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Understanding Biblical Symbolism


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MAN, NATURAL

A symbol of the lower mind united with the desires and affections of the lower nature.

"Now the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, and he cannot know them, etc." - 1 Cor. ii. 14.

"By the natural man is meant the lower faculties of man ; and it is said of these that they cannot discover spiritual truth." - F. W. ROBERTSON, Sermons, 1st Series, p. 2.

"The natural man belongs essentially to this present order of things. He is endowed simply with a high quality of the natural animal life. But it is life of so poor a quality that it is not Life at all. He that hath not the Son hath not Life, but he that hath the Son hath Life-a new and distinct and super-natural endowment. . . . Not a difference of development, but of generation." - H. DRUMMOND, Natural Law, etc., p. 82.

The Lord is the first-begotten from the dead, because He, as to his Humanity, is the Truth itself united to the Divine Good, from whom all men, who in themselves are dead, are made alive." - SWEDENBORG, Apocalypse Revealed, n. 17.

"In spiritual warfare we fight to overcome the natural man, not to destroy him, but to render him obedient to the law of Christ. To bring our whole nature into perfect harmony with the will of God is the true end of our striving. There can be no stopping short of that, but when the goal is won there shall be no more fighting but an entrance into everlasting peace." - R. J. CAMPBELL, Serm., Warfare of Life.

"Democracy must get rid of the natural man of each for himself, and have new birth into the spiritual man, the ideal self of each for all. . . . This is the deepest craving of human nature. All attempts to reconcile man's heroism to his interests have ever failed." - R. WHITEING, No. 5 John Street, p. 279.

"The true self of every man is God (the Universal Self). There are millions of selves which think themselves separate from the Universal Self, but this sense of separation is an illusion. The problem of life is the overcoming of this illusion, and the identification of itself with the Universal Self. What we call the personal self is not the genuine self, but only the mere passing states of consciousness, which are never the same." - K. C. ANDERSON, Serm., The Buried Life.

 

See Also

ADAM (Lower)
CORPSE
DAVID
DEAD
HIGHER & LOWER SELVES
MAHAYANA
MAN BORN
MENIS
MOON-WAXING
PERSONALITY
ROCK OF SALVATION
SELF (lower)
SEPARATENESS
SON OF MAN