After considering Divine Flesh doctrine for a while, having heard their self-proclaimed strong points in argument, I realized the key to their error.
Their big verse of grounds in their minds is as follows:
Quote:
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1Co 15:47 KJV The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
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Since, they say, the verse mentions the ORIGIN of Adam's body being the earth, then they reason that the reference to the Lord being "from heaven" means that His body was originated in heaven in the incarnation. But that is absolutely wrong. That is not what the verse is saying. When it speaks of Christ's body being from "heaven", it is not referring to the incarnation, but rather from THE POINT OF RESURRECTION ALONE.
The chapter is all about death and physical resurrection. Christ's physical resurrection is the firstfruits, or first of identicals to come, of the resurrection. Whatever the nature of His body in resurrection is to be the same identical "change" from mortal to immortal that our bodies shall experience in the future "rapture". With Christ's resurrection in mind, Paul refers to that point of "change" when he says Christ's body is "from heaven." He spoke of the resurrected Body of Christ.
Paul used the same sense of understanding when referring to our physical resurrections to come! He speaks of our future spiritual body, altered from the mortal bodies we presently possess, in a manner that says OUR BODIES WILL BE FROM HEAVEN one day.
Quote:
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2Co 5:2 KJV For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:
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Christ's body before the cross, that was the incarnation of God, was no more from Heaven than our bodies presently are. But when He resurrected, His body AT THAT POINT OF RESURRECTION is said to be FROM HEAVEN, just as our future CHANGED body will be "from heaven". Right now, my body is from the earth. But when it changes, Paul said my body will be "from heaven".
Our present mortal bodies, from the earth, are to be "changed", or altered. Presently, they are mortal. But THIS MORTAL SHALL PUT ON IMMORTALITY. That is, the MORTAL characteristics of our present bodies will CHANGE or ALTER to be IMMORTAL characteristics. The death factors in our flesh will be swallowed up in victory in that change. And it is at that point that our bodies can be said to be "from heaven" just as Christ's present body is "from heaven".
Christ's body used to be from earth as our bodies presently are from earth. But His body was changed and because the POWER OF HEAVEN changed it, it is now said to be FROM HEAVEN, and not of the earth.
Because
1 Cor 15 is speaking about Christ's resurrected body in order to help us understand how our bodies shall be changed, Paul was talking about Christ's PRESENT BODY since the resurrection when he said it was "from heaven".
He was not talking about the body that came from Mary's womb, but the immortal body from the tomb.
So, the whole idea that
1 Cor 15 says that Christ is from Heaven, in contrast to Adam from the earth, does not support "divine flesh" teaching whatsoever. It's not that our flesh will be changed into heavenly MATERIAL as Christ's flesh came from Mary's womb with heavenly material, but rather Christ's earthly flesh was changed into heavenly flesh just as our earthly flesh will change into heavenly flesh. Both are brought about BY RESURRECTION HEAVENLY POWER. That is why they are BOTH said to be "from heaven".
Put that in the
Pentecostal Herald and print it!
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