LESSON 1
PENTATEUCH I
GENESIS 1
By Rev. G. E. Newmyer
We know God is Love, Light, and Life, but the Bible also shows God is All Powerful, All Knowing and All Present. These three terms are also known as Omnipotent (om-nip-o-tent – All Powerful); Omniscient (Omni-nis-cenct – All Knowing); and Omnipresence (omni-presence – All Presence) belong to God only. These elements tell us God is not surprised by any event, neither will we impress or excite Him, rather He knew about it before it was an event, thus faith pleases God, it doesn’t impress Him (Heb 11:6). God may ask us questions, as He did Adam, but the result is for us, God already knows, a vital concept when we speak of the fall.
There are also the basic tenets to the Christian knowledge outlined in the “Doctrine of Christ” (Heb 6:1). Hebrews 6:1-2 is not all the Doctrine of Christ entails, rather the six areas are the rudiments, or foundation for the Doctrine of Christ. Don’t Limit the Doctrine of Christ to these six elements, or you will miss a great deal. A Tenet is a basic element of information wherein the purpose, intent and performance of the matter are known, thus the Doctrine of Christ has Tenets. Theology is the Study of God, but doctrines are what we teach and believe. A tradition of man is something other people did in the past, we never questioned it, but we did accept it as “Scriptural”, then we performed it as a duty, when it was not. The next generation called the Tradition a Fact, the next generation accepts it as Doctrine; it then becomes a Stronghold coming against the knowledge of God. We find the same in the world today, Evolution as a cross-over concept has never been proven. It began as a thesis, then someone accepted it as “fact”, then it became “doctrine”. No evidence, no proof, yet it’s taught as Truth. Can it happen in the Body of Christ? Yes, today we seem to have more doctrines then some people have socks, but Unity calls for us to enter the One Doctrine of Christ already provided in the Bible.
The biggest division between members in the Body of Christ centers around the saying, “we have different doctrines”. There is only one Doctrine a Christian should have, yet we find any of us can be carried away by the winds of doctrine, which are fringe elements lacking the heart of the doctrine itself. Theology is our study of God (Theo – God; Logy – Study), but it may not be God’s study of God. Theology must be sensitive to the Truth, it must bend, or even break in light of Truth.
The six basics in the Doctrine of Christ are; 1) repentance from dead works, 2) faith toward God, 3) the doctrine of baptisms (pl.), 4) laying on of hands, 5) the resurrection of the dead, and 6) eternal judgment. In this we find there is a “doctrine” within the Doctrine, showing there are extensions or Tenets to these areas. However, how many of us know how the One Baptism found in Ephesians fits with the doctrine of baptisms? How many of us really know what a “dead work” is? Not a dead teaching, or a dead sermon, but a dead work. If Jesus said, ‘Ye Must be Born Again” why isn’t it listed among the six? Where is Grace? Where is Mercy? Where is Salvation? How come Paul said we are saved by Grace through faith, yet Grace isn’t listed among the six? These six areas are the foundational premises’ from which we are able to rightly divide the Word. If the Bible defined itself as the Scriptures, then the Word as Jesus, how can we divide Jesus Rightfully? If the Word is divided, then it has two aspects, one regarding Salvation, the other regarding Judgment, they are not Parted into two parts: the Word is opened so we can discern the differences between the two elements. Like a sacrifice we find Jesus was seen on the Mount of Transfiguration, yet seen in the Book of Revelation, yet the two are completely different visions. The Mount gives us Jesus of Grace, the Book of Revelation shows Jesus as the Son of man returning for Judgment (Matt 17:2 & Rev 1:12-16). The two representations are different, on the Mount the concern was the Head and Body of Jesus, in the Book of Revelation it’s the feet, double-edged sword, coupled with the fire of judgment, yet the same John saw both. Salvation is termed “the Day”, thus we are children of the Day, but the Night is set aside for Judgment, we are never to mix the things of the Day into the Night, or the Night into the Day (I Thess 5:5). Is it bad? It isn’t good, since just ahead we will find God dividing the Day from the Night, He intends for them to remain so.
Division is part of Unity, we are divided from the world to be in Unity with Christ. There is a Godly division and an ungodly division, wisdom discerns the differences. It’s the same as judged and judgment; judged is the pronouncement of sentence, judgment is the execution of the sentence (Rev 20:10). The prince of this world is judged, but the judgment comes on the last day (Jn 16:11). The devil was judged at the fall, defeated by Jesus during the temptations, destroyed by Jesus through the Cross, is last seen being cast into the lake of fire at the Judgment (Gen 3:14, Matt 4:11, Heb 2:14 & Rev 20:10).
Our study will contain concepts based on precepts, line upon line, premise upon premise, each building onto the other with the Doctrine of Christ as our foundation. Our desire is to open doors of knowledge, not rooms of understanding. Understanding God, or the things of God can only come from the experiences we have with the Spirit. Knowledge is the mental awareness of things, people, concepts, facts or words. Wisdom is the method in which we deal with people and events, Understanding is based on experience.
There are two types of Knowledge and two types of Wisdom, with many forms of experience, how we view them is important. When we read about the children in the wilderness, who do we think was dealing with them? God? Or the devil? Or Pharaoh? It was God, it’s obvious to us, but to them it wasn’t. What was God doing with them? Destroying them? Or delivering them? Delivering them, it’s obvious to us, but the children presumed God brought them into the wilderness to kill them. Their premise of “God Is” was “God is going to kill us”, which defines the premise of “God Is” must connect to the Reward for diligently seeking Him, indicating God is for us, not against us.
The children heard from God, saw His wonders, but they were unable to judge what God was telling them. God said one thing, they heard something else. God was speaking Deliverance, they heard destruction. Their preconditioned thinking was based on their belief, which turned out to be unbelief. The Word spoken to them was present tense, their faith should have pointed to the Promised Land. For us we believe Jesus is raised from the dead, but our faith reaches to be partakers in the First Resurrection (Rev 20:6).
The evidence of God being with the children was evident, but the testings didn’t make them happy, they were not pleased with the method God was using. God wasn’t entertaining them, so they attacked the man of God, in so doing they attacked God. Simply because something doesn’t please us, doesn’t mean God isn’t involved. Our belief must be “God Is”, or we will use our measure of faith against God, rather than in accordance with Him. In Hebrews 11:6 the phrase “He is” or as we know it “God is” is the Greek Estee a third person singular present indicative of the Greek Eimi referring to a present tense thinking denoting God as “I Am”, or to be present, indicating our belief knows God is with us, the event is something God allowed for our good, with the proper Belief our Faith then has a confidence enabling us to find the Reward God has for us. If we enter the event with “the devil is”, or “we’re all going to die”, it’s hardly “God Is” belief. Absent God Is thinking we will form an illusion, or something we think is true and correct, but is really a fable. One such fable is the false concept of faith being an element sent to please us, then using the fable to justify ungodly acts. “I wanted to do it, I did it, I’m happy, since God loves me, and I’m happy, God is pleased, thus I did it by faith”. Silly? We know it’s natural reasoning excusing bad behavior, yet it’s done. We want something, we say we trust God, but we use our faith outside of “God Is” to bring it pass, we end forming illusions regarding faith, until the day comes when our faith develops into witchcraft. Illusions are the doormats to deception, yet deception is the calling card of the enemy. Discernment comes with Light, Light comes in the New Birth, it keeps us from doing dead works of self-righteousness in some feeble attempt to impress God, or ourselves. Amen?
The Book of Proverbs tells us we have to know Wisdom, in order to Perceive the words of Understanding, then we can Receive the Instruction in order to Give (Prov 1:1-4). Progressive? Yes, we find areas building one on the other to reach the purpose; from Knowing Wisdom, to Perceiving the Understanding, from words of Understanding, to Receiving the Instruction, then we are able to Give. If we use the wrong wisdom, we will not receive the instruction as God intended; rather we will invent our own determinations, ending confused, bitter, or wandering in a wilderness. We will still “give”, but we will give our opinion, or the opinions of others, yet an opinion is based on natural knowledge, it’s something we think to be true, but lack the Godly evidence to prove it so, thus we ask for God’s Wisdom by faith. Someone says something about someone, then adds, “well it’s the Truth”. No it’s not, it’s their opinion. In order to Give Godly instruction there is a Process we must go through. God hates the ways of the wicked, as He does hypocritical behavior, a hypocrite in this area would be one who uses the experiences of others as if they are their own. Opinions often twist the knowledge into some self-based area bringing harm, rather than edification. We are commanded to direct our faith in one direction, toward (in) God. We are not told to have faith in our faith, or faith in our ability, or faith in our talents. Faith is given so we can have something from God in order to please God (Rom 12:3 & Heb 11:6). Using our faith in some effort to make sure we are pleased, doesn’t mean we pleased God. Natural man presumes if he is happy, so is everyone else; a carnal Christian presumes if they are happy, so is God. When the children made their golden calf they were tickled pink, but was God pleased? No, when the Corinthians attacked Paul they were pleased with their endeavors, but was God? No, God tolerated, applied mercy, with correction, but it doesn’t mean He was pleased (I Cor 10:5).
If our faith is in God, it will be manifested and displayed during those times of testing. Knowing the signs of God’s Wisdom are important as well; God’s Wisdom is Pure, Peaceable, Gentle, Easy to be entreated (teachable), Full of Mercy, Good Fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy (James 3:17). This type of Wisdom is Peace motivated and activated, it’s never confused, or mislead. If we’re good warriors for God, we war from a position of Peace. The other wisdom is of the earth, thus it’s earthly, sensual and devilish, this wisdom produces wars of strive and envy, which lead to confusion (James 3: 14-16 & 4:1-4). Confusion is a battle initiated by a stronghold when Truth appears on the scene. The holder of Truth is never confused, rather confusion hides itself behind the mask of deception. Did Truth bring the confusion? No, Truth exposed the error, it was the error bringing the confusion. Therefore, confusion is always in the mind of the confused, not in the mind of the Truth bearer (or did we say that?). Perhaps we held an error for years, it became a tradition or doctrine of man we believed. Then Truth came, usually in the form of Scripture being taught, we became confused, finding our “belief” was unbelief. We reacted in anger, we didn’t care what the Scripture said, yet we knew better than to attack the Scripture, so like the children in the wilderness, we attacked the person God sent. A servant bows to Scripture, a stronghold makes the Scripture bow.
Opportunity is a word we will run into along this road of Grace, a missed opportunity doesn’t mean it’s lost forever. If God knows all things, then He knows when we will miss opportunities as well. God has worked those times into the plan as lessons for us, thus all lessons with the Holy Ghost build our understanding, as our souls become more spiritual in nature. We have no idea what tomorrow holds, but God does, He has made a way for us through all this.
If we are looking for intellect in the Wisdom of God, we missed it, the intellect of God comes in the Knowledge of God. God grants us His Knowledge and Wisdom in the New Birth, thus we have a God given teacher and guide within, but God also uses teachers to help us gain clarity. The Holy Ghost teaches by comparing spiritual to spiritual, the Holy Ghost is spiritual, the New Man is spiritual, if our souls remain carnal, we miss the learning. However, we also know First John says we have no need of a teacher, but First John is a teaching letter. First John tells us no one can teach us how to Love, they may define Love, or preach on it, but only the Unction (covering) of the Holy Ghost on the Body can teach us how to love. For the most part the teaching is by experience, usually when we are faced with unlovable. We prayed, “Oh God I want to walk in Your Love”, do we think it comes without experiences? Or without training? Anyone can love the lovable, it’s loving the unlovable which gains us the victory.
The Gospel of the New Covenant, is called the “Gospel of Peace”; therefore, it behooves us to find out what Peace is. If we walk by faith, we must also be able to stand in faith, which means we must have our feet shod (covered) with the Preparation of the Gospel of Peace (Eph 6:15). James tells us the Wisdom of God produces Peace, Paul says we Stand with the Gospel of Peace. This type of Peace is our Peace with God, the knowledge of God having made Peace with us. It’s Comfort in the time of trouble, our High Priest (Jesus) is always making intercession for us, He is always there waiting for us to come boldly to obtain Mercy and find Grace in the time of need.
In Genesis we will meet Adam, he will give us much to consider, did he walk with God before the fall? Yes, his walk appeared to be just fine, but could it have been better? Yes, the fall proved it. Our walk with God may seem just fine to us, but could it be better? If so, we must grow in Christ. The first step is knowledge, giving us information to define why we have faith in God.
The deception of the old man presents false impressions, we begin to think we are either not walking, or walking closer to God than anyone else, or the biggest deception of all, we are the only one walking with God. It’s the old premise, “I hear from God”, as though no one else does. These false perceptions are pride based, they spell defeat, thus our walk with God always entails our desire to be closer to Him than we are: love demands it, the relationship demands it, our faith demands it, but truth never acknowledges there are many others with the same desire to walk with God.
Before the fall Adam was without sin, but was sin defined? Yes, when God said, “if you eat of the fruit of the tree you will die” sin was defined, as strange as it seems, once sin was defined the potential to sin was also present. Now a great dilemma, if death was a factor, how was Adam to know what dying was? Something the Bible answers for us.
So did God cause Adam to sin? No, God presented Adam a choice; therefore, choice is a God granted gift. If there is an eternal Judgment in the Doctrine of Christ, yet we also find Jesus is the Author of Eternal Salvation, we find choice presented, Judgment? Or Salvation? When God presented Salvation, choice demanded for Eternal Judgment to be presented as well (Heb 5:9 & 6:1-2). God doesn’t send anyone to hell, they send their self by the choices they make.
We also know God presented the choice between Death and Life, but He said choose Life, thus He presented the Choice, but He wasn’t going to force Choice. Proverbs 18:21 does place death before life, for good reason. In the world we are stuck in dying we shall die, but through Jesus we have Life. God is not going to force the Cross on anyone, Salvation is by choice, thus it takes choice to leave death to enter Life.
What about iniquity? Was it defined as well? Yes, the first command was to multiply, a failure to do the commandment would have been classed as iniquity (failure to do something, while doing something else). Sin is a transgression, or doing something we’re not supposed to, but Iniquity is a failure to do something we’re supposed to, or being unequal. Iniquity is sometimes defined as “without law”, or “wickedness”, the aspect of “without law” doesn’t mean breaking a law, rather it means one who made themselves without law, a premise of being free of the Law of Moses, but rejecting the Law of the Spirit. The English word Iniquity comes from the Latin In (not) Aequus (equal), some concordances use the term “transgression”, but in order to Transgress you must have a law, in the case of Iniquity the meaning of the word removes it from the area. The Greek word for Iniquity in the New Testament is Anomia meaning Not equal. Brown, Easton and others define it as Not equal as well. The Hebrew word for Iniquity is Avon meaning Without law, correlating to the Latin, thus the person rejects the Law presented, but only after they receive a benefit of being free from another Law. Scots Law defines iniquity as Inequity, or someone who fails to be Just; Inequity means “lack of equity”, or failing to conform to acceptable standards. The term Unjust doesn’t mean “without Just”, it means one has the ability to be Just, but remains Unjust: much like the word Undo, in order to Undo, one must have the ability to Do. Therefore we find the Just live by faith, the Unjust do not. Jesus best defined the word Iniquity in Matthew 7:21-23 in His warning to the “workers of Iniquity”, as He said, “Not every one who says unto Me, Lord, Lord shall enter the Kingdom of Heaven: but he who Does the Will of My Father”. Clearly the division was made, they call Jesus “Lord, Lord”, but they were unequal, they did some things they were suppose to, but failed to do other things they were required to do (will of the Father, or Mercy). The “Lord, Lord” people cast out devils, prophesied, and did wonderful works all in the Name of Jesus, thus they had Authority by their use of the Name. None of them said, “we attempted to”, they all said they did. It wasn’t what they did, but what they failed to do. Casting out devils is not wrong, Jesus did it. Surely doing wonderful works is not wrong. It was the failure to do the least of the Commandments which made them unbalanced, or unequal. Mercy is a work, it’s not easy to apply mercy in the face of adversity. Because they were unequal, Jesus told them, “Depart from Me, you workers of Iniquity”. It wasn’t what they did, but their failure to do the “Will of the Father”. Jesus doesn’t call them, “Ye sinners”, but He does call them “workers of iniquity”. This same group are termed the Wicked as well, they love to do the fun things, but refuse to do what is required, yet before the Cross they had the ability to apply mercy. The earthly ministry was based in Mercy, Grace was not a factor until the Holy Ghost gave the gift.
This area is vital, these workers of iniquity operated within the “Name of Jesus”, showing they were of the Body since they had the authority, but worked at being unequal. The key is the working part, this is not something they simply forgot to do, or they were ignorant of, they actually worked harder at not doing, than we do at doing.
Understanding how Matthew is the only scribe pointing to the kingdom of heaven, as well as showing it’s the place where we find the bad and good fish, the wheat and tares indicates to us how there are the Just and the Unjust in the same field. Paul talks about the “vessels of honor”, as he does those of “dishonor”, the only difference is application of, or the refusal to give Mercy (Rom 9:21-24). Iniquity is not “doing nothing”, it’s a failure to do something we have the power, authority, and are commanded to do, it’s also based on accepting the benefit, but rejecting the obligation connected to the benefit. In this case we find they asked God to forgive their sins, they freely received the Mercy of God, but they work at not giving it, rather they slander, attack, lie in wait to deceive, consider themselves some self-appointed protector of Jesus, by attempting to rid the Body of everyone who doesn’t agree with them. However, we also find iniquity will lead to sin, thus the devil found iniquity in his heart, then he caused the sin of Adam, thus one does lead to the other.
The Least Commandments are not inferior, rather they are Least we should do, they were given by Jesus on the Mount of Olives as Mercy based, for those who freely received. It’s important to keep in mind how Iniquity is not a mistake, or lack of knowledge, it’s a set pattern of work at not doing something we are required to do. The “Lord, Lord” people did what they wanted to do, not what they were required to do. They became “inadequate” in one area by working at it, thus they are “not equal”. Not because Jesus made them so, it’s because they made themselves that way, we have the keys. John tells us there are those who deny the Father and Son, the Father standing for Mercy, the Son for Grace (I Jn 2:22-23). The “Lord, Lord” people did things to appear popular, but failed at the will of the Father, thus they became “antichrist” in nature (I Jn 2:22 & 4:1-4).
God defined Iniquity this way, “Yet the children of your people say, The way of the Lord is not equal, but as for them, their way is not equal. When the righteous turns from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, he shall die thereby” (Ezek 18:25-26 & 33:17-18). The righteousness here are associated to the Commandments and Law, but we can see the Unequal aspect is defined by God as Iniquity. Judas was known as a worker of iniquity, he was also termed the first “son of perdition”, the 30 pieces of silver were known as the “reward of iniquity” (Acts 1:18). In truth Judas “did something”, but in the doing he twisted his position into something it was never intended, his lack of Mercy toward Jesus was obvious.
Paul shows the Wicked are those who hold the “mystery of iniquity”, if one was to study the term “Wicked”, they would find God speaks more of them, than He does the Just. We can add Hebrews 10:38-39 to this, since the word Iniquity means “unjust”. “Now the Just live by faith, but if any man draw back My soul shall have no pleasure in him, But we are not of them who draw back to perdition, but of them who believe unto the saving of the soul”. Here is a division between the Just who believe unto the saving of the soul, and the unjust who draw back to Perdition. If they draw back, they were in a higher position, if they enter perdition they were re-born back to perdition making them sons of perdition. They had the opportunity to believe unto the saving of the soul, but refused to. Hebrews 10:38 gives two steps to failure, first they “draw back”, or move in a sneaky manner back to perdition, but it also means they fell from their present position, thus they are unequal. How does this fit with being in the hand of Jesus where no man can remove us? No other person can remove us, yet Jude shows these are they who separate themselves (Jude 18-19). No devil, or person can remove, Jesus is not going to remove us, but Paul makes it clear our own unbelief will cause us to remove ourselves (Rom 11:20-21). The last verses in Mark are not a discourse on baptism, they tell us we must continually believe.
This also connects to Hebrews 11:6, “But without faith it is impossible to please God”. Therefore we put the verses together finding the Just Please God because they coupled their belief and faith unto the saving of the soul, which means they trust in God to bring to pass the Promise of Grace, as they remain in Mercy and Grace to reach the goal.
First John shows two brothers, both say they walk in the Light, but one has the evidence of the Light displayed in his nature, the other does not because he hates his brother. If one hates a brother it shows they have failed to walk in mercy; rather than forgive their brother, they slander him. By the one brother hating he did something, yet by hate he also failed to do the Commandment, “love one another as I have loved you”, thus iniquity is not the same as doing nothing, after all they are called the Workers of iniquity.
James says the tongue is a world of iniquity (James 3:6, different Greek word, same thought), for with it we bless God, yet curse man (James 3:9). Clearly the tongue does something if it curses man, but it failed to do what it’s suppose to do, which is bless both God and man. It would be Unequal, or leaning one way, but refusing to lean the other. The word Iniquity can be misconstrued as “sin”, but sin is act breaking a law, or “transgressing”, often it means missing the mark, whereas the workers of iniquity have made themselves “law-less”. In II Thessalonians we are told the “son of perdition” opposes and exalts himself “above all called God”, associating it to the “mystery of iniquity” (II Thess 2:3-7); this son of perdition is doing something, but he also is defined as the “Wicked” or “without law”, thus helping define the Wicked as the sons of perdition, or the workers of iniquity. They work at not being in the Law presented to them, but made themselves free of the Law of Moses by accepting the Cross. Therefore, the simplest definition for iniquity is a failure to do what one has the ability to do within the confines of the requirements presented by God for the position they are in. Jesus used a parable to show what “thank” (Greek Charis – Grace) do we expect for doing what we are expected to do? This would negate the tendency to fall into iniquity, there are times when Mercy is a difficult task, but the Father forgave us based on our forgiving others.
Never confuse a worker of iniquity with a backslider, they are much different. A backslider lacks a foundation, they never placed their belief in “God is” thinking, they felt the devil was, or God couldn’t, weakening their foundation, when affliction or persecution came, the slipped away.
Peter failed because he overestimated his ability, Judas committed iniquity by doing something unequal to his calling. A backslider would be the a sheep who wanders, a worker of iniquity still remains as the self-transformed, they are still very active, but they fail to be equal. A backslider is lost, the Wicked are goats in sheep clothing.
Was Adam told to have faith in God? No, but his heart should have told him God was Just, what God said, God means. Every person is given the measure of faith, Adam fit the “every”, just as Abel or Moses (Rom 12:3). It’s evident everyone has been given the measure based on the eleventh chapter of the Book of Hebrews. If only the Body has faith, what were the Old Testament saints using? There is a difference between the measure of faith, and the Faith of Jesus. The Faith of Jesus is proven, it was His faith not ours bringing to pass the Cross and Resurrection, the New Man follows the path left by the Faith, thus we are called of “the Faith”, referring to the Faith of Jesus, not our measure of faith (Heb 11:39 et al). However, we find no mention of Adam having faith, rather the first human recorded as having faith is Abel (Heb 11:4). If everyone is given the measure of faith, can they misuse it? Or perhaps not use it? We know we can have faith in most anything, even the world. Therefore, Jesus gave us the Commandment, “have faith in God”; if having faith in God was automatic, why even tell us? Because it’s not automatic, some have faith in their faith, some have faith in their denomination, some in their abilities, some even have faith in their religious behavior, but the command is to have faith in God. Faith is not a religious viewpoint, it is an active power designed to reach the Hope God set before us.
Each person has a calling in the Calling, it takes the Spirit to bring the ability to the calling. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word, but simply hearing doesn’t end it. Once Faith comes, it must be received, then acted upon before it can be applied. Paul talks about receiving faith, James talks about the testing after we receive. The Book of Romans shows us the foundational aspects of our faith, as it centers on the justification process by the Spirit through the Righteousness of God, rather than having faith in our self-righteousness. As we saw we are being Justified by faith, by Christ, by the Spirit, yet the Plan in heaven says we are justified (Rom 3:24, 5:1,Gal 2:16 & 2:17). Galatians 2:16 says we are justified by the Faith of Christ, rather than our measure of faith. It’s important to make the distinction, if we think our faith can destroy the devil, raise us from the dead, or get us into heaven, we are sadly mistaken, the same mindset is see in the traits of Lucifer (Isa 14:13-14). The Faith of Jesus has proven the course, our faith in God is still reaching to the Hope, thus the same Spirit who raised Jesus (past tense) will raise us (future tense). Our measure of faith is vital, but it doesn’t replace the Faith of Jesus.
Our faith in God keeps us from attempting to establish our own righteousness, or doing deeds of the flesh to establish our personal self-holiness, or going about in some self-justification process thinking the Witness is not necessary. Simple faith is a confidence in God’s ability to accomplish for us, what we are incapable of doing in a Godly manner. Our faith holds a confidence in God, we put our trust in God to accomplish the task, thus God gave us the Spirit as our Seal of assurance of being in Grace. In the Doctrine of Christ this concept it’s called, “Faith toward God”, the word “toward” is the Greek Epi meaning to rest upon, or in, it mandates direction.
What then is the difference between Obedience and Self-Righteousness? After all we are told to do many things, seek the Kingdom, put off the old man, put on the new, walk in the Spirit, as well as many other things. The Law of Moses had many things to do as well, so what is the difference? Self-righteousness is based on one deed, when the deed is done, the self-righteousness is also done, meaning it must begin again; thus they kept each sabbath day, not just one. They have to give many sacrifices, not just one, because self-righteousness is of the flesh, it was dead before it began. However, the Righteousness of Jesus is based in Life, it never ceases, thus Jesus gave one Sacrifice for all time. Our Obedience is by faith, not the flesh.
The doctrine of baptisms defines the various baptisms, in Acts 19 Paul said the Baptism of John was good, saying the people “should” believe, but it ceased with John was cast into prison, becoming ineffective when the people had the evidence To Believe. Paul asked the disciples, “by what baptism were you baptized Since you Believed?”. When he heard “John’s” he knew there needed to be another water baptism. John baptized in his own name, we baptize in the Name of Jesus. No one enters the “Body of John”, but our token of water baptism accepts the mercy of the Father, then introduces us into the Body of Christ. After Paul watered baptized the disciples, he laid hands on them, then they received the gift of the Holy Ghost. What baptism did John do? Well, he did one and preached another, if we mix his doing with his preaching we would form another stronghold, making it a tradition, then later it would become a doctrine of men. John did baptize in water telling the people to repent, but he preached Another would come after him who would baptize us in the Holy Ghost and Fire. We know the Other is Jesus, in John’s Account we find the disciples of Jesus did baptize others in water before John was cast into prison, but Jesus didn’t baptize anyone, the time for Jesus to baptize would be after the Ascension, not before (Acts 19:1-5, Mark 1:6-8 & Jn 4:1-2).
When we are baptized in the “Name of Jesus”, or “In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost” it’s still one Name (authority), it’s was our token or signature of acceptance into the Body by the Mercy of the Father. We believed and Identified with the death and resurrection of Jesus, it doesn’t mean the Water is the death and resurrection. The water didn’t save us, Jesus wasn’t buried in water, if it wasn’t identification, then our baptism would be in dirt, so we could be resurrected. After all wouldn’t it be better to be baptized in dirt for the death? Water is a metaphor for Mercy, our water baptism is vital, but it’s not all the baptisms we go through, thus we find the Doctrine of Baptisms joined into the One Baptism. The Greek has several words for the word One, there is word one meaning without parts, but there is also one with parts. A car is one car, but it’s made up from parts, thus the One Baptism is not only made of parts, but we find the Greek word Pas in many manuscripts, meaning Place. Therefore, the only baptism we do is in water by the Authority of Jesus, we don’t do the baptism of John. Thereby we find the phrase, “in the Name of Jesus only”, separates the baptism we do from the one John did. The significance points to the Body of Christ being the only God granted element on earth who has the authority to water baptize anyone into the Body of Christ.
From Acts 19 we find what being baptized in “the Name of Jesus” is all about. If it was merely saying, “In the Name of Jesus”, why didn’t John say it? Because John baptized in his own name, the Authority for us to baptize in Water didn’t come until after the Resurrection, yet the Power came after the Ascension. The Name of the Father, the Son and of the Holy Ghost (Matt 28:19) is one Name, not “names” as many, thus the Authority of God was granted to Jesus, Who in turn granted it to His Body; thus in Hebrews we find the only voice of God on earth is by the Son (Heb 1:2), usually through the Spirit of Christ in us. The Name of the Father (Mercy), Son (Blood – Grace), and Holy Ghost (Grace – Spirit – Born Again) are combined in the Witness, thus Jesus came by Water and Blood. The Father didn’t change His Name to Jesus, rather it refers to Authority. How important is it? Mark 16:16-18 tells us if we are baptized and continue to believe, the saying “shall be saved” applies. Our Water Baptism identified us to the Body, it was a “Token”, or Sign of our acceptance of the Body, the person who baptized us accepted us into the Body based on our confession of belief. If we are not joining to the Body of Christ, then we took a bath, did the back stroke, got wet, but we were not baptized. Any religious system can say they are baptizing, but without the Authority of God it means nothing. So, if someone said, “in the Name of Jesus”, or “In the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost”, does it make a difference? No, it’s still the one and only Name (Authority), after all in the phrase “Father, Son and Holy Ghost”, we find the Son. Evidence? Are you in the Body? Then it worked.
The only requirement for us to water baptize anyone (other than the water) is for them to say they believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus. The candidate is not commanded to be baptized, but we are commanded to baptize them. So, was Adam baptized? No, John came doing the baptism of John, thus it stopped when John was cast into prison. The Law and Prophets were until John, thus baptism was introduced by John, but his ministry was to be a witness to the Word of God coming in the flesh. All this is to show we have a better Covenant, one much better than Adam even dreamed of. Even if there was baptism before the Resurrection, it became ineffective, as did John’s, proven by Paul’s statements and actions in Acts 19:1-7.
Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen (Heb 11:1). Some of us read it backwards, thinking Faith produces the unseen, it’s not what the verse says. It tells us faith can be seen, just as James shows, but it comes from the unseen. What is unseen? Hope laying ahead for one, another is any promise God gave us yet to manifest, of course the New Man whom we cannot see will guide our faith. The New Man is the Kingdom of God within, Jesus said the Kingdom of God does not come with observation (Luke 17:21-22). Faith then is a Now confidence being projected to a future hope, but belief is also a Now element based on prior information, experiences, knowledge or awareness. Both join in the Now, yet belief is not the unseen, but it does provide a platform of knowledge to guide our faith, thus Jesus said “have faith in God”, since it’s a past tense statement, it fortified our belief, giving our faith a direction. If we were not told, “have faith in God”, we would send our faith in all sorts of directions. However, in Hebrews we find the children could not enter God’s Rest because of unbelief, not because of a lack of faith. We view Hebrews 10:38-39 where we are told about the just who believe unto the saving of the soul, so it seems future tense, how does it fit? The phrase “who believe” show us this saving process is always in the NOW, it’s not, “I will get it together tomorrow”, or even “I had it yesterday”. The word Believe is the same Greek word translated as Faith, so what does it mean? It couples with Hebrews 11:6, our belief must entail God Is purposed to save our souls, our faith then reaches to the result, in the process of Justification we add Patience, meaning we stay the course. The word Salvation is not the Greek Sozo, or Soteria, as one would think, rather the Greek word means To redeem a purchased possession, Jesus paid the price for us. The prize in all this is our souls, God desires for them to be saved, the devil uses them in some evil competition against God. The devil could care less about us, all he wants to do is stop God.
Adam was in the Garden, yet because of his failure he was cast out, never able to return, is it the type of “glory” we seek? Hardly, for us we were on the outside, desiring to leave by entering the Kingdom. However, for years we had faith in all sorts of things, from the sun coming up to the salary the boss hands out. As Babes in Christ we played with this new found “faith”, but there comes a time to grow up. Faith becoming a “self-tool” often leads into witchcraft, but faith in God brings us closer to God. Interesting aspect of faith is how it’s foundation is belief, faith tells us we must Believe God Is, then our faith points to the Hope of God being a Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him, indicating before faith can be effective, our belief must be in order.
Assumption comes after the fact, presumption before the act. Assumption would be doing something, then thinking God will honor it. Lying would be saying God told us to do something, when God didn’t “saith” a thing. Presumption is acting on what we think to be a God based idea, yet we either haven’t heard from God, or we are ignoring what God just said, or we are using something God said prior, or something God said to another people. David prayed to be delivered from the sin of presumption, the children in the wilderness fell into it. God told the children to Go, they said No, then God said, fine No, then they said Oh we will Go, God called their acts presumption. They had one word, rejected it, had another, rejected it by going back to the first, presuming God would honor one word, while rejecting another. Once they had the proceeding word, it’s the one to follow. We can have a word God gave to a people of another generation, then a Proceeding or Prevailing word for now, if we reject the Prevailing word, yet do the prior word thinking we are being obedient, we’re not, rather we have committed the sin of Presumption. It was the exact situation Paul ran into with the Galatia, the Galatians felt by doing something God gave another people they would be closer to the Lord, but in truth they were about to fall from Grace, by doing something not associated with Grace.
Self-confidence is the same as the “pride of life”, the world not only tells us to have self-confidence, they rebuke us when we don’t; however, it’s the world. Confidence in the self is the complete opposite of faith in God; self-confidence is faith in the power of the self, hardly denying it. Faith toward God is a command regarding direction. “Yeah, but don’t we say Go to the mountain?”. Yes, we say, but we don’t move it, God does, we still have faith in Him to move it. Ahh, we said, thus we believe in what we said, but the faith issue is in God’s ability to move the mountain. Instead of jumping into some act of self-confidence with the shovel of presumption, we stand in our belief of what we said, projecting our faith toward God to remove the obstacle. Abraham will prove the point, although the man did acts, they were acts of obedience based in his belief. He knew God was able to bring Isaac as the promised son, a faith issue after the Covenant was established. Did Abraham say anything? Yes, as he did many things, but his obedience was based in his faith. Yet, obedience didn’t bring faith, it was his faith bringing the obedience.
Presumption is often making up our own command, obeying it, then presuming God will honor our act, thus it’s not of faith. The Fall will prove the point, they heard from God, but rejected what God said by making up their own rules.
The Plan was firm in heaven, God merely placed the Plan into action by speaking it into existence, yet Adam tested God’s plan. In the Genesis account the earth and the elements obeyed God, yet the earth didn’t have faith, but it did yield when God spoke. We will also see there was a obvious time span took place, the span was also in the overall plan. The seeds were in the earth, many things, including some animals were called forth, yet others were created. It’s a question in itself, the seeds were in the earth, then they came forth as plants, but Jesus said a seed must die before it can come forth (Gen 1:11 & Jn 12:24). It’s a principle of God, if the principle is not true, Jesus was not Resurrected, since Jesus applied the principle to the Resurrection. Therefore, before a seed can become a plant the seed has to die, in our case we impute the flesh dead on the Cross.
Adam was the only creature to receive the “breath of life”, but he was not the only “living soul”. What say thee? The whales were the first living souls, as we will see, but they didn’t have faith, nor were they granted a place of authority, no whale ever built a “sea car”, or a home for aged whales, because God never breathed into them. The correlation shows both Adam and the whale depended on life outside of their environment. The whale is in water, but has to surface to breath. Adam was in the Garden, but his life was external (Tree of Life). When Adam was separated from the Tree of Life, his existence was dated and timed. Take a whale out of water, they will die. Adam received much, but we may find we have assumed he received something he didn’t. The sea didn’t have faith, but it did bring forth animals when God told it to. Was the issue faith in God? No, but it was Authority speaking to an element as it obeyed, meaning the earth has no choice, it hears, it does.
The opposite of obedience is rebellion, rebellion is the use of a lower authority to overthrow a higher authority. Usurping Authority is not the same as rebellion, when one usurps authority they are using the authority of another without the right to do so. If the bees told the earth “bring forth the flowers”, it would be usurping authority. If the flowers rejected the word of the Lord, then came forth as bees it would be rebellion.
By now we understand there only two types of faith, neither relates to ones religious conviction. “What faith are you?” is a concept not in the Bible, it’s a worldly thought to identify someone’s religious persuasion. The Bible tells us there is the measure of Faith (Rom 12:3), then the Faith of Jesus (Gal 2:20 et al). Jesus as the Son of man faced the Cross, thus He knew all things intuitively, but nonetheless no human ever defeated death, not Adam, Moses, Aaron, David, no one. “Well now friend I think those verses say faith of Jesus, really mean faith in Jesus”. The evidence of the faith of Jesus is found in Romans 3:22 as compared to Romans 4:12 and 4:16. Romans 3:22 says “faith of Jesus”, Romans 4:12 and 26 say “faith of Abraham”, thus if we read 3:22 as “faith in Jesus”, we must also read 4:12 and 16 as “faith in Abraham”, yet the verses concerning Abraham’s faith relate directly to the man having faith. When Jesus went to the Cross He said, “Father why have You forsaken Me”, we tend to think it’s accusing the Father of leaving Jesus, but it’s a question. The answer is of course Jesus had to face death and defeat it for us as the Son of man by faith, which faith was looking toward the Resurrection, thus we are told to have faith as well. In Luke 23:46 Jesus said, “Father into Your hands I commend My Spirit”. The word Commend means to hold as security until a certain work is completed, the statement is faith based. Grammatically speaking the term “faith of Jesus” is called the Objective Genitive, which means the possession of the pronoun or verb belong to the subject. Possession is one of the rules of Translation, one does not change the possession of a object from one subject to another, they must remain intact. A prime example is James 2:1, as we see “have not the faith of our Lord Jesus”, in order to get around the verse, we find some just remove it, which is a sign of a cultist translation. Our faith is by measure, yet the Faith of Jesus defeated death, hell, the grave, then destroyed (made ineffective) the devil. Sound interpretation shows Jesus has faith, a faith proven by Him sitting at the right hand of Majesty on High. How can Jesus expect us to have faith, if He didn’t?
Hebrews chapter 11 lists all sorts of saints who had faith, they gained a good report, as great as their faith was, it still was not able to obtain the Promise (Heb 11:39). Paul tells us the Promise is the Holy Spirit, the New Birth, thus in order to gain the New Birth one had to break the bounds of death and the grave, something only Jesus did. Our measure of faith is vital, but it will not defeat death, it will not open heaven, because the Faith of Jesus is proven, we have faith in God to accomplish the same tasks Jesus did. By the Faith of Jesus we are granted access and boldness to the throne (Eph 3:12), by His Faith we know our Faith in Him will get us through this (Gal 2:16, 2:20 & 3:22). How? He has already defeated death, the New Birth puts the same Seed of confidence in us. The Greater He is Greater because He is a result of the Resurrection, the same Spirit who raised Jesus will raise us (Rom 8:11). The Spirit of Christ is the ability, our faith in God assures us we trust God to complete the purpose for us, even the salvation of our souls. It’s the Faith of Christ granting us the ability to be Justified by God (Gal 2:16).
Paul and others referred to the Christian walk as “The Faith”, or the “Way”. There will be a falling away from “The Faith”, but it doesn’t mean there will be a loss of faith. Falling from The Faith would be falling from the Faith of Jesus, by refusing to recognize it. Paul said from faith to Faith (Rom 1:17), he also told us faith came with Jesus, yet he also pointed to the faith of Abraham (Gal 3:22-25). Galatians 3:22-25 tells us to have faith in Christ Jesus, yet Jesus said to have faith in God, the Doctrine of Christ says to have faith toward God, yet in the same verses in Galatians we find, “the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them who believe” (Gal 3:22). The Faith of Jesus did obtain the Promise, the measure of faith was never designed to (Heb 11:39). If we understand God, we can also understand why the measure of faith is by measure, it’s a gift, but limited to the natural realm, the Faith of Jesus is not limited.
In the Genesis Beginning we don’t see Faith as an issue, but in John’s account we find another Beginning wherein Belief is at issue. Is there a division in the Beginning, does it relate to Beginnings? Did God need faith to begin the Beginnings? No, He saw the end before the beginning, thus He had it in hand, He was not hoping Light would come, He knew it. John’s account in the Gospel has been termed the “faith account”, but the word Faith never appears in the entire document, however he uses the word Believe in one form or another more times than did Paul in all his letters, including the Book of Hebrews. Sound faith is based on belief, acquired by knowledge, without belief in God Is, faith doesn’t have a chance, the first time adversity hits, our faith takes a walk, anger or disappointment begins to rule our minds. Puny faith shows off in the storms, rather than completing the call. Great Faith hears and obeys, regardless of the adversity it faces.
