@sonship saidI am not contemplating or looking for the tree of life sonship.
@SecondSon
Don't look for or contemplate where a physical tree of life is today.
In Him was life. The focus now should be in the resurrected Christ in whom is life and who is the life. He is the bread of life. He is the life of God and the resurrection and the life.
It is Christ in whom we find the life of God - the eternal life.
The mysterious ...[text shortened]... symbolic to point us to Jesus Christ.
The last Adam became a life giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45)
There is no "mystery" tree of life, and there's no indication in the text that it is "gone". The text says the way to the tree of life is blocked or guarded by two cherubim and a flaming sword.
I am perfectly aware that eternal life is in Christ.
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@fmf saidHmm. Page 2 not page 1? Do you want a response or a reason to accuse me of avoiding what I am sure is a great point by you?
My opinion about being human is in my post about being human on page 2 in reply to your question, a reply you have blanked out for nigh on 20 thread pages.
What you are responding to now is the perspective of a Christian leader from a post you are desperately trying to dodge.
You should get specific about what post of yours you think is being ignored! On page 2!
-Removed-Isn't that what the scriptures say? It is.
What's so difficult about that for you to see it's literal? Adam was driven out of the garden to prevent him from eating the fruit of the tree of life. Why else would the way back to the tree be blocked if it was a metaphorical tree?
Do you think all the other trees were metaphorical trees too?
Fine. If that's the way you see it I don't really care. We can simply disagree and let it go at that.
Out of curiosity though I would ask this one thing. When Jesus fed the thousands with the two fish and five loaves of bread, as He broke the bread and it was distributed, was what was distributed literal fish and bread?
-Removed-Ezekiel 47:1-12 Zechariah 14:8 Revelation 22:1,2
You should read them.
For your information, a tree is a tree is a tree. When a tree is used as a metaphor the text says "as a tree" or "like a tree". Otherwise the tree is quite literal.
When the text says river it means river unless the text says "as River" or "like a river". There are numerous examples throughout scripture.
@secondson saidWell, I guess the Seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24 must also be literal, since it says "weeks" and not "as weeks", or "like weeks".
For your information, a tree is a tree is a tree. When a tree is used as a metaphor the text says "as a tree" or "like a tree". Otherwise the tree is quite literal.
@bigdoggproblem saidDon't be silly. That's a terrible example to use as a rebuff.
Well, I guess the Seventy weeks of Daniel 9:24 must also be literal, since it says "weeks" and not "as weeks", or "like weeks".
Everyone knows that a "week" means 7 years. Why in the world would it say "as a week". It's a simple idiom like many others in the scriptures.
There are numerous idioms, allegories, metaphors and symbolisms used throughout scripture, and anyone that can exegete correctly knows they must consider the context and compare scripture with scripture to arrive at a sound interpretation.