Quote:
Originally Posted by mizpeh
I thought you wanted to know Christ and the fellowship of His sufferings....
Why did God single out the children of Israel? To be a people for His name. To present His truth of who He is to the world.
Noone has full understanding but we can know what God has given us in His word. You're straddling the fence, Dan.
Dan, what is God's name?
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My Dearest Sister,
My favorite scripture as you know comes from
Philippians 3 where Paul says he wants to know Christ in the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering.
Paul was monotheist before coming to Christ ... he was an expert in the law who studied under the feet of Gamaliel ... and cognitively and theologically could probably whoop any of us on the topic of the Godhead ...
but when he speaks of knowing Christ he ... goes beyond the superficial and, dare say, arrogant filled debates Oneness and Trinitarian ninjas engage in ....
Keep in mind his mind and biblical precepts were founded in his Hebraic roots ... when he wrote Philippians it's not a stretch to believe he had the word YADAH in mind... meaning to know or be familiar w/ God INTIMATELY.
This intimacy of knowing Christ in his power and suffering was one of embracing His work as Lamb at a level of passion and love that supercedes talking about Church fathers and dicing up linguistics.
In context of
Philippians 3 ... Paul could care less of his book knowledge or his exhaustive and impressive religious resume and pedigree
One writer explains as follows
Paul says..."Look, anything I achieved in the past, anything I can do in the present is loss, liability, if it is to be considered as a ground for meritorious assumption...thinking God then owes me for what I have done. It's detriment." So he says, "Look, not only I have counted," that's a perfect tense verb in the past, but verse 8, "I am counting," present tense in the present. I have counted everything loss that I mentioned in 5 and 6, I now continually count everything else in my life as loss. It's an ongoing thing. It's all loss. It just can't compare with Christ. There's nothing in life that can. No achievements, no religious activities. So he's really saying I continue to resist the recurring temptation to rely on my works rather than God's grace for my standing.
You say, "Well, Paul, how can you make such a total statement? This is selling all." It is, it is selling all. I have counted it all loss, and I continue to count it all loss. I continue to sell everything for the pearl, sell everything for the treasure. "Why do you do that, Paul? How can you make such a total wholesale break with everything?" I'll tell you why, because, verse 8, "Of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." Because of the fact that knowing Christ surpasses everything else. I give it all up to know Christ.
You see, that's what overwhelmed him on the Damascus Road. When the Lord stopped him and talked with him and the Spirit of God began to illuminate his heart about the gospel, he began to see in his heart under the Spirit's illumination the surpassing value of knowing Christ and he realized that all his religious credentials were manure and knowing Christ was everything.
He continues saying:
But you have then this concept of
gnosis which means a mystical elevated transcendent knowledge of the deity in intimacy that most people will never experience. When Paul then says to these Philippians who come out of that pagan culture, he says, "I give up everything for the surpassing knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord," they understand what he means by the word
gnosis. That he's not talking about some facts, but he's talking about a transcendent experience of communing with Christ the Lord. And in that sense it's accurate.
But there's more. There is an Old Testament context for that word, too. The word
gnosis is a word from
ginosko, it is used to translate the Old Testament word
yadah, that word in the Old Testament speaks of a union of love. When you see
yadah in the Hebrew Old Testament it can be
ginosko that's translated in the Greek, it means to know. But it expresses a bond of love. For example, it says, "Adam knew his wife and she bore a son." It doesn't mean he knew who she was. He knew who she was all right, but he had an intimate love relationship with her. It says in
Amos 3:2, "Israel only have I known." And what God means is they're the only people I know about? No. I have an intimate love bond with them, there's an intimacy there. The word know implies the union of love. In the case of Israel it had to do with election and grace. It was a bonding together in intimate love. Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice and I know them. I have a bond of love." Jesus said, "Depart from Me, I never knew you...I had no bond of love with you." So there's a Jewish intent with the word as well as a sort of Gentile one. The Gentile intent is to speak of a deep surpassing mystical intimate communing love with Christ. And the Hebrew one expresses that union of love, that bond of love that extricably ties people together. And all of that is in the word TO KNOW.
http://www.biblebb.com/files/MAC/50-32.htm
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So carry on w/ your crusade to prove you know God better than a Trinitarian ... as it obviously important to corner the abstract concept of truth and make sure the right formula is said in baptism.
I'll straddle in Yaddahing him and pray others will seek this union despite the inability to fully explain everything about the mystery of godliness.
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My soul followeth hard after thee....Love one another with a pure heart fervently. 
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