The Book of Hebrews will ask a very interesting question, If God finished the work, why even Speak in another place about the Rest of God? If the Sabbath day was so important, why not speak to Adam about it? Or Noah? Or Abraham? Of Isaac? Or Jacob? Or Joseph? If the Law of Moses or the Ten Commandments granted man life why didn’t Abraham know about it? Adam failed once and was cast from the Garden, Moses hit the Rock when he was told to speak to it, based on his error he missed the Promised Land. Yet, we miss it nearly everyday, but we’re still in the Kingdom. By our faith? Nay, but by the Faith of Jesus; whose Faith is proven and completed, it’s not a matter of having the faith of Jesus, it’s the proof He has obtained. Our faith is in the Lord for Him to complete the same victory in our lives by the same Spirit who raised Him from the dead.
All this still plays a part in our fellowship with Jesus, if we confuse Power with Faith, we will demand things, rather than pray for them. Jesus equated us to the Ground, the Word (Jesus in us) as the Seed. It points to a division, the Seed is not the Ground, and neither is the Ground the Seed, neither is the ground the Seed, or the Sower. Neither does the Seed Plant itself, yet it’s growth is dependent on the ground with the type of water being used, not on the Sower. The Seed (Jesus) had to die, in order to bring forth fruit, a principle established before the foundation of the world. In our case we must die to the self before the Seed can grow.
The Sower sows on all sorts of grounds, some receptive, some not. Hard ground is not conducive to Growth, neither is bitter water beneficial to the Seed. Soft ground is easily entreated, Mercy is always sweet water. We can see how the Ground can Hear, yet be so hard it will not receive the Seed unto Growth. The Seed lays on the ground until the birds pluck it away; therefore, faith came, but it wasn’t received, if not received it can’t be acted upon, if its not acted on, we won’t grow. How can this be? Faith comes by hearing, but the hearing by the Word (Greek Rhema – Rom 10:17). The Hearing ear is willing to receive the Truth, even if it hurts, or even if it exposes a faulty thinking we’ve maintained for years.
When our faith allows the Seed to take root and begin to grow, then we stop going about attempting to impress God with our acts of self-righteousness. We understand the New Man is created (or formed same Greek word) after God’s righteousness and true holiness, our faith in God extends to the ability of the New Man to get us through this (Eph 4:24). We find the purpose of our faith is the salvation of our souls, the Just live (a day to day progression) by faith. We can’t save our own souls, we can’t become Justified in God’s eyes by our own efforts; however both are possible through God. “So it means we do nothing, right?”: it means there are things we do, there are things God is doing, but we don’t cross the line to tell God what to do. There is a vast difference in working to obtain, and doing deeds because we have obtained. Just as there is a difference between seeking to please God, and seeking to impress Him. There are things we are suppose to do as residents of the kingdom of heaven, there are duties we are suppose to do as kings and priests in the Kingdom of God. Jesus told us to seek the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness, then the Things will be added (Matt 6:33). Two sides, something we do, something God will do, but what happens if we cross over the line and seek the things? We violate the covenant, as well as telling Jesus He isn’t getting us the things soon enough, or we think we can do better. It is best to know what we are to do, then do it. We are told to deny the self and pick up our cross, thus Jesus isn’t about to pick up our cross for us, He already picked up His. So, what is deny the self and picking up our cross relate to? Death, we take care of the death part, Jesus will take care of the Life.
However, we know it’s God’s desire for all to come to the saving knowledge of the Gospel, yet we also know some of the Seed falls to the way side, or to the side of the Way as the fowls consume it before it can take root. Was the Seed given? Yes, but the ground wasn’t willing to yield to the Seed. Did the Seed die? No, the Seed is Life, being a product of the death of Jesus on the Cross, but it must be received by the Ground before Life can benefit the person. Genesis will teach us how to prepare the ground, as well as how difficult it is to work with rebellious ground. The earth was there, the seeds were in the earth, God called the seed forth, then the seed became productive. One plants, another waters, but God brings the increase. The earth yielded without a fight, struggle, or debate, yet it lacks faith. What then could be our excuse?
We are told faith is the substance of things hoped for, the very evidence of things not seen (Heb 11:1). James tells us we can see the faith of a person (James 2:18), thus the manner of faith displayed shows us the source. If someone is using their faith to please their self, the source is self-based, if they are using their faith to reach for the faith of Jesus to please God, their source is God based. The Process of faith could be seen as: Unseen producing – faith – reaching for the hope – displaying the source of faith. All working together to bring the result, thus faith without a Godly foundation, or a hope set before it based on a God given Covenant is dead. All this shows by Faith Jesus destroyed the devil through death, we enter the Faith by our measure of faith, never cast one away for the other, they are designed to work together (Heb 2:14 & Gal 2:20).
We now enter the Pentateuch, the English word Pentateuch (Pen-te-took). comes from the Greek word Pentateuchus, which is a compound word meaning, Five (Penta) and Scroll (Teukhos), or Five Scrolls. However, this is the Greek, or Gentile rendering; the Jews knows the first five books as the Torah, the word Torah means “Instruction from a sacred source”. For the most part a Jew will use the first word of the Book to identify the book, we use the context of the Book, or the Scribe, or the Prophet involved to identify the Book. The Jews feel by using the first word they are not giving the person who penned the work more credit than God who gave the utterance. The Jews correctly see those who penned the words as “scribes”, God as the Author. Confusing the scribe for the author can produce a problem; one can assume John was giving us his opinion, or Mark his, or Matthew his, or the four accounts were merely the separate ways these men saw things. However, if we hold to the basic premise, all Scripture is God inspired, we can be affirmed in knowing the Author is the Holy Ghost, the person is the Scribe.
The Jewish religion holds three pillars, the Torah, Circumcision and the Sabbath. The Torah contains the Law in the first five books of the Old Testament, not the entire Old Testament. Circumcision of the flesh is found in the Law as a token toward the Abrahamic Covenant. Keeping the Sabbath Day is the sign (token) for keeping the Law of Moses. One can pay tithe under the Law, yet if they don’t keep the sabbath day they are a Covenant breaker. The sabbath day also connects the Ten Commandments to the Law of Moses, since the sabbath day appears in both.
When one reads the Ten Commandments one thing is obviously missing, Where is circumcision? Wasn’t it a “sign of the Covenant”? Where does the Covenant of Noah fit into the Covenant given Abraham? Or does it? A token or sign is something giving someone a right to some Covenant.; we are “sealed by the Holy Spirit”, which is God’s Token regarding the New Testament, but we are also water baptized, which is our Token of acceptance toward the guides and conditions for entry into the Body based on the Mercy of the Father. Jesus will baptize us with the Holy Ghost and Fire, which are His tokens given to us. Tokens are like signatures on a contract, they are acceptance of the conditions of the Covenant, or granting one the ability to carry out the Covenant.
The Torah details the rules in the Noah, Abrahamic, and Moses Covenants. The “sign”, or “token” meaning one who held the sign or token had a right to enter the covenant, but it doesn’t mean one was automatically taken into the covenant. In our case we accept the entire Scripture both Old and New, but we are circumcised at heart, not the flesh. We are also sealed by the Holy Spirit, yet we can Grieve the Holy Spirit by Whom we are sealed (Eph 1:13 & 4:30). The Tokens mean entering doesn’t show we are automatically secured, as the Letter to the Galatians shows (Gal 3:1-3).
The Christian also has three earthly pillars and three heavenly pillars, all of which are connected. The Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost as One bear the Record in heaven, the Water, Blood and Spirit (New Man) agree as One Witness on earth. Isn’t it interesting neither the flesh or the soul are noted in First John 5:7-8? The flesh we could understand, but the soul is the purpose, or treasure in all this. The “treasure” cannot save itself, but it can be saved by the Word (Jesus) in us (James 1:21). It’s when we think our souls or minds are the Word, we get into trouble (Jn 1:1-8). The Record holds the Predestined Plan God has for us, the Witness forms us into the Plan. If God desires all to be saved, then God has established a means for all to be saved, are all saved? No, yet if it’s God’s desire, then God has made room, but God’s reality can differ from His desire.
Although the Jew doesn’t know it, all three pillars of their religion point to the Christian experience. We hold to the Word of God as the Logos and Rhema (Christlogic referring to Jesus and the Spirit; Jn 1:1 & 6:63), but is the Word the Bible alone? We found out the Bible defines itself as the Scriptures. To presume the Bible is the only Word of God means the Father, the Bible and the Holy Ghost bear record. If it’s the case, where is the Son? Why would we want to make the Bible the only Word of God? Control, we can control the written document, even change it, but we can’t control the Seed of God in us. We can also deny the New Birth, presuming if we can read the Bible we have Life, then we can interpret the Bible to mean anything we want. Dangerous? Very.
The Bible speaks of life, it doesn’t impart it. The Word (Jesus) is life, Life is imparted in us by the Holy Ghost granting us the Seed. We need the Bible, but the Pharisees had the Scriptures, but didn’t understand themselves. Jesus told them they presumed they had Life because they read about it, but they didn’t have the Word abiding in them (Jn 5:38-42). Some of us make the same mistake, we think we have Grace because we read about it. We can read about planes, it doesn’t mean we can fly. We need the Bible, but we need the Word in us bringing life to the Scriptures. Therefore, we must have the New Man, the Spirit of Truth, Another Comforter in us in order to have the Word in us. The New Man uses the Bible to guide and instruct us, but without the New Man guess who will guide and instruct? The old man, but he uses the knowledge of the world.
To the Jew the signs of their Covenants are physical in nature, to us we have the unseen establishing our faith. Our Torah (Book of the Law) is written on our hearts by the New Man, but we accept all Scripture, whether in the Old or New as God inspired. Belief is based on something of the past we accept as Truth, none of us were around with Abraham, Noah, or when the earthly ministry took place, but we have a document based on God’s integrity. We read, we have not seen, yet we believe, thus we are Blessed (Jn 20:29). The confirmation then comes from within, the unseen foundation for our faith is proven by our belief in Jesus by the Spirit.
The Jew may look to the Torah as God inspired, but they view the prophets as Agenda. Agenda means “by opinion”, rather than debate about what the prophets said, they simply say, “Agenda”. However, it removes the wording “all Inspired”, indicating they hold the Torah is God inspired, yet we know the prophets were speaking as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. if we leave any of the Bible open to private interpretation, we leave it all open. Compromise is the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes, which means “victory over the people”. Compromise allows us to take some good and some bad, then call it all good. The doctrine of the Nicolaitanes accepts social accepted behavior as the norm. There are those who attack the Bible; however, the proof is in the evidence. If God uses some Scripture to draw someone to the Cross, then He must honor what is written. We never get into “translation bashing” contests, we look at the result to determine the cause. If someone demon possessed came to us, and we said, “come out in the Name of Jesus”, if the demon came out, obviously the devils knew we held the authority found in the Name of Jesus. Where then did we gain the knowledge of the Name of Jesus? The Bible.
For the Jew any change in the person is done by the person, which is self-righteousness, but to the Christian the proof of having the Spirit is the change made in us by the Spirit. Rather than say “I won’t do it”, we find ourselves saying, “I don’t want to do it anymore”. The Shadow in the Old Testament has some like terms, but the definitions are different. They had circumcision, and so do we. They had their sabbath, and so do we, the terms sounding the same, but they are very different in deed, purpose and definition. Our circumcision is of heart done without hands, our rest is in Jesus, our priesthood is much different, our method of being king is also much different.
In all this we find the Jewish Torah has shadows, but we have the Image. For instance we see the Tabernacle as a shadow of Jesus, but without knowing about the Tabernacle, or when and where it was established, we will miss some of the finer points of Jesus. Knowing about the Temple is just as true, without knowing there are mass differences between the Tabernacle and Temple we will miss the greatness of either.
Genesis will begin with the Beginning, but in John we find another Beginning, one connecting to the Beginning in Genesis, yet it doesn’t become the Beginning until Jesus came as the Word made flesh (Jn 1:1-14). There are two aspects of Creation, if not there couldn’t be a New Creature in Christ. We will find the Beginning of the New Creation was Last, but came First in the Plan of God, thus the New Creation becomes First in the Plan of Salvation. Man thinks Judgment must come before Salvation, today some in the Body think in like manner; however, Salvation came before Judgment, God’s plan is always to save the Just (Righteous), before Judgment falls on the Wicked.
However, in the Beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the purpose of the Word becoming flesh is Salvation (Jn 1:1-14). We also find when Jesus came, so did The Light, if it’s the case what is going on here in Genesis? (Jn 1:5-11). So, does it mean there is no Judgment? Hardly, eternal judgment is one of the six basic rudiments to the Doctrine of Christ. If all things are done, is judgment finished? God’s part maybe, but the “time” for Judgment is yet to come. How do we know the difference between the time of Salvation and the time of Judgment? It’s as different as Day and Night, but how do we know the difference between Day and Night? Perhaps we will find the answer to “work while it is yet Day, for the Night comes when no man can work” right here in Genesis (Jn 9:4).
God’s plan of creation was precise, God has a purpose in all things, yet we also find there is an aspect of God based on “just because”. It doesn’t mean God didn’t have Purpose, the Just Because of God is based in His Love for us, the Purpose is still our Salvation. God doesn’t do a thing without purpose, since it would make Him vain (without purpose). Each item in the Creation plan has Purpose, even the earth being found void and in darkness has a purpose.
However, God’s Love is not manipulative, if man elects to reject God and go to hell, then God will allow it based on His love. Sounds funny, but if we think of how much God loves us, we also know how void He is of any act of manipulation, it becomes evident He grants man a free will to accept or deny the Plan of Salvation. Free election keeps us from thinking God is going to reject us based on some predestined plan even if we beg, pray, or ask and ask to be saved. Predestined simply means God has a plan of victory, but we must enter the Plan by the Witness to make it effective in our lives (I Jn 5:7-8).
We know if we tell a child not to do something, it drives them nuts until they do it. One might wonder if God telling Adam not to eat of the fruit, wasn’t tempting Adam to do evil. Can’t be, James tells us God cannot tempt us to do evil, nor can we tempt God to do evil. Granting choice and tempting someone are far different. God gave Adam two Commandments, one Adam was suppose to do, the other was a do not. The do was to multiply, the do not was not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Therein we find balance and choice; we will find God is Equal, the very premise demands for us to understand if there is Eternal Salvation, then there is Eternal Judgment.
The Tree of life was Adam’s, but it was not in him, it was in the Garden and became his association to God. As long as Adam and the Tree of Life were in the same area, then Adam could walk with God in the cool of the Day. If Adam separated himself from the Tree of Life then he also accepted death meaning he was separated from being a “living soul”. Causing God to ask, “Adam where are you?”. God was not blind, rather Adam had removed himself from the “sight” of God. Jesus brought us Light (clarity), so we could become Light in order for God to see us as sons.
The Tree of the knowledge of good and evil was Good, it had a purpose, the purpose was not bring about the fall, although it was used to. The evidence will show Adam failed to do the do, but did the do not.
The teaching of James regarding how it’s impossible for God to tempt us to do evil, because there is no evil in God opens all sorts of areas. John also tells us God is Light, meaning there is no darkness in God; so, where does darkness come from? The removal of Light, usually does it. Darkness is not a creation, it’s the result of the removal of light. Sin is not a creation, it’s when the person involves themselves in the things of darkness. Isn’t it strange how darkness was on the face of the earth, before Adam was formed and created? There had to be a purpose and reason, especially when we find the flesh of Adam was formed from the dust.
In order for any temptation to be complete there must be two elements, a lust in the one being tempted, and a lust in the one doing the tempting. We know God said the children in the wilderness tempted Him some forty years (Ps 95:10 & Heb 3:9), we also know the Spirit took Jesus into the wilderness for the specific task of being tempted by the devil (Matt 4:1). So then, was Jesus tempted? The temptation came, but since there was no evil in Jesus to make the temptation complete it became a test for Jesus, yet remained a temptation of the devil. The one issue tends to show Jesus as the true Son of man by displaying there was no lust in Him to be tempted. The same three elements of temptation the devil uses at the tree, he will use on Jesus, but the results will be completely different.
We can’t tempt God to do evil, but it doesn’t mean there is no lust in us, it means there is no lust in God to complete the temptation. God will “test” us, but if we have a lust in us, the same test can become a temptation if we use it by the lust. So did God tempt us? No, we found we can take a Good gift, then twist it through a lust to make it evil (James 4:1-4 & Jude 4). Discern, don’t burn.
The examples in the Shadow become teaching examples, the Book of Hebrews warns us not to fall into the same exampled of unbelief as the children in the wilderness. Paul told the Corinthians these things happened as examples for us. God made sure they were recorded, so we could benefit. The Jews have no trouble with the concept of being the chosen people of God. God told them, “You only have I known of all the families of the earth” (Amos 3:2). Ahh, of the earth, so there is another group belonging to God not of the earth, wonder who they could be? The only nation, sounds really neat, until we get to the rest of Amos 3:2, where we find, “therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities”. In our case we find, “I will forgive your sins and iniquities”. If we desire the blessing of natural Israel, we must also accept two other things. First we must admit as sinners we were subject to the punishment of God, rather than His Salvation. Next we must accept the precept of being surrounded by enemies all the days of our lives. There is some good news, from Amos we find there are two groups of people on the earth, the Jew and the Gentile; however, the Christian is neither Jew or Gentile, nor is their kingdom of this earth. Ahh, we found the illusive third group. The Christian is the sojourner telling others about their Kingdom as they bring gifts from their King. So, what is the role of the Jewish people? Since God has two sides of the Cross, one for Salvation, the other for Judgment, it stands, He also has two groups reflecting those areas. The Christian points to the Salvation of God, the Jew the Judgment of God. How is the Judgment reflected? Those who persecute the Jews are the enemies of God’s Plan of Mercy, making them subject to His wrath.
The Law of Moses are the “books” God will use to judge the Jews by (Dan 7:10 & Rev 20:12), but Mercy will be the judge of the Gentile. What about us? We are judged by the Spirit to be free of the wrath of God. Jesus returns to Judge as the Son of man, thus the least Commandments will be the scale He will use. We find Jesus saying, Work while it is yet Day, for the Night comes when no man can work. Something to think about in view of what we call the “Rapture”.
Some contend the concept of the “Rapture” was introduced by John Nelson Darby of the Plymouth Brethren in 1827; however, Darby merely gave his views on the Latin word “Rapture”, found in the Latin Text of the Bible. Paul called it a “catching away”, John called it the “Door”, but the word Rapture itself is Latin, thus no one is going to find it in the English language Bibles. There is more than enough evidence to believe there will be a division between what Jesus called the Day and the Night, the division begins here in Genesis. Some contend the Trinity is not real since the word Trinity doesn’t appear in the Bible, but we can’t find the word Responsibility in the King James either, so does it mean we are not responsible?
There are two Adams in Scripture one is earthly, made of the earth, as a natural living soul. The other is heavenly, as a quickening Spirit. So, how does it fit with “let us make man in Our image”? It does, as we will see. Paul tells us Adam was a living Soul, yet Jesus a quickening Spirit, but he also says “first Adam” was natural, the “second Adam” spiritual. The metaphor Adam points to a Beginning, the first Adam was earthly, natural, but if he was natural he was spirit or spiritual, but he was also without sin before the Fall (I Cor 15:44-52). The Second Adam is from Heaven, Spiritual in nature, continually without Sin before or after the Fall taking place. Which came first for man? The natural, then the spiritual (I Cor 15:44-51). Therefore, we find the Cross of Jesus is a Beginning place, where we begin our change from natural to spiritual, but we must travel the path to the Grave, then to the Resurrection to achieve the declaration of being sons of God (Rom 1:3-4). Paul tells us we must believe God raised Jesus from the dead (Rom 10:9). Why not believe in the Cross? Or the earthly ministry? Or the many miracles? Because the same Spirit who raised Jesus will raise us, thus our belief centers on the Resurrection of Jesus, but our faith reaches to being Partakers in the First Resurrection (Rev 20:5-6). Without the Resurrection, the Cross would be a vain act, thus the Resurrection is our proof of Life beyond the grave. To assure us it’s real, we gained the Holy Spirit of Promise.
There are two positions for us after we receive the Cross; life, then to have it more abundantly (Jn 10:10). Just as we find we come to the throne of Grace to Obtain Mercy and find Grace, just as we find the Bread and Wine, we find Mercy and Grace. Direct Mercy came by the Cross based on the words of Jesus, “Father forgive them”, but those words become effective for us when we, “forgive, if you have aught against any: so your Father also which is in heaven May forgive you your trespasses, but if you do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses” Mark 11:25-26 et al).
Life is found in God’s Mercy, Life more Abundantly is found in Grace, yet Mercy is the power used by the Spirit to keep us in Grace. Therefore, the Cross gives us Life through God’s Mercy, the Resurrection (Spirit – Rom 1:3-4) Life More Abundantly in Grace through the Blood of Jesus. We are saved from the world to enter the salvation of our souls: thus we find two elements in Communion, Bread, which we are, then Blood which we are sprinkled with (I Cor 11:28 & I Pet 1:2). This life more abundantly is something Adam of the earth was not privy to, there is more yet regarding this Adam we will learn about.
There are times when we tend to give certain people more credit then God gives them, Adam seems to be one of those. Adam was good, created by the hand of God, but so is your soul. Adam’s flesh was also formed of the dust of the earth, although Adam had the Breath of Life, he fell. Jesus on the other hand never failed, He gained all which was lost, plus much more. Which Adam would you desire to associate with? It better be Jesus if you want to win this. Adam faced, “in dying you will die”, yet we face, “in life so you can have it more abundantly”.
The Genesis account will show us God rested from all His works, yet there appears much work being done after the Sixth Day. So, did God fail? Did God have to revise the Plan? Or did God not know the future? Is there more to this, than the natural eye can see. Was the “work” God did for a specific Purpose in the Plan, leaving another work for the Son to do (Jn 5:17)? Was there rain in the first days of creation? If not, where did the rain come from? Did God run around in the time of Noah with a heavenly eraser? If all was done by the Sixth Day, why did God have Abraham circumcise on the Eighth Day? If there is an Eighth day, does it mean God didn’t rest on the Seventh? If God rested on the Seventh, why even begin with the Eighth day? When something is finished, is it completely done? Or does it mean an aspect in overall operation is finished? The Genesis account gives us insight to the overall plan of God, showing God changes not, God’s nature is always the same. We don’t have to worry all of sudden changes paths on us; God is a Constant, there is no wavering in Him. On the other hand we know man’s emotions are variables, love you today, beat your brains out tomorrow, thus God is not a man, and man is not God. Therefore, God deals with us through His Love, yet it doesn’t matter if it’s blessing, salvation, or judgment, He still deals with us through His Love, simply because He is love. Man loves, God is love, much different. Even the Judgment is a product of God’s Love. What? Yes, wrath or judgment without love is demonic. However, thank God, we are not appointed to His wrath (I Thess 5:9).
The Torah is a shadow of something, yet being a shadow it’s like unto a Negative, we find opposites between the Law of Moses and the Law of the Spirit. For instance the Law of Moses called for the priests to sacrifice animals, but the New calls for us to give ourselves as a Living Sacrifice, which is our reasonable service (Rom 12:1). The Law of Moses depended on man’s efforts by self-righteousness, but the New depends on God’s righteousness working in the Born Again Believer (Eph 4:24). The Old called for man to enter a structure to find God, the New shows we are the structure wherein God dwells (I Jn 4:1-4). The Old called for a circumcision of the flesh, the New calls for a circumcision of the heart not done with hands. The Old called for a “day of rest”, the New gives us God’s Rest.
We understand the Sacrifice of Jesus is the center point of our faith, but there are other sacrifices we must give. Jesus gave His Sacrifice gladly, some of us give ours with reluctance. Jesus suffered on the Cross, but held His Joy. Joy is not always laughing your head off, it’s looking to the result as we count the cost worth it. If we balk at counting the cost, we will become bitter and hateful in the midst of adverse events. If we think the cost is too high, we will fall into self-pity, or depression in the face of adverse events. If we know the cost was our reasonable sacrifice, we will maintain our joy, regardless of the event.
What would be a phrase of someone who thinks the cost is too high? “This isn’t unfair”. Some assume they are singled out for punishment, yet faith tells us we are being raised from darkness to pure light. The children in the wilderness will be a great warning for us, they were in bondage under Pharaoh, then set free with signs and wonders, they crossed the Red Sea by faith, but left their faith on the banks. Their failure was in their refusal to believe, causing them to murmur and complain, they kept the day of rest, but never entered the Rest of God, because of their unbelief.
Faith is narrow minded, it never views the vile, yet it doesn’t ignore it either. Faith focuses on seeking the Precious knowing it’s in the hand of God. The children in the wilderness only sought God in the face of danger, for the most part they caused the danger through their unbelief. Jude would have us remember, how the Lord having Saved the children, destroyed those who believed not (Jude 5). Being saved from the world is not a sure guaranty of making it to heaven, but it’s a beginning on the path of Grace.
The Law of Moses came from God, thus Paul said the Law of Moses is Holy, yet at the same time he warned us, if we use any deed therein to gain favor from the Law, we will fall from God’s Grace. Often it’s not from Whom something came, but to whom it was intended. The Law of Moses has a place or realm of effectiveness, take it from it’s realm, then attempt to apply it in a realm it was not intended we make it witchcraft. Paul tells us the Law of Moses with it’s foundation of the Ten Commandments are nailed to the Cross of Jesus (Col 2:14-16).
Viewing any Law one cannot mistake the one sending the Law, as the one doing it. When the Government powers make a law regarding the punishment of terrorists, it doesn’t mean the Government is a terrorist. The Law came from them, but was directed at a particular group; the Law of Moses is the same way. It came from God to Moses, but it was designed for a people who needed a self-based incentive in order to obey. God will tell Jeremiah the sacrifices in the Law of Moses were merely tools to get the people to obey (Jere 7:21-23). Everything created by God is “good”, so why did God all of a sudden say, “it’s unclean”? To gain Obedience, the children lacked belief, much less faith, but if they would just obey, then God could bless them through the Law of Moses; however, anything not done in faith is sin. How can this be? When Faith came by Jesus all things changed, there was a New Beginning with its own special Creation, Law and Priesthood.
The nature of the person who does the Law of Moses is defined by Paul in First Timothy 1:9-10, if one’s nature fits the definition, they are to do the Law of Moses, if they do the Law of Moses, they fit the definition. The Law of Moses defined sin, then applies the punishment, but it also grants someone long life on earth, but it couldn’t rid the person of the sin nature, it couldn’t grant them entry into heaven, it couldn’t grant them Grace, or Salvation, it couldn’t save their souls, it couldn’t even get them to the Bosom of Abraham. Why? It wasn’t designed to, it was designed to find man guilty, then give man a way to balance the scale, yet man was still subject to the law of sin and death.
The Law of the Spirit is different, it doesn’t balance the scale, it does away with it, Behold all things are New. The Law of Moses was Behold all things are balanced, for now, it couldn’t grant mankind a Nature conducive to heaven, but the Law of the Spirit is based on a providing us a heavenly Nature by the New Birth. The Law of the Spirit takes effect for those who receive the death of Jesus in their place, then receive the Spirit as they accept the responsibility of the First Resurrection.
Two Laws, both from God, yet sent to completely different people, for completely different reasons. Why would Paul get so upset over the thought of someone who said they were Christian doing some deed from the Law of Moses to gain favor? Because being a Christian means they are Grace motivated, Salvation minded, thus they have completed the purpose of the Law of Moses by the Cross of Jesus.
For us the Torah is a text book regarding how God set forth the Plan, for the Jew it’s different, it’s the very heart of their existence. There are two other Documents used by the Jew, one is called the Shebiktav, or Mikra, it’s written as well, but there is also the Oral Talmud, or Sheb’al Peh. The two Talmuds are termed the Jerusalem Talmud, and the Babylonian Talmud, they are commentaries on the codes of the Law. The Law doesn’t address demonic activity, things in the afterlife, or spiritual matters, because it was not directed to those areas, thus the Sadducees rejected the resurrection, since it was not specially found in the Torah.
The Jerusalem Talmud was written by those who remained in Jerusalem well after the destruction of the temple in 70 AD. The Babylonian Talmud was written by the rabbis who were forced to leave their homeland in the dispersion, thus both came into being after the Cross, not before, neither concern our view of the Old Testament. Since both Talmuds came after the rejection of the Cross by the religious leaders, it makes little sense to study them; however, the Old Testament leads one to the Cross, making a great deal of sense to study it.
Even the Jewish scholars know there is a knowledge of God from God, they also knew man cannot understand the mysteries of the Bible without knowledge, yet they also admit no human can have God’s knowledge. Lacking God’s Knowledge, they are left with Agenda; therefore, we find Agenda is a result of lacking the knowledge of God. Since the Jew holds man in and of himself cannot know these mysteries, they never hold anyone accountable to Agenda, but they do hold man accountable to the points of the Law. In the various Letters of Paul we find him making reference to “mysteries”, since in his life before Christ he was a Pharisee, as such he believed in the resurrection, we can understand his life after he received the Spirit opened these mysteries; a good deal of the mysteries we will view in a few seconds.
Peter tells us the holy men of Old were moved by the Holy Ghost to write the words, but it doesn’t mean the holy men of Old knew what they were writing (II Pet 1:17-21). Prophesy is always In Part (I Cor 13:9), the Prophets of Old gave us many “in parts”, but the Spirit defines the parts as they relate to the total (I Cor 2:13). We find the Holy Ghost will take the same verse giving one person an interpretation for their event, another person an interpretation for their event, yet He will not change the context of the verse, merely the application.
Interpretation and Translation are much different, a Translation is taking words from one language then putting them in another, without changing meaning, possession, or tense. The Interpretation is the Author telling us what they had in mind when the words were written. If we want to know what was in the mind of the artist we don’t ask the person who framed the painting, we ask the artist. The same is true with understanding the Bible, no amount of natural intellectual knowledge regarding the Bible will bring us the interpretation, nor will it give us the Proper insight regarding events. Natural intellectual endeavors attempting to tell us what the Holy Ghost was doing become a vain attempt at “private interpretation”. Someone could be up to their ears in a testing, yet hear someone tell them, “I tell you what I would do”, who cares? That‘s not ministry, it’s opinion. The same is true when man attempts to use earthly knowledge to interpret the Bible, it ends in natural reasoning, the same person will use earthly wisdom in dealing with people and events, the end thereof is natural (James 3:15). One thing is for sure, God never said, “Oops”.
The Law of the Spirit is the governing element for those with the Spirit, the Hebrew word Halacha means Law, it’s the Halacha of Moses for the Jew. However, this same thinking introduces intellectualism as the governing agent to determine what God was saying, but the Law of the Spirit uses the Interpretation by the Holy Ghost through the Wisdom of God by the Word of God in us. The endeavor takes a change in Nature, under the Law of Moses the nature was the sin nature, but under the Law of the Spirit the Nature is Christ in us, the hope of glory (Col 1:27).
We can’t presume “knowledge” in any degree falls under the heresy of Gnosticism, after all God did say we are destroyed for a lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). “Yeah, well Paul said knowledge puffs up”. Really, where did learn that? “From my knowledge, oops”. Paul is talking about the use of the knowledge without love, thus the absence of love tends to use knowledge to belittle people, or exalt the one with the knowledge, ending in pride, yet he also said, we all have knowledge (I Cor 8:1-7). The problem wasn’t knowledge, it was knowledge without love.
The use of Natural Knowledge to save our souls was called Gnosticism, a defined heresy in the Book of Colossians, but knowledge is not evil. Things are not evil, it’s the lust in the person making them evil; using Knowledge to enhance the self makes knowledge evil. Gnosticism trusts in the knowledge of the self to bring the self to a point of being holy, not only is it heresy, it’s stupid. The idea is to deny the self, not use it, Gnosticism used the self to save the self, much like the blind leading the blind (Matt 15:14).
The Bible has words of God about God, about God’s people, or about the enemies of God. When we read, we gain knowledge of those events, but it doesn’t mean we have God’s Knowledge. Is the Bible “the knowledge of God”, or is it “a knowledge About God”? The latter, the Holy Ghost brings us the Knowledge of God, the Bible speaks About God. One can read the Bible presuming it’s okay to sacrifice our children, or it’s okay to kill the uncircumcised, which we know is wrong. One could read something in the Bible then say, “well I got faith now, I can do as I please”. We know it’s wrong as well, everyone is led away by their own lust. We must allow the Spirit in us to discern the applicable areas so we can be free under the perfect of Law of Liberty.
The Bible is Truth, so does it mean everything quoted in the Bible is Truth? No, of course not, since the devil is quoted, yet there is no Truth in him. The devil said something, the Bible tells us what he said, thus it’s true he said it, but what he said is not true. We must see who is talking, what they are talking about, the event, the listen to find what the Holy Ghost is saying.
Since man without the Spirit is bound to the natural intellectual level, Agenda becomes a primary source for man’s natural reasoning. Agenda is a “I think based on my studies” principle, leaving no room for the interpretation by the Holy Ghost. The end times for the Jew is a mixture of Agenda with natural knowledge, yet for the most part they have a better understanding of those times than some of us.
The intellectual view by the Jew regarding the Law brings the Law into a vast Commandment bucket containing more Commandments, than man has days in a year. According to the Jew there are 613 Commandments in the Torah, the first is found in Genesis 1:28; “Be fruitful multiply and replenish the earth”. This Commandment was the basis for the self-determination reasoning allowing for one man to have many wives. Accordingly they felt completing the Commandment was more important than holding to the one wife, one husband principle. Although they know God began with one man and one woman, the Commandment said “multiply”, thus the natural reasoning made it permissible for a Jewish male to have more than one wife. After all, how could a man multiply with only one wife? Even nature shows a bull has many cows, ahh, natural reasoning. They failed to see even Adam remained with the one wife God gave him, thus Jesus taught us before God said, “Replenish the earth”, God also created him; male and female created He them (Gen 1:27). The commandment was directed to one male and one female, not one male and many females. God did not create male and females, rather He brought forth the Woman from the Man, so the Two could be One as they were in the Creation, God’s intent is Just, mans manipulation of God’s purpose is not.
This gives us a clue to the Image of God, not saying Adam was the completeness, but the concept was presented in the beginning when the plan was opened; therefore, we find the person with the New Birth is the Image of God, making Adam a walking prophecy pointing to God’s intentions, yet Adam was also the Beginning. It’s clearer when Paul tells us Adam was natural, then the process of being the Image is to be Justified, but to be Justified one needs to be Born Again. Genesis 2:6-7 are profound at best, laying out a premise we must explore. To assume Adam was the exact Image of God leaves great holes in the theory, for one God is Spirit, Adam was natural and flesh. No where do we find Adam had faith, Adam lost his position as well as his relationship with God because he didn’t believe in what God said, thus to assume Adam was the Image of God, also presumes God doesn’t believe. We term Hebrews Chapter 11 the “table of faith”, yet the first recorded human with faith is Abel, not Adam (Heb 11:4). If Adam was “the exact image of God” why don’t we find Adam as the first human with faith? After all, doesn’t it take Faith to please God? Does it mean God made a mistake in the creation of Adam? Hardly, the premise would be foolishness birthed, growing into the full ear of stupid. Is there a mystery in Genesis explaining this? Yes, one we will see over and over again. We will find some very interesting Hebrew words in the first chapters of Genesis, some of which open the mystery to the Image of God.
The Genesis account shows the female came from the male as his “help meet”; the New Birth proves our Help Meet in our Bosom is the Greater He (I Jn 4:1-4). Unless one has the Greater He in them, how are they going to discern anything? When we asked for the Spirit of Christ to bring us into the New Birth, God made sure no counterfeit could take place. There are those who counterfeit the result of the experience, but no devil, or man can counterfeit the New Birth in us. The New Birth produces a change in nature by producing a New Nature, it begins with an outward transforming by the Mercy of God, but an inward transfiguration by the Grace (Spirit) of God. If we ask for Bread (Body of Jesus), will God give us a Stone? If we ask for the Fish (metaphor for Spirit, or the Blood of Jesus), will God give us a serpent (metaphor for the devil)? Of course not, it’s not God’s nature or purpose, when we ask, we ask in faith, which means we are honest in our desire to walk in what we asked for, knowing God will grant us the Holy Spirit when we ask.
Wait, I thought the fish were in the Sea? True, God so loved the world (sea) He gave, yet we know there are Good Fish in the net as there are Wheat in the field who are the children of the kingdom, but in the case of the Spirit, the metaphor is one, not many, the metaphoric sense points to what grants the fish the ability to be Wheat, or as we know it, Born Again. We also know there are bad fish in the net, as well as tares in the field, discerning which is which is a spiritual endeavor.
The very foundation of the phrase, “ask and you shall receive” points to the New Birth. We asked for the New Man (Spirit), we received, then our faith holds to every step we take centered on the purpose of our faith, even the salvation of our souls (I Pet 1:9). We also know there is a process involved, thus we must have patience coupled to our faith knowing the Word in us is working and growing. “It sounds like a mind game”. Not so, a mind game doesn’t have the foundation, faith does. It’s the same when we accepted the Cross of Jesus, did we die? No? You think not? If you received the Cross of Jesus, you received His death when you imputed the old dead by His Cross. Did you touch the Cross? No, how do you know it wasn’t a mind game? Because you know the Cross is real, you believed the Scripture, the Holy Ghost touched our measure of faith pulling us to the very face of the Cross, then we knew it was Truth. Mind games are based on self-premises, faith is based on something God promised, or did, supported by a belief in the what God has done.
The 613th Mitzva (commandment) is found in Deuteronomy 31:19, which reads, “Now, therefore, write you this song”. Therefore, the Jew assumes it is required for every Jewish congregation to own a Torah Scroll. What does a song have to do with the Law? Did they miss it? Does this mean the Jews are wrong? Does it mean God cast them away, never to consider them again? Not at all, God said He would recover the Remnant when He puts His hand a Second time to Israel (Isa 11:11-14). The prophecy for the particular Remnant came from God at the judgment of the fall, they are known as the “Remnant of the seed of the woman”, not the “Seed”, What? Wow? Hold on, the word Remnant means An element from a larger element to finish something, much like the 144,000 being removed from the thousands. Of course the Body of Christ is established on multiplication as ten thousand times ten thousand (Rev 5:11). Sounds like the Day and Night has a division doesn’t it?
The Jews are still the chosen among the families of the earth, whereas we are the called and chosen in the Kingdom of God. In order to grasp the New Testament we must know the Old, in order to understand the many concepts Jesus taught, we must know the type of thinking the religious leaders held at the time of the Cross. If Jesus said, “You have heard of them of old”, wouldn’t it nice to know what those of Old said?
The Old Testament is broken up into three sections by the Jewish community, the Law, the History then the Prophets, with History and the Prophets falling under Agenda. One thing becomes evident, when we see the acts of the prophets we never see where they did the Law. Does it mean a Prophet is above the Law? No, it means God has a purpose in His division, the purpose shows the Body is established on the Apostles and Prophets of the New Testament, not the Law and Prophets of the Old Testament. It may not seem like a big deal, but the office of the Apostle is to bring Commandment, and begin bodies in virgin areas, the Prophets brought doctrine and direction, they didn’t make doctrine, they delivered it (Acts 15:32).
We must also take into consideration some important Bible principles; can one have the Spirit, yet be carnal? Paul answered it by telling the Corinthians they were carnal, yet he also said they had the Spirit (I Cor 3:1-3 & 3:16). What problem did the carnal mind produce for the Corinthians? They were unable to understand spiritual matters, even when those matters were explained in great detail (I Cor 2:13-14). Could Paul simply say, “you are carnal, and not of the Body”? No, neither could he say, “I’m sick of this, I’m no longer of the Body, I will begin my own”. God places us where it pleases Him, it may not please us, it may not be comfortable, but it is always profitable. Therefore, the letter to the Corinthians along with Romans 8:1 shows us there are some in the Body who mind the flesh, others who mind the Spirit. Those who mind the flesh equate holiness to the appearance of the flesh, those who mind the Spirit follow the Spirit. The proof would be the Corinthians, who fought over who baptized them, rather than why they were baptized (I Cor 1:10-14).
There is a Holiness found in Salvation, a Holiness found in Judgment, perhaps some of us are looking for Judgment to satisfy a vengeful lust of revenge, but what we really need is a Heart Transplant to seek the Holiness of Salvation. We also read about the Kingdom of God within, yet it’s also to come. Can both be correct? Yes, the evidence of the Kingdom of God is the Spirit of Christ in us, thus the Kingdom is inside of everyone who is Born Again. Yet, the Kingdom will not be complete until the Judgment is complete, as found in Second Timothy (II Tim 4:1). Therefore, we find a holiness in Salvation for the children of the Day, a holiness in Judgment for the children of the Night, just as we find the Kingdom of God within and the Kingdom of God to come. Who is the center of all this? Jesus, the sustaining Light, thus we will find a Light for the Day, and a Lesser Light for the Night. The Light has come, the Light of the Day is now, the Light of the Night is yet to come (Rom 13:12), but all three are spoken of in Genesis.
