Milk vs. Meat

[Bootstrap]

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now it is already in the world. [1Jo 4:2,3 NASB20]

For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is the deceiver and the antichrist. [2Jo 1:7 NASB20]

Sounds to me like the doctrine of the Son of Man, Jesus' humanity ie. His genealogy through His mother, is extremely important, nothing to be shrugged off as not mattering.

That I agree with. That is clearly spelled out in the Bible.

Substances and essences ... not so much. I don't think saying that is shrugging off any biblical teaching.

[Soloist]

By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God; and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now it is already in the world. [1Jo 4:2,3 NASB20]

And the heretical men of the time taught that Jesus did not come in the flesh but was only a spirit.
Saying Jesus had celestial flesh, heresy or not, is not denying that Jesus came in the flesh without some conjecture that John was speaking of Mary’s flesh specifically as in genetic material. If Jesus was fully human (which I believe) then He had an X (from the mother) and a Y (from the father)chromosomes. Now Menno Simons wouldn’t have known this, but if we are going to argue from biology that Menno was wrong, where did the Y come from?

Before you go and brand Menno Simons as heretic why don’t you go read what he actually said?
www.MennoSimons.net/ft122-trueconfession.html
Edit: link seems to be having problems I don’t know why and I’m going to go eat supper but that’s the correct link.

[Sudsy]

I notice in the Corinthians passage, the mark of people not ready for solid food is quarreling over different views.

Yes.

1 Peter 2:1-2

Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that by it you may grow up in your salvation,

This reads to me that there are some things that have to go to grow up into maturity. There is a giving up as well as there is a taking on of pure spiritual milk in the maturing process. And I believe this chapter and the Eph 4 chapter gives us much to consider as to just how mature we are in Christ. Maturing has much to do with our behaviour and is not all about our head knowledge of things.

1 Cor 13:2 - 'If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.' This is another chapter that gives us some understanding of what growing up spiritually means and how behaviour reflects our maturity.

With that said, I wish I could say I have reached a state of being able to eat solid food but looking at the 'putting offs' and the 'puttings on' I'm running out of time to get out of the childhood stage. It is one thing to believe something in my mind but yet not diligently pursue experiencing it. I think our posts on these forums are often giveaways to just how spiritually mature we are in our behaviour.

[Josh]

Sounds to me like the doctrine of the Son of Man, Jesus' humanity ie. His genealogy through His mother, is extremely important, nothing to be shrugged off as not mattering.

Chris is not correctly representing what Menno Simons' "celestial flesh" doctrine was about. Generally speaking, the right people to teach a doctrine are not people who are busy denouncing someone as a heretic.

Suffice to say I think it is unproductive and unhelpful to denounce Menno Simons on this forum as a heretic and a false teacher.

[Josh]

As a reminder, the Bible does talk about milk and meat, but it doesn't say that the teachings of the Orthodox Church are "meat".

[Bootstrap]

Before you go and brand Menno Simons as heretic why don’t you go read what he actually said?
www.MennoSimons.net/ft122-trueconfession.html
Edit: link seems to be having problems I don’t know why and I’m going to go eat supper but that’s the correct link.

I thought this deserved its own thread:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=6031