A thought....

[amonite.livejournal.com]

Searching for Bible passages looking for anything on multiplicity seems a dauntless task, but the following thought occured to me:

God himself is a multiple. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit...(plus he has tons of names :P)

And the Bible says we are made in the image of God - which I see as spirit wise, not physically since God does not really have a corpereal body (excepting Jesus walkign on earth)

Since three of our system are christian and the fourth believes in God, just chooses not to follow him, it has been something we have been thinking and praying about a lot.

But if we are made in the image of God, and God is a multiple (ok an all powerful co concious omnipresent multiple, but still :P)....then I suppose the most information I can find will be studying God and how he relates to himself, rather than pickign the Bible to see if I can find any hints or examples.

Perhaps everyone has the potential for multiplicity in some way -

If God is three spirits in one, then would not something made in that image be able to have more than one spirit while yet being whole?


Corda & Jenai

Comments

[sharpsight.livejournal.com]

Firstly, keep in mind that the Bible isn't necessarily an infallible guide to life, the universe and everything.

Also, I vaguely recall reading something about a part in the book of Mark. 'My name is Legion, for we are many'? Interpreted as someone with demons inside him, or something along those lines.

[amonite.livejournal.com]

Legion was a demon. Demons.

Although I found out some interesting things about that story lately. I always wondered why Jesus would let the demons go into the pigs - then Brenda reminded us that pigs were unclean animals. Why were there thousands of pigs in Jerusalem of all cities at that time? They were likely being used in idol sacrifices. The story makes more sense to me now.

I am glad pigs are not unclean anymore though, I like pork. But then, I like food in general.


I have been interested in some other verses though. A lot say not to be 'two minds' about anything, but I think that is very different than multiplicity. Each mind having his/her/its own opinion is different then what the majority of society does - war within oneself.

Multiples have an atvantage over singlets in that way - we can see from multiple perspectives and get moe than one impression from the same thing. It is not so much 'mixed feelings' as many seperate feelings enhancing eachother.

[sharpsight.livejournal.com]

Ay) Or so it was claimed. It could have been claimed incorrectly.

See) If they were ever unclean, they are unclean still--if they aren't now unclean, they weren't there.

One theory on why pork wasn't 'kosher' refers to certain illnesses that one could get from eating pork, now not problems due to knowledge of how to properly cook meat... I confess, I know less about this than was once known. It might not have been cooking, but something else. In any case, I doubt that pigs were ever inherently 'spiritually' unclean, but only avoided because those who ate pig meat at the time (or a time when the rule was first formulated) tended to die.

[newmoon17.livejournal.com]

I think God had a lot of health issues in mind when he laid out the law in Moses' time.

They were 'unclean' in the sense of the law. It was basically to prove that man could never achieve perfection by their own works. The whole old testament is about men trying to achieve heaven by following strict laws. In the new testament Jesus came and preached that we were under grace, sdo the old testament law was abolished. God said not to call anything unclean that He had made.

So, in one sense the pigs were not really 'unclean'. But God's law had defined them as such in the old testament, and I think health likely played a large role in that. Same with burning moldy socks, etc - a lot of the law seemed to be made to keep the people in general healthy. (Like Daniel, who stayed healthy by eating vegatables rather than the king's meat)

And I think Jesus was angry with the pigs for what they stood for more than the pigs themselves. The pigs were what the law said was unclean, and yet being raised near the temple and in Jerusalem and used in idol sacrifices.

But I agree, I doubt pigs were ever spiritually unclean ^.^ They became unclean because eating them was breaking the old testament law of God.

And on the ark more of the 'clean' animals, seven pairs of each I think, were taken aboard, than the unclean animals....probably for eating. I doubt it would have been wise to cook pork then.

~Jenai

[sharpsight.livejournal.com]

...two for the world when it was dry, one to boil or bake or fry...

*smiles slightly*