THE BEGINNING
The last Book in the Bible is the Book of Revelation, therein we read, “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Rev 13:8), if it’s the case where do we find the Lamb Slain? Where is Jesus in the Beginning? Are there clues to these matters in the Beginning? Could be; just perhaps, God had a plan all along? Okay, what about John’s Account, doesn’t he say, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”? (Jn 1:1). Then John tells us the Word became flesh, so where is the Word here? Could it be, just perhaps we will find all these things in Genesis?
The Hebrew name for Genesis is Bereshith (beginning), we obtained the name Genesis from a Greek word meaning Beginning, but the Beginning of What? The Beginning is not the Beginning of God, rather it’s the beginning of God’s plan for the redemption of man. Is it the Beginning of the earth? Yes and no, Genesis 1:1 says, “in the Beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1:1). Clearly God created, but what does “created” mean? We will find Hebrew words used for “create” and “form”, they are very different terms. The Hebrew Bara means to create, or make something from nothing, the word Nothing means just that. However, to Form or Make means to make something from something, which is either the Hebrew Yatsar or Asah (made). Using the Hebrew language we find man is incapable of creation, but he does form things from the things created.
We must look at Genesis 1:2, behold we find the earth in existence, but take a look at the condition; it’s void, which means useless, or in a state of non-function, with darkness upon it, yet First John tells us there is no darkness in God, James tells us it’s impossible for God to tempt us unto evil, since there is no evil in God, thus showing the darkness is not of God. How then can the earth be in darkness and useless? So, what makes the darkness? The devil? No, it can’t be since he didn’t become the devil until the fall (Ezek 28:13-16). Wow, look at this, before sin we find the earth was already in darkness, how can this be? In verse 2 some feel the Hebrew verb Hayah indicated a judgment between verses 1 and 2, adding the wording “without form and void”, others render it “unformed and unfilled”, which is still void, or useless. Rather than a Chaos on the face of the earth the text shows there was nothing worth anything, yet it’s obvious there was water since the land masses were not on the surface, there were also dead seeds in the earth, this is evident when we find God calling the seeds from the earth. How did the seeds get there? How did the water get there? Whether we like it or not we have to explain this condition found in Genesis 1:2. We know it can’t be a type of Judgment, since Judgment comes after Salvation, thus before there can be Judgment the objects judged must have souls. Therein lays the division, the “living soul” of Adam, he will be the first to make the choice to sin, in so doing he will bring about “death as a result of sin”, producing the Law of sin and death. Even roses die, but they don’t sin.
For years the stronghold in the Body was the thought of the earth, as well as the universe being created by God some 7,000 years ago, then someone found some bones, leaving us with egg on our face. Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 tell us a very important aspect about God’s Love, as well as God being all knowing. John 3:16 tells us God so loved the world, but what was the world like then? Full of destruction, sin, and darkness, but God loved the “people” in the world, thus God saw the potential of Christ for a people who had yet to accept Christ. God’s foreknowledge is not God guessing at the future, it’s God knowing the future before there was a beginning. The purpose for creating Adam wasn’t Adam, it was Jesus appearing as the Word taking on flesh for mankind (Col 1:16).
We find another type in all this, the earth looks dead, no life at all, it’s useless, yet from the death, God will bring forth Life as He puts the Plan of redemption into action. The Lamb being slain from the foundation of the world also includes the evidence of the Resurrection in the Plan. We have certain principles God has established, if God changes a Principal, then God is not God. Genesis clearly shows God calling forth the seeds from the earth (Gen 1:11-12), yet Jesus told us the principle was for a seed to die, then come forth, the principle is the basis for the Resurrection (Jn 12:24). If we are crucified with Christ, yet God changes a principle, then are we really crucified? Our confidence in God is knowing He changes not. True power is having the ability to do something, yet not doing it for the Good of all concerned, we have firm principles in God, allowing us to Trust in Him.
Another aspect is knowing God could have done many things, but He didn’t. Some of us hold unforgiveness against God. We find God could have stopped the fall, but He didn’t. God could have stopped Cain from killing Abel, but He didn’t. God could have stopped the flood, but He didn’t. Of course He could have stopped the Cross, but He didn’t. God could have done many things, thus saying, “God you could have stopped this” is really a display of a lack of belief in “God is”, rather we change it to, “God could have”, indicating blame, rather than honor. Confidence in God is an element of faith, it’s not all faith is, but it’s nonetheless an element. Confidence in God’s knowledge accepts the Will of God, even if it doesn’t make sense to us. It’s also true those who don’t accept God will be destroyed, but they will be destroyed because of the choices they make, not because of God’s choice. We can’t say, “oh well, they were a good person, even if they hated God, they will make it”. How can you be “good” yet not walk with God? Being nice and being good are different; being likable is also different from Good: being a pleasure to be around, is different from Good. There are none Good but God, all good gifts come from the Father of Lights (James 1:17).
God does nothing in “vain”, yet “void” is the result of some vain act, thus we find evidence of something happening to turn the earth into something void and dark. God always has purpose, thus a lack of purpose is also “vain”. God will not create something in vain, since it means “without purpose”. We have to consider the evidence in the Bible first and foremost, yet the evidence also shows how God had the Report and Plan in hand well before He said, “Let there be Light” (Isa 46:10). God is still the Alpha and Omega, not the Alpha or Omega, nor is He the Alpha then the Omega, nor is He the Alpha today and the Omega tomorrow, He is Alpha and Omega at the same time, at all times. God didn’t just happen to come across the earth, then say, “Wow, the place is void, the light is out, got to do something about it, Hey Mike check the light switch”. We as humans with flesh, know the flesh has a beginning then an end, but none of us have the end in hand while yet in the beginning, thus we have an alpha, a middle, then the omega; whereas, God is Alpha and Omega at the same time. We do have something which is Alpha, but no Omega; our souls, they have a beginning, but no end. On of the six basic rudiments in the Doctrine of Christ is our knowledge of Eternal Judgment (Heb 6:1-2), which also proves there must be Eternal Salvation (Heb 5:9). The Cross has two sides, one is the Day, the other is the Night, this is the Day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it, for it’s unto Salvation. The Night comes when no man can work, it’s set aside to make the enemies of Jesus His footstool. All this is Purpose, thus a god without Purpose is called an “idol”. Therefore, the earth had a purpose before God said, “Let there be Light”, one not evident to Moses, or Abraham, or even to Peter and Paul, but one evident to us today. Genesis gives us some graphic differences we must explore and will.
Daniel was told as knowledge increased, man would begin to run to and fro (Dan 12:4). This point in creation leaves room for something to exist, yet has nothing to do with redemption, but does have to do with free moral choice based on increased knowledge. Today we find various sides to the dinosaur issue, one is the false concept of evolution, which fails to really answer the question, “Where did the dinosaurs go?”. Another is the Christian scientific view, really it doesn’t address the question of dinosaurs, but does show there is no cross evolution evidence. Another claims Adam and those who followed walked with the dinosaurs, but there are many problems with this concept. First there is no mention of dinosaurs in Genesis 1, next the flood was about 1,000 years from the fall, meaning if there were dinosaurs around they would have been included in “of the beasts who are not clean by two, the male and female” (Gen 7:1-3). Another concept agrees with the Christian scientific view, it also shows the time space between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 proves God saw the advancement of man then provided another choice, fossil remains for fuel. It does not agree with the so-called “Gap theory”, but it does take into account Bible evidence, as well as factual evidence. The premise of sin and death was not at issue until Adam the “living soul” made a choice to sin, there is no question there. However, God did call the seeds from the ground, thus the flowers don’t sin, but they die, yet the first created being who had choice to sin was Adam. To us this is Hope upon hope, if God back in the Beginning made sure man would have choice based on fuel, surely He made sure we would have enough Grace in these trouble times to make it.
One can disagree with all the views, but certain questions remain regardless of the view, “If Noah was told to take two of every animal, where are the dinosaurs?”. If we have bones, we have evidence, there has to be an answer. We can’t say well maybe God just made it appear as if there were dinosaurs, however, it makes God deceptive in nature, hardly an attribute of God. The real question remains, “If everything produces after its own kind, yet God called the plants from the earth, then the seeds were dead before Adam was created, how does death fit into the equation?”. The Law of sin and death is a combined element, it points to committing sin to produce death, but in order to sin there must be a Commandment to violate, with a punishment equating to death. Merely failing to exist doesn’t mean sin and death is the cause. The key to this is the soul of man, the soul makes man, man, yet it’s the element science cannot find. God created the soul of man from nothing, it still can’t be seen with the naked eye, yet it makes the distinction between man and all other elements created or formed.
What “image” is Adam, and why does God make a point of it? We find the “face of the waters” refers to the external, or surface element, when water is without heat turns to ice; the word does not mean the interior, only the exterior (face) pointing to a surface hardness, thus between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 we have what appears to be a massive time gap, mistakenly referred to by some as the Gap Theory; however the Theory adds the fall of Satan between verses 1 and 2 as a great judgment to bring about the darkness. Yet, it can’t be the case, since Ezekiel 28 tells us the cherub who was anointed, and in the Garden, but the Garden isn’t a factor until after the Light appeared. The Hebrew word Maukkah (purpose, protect or embellishment) is translated as Covering, Ezekiel 28:14 is the only place the Hebrew word is used, the verses around it indicate the Anointed Cherub who Covers was in the Garden with a purpose (Ezek 28:12-16). The Jewels in the Garden refer to various things, metaphorically they refer to people. Those we bring to the Lord are jewels in our crown of life, thus the Jewels were the Cherub’s purpose, but he twisted his position by finding iniquity his heart, which simply means when choice was introduced into the Garden, the cherub found he could make choices as well. All this shows the Cherub did not fall before Genesis 1:2, but later was found in the Garden. This also explains sin and death were not a factor until the fall, sin and death were introduced when God said, “In the day thereof”.
The word “face” in both the phrase “face of the deep”, and “face of the waters” is the same Hebrew word, so was it the deep or the water? The word Deep is the Hebrew Te-Home often referring to the Abyss or Grave, both relate to death, indicting death had taken place. The word for Water is always referred to as water or waters either physically or metaphorically. Therefore we find the darkness and such went down to the depths of the earth as death, there was nothing alive. The face of the waters would be the surface of the waters, at the time there was no surfaced dry earth, since the dry land does not appear until 1:9, showing this Face of water covered the entire earth. Yet, we know Death by Sin was introduced by Adam, but does it mean there was no death prior? In Genesis 1:11, which was the Third Day God called forth the “seed” from the earth, if God would have “created” plants, then the concept of no death until Adam would be correct, but since God called the “seed” forth we find there had to be death, but it’s different form “sin and death”. It also indicates there was no Breath of God as a soul in any creature prior to the time when God made Adam a Living soul opening the Redemption plan. In Genesis we find God creating and forming, also some of the animals have souls, yet none of the animals were “living souls” as a result of the Breath of God as was Adam, but the whales are living souls, but not by the breath of God (Gen 1:20). The soul of Adam had many attributes not found in any animal or plant, as we will see. The point however shows sin and death were not prior to the fall of Adam, “human man” was not prior to Adam, but we do find Scriptural evidence of “things”. Don’t confuse bones with a soul, just because it’s a skull of something appearing like a person, it doesn’t mean it was a “man” with a living soul.
God will not change principles mid-way, it would negate God from being God. If God is the Alpha and Omega, then the principle of a Seed dying to bring forth Life has to be constant. If not, how do we know we will be raised? Jesus equated this death and life principle to the Resurrection, the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world, thus showing not only is the principle seen in nature as “everything produces after its own kind”, but it has to relate to the Lamb slain moving to the Resurrection (Gen 1:12). If it’s true, then the seeds had to be dead in the earth, before they brought forth plant life. Adam is the first to introduce Death to the human species as a result of sin, thus Romans 5:15-17 doesn’t say the Adam started death, it says by his offence death came, since Adam was the first to have the ability to make a choice between doing the Commandment, or not. Paul tells us death “reigned” from Adam, showing for us Adam is the starting point of death by sin, yet Adam was not in existence until the six day.
The fact remains Adam was told about death, but if there was no example of death, how then could he be held responsible? There had to be some knowledge of death, not the “experience”, but nonetheless knowledge. We know about death, but Adam didn’t, when God said, “In dying you will die”, what possible sense could it make to Adam? “Huh? Oh okay God, dying huh?, hey monkey was is death?”. In order for God to hold Adam accountable there had to be knowledge of the result of violating the Commandment. Unless we can answer these questions, the various Theories are useless.
Genesis 1:2 shows the earth in three realms, without form (useless), void (without purpose as it holds the appearance of death) and darkness (as in the darkness of a grave), if it was the darkness of a “grave”, surely there was some form of death. Yet, none of these three are representative of God, rather they become the opposites of God. God is Light, God is Life, yet there is the appearance of death, God is with Purpose, yet there appears no purpose. However, in Genesis 1:1 we find “God created the heaven and earth”, how can this be? In order for there to be an earth in verse 2, there had to one created prior. For the heavens to exist, they had to be created, Genesis 1:1 simply rebuts any concept of the Egyptian gods creating the earth.
There are many choices, the angels had choice as well, or they couldn’t join the devil, thus the devil had choice. The iniquity was discovered when he used his choice in the wrong manner to gain what he wanted, rather than do what God desired.
Why don’t have the name “dinosaur” in the Bible? Because there was no such word back then, but more important we find another clue to the famed “missing link”. The mysteries in the Bible are in the little words which draw our attention. In Genesis 1:28 God told Adam male and Adam female to Multiply, and to “Replenish” the earth. The same Hebrew word was used in the case of Noah being told to Replenish the earth (Gen 9:1). In Noah’s case it’s easy to see Replenish means to Refill, but Adam? It’s the same word, meaning To fill again, or To bring back to fullness. Also we find God called the seeds and many animals from the earth and sea (Gen 1:11, 1:20-21 & 1:24). This gives us a type of Resurrection, there was death, the creatures, including plant life were dead under the “face of the waters”, but God introduced Light, the Light would generate Life, the life appeared in a different form. It’s a type, no one is saying these things were Resurrected, only the type is seen pointing the Lamb being slain and Resurrected. However, we do find Jesus said He is the Light of the world, John also said Jesus is the Light (Jn 8:12 & 1:4-5).
We find modern man has shown connections, vague and slight, but nonetheless connections between some plants now, and plants which were in existence before the ice age, as well as some animals. The error of course is making a direct correlation, rather than considering how God called things forth from the existing elements. Everything after its own kind does not mean the exactness, but a kind, thus we find over two hundred plants “similar” to those in prehistoric times, or to the times of Pre History.
John 1:4 tells us In Him (Jesus) was Life, and the Life was the Light of men. The same Light shined in darkness, yet the darkness comprehended it not (Jn 1:5). Connecting to what we are about to enter, it may seem like we are taking forever to get there, but we see all these prophetic connections projecting to each one of us. If the earth is 8,000 years old, or 50 million, it still stands God so love us, He sent Jesus, as well as Jesus loving us so much He gave Himself for us. If we accept the age of the planet as millions of years, it only shows God is faithful beyond our greatest expectations, His love changed not, we are just as important to God now as we ever were then.
From this we can see how modern man can be so confused over “pre-historic man” as it relates to “modern man”. Neanderthal was around for millions of years, yet he couldn’t make a shoe, must less tie it. Yet from Adam it took 7,000 years for man to put foot on the moon. If evolution is true, why didn’t Neanderthal advance? There is a Bible answer, one overlooked by the natural intellect of natural man. All this is answered in Genesis, plus some other information we will look at showing us how important Salvation is.
As interesting as it seems, today many who study Neanderthal have come to a profound conclusion, there is no way the human being could have come from Neanderthal, the structures are so dissimilar, even “evolution” couldn’t account for the change. There is no logically progression, thus we find a division, one God ordained, yet provides man free moral choice.
Even the angels have a beginning, thus anything created or anything formed from a creation has a beginning. Only the Creator has no beginning. How can it be? Must be, since any creation, regardless of the creation must come from the Creator, but the Creator is not a creation. If the Creator is a creation, who then created the Creator? It stands there must be a Creator who always was, or there could be no creation. The premise of the humanist is based on the concept of no Creator, just a bunch of “just so happens”; however, one has to travel back to the beginning to find what brought about the first “just so happen”, which still ends with something being created. If it was a Big Bang, what caused the Bang? If it’s a cell, who created the cell? If it was a gas cloud, who created the gas? Whatever started it, had to be created. For us it’s simple, God formed man of the earth, then breathed into man, as man became a living soul. Years later, Jesus died on the Cross, making it possible for man to be a quickening Spirit. The completed Image of God is Spirit, Jesus in us, Christ in us conforming our souls into sons of God by the Spirit. To the natural mind of man the thought of God having no beginning causes their minds to go “tilt”, at times their mind simply crashes. Equating God to man, or man to God is always error, in order for any creation to take place there has to be a Creator, if the Creator is a creation, He is not a Creator, but created.
The concept of God being Alpha and Omega is called Omnipresence or all places, at all times, at the same time. This is a very hard concept for the natural mind of man to accept. It’s hard enough to accept God being in all places at the same time, but in all times at the same time? Wow, yet God is not bound by time. Time is an element of importance when death to the flesh was introduced, thus time was not a factor for Adam until death entered the scene. To Jesus time is not an element, a day is like a thousand years, or better there is no difference between the time element of a day, or a thousand years. Yet, God’s love toward us shows He considers Time as a factor (praise the Lord), but we also know the day will come when Eternity will remove the concept of time.
However, on this earth we have our yesterday, today and tomorrow, thus the definition of eternity would be a place where there is no time. Without time, one cannot age, since age depends on having a tomorrow, thus eternity is always Now. Therefore, we are told not to mind the things of the flesh, since the flesh is bound to time. God “formed” the flesh of Adam, thus the flesh has no concept of eternal existence. If we are flesh minded then our concept of heaven will be flesh based, we will think heaven is merely an extension of man’s time, based in man’s natural reasoning. “Isn’t our soul based on time?”. Only because of the flesh, not the Spirit. Our soul equates its reasoning by the flesh, the mind is based on the experiences of the flesh, thus it’s easy to be flesh minded, only those Born Again can be Spirit minded. The change is from the soul equating things to the flesh, to equating itself to the Spirit. It’s not an easy task, it takes faith, time and patience. God’s people are spiritual, they must think spiritually. If someone didn’t tell us, or if our flesh didn’t tell us we were fifty years old, our souls won’t know it.
Since the flesh is bound to time, it predicates its decisions on time; if the soul is flesh minded it will also predicate decisions on time. The flesh is concerned about one thing, existence, yet the soul goes on forever. The flesh makes the soul presume time is so important it will use the soul to cause the flesh to last as long as possible.
The word Omnipresence comes from the Latin Omnis (All) and Praesens (Presents [to be present]), meaning present at all events, at all times, at the same time. The Pharisees knew this, when Jesus said, “before Abraham was, I Am”, He was declaring His Omnipresence, thus the Pharisees were moved by their own natural awareness of flesh and time, causing them to attack Jesus. “How can this be? He is standing here before us? He is subject to time, as we are”. Why would they stone Him? Because of His good works? No, they said it was for blasphemy, in their words, “For a good work we stone You not; but for blasphemy; because You, being a man, make Yourself God” (Jn 10:33). All they wanted was an excuse, since they were looking for error. Jesus didn’t make Himself God, rather it was God’s Word taking on the form of man.
Since God is not bound to time, He can say all He is going to say in the Beginning, yet have those words fall into areas we know as time. God has spoken, yet God is speaking, we have to hear the Proceeding Words of God for our certain time and timing, it doesn’t mean God will say something opposed to the Bible, but it does show the Pharisees lost out because they rejected the Proceeding Word. When God finished His work, it’s was not the same as you or I finishing our work. Rather when God finished this work in Genesis, it finished an area of work. Once it was done, it was all done, yet at the same time there was a process of Time. Jesus tells us to work while it is yet Day for the Night comes when no one can work. It shows the Night follows the Day, but if no man can work, does it mean the work is done? Could be, but if Jesus told us to work during the Day, is there a work for those of the Day? Could be.
Faith says God framed the worlds (ages), thus all things are well in hand, all things are going on as the plan dictates. “Well I tell you what, the world looks like its going to hell in a hand basket, everything else looks upside down”. The world is suppose to look like that, one of the tricks of the enemy is to make us think we’re to make the world the Kingdom of God, rather than call the called from the world into the Kingdom. Holding to The Faith isn’t easy, even faith people can get caught into worldly thinking, supposing gain is Godly. If one looks at numbers as a mark of success, they must also say God failed. “What?”. Only a Few make it, God picked the smallest of all families of the earth, Paul also shows God picks the weak to confound the strong and so on. It’s not numbers proving Gain, it’s Righteousness in the Holy Ghost.
Hebrews 11:3 in respect to our faith gives us two words to look at, “Framed” and “Worlds”; the word “Framed” is the Greek Katartisis meaning The process is completed; “Worlds” which is the Greek Aion meaning An age, not a planet. Each Age is complete in the Record (plan), each was or is being played out on earth in the Process of time. Serving a God who is guessing at the outcome is scary at best, but serving a God who framed all these ages gives us confidence. Does it mean God designed the evil in the world? No, it’s why we’re not suppose to blame Him. It does mean God saw all the obstacles before they were placed before us, He has a way around or through them to benefit His children.
The devil wasn’t created the devil, rather he was an angel of high ranking, but iniquity was found in him. Who put it there? Choice, the angels have choice, if not, none of them would have fallen. From the wrong choice came the evil, which only proves the right choice holds the good.
Faith knows all things work together for good to them who love God, and to them who are called according to His purpose (Rom 8:28). Notice in Romans 8:28 it says “to them”, rather than “for them”? Interesting isn’t it? If it was “for them” then it would mean the event or thing would have to be pleasing to our senses, but it says “to them”, referring to our well being in the overall picture. The benefit need not be immediate, but there is a benefit to be found.
Not withstanding the concept of God being in all times, at the same time, we must add the concept of God hearing all our prayers at the same time. We could live in a city with 5,000 people, one day we pick up the telephone and speak to all of them at the same time. As long as we were doing the talking, we would not be confused, but if all of them started speaking to us, watch out. Each one of them with a different situation, or a different request, not only would we hear their words, but if we were God we could discern their hearts, then answer their requests accordingly. On the other hand, just because God is talking, does it mean we’re listening? Prayer is not to move God, it’s to move us where the answer is waiting. Jesus said our Father has answered our prayer before we ask. “Well if it’s the case, I won’t ask”. The premise points to God’s foreknowledge, although He knows, we have the keys, it’s our asking allowing Him to guide us to the answer.
God made a route of escape regardless of the event, or temptation, long before we faced the event or the temptation (I Cor 10:13). We can either allow Him to show us the route of escape, or crawl around in the midst of self-pity looking for it ourselves. Did Adam have a route of escape? Yes, but did he take it?
If we’re Born Again we have an upper hand in this, God gave us a direct connection to Him through the New Man. The Holy Ghost is The Comforter, but we have Another Comforter within, one just like the first, the Spirit in us becomes our proof of the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus. No one can have the Spirit until death takes place, yet Jesus died for us, so we can have the Spirit of Holiness based on the Resurrection. Therefore, we have something from God no other human before Pentecost was privy to, something so great, so wonderful, so powerful it proves Jesus was Resurrected.
The New Man hears from the Holy Ghost relaying the information to our souls. We then make the determination if we are going to obey or not. Does it mean we are greater than God? No, it means we can resist God, since the Gift is for us to be saved, not for God to be saved. Who resisted Jesus? The devils or the Pharisees? The devils did as they were told, the Pharisees picked up stones. Who had power over the temple? God or the religious leaders? Mark 11:17 tells us the religious leaders turned the House of God into a den of thieves. Why didn’t God send a little fire on them? “See those guys they repented, see those ashes, they didn’t”. Why not? God gave the temple to the people, but like any Talent, they had to give an account regarding how they cared for it. The evidence in the Gospel Accounts prove the Pharisees had more power to resist Jesus, than did the devils, yet most of us are scared out of our wits over some devil. Does it mean there is no devil? Hardly, it means far too many of us have given the devil too much credit. We have the Life of Christ in us by the Spirit, thus our souls are being regenerated by the Spirit, as our souls are changing from flesh to Spiritual in nature.
In Proverbs a Tree of Life is equated to a “she”, as is Wisdom (Prov 3:18), a Tree of Life is also equated to the fruit of Righteousness, James also equates God’s Wisdom to the Fruit of Righteousness (Prov 11:30 & James 3:18). The Water of life comes from within, the Tree of Life is on either side (Rev 22:1-2). Adam had access to the Tree of Life, but he never had the Tree of Life within, nor did he have the Living Water (Jn 7:38-39).
The first four chapters of Genesis give us the foundation for the Gospel: if we’ve read the Bible, we know Jesus is the Lion from the Tribe of Judah, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world (Rev 13:8), the Word, the Truth, the Way, the Life, the Light, Grace and many other things, thus the Foundation of the world must hold mysteries relating to Jesus, meaning Jesus is always the basis of the Good News (Gospel). All this wasn’t created for us, it was created by and for the Word of God. Is the earth and the world the same? No, the earth was here, but there was no world until the fall, there was not spirit of the world until God granted us the Spirit which is of God (I Cor 2:12-13, I Jn 2:19 & 4:1-4). Actually the first time we find the word World is in I Samuel 2:8, the first time we find the word “worldly” is in Titus 2:12. The world is the population of mankind who are among the disobedient, under the hand of the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:12-13).
The wild thought of natural man in and of himself being the image of God, misses the point by miles. We forget God is timeless, He is looking at something yet future to us, as a Now to Him, while He is watching something in the past to us as a Now to Him, while speaking to us in the present, which is Now to both Him and us. God does call things appearing as a not to us (present) as though they are, because He is looking at them in the future as He is talking to us. They are future tense to us, not to God. It’s important in the creation aspect of Genesis, we will find little hints to the mystery, which become big wonders based on the Hebrew words used.
God speaks to man in the confines of time, but it doesn’t mean God is confined to time. Prophecy is much different from “telling the future”, prophecy is not foretelling the future, neither is prophecy a guess, or a mystic vision into the future, rather prophecy is God speaking through a human regarding what God is seeing, which man will soon see, or could see. Since we are bound to time we presume a look into the future is some form of time travel, not so, we must keep in mind the prophets of old were not guessing at the future, nor was God giving them words to cause the future to come to pass, rather God was speaking through the prophets regarding what God saw happening. Prophets don’t say, “So saith the Lord, I think this might happen”. Witchcraft speaks with the desire to change the future, the prophet of God does not. The example? Peter told Jesus to change the future, yet Jesus rebuked Peter by saying, “Get thee behind Me Satan, you are an offense to Me” (Matt 16:23). Not wise to play games or “faith games” in some attempt to change the future to appease our will. The false prophets in the time of Jeremiah were saying things, hoping God would bring them to pass, yet the prophetic word is from God, not to God.
God did say, “Let us make man after our Image”, in Genesis 1:27 we find God did make man in His image, male and female, oops, what does it mean? Genesis 1:27 is still prophetic, as it says, “so God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them”. Notice the changes, “He him” to “He them”, didn’t God know what He did? Yes, Adam was only the beginning, the process of time leads to the Cross and Resurrection, where man would be able to have the Spirit, thus Adam was flesh and blood. Adam was formed of the dust of the earth, he was restricted to the earth, a concept we need to explore. If we are the Body of Christ as a He, yet there is no male or female in Christ then Genesis 1:27 makes sense, since we also the Bride.
This still connects to God calling things a not to us, as a were to Him. When Adam was formed, then he became a Living Soul the plan was activated, no man could stop it. To answer the question of the “Image”, is determined by the difference between Adam and the whale. The whale didn’t land on the moon, nor made a house, never invented a thing. The “Breath of God” brought many things to mankind, with the Measure of Faith as the foundation, coupled with the Agapao love (not Agape, but Agapao), then the ability to be “creative”, not as God, but nonetheless the ability to reason, invent, evaluate and make choices based on a reasoning greater than the animals. Every invention of man has been in the last 7,000 years, old Neanderthal never invented a thing.
In Genesis 1:26 we find the phrase, “Let us make man in our Image, after our Likeness…”, why make a division between Image and Likeness? The word Image is the Hebrew Tselem from an unused root meaning to shade, or cause a shadow, it’s translated as Image 16 times, Vain Show 17 times, it was used to define the heathen gods, it doesn’t mean an image as the exact same, rather it means a type of likeness, or resemblance, often referring to a resemblance on the outside, but void of the substance on the inside. The word Likeness is the Hebrew Damuwth meaning a likeness, or a fashion, or something as a similitude, again it doesn’t mean an exact copy, it suggests merely something beginning the fashion until the rest can be inserted. If the “image” was lost in the Fall why did God tell Noah man was still the “image of God” (Gen 9:6)? The Image began with the living soul, it became complete in the New Birth. Therefore, natural man has the ability to reason and invent, but lacks the foresight to see what his inventions will do. Also we have Adam being created, God is not created, rather He is the Creator. Adam has a beginning, God does not, thus there are many differences, but if Adam is the beginning, yet empty, then there must be more to the plan to reach what we might term “a filling”, or better, a when a New Creature can fill man to bring the Image into being. Therefore the New Creature in Christ would complete the prophecy, so does it mean Adam was completely void of the Image? No, he was the beginning, mankind has many attributes from God, reasoning, the ability to invent, have visions, the measure of faith, plus other attributes within the soul. The New Birth brings more attributes, raising mankind above the natural to the spiritual, thus God is Spirit.
God’s plan considered all things, even the evil in the world was in the plan, but it was more like planning for a flat tire we know will happen, but we didn’t cause the flat, or the corruption in the tire, yet we knew it would happen, thus we planned around it. The purpose of the plan was not evil, rather the purpose of the plan is our Salvation from evil. The Record in heaven consists of the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost, it doesn’t consist of angels, or clouds, or the twenty-four elders, although all those things are in heaven. The Witness on earth consists of the Water, the Blood and the Spirit (New Man), it doesn’t consist of the world, the flesh, or our soul. Are there angels in heaven? Yes, are they servants of God? Yes, but they are not forming the Record. Are the twenty-four elders in heaven? Yes, the Book of Revelation says so, but they do not form the Record. Are our souls the prize in all this? Yes, the purpose of our faith is the salvation of our souls, but our souls are not part of the Witness. Keeping things in their proper order helps us remain in faith, knowing whatever lays ahead, God has already completed in the Ages, but we’re in the Process of being saved in an Age.
The evidence in the Book of Revelation, with the words of the prophets are not guesses at what may happen, they tell us what God saw happening. Many of those words are yet to happen, but the Book of Revelation being the “little book” in the larger Book shows those words will come to pass. The Book of Revelation is a great example of God’s reality, as opposed to God’s desire. We know the desire of God is for all to come to saving knowledge of the Gospel; so none would be lost, so how does the lake of fire fit? If God’s desire is for all to be saved, why doesn’t He just call those things so? Desire and Reality differ, even for God. We must always add man’s power of choice, it’s not God who makes the decision, but it’s God who presents the evidence. If God never revealed Himself, we would never know there was a God. However, it still takes the Witness in us to bring the Record to pass; our Justification is declared, yet it’s being worked out by the Witness in us on a day to day basis.
Faith is designed to work, thus it will work, but simply saying something we do “works” doesn’t make the act holy. Witchcraft works, it’s why witches use it, but it’s not holy (Acts 16:16). Faith in God gives a place to put our faith, Faith toward God defines it, confirms it, makes it clear, we must put our faith in God. Faith also knows God is the Justifier, the entire Book of Romans centers on it; however, we must define Justified, Just and Justice. The Just live by faith, because God is justifying them, so they won’t face God’s Justice, God’s Justice is a matter of division, sheep from goats, so forth.
Presumption is a thought before the act takes place, some of us trust in God to perform, we feel God will do as we think He should, we believe in God to accomplish what pleases us, then we will love Him. However, we form an opinion regarding how God should act in a given situation, when He doesn’t we get frustrated, mad or depressed. Trusting in God is not the same as trusting God to perform according to our will. Having faith in God to please us, is not the same as having a faith pleasing God. We are in the hand of God, what God does with us, is for the betterment of us and the Body of Christ. We may not understand it, we may not like it, but our Trust in God knows He understands, our faith in God knows the result is Good, our belief in God is established on His promises in the New Covenant, our Love for God is just as unconditional as His Love for us. We hear much about the unconditional Love of God, but if this is a Covenant, there are two sides. If we are Born Again we have the potential to walk in the same Love (I Cor 13:1-13). God’s love has certain attributes identifying it, those signs are our banner of love. Faith has signs, faith comes from an unseen source, projected to a future hope, but it’s still a Now confidence in God. We can say we love God, but without belief, faith and trust our Love will turn to vengeance in the face of adversity. If we are going to claim God’s unconditional love, we must be willing to show Him our unconditional love as well.
Abraham believed God, then it was accounted (imputed) to him as righteousness, but we also read, “Now to him who works is the reward not reckoned (imputed) of grace, but of debt. But to him who works not, but believes on HIM WHO JUSTIFIES the ungodly, his faith is counted (imputed) for righteousness” (Rom 4:4-5). Abraham was around well before the Law of Moses, his belief in God was the basis to receive the imputed righteousness, so it could be by faith. Self-righteousness is for the moment, the doer of the Law couldn’t keep just one sabbath, they had to keep them all. Once one was kept the act was over, the next act waited. It was a continual effort to obtain, but they never really obtained God’s Rest. The Righteousness of Jesus is like His Faith, it has obtained.
The thought of our works impressing God is self-righteousness, the very second we do the act, it dies. We must do it again and again, meaning we never enter Rest, in the end the Commandment “Thou shall not covet” finds us guilty, calls us dead in sin. Some of us think we can do some act assuming we will impress God to the point He can’t help but wonder at our greatness, but faith is not designed to impress God, it’s designed to please Him. If we love God as we say, then our concern should be to please Him. In Hebrews 11:6 the second step to Godly faith is To Seek God Diligently, the word Diligently is in the Present Participle tense which expresses a continuous or repeated action, thus it is continual, just as our belief must be continual. Diligent also means searching for God in every event, thus one could call it “searching for the Precious”. For the most part seeking God when it appears as if its all over, or certain danger isn’t far anyway, becomes a faith of desperation. Of course if we need to run to God to see if we’re to brush our teeth, we need a nursemaid, not God. Neither does God expect us to run to Him regarding matters He has already talked to us about. How would we like it if our 15 year old child ran to us every two minutes wanting to know if they were to pick up their room, say Please, or Thank you? There are some things attached to the position, we are required to do.
What was lacking in Adam? Faith and Obedience, he didn’t believe God, neither did he obey the voice of the Lord, rather he sat and watched his “help meet” fall into the hands of the enemy. Then he joined her, but when he was caught he turned and blamed her and God. Does it sound like the completed Image of God?
We are also told to believe in our Heart. In our Heart? Wow, what happens if we have a physical heart transplant, does our belief go away? What if the other person who had the heart before us didn’t believe? Does it mean our belief left with the old heart, now we have to start over again with the new one? Don’t confuse the physical with the natural, or the natural with the spiritual, they are all different. The Heart of man could be considered the deep place where intents and motives are found. We are circumcised of heart, meaning we gain a new heart, defined as the Spirit of Truth. When we were under the spirit of disobedience, disobedience governed our intent. The spirit of disobedience is also the spirit of man, who is completely ignorant of the things of the Spirit of God (I Cor 2:11). Jesus said from the heart comes no good thing, Paul said we had to believe in our heart, thus it’s two different hearts. Could it relate to the “old man” and the “New Man”? Yes, it’s impossible to truly believe God raised Jesus from the dead through the old nature, since it’s based in disobedience. The circumcision of the heart cut away the “fleshly heart”, which was the spirit of man. The New Heart is the New Man, the Spirit of Truth, the one source forming us into sons of God by bringing our souls into a spiritual nature. This gives us the metaphor of “heart” meaning the spirit behind the person’s thoughts and actions.
The Root is the hidden aspect from which a tree grows, the fruit of the tree identifies the type of tree. Painting the old fruit with “good paint”, doesn’t make the fruit good, it’s merely using a mask appearing for the moment, the mask will fade and the old fruit will come forth. Jesus said we needed a tree transplant, Paul says we need a new heart, thus the New Man is the Good Tree, or New Heart, the very center of our Life in Christ. The precious Gift came in the New Birth, the New Birth came as a result of the death and resurrection of Jesus (Jn 7:38-39).
There is Hope in Christ, just think about the mass change which took place when we received Jesus; we gained a new heart, a new mind, a new character, a new attitude, a new way of thinking, a new wisdom, a new nature, a kingdom, a priesthood, yet all the old memories were still there, some based in hurts, pains, misconceptions, strongholds and areas we simply didn’t want to face. A change had to take place to bring us into the New, removing us from the Old, but it’s still Process. Our souls are cleaned as they are purified in the Justification. If it was immediate then Jesus would never have told us first comes the seed, then the root, then the blade. Jesus spent a great deal of time with the disciples before the Cross, if all this was instant, then Jesus wasted a great deal of time disciplining.
This is still a Covenant, we have to make the decision to put off the old and put on the new. These people in the Old Testament didn’t have what we do, but to whom much is given, much is required. We find ourselves facing things they didn’t, but we have more power, authority, coupled with a better promise.
Our will is the basis for the desire, or the motivation to accomplish some act, or to prevent an act from taking place. We will to do, or we will not to do, our will has a “power”, thus we call it “will power”. When we say, “not my will, but Your will oh Lord”, we are not giving up our will, we are giving up the worldly power behind our will, by changing our will to the will (desire) of the Lord. Our will is also our “agenda”, if our old agenda was to use power in a religious way to appear moral, or superior before men, we have yet to learn of the Will of the Lord. We had to learn Kingdom principles and experience spiritual matters by the Spirit for the old agenda to fall to wayside. From there, we must obtain, know and hold the agenda God has for us. If we retain our old self-based desires, we have not changed wills. Our desire must change to the desire of the Lord, before we can take on the Will of the Lord. This is a picture of the Fall, Adam male and female held their agenda, rejecting the plan God gave them.
For the most part we presume if we do religious acts, we are doing the Will of the Lord, not so. Jesus said the Will of the Father is for us to believe in Jesus as we walk in Mercy. Paul defined the Will of the Lord as; “Wherefore be you not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph 5:17-20). This based in speaking to ourselves, rather than attempting to impress everyone else with our “faith”.
Joy was fundamental in the Old Testament, even under the Law, thus the curse of the Law fell on the people if they failed to serve “the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things” (Deut 28:47). The key is “All Things”, not merely the things which please us. When God moves to expose, or bring us into a different place, we tend to complain and murmur, we are fighting God, yet failing at the premise of “thanking God for all things”. “Well I know Jesus has made me free from the curse”. Oh so very true, but being free doesn’t mean you can’t do things causing the curse to fall on you. The curse never comes without cause, regardless (Prov 26:2). Adam wasn’t cursed for what he did, the ground was, he had a personal attachment to the “dust of the earth”. Since Adam attempted to fill his own need, he found God would no longer meet his, thus Adam had to secure his need from the ground, yet because of what he did the ground was cursed (Gen 3:17). This alone shows the Fall was based on the flesh, the soul made the decision, but from the “dust” which formed the flesh ended cursed.
The nature of evil hasn’t changed since the fall, we find the devil had no idea his plan would be discovered by God, rather he presumed his plan was hidden. Yet, before the fall God said “Let there be Light”, the Light did shine in a dark place, thus the entire matter was known and settled. Today the devil attempts to tell us he has it all in hand, the world bows to him, he has attacked the Body of Christ with his gates of division, he again thinks God is unaware. However, God is all Knowing, there is always a plan in the plan about ready to break forth to show the glory of God. Never give up on God, He hasn’t given up on us.
