Tree of life

by BluesBrother 33 Replies latest watchtower bible

• 

  Dark Knight

  I don't think the concept of sin applies to angels and spirit creatures in general. Probably only applies to humans. Can an animal sin?? I don't think so.

  I don't really believe that according to the bible human's have free will. Maybe the angels do, but definitely not humans. According to the bible god's exact's a price for our actions, especially if they are not according to his desires. So it's definitely not free.

  And to make things worse he doesn't accept Visa, Mastercard, Diners or even American Express. Only currency he's interested in dealing with is death. Death of animals (e.g. sacrifices) & death of humans (e.g. flood and Jesus)

  Just seems so petty and morbid.

  DK
• 

  Schizm

  I have trouble with the tree itself possessing a life-giving nutrient since that would take the power of life out of God's hands. It begs the question of who/what can grant everlasting life.

  No it doesn't, because God himself created the tree and gave it to them for the purpose of keeping them alive. The tree just didn't happen to sprout on its own you know, it came from "God's hands".

  Let's take it a bit further. What keeps the angels alive?

  Okay, let's do that, but just remember that we're talking about an entirely different realm of life ... spirit beings, as opposed to corruptible flesh and blood beings. Spirit creatures (angels) aren't subject to sicknesses and dying like those of the human race. Whereas we wither and die due to not being able to take in the nutrition that was in the fruit of the tree of life, the longitivity of an angel is not sustained by food. Their lives continue on until it is forceably taken away from them, and until that happens they continue to persist in living. In a sense though it can be said that Adam and Eve's life was forceably taken away from them, in that they were restricted from any longer partaking from a tree that was put there for the very purpose of keeping them alive.

  not one account of a dying angel. It would seem that in the case of angels, 'the wages of sin does not bring death'.

  The show ain't over yet. Like us humans, an angel's life is dependent upon integrity to righteousness. The angel's who are beyond being helped (incorrigible) have already been judged as not being worthy of everlasting life, and so now it's just a matter of time for those ones before they are eliminated. Tick, tick, tick .....

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• 

  no one

  Schizm,

  No it doesn't, because God himself created the tree and gave it to them for the purpose of keeping them alive. The tree just didn't happen to sprout on its own you know, it came from "God's hands".

  Still, if they could have gotten around God and to the tree, they wouldn't have needed him. That makes the tree the object of everlasting life, not God.

  Spirit creatures (angels) aren't subject to sicknesses and dying like those of the human race. Whereas we wither and die due to not being able to take in the nutrition that was in the fruit of the tree of life, the longitivity of an angel is not sustained by food. Their lives continue on until it is forceably taken away from them, and until that happens they continue to persist in living.

  Ain't it amazing how much we humans know about heaven and the spirit world? Source, please. Or is this opinion?
• 

  FirstInLine

  Right or wrong and for who knows why, I would say God is definately a gamer.
• 

  ese

  "If he was truly concerned about his position and needing to have exclusive devotion, why didn't he just create people who were automotons, instead of telling Adam and Eve, "okay, I'm giving you the right to decide, but if you choose to not do as I ask, I'm going to end your life. Is that truly free will, or loving?"
  
  Maybe to be in god's image requires the ability to choose final life or death for one's self so they had to have that opportunity
  
  
  any thougts on this?
• 

  A Paduan

  "..now, lest he put forth his hand (Ask, and it will be given you) and take also of the tree of life (..we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit), and eat, and live for ever (how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him)

  "therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden ("a secure mind is like a garden")"

  "..every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old"
• 

  Sirona

  LittleToe brought up a very important point in this discussion and I don't think you've picked up on it. He directed you to a site about the Kabballa - an ancient jewish mystical system which attempts to explain the nature of the universe. what is it based on ? A diagram of "The Tree of Life".

  Most people accept genesis as symbolic - and that the Torah includes many numeric references (in names etc.)

  All this literal interpretation about Adam and Eve eating from this tree to get life is rubbish. Are you telling me that if they hadn't sinned, they'd have to bring their children and their children's children to this one tree so they could live? God didn't put it there for the fruit.

  Sirona
• 

  Schizm

  No One,

  No it doesn't, because God himself created the tree and gave it to them for the purpose of keeping them alive. The tree just didn't happen to sprout on its own you know, it came from "God's hands".

