November 18, 2010
Spiritual Half-Breed
The NIV footnote on Luke 10:31-33 states that the Jews viewed the Samaritans as half-breeds, both physically and spiritually. Today’s PC Police (Politically Correct) would be indignant at using such a physical description, but I doubt they’d object to its use to describe spiritually. I tried to think who might fall into the category of a spiritual half-breed – someone who mixed Christianity with New Age, someone who obeys only selected parts of Scripture, or maybe someone who goes to church but never accepted Christ. I suppose from a practicing Jew’s perspective, all of us who believe that both the Old and New Testament are the Word of God, would be considered half-breeds.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----I would like to objectively prove your point. You are talking about categorizing people. A lot of folks protest that concept, but categories are real. Some categories which can not be denied are male/female, over twenty/under twenty, employees in the food industry/employees in the mining industry. As much as someone may object to being categorized, who, what, and why people are, as well as where and when they are automatically categorize folks in numerous ways. Recognizing and making use of these categorizations is only a part of dealing with life around you. To be useful, a category must be defined by real criteria.
-----Before considering what might be real criteria, it will be helpful to recognize that the fundamentalist Christian’s criteria of mixing Christianity with New Age and the practicing Jew’s criteria of belief in both the Old and New Testaments are valid criteria for each of the categories it defines, yet either category is useful only to the one whose perspective is served by it. But for a universal category to be valid, the criteria defining it must not only hold for all, but it must also have inescapable relevancy to all. It is inescapably relevant that I am a male, that I am over twenty, and that I am employed in the accounting industry.
-----The most obvious universal criteria for ‘half-breed’ regards physical life and spiritual life. It is universally true that every human’s body who has lived, is living, or will live in this temporal place is from the offspring of Adam, the first man. Almost. Except for one it holds true. Jesus Christ was the Son of God born in the flesh only through Mary. Since He was not born of both a man descended from Adam and a woman descended from Adam, He was a half-breed (which should evoke an attitudinal readjustment towards the concept of ‘half-breed’.) He alone defines the universal category of physical half breed. But that category is a sub-category of a larger category. It is defined by all those having a body born of the flesh and a spirit born of The Spirit. Jesus belongs in this category as well, since He insisted John baptize Him. Then taking power over death by living a perfect life and yet dying, He extended this category to whosoever will by becoming all our sins in that death, and yet raising Himself back to actual life. Therefore, anyone who wants to be a part of this category can become a part of it by themselves dying to their falsehood and being born into it by water and the Spirit, just as did Jesus. We are the spiritual half-breeds. Those who refuse to acknowledge the truth as made real by God Himself are full bred dead, having bodies and spirits of death.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
Post a Comment