There are times when we see how God “repented” from something He was going to do, thus we can draw two wrong conclusions. We can assume God sinned, so He repented. Not so, the word Repent means to turn. Next we can assume since it appears as if He didn’t do as He said He would, God changed His mind. Not so, God didn’t change His mind, the people changed positions. We know in order for one to change their mind they must be subject to time, since God is not subject to time He won’t change His mind. Another element showing how God won’t change His mind is His all knowing ability (Omniscience). When we change our mind, it means we made an error in our thinking, or obtained new information to revise our decision, which means we had no idea what the future held. It cannot be the case with God, since He knows all things, before they are things. A third aspect is found in knowing all things are created for and by Jesus (Col 1:16), thus all things are subject to the Creator. If all things are subject to the Creator, then the Creator knows what those subjects will do, before they do them. A prime example of this is the phrase, “no weapon formed (Yatsar) against you shall prosper” (Isa 54:17), but why? Because anything created (Bara), formed (Yatsar), or made (Asah) is still subject to the Creator. It’s not because we’re so great, rather it’s because God is. We seem to think the devil has more power than God, we run around like chicken little waiting for the devil to beat us up. The devil is a created being, whatever plan he devised was known by God long before the devil became the devil. The devil cannot create, but he can form, thus anything formed shall not prosper against us, simply because God said so. So what does God repenting mean? It shows He turned, but as we will find the only thing really changing was the position of the people. God did what God said He would do, but some, or all of the people changed positions meaning they were speared.
No where in the Bible do we find where the First Adam was “spirit”, rather we find the First Adam was a natural “living soul”, yet “God is Spirit” (I Cor 15:45 & Jn 4:24). That born of the flesh is flesh, that born of the Spirit is Spirit, but we also read where God also has a Soul (Heb 10:38-39), we know He took on flesh (Jn 1:1-8). Does it mean God is a glorified human? Not at all, God has a soul, His Word took on flesh, but He is Spirit. Man has flesh, has a soul, has the opportunity to become spiritual by being Born Again. Much different.
In order to worship God one must have two things, Spirit and Truth. Jesus said He is Truth, we know to be able to worship God one must have the Spirit of Truth, thus Adam couldn’t truthfully worship God. We never see one line where Adam praised God, but we do see where he was unhappy with what God gave him. Could the First Adam be more of a warning to man, than a blessing? Could be, to assume Adam was “like God” also assumes God can be tricked by the devil. Perhaps it’s why we are never told to be “Adam like”, yet often told to be “Christ Like”.
The concept of the Second Adam being Jesus could also confuse us, if we don’t know what the metaphor Adam means a beginning. The First Adam was in the “living soul” position, the Second Adam Is a Quickening Spirit, Beginning the Age of the Spiritual (I Cor 15:45). The First Adam was formed of the dust with a created soul, the Second Adam is the creator, for all things are created for the Word, by the Word, Jesus is the Word of God sent to heal (save) us. In this we must keep in mind a few things, the first Adam was the first creation to have the breath of God, he was also the first to have the measure of faith, but he was also the first to sin and bring death as a result of sin to his entire family.
We are going over all this to make the division, it’s very important for us to keep the order in what God is doing in Genesis. The Plan is set, but any of us can end walking in our own self-motivated path, dreaming our own dream. There are paths many, but only one has the Witness. God will form a path around or through the event where we can gain, but it doesn’t mean God will beat us half to death to get us on the path, rather Presentation is God’s part, Receiving is ours. If we dream our own dream, or attempt to form our own path, we soon find God is waiting back at the beginning, we have to “repent”, or turn. Does it mean we will lose our salvation? No, since salvation is not ours to lose (Jonah 2:9). It does mean we will face some self-induced hard times until we do learn to turn.
God sees us from His position as the Master Potter, a Potter has a mental picture of what they want to Form, they take a lump of clay and begin. If the clay yields to the hand of the Potter the product fits the picture, but if the clay resists the hand of the Potter, then the Potter forms the vessel into something to be used, but not as intended (Rom 9:21). Does it mean God changes His mind in the process of forming? No, it means God forms the clay based on the desire of the clay. Can the clay say to the Potter, “why have you made me this way?”. No, since the condition of the clay determined what the Potter would form. This is the premise behind Paul telling us how God takes one lump of clay, but can form the lump into a vessel of honor, or one of dishonor depending on the condition of the clay; soft clay is easy to mold. It’s the same lump of clay, but the condition of the clay dictates which vessel it will become, yet the clay cannot form itself, it must be formed. What makes soft clay? Water, the metaphor Water means Mercy. The only difference between a vessel of honor and one of dishonor is Mercy (Rom 9:21-24). We are told to be Merciful as our Father is Merciful, how can we? By the New Man, yet the softness comes when we keep the Mercy Commandments.
Christians are special, not because of who they are, but because they are Born Again. It’s the New Man making us special, he will guide us into all truth (Jn 16:13). The word Guide in John 16:13 is the Greek Hodegeo meaning A leader, or Guide, one taking another along a conducting way; not by force, but by permission, we learn by experience, knowledge as we gain clarity while our nature is changing.
The Old Testament holds lessons many, yet the one hindrance of imaginations stands out. Paul tells us strongholds are imaginations coming against the knowledge of God, they don’t come against us, they don’t come against God, they come against the knowledge of God (II Cor 10:4-5). God’s people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge (Hosea 4:6). Paul also told us to cast strongholds down by bringing every thought into the obedience of Christ. The children in the wilderness are only one example of wild imaginations, there are many others. After Jacob left Laban, he was headed back home when he saw Esau, he then presumed Esau would kill him, yet the result of the meeting between Jacob and Esau was good. The perception of Jacob was not in line with the Truth, rather he based his opinion on past experiences. Has it happened to us? Yes, everyone of us, some more than others, but nonetheless it has happened. It’s not a matter of ignoring the event, but a matter of God leading us through it, or around it, with the clarity to learn from the experience.
Jumping from mountain top to mountain top is not faith, it’s a soulish trait to avoid test of faith. The purpose of salvation is for our benefit, a matter for our gain, not a matter of our loss. Paul told Timothy, “you have fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity (love), patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me” (II Tim 3:10-11). The Lord didn’t deliver Paul around the events, He delivered him out of them. Paul understood the concept of being the Blessed as he looked for the Good in all things, thus he was delivered.
We have gone through all this so we can view the Creation and the Fall in a Scriptural manner, by studying what happened, knowing God knew all things before they happened. The Beginning was Good, all things were Good, nothing was Bad, yet Evil happened. Did God know Evil would happen? Of course, but evil also has a good side, it provides choice, choice without choice is no choice at all. Could God create evil? No, there is no evil in Him. How then could evil happen? God created Adam as the beginning of the Prophetic word, not the ending of it, thus Adam lacked something; being earthly and natural he made choices based on his foundation. God can create things perfect for the purpose, yet the element can be imperfect in reference to God’s Perfection.
When the children wanted a king, they wanted a king to their liking, not God’s. They picked Saul, but God allowed it for a purpose. God knew Saul would fail, so why not just reject Saul, then go right to David? Choice, plus lessons for all. Evil shows us there is a Good, since there could be no Evil until there was first a Good. It doesn’t mean we do evil, it means the evidence of evil shows Good is about, we seek the Good to find God, thus avoiding the evil. The second God said, “It is Good”, evil had it’s potential in the concept of Choice. However, the natural is only earth related, thus the first opposite had to be between heaven and earth. There are other opposites placed into existences, the Day and Night, Cold and Hot. God never said, “It is evil”, nor “It’s kind of good”, it was all Good, it could remain good, or be twisted, the “keys” were in the hands of the creations.
Even the Law of Moses has opposites, blessing and cursing. The Law of the Spirit on the other hand is for the heavenly citizens, it’s void of the curse, or cursing. We are told to bless and curse not, never render evil for evil, rather render good for evil (I Thess 5:15). The New Man is all God, yet he is not all God is. We are sons of God, not God. We are guided by God, we don’t guide God. The greatness of the New Birth can only be enjoyed if we keep the principles in order, remain humble, know we are a people of Authority, but we are also subject to Authority.
In our studies we will also find how, “God hardened the heart of Pharaoh”, so how can it be? By doing Good, but allowing Pharaoh to make up his own mind regarding the signs. God would do a sign to show His people how the Power of God was far greater than the power of Egypt, yet Pharaoh took it as a personal challenge. God was not out to impress Pharaoh, but the people of God needed incentive to leave the bondage of Egypt. So did we, healings, words of knowledge or wisdom, the Truth are all signs showing us the Cross is our escape from the bondage of Egypt. The Pharisees were like Pharaoh, they saw, yet misconstrued the purpose by assuming the miracles of Jesus were personal challenges to their positions. Some today see, then judge by carnal reasoning, thinking the signs are personal challenges to their theology. On the same note there are those who are carnal in nature who flaunt signs to impress their selves or others. In the case of Pharaoh, we find God did something Good for the children, but Pharaoh and those with a like mindset allowed their hearts to receive the opposite of the intended purpose, which in turn made their hearts hard.
Choice is God granted gift, yet it’s also the power to either receive, or reject God’s plan. God made the choice to receive all who received Him, we have free moral choice to accept or reject what God presents. Guess who else had choice? The angels; however, the angels were in the very presence of God, yet rejected their first estate for the darkness, thereby losing their position with God forever and ever.
Taking Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 without seeing the division produces conflict. Genesis 1:1 says “God created the heaven and earth”, it doesn’t say God created “the heavens”, thus we are speaking of One Heaven and One Earth. Then in Genesis 1:2 we see the earth is without form and void, did God create it formless and void? If so, wouldn’t it mean God failed in His Creation? Since there is no darkness in God, how can God fellowship with darkness, we begin with a dilemma. God is Light, yet “darkness was upon the face of the deep” (Gen 1:2). How did the darkness get there? Was it sin? Couldn’t be, the fall was yet future tense, man as a living soul had yet to be created, along with the Garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. There must be a division between verses 1 and 2 explaining why we find only one heaven and one earth in verse one, as well as why there is a void and dark planet in verse two. This has to be one heaven, since the firmament of division didn’t come until the second day (Gen 1:8). Since no human died, there was no need for Paradise, yet Jesus called Paradise the “Bosom of Abraham”, indicating it took belief and faith to get there, yet in Genesis 1:2 no human existed, the breath of God with the measure of faith was not yet granted.
We can’t discard this darkness, or the “face” of waters, they were before Adam, thus the earth had many things prior to Adam, but they were void of the Breath of Life. This becomes an important issue, we can dig up millions of bones, yet those bones will not tell us if the element from which they came had a soul, without a soul those bones are just another “flower, which became a not”.
Another issue to the Image of God of importance in the case of Adam is Mercy. Jumping ahead to Genesis 9:3 we find Noah was not allowed to eat raw meat, but he was allowed to eat meat. The killing of man was prohibited, since man was made in the image of God (Genesis 9:6). If the concept here is the perfect Image of God, what about Ham? Or Nimrod? What about all those who died in the flood? Clearly if the Image of God is still seen after the flood, then Adam as the Image didn’t change because of the fall. Adam then has to be representative, rather than the complete Image The word “Image” can’t mean “spirit”, since Noah is being told about the Image, yet if the “spirit” was lost at the fall, how can Noah be told man is the Image?
The beginning of the Plan is not the end of it, there is progression along the path leading to the fulfillment. This is another clue, whatever was before Adam was not the
”Image of God” in any way, shape or form. The beginning of the image starts with the Breath of God; making Adam the beginning in the Plan of redemption, yet Jesus being our Redemption means what Jesus did brings us to the perfection of the Image.
This issue is more than a little difference between Adam and pre-historic man, it’s a Big difference. Does pre-historic man serve a purpose? Yes, choice, not for him, one we see today. The more knowledge grows regarding the things of God, the more the natural mind of man fights God’s knowledge by using the knowledge of the world. However, guess which one holds Truth? The knowledge of man has facts many, but the conclusions are based on natural reasoning, completely ignorant of the things of the Spirit of God. Truth must center on the Creator, before one can move to understanding the creation. Jesus said He is Truth, He didn’t say He was a holder of Truth, or part Truth, or aware of Truth, He is Truth, all things are created for Him and by Him, thus Truth begins with Jesus, without the mind of Christ one will never understand the purpose of creation.
The first chapters of Genesis also tell us why Jesus said, “work while it is yet Day, for the Night comes when no man can work”. If God created all these things and rested, why would we work at all? Why would Jesus say, “The Father worked until (hitherto in KJV) now I work” (Jn 5:17)? If God rested what was He doing working up to the time Jesus appeared as the Word made flesh? Maybe the work was done, but God got a part time job to help ends meet, after all His Son was in the ministry. No, there is more.
If All the work was complete on the sixth day, if God rested on the seventh, why did Circumcision become a command for the Eighth Day? It wasn’t the first day after the seventh, but the Eighth Day of a male child’s life. Perhaps there is a mystery in Genesis, one showing a vast difference between the Day and Night, and why the Day comes before the Night. Could there be two areas of Creation? One based on the Night which came first, then one based on the Day, yet the first shall be last and the last first?
Adam was created and formed Perfect for his purpose, yet the Seed of God is the Perfection of God bringing us into Perfection. There is a difference between something being made perfect for its purpose, and something being as Perfect as God. We invent a gun and it works, thus it’s perfect for its purpose. We invent a knife and it works, thus it’s perfect for it’s purpose, but it doesn’t mean the gun or the knife are as Perfect as God.
Does it mean the missing link isn’t missing, but misplaced? Does it mean there were dinosaurs? If so, does God tell us? Did they have a purpose just for us? Why didn’t God stop the fall, and keep the dinosaurs? All these questions and many more are answered for us in the Book of Beginnings.
We all know the discovery of the Resurrection was on the First Day of the week, but why did God pick the First Day for the discovery of the Resurrection, rather than the Seventh? If the First Day of the Week Begins something, what did it Begin? Why was the First Day of the week in reference to the Resurrection really the Eighth day of the following week of the Cross? The Resurrection is tied to the Cross, the Cross to the events of the week, thus the Resurrection was discovered by man on the First Day of the week following the Cross, but it was the Eighth Day in succession of the week of the Cross by association. It joins the First Day of the Beginning of the New Creation with the Eighth Day regarding the New Covenant, showing the Spirit is the result of the circumcision not made with hands, as our New Heart (Spirit).
John said Jesus is the Light, the Light is the Life of man (Jn 1:4-5). If it’s so what is this Light in Genesis? John didn’t say Jesus is Light, as in many lights, or even as one of two, rather John says Jesus is The Light, a very important issue, especially when we couple it with “Light and Life”. On the Mount of Transfiguration Jesus was seen as Light, yet the first thing said in the Genesis Creation is “Let there be Light”; could they relate? Could all this tie into the week of the Cross? Could it be while God was creating the physical things, He was really proclaiming the Gospel? Is there a Creation for the Day? Another for the Night? All this before Adam came into being.
We find the Genesis account gives us the “evening and morning” as the days, but wait, didn’t God know evening to morning is really the Night? Of course, this also explains two periods of Creation, one for the Night, which is done and waiting to be complete. Another for the Day which is being completed in us, through Jesus, by the Spirit giving us Rest for our souls. This explains why Jesus said “work while it is yet Day, for the Night comes when no man can work” (Jn 9:4). Clearly the Day came before the Night, yet the works for the Night were done here in Genesis. What realm were these people in the Old Testament? Mud soup? Paul said we are children of the Day, not the Night, nor the Darkness, thus giving us three periods, Day, Night and Darkness. When Jesus came man was in Darkness, neither in the Light of the Day nor the Light of Night, thus Jesus came to open the Day as the Bright Morning Star, when the Day ends, the Night begins.
The Darkness was first, then the Day, then the Night, three dispensations of time. There was a dispensation of darkness between Adam and Moses, where death reigned without a Law. Then a dispensation of darkness for the Law of Moses, which defined sin and applied death. Then the dispensation of Grace and Salvation for those of the Day from the Cross until the Rapture as the Greater Light. Then the dispensation of the Night for Judgment as a Lesser Light.
The Night has two periods, it begins as Peace and Safety, then comes sudden destruction (I Thess 5:3). We also find there are those appointed to the Day, and those to the Night. The Book of Revelation has a group of ten thousand times ten thousand, but another group of thousands of (from) thousands, one for the Day, one for the Night (Rev 5:11). Are all these End Time elements seen here in Genesis? If they are, the only conclusion we can draw is God had the end in hand, before there was a beginning.
The fall is surely in the plan, it wasn’t some big “News Break in Heaven”, neither did God have to wait “for film at 11”, it was seen, noted and planned for. Whatever God creates, or gives is Good, since God is Good. God doesn’t merely do Good, He is Good. The Fall is a perfect example of someone being free of sin, yet having the potential to sin. The devil was a angel, perfect in all his ways, until he found he could twist his duties into not doing what he was called to do (iniquity – Ezek 28:14). Adam was free of sin, yet when temptation came he was lead away, but James says we are lead away by our own lusts. How could perfect Adam have a lust? Adam is a warning, showing us the danger of obtaining Life, but rejecting Life More Abundantly.
The first Adam was not in some bottle in heaven, then transferred to the earth, rather the flesh of Adam was formed of the earth, thus Adam was earthly in nature, but Jesus came from heaven making Him heavenly in nature. Before Adam was a living soul, he was flesh based, made of the earth. The Fall was based on a religious debate to be something better than God intended. Cult systems have the lustful desire to be the special of the special, the holders of a truth greater than the rest of the Body. They have secret books, or a secret beginning not seen in Scripture. This type of thinking is not only prideful, but destructive. We all began with a Beginning, the Cross is equal in all its ways, it didn’t make any of us greater than the rest of the Body. God doesn’t love any one of us more than anyone else, whether male or female, Jew or Gentile, we are all God’s children If we are in the Body Christ (Rom 8:1-16).
We don’t serve a multiple God, but we do serve a God Who has multiple purposes within the purpose. There are several Hebrew words denoting God, or better the Titles used for God, each points to a particular aspect of God. For example the Hebrew El is translated as God, but so is the Hebrew Elohiym, but we find the Hebrew Elohiym refers to gods, or images as idols, as well as referring to men appointed by God, such as Moses being a god before Pharaoh. The Hebrew El means Almighty or great, but the best rendering is found in the title “Almighty God”, meaning The God with All the Might, which is the meaning of Omnipotent. Although the Hebrew El is used for God, we also see it in reference to idols. Wait, didn’t the devil make some promise to Adam and Eve about becoming gods? Yes, but it was the devil making the promise, not God. God has the authority to appoint gods as His representatives, the devil never had the power or authority to appoint anyone to anything.
Wow, does it mean God condones idols? Hardly, it means there are idols many, none of them match one small part of God, thus just using the title doesn’t mean one is talking about the One God. Laban will prove this, when he calls his images Elohiym, but he also calls the God of Abraham, Elohiym. Laban couldn’t define the difference between the God of Abraham and the dumb little image made by his own hands.
The devil had so much trouble attempting to copy God, he had to use more idols than most of us have socks, thus there are so many idols tending to prove the One God is All Mighty. We will find the Hebrew Elohiym translated as gods, judges, mighty (as in mighty ones), as well as God, it means both gods in the ordinary sense and the Supreme God, depending on the usage and context. Metaphorically the Hebrew Elohiym can also mean God as the Tree with gods as the branches thereof, thus Elohiym is seen in the first verse of Genesis before the concept of idols was even introduced. Adam didn’t have a concept of a multiple god theology, there were no idols in the Garden, there were no idol makers in the Garden, thus Adam knew nothing of idols, yet the devil will use the term “gods” in the temptation, what then was the devil referring to?
The name, or title Jehovah is translated as LORD, this Name is so holy the Jew won’t mention it out loud or write it; the first time we find LORD is in Genesis 2:4. The title Jehovah is termed a “Tetragammaton” which means a compound word, we often find it in the letters “JAH”, this title was in reference to God’s dealings with man, thus in Job we will find the title Jehovah does have special meaning. Jehovah is also the Covenant Name of God after the Covenant is acted upon, most prominently it was associated with His relationship with the Nation Israel, it was also used in reference to God’s delivering Power. The word “Lord” in one form or another appears over 6,500 times in the Bible, thus we find it mainly refers to Authority.
Abraham knew God as “Almighty”, but Moses knew God as “Jehovah” (Ex 6:3). Does it mean Moses had a better relationship with God, then did Abraham? Not at all, the Name applies to the event: Abraham didn’t need a Deliverer, he needed a Covenant Maker. Abraham named places Jehovah, indicating the Covenant title (Gen 22:14), but he knew God as “God Almighty” (Ex 6:3). Moses needed the Delivering Power of God; same God, different events. The title Jehovah is found in reference to God’s dealings with man before the flood (Gen 2:4-5 & 6:3), during the patriarchal period (Gen 15:1, 27:7 & 49:18), as well as during the period of the Law of Moses (Ex 20:2 & Deut 6:4); however, it still remains Abraham, Isaac and Jacob knew God as “God Almighty”.
The Jews would substitute the Hebrew Adhonay (Lord), or used JAH to refer to the name of God, this is important when we view some of the names of the Jews finding they knew the concept of calling things not, as though they were, but they also made the mistake of thinking by merely calling it so, it would be so. The premise counts when we have “heard” from God, we can call an orange tree an apple tree all day long, at the end of the day it will still be an orange tree.
The Jews took the extreme; history shows the Jews were fully aware the Messiah was about to appear. As the time neared many parents named their male children “Jesus”, or “Judas”, since both of those names point to “Emmanuel”. Jesus means “Jehovah’s Salvation”, or “The Salvation of Jehovah”, and Judas refers to “One of Judah”, we know Jesus is also known as “the Lion from the tribe of Judah”. Since all these children were named in connection to the Messiah, does it mean they all became the Messiah? Of course not, we also know one who was named Judas betrayed the Messiah.
The name Jude is short for Judas, we know of one person called, “Judas not Iscariot”, showing an opposite. Adding, we have one Book entitled “Jude”, who is the brother of James the Less, thus the name didn’t make Judas a betrayer, his own lustful nature did. Jesus changed some of the names of the disciples, but not all, thus having the name doesn’t mean one is automatically fitted to the name. God gave Adam his name, but Adam named the animals. The name Adam had meaning, the names for the animals were for identification, much different.
We can see there were Names used for the Name of God, but the Name of Jesus is above All Names, which includes El, Elohiym, Adhona, and the other names referring to God. God never told the Jews, “In My Name you shall cast out devils”, but Jesus told us to. The metaphor Name points to Authority, each of the names of God point to an authority, or activity associated with the Name. All this shows the importance of the statement, “all Authority has been given to Me”, or “name above all names”. Does it mean the name Jehovah is less than Jesus? No, it means there were names for God relating to the Authority being used, all good, all of honor, yet they all became included in one name, the Name above all names, which Name we operate under. It has to tell us something about in this time. The entire Authority of the Record (Father, Word and Holy Ghost) were given to Jesus, because we operate in the Body of Christ. What happens when we speak the Name of Jesus? Every name and authority of God becomes inclusive, it’s an awesome honor and responsibility, not one to be taken lightly.
Since the Name (Authority) of Jesus points to many areas of Authority within the New Covenant; such as Grace, Love, Faith, Liberty, Freedom, Healing, Deliverance and A Newness no man knew before, it stands, Salvation is greater than Judgment. Is there a clue to this concept in Genesis? Yes, the Light of the Day is greater than the Light of the Night. We will find three Lights, one is The Light, then there are the Lights of the Day and Night. The Lights of the Day and Night are different from The Light as we will see. However, doesn’t it give us three lights? Yes, how can it be?
God didn’t wake up one day to His heavenly alarm clock and say, “Hey, Michael, want to do something with the earth today?”, or “Michael, what do you think would happen if I make a thing called man?”, neither did God say, “Hey, Mike, want to be Jesus?”. God didn’t create the world for Adam, rather Adam will become an example of man without Jesus. All things are created by and for Jesus, thus the earth became useful to the plan, but it is not the Kingdom of God. Adam walked with God in the cool of the Day, but Adam didn’t have the Seed of God.
When God came on the scene in Genesis 1:2 there was no Light, no life, no apparent use for the earth, yet God saw “Usefulness”. God needed the earth for the plan, it became the testing ground of choice. Two main trees were in the Garden, one was the Tree of Life, the other the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil, both were good. The Tree of Life granted life, but the choice remained with the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil. The Tree of Life was not inside Adam, but as long as he was privy to it, he had Life, but even Adam never had Life More Abundantly. When Adam was separated from the Tree of Life he entered Death; our Life is internal, found in the New Man. If there was no choice it would have been the Tree of the Knowledge of good. Once the use of “good and evil” was introduced, so was choice, so was the potential for sin. If not, why would God tell Adam not to eat the fruit thereof? Therefore, in order to save man, man would have to make the choice to fall, man still does by connection. Through Adam? Partly, we found the earth was void and darkness covered it, but God also formed the flesh of Adam from the very same earth. What was in the earth? All the elements which form the flesh, yet they came from darkness. So why would God use the old dust? Because He had another Body, a Created Resurrected Body waiting at the end of the plan. Everyone will receive a resurrected body, it’s not the issue, since there is a resurrection unto damnation as well. The key is Life, for those who are dead in Christ the life is in them now, on the last day there will be a resurrection unto Life (Jn 5:29 & Rom 6:5). Finding Adam’s flesh formed of the dust shows God’s knowledge went beyond Adam’s time, to the end of time.
What about the breath of God? It’s coming up soon (promise). In order for man to make the choice to be saved, man had to be in a position calling for it. Peter, James, Jude and Paul all speak roughly regarding those who enter into the Body based on the Mercy of God, yet make the choice to continue to use the authority of the world. A man’s enemies are still of his own house, the Pharisees or Romans couldn’t betray Jesus, but one of His own could (Micah 7:6). Will we see the shadow giving us the clues? Could very well be.
God needed a plan in which He could insert Himself, in a manner conducive to the creation of man, at the same time bring about events to give us a reason to believe, so it might be by faith. It’s not easy, the only way to accomplish it is to have a finish in hand, then begin the beginning, inserting something of God from God’s nature, yet be able to take on something to represent all mankind. God not only read the last Book, He set all the events in place, then moved back through history making ways for us to escape the various temptations. There are paths many, roads many, along those routes we find signs placed just for us so we can find the one path to allow us to finish this with a joyous kick in our step.
The Book of Revelation is not a guessing game, or the result of John eating some bad cheese, it’s a combination of the prophecies by the prophets of Old, the words of Jesus coupled with the vision of John, as it answers the three part question asked of the disciples. The Book of Revelation has an introduction to the seven churches as a layout of the Record, then it covers events from three angles, but it all centers on, “Tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of Your coming? And of the end of the world?” (Matt 24:3). The “end” begins here in Genesis, if we don’t understand what this Creation is all about we will forget there is a New Creation for the children of the Day.
We know the path for the early martyrs was death. Why allow them to die? To judge the evil doers. God allows leaders to rule, but it doesn’t mean the leader is holy. The Scriptures show us God allowed Pharaoh to rule, but we also know Pharaoh was anything but holy (Rom 9:17). The leader in their evil doings not only judge themselves as they pronounce their own end, they also entice those with like lusts to become judged by their doings as well. Leaders judge evil doers, if the leader is an evil doer they are judged by their own ways.
We presume since we’re kings we can dominate the world, or sit on some high throne saying “I told you so”, it’s not how we rule. We rule based on the knowledge, “you can do nothing to me, unless it’s granted from on high”. Being a king in the Kingdom is far different from being a king in the world. If we’re all kings, who then are our subjects? Surely you are not mine, nor am I yours. Who then? Or better, What then? We will find out.
Adam was not an angel, then made flesh, just as the devil was not flesh, then made an angel. There is enough science fiction without adding to it. The devil was a spirit, created as an angel, but the time would come when something in him would be discovered by him, he would allow it to guide him into darkness. The devil found man could say “no” to God, but how? Choice always has two sides, the iniquity in the devil became an issue when Choice was introduced. So then, did God create the iniquity? No, the devil had choice, just as Adam did, if not, he could not make the choice to become the devil. The devil being a spirit shows us one thing, you can’t kill a spirit. The devil ends in the lake of fire where he remains forever. There is the concept of Eternal, and the concept of Immortal, they are different. Immortal means without beginning or end while void of death, Eternal means without end. The flesh of man is temporal, from dust it came, to dust it will go. However, the soul of man is eternal, God is Immortal and Eternal.
Is there any evidence where man can join to an Immortal position? Yes, as it brings up another reason to be Christ Like, rather than Adam Like. Adam had an eternal existence in the Garden, as long as he obeyed God, he could remain in the area of the Tree of Life. Death is merely a separation, in the Book of Acts the term, “giving up the ghost”, in the Greek means “out the soul comes” (ExPsuche), or a separation of the soul from the flesh. It doesn’t answer the question does it? The word for Immortal in the Greek is Aphthartos, it was used in the phrase, “Unto the King eternal, Immortal” (I Tim 1:17). However, when either Paul or Peter talked about those who are Born Again they used the same word only it’s translated as “incorruptible” (I Cor 9:25, 15:52, I Pet 1:4, 1:23 & 3:4); it was also used in Romans 1:23 in speaking of God being “incorruptible”. Incorruptible means “without death”, or free of the result of the second death. Our souls are eternal, if not there would be no heaven, or hell. Jesus called the unsaved soul a “worm”, or something associated with dust (metaphor for the flesh). Adam was eternal, he was not immortal. The Tree of Life was his connection to Life, the Tree of Life was in the Garden, it was not in Adam.
The Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil was good as well, but the fallen angel used it in a manner it was not created for, the misuse, not the tree caused the fall. Once darkness was accepted by man it overshadowed him, yet his offspring did not surface until after the fall, meaning all mankind was subject to the fall nature.
The fruit did nothing, the act did. When Adam female took of the fruit from the wrong source, for the wrong reason, based on the wrong motive she also took a nature. Adam male took the same fruit with the wrong intent, acquiring a like nature, yet he knew what he was doing. Their viewpoint changed, they saw things differently, they became flesh minded and self based, they accepted the spirit of man to rule their lives.
Adam had skin, bones as well as inner physical parts, all from the elements of the earth. Being earth formed kept him bound to the earth, man still must take his “earth” environment with him if he travels into space. Even hell is earth related, the soul of man without the Spirit is earth bound. Why? The soul of man was granted when man was formed of the earth, thus the soul without the Spirit of Christ is still bound to the realm of the earth. The only way to be free of the earth is to have the Greater He in us.
At the Resurrection Jesus took those captive to the earth, placing captive in another location, under the altar of God; a concept known as “taking captivity captive”. The point being Adam’s flesh was formed of the earth, the same earth God saw as void and darkness. The soul of Adam was the creation, yet it too was created in man on the earth, not in heaven, nonetheless, the soul of man is the treasure in all this.
The evidence of Adam’s fall proves it would take someone greater than all of mankind to put this together, someone who could not only obtain what was lost, but introduce a much greater reward in a better Covenant, a Covenant so holy and righteous no human, or any number of humans could obtain it on their own. The entire purpose for the creation of the world was the Cross of Jesus, thus the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world.
Jesus was born to die, we die to be Born Again. Therefore, in Jesus we find a win situation, one so great it takes being Born Again to receive it. The second we accept Jesus we have the same Life as Adam had, with the knowledge of how man is incapable, then we accept the Spirit entering Life more abundantly, as a spiritual way of life like Jesus, completing the prophecy, “let us make man in Our image”. Jesus was not Resurrected as Spirit, but He is nonetheless Spirit in nature, just as the Father is Spirit in nature.
Jesus said He came so we Might (suggestive, or choice) have Life, so we could have it more abundantly (another choice). Both areas are indicated by the word “might” meaning we have choice, it was not “shall” have life.
The question regarding how long was a Creation Day is moot, our goal is to find Jesus in the act of creation, since this is the Day. To the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like a day. We could say a “day” is a 24 hour period, or it was a 1,000 years. The clarity comes when we find a an interruption between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, explaining a great deal regarding the Ice Age, the dinosaurs and prehistoric man. God wasn’t attempting to create a calendar or clock, then use it to guide Him in the creation of the world, rather He was laying out a frame work, a pattern of Process. Could God have snapped His fingers causing the entire thing to be done in a second? Yes, could He have completed all creation in one second. Yes, but He didn’t, God always has Purpose. We find some things created, some came from the elements already in the earth.
Another aspect in Genesis 1:2 is the darkness, which was already on the earth before the Light, but when Light came it separated Light from darkness by giving a comparison. If darkness was all there was, then there is no division, because there is no comparison. Whether frozen, or not until Light came it was nonetheless Darkness. The period from the creation of man to the fall was a period where time was not an element to man, but from the fall to the time of Abraham was a period of time, from Abraham to Moses a period of time, from Moses to the Promised Land a period of time, from the Promised Land to David a period of time, from David to the captivity a period of time, from the captivity to the end of the Old Testament, a period of time, from Malachi to John the Baptist another period of time, from John the Baptist to the Cross another period of time, from the Cross to the Resurrection another, from the Resurrection to the Ascension another, from the Ascension to the end of the Day another, from the beginning of the Night to Jacob’s trouble another, from Jacob’s trouble to the end of the Night another. The “sixth days of creation” really shows us two things, one is process, assuring us the work in us wasn’t over in two seconds, it’s still going on. Next we find God divided many things as He was setting things in order.
It’s interesting we are in the Seventh Day if we think about it. Jesus said work while it is yet Day, for the Night comes when no man can work, it defines a 24 hour period, so was it all over the day after Jesus said it? No, we are not a bunch of germs in a bowl somewhere as figments of someone’s imagination. We find it’s not Time as man knows it, but a Process within a time as God sees it. The Day has lasted 2,000 years, so does it mean we have another 10,000 years to finish the Day? No, it can’t be right since the Bible talks about the Night being 1,000 years. We find the Lord is not slack, rather He has a timing, thus He said no man can open or close the Door to David (Night). It’s important since Jesus also talked about the “time of Doors”. Were there Doors in the Beginning? No, was the Door something for the Old Testament saint? No, God poured the blessing out of the Windows, the Door was closed until the Cross. In the Book of Revelation we find a Door opened for John to enter into the realm of heaven, then a door no man can open, then a door only man can open, thus it’s the Time of Doors, not the Time of Door (Matt 24:33, Rev 3:8, 3:20 & 4:1-2). A thief attempts to climb in the window, a son, or heir enters by the Door.
If God knows all things, then He knows all things, without exception. Some of us think God came down to earth saw Adam in a fig leaf, and said, “Oh man, now what?”. Or, “Wow, now I have to send My Word as My Son to the Cross”. No, the Plan was designed around the Cross, not the other way around. The Bible is the beginning of our belief, yet we can call it Truth, or we can call it Agenda, the choice is ours, the result is in God’s hand. How is the Bible the beginning of our belief? We have something written, we can either say, “it’s of man”, or “it’s inspired by God”; only the latter is belief. The evidence of the Bible being inspired is found in Genesis, penned by the man Moses, but Authored by God.
To assume God saw something in us so holy and great He just couldn’t help but give us the New Birth, is absurd. God so loved the world He gave, it was His Love, not our greatness. The evidence shows Jesus is Truth, then we find the Spirit was not given until the Resurrection of Jesus (Jn 3:6 & 7:39); how then could man have a spirit if the Spirit by the New Birth was based on the Resurrection of Jesus? Well maybe it was a spirit who died. Not so, if it were the case we could kill the devil. Adam is clearly called “a living soul”, so what did God breathe into the man? Mouth to mouth? The Bible calls it the “breath of life”, but if it’s the case, why did he need the Tree of Life? What kind of Life did God give Adam? Or was the Life a Soul? Ahh, perhaps a mystery, in the Greek the word Psuche is translated as soul and life, thus the fall was a mental choice involving the flesh, or better something to please the flesh, bringing death to the flesh.
If it were not for God we would have nothing to believe in, nor would we have faith or love. Therefore, it’s appointed unto All men to die once, then comes the Judgment (Heb 9:27). Indicating the Judgment will not come until all humans are dead, it’s the Judgment bringing about “unto Life” for some, for others the “second death”. The Greek gives us the evidence, Paul said Adam was a living soul, we know the Greek word Psuche means Soul or Life, Adam lost life, which means he lost his relationship with God. So, did Adam drop down dead? No, it was a process, really it was in dying he would die.
The Breath of God is very interesting, God didn’t breath into the whale, or the monkey, nor do monkeys have the measure of faith. There are other elements associated with the breath of life, love is one. “Oh the great Agape love of God”. No, Agape love is self-less, hardly the love natural man has. The Greek Agape is a noun, thus God is Love, but God also has love. Man is man, as a human he has love, but man is not Love: a big difference. One of the more used verses from the Bible is John 3:16, which tells us God so loved the world, but the word for Loved is not Agape, but Agapao a verb, meaning a love based in some joy. God’s love for the world was based in the joy of knowing He had a plan of redemption for mankind from the foundation of the world, but it was put into action when He gave His Only Son as the Light came to open the Day.
There is another verse in John which is not so widely used, it reads, “and this is the condemnation, the Light is come into the world, and men loved (Agapao) darkness, rather than Light, because their deeds were evil” (Jn 3:19). Two verses apart, both show the same type of love based in a joy. In God’s case its based on redemption, in man’s case it’s based on the joy he obtained from the things of darkness, yet the point is man has Agapao love coupled with the measure of faith transmitted into man by the breath of life from God. “Wait, I thought the word Breath means Spirit”. No, as we will find, there are many Hebrew words for the word Breath, some can mean Spirit, but some do not, we have the phrase “Living Soul”, but in reference to Adam we never find the phrase “Spirit”. It is important, there was a process in the Plan, if man had a spirit, then we were not Born Again, rather it would be a “Re-born”, a concept not Scriptural.
God rested because He was confident the works He did would come to pass in the time assigned to accomplish the purpose. The children in the wilderness kept the sabbath day, but failed to enter God’s Rest because of their unbelief. We have the opportunity to enter God’s Rest as we cease from our own works (Heb 4:10). As we will see the Sabbath Day is a sign of the events taking place as God has set them for the Night. God rested because the Night works were done, the Day works were waiting, thus God worked from sunset to sunrise, or evening till morning, thus Jesus could say, “for the works which the Father has given Me to finish, the same works that I do” (Jn 5:36). If the works are done, what was Jesus doing? The works here in Genesis are finished, but they are purposed for a Season. All this explains how keeping the sabbath day is attached to Judgment, not Salvation. It was given to show the children just how close they came to seeing the Wrath of God. For us it’s the Rest of Jesus, the place where we find Rest for our Souls (Matt 11:29). Two different rests, only one of those gains us the Rest of God, thus there remains a Rest for the people of God (Heb 4:9-10).
Since we find Prophecy in the Beginning, we should have some understanding of Prophecy. We viewed how Prophecy is God telling man what God is seeing in the future of man. However, we don’t attempt to bring Prophecy to pass, rather prophecy proves itself by coming to pass. In the days of Jeremiah the Prophets of God were troubled at the events, thus they began to speak with the presumption of God bringing their words to pass, it’s the opposite of the course of Prophecy. The various self-prophets, or “whackos” project their self-prophecy, then attempt to bring it to pass. Prideful people who hear a prophecy about them, will fight to make it come to pass, so they can brag in it. A false prophet speaks from their own fears and lusts, then uses “so saith the Lord” to control, dominate or force change on people. The “spirits” (hearts or thoughts – I Cor 14:32) of the prophets are subject to the prophet, the prophet can allow their own fears, or lusts to counterfeit the voice of God. A misguided prophet who has allowed their own fears or ego to speak in the place of God will be moved by worldly concerns; thus the other prophets must judge righteously (I Cor 14:29 & 14:37).
Whether a whacko or a false prophet, or just some guy down the street, anyone can produce a self-prophecy, then make it come to pass. “So, saith the Lord, I shall go tomorrow and pick up two quarts of milk”, comes the next day they buy two quarts of milk and everyone goes, “wow a prophet”. There is also the person who gives a word of knowledge thinking they are a prophet: the Office of Prophet is much different from someone who gives a word. All of us in the Body who have the Spirit are capable of giving words of knowledge, or wisdom, but it doesn’t make us Prophets.
Adam not only didn’t give a Word, he didn’t believe the one given him. He was formed of the earth, he was earthly, thus confined to the earth. He was not an angel, he wasn’t a spaceman, he wasn’t even spiritual, but he was important as he gives us the Beginning, thus the first is natural, but Jesus is spiritual (I Cor 15:45-47).
