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American Black Nightshade and Reincarnation--- huh?

Mr E

Mr E

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It's spring planting season and as I was out preparing my garden soil I found it full of a nasty plant-- a weed, called American Black Nightshade.

Now I know I didn't plant any of this, but there it is-- in my garden. Last year, as my garden was growing and maturing-- there was a bunch of growth that I didn't recognize and couldn't identify or remember having planted. I suspected they were some kind of week, but since they had little berries I waited for a time to see what these might be.

My son's girlfriend visited and she had this app on her phone that allowed her to take a pic of the plants and berries and it immediately identified them for us-

Solanum americanum, commonly known as American black nightshade.

1714415134097.png
 
Continued....

Well, once identified- I pulled it all out last Fall. I waited for a spell, not wanting to pull out any good plants with those weeds, but once I had harvested my peas and beans-- I yanked those poisonous plants out and got rid of them. Now --I hadn't planted them last year at all, but they just appeared-- and now this year-- here they are again.

What's this got to do with reincarnation?

No-- I'm not saying that the American Black Nightshade has been reincarnated. I'm saying that some things pop up along the way, over time and if left alone-- these things bloom and blossom and even bear fruit. Ideas are like that. Using this same sort of analogy, Jesus spoke of weeds and this idea of leaving them be until the end of the age.

It's a familiar parable-- Matthew 13:30

He presented them with another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a person who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, an enemy came and sowed darnel among the wheat and went away. When the plants sprouted and produced grain, then the darnel also appeared. So the slaves of the landowner came and said to him, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Then where did the darnel come from?’ He said, ‘An enemy has done this!’ So the slaves replied, ‘Do you want us to go and gather it?’ But he said, ‘No, since in gathering the darnel you may uproot the wheat along with it. Let both grow together until the harvest. At harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First collect the darnel and tie it in bundles to be burned, but then gather the wheat into my barn.”’”
 
Here's a question to ponder...

Concerning reincarnation-- and I'll define this within the context of the parable-- an agricultural setting (not one where a person dies and comes back as a blade of grass, or a cow, or some such thing) -----which view of the parable and reincarnation is the plant from seed, and which view is the weed that sprung up?
 
For the remainder of this thread, I'm going to focus attention on a Biblical view of reincarnation-- a view that Jesus introduced directly with his statement- "You must be born again." No doubt you've heard and been taught that 'he couldn't have meant born again in a literal sense' because that would require reincarnation.... well? Yes. If you're willing to ride alongside me for a bit, I'll demonstrate how this view not only comports with scripture, it aligns with scripture in a better way than whatever you've been taught as being an orthodox understanding.

That's where we will begin. The simple declaration of Jesus that you must be born again in order to understand the kingdom of God.

He later explains what he means--- In simple terms he says to know what that kingdom of God is like, you have to have been there. You have to be from there-- and be born again-- here. It's not in the physical sense, as he explains to Nicodemus' question. You don't return to your mother's womb to be born again. But in the spiritual sense- your spirit does return to the physical realm where it is born again. In other words it is the spiritual man that returns and is born again. It's where you came from, the spirit becomes flesh, endures a physical life in a physical body, the body dies, and the spirit returns to where it came from, where it rests from it's labors for a period of time, and after resting- to be born again.

Jesus contends when pressed- 'Show us the Father'-- Again saying-- You have to have been there.

(No one has seen the Father except the one who is from God—he has seen the Father.)

And when they demanded proof, he said just wait.... What if?

What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up where he was before?
 
Ecclesiastes poetically puts it like this-- likening our human bodies to physical containers, with the spirit in jars made of clay-- formed from the dust of the ground.... The ohysical body dies (is broken) and those shards become dust again. The spirit however goes to its eternal home. It returns to where it came from. You can't return to some place you have never been.

Man goes to his eternal home,
and the mourners go about in the streets—
before the silver cord is removed,
or the golden bowl is broken,
or the pitcher is shattered at the well,
or the water wheel is broken at the cistern—
and the dust returns to the earth as it was,
and the life’s breath returns to God who gave it.

It's imagery consistent with what we are told of our genesis.... formed from the soil, and then given the breath of life from God.
 
Mr E said:
Here's a question to ponder...

Concerning reincarnation-- and I'll define this within the context of the parable-- an agricultural setting (not one where a person dies and comes back as a blade of grass, or a cow, or some such thing) -----which view of the parable and reincarnation is the plant from seed, and which view is the weed that sprung up?
Click to expand...
Doesn't the text say that an enemy sowed the darnel/tares? Indicating seed. ???

]
 
SteVen said:
Say what? - LOL
Did it come?

]
Click to expand...

A play on words.

Also called Atropa Belladonna-- deadly nightshade. Ever heard of atropine? Yep. Almost all pharmaceuticals are plant-based, derived from natural sources. The foliage and berries are extremely toxic when ingested, containing toxins include atropine, scopolamine, and hyoscyamine, which cause delirium and hallucinations and are also used as pharmaceuticals.
 
SteVen said:
Doesn't the text say that an enemy sowed the darnel/tares? Indicating seed. ???

]
Click to expand...

Yes, that's exactly how the story goes. We'll have to examine that idea in the light of what these seeds and weeds represent.

For the moment-- consider the context within which Jesus frames the whole example. It's distinctly agrarian and pointing directly at our beginnings- in a garden.

Something planted, that grows and bears fruit, then dies, is buried in the ground, and then lives again in new form but familiar fashion. Born again. Season after season.
 
Mr E said:
A play on words.

Also called Atropa Belladonna-- deadly nightshade. Ever heard of atropine? Yep. Almost all pharmaceuticals are plant-based, derived from natural sources. The foliage and berries are extremely toxic when ingested, containing toxins include atropine, scopolamine, and hyoscyamine, which cause delirium and hallucinations and are also used as pharmaceuticals.
Click to expand...
Yes, no worries. (struck me as humorous, of course)
Belladonna is also used in witchcraft?

/
 
Mr E said:
Something planted, that grows and bears fruit, then dies, is buried in the ground, and then lives again in new form but familiar fashion. Born again. Season after season.
Click to expand...
Right.

John 12:24 NIV
Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies,
it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

]
 
SteVen said:
Yes, no worries. (struck me as humorous, of course)
Belladonna is also used in witchcraft?

/
Click to expand...

What isn't? There's a strange bible story about mandrake being used as a love potion.... same family of Atropos.
 
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