Wednesday, October 1, 2014

what is

So the presumptions ...

The first centers around the concept of an "old man".  The Bible makes mention of an old man - the archetypal metaphorical portmanteau of "what we once were" as well as the whisperings of the flesh.  The basic idea is that our personalized copy of a death-centric persona was given to us upon birth and Christians have the option, once (and because of being) born again, to follow a different route.  Outside of the second coming, there will still be a death - but, in the case of following the second route, there will not be a loss of the presence of God.

The second idea focuses on the idea that we never really get rid of the old man.  Perhaps that is a good thing - it reminds us that only with genuine humility do we ever achieve daily success in following Christ.  It is too, too easy to rely upon past successes or habits as a way of "guaranteeing" a connection of Christ.  As a result, if we didn't have a daily reminder of our choice, we'd quickly lose sight of our goal as well as the fact that it takes a daily choice to get there.

The third idea is intended to address the notion that there are always three voices at work - our "old man", our "saved" man, and any/all daemonic inclusion.  In brief, the idea is that Christians, once saved, will intention to follow the "straight and narrow".  This is already a challenge in itself (sometimes it is simply difficult to know which way to turn - or if the correct path is to simply wait / wait in place).  However, it is more difficult when you've got other "guidance".  The first false guidance is from the "old man"; anything he says will tend toward death - it is his nature.  As a result, most of the time, simply doing what he says bad on principle.  The trick is that it is often the most immediately desirous thing; this is why it is important to be on the lookout.  The second false guidance is from "other"; this is what is meant by "satanic" in this context - the basic premise that some spiritual entity, other than that given by God, is intending your path to be destructive in some sense; this isn't a subsumption or possession kind-of-thing.   This is where you feel compelled to do something you know is wrong, or strongly encouraged to act non-sweetly, or simply need to be mean.  Examples clearly include murder and rape; they would also include gossip, retaliation, over-eating, etc.

My claim is that the old man is really the set of habits established in the flesh before being saved; as such, they are a passive aggregation of the spiritual attacks and negative encouragements provided before being saved.  And that the old man is a form of attack that isn't recognized as an attack because we often simply define it as our "undesirable self" - kind of like the black sheep of our internal family.

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Given the above, then - this is intended as a blog

The tendency will be to see the old man as a modern counterpart to Jesus; this is because we are always most interested and most comfortable with legacy decisions.  You pick "left" often enough and eventually "left" feels the the correct path - regardless of new information.

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