There is also the danger of self-interpretation of prophecy, which produces more confusion than the sky has stars, as well as producing Fables, or Imaginations. For the most part much of the problems we seem to encounter in End Time thinking are the result of mixing the day into the night, or the night into the day, something God tells us we should not do (Acts 1:6-8 & Gen 1:14). Self-prophecy is always a means for man to gain control over people, his religion, or his future, as he makes up words, then attempts to make God bring them to pass. Jezebel is a prime example of this, she was used in the Book of Revelation to show how the self-appointed use control and self-prophecy to benefit their own self-nature (I Kings 19:2-3 & Rev 2:20-23). Jezebel was married to the king of the land, thus the warning is within the grouping, not without. Jezebel even attempted to call things a not, as a were. When she did, she caused the prophet of God to make sandal prints in the sand. What did she say? Elijah’s words and signs caused the people to kill the prophets of Baal, the prophets of Baal were not only idol worshipers, but were employed by Jezebel. When she heard of this, she sent the prophet a message, “So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not your life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time” (I Kings 19:2). Elijah was moved by the words of Jezebel, we can see the word “gods”, thus anything formed cannot harm us. In essence she said she was going to kill the prophet of God in the near future, making her words prophetic, causing the prophet to run, when the prophet gained his senses, he wanted to die. The point being she used a principle in an ungodly manner, the same thing the devil attempts to get us to do. The Fall is a perfect example of twisting the words of God to entice someone to use a Godly principle in an ungodly manner.
All this doesn’t remove prophecy from our lives, really it shows the importance of prophecy. Whenever the enemy goes to such lengths to discourage the use of some attribute of God, we know the attribute has to be very important. To understand the end times one has to rightly divide the Word, the Beginning gives us the first steps to the Division. When Paul tells us to Rightly Divide the Word, he is not talking about the Bible, when he referred to the Bible he used the word Scriptures, when he talked about Jesus he used the term “Word”. When we preach the Word, we preach Jesus. Anyone can preach the Bible, yet never mention Jesus. Do we divide Jesus? No, we divide the Day from the Night, as we separate the things of Salvation by Grace, from the things of Judgment.
This is very important since God grants us abilities and weapons designed for the Season we’re in. We can’t use the abilities of the Night during the Day, nor can those of the Night use the abilities granted to those of the Day. Paul said we are children of the Day, we are not children of the Night, or of the Darkness. We used to be children of the darkness, but we were never appointed to the Night. The Night is “far spent”, or near at hand (coming fast, the meaning of far spent – I Thess 5:5 & Rom 13:12).
We can have a prophecy in the Bible directed only for those of the Night, then misinterpret it by attempting to apply it to Day; meaning we attempt to bring Judgment into the Season of Salvation by Grace. We have the Gospel of Peace, but there is also the Everlasting Gospel for the Night (Rev 14:6). Our Gospel is based on Salvation, the Everlasting Gospel is based on Judgment; therefore, rightly dividing the Word is simply making the division between Salvation and Judgment. The First Coming of Jesus relates to Salvation, the Second Coming to Judgment. The Day is for Salvation, the Night for Judgment. We then see the methods God has appointed for the two Seasons. All these factors are given us in the Beginning. Just a few chapters, but a great deal of information.
Just hearing God speak is nice, but look at some of the people God talked to? Adam after the fall, Cain after he killed his brother, Balaam, and others, thus it’s not simply God talking to us, but it’s understanding and obeying what God is saying. The voice of God walked with Adam in the cool of the day, but it doesn’t mean they had fellowship, nor does it mean Adam communicated with God on God’s level. God will see it’s not right for man to be alone, but God was there! How could man be alone with God? How indeed, thus man being natural and earthly wasn’t able to communicate with God. First John tells us the first principle to having Fellowship with God is to treat the people of God as God does. Would God allow His “help meet” to violate the Commandment? Not hardly, He would warn, beg, send many signs, but Adam sat and watched as if the entire thing was a study on death.
The mere fact of Adam needing a Help Meet when God was there shows Adam was incapable of spiritual communication or fellowship. There isn’t one verse to show Adam was spiritual in nature. None of this is belittling Adam, or judging him, rather we must keep things in order. Never elevate anyone or anything higher than God has; exalting things above measure is dangerously close to idol worship.
We will see how the New Birth was proclaimed by God in the Garden, since He proclaimed it, it would come to Pass. The Purpose came in a rhetorical statement, “let us make man in our Image”. How many Gods are there? Must be a bunch for them to use the plural. Yet we know, “Hear oh Israel, your God is One”. Was God talking to Himself? Yes, He was speaking to the Son who would take on flesh, to the Holy Ghost who would bring the Spirit, to the Father who would Love the world enough to Send His only begotten Son. Cultist have more than a hard time with this, they have a complete melt down. However, if we understand we have a mind, a body and other aspects of our make-up, we can understand how God sent His “Word”, not His entire Self. We send our “word” to the store on a list, expecting the “word” to come back complete. What would happen if we sent the list, yet the list did the shopping? We would be the hit of the weekly news tabloids. We find God sent His Word, then His Word became flesh, thus His Word was not flesh before. The Purpose is in the Prophecy, not a bunch of Gods. First John says he who is antichrist denies both the Father (Mercy) and Son (Grace), denoting the Father equates to Mercy, the Son to Grace, giving us the basis of the Witness (I Jn 2:22-23, 4:1-4 & 5:7-8).
Before God formed and created man, He laid out the process of salvation. Three principles of creation become a foundation for faith. Regardless of the creation, it’s Good, even the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil was good, it was the misuse becoming the evil. Next, everything produces after its own kind, flesh for flesh, Spirit for Spirit, seed for seed. The Seed of God is nonetheless God, created (or formed) after God’s true Holiness and Righteousness (Eph 4:24). Lastly, the purpose is the salvation of our souls (I Pet 1:9). Although we will find when God finished the creation of the Night it also means the earth was ready to be destroyed, yet the purpose is still the salvation of our souls.
The phrase “Born Again” is a metaphor (figure of speech) meaning we received the Seed of God from the Holy Ghost, the Seed is Spirit, but we have to define “Born Again”. Jesus said we must be Born Again, then He used the Parable of the Sower to explain the process: the Seed is planted, which would akin to conception, then the root grows, which would be akin to the fetus stage, then comes the Blade which is akin to being Born. Paul said he had to speak to the Corinthians as if to Babes, but the word he used for Babes refers to a fetus. Therefore the concept shows we are not Born Again by having the Spirit in us, rather when the Spirit produces fruit (Blade) then we are Born Again.
Man is natural, born of the flesh, the flesh is related to the earth, it is not formed in heaven, it is not formed on Mars. God formed Adam’s flesh here on earth, man has been a reproduction of the flesh since; however, not the case with the soul. The Soul is created, who we are is determined by the soul, yet the natural soul equates who we are by the flesh. It’s only when the Spirit of Christ is introduced into us do we become complete. The flesh was first, the soul associated to the flesh, bringing to pass the soul born of the flesh, but when we are Born Again the Spirit becomes the focus of the soul, as the soul then changes from flesh to Spirit, yet no where do we find the phrase, “born of the soul is soul”. The word Born in the phrases that born of the flesh is flesh, or that born of the Spirit is Spirit is the Greek Gennao, meaning Born, but Jesus was talking to Nicodemus, thus to him it would mean the Jewish idiom of converting, thus our souls were attached to the flesh, we were run by the spirit of man, we were ignorant of the things of the Spirit of God, but then we were Born Again, we gained the Spirit which is of God, thus the process is converting our souls to becoming spiritual in nature (Jn 3:16 & I Cor 2:11-13).
God knew Jeremiah before Jeremiah was even conceived, but it doesn’t say Jeremiah knew God before Jeremiah was born. God is in all places at all times as He knows all things, but it doesn’t mean we do. Before Adam took of the fruit God knew it would happen, but it was worked into the plan. God knew, God allowed, but God also warned. If God loves, can He hate? The concept of God hating could be hard for some to accept, we could say the Bible says it, so accept it, but it’s not the role of a teacher. God is Love, but can He hate? It seems to be the question doesn’t it? In Proverbs 6:16-19 we read, “six things the Lord does hate…”, then “yea, the seventh an abomination unto Him”. We know there are abominations unto the Lord, the context in Proverbs shows the abomination holds more disfavor with God, than the things God hates! Wow, let’s look at the six, a proud look, does the face give the proud look? Or the person? The person of course. Then a lying tongue, but can a tongue lie? Or is it the Person? Hands shedding innocent blood, but do the hands do it? Or the person? A heart devising wicked imaginations, then feet swift in running to mischief, then a false witness speaking lies, all are elements of a person. God hates the things, thus if the person does the things, they are seen in the hate, but if they turn from the things, or separate themselves from the old nature, they are no longer attached to the things God hates. The abomination is “he who sows discord among the brethren”, the example is seen in the excuses of the fall, in this we find flesh and blood are not the enemy, the things God hates are.
God said “vengeance is mine says the Lord, I will repay”, thus as the Creator He has perfect and pure justice, but does this mean we can hate? Does this mean God walks around hating? Paul addressed this question in his letter to the Romans by using Esau as an example; “as it is written, Jacob I have loved, but Esau have I hated” (Rom 9:13 & Malachi 1:2). Paul then says God said this before either Jacob or Esau had done either good or evil (Rom 9:11). However, we do see there was a point when both were babies, having not done anything evil, but having not done anything good either, making them as Adam in the Garden, showing no baby goes to hell, they have done nothing to accuse them by. They were born under the sin nature, which is flesh centered, but “committing” sin is what makes one a sinner. Under the sin nature we are prone to sin, but it doesn’t make a baby a “sinner”.
Two things should stand out, first before Esau or Jacob were born God knew exactly what type of people they would be, but neither Esau or Jacob did. Next the Scriptures used “have I hated” which is a past tense statement, yet God is Now. How can this be? Let’s find what verse Paul used, is it found here in Genesis? No, we have to travel to Malachi, there we will find the answer to all this. In Malachi 1:2-3 we read, “I have loved you, says the Lord, Yet you say, Wherein have you loved us? Was not Esau Jacob’s brother? Says the Lord: yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness”. Esau was the elder, yet God made him second in position, then we find “a son honors his father and a servant his master, if then I be Father, where is My honor?”. Esau rebelled in more ways then one, the clarity comes in Hebrews where we find Esau sold his birthright for a morsel of meat (flesh – Heb 12:16). The birthright was something special from the beginning as a sign of how special our “Birthright” is in the New Birth.
Malachi speaks to two groups of people, both of which have accepted the premise of being “God’s children”. One group faces the “table”, yet we read, “The table of the Lord is polluted; and the fruit thereof, even His meat is contemptible” (Mal 1:12). The word for Meat also means Bread, thus in this passage we find the Bread (Body), but not the Wine (Blood). The Wine as a metaphor for the Blood of Jesus, the Blood can never be made contemptible, it’s always perfect, as it’s protected by the Lord; however, the Bread is different, it’s in the hands of the Bread, we are the Bread (I Cor 10:17). Contemptible Bread is when someone sows discord among the brethren, producing contempt.
The next group addressed in Malachi are the Tithers who rob God, this group says, “It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it for us to keep the ordinance..” (Mal 3:14). This group is self-based, seeking all they can get, they won’t give until they have a clear cut incentive of personal gain. Does it connect to Esau? Yes, he wanted food, it didn’t matter at the time if he had to give up his birthright, after all he wasn’t using the birthright at the moment; until the time came for him to gain it, yet it was gone, no amount of repentance could gain it back for him. Jacob saw the importance of the “birthright”, Esau mocked it: God is never happy with someone who mocks their Birthright in the New Covenant.
In reference to God hating, Paul added, “What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid” (Rom 9:14). This is joined to the phrase, “For the gift and calling of God are without repentance” (Rom 11:29), with, “For if God spared not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not you” (Rom 11:21), with, “for whosoever shall call upon the Name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom 10:13). None of these seem to fit together, yet they do. The Esau mentality is a disregard for the birthright which was granted, the rejection causes a person to sow discord among the brethren. It’s what God hates, yet He loves those who honor the birthright as a chosen child. Simply God is motivated by Love, but there are areas where we find God does hate.
First came the flesh, then God created our souls, but the purpose isn’t complete until we are Born Again by having the Spirit. The flesh gives us the right to be on this earth, the soul gives us the right to be Born Again, the Spirit gives us the right to enter the Door to heaven. Only the human was given the breath of God, it’s the breath making man a human, not the flesh, or the bones.
The method of keeping a day for the Jew is based on the creation of God, the Gentile still uses midnight to midnight as a means to tell one day from another; whereas, the Jew looks at the evening, or the time when the sunsets as the beginning of a day until the sunsets again as one day; as they saw how God began at the evening. In essence we find God only worked in the Night, regarding the things of the Night.
The day for the Jew being sunset to sunset helps us when we look at the day of the Cross; Jesus took His Passover at evening, went to the Cross in what we might consider the next day, but it wasn’t, it was still the same day according to the Jewish time keeping method. Therefore, the Passover meal and Cross were one day, not two. However, whether it’s the Jewish method of sunset to sunset, or the Gentile method of midnight to midnight, we find both use the darkness as a guide to divide days.
Jesus is our Bright Morning Star, a star shining in the Day; Peter tells us to pay attention to the sure word of prophecy until the Day dawn when the Day Star (New Man) arises in our hearts (II Pet 1:19). Our life begins at Dawn, although we find God saying, “Let there be Light”, we also find the Light didn’t come until Jesus came as the Day Star dawned.
We know the Scriptures tell us, “Joy comes in the Morning”, with “This is the Day the Lord has made, let us Rejoice and be Glad in it”, or in Hebrews where we’re told “While it is yet Today (This Day)”. What do all those mean? It’s Sunday? No, which Day do we rejoice in? The Day, not any day, rather the Day for us began when we accepted the Cross and Resurrection of Jesus. The Rapture or Catching Away is the completeness of the First Resurrection, thus the same Spirit who raised Jesus will raise us. The First Resurrection is the Resurrection of Jesus, since He was the first. Others were raised from the dead, but they were not Resurrected, they came back to the same flesh they had before, then later died. In the Book of Revelation it talks about those who are Partakers of the First Resurrection (Rev 20:5-6), taking place before the 1,000 years. Then we see the 144,000 marked on Zion of the earth, we also see a great multitude of all nations (Gentiles) in heaven, guess who they are (Rev 7:1-9). All these factors separate the Day from the Night; Jesus warned His disciples regarding this issue in Acts 1:6-8.
God called the Greater Light “Day” and the Lesser Light “Night”, yet He said, the evening came first, then the morning (Gen 1:5). Why would He say the Light appears first, yet darkness came first? In the Beginning was the Word (Jn 1:1), then John tells us, the Light shined in darkness, but the darkness comprehended it not, so which was first? (Jn 1:5). He didn’t say the Light shined in the Night, and the Night comprehended it not, nor did he say the Light came in the Day, and the Day comprehended it not, thus showing before Jesus came as the Word of God made flesh, the Age from Adam to Jesus was still one of darkness, as the darkness continues in its realm until the end of time, yet we as children of the Day are not children of the Night, or the Darkness (I Thess 5:4-5).
One could make the mistake of assuming the Light being a creation means Jesus was created. Not so, the Bible doesn’t say God created “the Light”, rather we find a permissive statement asking the Light to take its place in the Plan. God didn’t say “Light Be” as a command, or “Light come forth”, it was based on a request, the Light came forth from where it was (Gen 1:3). Later in Genesis 1:14 God again makes a permissive statement in reference to “the lights” (plural). Commands leave no choice, permissive statements do. If the Light is Jesus, as John says, then the Father would not Command the Light, it would be permissive allowing the Light to be obedient.
We said there was much in the creation account, we haven’t even touched the surface. With the addition of John’s Account we obtain more clues; in Genesis God said, “Let there be Light”, this word means A self-generating Light, or one burning forever without assistance from any source, it can’t be the “sun” as we know it, but it does relate to John 1:4, where we are told Jesus is the Life and Light of men, yet wasn’t there a sun before? Were not people walking around on the earth before? Yes, but man’s concept of “light” is much different from God’s, just as man’s concept of Life is different from God’s. Man presumes being able to breath air is “life”, God looks at Life as having the constant presence of God in ones existence. We also find John the Baptist wasn’t the Light, or the “beginning of lights”, rather his role was to bear witness of “the Light” (Jn 1:8). Then in John 1:12-13 we find the Light made it possible for man to be born of God. Until then no man could be Born of God, since Born of God means Born Again. We begin to see the Genesis Account begins the Plan, it doesn’t end it.
Could it be the saying, “Let there be Light” is connected to the “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world”? Yes, it’s why we’re going over all this. Without seeing how God is projecting His plan, we will assume we have found mistakes in the Genesis account, or make the mistake of thinking all creation begins when God says, “Let there be Light”. If the earth was void, it was in existence before God said, “Let there be Light”, thus the earth itself is much older than the life span of Adam, thus God’s plan of redemption began when He said “Let there be Light”, not before.
The earth already in existence and void means it had an existence before Adam. Another clue to the pre-existence is how God spoke to the earth, and the seeds in the earth came forth. God didn’t plant them, nor did God say, “plant be”, rather the earth obeyed by releasing the dead seeds of the plants in the earth. No seed can produce unless it’s dead, thus showing how there were plants prior. All this shows whatever was pre-existing was worked into the plan, but had nothing to do with the redemption of man.
Natural man is convinced he has found mistakes in the creation record, from his false premise he ran to the natural conclusions of Darwin, a created human, over the record of the Creator. One foolish mistake always leads to another. The Bible does show species and man adapting to surroundings, especially in Genesis chapter 10, which is referred to as the table of nations. Races, languages and the such show how man adapted to his surroundings, but Darwin took it one step further, violating the plan of God. There is no evidence of a “cross-over” evolution, no monkey – man, bird – snake, or mouse – dog evidence at all, only a theory. A theory is a guess made by a human, man set out to prove or disprove the theory, but it’s still a theory until proof is found. Suggestions regarding the theory are not good enough to prove theory, there remains disputed evidence. The evidence of “pre-historic” man shows a form of creation “pre (before) historic (history)”, but it does not show a cross over, nor does it show a “living soul”. No one disputes the bones, but to make the leap from the bone to a possessor of a soul goes beyond Theory to Fable. The real evidence is language and inventions, the evidence shows from Adam to modern man we traveled from a language to landing on the moon. In Genesis 1:2 we find the earth “void” yet in existence, showing us there was no life forms, nothing to “evolve” from, but God did call forth seeds from the earth, as well as animals, but we don’t see Him creating all of them. It’s a far cry from “evolved”; the evidence of plant life shows similar traces between pre-historic plants and what we find today, not saying they are the same, only a like kind. The evidence of Adam shows death as a result of sin, to commit sin it takes a matter of choice to violate a Commandment or Law, there was no choice until God told Adam, “in the day you eat thereof”.
The result of sin is death, the human race began with Adam, whatever was prior really doesn’t matter in the Plan of Redemption. Nonetheless this we know, we who were dead, are now alive by the faith of the Son of God who loves us, and gave Himself for us (Gal 2:20).
The Redemption is a creation in and of itself, nothing prior to a species having the breath of God had the choice to sin. Intellect begins with the ability to make a choice, from the God given intellect man could “invent”, or bring about his ideas into a physical form, showing the beginning of the image of God. All this indicates the difference between prehistoric man and Adam is based on the breath of God.
When God said, “Let there be Light” it shows the first aspect of the Plan is the Self-existing Light. From then forward the Light would always be the dominate factor, thus when the Light appeared the darkness became subordinate, or dissipated. The principle has been established ever since, becoming a hope for those of us who are the Greater Light. The first Light is not the Greater Light or the Lesser Light, but it does bring a division between Day and Night.
In the case of “let there be Light”, we find the Light humbled Himself becoming obedient, this Light is the projection of God’s Nature as His Word; in the perfect timing of God the same Light will come to His own as the very Word of God, although many children were named Jesus, only one held the title of Christ. Although the Light was given permission in the Beginning, the same Light did not manifest in human form until several thousand years later. The Plan was in action, but the result of the plan was yet future tense. Time and timing are elements the child of God must always be aware of. If we make up our own timing, or presume God must condone to our timing we might bring about something called an “Ishmael”, the manipulative product of testing the Promise of God.
Unbelief is the thought of God not being able to begin, but doubt is the thought of God not able to finish what He has begun. Belief secures the process, faith maintains it, patience keeps the boat steady.
Wait, it’s not all, the Light was introduced before any creation pertaining to Judgment, before the Night became a factor, or before Adam was formed and created the premise of the Light and Life of men was set in the Plan. Once the Father said, “Let there be Light”, the Lamb accepted the Cross. The Light would later say, “For this reason came I into the world” (Jn 18:37), showing the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world.
On the same note, God didn’t use science to perform creation, He used His Word and His “fingers”. “Wait, where does it say that?”. In Psalm 8:3, the moon, stars and heavens are the work of God’s fingers. Wait, is there a mystery here as well? Are not the heavens a metaphor for those appointed to heaven? Are not the sun and moon metaphors pointing to Israel? Yes, God spoke, things happened on the earth, but God was also projecting the works of His hands to a time yet to come.
God had the end in hand, before He began, but science must determine the exactness of what was, in order to make a guess at what might be, thus the attitude of Science would see only the darkness, or emptiness, then determine there was no light, thus there could be no light, since there was no evidence of light ever being in existence. Once science determines what it assumes was, it can determine what it thinks is, but it can never determine what will be. Science is not exact, today it’s “eat this and it will kill you”, but tomorrow it’s “well, you can eat some”, then the next day it’s, “you know, we found its really good for you”. The cares of this world are still the cares of this world. Science through the reasoning of man only views the natural, it has no concept of the spiritual (I Cor 2:14).
In Genesis 1:2 we find the Darkness was upon the Face of the Deep, the word Darkness is the Hebrew Choshekh meaning Obscurity, Dark, Darkness, Falsehood or Ignorance, none of which God created, all of which are things when appearing when the Light of God is removed. However, they become the very essence of the spirit of man.
Before the work could begin the attribute of Light was introduced, which also means Life was now on the scene. Is the Light the sun? If so what is the Greater Light? Or the Lesser Light? These Lights must go further than “sun and moon”, for many reasons, just as the darkness must also go further than the absence of physical light. The same Hebrew word used for darkness can also refer to the “darkness of the grave”, which indicates death, adding to the premise (I Sam 2:9 & Job 10:21). When we were in the world we were darkness, spiritually void, without hope of ever being spiritual in nature, the walking dead, waiting to die. We were in a no win situation, until Jesus came as the Light and Life of man with the Good News, granting us permission to be Born Again.
Of course we also see the obvious, the darkness shows a “death” had taken place on the earth, but it doesn’t show death was the result of sin. If there was a death, could it mean there were other creatures on the earth before the darkness? Interesting, let’s see what the Bible shows us. Adam had not seen death, but death was in his flesh from the beginning, the only thing providing him Life was the Living Soul maintained by the external Tree of Life while he was in the Garden. The Garden was the place of protection, just as the Unction over the Body is our protection.
The word Face in the phrase “Face of the deep” adds to this as well, it’s the Hebrew Panim meaning To turn, or The surface of a thing. The word Deep is the Hebrew Thowm meaning Wave or Waters, it was also used to point to the Abyss. What did God see in Genesis 1:2? A hardness of water on the face of the earth, with the darkness of the grave, meaning no life, or activity, yet a place already in existence. What does all this show? The earth was there, the face of the waters was there; therefore, the Beginning in Genesis refers to the Redemption process after what is known as the Ice Age. This is clear when we see the earth was here before God said, “Let there be Light”, but it was in a harden water form, with no earthen material on the surface. The Light came, the waters melted, then God set some of the waters as a firmament, the dry land did not appear until the third day (Gen 1:9).
Then another creation took place, much of the forming or creating was calling forth in a “different” form the creatures and plants from the earth. We find connections between plants and animals in our day to pre-historic times, but not an “exactness”. There are several thoughts by various scholars involving what we see in Genesis, there is the Gap View, which sees Genesis 1:1 as one aspect of creation, then a length of time for the earth to become the state of darkness and void, then God reappearing on the scene in Genesis 1:2. This is based on the phrase “God created the heaven and earth”, then adding how the earth was void and full of darkness. This view sees a period of time between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 as a great time, which would explain the “missing link”. The Gap View does go one step further, as we saw, presuming the darkness was the result of the devil being judged, but Ezekiel 28 shows it’s not the case.
Some contend this accounts for the Ice Age, which would account for the use of the Hebrew wording showing a “hardness of the face of the waters”. This theory also accounts for the “seven days of creation”, since they don’t begin until verse 2. Some questioned the Gap Theory by using Exodus 20:11 which says, “for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all in them”; however, in this we find another mystery. There are different words used for Creation and Formed, each means something different. The Hebrew Asah is translated as Formed or Made, it means to make something from something; whereas the Hebrew Bara is translated as Create, it means to make something from nothing. In Exodus 20:11 we are told God “formed (Asah)” not “created (Bara)” the heaven and earth in seven days, it supports the Prophetic Theory. How? It shows during the six nights of Creation God formed (includes calling forth something in seed form) the elements, which shows some things were created, but many were Formed, or Made from the dead seeds already in the earth. If it’s the case, then the seeds were already in the earth before Genesis 1:2.
Whether it’s a dinosaur, or prehistoric man, the evidence shows they are no longer. No matter what, we know intelligent man came about after the Ice Age, not before. No pots, no evidence of art, no evidence of advancement, no language, nothing to show intellect, yet the mind of man is found in the soul. The mind and brain are different, the brain stores information regarding the flesh, the soul contains the mind, will, emotions as well as the intellect of man, no soul no intellect, defining soulless Neanderthal.
Well perhaps the dinosaurs were around, but not written about. If it’s the case then either Noah or God missed it when Noah was told to take two of every animal, if every animal, it was every animal (Gen 7:2-3).
The other views of creation include the Pictorial Day Theory, claiming the six days mentioned for creation refer to the six days God revealed the Creation Story to Moses; however, Moses was on the mount for several days, no where in the Bible is it suggested.
Then the Intermittent Day view, which claims the days mentioned are literal days, but between each day is a time span not accounted for. However, in the Genesis account we find God creating from “evening to morning”, which means He did nothing during the Day.
The Day-Age theory says the Hebrew word Yom used for Day refers to periods of indefinite length, not literal days. This theory contends the length of time for prehistoric man would be the time Adam was in the Garden before the Fall; however, it doesn’t take into account the first Commandment given Adam, “go and multiply”, yet the Bible shows Adam didn’t even begin the Commandment until after the fall (Gen 4:1). If taking the fruit was a violation of the Commandment, then not multiplying would also be a violation. Adding the word “replenish” in Genesis 1:28, which we found is the word God gave Noah in Genesis 9:1, showing Adam was told to Replenish the earth. Paul tells us death reigned from Adam to Moses (Rom 5:14), but he does not preclude death before Adam, rather Adam is the beginning of “man”, the first created element on the planet in whom God breathed, the very first who could make a choice to sin. Adam introduced death by sin, yet he was the beginning of something special, not the result of it.
Death as a result of sin entered the human race by Adam, but it’s hard to look on the bones of pre-historic animals, then say, “Everything produces after it’s own kind”, yet not see some evidence of those animals in the Bible account. Especially when we know Noah took two of everything, the Ark wasn’t big enough for old Dino and his friends. The answer is of course, Adam is the first “human”, anything before was plant like, even if it had flesh. We also find Adam’s flesh was formed of the dirt, thus DNA connections would be there, but hardly defining a “human”.
The Literal Day Theory accepts the meaning of the text to mean six literal days, with no other creations of any kind before Genesis 1:2; however, does it mean God can create evil and darkness, as well as God being void and without purpose? Not the case at all, the Literal Day theory uses the “evening and morning” to show they are days; however, “evening to morning” is not Day, but Night. It has to connect to “work while it is yet Day, for the Night comes when no man can work”.
We are stuck with the obvious, everything produces after its own kind, God only created in the Night, thus the things created were for the Night, there is no darkness in God, yet the earth was without form, void and darkness, unless we can answer these questions, we have not answered anything, regardless of which theory one holds.
There is another Theory, one fitting all the questions, the Prophetic Theory, yet it doesn’t discount the day, but points to the Night as God completed the creation for Judgment in the Beginning, leaving a time when the Light would come as Jesus, opening the time for the Greater and Lesser Lights, bringing into focus the prophecy of “let us make man in our image”. This Theory also accepts the thought of the space of time between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2, but does not accept the concept of Satan falling then. Rather God’s knowledge had the end in hand, before there was a beginning, God not only gave choice to man, but gave man many blessings.
Nonetheless we do find there was no punishment stated for Adam’s failure to multiply, at the fall there will a punishment toward Adam female regarding the subject. We all know we can obey God with Joy, or reluctantly, but we can also presume since God didn’t state a punishment for His request, we don’t have to do it. God could tell us to “pray”, but since God didn’t say, “if you don’t pray in dying you will die”, we presume we really don’t have to. The evidence shows Adam was not in the Garden very long, but he was there long enough to name the animals, walk with God in the cool of the day, and partake of the fruit of the tree, but why not obey God and multiply? No stated punishment, which shows Adam had faith, he simply didn’t walk in it. Faith in God involves obedience to God because we want to obey, just as faith in the self involves obedience to the self because we serve the self. Only one of those is called Godly faith, guess which one.
It was only after the Adam fall he decided to obey the Commandment, then he went so far as to name his wife as he did the animals. This shows Adam wasn’t in the Garden long, the Day-Age theory depends on something not evidenced by Scripture. God walking with Adam in the cool of the day shows several things, first God didn’t walk with Adam in the Night. Next it was one day, rather than “days” as many. The key to the amount of time Adam spent in the Garden is found in the Commandments. The first commandment to multiply involved conception, yet Eve did not conceive until they were cast from the Garden (Gen 4:1). The theory of the Yom day should have taken into consideration the concept of God walking with Adam in the cool of the Yom. If God rested on the Seventh Day, which Day did God walk with Adam? After the Seventh? Or before?
Which takes us back to the Literal Day theory, which accepts the Hebrew Yom to mean a literal 24 hour Day. This theory is the one which begun the thought of the entire universe being only 7,000 years old. However, it doesn’t take into account the time element of the Day, it presumes God worked day and night for six days. According to Genesis, God worked nights becoming the first “swing shift” worker (just kidding). It also doesn’t take into account the darkness, void and without form, none of these elements are attributes of God, they are elements occurring when creation is separated from God.
God is speaking of Lights, not one, not two, but Three, then He speaks of the Day and Night, yet the time before the appearance of Jesus in the flesh was darkness (Jn 1:5). Then Jesus tells us to work while it is yet Day, for the Night comes when no man can work (Jn 9:4). If the Night was yet future tense, but the Day began with Jesus as the Light, then the time before was under the Shadow in darkness. Therefore, how could God point to the “Day” as His time of work? In all this what is a Day? Simply a measurement of time for man to understand, it doesn’t matter if it was 24 hours, or 24 minutes, or 5,000 years, it was simply a measurement of time.
Then Jesus tells us the first will be last, but the last will be first. The Prophetic theory says the Day began with Jesus as the Word taking on flesh came as the Light (Jn 1:1-8), then those who are Born Again are the Greater Light of the Day, when they are gone then comes the Lesser Light of the Night. The creation for the Night of Judgment is taken care of here in Genesis, but the creation of the Day is a work in progress. Therefore the saying of Jesus regarding Work while it is yet Day (present tense) indicates the Greater Works of Salvation, but we also find no man can work in the Night since it will be based on Judgment, thus those works were completed here in Genesis. Paul backed this up by telling us we are children of the Day, not the Night, as the Night was far spent (coming quickly – I Thess 5:5 & Rom 13:12).
This theory also says Adam could not be the completed image of God, since Adam fell the first chance he got, which is also evidenced by the birth of Cain, as well as Adam not engaging in any sexual relationship with Eve until after the Fall (Gen 4:1). Also First Corinthians chapter 15 points out the First Adam was natural, made of the earth, for the earth as a living soul, but the Second Adam is of Heaven, a Quickening Spirit. Couple this with the Greek Psuche which is the soul life of man, and we find Adam is the beginning unto the Image, but the completed Image was presented when Jesus said, “Ye must be Born Again”. Therefore the completed Image of God would be found in those who are Born Again, who have Jesus in them of a truth as Christ in them, the hope of Glory.
It’s important to remember whatever was before Adam was not “human”, making Adam the first “man” on the earth. We can’t forget the fall didn’t take place on the moon, or outside the Garden, it took place in the Garden, the very place where God said everything was Good. The word Good means Pleasant, Agreeable, Excellent, or Perfect for its purpose. It was Good for the purpose, it has to be taken into consideration, or we are left with God not being all knowing, which is never the case.
The animal mind will fight, or seek flight, man reasons and invents. Animals have to be trained, but man learns, much different. The Prophetic Theory takes into consideration the New Testament, but it doesn’t approach the length of a Day, rather it looks at the elements created or formed as they relate to the Redemption of man. It doesn’t see the term Day as from morning to morning, rather it sees it as it’s indicated in the Scriptures, Evening to Morning, which leaves a period of time for the New Creation. Not the exactness of time, but the promise of a New Creation yet to come as a division between the creation already done for the Night in Genesis, and the creation for the Day in progress now.
Without the Beginning found here in Genesis, we would not know what Jesus was talking about regarding the New Creation, or the Light, or the Night. John’s Account adds to Genesis showing us the Light which is self-illuminating is Jesus. This is clear when we find man was in darkness until the Light (Jesus) shined in the darkness, but the darkness comprehended it not (Jn 1:5). If God said Let there be Light here in Genesis, how come man was in darkness? The fall? Yes, but “the Light” is still self-illuminating, thus the Light was still “hidden” from man until the time appointed.
Some of us have been told Adam had a spirit, yet the fall killed his spirit, thus the New Birth is merely a rejuvenation of the old spirit, but negates the word New (never before), it also negates the phrase, “Behold all things are New”. If God knew we would need a new body to fit the Resurrection by forming (not creating) the flesh of Adam of the earth, then God also knew the New Birth would be something which was never before. In Genesis 1:26 in the phrase “Let us make man in our image” the Hebrew word is Asah, not Bara; the only thing God Asah with Adam was the flesh of Adam, yet Jesus as the Word took on flesh for us. The soul was Bara, yet the New Birth is Asah based on a Bara, thus in Genesis 1:27 we find God did “create” man in God’s Image, but there it’s the word Bara not Asah, relating to the soul, or better, what the soul consisted of, rather than the flesh of man. The division between the two verses is also a division of time, the Image of God is a Forming Process, but the soul is a creative process, thus the principle is we are being “formed” into the Image of God’s Son by the Spirit through the New Birth. All this explains why the purpose of our faith is the salvation of our souls (I Pet 1:9).
Using the Hebrew we could read Genesis 1:26 as, “Let us Form man in our image”, but the prophetic language would be “let us Create man in our image”. The Breath of Life produced something Created, not Formed. Look at the flesh of man, do we get a new flesh when we are born into the world? Or do we get a reproduction of the flesh? A reproduction of course, the egg and seed join to reproduce or Asah the flesh, but our souls are still Bara (created). We don’t get an independent separate Spirit when we are Born Again, rather the New Man is created (or formed, same Greek word – Eph 4:24) after, not instead of God’s holiness and righteousness. Therefore, the New Man is a reproduction of the Spirit of God, Paul called it the Spirit which is of God (I Cor 2:11-13). Christ in us then becomes the Image of the Son of the Living God; the New Man is then the completeness of the prophecy, Let us make man in our image (Jn 7:39). If the New Man is a reproduction, how then is it New? It’s New to man, no man before the Resurrection of Jesus had the Spirit, therefore the New Man makes us New Creatures, a Creature which was never before in the human race (Jn 7:38-39, II Cor 5:17 & Gal 6:15). Clearer when we find the same Spirit who raised Jesus, will raise us, thus the Spirit is based on the Resurrection (Rom 1:4).
The evidence shows the same Spirit who raised Jesus will raise us, based on the interwoven relationship of “Father and Son”, but Jesus had to be raised First before any of this was possible. It’s important, since some think the New Man is an independent element, not so, being Born Again grants us Adoption into the Family of God, whereby we cry, “ABBA Father”. This New Birth is the greatest gift any human could have, thus we find the Esau attitude of rejecting the Birthright is something causing God to “hate”.
When we were born of the flesh the potential to sin was there, each of us did consume the fruit willingly. When we come to the Cross those sins are forgiven, but we were also removed from the darkness, so we could be cleaned from the stains of sin by the washing of the Water by the Word. From there the work begins, as we become New Creatures in Christ by the Justifying process.
Simply, before Jesus came as the Word made flesh there was darkness, thus God did deal with man before the Cross, but man was still in darkness (Jn 1:5 & 3:19). Although we see God saying, “let there be Light”, the Light didn’t come until Jesus as the Word was made (not created) flesh, thereby showing the amount of prophecy involved in the Genesis account. Simply because our physical eye sees the sun come up, or someone turn on a light, it doesn’t mean we are light. How do we know? We need an external light to bring light, take away the external source and we’re in darkness. Take the wire from the switch and we can use all the faith in the world, yet it won’t work, it has to have Power.
We now know the word used for “Light” in the phrase “Let there be Light” means a self-illuminating Light generating Life, something to bring light to other sources. The sun in the sky is a “sign”, the sun’s rays help the plants to grow, but the sun does not produce the Life of Christ. This Light and Life of Christ was seen in the Book of Revelation as Jesus walking among the seven golden candlesticks, it’s clear churches didn’t appear until the Church was birthed on Pentecost. The Jew knows the candlestick as the Menorah, they know it takes Oil to keep the light burning. We know the Oil as a symbol of the Anointing of God’s Mercy, seen as Olive Oil, the same Oil keeping the lamp burning. The Olive itself represents Mercy, under pressure it brings forth the Anointing.
What else is very important here? Grace and Salvation, when God said, “Let there be Light”, Grace and Salvation were in the plan waiting for the time when Jesus would bring Grace to mankind, thus the Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. From the Cross to the Resurrection, then Pentecost for the birth of the Church, the time when the Day would be open to man through the New Birth. Here in Genesis the plan is in motion, God spoke of the Greater Light for the Day, which is us, then the Lesser Light for the Night, which is yet to come: He defined how the Word is rightly divided at the Cross. The division between the two show the works of Judgment are being completed here in Genesis, thus if there is Eternal Judgment, there has to be Eternal Salvation, the two premises came after Genesis 1:2, not before.
If we fail to see God is giving prophecy, or how this creation account goes much further than trees, bugs and birds, we will presume there is an error in the Creation Account. We see the sun and moon, we know any light on the moon is merely a reflection from the light of the sun, yet here in Genesis we find the lesser light has its own light as it’s separated from the light of the Day. The division or separation shows one light doesn’t touch the other, yet we know any light on the moon, is by the sun. They are for two completely different purposes and times, yet both gain their Light from The Light. We end with far too many lights, there is the Light of the Day, okay fine, the Lesser light of the Night, nay, the reflection of the Day, but then comes The Light causing us to go “tilt”. Where are these lights? Was Moses nuts? Whacko? What? “Oh just an old man who liked to write, but didn’t know what we smart people do”. Ouch, the man wrote as he was moved by the Holy Ghost, surely the Holy Ghost knew what was going on.
Then we find the Hebrew has a word for Sun (Shemesh) it was first used in Genesis 15:12, the Hebrew word for Moon is Yareach it was first used in Genesis 37:9. Here in Genesis neither the English or Hebrew words for sun and moon are used, but we do find three lights, supporting the Prophetic View. The Hebrew has specific words for sun and moon, the words used here are very different. The Light is a self-generating source of Light, it needs nothing but itself, only God fits the description. The Greater Light and Lesser Light are not self-generating, they need assistance, the Hebrew word used for Light in their case connects to the Menorah, but the word for The Light does not.
Simply, The Light is Jesus, the Greater Light supplying the light for the remaining two lights, one for the Day unto Salvation, one Lesser light for the Night unto Judgment. The Son brought the creation for the Day, the Father did the creation for the Night, thus the Father will make the enemies of Jesus His footstool, the times of the Night are in the hand of the Father (Acts 1:6-8). The Formation and Creation of the Day is the New Man, the creation for the Night is much different. There is no error in the Bible, only error in the mind of the one seeking error.
Darkness is always the result of the absence of light; darkness cannot force Light out of the picture, but Light can force darkness out of the picture, it’s never the other way around. God used the darkness over the earth to give us hope. What hope? The power of Light is always greater than the power of darkness, much like the Greater He being greater than the he in the world (I Jn 4:1-4). Paul said the spirit of the world is opposed to the Spirit which is of God (I Cor 2:11-13); the Spirit which is of God is the New Birth, thus there couldn’t be a spirit of the world, until the Spirit which is of God appeared as the Seed planted. However, the spirit of man is ignorant of the things of the Spirit of God, we will find the proof in the fall.
