what do you think about this: The organic machine lives not only in a physical universe that he is aware of but also in spiritual universe that he is not aware. That is to say he knows the rules of the physical. For instance he knows the law of gravity and knows if he jumps off a cliff he is not flying but falling and will eventually hit the ground. This idea is spiritually true as well but who knows it? Lets say a man and a woman both married to different spouses have an affair. They think they are flying and having fun, but the reality is that they both jumped off a spirirtual cliff and are not flying but will eventually hit the ground killing them both. By the way Itdepends how about "dead to God and alive to sin as opposed to alive to God and dead to sin".
I would say that the organic machine is aware of the spiritual universe, they just don't know how to *label* it correctly or always tell the apples from the oranges. It becomes very easy to take for granted certain ways the spiritual universe functions and reflects in the physical universe, if you don't have anything dramatically different from what you are normally used to experiencing day to day to compare it to.
If the way the spiritual universe is reflecting in the physical is immediate and dramatic, it's quite obvious ... unless you are so USED TO IT, and have been taught that it's actually something else, that you simply label it as something else and take for granted the origin. Likewise, if the way the spiritual universe is reflecting is over time, you won't realize it until later, often with hindsight.
So in the hypothetical you give of the couple having an affair ... that moment where they decide to go for it, cross those lines of "morality", dive into deception, experience the rush of tasting the forbidden, begin their infatuation with each other, running with it all until that rush ends, the infatuation subsides, yada yada ..... all of that involves a complex dance of spiritual components and laws written on hearts and minds for the individual, reflecting in the physical: the way they emotionally, mentally, physically respond. However do they see it as such ? Probably not .... it's called "Human nature" or "that's just the way life is, these things happen," and it's taken for granted that a lot of those things involve spiritual components. It's so "normal" that there is nothing remarkable about their choices. Later though, once deception has had time to run it's course, families break apart, people react and respond over time .... a person might experience regret perhaps, lonliness, loss, and then begin to make up for it in other ways: dependency on stuff-and-things in order to compensate for their spiritual needs. In a generic example: let's say one of the couples split up, it devistates the man, his children are taken from him and he only gets visitation rights, he now owes child support, he turns to drinking to help with the loss of seeing his children the way he would like, the drinking starts to deteriorate his body, reflecting in his moods, etc ... he starts looking desperately for a new partner/mate/spouse, ends up contracting an STD as he tries to relive that initial moment he felt when cheating and haphazardly picks someone who has such a disease. They will later regret their choices, but they won't link all of those effects to spiritual consequences. It's still just "That's part of life, oh well."
This is why I'm not sold on the idea that chemistryman is 100% spiritually dead, because such a man can still enjoy the fruits of eating both the helpful and harmful aspects of the spiritual universe, but not always understand what it is they are eating of course. They assume it's
merely physical, or they don't question the origin and they just take the origin for granted.
I think it depends how lost people are in whether they have the faculty to sense spiritual cliffs. Yes, the spiritual dimension is absolutely another factor to be perceived and shape behavior/action, albeit I think it takes knowledge to act or knowledge to have a buffer against hazardous action. A lot of us are lucky enough to instinctively have a certain barrier against certain levels of sin albeit I don't know how uniform that is for certain. I'd like to think God gives that to everyone but I'm not sure where I'd find proof as such.
I think this is getting closer to how chem chemistryman is, and whether or not they have those "barriers".
The nation of Israel had laws, that were enforced spiritually, etc and so forth. So, over their lives, were ministering spirits, enforcing certain laws that were unique to their nation, etc and so forth. The Gentiles were not Israel, and consequently had a "different operating system" over their lives and countries and cultures, so to speak. I'm speaking before Christ of course.
Yet we also see that the Gentile did certain things according to certain laws naturally, showing that the laws were written on their hearts and minds, and their consciences bore witness. So .... I am somewhat of the camp that the "other nations" operated similarly to the way Israel operated ... with certain laws and ways of life helping to govern them, enforced through spiritual entities (like Israel), but not serving the same purpose as Israel of course. Thus, different people's have different laws written on their hearts, enforced by different ministering spirits (angels, etc). So while an Israelite may have looked at a Roman and thought they were godless, the Romans had certain laws written on their hearts and minds. Certain boundaries they wouldn't go passed, and to go passed those boundaries they would experience the moral issues, the spiritual issues, etc. Those boundaries may have been wildly different from the Israelite, but they were there nonetheless.
Enter Christ, and take a simple example of "Can I now eat this bacon ?" lol. Even though it's now permissiable to eat certain things like the Gentiles eat, etc ... people still struggled with it. Why ? There were laws and such written on their hearts, and even though those laws might have been removed or spiritually put to death .... there are still other spirits involved in trying to enforce and minister them, etc. So there are still spiritual consequences. And take two brothers, put them in the same room .... one has weak faith, one has grown stronger and put to death his old man and thus realized some of the purpose behind those laws ... if he eats the bacon and destroys his brother in doing so, even though it's permissiable, there are still spiritual consequences. Each person has certain laws, written on their hearts, guided by ministering spirits, with spiritual conseqneces, and not everyone is at the same place in their growth and change yet. So while one person can eat the bacon, the other can't yet without the consequence, and you can help that other person by not eating bacon yourself lol.
All of that to say ... that I think you can tell whether a person has those "barriers" naturally, by examining their moral/ethical boundaries. What are they willing to do, or not do ? At what point do they pull back and say, "That's wrong!" ? And does their current society help to enforce it, or does it come naturally ? I think often times, the presence of those barriers is the result of spiritual influence, perhaps even God directly writing unique laws on that person's heart and mind for their own personal benefit. So that is possible evidence, pointing to the idea that those barriers have been spiritually placed there, whether the person recognizes them as spiritual or not. Sometimes
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