genesis 3:1-7 |
Bible Note: Okay, Paul, I'll bite (pardon the pun). What do you mean when you say that God maintained "a pure PHYSICAL lineage from Adam to our Lord"? You keep repeating this, so what is the purity of which you speak? Do you mean that all of those between Adam and Jesus were morally perfect? Please explain yourself here. Now, since you have brought up the parable of the sowers, let's take a look at that more closely to see what the point is of Jesus' parable. I assume that you are referring to what is commonly referred to as the parable of the wheat and the tares, found in Matthew 13:24 and following. There are actually several parables in this chapter which have an agricultural theme. In each one, the sower is sowing the word of God (Matthew 13:20). The seed of the good sower is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then we come to verse 24: "Jesus presented another parable to them, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went away." If the good seed is the true gospel, what is the seed of the enemy sown in the same field? The fasle gospels. "But when the wheat sprouted and bore grain, then the tares became evident also." One was able to tell something wasn't right in the field when the results of the sowing of good seed and bad seed became evident from the plants themselves. "The slaves of the landowner came and said to him, 'Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares?' And he said to them, 'An enemy has done this!' The slaves *said to him, 'Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?' But he *said, 'No; for while you are gathering up the tares, you may uproot the wheat with them. Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, "First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.'" Therefore, the tares those who grow up among the wheat (the false teachers and those who adhere to a false gospel) are allowed to grow up alongside the wheat (those spinging up from the seed of the true gospel of God). The two plants rememble each other in the beginning, but the it will become evident to the servants of the landowner (God) which ones truly are of his seed and those who have impersonated the wheat will be burned. Please connect this parable to your views. The spiritual connection between the "children of God" and the "children of the devil" in John's first epistle can be clearly demonstrated to be spiritual based on a parallel passage in his gospel, and not physical. In John 8, we see Jesus calling the Pharisees children of the devil (John 8:44) while at the same time acknowledging that they are physical descendants of Abraham like He is (John 8:37) The Pharisees and Christ share a common physical lineage, but they are children of the devil and he is the Son of God. The Bible also says that we are ALL by nature children of the devil until God saves us and adopts us into His family (see Ephesians 2:3 to see our common spiritual parentage). --Joe! |