God didn’t have to remove the darkness, then bring light, rather the Light dispelled darkness. Adding how God’s Word will not return to Him void, but will accomplish what the Word was sent to do, it also shows how the Word in us is fully able to bring us through this. The Word of God is quicker and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, dividing asunder within us, removing the darkness by being the Light (Heb 4:12).
Whether the earth became dark based on the result of some comet, or some great prehistoric dilemma doesn’t matter, God knowing it would happen does. God knows all things, thus He didn’t show up one day and say, “Now, what happened here? Someone made it all icy and cold, it’s void; what happened? Did someone forget to pay the light bill?”. God had a purpose, the purpose was not for Noah, it was not for Moses, it was not for John the Baptist, it was for those of us who live in Jesus. Rejoice this is the Day the Lord has made, it’s the Day of Salvation, our Bright Morning Star Jesus came to open the Day to give us Light and Life. What a time to be born, what a time to be Born Again.
When we talk about God’s creation being “good”, it sounds fine and well, then we run into a theological dilemma in Isaiah 54:16 where we find God saying, “I have created the waster to destroy”. If God cannot create evil, how could He create the Waster? He created Good with a choice, the Waster makes the decision to be a Waster, yet God knew it, thus God took the responsibility. In the foreknowledge we find God created one thing, knowing it would be another. The same is true with Pharaoh, God said He raised Pharaoh to show God’s power, yet Pharaoh was anything but Good. God allowed Pharaoh to sit in power showing God allowed, but God allowed for a purpose benefiting God’s children, not Pharaoh.
Of course the real point in Isaiah 54:16 is how the waster can’t do good, can’t save, can’t be nice, can’t do anything, but destroy. Like the idol made from the hand of man, the Waster is a product of natural reasoning. The Waster is not a creator in any sense of the word, all the waster knows how to do is destroy as its unchangeable nature. However, even the Waster is a product of creation, but when did the Waster surface? At the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Waster had an end result of evil, but started out as good. The devil is in an un-restorable state, his fall was on earth, but he sinned against heaven, which is his first estate, a far cry from us who are trying to get to heaven.
The devil will attempt to sell Adam female a bill of goods to promote the tree as having an ability it did not. The Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil was based in Knowledge, not Ability. The devil not only misused the Tree, he falsely promoted it. This shows Knowledge doesn’t give us ability, it gives us awareness. We can have knowledge on how to fly, but it doesn’t mean we can. We can have knowledge on how to drive a car, but it doesn’t mean we are one. The Pharisees made the same mistake, assuming since they read about Life in the Scriptures, they had it. Jesus said, the Scriptures tell us about Life, they can’t grant it (Jn 5:38-42). We should never confuse knowledge with ability.
Do we really presume God sits in heaven and says, “Wow, look, what did they call it? A computer? It’s catchy, wish I’d thought of it.”? Or, “Wonder how it works? Hey Mike, do you think they will give Me classes, we could use one of those up here?”, or “Hey guys, no more prayer, we’re going e-mail”. Not so, God saw it all well before the beginning of time, man will never surprise, or impress God, but we can please God by faith. Pleasing God and impressing Him are different, some of us have fallen for the false thought of our works impressing God. Not so, it’s faith pleasing Him, but even faith won’t impress Him. What is man, that he should glory?
We have another phrase in Genesis 1:2, “And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters”. If the word Deep means Waters, why not use it again? Why did God use another Hebrew word for “waters”? The word for Waters is the Hebrew Mayim meaning Juice, or Wine, or Flowing water, thus we find the Prophetic Theory has merit. We find the Hardness of the Water, then the Spirit moving over causing the Juice or Flowing water, thus showing a melting of some type. This gives room for soulless creatures before Adam, showing how these creatures were plant like, no more, no less, they didn’t have a soul, they were as the plants, a thing for a purpose.
Even a monkey can start a fire, so what? Can a monkey worship the Lord God with all his heart? Man attempting to exalt his existence has placed himself with the monkeys, ending more the monkey, than the apes. If man wanted to be “like unto” something, why not pick the whales? They were the first “living souls” (living creatures – Gen 1:21). The English phrase, “living creature” is the same Hebrew wording for “living soul”, thus man had something granted him by the Breath of God which separated man’s life existence from the animals. God never breathed into the whales, yet they are a “type” of living soul, yet no whale ever built a house, but they need something outside of their environment to live.
Could the breath of God be “spirit”? No, our study discipline must accept First Corinthians 15:44-47, where Adam is termed a “living soul”, “natural”, neither “spirit” or “spiritual”. We were first natural, made living souls by the Cross, but there remains the Grave and Resurrection for us to gain the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead (Rom 1:3-4 et al).
Paul also told us there is the glory of a bird, the glory of a fish, the glory of the sun, the glory of the moon, and the glory of the Stars, yet the Stars differ in their glory, thus we find there are at least two classes of Stars, one with number, one without number, as they differ in Glory, yet some will even lose their glory (I Cor 15:40-41, Jude 13. Rev 1:20, et al). Paul also placed this in the same area where we find the difference between a, living soul and a quickening spirit (I Cor 15:45-48). There must be a mystery here, one connecting to the Newness for the Children of the Day. We can’t elevate Adam above what God intended, we must keep in mind if God knows all things, He knew about the fall before He said, “Let there be light”. Indicating the fall was purposed to be in the plan, it was allowed to happen in order to bring something to pass. Since God cannot tempt us with evil, He allowed the one who found the iniquity in himself to do it. The devil was once an angel, but he allowed himself to be impressed by himself, envy entered causing him to find the iniquity, which caused him to fail at his God given task. Did God know it? Yes, God knows all things. Who created this angel? God, thus He knew at the time of the creation this same angel would be the devil. However, God created him for a purpose, the purpose of choice.
We don’t want to be redundant, but this is so important, it demands a further look. The Greater Light rules the Day, the problem is some of those in the Greater Light don’t know what the word “rule” means. Jesus has made us kings and priests (Rev 1:6), so do we know what our Priesthood Order calls for? If we’re all kings, who are our subjects? A king, or queen are only king and queen in their realm. The purpose of any kingdom is to carry out the will of the king, but we also know the Queen of England isn’t going to come to the United States, sit in the Speaker of the House’s chair saying, “Well, this is what I want you to do”. Why? Wrong realm. There are kings of the earth, but there are kings of the Kingdom as well. If we confuse which realm we are in, we could find ourselves on doing for the devil, what he can’t do for himself.
Again, who are our subjects? Am I yours? No, are you mine? No, yet we’re both kings. So, who are our subjects? Who made us kings? Jesus has (past tense) made us kings and priests (Rev 1:6 & 5:10). Answer this, Who then are our subjects? We think of subjects in a kingdom as people, but it’s the world’s view, not ours. In our kingdom Mercy is a subject, but so is anger; Grace is one, but so is slander. A king has rule over who or what they allow into their kingdom, of course in our case we answer to the King of kings. Nonetheless, Jesus gave us the keys, He has made us kings, thus we are the ones who say what can and cannot exist in our realm, meaning we have authority over things. If we want Mercy in our kingdom, we turn the key and allow it, but we can also pull back the key refusing Mercy a position. We are the ones with the keys giving us the ability to loose, or bind.
God created the earth then gave it to man, but wait, doesn’t God own the cattle on a thousand hills? Doesn’t God say all the gold and silver are His? Ahh, the earth was given to man as Psalm 115:16 says, but in Psalm 114:7 we find the earth trembles at the presence of the Lord. If the earth no longer belongs to God in any respect why would it tremble? We find the earth was given to man, but the ownership remained with God, the future of the earth is already determined here in Genesis, it will happen, no man or devil is going to stop it. We find our realm is not of this world, we are a people of a Kingdom far greater in scope and ability.
The Spirit moved, the Father saw, the Word spoke and the Record of the Trinity was established in the Beginning (I Jn 5:7-8). Did the Spirit “touch” the water, or move Upon it? Good question, the answer is found in the Hebrew word Al (upon) meaning Above, or Over, showing a position from an upward view to a lower view, without the premise of touching or entering. The Spirit of God hovered over the Waters, but in our case the Holy Ghost plants the Seed of God in us.
Even in the beginning man was Garden bound, not heaven loosed. Some of us think the anointing destroys the yoke, but Isaiah 10:27 says, “and it shall come to pass in that Day, his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing”. The word Because is the Hebrew Pamiym meaning Before, or Prior to. It doesn’t say the anointing will destroy the yoke, it says the yoke will be destroyed Because of the anointing. If we are Born Again we know several things, but among them we must know there is no Yoke of burden on us, we are Anointed. Jesus made it clear when He said, “the Spirit of the Lord is upon Me Because He has anointed Me”. Which came first the Spirit or the Anointing? The Anointing, thus we find the Yoke is broken to bring the Anointing, then the Holy Ghost brings the Spirit, the same thing we find here, the Spirit came, then the Light.
Next God would make a Firmament in the midst of the waters, it’s purpose was to Divide the waters (Gen 1:6). What Waters? The waters the Spirit moved upon? Why divide them, they looked okay to begin with. The word Firmament is the Hebrew Raqia meaning An expanse or Sky, or a series of Plates beaten down, thus this Firmament was a Division in the atmosphere placing the various airs in position. It would seem strange we don’t find Rain until Noah, not only Rain, but the flood saw the waters of the deep coming up, as well as the waters above coming down. If it’s the case did God forget to place rain in the creation equation? No, it was in the forecast, seen here in the firmament. Is this separation still in effect? No, we know the salt water of the ocean evaporates, then forms clouds as the rain falls as fresh water. Here it’s not fresh water, or salt water, but a division forming a vapor over the earth. We wonder how some of these people lived long, the evidence shows it was this separation. After the flood it all changes, the waters from above fell in what God called “rain”, from then on the ages of mankind decreased.
The length of age for man is so dramatic one can’t mistake a great change took place. Noah was 600 years old when the flood began (Gen 7:11), Noah lived another 350 years after the flood (Gen 9:29), yet after the flood the ages of man decreased (Gen 11:10-28). Two years after the flood Shem was 100 years old, he beget Arphaxad and Shem lived another 403 years after the birth of Arphaxad (Gen 11:11-12). If one does the math, they would find Abraham was born 292 years after the flood, thus both Noah and Shem would have been alive, we even find Shem would have outlived Abraham by nearly 35 years. Wow! Maybe they kept different lengths of years? If it’s the case they would have fathered these children at the ripe old age of 7. The entire point is the decline in ages, regardless of what we use to determine the age, it nonetheless shows a decline taking place just after the Flood. If God finished all the work, where did the Flood come from?
Was the rain the only new thing regarding Noah? No, we find the concept of “Covenant”, with Noah (Gen 6:18). Adam never heard the word “Covenant”, but Noah did. We also find the Noahic Covenant changed something else with man, providing another choice. Noah was given permission to eat cooked meat, thus Adam and all those leading up to Noah were vegetarians, or herb eaters. What they ate, or didn’t eat didn’t make them holy, the Flood proved it (Gen 9:1-6). The problem came on the other side of the flood, man could eat meat, but some of the animals were then allowed to eat man. It’s not what goes into a man, but what comes out of his mouth determining man’s holiness, or corruption.
Here in Genesis we run into another dilemma, back in verse 3 God said, “Let there be Light”, but here in verse 16 we find God “made” two lights, one to rule the Day, the other to rule the Night. God didn’t make the First Light, He requested it. Ahh, let’s take a close look here. In verse 3 God made a request, the Light obeyed, thus God didn’t “create”, or “make” The Light, He isn’t creating the other Lights either, He is “making” or forming them. Clearly this indicates the End was in hand before the Beginning began. This also connects to the division of the firmament, the division between Gentile and Jew was seen in the Genesis account, long before there was a Jew.
The moon is a creation, as the sun is a creation, since both are types of planets. Did God really make the sun and moon at this point? Or where they in place when the Spirit moved over the waters? God is creating and making all the physical elements we see here, but He is also laying out the Gospel. The Light being permissive was asked to shine to dissipate the darkness, it did. However we also find the Ages are being “framed”, yet there is also a physical creation taking place as well. This explains why the Night has a lesser light, but we know the physical moon has no light of its own. The Night is Judgment with a light set for Judgment, although it begins with Peace and Safety, it ends in sudden destruction. Salvation is always greater, thus it has the Greater Light, but to whom much is given, much is required.
However, we’re waiting for “the Day of the Lord”, yet the prophet Amos said, “Woe unto you who desire the day of the Lord! to what end is it for you? the day of the Lord is darkness and not light” (Amos 5:18). The word Light in Amos is the same Hebrew word used in Genesis 1:3 for the phrase “Let there be Light”. How can it be? Wait, a Day to the Lord is like a thousand years, could it be the Day of the Lord begins when the Day of Salvation is done, meaning the Day of the Lord is the Night ending at the Judgment? Could be. How could it be? Right here in Genesis, the first day was evening to morning, showing the “Day of the Lord” is really Night. We wait for the Day of the Lord, since it begins the Night, it will also end the Day. The Day of the Lord is the Day of Vengeance and Judgment, but for the Daytime the Lord is focused on Salvation.
Since we know the phrase “living creature” and “living soul” are the same, does it mean God gave the whales mouth to mouth? Not at all, it shows God called to the earth, then the earth brought forth the animals as individual classes, but when it came time for Man, God put His own hand to the task. No whale is the work of the hand of God, but all mankind is, as we found the whale and man are in one environment, but require another.
All the life of the earth, except for man, who was nonetheless formed of the earth, or were already in the earth when God said, “Let there be light”. There were no living souls with the breath of God before Adam, creatures of the earth who had a slight resemblance to man may have walked around, but they lacked many things a human has, they were a type of plant, not even close to “a living soul”, not even close to the whale, much less a human. Modern man studies pre-historic man, but did pre-historic man study anything? No, modern man looks at bones, pre-historic man chewed on them. Monkeys don’t study men, men study monkeys. God gave man something in the created soul to separate mankind from all the other creatures on the earth, pre-historic or not.
We assume God created all creatures, but we find “God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature” (Gen 1:24), and “Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature who has life” (a type of forming – Gen 1:20). Man’s concept of “life” coming from the waters is almost correct, but man thinks a cell one day decided to become a living thing: it stretches the concept to a fable. Man did not come from the Waters, rather God formed the flesh of man from the earth, then God breathed into man, as man became a living soul.
Simply looking at flesh and bone one could think man was like unto the animals, but for man to “reason and invent” takes something the dust of the earth could not provide. There were no creatures before Adam who had like abilities, rather it would take a created soul from God. The soul would contain certain attributes from God, a type of Love based in a joy, the measure of faith, the ability to reason, an intellect far above the animal world, the ability to form things from ideas, yet man would also be limited. Man was given authority to name the animals, but even Adam didn’t have permission to eat them. In the ark of Noah there were loins, lambs, bears and birds, yet none of them attempted to eat each other. At first the animals and man were vegetarian, herb, fruit and grain eaters. Even after the fall it remained, Noah would be the first to be granted permission to eat cooked red meat, yet as we found the meat would also be given permission to eat man.
The creatures coming from the earth obtained their life from the earth, thus they are earth Bound. We also find the “moving creature”, the “living creature”, the “winged fowl” all with a metaphoric meaning as well. The “beast of the earth” comes out of the earth, in this we find the three stages of the enemies of Jesus. Jesus will tell us the “birds” attack the Seed, they rest in the shadow of the tree, yet they are not the tree, nor the Seed, nor the Fruit. Then the “living creature” points to those who enter the Kingdom of heaven, obtain a living soul condition, but reject the Quickening Spirit position. The Moving creature is a type of subject beginning in one area, but moves to another, yet never makes a real change in elevation. Peter said they Riot during the daytime, Jude said they feast with us, yet they despise dominion; Paul said they are formed into vessels of dishonor. They are called to enter the Day, they even enter in the “morning” (Beginning), but they seek power alone, or to feel morally superior over mankind. They are classed as the workers of Iniquity or the Wicked, they are the antichrist ones who came from us, but were not of us (I Jn 2:19). Today we hear much about the “antichrist”, but the title only appears in two letters, both from John. In those letters we find the spirit of this antichrist can only come about after someone enters the Body, yet rejects the Greater He for the he of the world (I Jn 2:18-23, 4:1-4 & II Jn 1:7). The Saving of our souls removes us from the realm by giving us the Greater He as our means of escape (I Jn 4:1-4). The ability to “confess Jesus is come in the flesh” is not the same as saying there was a historical Jesus. The term means we display Jesus as we live by the Spirit in us, thus the Greater He is the means of confession (I Jn 4:1-4).
However, there had to be a male and female to begin this. One of the hardest things in the concept of cross-over evolution is the male, female requirement. Even if a million years goes by then some bird egg gives way to a snake, what sex was it? If a male, what then is the probability of a female coming forth in the life span of the one male? Far too great, far, far, far too great. It would seem the opponents of the Bible in their effort to show their wisdom, have become fools (Isa 19:13 et al).
When it comes to man, why didn’t God just create the entire man, soul and flesh, why Form the flesh out of the dust of the earth? (Gen 2:7). It’s another clue showing the End was in hand, before the Beginning began, as God made room for the Resurrection. The creation need not remain in the same form, it can change, yet last forever. The earth will remain forever, perhaps in a different form, but nonetheless forever. The soul of man will last forever, God intended it so.
We can see God breathed into Adam, but in the New Testament we see the Seed of God bringing a Birth process within. Adam was not “born” as we know it, but his soul came the same way as ours. His “mother” was the earth, the very egg of the flesh, but his soul became the product of God, thus Adam is called a “son of God” because God formed him by the hand of God, but The Son Of God (Jesus) is much different. Jesus who was equal to God, Adam who was never equal to God; Jesus who took on flesh, Adam who was flesh; Jesus who died for us, Adam who caused death by sin.
As we read Genesis we see all these mysteries unfolding, yet we must recall the words were penned by Moses, there is no way Moses had a clue to DNA, or prehistoric elements, or why Adam was told to “replenish” the earth. If the Bible was by the hand of man, the wording would be much different. To Moses the three lights had to seem weird at best, but he wrote what he was told. Moses was raised in the house of Pharaoh, his training regarding how life begun was much different from the words he was writing. Moses was a faithful servant, as he wrote what he is told, even if he didn’t understand it.
The Breath of God imparted something from God connected to Adam making Adam a Living Soul by the Breath of Life, separating Adam from the whales, giving Adam a position above the animals. Position is important, John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Ghost, but he didn’t lay hands on the sick, or raise the dead, or cast out devils. His position and authority were limited to preparing the way by preaching, water baptizing people unto repentance, and washing the Sacrificial Lamb of God. The Holy Ghost will never fill us to go beyond our God granted authority, thus we find Mercy has an authority for the Son of man, Grace for the Son of God.
The word Breath doesn’t mean God gave man Spirit, rather it means the Breath was the method God used in delivering something to man. If someone handed us an egg in a spoon, would we obtain the egg? The spoon? Or their hand? The egg of course, thus the hand and spoon were the methods used to make the delivery, but the egg became the thing delivered. It’s what we find here, God transferred something to man by His breath into the nostrils of Adam, then Adam obtained the ability to breath in and out as a living soul. From then on man lives on the earth by breathing the earth related oxygen in and out through his nose. Man does not breath through his ears, or belly button, it’s the oxygen man must have in order to exist in the flesh. The soul didn’t need oxygen, but it does need the flesh to remain connected to the earth, thus the flesh became connected to the soul, the soul to the flesh, but they are different elements.
There are several Hebrew words for “Breath”, some do mean “Spirit”, but the word used here is not one of them. Genesis 2:7 gives us two words to look at, first we find “God formed man of the dust of the ground and Breathed”, then we read, “the breath of life”. It would seem the breathing and the breath are one in the same, but they are two different Hebrew words. We went over some of this prior, finding Adam was made a hollow image or Tselem, one lacking the inward Image. The New Birth finishes the process, thus Adam was the beginning of the plan, not the end. However, the first word for Breathed as it relates to God breathing into the nostrils of Adam is the Hebrew Naphach meaning To puff, Kindle, or Scatter, it’s means to breathe out, rather than in and out, but it is not the Hebrew word generally used for “spirit”, rather it means more of the actual breath going out, showing the method of transference was something from the mouth, or lungs if you will, to a source, but nothing taken back in return. God breathed into Adam, He didn’t breathe in and out into Adam. So what? God didn’t take back anything from Adam, the breath transferred something into Adam making him a “living soul”. Adam was not a “living soul” before then, thus it shows the flesh of Adam was not the connection to God, yet modern man still thinks the “image of God” is the flesh of man. Adam’s flesh being formed of the dust could not be the Image of God, since God is Spirit, the beginning of the Image started when God breathed into man, then Adam was elevated to a higher position as a living soul. This shows God’s progressive nature, everything pointed to advancement.
The other word Breath as it relates to the breath of life is the Hebrew NeShamah meaning A puff of air, it was translated twice as “spirit” once in Job 26:4 showing the breath of man is a product of God, and once in Proverbs 20:27 which is a prophetic verse pointing to a time yet to come when man would be able to let his “light” shine. The Hebrew word most often connected to the word “spirit” is the Hebrew Ruach, which we do not see here. The Living Soul aspect is two Hebrew words, the word for Living is the Hebrew Chay meaning alive, or to have a life, the word for Soul is the Hebrew Nephesh translated as soul, meaning a creature having flesh and a soul. No where do we find the Hebrew words showing Adam was flesh, soul and spirit. Is it important? Yes, we saw some reasons why, if a Spirit can die, it means we have no confidence in Eternal Salvation, since it depends on an Eternal Spirit. Adam made one error, causing him to be cast from the Garden, hardly what we who are Born Again experience. To assume Adam killed off his spirit would also mean we can kill the devil, or we can kill God, yet we know it’s never the case. If we already have a spirit brought back to life, then we don’t need our souls saved, we can be rein-soul. If Adam had a spirit, then Paul was in error when he said Adam was a living soul. All this helps us see Adam was Perfect, but Perfect for what?
On the same note, Adam was above the animals and special. If Adam became a Living Soul, then the Life he held must be different from the animals, all humans must have something different from the animals. God is Love, God is Light, unto every man is given the measure of faith. If it’s given, it’s a gift (Rom 12:3). The Wicked and Unreasonable twist their measure of faith into the self, thus Paul says they lack faith, yet they made the choice to become Wicked or Unreasonable, in the beginning they had faith (II Thess 3:2).
Adam fits the grouping of mankind with the ability to reason, form, love, analyze, study, think, or have faith. Adam may have had a type of Life, but why have the Tree of Life? If his life was internal and forever, then he would care less if he was separated from the Tree of Life. Adam’s Life had to be maintained externally, without the New Man we won’t be able to maintain Life either, but for Adam it was external, for us it’s internal.
Adam’s flesh came from the earth, a place with the potential to become dark and void, it had all the elements of any creature who walked on the face of the earth before the face of the waters covered it, thus it was more animal than human. Since the Bible tells us the earth was in darkness and void until the Light came, the flesh from the earth had flaws. The Light wasn’t in the earth, nor the Spirit in the earth, they were over it; clearly without the Light the earth would have remained dark and void. The reproduction of the flesh didn’t get rid of those flaws, they carried on. The evidence is the calling forth of the seeds, if they weren’t there, God would have created new plants, not called them forth. Why? Everything produces after its own kind. However, those same flaws of the flesh became an incentive for us to leave the realm of the flesh by gaining the New Birth. Jesus called it something associated to the flesh is flesh, but when our souls are associated to the Spirit, they become Spiritual.
Laws and Principles are important, when God gives us His Spirit it’s exactly what we get, everything produces after it’s own kind. The same is true with the concept of the Comforter, Jesus said we would have a Comforter, then He talked about Another Comforter. The word Another means like the first, thus we are Born of the Comforter by having Another Comforter. Did Adam possess the Comforter? No, couldn’t be, since the word New used in the New Birth means never before in all the time of man. Also John 7:39 makes it clear, no one had the Spirit, nor were they Born Again until Jesus was glorified by the Resurrection. You can’t be Born Again until death takes place, no one, not Adam, Abraham, David or anyone else before the Cross could impute death by the Cross in order to receive the New Birth. They had no foundation, there was no act on the earth by God in order to grant them the authority to impute death, thus they lacked Position, but we have position, Praise the Lord.
We can determine from the text how much of the “Creation” was calling things forth already created yet dead in the earth. The earth brought forth seed, the earth didn’t hear “grass”, then bring forth an elephant. Everything produced after its own kind, in some cases the kind did change in degree, but it was still in the “kind” group. Today we hear of the ancestors of this animal or the next, thus the grouping was the same Kind, but different for the Season of man. God has set forth the evidence of the Purpose over the years, the clues are there, the Purpose is to have Christ in us as the hope of glory. Let us rejoice and be glad, this is the Day of Salvation.
Let’s get back to understanding the flesh, if we understand the fall, we will understand why the purpose of our faith is the saving of our souls. We receive the type of life Adam had through the Mercy of the Father, as we carry the Mercy with us, but we must move on to Grace for the saving of our souls. Jesus didn’t remain on the Cross, He didn’t remain in the Grave, He moved on in the Process to the Ascension. We are no different, we accept the Cross, death takes place, we bury the old, then receive the power of the Resurrection, wherein we gain confidence in God raising us as Jesus was raised from the Dead, because we have the same Spirit of Holiness (Rom 1:3-4). Then we move unto to the time when we are caught up to meet Jesus in the air. The entire time we are learning, discerning and growing. The Mercy of God grants us the Living Soul condition, Grace grants us the Quickening Spirit position, we need both to fit, “Let us make man in our image”.
If the earth obeyed, then the flesh has the capacity to obey, but it won’t unless it sees a self-benefit of some type. The earth isn’t a human, it’s dirt, chemical and elements; however, the flesh seems to have a voice of its own, here we see the earth heard and obeyed. So, where is the ear? Some hidden mount somewhere? No, we know better. What had to be in place before the “elements” submitted? Light, when our light shines in a dark place we will hear and obey.
God told Adam in the day he did eat of the fruit, in dying he would die, but Adam had no idea what death was, he had not seen death, experienced it, or had any memory of the darkness. Why would God tell him about death? If sin was not an issue before the Fall, why even bring the subject up? Potential, God knew within the forming process there was a potential to sin. From the earth God did form the flesh of man, the earth had the potential to revert to animalist behavior. The second God warned Adam, choice was presented, if choice, there must be elements from which to make the choice, if a consequence was introduced, knowledge of the consequence had to be imparted. To Adam the evidence before him in nature showed nothing had died in the Garden, thus perhaps nothing would, becoming one of the first issues of belief for man. Would man believe what God said? Or the things he sees? Would man obey the Voice of the Lord walking with him in the cool of the Day, or would man obey the voice of a stranger? Adam will test the command by partaking of the fruit, which really removes him from using faith. Did he have faith? Yes, unto Every man is given the measure of faith, the verse doesn’t say unto every man except Adam, neither does it say the measure of faith will work automatically (Rom 12:3). If Adam had exercised his faith, not only would he have rejected the fruit, but he would have intervened to keep Adam female from being enticed.
Adam didn’t believe what God said, thus his faith was inactive. At the Fall Adam believed what he saw, not what God told him. Showing a choice was granted, Adam could believe what the serpent told him, or what God told him. Faith entails a driving desire to please God, we can please God in two ways by obedience, or faith. Adam did neither, yet Jesus was constant in His belief and faith, so much so He is the only one who broke the chains of death. Therefore, when we are Born Again allowing us to follow the Faith of Jesus, thus the New Man uses our measure of faith to guide us on the path the Faith of Jesus. Who then was more the Image of God? Adam or Jesus? The Completed Image of God is then found in Jesus, finished by Christ in us, evidenced by the New Birth (Rom 8:29). As God is Spirit, the completed Image of God in us makes us Spirit with Spiritual abilities, we are no longer carnal or natural. Justification makes us innocent, but the flesh is always guilty, thus the process is the engrafting of our souls to Spirit (Word in us), from natural to spiritual, until the soul and Spirit become One. Being Born Again does not make us robots, it does bring us into perfection. Our personality is a gift, but a healed personality is always a pleasing element, the unsaved personality is always self-based.
As we found the Hebrew word for Image as it’s used in Genesis 1:26, is Tselem meaning an Illusion, or a Vague resemblance, but not an exact likeness. A Tselem would be akin to drawing a car, knowing the Drawing is not the car, one can’t drive it, neither can they sit in it, but it’s nonetheless a likeness of the car. Today the Jew calls the Crucifix a Tselem (image), in part they are right, since Jesus is no longer on the Cross, but their view of the Cross is in error. They consider the Cross an image of a god, rather than the Image holding the true Son of man, who died for us. It’s not the Cross itself, since there were many crosses, it’s Who was on the One Cross bringing importance to the Cross. Worshipping the Cross is a Tselem, worshipping Him who was on the Cross is True and Holy. Wow is a Cross wrong? No, but worshipping it is. The piece of metal, or wood is not God, it’s an object, using it to make a point is one thing, thinking it’s so holy it can grant you right standing with God is another. We Pick up our cross, we don’t worship it.
The mystery of the completed Image was unveiled in the New Testament, Paul tells us the image of God is Jesus (Col 1:15) we are being formed into the Image by the Spirit (Rom 8:29); therefore, God had the plan for Jesus to be in us by the Spirit already complete in His heart before Adam was. The Holy Ghost is not the Gift, the Holy Ghost brings the Gift, the Gift is Grace as the Holy Spirit, thus our sign or token granted us to assures us we are in Grace by the Seal of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit or New Man is forming us into sons of God on a daily basis, there are days we may not think so, but our belief and faith knows so.
We also see Redemption as the heart of the plan, thus there had to be works to begin the process. Judgment would be one of those works, since it remains if Judgment is a fact, then Salvation must also be a fact. Our Hope is knowing if God formed the Judgment, yet Salvation had to come before the Judgment. Salvation after Judgment is useless, thus the Doctrine of Christ helps us keep the division between Day and Night (Heb 6:1-2).
The term Theophany means, the appearance of God in the Old Testament in the form conducive to man’s surroundings; however, even a Theophany couldn’t save man. For the most part we will find these are not appearances of Jesus, but either events wherein God put them in the Plan, or angels speaking on behalf of God. God had a plan so perfect and correct all the elements were accounted for. This is made clearer when we see God brought forth the seeds from the earth, rather than create new ones (Gen 1:11-12). He also brought the birds and fish from the waters (Gen 1:20), He also Formed new animals (Gen 1:25); however, we don’t find where He breathed into them, thus an animal has a type of glory limited to a reasoning far below man; therefore, there is a glory of the fish, one for the birds, one for man (I Cor 15:39-41). Animals live in surroundings conducive to them, or they move to an area which is conducive, but man makes his surroundings conducive to him, thus in the heat man wears different clothing than he would in the cold. Wait, animals grow long hair for winter, true, but it’s still conducive to the surroundings, their flesh changes, but not as a result of their inventive reasoning; animals don’t have a fur store from which they purchase their winter coats.
If a bear could fly, they would go south with the birds, but a bear does by nature what bears do. Man observes animals, then makes determinations, thus instead of man flying south, he killed the bear and made a coat. Man has the capability to Adapt to his surroundings, or make his surroundings adapt to him, animals do not.
We already know God told man to “Replenish the earth”, the word Replenish is a compound word beginning with Re or repeat; therefore, the word Replenish means To fill or Make complete Again, it doesn’t mean to Begin to fill the earth. God did not say, “Fill the earth”, but He did say, “Replenish”, thus the English word Replenish is only found in two places, once in reference to Adam, once in reference to Noah (Gen 1:28 & 9:1). This shows Adam was not the first formed creature who walked on two legs, but he was the first human formed by hand of God to be a living soul, the first to have the gift of the measure of faith, man as also the first to have a choice to remain in the Garden, or sin, the first to have the ability to say Yes to God, or No to God, it makes the difference between a human and prehistoric.
Adam was told to name the animals, man still does, thus man still has authority, if not, man couldn’t name a thing. Man goes so far as to name the planets showing the authority continues on, Adam lost something more precious than the soil, or the ability to name animals, he lost his position and relationship with God as well as his connection to the Tree of Life. It’s important, after the fall he named his wife “Eve”, which means Life, or The mother of all living. Adam wanted to be back with the Tree of Life, but calling Adam female “Life” wasn’t going to produce it. In and of itself shows a difference between the Adam connection to the Tree of Life and ours. With Adam it was through the flesh, with us it’s a new heart. Our Tree of Life is the New Man (metaphorically), our connection is far greater than the one Adam had.
Paul tells us the Spirit bears witness to our Spirit saying we are sons of God, so what kind of communicated or witness did Adam have? None, he was the product of the hand of God, yet he couldn’t “fellowship” or “communicate” with God on God’s level. This is apparent when we view Adam’s search to find a Help Meet (this is correct, it’s help meet, not helpmate), thus Adam was as Paul says, natural. Adam didn’t go to God to help in the search, but God nonetheless provided.
The word Help Meet has various meanings, the Help aspect is found in Psalm 33:20, 70:5 and 115:9, in each case it shows the Lord is our Help, or better without the Lord we have no help. The word Help Meet is the Hebrew Ezer we find the word Help Meet in just two verses, both here in Genesis (Gen 2:18 & 2:20). The meaning is “to help”, which doesn’t tell us much, if we look at what was expected, then we can tell much for the principle. God created “them”, then separated the female from the male, then told them to be One. Why not leave them as One to begin with? Free moral choice, the idea in the Garden was for the two to be one, for some reason we think it means our mate must be one with us, rather than one with each other. Adam fell for the same illusion, ending using “bone of my bone” as an experiment to determine if death was real.
Adam termed her “flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone”, yet she was obviously physically different. God showed why He removed the female from the male, a man shall cleave to his wife and they shall be one flesh. They are designed to unite, thus the principle is to fill the void in each other, thus Adam male never said, “soul of my soul”. Once something was removed, a void was caused, the purpose was to fill the void. The void was already calling out from within, thus God brought forth the desire before the separation. However, Adam male had to see his answer, showing he was incapable of fellowship with God. There was nothing like Adam, thus his communication with God was limited, meaning he was looking for someone he could fellowship with on his own level.
The female with her own soul would fill the short comings of the male, the male the short comings of the female. We hear much today about a “soul mate”, but God never intended for our souls to be mated, it was “one flesh”, the souls were to make the choice to be joined to another, yet each was a separate person.
Before the female came forth the commandment to multiply was impossible, this shows the short time element involved. So, if God told them to multiply, does He condone pre-marital sex? No, right after Adam male said, “bone of my bone”, God said, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Gen 2:23-24). When God said “wife” a marriage took place, the “chain of command” for Adam was not one over the other, but the two shall be one flesh, thus pointing to being Equal, rather than one superior over the other. The Fall produced one being superior over the other, but it’s the result of the Fall. The meaning of Iniquity is “unequal”, or doing one thing we’re suppose to, but refusing to do other things just as important. God is Equal, thus His concept of One is Equal (Ezek 18:25-29).
This chain of command regarding communication was seen in other areas, the animals were lower in position, meaning they were unable to communicate with Adam, although Adam could communicate with the animals. The monkey didn’t say, “Monkey? I don’t like it, how about something else, like rabbit, it’s such a cool name?”. Adam named the animals, he didn’t have conversations with them, neither did the animals name Adam. We don’t read where Adam told God, “guess what the monkey told me this morning?”.
In this we must remember, God allowed for many reasons. There was something in the angel who was the anointed “covering” which needed to surface. Did God make the angel beautiful? Yes, but when the angel was impressed with his own beauty, he forgot who made him. At times we forget who gave us the Anointing, we become so impressed with the Anointing on us, we think it’s a result of our goodness.
The methods of the devil are displayed for us at the Tree, they haven’t changed. Paul called them the Wiles, or the methodology of the devil, thus he was fully aware of the devils devises (II Cor 2:11 & Eph 6:11). The iniquity was not in the creation of the angel, but it was something produced as a result of choice. Angels had choice, if not none of them could make the choice to remain with God, or as some did, make the choice to follow the devil. This angel had a charge, a duty, one he could carry out loyally, or twist it to his own self-purpose. If he twisted it he would be doing one thing, while not doing what he was suppose to, thus the iniquity. The anointed cherub had authority, but was under authority. His job was to communicate to Adam in a suggestive manner, in order to assist Adam in the areas of the knowledge of good and evil, indicating again how Adam lacked a spirit, thus God provided an outside source who was spirit. The devil didn’t use the Tree of Life, since the temptation was not Life, but Knowledge. He didn’t force Adam female to take the fruit, he made a suggestion based on deception, indicating the fruit as the source, rather than God. The cherub lacked authority to make the suggestion, he was also void of any power to grant it, thus he used his position in an evil manner. This suggestive area pointed to something of God, but for a different creation.
Ezekiel 28 says this cherub was the anointed cherub who covered, God set him as such. The word Cover (Covereth in KJV) is the Hebrew Cakak meaning to cover, or better to hedge, or protect, it was used in reference to guard persons and gardens, it was also used in reference to the cherubs over the ark, not saying the devil was one of them, only the word means to guide and protect. Rather than protect his charge, he made the decision to destroy it, rather than guide between good and evil, he portrayed good as evil, and evil as good. As he began the deception his nature changed to slander, as he became the waster, causing his beauty to fade, he became disobedient loosing any spiritual ability, meaning he can only entice by using natural things, since he started by using the natural against the natural.
You have been provided with a list of metaphors, but it may benefit you to start adding to the list now, one never knows, it may come in handy. In word studies, or studies having to do with metaphors, we have to caution ourselves against Imaginations, which includes extended metaphors, or taking the metaphor beyond it’s intended purpose producing fables. Any metaphor is like the definition of a number, it’s defined by either it’s first usage, or later in a clear concise usage. For example we find the phrases “Let there be Light”, then we are told about the Greater Light and the Lesser Light all in Chapter One of Genesis, but it’s not until we read John’s Account in the Gospel where we find The Light is Jesus. To define The Light here as the “sun”, rather than the Son misses the hope. The same is true with the phrase “living soul”, to take the premise to mean some “spirit” is beyond the context. Paul defined the first Adam as, “natural”, earthly” a “living soul” (I Cor 15:47). In addition we find, “was not first which is spiritual, but it was natural; and afterward which is spiritual” (I Cor 15:46). The clarity of the First Adam comes in First Corinthians, thus the First Adam didn’t have a “spirit’, since he was never spiritual. The Genesis Adam is clearly of the earth, he was not heavenly or spiritual. If this first Adam is natural, then he held the wisdom and knowledge of the natural, meaning spiritual matters were foolishness to him. Although the wisdom and knowledge was not corrupt until the fall, it was still earthly in nature, thus it began earthly, remained sensual, or soulish becoming devilish at the tree by the fall (James 3:15).
God’s Knowledge is from above, yet there is a knowledge of the earth. There are four different Greek words used in the New Testament for Knowledge, one is Gnosis meaning To know, but the source of the knowing is more important than the knowing. Then the Greek Epignosis meaning A clarity of what one knows, this type of knowledge is not fogged by self-determinations, or natural reasonings, but made clear by the Light. Then there is the Greek Sunesis (Eph 3:4), meaning To have a Comprehension, or Perception of something, it pertains to understanding concepts. Then there is the Greek Epistemon (James 3:13), meaning To know thoroughly, to be endued with knowledge and expertise from the basis of the Expert in all knowledge. It’s one thing to know about something, another to have the knowledge based in the expertise of how the something operates. In this case we find James explains how there is a Knowledge gained when one experiences the Wisdom of God at work in their lives. This word in James 3:13 is used to define the good conversation as a manner of life displaying the works of our faith with meekness of Wisdom. By now we know Wisdom is not intellectual, it’s the manner in which we deal with events and people.
There is also the heresy called the Gnostic Heresy, from the Greek word Gnosis, meaning knowledge, so is having knowledge a heresy? No, as we found the Gnostic approach used the self in a feeble attempt to save the self. Somewhat like the fable of a glorified Adam, they also taught Jesus was merely a man who obtained His position by the use of His self. Hardly the concept of Grace, or the saving of the soul, but it does show what happened to Adam. The soul of man without the Spirit of Christ uses natural reasoning, “hum she ate and didn’t die, maybe this serpent is right, hey, what can it hurt?”; natural reasoning, always a mistake.
This brings us back to the division to be joined; the them were a One, then God divided them so they could become joined through their own free moral choice. When Adam female was hidden in Adam, there was no choice, but when the separation came, choice was presented. The same is true with us, we who were separated from God made the choice to be One with God, predicated on having the Spirit, still a choice to seek the Kingdom of God (Spirit within) and His Righteousness.