  Still, if they could have gotten around God and to the tree, they wouldn't have needed him. That makes the tree the object of everlasting life, not God.

  But they "still" had to have HIS permission to eat from the tree!!! The fact is, is that without such permission there was no way that they could get to the tree. The situation was in God's control, not theirs--which fact makes God himself the "object of everlasting life".

  The tree of life must have contained nutrients that wasn't available from any other tree or vegetation. Without such nutrients the human body would slowly deteriate, until the body finally died. One might consider that if we ourselves were to eat only junk food from day to day, without ever taking in good nutritious food, we wouldn't live as long as we could have otherwise. The reason we die is because we don't get the ingredients that was in the tree of life. The reason that we don't get those ingredients is because we're not ALLOWED to do so. The reason that we're not allowed to do so is because we do not qualify to do so due to "sin".

  Spirit creatures (angels) aren't subject to sicknesses and dying like those of the human race. Whereas we wither and die due to not being able to take in the nutrition that was in the fruit of the tree of life, the longitivity of an angel is not sustained by food. Their lives continue on until it is forceably taken away from them, and until that happens they continue to persist in living.

  Ain't it amazing how much we humans know about heaven and the spirit world? Source, please. Or is this opinion?

  Would you believe it if someone told you, for example, that angel's don't need oxygen in order to live. Yes, spirit creatures are a different sort in comparison to us humans. We need certain material things in order to live that those in "the spirit world" don't need.

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• 

  Schizm

  Sirona said:

  All this literal interpretation about Adam and Eve eating from this tree to get life is rubbish. Are you telling me that if they hadn't sinned, they'd have to bring their children and their children's children to this one tree so they could live? God didn't put it there for the fruit.

  Yes, for a certainty, their children would also need to continually partake of the tree of life in order to ward off the aging process that we today suffer from. Would there always be just one tree of life for all of Adam's numberless progeny to share? Surely you can reason that one out all by yourself! But, in case you can't, the Revelation account speaks of many trees of life.

  You say that "God didn't put the tree of life there for the fruit". Then what would YOU say he did put it there for?

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• 

  kes152

  Peace be with you.

  Adam and Eve were created and given the freedom to eat from EVERY tree that is desireable to satisfaction except from the tree of the knowledge of good and bad. They were not to eat from this tree, because if they partook of such tree, that tree would induce the knowledge of good and the knowledge of bad.. which would eventually bring them death.

  The tree of life, however, was designed to do then as it is designed to do now, impart everlasting life. The tree of life was in the garden of Eden, which is not an 'earthly' garden, for it says:

  "I know a man in union with Christ who, fourteen years ago -whether in the body I do not know, or out of the body I do not know; God knows -was caught away to the "third HEAVEN." Yes, I know such a man -whether in the body or apart from the body, I do not know, God knows -that he was caught away into paradise (or "garden of Eden," see the NWT footnote) and heard unutterable words which is not lawful for a man to speak." (2 Corinthians 12:2-4)

  The 'garden of Eden' is in the third heaven. For in Revelation 2:7 he says,

  "Let the one who has an ear hear what the spirit says to the congregations: To him that conquers (and receives "heavenly life") I will grant to eat of the tree of life, which is in the 'garden' of God."

  Those who gain 'heavenly life' will be in the garden of Eden, the heavenly garden partaking of the tree of life.

  The 'tree of life' that all nations must eat from that IMPARTS everlasting life is our Lord, for he says:

  "Whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty at all, but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water bubbling up to IMPART everlasting life." (John 4:14)

  "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. He that feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has everlasting life, and I will resurrect him on the last day" (John 6:53, 54).

  The Christ is the man who is happy because he "has not walked in the counsel of the wicked ones, and in the way of sinners he has not stood, and in the seat of ridiculers he has not sat. But HIS delight is in the words of JAH, and in an undertone he observes them day and night." That is why He has become "a tree [of LIFE] that is planted by streams of water, that gives fruit in its own season and the foilage of which does not wither, and EVERYTHING he does will not succeed." (Psalms 1:1-3).

  This was fulfilled by the Son in Revelation 22:1, 2 when John says, "And he showed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, flowing out from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of its broad way. And on this side of the river and on that side the TREE OF LIFE producing twelve crops of fruit, yielding their fruits each month. And the leaves of the trees for the curing of the nations."