What is the purpose of being born in bodies of earthly flesh?

[Giuliano]

Flesh is physical....to live in a physical world and be able to interact with it you need to have a physical body.
And a spirit must use a physical body to operate through.
Our spirit already existed with God but when the fall happened it created confusion in many. God being a Sovereign God created a way to give us free will and choose who to serve. Him or Satan.
So he created our earthly bodies out if the dust of the earth (to give us a compatible environment) and put our spirit in this body and gave us free will (ability to think for ourselves).
So we are all going through the test of faith to believe in Him or reject.
I had a vision of this years ago and have shared it from time to time.
Well so that's my answer....what do you think?
BTW....I think it was @Base12 that pointed out the earth contains the same carbons as the human body...just in larger portions.

I have a similar view. Two things come to mind.

The prodigal son had the idea of leaving and his father permitted it. Notice too in that story the father is expecting his son to return since he was looking for him -- and spotted him coming and ran to meet him. It was never the father's wish that his son leave and get into dire trouble; but he permitted it. When the son did return, he no longer had any questions about whether life might be better elsewhere under other conditions.

I can read that to agree with the idea of the spirit already existing with God and wondering how it would be in the physical world with physical bodies, and wondering too how it would be to disobey the Law of Love.

The second which comes to mind is when Jesus talked about the one lost sheep. I read that to mean the sheep of the heavenly kingdom can wander off. If they left their heavenly home to explore life in physical bodies, odds were they'd get lost. They could forget how to get back home.

Both those stories tell me God never wanted to test us or see us tempted to sin; but He permitted it if it's what we wanted to try. Thus the trials and tribulations in this life are not meant to punish us, are not invented by God for Him to see what we will do. God can read our hearts and minds, He doesn't need test us to find out things. Those tests and trials teach us something -- instruct us -- God already knows. Our decisions created those trials and temptations; and eventually we'll have all our questions answered. Then we will be delighted to find out we can return to the kingdom of Heaven. When the Good Shepherd comes looking for us to help us, we are grateful.

How does spirit get lost? How is it even possible? I think it's by pretending not to be like God -- denying its basic goodness and loving nature. We all basically want to love others and to be loved. In that way, we were made like God. If we pretend otherwise -- by sinning, failing to love by being hateful to others -- we are forgetting who and what we are. I believe that is why Jesus succeeded where others failed. He did not come to this world out of idle curiosity about what it would be like to be in physical bodies, what it would be like to be free to sin, what it would be like to live apart from God, etc. He came to this world with the motive of Love to rescue lost sheep.

 

[Heart2Soul]

I have a similar view. Two things come to mind.

The prodigal son had the idea of leaving and his father permitted it. Notice too in that story the father is expecting his son to return since he was looking for him -- and spotted him coming and ran to meet him. It was never the father's wish that his son leave and get into dire trouble; but he permitted it. When the son did return, he no longer had any questions about whether life might be better elsewhere under other conditions.

I can read that to agree with the idea of the spirit already existing with God and wondering how it would be in the physical world with physical bodies, and wondering too how it would be to disobey the Law of Love.

The second which comes to mind is when Jesus talked about the one lost sheep. I read that to mean the sheep of the heavenly kingdom can wander off. If they left their heavenly home to explore life in physical bodies, odds were they'd get lost. They could forget how to get back home.

Both those stories tell me God never wanted to test us or see us tempted to sin; but He permitted it if it's what we wanted to try. Thus the trials and tribulations in this life are not meant to punish us, are not invented by God for Him to see what we will do. God can read our hearts and minds, He doesn't need test us to find out things. Those tests and trials teach us something -- instruct us -- God already knows. Our decisions created those trials and temptations; and eventually we'll have all our questions answered. Then we will be delighted to find out we can return to the kingdom of Heaven. When the Good Shepherd comes looking for us to help us, we are grateful.

How does spirit get lost? How is it even possible? I think it's by pretending not to be like God -- denying its basic goodness and loving nature. We all basically want to love others and to be loved. In that way, we were made like God. If we pretend otherwise -- by sinning, failing to love by being hateful to others -- we are forgetting who and what we are. I believe that is why Jesus succeeded where others failed. He did not come to this world out of idle curiosity about what it would be like to be in physical bodies, what it would be like to be free to sin, what it would be like to live apart from God, etc. He came to this world with the motive of Love to rescue lost sheep.

I like the way you perceive it much better than the way I did. And it really reflects His true nature much better which is His Agape Love for us which we cannot even comprehend.

 

[Giuliano]

I like the way you perceive it much better than the way I did. And it really reflects His true nature much better which is His Agape Love for us which we cannot even comprehend.

It can be a struggle to find words at times to express some things. Someone once told me the more we learn, the more we realize that God is beyond our comprehension. The more we learn, the more the mystery deepens.