First there was Adam as a them, but Adam didn’t know it. Then God separated Adam into Adam male, Adam female, with the purpose of them becoming one again, which is termed reconciliation. Eve was not her name until after the fall, they were Adam in the Garden, thus God intended them to be One as He treated them as One. Since Adam male and female were considered One, does it mean we have two masters at work in the Garden, Adam male and Adam female? No, can’t be, since the word Help Meet also shows a joining to become One, or equal standing, it was still “Adam” before the fall. The same is found in the concept of each of us as kings in the kingdom, there is no king higher than another, we are not slaves under a king, but we are responsible to the King of kings.
All this division and choice is before the fall, yet the wife being subject to her husband is a result of the Fall. To make the result of the Fall some type of doctrine for the saved husband and wife is completely void of Mercy, Grace, or Liberty. “Well, Paul said the man is the head of the woman”, true and he also said the “head” of the woman was to have a long hair. Yikes the 60’s! Metaphors, the word “head” means Authority, a study of Paul’s comments shows us he is speaking of the leaders (husbands) and congregation (wives). To presume the “wives” must remain silent, means the widows and single women can run the aisles, yelling and making all sorts of noise. Paul tells us when the leadership places a false covering, or a yoke between them and Christ, the congregation is powerless and must remain silent. Hardly a doctrine on marriage, but a clear warning to leadership. Even if we made it doctrine, it would mean the husband has separated himself from God.
God has a better plan for the union of marriage, one wherein both the husband and wife can become One. Some of us want to remain in our position and have our mate come to our side to become One, but it’s not the premise of the two becoming one. There is a joining, some in the middle, some slightly to one side or the other depending on the event, but each has areas to support the other in joy and peace when each knows the assigned duties God has given. “Oh, then since the Bible says husbands love your wives, but it doesn’t say the wives are to love their husbands; therefore, a wife doesn’t have to. Or since it says wives should submit, the husbands don’t have to”. No, since the same Bible tells us to love one another, as well as submit to one another, therein is the mystery. One knows how to submit, the other to love, put them together, we have love and submission in a Godly sense. The premise reverses the fall, did Adam male love his wife? No, did Adam female submit to her husband? No. Yet if they become one they would both love and submit in a Godly manner.
When the pastor says, “we are to submit to one another, and love one another as Jesus loves us”, we say, “Amen brother, that’s right, praise God”. When the pastor says, “Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it, and wives submit to your husbands as unto the Lord”, we say, “give me a rock, a stick or a rope, let’s get him”. What happened? It was the same principle, but the anointing on the pastor brought it down to the husband and wife. Could it be we still have some of the old fall nature hanging on? Could be, Paul also told us this Mystery concerned Christ and the Church (Eph 5:32). If we can’t conduct this mystery in the home, how are we’re going to understand the mystery of the Church? The word submit simply means not to provoke, cause an argument, or to hinder, it doesn’t mean “you’re my slave”. The natural definition of submit comes from the Fall, “and he shall rule over you” (Gen 3:16). It was not God’s desire, it was the result of the Fall.
Could Adam male bring forth Adam female? No, but he had to display a desire for the “need”, thus Adam female didn’t come forth until God made the decision, yet it was still based on Adam’s desire. The principle also shows Adam female wasn’t something taken from Adam male as a last minute change in the plan, rather since they were a “them”, while being a “he”, they were both formed and created at the same time. God knew the desire would come, thus He made provision; yet it’s also a lesson, from where does the Bride of Christ come from? The Body of Christ unto the Church to be the Bride, displaying how God was using this experience to show us the Gospel.
When did the desire take place? When Adam male sought out his help meet, yet was unable to find one among the animals. So, the female was in the plan, but did Adam male know it? No, yet God made them a he, yet the he was still a them when God made them Adam. God didn’t look around and say, “Wonder what would happen if I took one of this his ribs?”, or “Mike, I’m not sure what’s going to happen, but why don’t we knock Adam out, if it turns sour, he’ll never know”, or “wonder if he will walk sideways after this?”. It was all accounted for, even the fall and the devil were in the plan. “Oh no, no, no, God would never make evil”. God didn’t make evil, the devil made the choice to be evil, much different. However, we also know God is able to form the vessel into one of honor, or one of dishonor, so does God force them to be dishonorable? No, they refuse to grant Mercy after God grants them Mercy, thus their decision determines the forming, the same was true with the devil. When the devil was still the covering angel, he found something in himself, rather than go to the Lord with it, he made the choice to use it for his benefit to get rid of one of the Adams so he could have the other one all to himself. The devil was the first to violate his position, becoming disobedient, as well as the first to produce iniquity.
All of us at one time or another will fail at doing something we’re suppose to do, but it doesn’t mean we “worked” at it. It was not our “profession”, we didn’t make a choice to use it continually, we didn’t make the choice to completely disrupt God’s will just to see our will complete. No wonder Judas is the son of perdition, yet Peter isn’t. Both men did something, Peter denied the Lord three times, Judas betrayed Him once, Peter was restored, Judas wasn’t. Doesn’t seem fair, but Peter wasn’t attempting to force Jesus to do something, Peter overestimated his abilities, then found he was weak, causing him to become frightened; whereas Judas took money from the enemy to force Jesus into a situation wherein Judas felt he could make a personal financial gain. Much different, yet we find Judas used the same thought process the devil used here in the Garden. In order for the devil to use the three lusts, he had to have them, thus the devil fell before Adam female even entered the conversation. As soon as the devil found the iniquity, he made a plan, the plan produced the lusts. The more the devil put his evil plan of iniquity together, the more his anointing and beauty failed until they soon vanished. The devil thought his best attribute was his beauty, yet it was the result of his anointing, the anointing a result of his position. In his selfish endeavor to protect his beauty, he lost it.
The devil was created “perfect” in his ways, until iniquity was found in him (Ezek 28:15). The word Found in Ezekiel 28:15 is the Hebrew Matsa meaning the devil found the iniquity, which produced the sin. The devil was a very beautiful angel, but when he thought his beauty was by his own hand, iniquity set in, so did his evil plan to takeover the creation of God (Ezek 28:16-18). The first “takeover” of a congregation was done by the devil in the Garden, it has been one of his most used plans ever since. God created the cherub as a beautiful angel, which was “good”, but the devil was so impressed with his beauty he couldn’t see how he could be rejected for “Adam female”, thus he also had choice. The devil felt his position was so powerful he would never lose the title of “the anointed cherub who covers”, he entered iniquity, based on overconfidence in his position, very dangerous.
We found the meaning of cover; although Adam was in charge of the Garden, we find the cherub was a type of “elder”, or one who would give suggestions and guidance; however, being an angel he needed something to help him in the determination of his duty in reference to natural Adam. His beauty couldn’t make those types of determinations, being a spirit he had no knowledge of natural man, thus the something was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The tree of Life belonged to Adam, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil to the angel, thus he used the tree as his deception. The fruit of the tree taken by the spiritual to know the natural was the purpose, but if taken by the natural it would become twisted into the self.
The conversation at the tree shows the cherub was in the midst of giving instruction, but in an evil manner. An interesting aspect is how his knowledge changed as well, Paul tells us the spirit of man knows the things of man, but is completely ignorant of the things of God (I Cor 2:11). The devil lost all spiritual awareness, yet the spirit of man was being formed, both man and the devil became natural thinkers, with natural wisdom and abilities, thus losing any insight they had regarding God.
What about Adam? After all it was one time, yet the one incident would be played out again and again for many years. God never introduced repentance in the Garden, since there was no sin to repent from before the Fall. God did not say, “in dying you shall die, unless you repent”. Adam male had the warning, with the power to resist, yet made the decision to abandon his help meet, then watched to see if “in dying” she would die. In essence Adam was in a type of kingdom, yet cast it away for the flesh, much like Esau.
The fall produced many things, but in order for one to Fall, they must be in a High Position. Adam was not in the same position as God at anytime, rather Adam fell into a state of death, which explains why he couldn’t have the Tree of Life. Since his connection to the Tree of Life was through his flesh, but now his flesh was in corruption (death), thus if he had the Tree of Life, his flesh and soul would be connected forever in a state of death and corruption. Although he will attempt other ways to gain back his connection to the Tree of Life, each one will fail.
Adam was a master of his domain, he had not tasted sin, he was in a Mercy state, yet made the willful decision to test God. It’s a far cry from those of us who were under the sin nature, then accepted Jesus. Yes, we’ll still make mistakes, but it’s because of the past corruption. We’re in a Process, the old is being washed away daily. If any of us were to see all the tares, pains, hurts, more importantly all the wiles of darkness we’ve used gone in one second, the result would be Pride. We would begin to think it was by our hand and might, as we would begin to impress ourselves, causing pride to take over our kingdom. The Process is for Purpose, it keeps us humble as we appreciate all God is doing for us.
Adam is a completely different set of events, he had the Garden in hand, but he tossed it away to see if God was really faithful. Therefore, he may have walked with God in the cool of the day, but he didn’t know God. God tests man, man never tests God. Since the fall nature is death, man’s “soul life” nature in the world is a walking death waiting for the result, then it’s true “all souls will die”, but it’s also true the soul being formed by the Spirit shall live. The problem then is what is “death”? Is it a time with a great big nothing? Can’t be, since there is a Second Death, how many times can you kill a dead cow? As we found the first Death is a separation of the soul from the flesh, or the Greek ExPsuche. This is found in the phrase “giving up the ghost”, showing the “ghost” part is the unseen soul. Adam’s flesh was first, then the soul with a living condition making Adam a “living soul”. Adam was not a “living flesh”, yet since his flesh was first, the soul made connection to the earth surroundings through the flesh. Therefore, the flesh of Adam was useless until the breath of God introduced the soul with the measure of faith. Take the breath (soul) away and the flesh reenters the earth, from dust it came, to dust it goes. The soul is without end, thus the first death is not a nothing state. The resurrection unto damnation is having a resurrected body, but having it melt and come back time after time forever. Therein we know there is Eternal (without end) Judgment, a great incentive to seek Eternal Life in Christ. The Second Death is a complete separation from any attribute of God, it’s the void, darkness and uselessness forever without end. Yet, those with the Spirit of Christ are free of the second death (Rev 2:11& 20:6).
However, before the Fall, God was already in the process of division. What premise is found in Genesis chapter one pointing to joining and division? God used a Firmament to Divide the Waters, then the Land divided the Sea into Seas, but the Seas were joined as the Waters in the beginning. There was a division taking place right along, all signs showing two seasons, the Day and Night. The Greater Light was divided from the Lesser Light, yet in the very end they are joined again in heaven. Adam male and Adam female were one, then divided to become one. Purpose is something we tend to overlook, we don’t serve a multiple God, but we do serve a God with multiple things going on.
The division is what could be termed a variable, or something subject to change, but there are also constants, things not subject to change. Jesus is never divided from the Father, neither is Life divided from Jesus, the Two are One, regardless of time. Jesus confessed the Father based on this Oneness of Nature plus the Exactness of Character, yet Jesus as the Son of man was obviously His own Man. Jesus had the authority to say, “Although the Father has told Me what to say, I think I will tell you guys what I think”. He could of, but He didn’t. Do we? Oh man, let’s don’t go there.
We are not being formed into the physical likeness of Jesus, it would be heresy, since anyone could have a physical appearance as Jesus, yet be nothing like Him in nature or character. It’s the Nature and Character of Jesus we seek, not the physical likeness. This formation process is called Justification, the Just still live by faith.
Adam was given authority over the natural elements (earthly), but the spiritual wasn’t a factor in any regard, nor was Adam given authority over the Lights, heaven, or the stars. Adam was earthly, he remained earth bound (did we mention that?). There is the physical, the natural, and the spiritual; man is physical (earthly) and natural (soul), but he cannot be spiritual without the Spirit, yet one can have the Spirit of God in them, yet not be spiritual (I Cor 3:1-3 & 3:16). The goal is to obtain the Spirit by the New Birth, then enter the process for our souls to become spiritual in nature.
Natural man calls many things spiritual, but the natural mind cannot understand spiritual matters, they have no idea what spiritual means. Paul’s letters to the Corinthians prove having the Spirit does not make one automatically spiritual, it takes a process and growth. They also prove natural man has no idea what spiritual means, but the Holy Ghost teaches us by comparing spiritual to spiritual (I Cor 2:13).
We know the devil is a spirit, but he lost his heavenly ability, now he uses those things common (natural) to man as his tools (works) against man; therefore, we find the devil is a spirit, but not spiritual. This also helps in understanding the word “spiritual”, which means one who has the mindset, nature and clarity of heaven by walking in the Spirit of Christ.
Since the devil is spirit, yet not spiritual we find the demonic forces use what is common to man, which is earthly in nature (I Cor 10:13). Paul told us the spirit of man is ignorant of the things of God, thus the devils are also ignorant of the things of God (I Cor 2:11-12). This concept is found in the phrases, “the prince of the power of the air”, as well as the “spirit of disobedience”. If we are carnal we hear the voices in the natural air, if we are spiritual we hear the Spirit (wind) of Christ. Physical sounds and natural sounds are different, we can’t confuse them, just as natural sounds and spiritual sounds are different. Man presumes many things, one is assuming he can define something according to his reasoning. Not so, all things are created by God, it takes God’s definition of things to discern the purpose, not the spirit of man.
Two things are evident and important; some tend to elevate the devil to some super state, as if he can go about doing whatever he desires. The Scriptures tell us not to give place to the devil (Eph 4:27); therefore, if we have the power to give place, we also have the power not to; it also means we have the power to cast out devils. Elevating anything above measure is dangerous; some tend to elevate Adam to a higher plateau than God ever did, some even elevate him higher than Jesus, but why? One thing is obvious, although Adam walked with God, Adam never had Christ in him. The natural mind desires to be Adam like, but it also desires to elevate Adam to some great state, thus they think by being Adam like they are like the Most High without the Spirit of Christ. Very, very dangerous. We never exalt anyone or anything above measure; the anointing is great, we must have it, but we don’t worship it.
The tree was the platform, the fruit the bait, the enticing the weapon. The devil began to elevate the position of Adam higher than God had, which began the enticing. The devil couldn’t force Adam female to take the fruit, rather he had to promise her something, although the something was beyond his control to give. This is the same method he uses today, the devil promises something he is unable to deliver, but the suggestion must contact to a lust in the person to be effective. The fall shows one thing above all, the devil had to promise, or trick Adam female by allowing her to think like him, which introduced a lustful nature called the spirit of man; yet, he couldn’t force her to partake.
The devil’s suggestion was for her to violate the Commandment by promising her something she assumed would gain her a greater benefit than the Commandment. Again, this is true today, the devil goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, thus he cannot devour at will, he cannot read minds, but he looks for something showing him the person is either impressed by the roar, or frightened of it (I Pet 5:8). The devil is not a roaring lion, he goes about “as” one, there is a difference. One can make the sounds of a lion, but it doesn’t mean they are one.
This brings us to the concept of “Counterfeit”, generally when we see phrases like, “as”, or “such as”, they refer to something like something, but not the something. Whether it’s a counterfeit or not depends on intent, if we keep the “as is” in order, without attempting to project it as the original, then it’s not a counterfeit, but a copy. However, if we take the “as is” then attempt to convince people it’s the original, it would be a counterfeit. We see phrase, “the devil goes about as a roaring lion”, it doesn’t mean he is a lion, only he wants others to think he is. The point being we can’t lock onto the phase, presuming it’s a counterfeit, we must discern the intent. The New Man is Christ in us, so is He a counterfeit? No, the New Man is a reproduction after the true holiness and righteousness of God. A counterfeit is by an unauthorized source produced to trick people into thinking it’s an original, when it is not. A counterfeit fifty dollar bill is a close likeness to the real thing, but it was made by those who lack the given Authority to make fifty dollar bills, thus the counterfeit is designed to trick people through deception. Therein lays the difference, the counterfeit may look better than the original, but the maker lacks the authority to make it. The devil made promises he never had the authority to grant, yet there was a wisdom and knowledge granted in the fall, Adam’s eyes were open, but since it was a counterfeit it was backward from what was promised.
The devil could care less if the principle is Godly, as long as we use his ways to accomplish what we think is a Godly act. The reason would be using the suggestion of the devil without the authority, making our actions rebellion. It doesn’t take long in reading the three temptations he used against Jesus to see this is true, the same temptations used at the tree were used against Jesus, with much different results. God shall meet your need, so why not fudge a little by turning the stones into bread. God desires for us to know about Him, so why not show off our ability a little by making the angels dance. God desires all to come to the saving knowledge, so none will be lost, so why not lie, cheat, or use fear to capture the lost. The principles are all Godly, the methods are demonic, we war against the wiles (methods) of the devil, by using God’s methods. Using a Godly element in an evil manner, still makes the endeavor evil.
In reference to the devil going about As a roaring lion we find the word “roaring” gives us another clue to the deception of the enemy. The word “roaring” is the Greek Oruomai meaning the sound made as the lion goes after its prey. Oruomai is connected to the Greek Echeo meaning to respond as the brass, yet brass is a metaphor for Judgment, thus the devil goes about attempting to place judgment on us, often by accusing us to the brethren, or to ourselves, or causing us to accuse the brethren, or ourselves. We don’t ignore our behavior when it’s wrong, but neither do we go around for days beating ourselves up. We repent, learn the lesson, allow the Spirit to correct the source of the problem, then move on with the knowledge gained. The devil can only give what he has, corruption, slander, death, destruction, iniquity and sin.
When we were in the world we were sinners, some of us sinners supreme, but Jesus forgave us, granting us a position and condition so New it was never before, but the New is a Process, something most of us forget. Jesus has the authority to grant anything, His Name (Authority) is above all names (authorities). So, will Jesus grant us a devil? No, it would go against the promises He made to us, He is still Truth, the devil is still the father of all lies.
We are in a Process, it doesn’t remain in the same place, we advance by making gains. God didn’t stop with the Light, thus the use of “days” has to tell us there was a Process in effect. Yet, the enemy doesn’t want us to believe we’re making gains, so the flesh reminds us of who we were. The New Man keeps telling us of who we are in Christ, while showing us we can be more then conquers in Christ. Which voice we listen to determines our attitude in the process.
The devil is looking for factual evidence upon which to accuse, but facts and truth are different. It’s a fact, we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. However the truth tells us there is Now no condemnation to those who in Christ Jesus who walk after the Spirit, and not after the flesh. The Truth tells us the Blood of Jesus is cleansing us from all unrighteousness, thus the Cleaning is a Process. We are not what we used to be, but we are not what we are going to be either. It’s for this very reason we never compare ourselves to others; we can’t tell where we are in the Process by looking at someone else. The enemy uses deception in his comparison, he has us look at someone who appears much further along, then tells us, “see, you will never make it”, at the same time showing us someone who appears further behind than us, telling us, “see how wonderful you are? You’re not like them”; therefore, Jesus told us, “what do you care what I do with them, you follow Me”. We keep our eyes on Jesus, as we allow the New Man to guide us on the footsteps of the Faith of Jesus.
The evidence is found at the tree, showing Adam female wasn’t forced to take of the fruit, the devil didn’t say, “I command you to take it”, rather the devil used something God said, but used it in an evil manner. The devil does the same when God grants us Mercy, “Has God really forgiven you?”, or “What about the unpardonable sin, surely you have committed it more than once?”. We will learn about the unpardonable sin, but for here we must know the unpardonable sin is unpardonable because the person doesn’t seek change, rather than think their ability to slander, waste and destroy is based in some sort of God granted gift. The Pharisees felt their ability to attack by using Scripture was not only something God wanted, they felt it was the anointing at work. Would Christ destroy Christ? Not hardly, so why do those of Christ go about as a roaring lion seeking to devour others in Christ?
Before we venture into the Fall, let us determine the purpose of the creation. Is the purpose to save us? Or is it to set the foundation from which we are to be saved? Genesis 2:1 tells us the heavens and the earth “were finished”, but what does it mean? If they were finished what about all things yet to come? What about Salvation? What about Grace? What about rain? The wording “were finished” is the Hebrew word Kalah meaning Ready to be destroyed, thus the first creation was Good for its purpose, which shows Adam was prefect, but far from perfection. Now we can see how the fall is in the plan, thus we can move on to the first step leading to Redemption, which is man bringing destruction to his own realm.
When Jesus was on the Cross He said, “It is Finished”, He didn’t say, “It is Done”, there is a difference between the two. God Finished the works of the Night, the Cross provided the Day as a way to escape the Night, but it was Finished, not Done. Finished means something in the overall plan is complete, Done means the plan is complete. When we build a house and finish the roof, it doesn’t mean we’re done, but it does mean the roof is finished (Jn 19:30 & Rev 21:6).
Like the children in the wilderness we can Escape the world, yet think God brought us here so we can exalt ourselves, or for God to kill us, both thoughts are unbelief. Any belief not in God, or in line with the Process becomes unbelief. You can believe the devil has power over you, but it’s unbelief according to the Process of Justification. Simply because someone believes in something, doesn’t define it as Belief, one can believe in unbelief, it doesn’t make them a believer.
So far we have established a few things, Adam was really the caretaker of the Garden, what he allowed in, came in. God didn’t come down and stop the devil from tempting Adam, since Adam had the power to allow whoever he desired into the Garden (kingdom). We as kings have the same power over our kingdom, if we say no to violent anger, then anger cannot enter our kingdom. If we say no to Mercy, we banish Mercy as well. God will not force us to grant Mercy to others, it’s something we’re suppose to do, but as kings we also have the keys. Of course we will face the King of kings in the end to give an account of our kingly efforts.
This of course only pertains to the kingdom of heaven, not the Kingdom of God. The kingdom of heaven is a place for the citizens of heaven, but the Kingdom of God is within. God rules in the Kingdom of God by the Spirit, we rule in the kingdom of heaven (soul). The kingdom of heaven is a place, the Kingdom of God is where God dwells by the New Man, thus we are in the kingdom of heaven, but the Kingdom of God is within us.
In the case of Adam we find an allegory, we can allow old familiar things into our kingdom, but it doesn’t mean they are conducive to the Kingdom order. Manipulation was familiar, so we granted it stay in our kingdom, we found our flesh was comfortable, but the Kingdom was not. We have engaged in a war (James 4:1-4) by allowing something not compatible to the purpose of the King of kings to remain in our kingdom.
The devil as the angel had a position at the tree, but he didn’t have a right to twist the purpose of the tree. Once he violated his position, he would lose his covering, the same happened to Judas. Adam had the opportunity and authority to remove the devil from the Garden the second the violation of authority took place. However, we know it didn’t happen, we also know Adam male and Adam female submitted themselves to the temptation of the devil, obtaining a nature not conducive to the Garden.
Before we can determine why we should be redeemed, we must determine how all mankind fell because of what one couple did. If we assume it was all Adam, or we had no part in it, we will fail to see the importance of the fall. The same is true with the Cross, if we haven’t accepted it, we caused it. Each and everyone of us have followed this same path of the flesh, all have taken of the fruit. We entered this world by the flesh under the sin nature, as babies we did neither right or wrong, good or evil, but the day came when we did take of the fruit of the wrong tree becoming sinners. Our souls made the choice to use the flesh to satisfy the flesh, when we found it worked we liked the feeling, then used more ways to gain what we wanted as we entered the darkness of the self nature.
The potential to sin was before Adam when God warned him not to eat of the fruit of the tree, the potential for us to sin is based on the same premise. One day we found if we acted a certain way, people moved, and we got what we wanted. It produced a self-centered effect, the effect moved to an action, the action became a sin. Is it fair? Define fair, we have no idea what goes on in the soul at an early age, but we also find the time we took of the fruit was not at one week old, it was much later, in fact it was after a time when we knew what “yes” and ‘no” stood for. The warning was there for all of us, but we wanted to test the “no”, we wanted what we wanted, we did partake of the fruit. We tested the commandment, whether the commandment came from our parents, or God, in the testing we enjoyed the feeling, producing a nature not conducive to the things of God. The evidence of the fall shows any of us could have, or did have the same beginning as Adam, yet without the Spirit of Christ we all did the same, we did partake of the fruit. The desire to be Adam Like is a deception in it’s darkest form, the delusion is to presume since Adam fell, we won’t, yet all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God proving we did partake of the forbidden fruit.
Adam had access to the Tree of Life, thus the “dying he would die” not only caused a separation from the Garden, but it also caused a separation from the Tree of Life which kept the life of the soul of Adam intact (Gen 3:22). Once Adam was removed from the Tree of Life, he was also removed from Life, then the process of death began. Therefore, it’s obvious the life was in the tree, not in the flesh. God didn’t say, “We have to rip his soul out of him, or he will live forever”. God said, “take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”, thus the tree was Adam’s connection to life, not his soul (Gen 3:22). The word for Life in this verse is the Hebrew Chayay, it not only means to Live, it means To revive, which shows the Life of Adam had to be regenerated continually from an outside source. We are Born Again, our life is internal, we are being renewed day by day.
It’s obvious Adam lived after the fall, but it was a matter of the flesh existing in death as a timed process of dying, a span natural man mistakes for “life”. In order for it to be Life Eternal man must be free of the bondage accompanying death; thus Death is a result of sin, meaning sin is corruption.
Adam never had Grace, the New Testament concept of Grace can be a confusing issue, especially when we see the word “Grace” appearing in the Old Testament. Any of us can construe the English word Grace as being just as much Old Testament as it is New, since the English word appears in both, but they are miles apart in the original languages and meanings. John 1:17 tells us Grace and Truth came by Jesus, thus there is a division between the Grace found in the Old and Grace in the New. Simply, Grace in the Old Testament is different word, from a different language with a different meaning than the word Grace in the New. In the Old it refers to mercy extended to someone, but in the New it means a change in position, condition, nature by having the Spirit of Christ as the Word in us, which is far outside the ability of natural man, yet granted by God based on God’s love, not our goodness, or lack thereof.
Grace is Spiritual in nature, but man cannot be Spiritual in the true sense of the word without the Spirit of Christ. In order to do the things of Grace, one must have Grace, but as natural humans Grace is far out of our reach. What to do? Jesus; He is Grace, having Jesus in us is the same as Grace in us, the same as the Spirit in us, the same as Christ in us the hope of Glory, the same as being Born Again.
This will be important since one might think Adam had Grace before Jesus went to the Cross, if it were the case, the Cross was a vain act on God’s part. Not so, when Jesus was on the Cross He said, “Father forgive them”, thus when we came to the Cross it’s the Father who forgives us through His Mercy, granting us Life. From there we receive the Spirit then enter the Process of Justification which includes the washing of the water by the Word, coupled with the Blood of Jesus cleaning us from all unrighteousness, which is Life more abundantly as Grace. The washing of the Water by the Word is how the Word (Rhema or working aspect of the Logos [Jesus] in us) uses Mercy (water) to wash us, but the Blood of Jesus is Grace, thus the New Covenant is found in the Blood, not the Body. “Huh?, What? Wait a minute”. Jesus gave us the Bread, then He took the cup and saying, His Blood was the New Covenant (Matt 26:28 et al). The Bread, or Body is the point between places, it’s not the Church, yet is it not the world, it’s the Rock from which Jesus builds the Church. Unless one is in the Body (Rock) they cannot be of the Church, Jesus builds the Church from the Rock, not the world. Peter was a piece of the Rock, not the entire Rock, which becomes clear by the words used by Jesus. Jesus said Upon this rock (massive Rock, present tense) I will build My Church (future tense at the time), but the name Peter means a Piece of the Rock, not the entire Rock. The Rock was in place, the Church was yet to be birthed on Pentecost (Matt 16:18). Jude says we build the Rock (Jude 22-23), thus those of the Rock build the Rock, but only Jesus builds the Church.
Adam was not subject to the Law of Moses, yet he and those after him gave sacrifices after the fall, but not before. A sacrifice at the hand of man means atoning (making amends) for his sin. There was no need for a Sacrifice before the Fall, but it may surprise us who gave the first Sacrifice after the fall.
According to the Torah if we caused someone else to hold unforgiveness against us, their unforgiveness sat on us like a mountain. We had to beg them to forgive us, which means the power of forgiveness rested with them, not us. Jesus as the Truth, brought the Truth, showing if we hold unforgiveness, it sits on us like a mountain, not the other person. Why did this change? Was the Law of Moses in error? Not at all, A change in Season brought a New Law with a new ability, yet it didn’t do away with the Old. The person changed realms, there is a realm for the Law of Moses, one for the Law of the Spirit, but one cannot mix one into the other, the Day and Night are separated, just as Light and Darkness are forever separated.
When we accept the Cross we complete the purpose of the Law of Moses, then we move on to another Law for those who have the Spirit. The Law of Moses presented a way of life, it didn’t present Life. The Law of Moses defined sin, it didn’t do away with it. The Law of Moses was sent to those who had more of a potential to sin, than they did to do good. The Law of the Spirit is sent to those who have more of a potential to do good, than to sin. Since the Old is completed for those in the New, the deeds under the Old are no longer required by those in the New. The Old was a means to avoid physical death for a period of time, yet it also defined sin, found the doer guilty, then pronounced death as the punishment. It was designed to; yet we find a New Priesthood for those in the New with duties separating them from the Old.
Isn’t it interesting how God formed, called forth, then created all these elements, then on the Sixth day formed and created Adam. However, Adam wasn’t the only element God brought forth on the sixth day. Genesis 1:24 explains God said, Let the earth bring forth the “living creature” after his kind, cattle, creeping things and beast of the earth after his kind. Then in Genesis 1:25 God made (formed) the beast of the earth, how many beasts of the earth are there? In verse 24 it was the earth bringing forth the beast of the earth, then in verse 25 God formed the beast of the earth, could this be another prophetic message? In Revelation 13:11 John sees “the beast of the earth” who uses the power (authority) of the beast of the sea. Are we looking at some space monster, or metaphors? Metaphors of course, the beast of the earth will also be connected to the devil in Genesis 3:1, thus we find the Wicked are alluded to by prophecy in the very beginning.
Since this “beast of the earth” came on the same day as Adam we find another allegory, the Tares and Wheat in the same field. Jesus didn’t call the Wheat “sons of God”, neither did He call them “children of God”, rather they are “children of the kingdom”, which shows a potential invested in the Wheat to become sons of God, not saying they are. Therefore, the Wheat are those with Life, but have yet to obtain Life More Abundantly, thus they would equate to the “little children” John talks about. It’s the little children who battle the “he in the world”, the youngmen have overcome the Wicked (I Jn 4:1-4 & 2:12-14). The tares on the other hand were planted in the same field by the enemy, a tare has the appearance of wheat, yet lacks the internal “seed”. The Sixth day produced many things, brining to a conclusion the elements to bring about the Judgment, yet they were Good.
The devil could care less about us as people, we’re toys, things to be used to attack God with. The devil is not dumb, crazy as a loon, but not dumb. The devil’s motivation is envy, anger, strife and pride; the mixed seed behind the spirit of man. On the other hand (thank God), we have something far better, the Spirit of Christ, purposed for Salvation as Spirit in us, the New Man, the product of Grace, designed to save our souls so we can walk with Jesus. The New Man cannot do evil, expose it, but not do it. The goodness of God is imbedded in the character of the New Man, thus the Waster knows nothing but to destroy, the New Man knows nothing but to Save.
Another question, If God finished all the work on the sixth day, the same day Adam was formed and created, how then can God judge the Fall? The works of Judgment in the final day are done, not all the works. It’s the point, the creation didn’t mean all things were complete, it means they were finished. Judgment would then play out in the fall nature, it would move through time until it reaches the Judgment seat of Christ. In the Process of time the same Lamb slain from the foundation of the world would take on flesh, go to the Cross, be Resurrected on the Third day, present the Eternal Sacrifice, becoming the Bishop and Shepherd of our souls, the Captain and Author of Salvation, our High Priest, the Prince of Peace, the King of kings, whether those kings are kings in the Kingdom, or kings of the earth, providing us a means to have the Power of the Resurrection now.
What happened after the fall is the evidence of all things of the Night being finished. There is much for us in the Beginning, all these concepts will become clearer as we move along. One aspect separating the Day from the Night is the Name of the Lord. The Name of the Lord is really a division between Day and Night, Jesus said He came to bring division, but this type of Division is very good for us. The Greek word is Dia-Merismos or a Division which causes a Separation as we leave the world to enter the kingdom. The devil’s division is to divide us from God, then to divide us from the things of God. We find a Godly division to help us, then an ungodly division to destroy us, yet both are divisions.
There is another Godly division going on in us by the Word, but it’s not Dia-Merismos, but Merismos. The Greek word Dia-Merismos means to completely remove one part from another, whereas Merismos means to open up for examination, or clarity, without removing one part from the other (Heb 4:12). The Word in us separates, and divides, it is not a Sword, but sharper than one, meaning the Word can divide or separate without causing one part to be removed from the other, the Word in us will define the soul and Spirit, but it will not remove the soul from the Spirit. Adam was Merismos from the Tree of Life before the Fall, but the Fall made him Dia-Merismos from the Garden and the Tree of Life.
The Garden was a place of Preparation, not completion, if we miss it, we will assume the Garden is heaven, not so, it was on the earth. If we are earth minded, we will assume the Garden is heaven, when in truth it’s the place of preparation. When we come to the Cross we enter the kingdom of heaven, a place like unto the Garden as it relates to preparation. There were still elements outside the Garden, but the Garden was like a hedge around Adam and the animals. The Prophets tell us the Night (1,000 years) will be like the “garden of God” (Joel 2:3 et al), which means many things will appear on the surface as peace and safety, but sudden destruction will still come based on the wickedness of the Wicked (I Thess 5:3). The Prophets have much to say in this area, by the time we finish the Old Testament we will have a firm grasp on the End Times. However, we must see where the Fall took place and by whom. The Fall was in the Garden, by members entrusted with the Garden. Judas was a member of the ministry, he was not a Roman, or a Pharisee, he was a hand picked apostle, anointed and ordained, with a special position in the ministry granted by Jesus. The devil sinned against heaven, but it was not in heaven. Judas left the table of the Lord to betray the Lord. The “table” was only for those within the ministry of Jesus, a man’s foes (enemies) are of his own house (Matt 10:36).
By this time we have to pose the question, How did the devil get into the garden? The devil was not equal to man, yet he had a position and place. In order to find what the devil had in this, we have to jump forward to the Prophets. We looked at Ezekiel 28 prior, but for here we want to gain a better understanding. Ezekiel was a prophet and a priest (Ezek 1:3), the Lord also called him “son of man” (Ezek 28:12). Wasn’t Jesus termed “The Son of man”? Yes, the phrase means to Stand for man, in the case of Jesus it was to stand for man by the Mercy of the Father, nonetheless a priest stood for the people before the Law of Moses, thus giving Ezekiel the title, “son of man”.
Although Ezekiel was a prophet, and we have his prophetic writings, God still viewed his position as a priest more important than his position as a prophet. What man sees as a position of honor and glory, doesn’t mean God sees the position as such. Some of us think we have the lowest position in the Body of Christ one can have, yet it isn’t how God views it. In Ezekiel we find the “prince of Tyrus”, as a Prince is not a king, a prince has a territory called a Principality. The word Tyrus means Rock, thus this is metaphorically directed to the princes of the rock, not kings in the kingdom. Here in Ezekiel we find someone who is associated to the Rock, but not a king (got it?). The metaphor Prince means One who begins something, or represents a segment within a kingdom known as a Principality, it’s not representative of the entire kingdom, but part of it. Jesus as the Prince of Peace, thus He began the ability for us to have Peace with God, yet Peace is not all the Kingdom is made of, but clearly an important segment. A prince is also identified by the location from which they hold title, an example is Jesus the “Prince of Peace”, showing the location is Peace. We also know of the prince of the power (authority) of the air, this prince is not the prince of the air, rather it’s the authority in the natural air, giving us the realm.
The prince of Tyrus could translate as, “one who has begun in the Rock”, yet his heart was lifted up, showing he lacked a New heart. From his pride he says, “I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the Seas” (Ezek 28:2). The metaphor Seas means the Gentile world, thus this prince is not a Jew, but a Gentile who has entered the Rock. It’s one thing to have a humble heart as the Spirit bears witness to our Spirit, another to take our position as a means to brag proud fully in: knowledge without love still puffs up. Take this same thought to Isaiah 14 where we find Lucifer, the son of the morning. Morning? A Clue! In Isaiah 14:16 we find Lucifer is a “man”, he also says in his heart, “I will ascend unto heaven”, which shows a self-righteous attitude, based on his illusion of his own goodness, then he says in his heart, “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God”, clearly the heart is not changed, it’s based on the spirit of the world. Lucifer says he will exalt his throne as the Head of the Body, again it’s based on his illusions of his self-importance. Then he says in his heart, “I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north”, meaning Mount Zion, again showing he thinks he is better than any member of the congregation. Then he says in his heart, “I will ascend about the heights of the clouds”, clouds is a metaphor for witnesses, here Lucifer says he is greater than the witnesses, thus his illusion is based in an overconfidence of his importance, he has no fear of God. Then he adds, “I will be like the Most High” (Isa 14:12-14). Lucifer doesn’t say he will be the Most High, rather he will claim to be God like, to have as much power as God, indicating he presumes he is the special of the special, or there wouldn’t be a Body of Christ if it weren’t for him, the illusion of the cultist. We have the Spirit which is of God, God has the Spirit of God. Satan is defined by the Jewish mindset as the character of the devil posed against mankind, as the devil is posed against God. Not three separate devils, but the devil, as the devil, the character of the devil as Satan, then Lucifer as the sons of perdition. They are the he in the world, who are run by the spirit of the world, who are set against the Spirit which is of God (I Jn 4:1-4 & I Cor 2:11-13). Rather than walk in the Righteousness of God, they use self-righteousness by the spirit of fear, producing their own error.
Lucifer is classed as “son of the morning”, but the name means “light-bearer”, yet he still relates to the Morning, yet the Morning is the beginning of the Day. Paul used the same definitive statement of this prince by saying, “who opposes and exalts himself above all called God, or is worshipped; so he as God sits in the Temple (holy of holies) of God, showing himself as God” (II Thess 2:4). Paul titled this subject as the “son of perdition” (II Thess 2:3). However, Jesus said, He lost none but the son of perdition (Jn 17:12). The “son of perdition” was also identified as Judas (Jn 18:5-9). If it was Judas, who is Paul talking about? A position, Judas began in the Morning, he was a man, he felt in his heart he could control and dominate the Lord to get what he wanted, the same mindset as Lucifer. Those with the “Lucifer mindset” are the Wicked, the Beasts of the Field, the workers of iniquity, those who are the unjust who fail to believe unto the saving of the soul (Heb 10:38-39). Are they known prophetically in Genesis? Yes, the beasts of the field will be identified as Subtle, the same definition given to the serpent.
In Ezekiel we are told this Prince of Tyrus doesn’t say he will obtain Through God, or Through the Spirit, rather he is saying in his heart he will advance through his own self-efforts. This prince, like Lucifer says in the heart, yet the mouth is saying something different, yet from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Wait, does it mean words? Or intent? Intent, the Pharisees said one thing, Jesus answered their intent, thus Jesus was able to see the abundance of the heart by the manner in which the words were used. Two people can say, “I’m a child of God”, one says it with humbleness and faith, thus we know they are. The other says it with pride, a puffed out chest full of arrogance, we know they are not, yet both said the same thing.
Jezebel came from Tyrus, yet she married a king in the nation of God becoming the queen. In the Book of Revelation we find at least one of the seven churches allowed the self-appointed Jezebels to teach. The prince has a king over him, the king of Tyrus who assumes he is master of all, yet he is nothing, thus this Rock is the counterfeit, it’s termed by Jesus as the “synagogue (gathering) of Satan”. This king was in the Garden of Eden, everything he needed was given to him, he was the “anointed cherub who covers” (Ezek 28:14). We know the word Covers means to protect or guide, defining the position of the cherub. This Cherub was not only in the Garden, he was Anointed for the purpose of Protecting something, the Cherub was created Perfect, until Iniquity was found in him (Ezek 28:13-15). This can’t be Adam, since Adam wasn’t a Cherub, it only leaves one other. This Cherub had the equipment to make the “stones into jewels”, later he will tempt Jesus by saying, “turn these stones into bread”. Stones can become jewels, if they are polished and cared for, but stones are not bread. Everything this Cherub needed to complete his task in a Godly manner was in hand, yet he found a way to twist it into destruction to get his own way. When he tempted the woman what did he use? Knowledge, where was he? In the tree, so what was his iniquity? He was teaching, but teaching evil as good, and good as evil, meaning his teaching was now unequal.
