But everything is His since He created everything ex nihilo and His divine mind grounds all existence. There's no notion of possession for God. He has no needs or desires (in a human way) which jealousy presupposes.
What it means is that God doesn't commands His people not to have other gods and idols so He calls Himself jealous so that we can understand this through our human sensibilities. It's an analogy - God is not literally jealous. This seems like a problem of anthropomorphizing God, but His divine nature is nothing like our human nature.
We aren't created ex nihilo, but out of the dust of the earth, combined with a an organized intelligence, and born to human parents; however we're told be repent, be remade and reborn sons and daughters of God. Even the dust obeys gods laws. Jesus the Anointed has ransomed us each with his living blood. So he has claim on us, if we'll repent and do His will then he'll be our Father and we'll not serve other gods or serve sin, or self, or Babylon's king.
He would have us be free to do so, and not remain captive, but receive deliverance from unholy alliances we've entered into. God is jealous to claim us his in the face of other spirits who try to infect our minds and demand our loyalty, devotion. He gave us an Exemplar and Redeemer to show us to serve him freely, by loving others as ourselves. God is not envious, but feels lovingly protective and in fear of losing us. He is the god of healing of forgiveness and freedom and of truth and charity.
The jealous husband doesn't want another suitor catching the attention of his wife, does he?
What I meant was that the world and matter was created ex nihilo, including the dust man was created from.
I reject the legalistic protestant notions of ransom, claim, etc. Ransom assumes God had to repay a debt, but to whom? To Himself? To Satan? This makes no sense in the Christian worldview. God sacrificed Himself in the person of the Son (the second Adam) to revert the result of Adam's sin and to give a new life to us in the new Eden which is God's Eternal Kingdom. He doesn't have to claim us for Him, because everything in existence is already His, even if created beings rebel against Him out of their free will which He imparted in them. God assumed human nature to elevate it to His divine nature, allowing us to participate in the divine through the sacraments. Christ established our way to sainthood and eternal life in His Kingdom in heaven for those in His Church on the earth.
Christ didn't oppose earthly hierarchies or governments and He didn't revolt against the tyranny of His time. Government isn't inherently bad but God's law always takes precedence as exemplified in 'Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.'. He commanded slaves to submit to their masters and women to submit to their men. Liberal Christians and anarcho-Christians always gloss over this.
The jealous husband doesn't want another suitor catching the attention of his wife, does he?
Yes but as I stated above, God doesn't need us to come to Him. We're the one who are dependent and need Him. He calls us out of His perfect love for us but He doesn't lack anything. He's definitely not threaten by another suitor (Satan) and the human emotion of jealousy assumes fear of loosing the object of affection. God has no real competition and even Satan and evil exist because He allows them to (why He allows them to exist, we can only speculate about but many Church Fathers have written on the subject). God has already won any struggle we perceive in the world and there was never any real threat to His dominion.
But everything is His since He created everything ex nihilo and His divine mind grounds all existence. There's no notion of possession for God. He has no needs or desires (in a human way) which jealousy presupposes.
What it means is that God doesn't commands His people not to have other gods and idols so He calls Himself jealous so that we can understand this through our human sensibilities. It's an analogy - God is not literally jealous. This seems like a problem of anthropomorphizing God, but His divine nature is nothing like our human nature.
We aren't created ex nihilo, but out of the dust of the earth, combined with a an organized intelligence, and born to human parents; however we're told be repent, be remade and reborn sons and daughters of God. Even the dust obeys gods laws. Jesus the Anointed has ransomed us each with his living blood. So he has claim on us, if we'll repent and do His will then he'll be our Father and we'll not serve other gods or serve sin, or self, or Babylon's king.
He would have us be free to do so, and not remain captive, but receive deliverance from unholy alliances we've entered into. God is jealous to claim us his in the face of other spirits who try to infect our minds and demand our loyalty, devotion. He gave us an Exemplar and Redeemer to show us to serve him freely, by loving others as ourselves. God is not envious, but feels lovingly protective and in fear of losing us. He is the god of healing of forgiveness and freedom and of truth and charity. The jealous husband doesn't want another suitor catching the attention of his wife, does he?
What I meant was that the world and matter was created ex nihilo, including the dust man was created from.
I reject the legalistic protestant notions of ransom, claim, etc. Ransom assumes God had to repay a debt, but to whom? To Himself? To Satan? This makes no sense in the Christian worldview. God sacrificed Himself in the person of the Son (the second Adam) to revert the result of Adam's sin and to give a new life to us in the new Eden which is God's Eternal Kingdom. He doesn't have to claim us for Him, because everything in existence is already His, even if created beings rebel against Him out of their free will which He imparted in them. God assumed human nature to elevate it to His divine nature, allowing us to participate in the divine through the sacraments. Christ established our way to sainthood and eternal life in His Kingdom in heaven for those in His Church on the earth.
Christ didn't oppose earthly hierarchies or governments and He didn't revolt against the tyranny of His time. Government isn't inherently bad but God's law always takes precedence as exemplified in 'Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar, and to God what belongs to God.'. He commanded slaves to submit to their masters and women to submit to their men. Liberal Christians and anarcho-Christians always gloss over this.
Yes but as I stated above, God doesn't need us to come to Him. We're the one who are dependent and need Him. He calls us out of His perfect love for us but He doesn't lack anything. He's definitely not threaten by another suitor (Satan) and the human emotion of jealousy assumes fear of loosing the object of affection. God has no real competition and even Satan and evil exist because He allows them to (why He allows them to exist, we can only speculate about but many Church Fathers have written on the subject). God has already won any struggle we perceive in the world and there was never any real threat to His dominion.