The word for Beauty in Ezekiel 28:17 is the Hebrew Yophiy meaning Splendor, or Brightness, it was used some 19 times, but it only refers to the outward covering. We know God made the angel beautiful, but what was the beauty attached to? The anointing, when the angel operated in the anointing he was Beauty, when he moved against his position, he became the “serpent”. Was he a “snake”? No, look at his attributes before he fell, he was an angel, not effected by gravity, he was anointed, able to cover. Then he found he could twist his position, then he lost all his attributes, he was given the dust (flesh) as his food, he was bound the earth, under darkness, limited to the natural things of man, losing all spiritual ability, his anointing was gone, so was his beauty. His own self-based evil became his covering: whatsoever he sowed, he reaped.
This Cherub is not Lucifer, since Isaiah says Lucifer is a “man”, yet the Cherub is seen as the king of Tyrus, but Lucifer as the “prince” (Isa 14:16). The “prince of Tyrus” was yet future tense to the prophet, but the “king of Tyrus” was past tense, with a future tense endeavor. The prophet shows how the devil was once a Cherub, anointed to protect, guide and instruct man in the Garden. This Cherub was a spirit, so how would he know how to instruct natural man? What could God give him to assist him in this “knowledge”? This Cherub needed a knowledge from his spirit position to determine what was good and evil in the natural so he could guide man, thus God gave him a tree, a tree off-limits to man. The tree was designed for a spirit to view the natural, it was never designed for the natural to view the natural. The natural viewing the natural from the prospective of the fruit of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil would perverted the knowledge, causing it to be self-based and self-centered.
Since it was “knowledge” it was designed to open eyes, but if one was natural and took of the fruit the process of eye opening would reverse, thus their eyes would be open, but open to their own self desires, producing the spirit of man. The self nature is just the opposite of the God nature, thus the self nature thinks of “me”, the God nature thinks of “thee”.
Some of us think the devil can read minds, not so, he is a master of detecting the nature of natural man. He was able to learn by the tree, so what about the angels of God? Do they need a tree? No, it was not the “tree of messages”, the tree was used in teaching a human the differences between good and evil. Even today the devil goes about seeking whom he may devour, he is attracted to those who like the same things he does. What would prevent him? The Mind of Christ, he has no idea how the Mind Of Christ or the New Nature operates, or responds. The devil is forever limited in scope to the common things of man, the devil doesn’t have a clue to the spiritual things (I Cor 2:11 & 10:13). Natural man is still under the authority of the prince of the power (authority) of the air, but there is an escape for all mankind if they want it.
God gave the man the Tree of Life, yet this tree was off-limits to the Cherub. Did the Cherub take of the Tree of Life? No, it would be a “transgression”, not an “iniquity”. Did the devil use the Tree of Life in the temptation? No, it was knowledge, not Life. So, if we are destroyed for a lack of knowledge, it would seem the devil doing a good deed by giving the fruit to Adam female? Nay, knowledge from the wrong source is deadly.
Since we are spiritual, don’t you think we should have the tree as well? No, strong meat belongs to those who are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil, without taking of the fruit (Heb 5:13-14). Those who are Full Age hear the Word in them, they don’t need the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The angels of God follow the instructions from on High, they don’t need the tree either.
There comes a time when we know dogs bite and fire burns, we don’t have to stick our hand in the mouth of a mad dog to discover teeth are sharp, nor do we hold our hand in a fire to know a raging fire burns. Just as we don’t have to taste of the wrong fruit to know what we’re not suppose to. Both the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil were in the Midst of the Garden. The word Midst is the Hebrew Tevek meaning Middle, it was used to show a place of separation, or a line of separation. These two trees became the dividing point, take the fruit of one, you can’t have the other, thus when Adam took of the wrong tree, he really separated himself from the Tree of Life. After the fall God put an angel at the opening to make sure the separation was complete. The shadow shows the Old and New are different, the Cross is the dividing line.
When Adam was looking for a Help Meet all the creatures of the Garden were brought to him, yet he found none. God then gave him something he desired, by bringing forth Adam female from the “middle” or side of Adam male. When the devil saw Adam female the iniquity within him began to take hold, he saw a “beauty” more desirable than the beauty in his cherub position. Envy became the drive, the spirit of disobedience became the motive behind the fall nature. The “spirit of man” or nature was being formed in man each second the devil was hatching his plan. Paul said the spirit of man knows the things of man, but is ignorant of the things of God, we find the fruit caused a separation between man and God (1 Cor 2:11-12). The phrase “spirit lusting to envy” is not the Spirit of Christ, the word envy used by James means the inability to do good. James doesn’t use the complete title “spirit of man”, he simply says “spirit lusting to envy”, but when we add the context of envy we find this can only be the spirit of man. Putting James 4:5 with, “if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not” (James 3:14), and “for where envying and strife is, there is confusion, and every evil work” (James 3:16), with “even of your lusts warring in your members?” (James 4:1), and “you lust and have not” (James 4:2), with, “you may consume it upon your lusts” (James 4:4), adding, “you adulterers and adulteresses”, we get a good idea of what this lusting to envy spirit is about. Then we have to add the escape, Submit, Resist the devil, draw near to God, cleanse your hands you sinners, be afflicted, mourn, weep, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord (James 4:6-10). All areas pointing to repenting from using the deeds of the spirit lusting to envy, then receiving with Meekness the Engrafted Word which is able to save our souls (James 1:21).
The devil placed himself at his own tree, then used it to come against the Help Meet, thus instead of using the Tree to assist the natural creation, he used it against the natural creation, twisting the purpose. What did he promise? Ability, yet knowledge is not ability, it’s awareness. Why did Adam female listen to him anyway? As the prophet shows, the devil was a “covering”, or instructor, thus to her, he was merely instructing, but she knew something was wrong. The words of the Lord were still ringing in the Garden, the devil not only questioned the words, he was attempting to get Adam female to question them as well. The introduction of doubt and unbelief became the seeds of rebellion.
The tree was under his authority, it was created good, but he was using it an evil way. Jude tells us there are some who Grace into lasciviousness (Jude 4). An example of misusing a position or gift of God is found here in the Garden, the devil was misusing his position. Adam female was being mentality seduced; Adam male was watching this whole thing, doing nothing, yet God said, A man shall leave his mother and father and cleave to his wife, but this man was watching his wife slowly drown in the sea of iniquity. We can’t put all the blame on Adam male either, since both were “equals”, everyone is still drawn away by their own lust. What lust? The lust they birthed when they started to test the Commandment. They were still “one”, only now they were one in rebellion, which caused them to be divided even the more.
The serpent was entrusted with the “gifts and calling” of God, but he used them for his own self-based interest in a manner not conducive to the Will of God, really not conducive to the gift and calling either. The misuse of the fruit of the tree is a perfect example, the fruit was good, the tree was good, the misuse didn’t make the fruit evil, or the tree evil, the “act of misuse” was the evil, which turned the fruit from good to evil. It’s not the credit card, it’s the misuse, the card, book, day or whatever are “things”, what we do with them determines whether they are good or evil. We are not drawn away by the credit card, we are drawn away by our own lust to use it wrongly. The Process of the New Birth is changing us from the wiles of the spirit of man, which we find was introduced in the Fall.
Genesis 3:1 shows the “serpent” was more Subtle than any “beast of the field”; therefore, the beasts of the field were Subtle, if not, how could the serpent be more so? Wow, not just one beast, it’s “any beast of the field”. If there was no sin until the fruit was taken, and no iniquity until it was found by the devil in himself, how then can these beasts be Subtle? These are the “formed” beasts, the prophetic word pointing to the vessels of dishonor. The word Subtle is the Hebrew Arum meaning cunning, it comes from the Hebrew Aram meaning crafty, defining witchcraft, or the use of one thing to bring about something hidden from the eye. Here we find the prophetic connection to Ezekiel, the king was in the tree, his “beasts of the field” took their prince positions when Judas opened the position for them, thus bringing about the spirit of the world, producing the he of the world. This one verse shows God has it all in hand, He knew about the fall, He knew about Judas, He also knows we will win if we continue to believe. This has to be prophetic in nature as well as factual; since the word Serpent means Malicious; we know what Subtle means, thus Subtle is a Wile of the devil. Malicious is connected to Slander, which is based on the intent to cause harm to a person or their reputation. Slander doesn’t need to be a lie, Libel is based on lies. Something can be factual, but if we use it to harm someone, we are a “slandering serpent”.
The devil didn’t become a snake, neither does this mean all snakes are devils. It does show not all snakes are reptiles, metaphorically some are human reptiles, however, it shows the restriction of the devil from the Fall on. We have been given power over the serpents, in fact we can “tread on them”, it has nothing to do with reptiles, it has to do with being able to resist the cunning ways of slander. In Mark we are told we can take up serpents, it has nothing to do with playing with reptiles either, it means the Gospel is able to save even the serpents, turning them into doves, with Paul being the example.
Some think the “beasts of the field” are fallen angels, but prophetically we find some real interesting facets; angels are created, these beasts were formed back in Genesis 1:25. The “beasts of the earth” are earth related, yet identified by John in the Book of Revelation as the Wicked, or false prophets who were run by the spirit of antichrist in our season (Rev 13:11-14). After the beasts were formed we find God then created and formed the man, then gave the man dominion over the earth. If the beasts of the earth were angels, then Adam had power over them, meaning they had fallen before the Fall, which can’t be. It has to be prophetic in nature, like their father the devil, they are cunning and Subtle.
Although God created the angels, we know some of them made the choice to fall, God neither formed them to fall, nor created them to fall, they made the choice to follow the Serpent. When did they make the choice? After the Fall, since Choice became a factor when God presented it in reference to the Tree.
Going to Ezekiel 34:8 we find God Himself defining the “the beast of the field” as the Wicked, those who go about in sheep’s clothing, but are wolves inside. This shows the prophetic message is also a warning, the “beasts of the field” are the “tares”, they are like their father the devil, they hold serpent’s lips. They are “fallen” but not angels, they fit the warning in Hebrews chapter 6, they tasted of the good things of God, but still liked the feeling they obtained from using the he of the world, but in the Night they attempt to crucify the Son of God, yet it was the Son of man who went to the Cross. How can this be? The Son of God was declared by the Spirit of Holiness by the Resurrection, to attempt to put Jesus back on the Cross would be attempting to crucify the Son of God, an impossible act.
The Fall shows how the devil wanted to remove the competition, he changed from protector, to forming a competition. Since the devil is spirit, it shows taking of his fruit does put a spirit over man, the spirit of man also know as the spirit of disobedience. Does it mean man is possessed? No, it means the spirit of disobedience is the nature of the man as a result of the Fall. Paul shows we all were subject to the spirit of man as the children of disobedience (Eph 2:2 & Col 3:6). However, God removed us from there, placing us into the Kingdom of His Son (Eph 5:5).
The word Subtle becomes important, there are times when things, or events seem petty in nature, but there is something going on behind the scenes. The evidence is here at the tree, what was the big deal? One little bite, just one piece of fruit from a tree loaded with fruit. After all, it probably lost some fruit through growth, so who would miss one? Subtle is the use of tricky words, or hidden agendas to trap someone. Paul connected this to the slight of men who lie in wait to deceive (Eph 4:14). Subtle is best defined as someone using words with a hidden motive, one not clear at the moment. The Subtle words are difficult to analyze, they are elusive, devious and tricky. After someone uses those Subtle words we walk away wondering what was really said, or the next day we see through the deception and remark, “Wait a minute!”.
The conversation at the tree only took a minute or two, just a few words spoken among the many words spoken in all of time, yet the repercussions were great. By their words they were condemned, yet if they would have made the right choice, then by their words they would have been justified. The Fall was an action, but the action came as a result of words, the words as a result of slandering the repetition of God.
The choice was there, God allowed knowing the result. Isn’t it strange how we never see where Adam prayed, yet he walked with God in the cool of the day, but the first words we find Adam saying are “This is now bone of my bones…”, but those words were directed toward the woman, in reference to words directed to God his first were, “I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself” (Gen 3:10). The spirit of man defined his sin as being naked, yet he was naked before, yet he didn’t have any trouble walking with God, now things have changed. Adam not is making his own determination regarding sin, he is determining how to correct it. After the fall his knowledge of good and evil was corrupted, making his concepts faulty. The evidence is found in his determination of being naked as the fault, but it does show the flesh is not his concern, indicating the spirit of man had taken root. Why couldn’t God see Adam after the Fall (Gen 3:9)? The Adam God knew was dead, thus God is the God of the Living. God was showing Adam how the Fall separated Adam from God, no more cool of the Day.
There was a competition going on, who was right? Did God say? Or didn’t He? Competition need not have two parties involved, it can have two involved, but it’s not necessary for the attitude of competition to take hold. We can be in competition with someone who is not in competition with us. Competition is the means one uses to show their self superior over another. It takes two to make war, but only one to make peace. This thing could have ended faster than it began if Adam female, or Adam male would have said, “Let’s ask God”.
The devil used something God said; he not only used it out of context, but his intent was to cause harm, thus the first “slander” was spoken by the devil in Genesis 3:1. The devil didn’t say, “God has lied to you”, but he did began with, “Yea”, or as the Hebrew shows, “Yea because”, then he added, “has God said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?” (Gen 3:1). How many debates, or self-justifications begin with “yeah, because”? God said, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it…” (Gen 2:16-17). The devil began with bits of what God said, then made it appear as if God said “shall not” regarding every tree, which would include the Tree of Life. He began the first theological debate, his intent was to discredit God, yet trap another individual, causing them to fall. The Subtle aspect is the devil making his words sound superior to the Words of God, the devil desires for any of us to use a Godly principle, but in an ungodly manner. The female added to the premise, instead of the “shall not” for the entire Garden, she narrowed it down to the one tree; however, she took it one step further by adding a restriction (touch not). When she added to the premise the devil knew the race was on, she had taken the bait of competition, she was now going beyond what God said in order to win the debate. She was now becoming cunning, she was using the same technique against the devil, he was using against her.
The devil could care less if we yell at him all the time, as long as we use his ways. Michael the Archangel knew better than to get into a match of wits with the devil, rather he said, “The Lord rebuke you” (Zech 3:2 & Jude 9). Michael didn’t attempt a knowledge debate, nor did he say, “I come against you”, or “I rebuke you”, he knew the rebuke of the Lord was more than sufficient. David also knew this principle, even though he knew he was king, Saul was still on the throne. David respected the anointing on the position, even if Saul didn’t.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not evil, the fruit was not evil, or deadly. The act of disobedience produced the death, not the fruit. Like the food items in the Law of Moses, the purpose was not to make one food better than another, or to say God created “unclean” foods, rather the purpose was to gain “obedience” (Jere 7:22-23). God lays these matters before us for the purpose of obedience, the item is merely a tool. What God has cleaned, let no man call “common” (Acts 10:15).
Adam was given one commandment to do, and one not to do, his obedience was before him. The evidence shows he lacked faith in God, he didn’t even believe God. Let’s face it, he didn’t do the Do, yet did the Do Not. Two commandments, he broke them both. So, was Adam in the Garden for 8,000 years? More like eight seconds. If taking of the fruit was a violation of the commandment, so was not multiplying, the evidence shows Adam didn’t know his wife until they left the Garden (Gen 4:1). As soon as they were banished Adam begins his acts of “restoration”, but they are all self-based as he used the spirit of man to accomplish his personal agenda.
The devil sinned against the woman, the woman caused the man to sin, but we can’t blame the woman alone, the man also had choice, he was there with her, yet he engaged in partaking of the fruit willingly. Every person is drawn away by their own lusts, the male was not drawn away by the lust of the female, the female was not drawn away by the lust of the devil, each was separately responsible for their own actions. Where did the lust come from? The second they rejected the word of the Lord, their flesh started to take on the role of master, it’s evident in Adam’s conclusion regarding his nakedness being his sin: he was now Flesh minded.
The male sinned against himself, producing a situation where he couldn’t redeem himself, or his wife, yet they were One. Since everything produces after its own kind, we were all born with the same potential to partake of the wrong fruit, and we did. “Wow, I thought man could lift himself up by his own bootstraps”. Try it, you will end upside down.
Adam still kept the “two” principles as he remained married to the one woman even after the Fall. So, why not restore him? We could say, “it’s not fair”, but in essence it is fair, really a blessing. Adam proved all mankind will come short, all need a Savior, One who is Greater and Mightier than we, even mightier than those with a Living Soul. We needed a Savior, one who can defeat death, then bring us to a place where sin becomes a moot subject. God provided us with our Victory, we have more than enough to win this. So, is Adam in hell forever? Jesus preached to those in Paradise and hell, those who wanted to leave became the captivity, He took captive (Ps 22:10-31).
We know the devil was never God, or a brother of Jesus, but he did have a position as a protector or covering in the Garden. The devil was also appointed by God, thus one could term him a “god” (Ezek 28:14). Jesus is not a product of Creation, rather He took on the form of man, as a type and shadow of each of us being Formed into the Image of God’s Son, as sons of God. The devil was clearly Created as the prophet notes (Ezek 28:15), yet Jesus was not created, thus any thought of Jesus and the devil being brothers is heresy. The concept of good against evil is not the issue, rather it’s how evil attempts to corrupt good.
All this is happening at a time when there were two humans and the angel called to protect, there were no idols in the Garden. There were no “gods of stone or wood” in the Garden, so even if the devil say, “you shall be as gods”, so what? What are “gods”? Wait, the word means representatives of God, there was an appointed anointed representative in the Garden. The Cherub was given a tree so he could guide and protect the creation of God, but he made it appear as if the fruit of the tree made him an angel. The devil had taken of the tree, so did the tree cause him to be wise? Did the tree give him power to fly? Did the tree make him beautiful? Was the tree the means giving him the anointing? The devil was the anointed cherub who covered, but was it God who made him so, or was it the fruit of the tree? There were two ways to find out, obey God by believing what God said, or take of the fruit. Wonder which they did?
Adam female was beginning to wonder, if this angel became wise by the fruit; maybe he is right, God just doesn’t want us to fly around, or figure things out for ourselves. We can see how the devil twisted knowledge into ability, then promised natural man a power, by a fruit which could only give knowledge. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was not two trees, it was one tree with one type of fruit, but the fruit had two characteristics. This tree was not the tree of good and evil, but of the Knowledge of good and evil. The fruit allowed a division for clarification, but it was never designed for the natural mind. The fall produced a “knowledge”, or “mindset” which was corrupt, the corrupt mind then became the basis from which man would judge his standards of what is good, or what is bad. The violation set up an order of disobedience introducing man to a nature we se today; one says it’s right, another says it is not, man making his own determinations.
Did Adam actually see God? After all he walked with God in the cool of the day. What about John 1:18, or First John 4:12 where we find no man has seen God at any time. John used two different Greek words for “seen” in the verses, meaning to Perceive, Understand, but it still stands no man has seen God. So what was Adam looking at? Or was he? One can walk in the cool of day with God and never see God with the physical eye; we do it all the time. In Genesis 3:10 Adam said, “I heard Thy voice in the Garden”, in Genesis 3:8 we find the “voice of the Lord God” walking in the Garden. The Voice of the Lord God? Who has heard a voice walk? John was right, Adam walked with God, but he never “saw” God, it was the Voice of God Adam heard. Adam never understood God, if he did he would never have allowed the Fall to take place.
One might think the devil was saying they could be as God and finally see God with their naked eyes. Perhaps, since the Hebrew Elohiym, was used for both God and gods in Genesis 3:5, except the latter use points to the plural. The enticing was to be as the angels of God, to be as wise as the protecting angel. In all this we want to make sure we don’t miss what “god” resulted in the fall, the flesh of Adam became his god, thus his nakedness was at issue, but his flesh wasn’t the problem, his soul was. Prior the flesh was subject to the living soul, now the flesh was master over the soul, placing the created soul in bondage to the formation. The same carries on today, the drive to make the flesh safe and comfortable is the driving force of the spirit of man. The Cross however is the place to impute the flesh dead; Grace is the place to see the soul saved by the Spirit.
We also find the devil wasn’t real bright to begin with, he limited himself to three areas, he is still limited to those three. Although the three may wear different clothes, they all have the same hats. The devil discovered how a creation of God can say No to God, and Yes to evil, but the devil always comes up short, or goes too far. The fall also shows how the devil can’t see two seconds into the future, he limited himself for all time by using the three temptations. The devil used the same three against Jesus, he still uses them against all mankind. The three elements? The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life, they are also seen as the power, authority and seat of Satan, or as the cares of the world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust for other things; they are also known as natural, sensual (soulish) and devilish. All three are “common”: right about now you are wondering about the term “spiritual wickedness”. The word Wickedness means Iniquity, thus it’s not a wicked action by spiritual means, but the failure to be spiritual after one gains the Spirit (Eph 6:12). Therefore, remaining natural when we have the Spirit is spiritual wickedness, the only place spiritual wickedness can happen is in high places, or better by those who enter the high places by the Mercies of God.
When the woman took of the fruit, the character of the devil took seed and root in her heart (spirit of man) and soul (spirit lusting to envy), her offspring had the same seed of the spirit of man in their hearts ready to spring forth. The very first child was a murderer, who killed over a sacrifice to God. At the same time there was the “measure of faith” working in man; Hebrews chapter 11 has a list of many who held to the measure of faith in the face of adversity, yet even the measure of faith was not enough to gain “the Promise” (Heb 11:39). Were there people who were not driven by evil? Yes, Abel was one, but man was still bound by the spirit of man. David was a man after God’s own heart, but he took Bathsheba, then had her husband killed. Even if someone does something “good”, the good gift came from God, yet the flesh of man seeks the glory, the iniquity would be failing to give God the glory. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
The fall was a transfer of wills, desires and agendas by gaining a corrupt thought process, in no stretch of the imagination was there any sexual contact between the devil and the woman, it was a mental seduction. Adam didn’t “know” Eve until after the fall, thus Eve was still a virgin at the tree. We know Jesus had to come from a virgin, in so doing He was able to immediately bring us to a Garden of God position as living souls, then by His Resurrection we were granted the opportunity to become sons of God.
The mental seduction of the devil is played out daily in the mind games of man. Mind games hold hidden agendas, or deceptive plans to get people to do something for us, without directly asking them. A mind game is to cause something to happen, while at the same time not letting the other party know our intent. We speak of one thing, in order to manipulate the person to do something else, it’s the something else we really want. We don’t want to “owe” anyone, so we make suggestions knowing the person can hear, but do we owe them? No, we didn’t tell them to do it, they Just did it. “Oh my back, I wish I had some help around here”, “Ah gee I can help, where do you want it?” “Over there is fine”. “There, oh I wonder if you can help me with this paperwork”. “No, I’m sorry I don’t have time”. “Wait, I helped you”. “I didn’t ask”. Mind games are deceptive, manipulative and demonic; being Honest is straight forward and open. The devil played a mind game at the tree, Eve started to use the same wiles, playing her own mind game, yet her own trap slammed shut on her. Adam male played a silent mind game, but the wheels were turning. Adam male’s mind game also trapped him, all three were caught in their own traps. We presume our mind games have trapped others, but in truth they trap us by our self-deception. Therefore, deception holds its own hidden agenda, when we use deception it weaves a web around us. Paul shows those who teach deception become deceived. The same is true with mind games, our own mind games trap us, we become our own victim.
When God judged, He was merely informing Adam male, Adam female and the serpent the result of their actions. True Judgment is the division between the Precious and the Vile, with the information of the consequences of ones actions. Adam had free moral choice, the reward would have been long life, the consequence was death. God merely granted unto man the product of man’s doing, God didn’t curse Adam or Eve to fall, but was there a curse connected to the fall? It’s important, since some think God brought judgment on Adam, but God was merely showing them the results of their actions. The ground was cursed, not because God said so, but because Adam made it so. In Genesis 3:13 God said, “What is this you have done?”, then in Genesis 3:14 God told the serpent, “because you have done this”, then again in Genesis 3:17 He says, “Because you have hearkened unto the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree”. All of these show God was explaining the consequences, or showing them the wages of sin are death. God merely made a statement of fact by informing them the result of their folly. This would be the first time death came as the result of sin, yet it came based on being enticed to test God through misused knowledge.
When Adam male and Adam female left the Garden, they took the Fall nature with them: the same nature is around today, it’s the controlling element in the world, the fear behind the spirit of man dominates the world. The evidence is obvious, not only do we find some saying something is “good” while another says it’s “evil”, they advance the premise to what they call a “right”. One says they have a “right”, the other says they don’t. Most of us took of the fruit from the hand of another person, someone enticed us, we did partake, we then made our own self-determinations on what is “good” or what is “evil”.
Now we know the reason for the Ten Commandments, should a Christian be told to honor God? Should we be told not to steal? The nature of fallen man is revealed in the Ten Commandments, proven by the Law of Moses. Natural man hates to be confronted with the truth regarding his fallen nature, thus natural man hates the Ten Commandments. They are not only afraid of them, they hate the exposure of the self-nature. The Ten Commandments are good, they are the basis for man’s Law. Where did man obtain the punishment for stealing? How about murder? How does man know murder is wrong to begin with? Not from the fallen nature, rather because God said it was wrong.
Other things came with the fall, we know the fall lacked faith, since it produced fear, becoming the main element in the spirit of man. The first time we find the concept of Fear is after the fall, just as the first time we find the concepts of Shame and Self-awareness are after the Fall. God was no longer the center point of man’s attention, rather man became the focus of man’s attention. Religious carnal thinking is no different, “what can God do for me?”, rather than, “what can I do for God?”. Carnal religious thinking wants to be entertained, they want God to serve them, to perform for them, when He doesn’t they get mad.
The word Knowledge means An awareness, thus the purpose of the tree was for the devil to have an awareness of man, in order to protect man, but the tree taken by man, produced a view of man from man’s prospective, which caused man to be “self-protective”, or “self-aware”. The paradox is how the devil ended introducing the spirit of man, knowing the things of man, but completely ignorant of the things of God. To the spirit of man the Spiritual things of God are still foolishness.
Adam’s action came as a result of his reasoning, his reasoning as a result of his thinking, his thinking as a result of his intent; his intent was formed as he watched to see what would happen to “bone of my bone”. Jesus told us from the heart comes no good thing, yet Paul said we must believe from our heart. We must have a new heart, but how? By the Holy Ghost bringing a circumcision of our heart not made with hands, giving us the New Man as our New heart (Prov 16:1, Mark 7:20-23 & Rom 10:6-10). If God creates a “Clean heart” in us, then the old one wasn’t a creation to begin with, thus the old man is not the soul, since the soul is a creation. The old man, is the hidden nature derived from the fall, a spirit not embedded, but nonetheless an element guiding the flesh, as the flesh guides the soul, explaining “that born of the flesh is flesh”. We asked God to give us the Spirit, we gained a new heart where the intent is pure, so we could truly believe Jesus was raised from the dead. The New Man believes in the Resurrection of Jesus without fault, because he is a product of the same Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead. The New Man (Spirit in us) calls out ABBA Father; without the New Man we don’t have the basis to Believe in our heart; of course anyone can have an intellectual view, but it will fail in the face of adversity. The Bible points out Belief is more than a mental view, it’s a way of life. In order for us to walk in the Spirit, we must have the Spirit. In order to believe the Spirit raised Jesus from the dead, we need the same Spirit of Holiness.
The soul of man studying the soul of man is the blind leading the blind. The New Man allows us to view the natural through the spiritual, but natural man is not spiritual in nature, thus the natural attempting to view the natural from the natural produced confusion, then fear causing a self-determined drive for self-preservation. There is a vast difference between man studying a bone, and the bone studying man.
The fruit gave man a self-based knowledge, causing self determinations based in the knowledge of self-awareness. It’s for this reason the concept of the “saving of the soul” could not come until the New Birth was granted. The Spirit in us by the New Birth is saving our soul by a forming process, the cleaning away all those traits, tares and evil concepts planted while we under the spirit of man. God’s people are still destroyed (cut off) because of a lack of knowledge, God didn’t keep the knowledge from man, rather man rejected the knowledge of God for the corrupt knowledge of the self (Hosea 4:6).
It’s a true saying; if we really want to see our enemy, just look in the bathroom mirror. Prior to Pentecost the disciples wanted to “know” God, but there was something hindering them, even Philip asked, “Lord, show us the Father, and it suffices us”, but Jesus said, “Have I been so long time with you, and yet have you not Known Me Philip? he who has Seen Me has Seen the Father” (Jn 14:8-9). Couldn’t Philip see it? No, none of the disciples were Born Again until Pentecost. All this brings us an interesting question, what do the words Show and Seen mean? They are the same Greek word, meaning To Perceive, or Understand, yet this same Philip walked with Jesus in the cool of the day, sat with Him at the table, saw the Lord do many things, even saw the Lord apply the doctrine of the Father, but his Understanding was still natural, he was still using the old man to discern. Peter was like Philip, it took a horrid experience of exposure for Peter to change from “not so Lord”, to “You know all things Lord”. Peter felt his walk with the Lord had come to an end, but in truth his walk was just beginning, it would be greater than he ever thought possible. John chapter 21 is recovery of Peter, thus the Lord doesn’t case us off because of a mistake, rather this is the Season of reconciliation (II Cor 5:19).
The Old Testament saint attempted to get a right spirit (attitude) toward God, we in the New get Right with God by the Spirit. We find the Old Testament has references to many types of spirits, both good and evil: spirit of jealousy (Numb 5:14), another spirit (Numb 14:24), a sorrowful spirit (I Sam 1:15), an evil spirit from the Lord (I Sam 16:14), a sad spirit (I Kings 21:5), a lying spirit (I Kings 22:22), the spirit of king Cyrus (II Chron 36:22), and so on, all showing natures. In the case of Saul we read where God put an evil spirit on the man, so does God have an evil spirit? Hardly, God removes the covering, allowing the evil in man to come forth, in most cases it’s the attitude of the old nature. Isn’t it what happened to the Cherub? Yes, he moved outside of his position and anointing, causing his iniquity to become his covering.
When God took His hand off Saul, the real Saul surfaced, causing him to run after witches for his knowledge. There are demons who possess and oppress people, there are Tares planted by the enemy, there is the spirit of man as the old nature, all of which have the same source, they know nothing but to destroy.
The anointing is a protection and ability, it can be on us, or in us, or both on and in. In Saul’s case his anointing was based on his position, not on the man, when the anointing of the position changed from Saul to David, the real Saul surfaced. There is a difference between Position and Office, Saul was given a Position, the Office was promised after the test, but he never got past the test. The self-based, self-centered heart of Saul sought after things his lust desired, Saul then is a type and shadow of the Wicked. There is an anointing on the Body of Christ, anyone who enters is covered by the anointing (Unction). A point in case is Judas, he was accepted into a position, thus the position carried an anointing, but the man remained the same. The anointing is the ability granted by God to perform some task, yet there are various types of anointing. The priests under the Old Covenant had an anointing specific in nature for the task of carrying out the duties of their position. Jesus is The Christ, meaning all anointed One, or the One from whom all anointing comes. John says we have a Unction (covering) to guide us, then he talks about the anti-anointed ones, also know as “antichrist”, or opposed to the anointing (I Jn 2:19-20). The New Man carries an anointing unto Salvation, a powerful and dynamic anointing, thus we have the Unction on us, with an Anointing in us by the New Birth (I Jn 2:20 & 2:27).
The fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil taken by man started a entire era wherein man equated everything, including God, to man’s natural thinking. “God must have a beginning”, why? Because man has one. “God must be out to hurt us”, why? Because man is out to hurt himself. “God must be limited”, why? Man is limited. Even heaven had to equate to man, streets of gold, houses and the such were all equated to earthly things so natural man could gain a grasp of heaven. God does speak to us in relationship to earthly things, but we can see why. Paul said the things of Paradise cannot be uttered with a human language without discrediting, or blaspheming them (II Cor 12:2-4). The things of God in heaven are so far above the natural state of man, even the best of intentions to describe them in a natural language ends in blasphemy, since no natural language can render heavenly things due respect. What above John with his Book of Revelation? It’s a vision, plus he was told to write what he saw, Paul was not.
Before the fall Adam male and Adam female were naked and not ashamed, this doesn’t mean they enjoyed their nakedness, it means it wasn’t a factor (Gen 2:25). They were not concerned with their appearance, self-awareness had not entered, rather they were concerned with the things around them. Until the time when they were no longer pleased, then the door was open for the devil to insert his plan. In essence they gave the devil place, and he took it.
Adam’s choice involved pleasure in God, or pleasure in his surroundings, he picked the surroundings, the wrong choice always falls short of the expectation. Adam had something in him created by God, but Adam’s flesh was a reproduction of the earth, being Formed from the elements of the earth, thus Adam picked the reproduction over the creation. God gave Adam the Garden, failure comes when we honor the gift, more than the Giver. This was termed by Paul as loving pleasure more than God, they do love God, it’s what we find at the fall (II Tim 3:1-4).
Adam is known as a “son of God”, later Seth will also be termed a “son of God”, but it’s not the same as being the Son of God, or a son of God by the Spirit. Adam begins all this, Seth begins the line to Jesus, but neither could save man from himself. God looked at Purpose, then spoke as if the Plan was complete. The term “son of God” as it relates to these people means one who worships God. Adam still worshiped God, he even gave sacrifices after the Fall. How do we think Cain and Abel learned how to sacrifice?
Would they multiply? Yes, the command is still being carried out. However, isn’t it interesting how Adam female was not told to leave her mother and father? Females have the mother instinct, they are ready to begin a family, but males tend to hang onto home, or use their family as a basis from which to judge their wife. Not wise, but done. Adam is being told the animals, the Garden, even the angel protecting them is not as important as his wife. However, at the tree his wife became an experiment to determine if one would die from eating the fruit.
The devil’s position at the time was to protect Adam, but the devil wanted to be Adam’s companion, friend and provider. The devil was not “bone of my bone”, but he desired to have the position (Gen 2:23). The desire to obtain a position not granted, then control the position is the evil motivation behind the fall. The tree was suppose to be used to assist the devil, not to control Adam. Adam female heard “gods” then thought she could be as the angels, thus she sought a position not granted to her. The devil wanted the woman’s position, the woman wanted to be like the angels (gods), the man wanted to be a part of what was going on. The fall nature begins when we desire something not afforded to us to by God. The New Birth brings a New Creature so we can be spiritual in nature, thus we don’t seek something not afforded, but seek to be complete in something granted by God. Adam was a living soul, he was not promised or given a spirit, thus his desire to have a spiritual position was his rebellion.
Now we can answer the question, ”were there other beasts of the field?”. When Adam male said, “it was the woman you gave me”, when Adam female said, “it was the serpent”, they were being tricky, or subtle. Rather than Adam of the Garden, they became “beasts of the field”; therefore showing us the dual usage of Adam. In some cases we’re looking at “Adam of the Garden”, but we also see “Adam of the field, the subtle beast”. Who else does it sound like? Judas? Yes, Judas the preacher who cast out devils, then there was Judas the thief and betrayer.
After the fall God merely moved Adam male and female to the locale they had joined to, like some people once they find the folly of their sin, they want to force change, without wanting to be changed. The beast of the field hasn’t changed, they still desire to make the world the kingdom by forcing “life principles” on those who have no life. Same old thing, “it was the world you gave me”, but it still doesn’t move God.
The devil wasn’t happy with the manner in which God operated, he then moved against the Will of God, twisting his position of protection to one of destruction. Once the devil allowed envy to rule his mind, the fall was established. The acts merely brought the thoughts into a place of action, the action brought the result. James tells us the thought is only a thought until we make it an action, but Jesus said if we think it, we did it, go figure? The context Jesus uses is not a the thought alone, but a constant thought forming plans, or attempting to live the thought making it come to pass. Therefore, Jesus was explaining the fall nature as the motivation of the natural unsaved soul of man. Man not only had to be told “thou shall not commit adultery”, but the mind of man proved how man “thought” on the act, thus the Commandment only exposed the act as sin. Jesus pointed out the source of the act, He was showing there is an escape. Walk in the Father’s Mercy, it will transform the mind of man.
The devil made his plan, put it into action, but why didn’t he use the “multiply” issue? No violation, the only premise he had was “knowledge”, Adam female was making her plan as she went, but she nonetheless had a plan. Adam male had his plan in the works as well, “if she drops down dead, then I’m not about to touch the fruit, but if the serpent is right, or if she becomes a god, then count me in”. The deception of the devil was obvious to the spiritually minded, he felt God wouldn’t know what he was doing until it was done, he assumed his plan and thoughts were hidden from God, even if they were discovered, he was the anointed cherub, the protection of creation was in his hands, under his power, who would dare challenge him, yet prior this same creation stood before the very throne of God, for who knows how long. One form of self-deception is using the things of God in a wrongful manner, then presuming they have done God a service. The misuse of the position changed the Cherub into the devil, thus Judas was called a “devil” since he was misusing his God given position (Jn 6:70).
The devil had a plan, on the surface it looked like it would work, but the result shows it went awry. The evidence? Losing his position for one, yet we must remember Adam named all the animals, yet the Woman was his Help Meet, thus we are not talking about a couple of idiots, they had intellect before the fall, but the mind they used was not the Mind of Christ, rather their mind was still natural in nature. Paul tells us without the Spirit there is no way to know the ways of God, for they are spiritually discerned (I Cor 2:9-10 & 13-14). Any natural person will lack the ability to handle the spiritual things of God, thus we must be Born Again in order to enter the realm of the Spiritual.
The devil’s plan had to center on something of the earth, but heaven related. There must have been something in the Garden to make Eve think by taking of the fruit she would become “a god”. Ezekiel 28:17 tells us this anointed cherub who covers was “beautiful”, but the beauty also caused him to be “lifted up”, rather than give God the glory for the beauty, he became self-impressed. We found the angels are known as “gods”, the same Hebrew word was used to describe the people of God as extensions of God (Job 1:6 & Ps 82:1-8). The enticing factor? To be like this beautiful cherub. Angels are sent as ministers to those who shall be heirs of salvation, not those who are heirs (Heb 1:14). What was the lust in the devil? To be the help meet, thus the lust of one was drawing on the lust of the other, but the desires were different. The devil is the “tempter” because he is all lust, yet he entices by seeking a lust in his victims.
At the tree we find the first evil prophecy going forth, we also find it was received then acted upon. The devil made a prophecy, if Adam female believes by acting upon it, then she will make it happen. Yet we will find the devil used wording suggesting one thing, but produced another, which is the basis of a “lie”. The devil said their eyes would be open, were their eyes opened? Yes, read Genesis 3:5 then 3:7; in 3:5 the devil said, “then your eyes shall be opened”, in 3:7 after they took of the fruit we read, “the eyes of them both were opened”. Did the devil tell the truth? No, on the surface it would seem their eyes would be open to the things of God, but their eyes were closed to the things of God, yet opened to self-awareness. Something the devil left out, making his statement a lie. It was once said a half truth suggesting one thing, but produces another is still a lie. At times it’s not what a person says, but what they fail to say. We must discern, we could hear fifty minutes of Truth, five minutes of personal agenda, yet toss out the Baby Jesus with the dirty bath water. We discern, we keep the fifty minutes of truth, toss out the personal agenda. Here the devil made a suggestion containing “facts”, but his intent was to deceive, meaning he left out the important areas, thus it was the first wind of doctrine; or something connected to the doctrine as a fringe area, which fails to have the heart of the doctrine.
In the Hebrew the word Knew means self-aware, the self nature became the works of the devil, known as the spirit of man. Eve felt she would have the same clarity as God, to be wise; she was willing to violate the Commandment to get it, or was she? She was enticed, thus she didn’t think she was violating the Commandment, she thought she had passed the test, but what she thought, and what was happening were completely different. Look at the event, she stood firm, added to the Commandment yes, but still she was firm, until she “saw”; then her flesh became the prominent factor in her life, she then interpreted what she Saw, making each of the three lusts as her guides. Food for her flesh, something to make her feel good, something to make her think she was wise. Those three elements are the pillars to the old nature (spirit of man).
It’s all here at the tree, the serpent’s Method of Operation (wiles), are the methods his workers use as well. So, do we fight the workers? Or the methods? The methods of course, we don’t use the same methods then claim victory over the devil. Don’t forget God placed the serpent with the beasts of the field in the realm of the Subtil. Why is this so important? The Book of Hebrews tells us we can Fall (or fail at) from Grace, allowing the Root of Bitterness to spring up (Heb 12:15). What runs hand in hand with Bitterness? Unbelief, murmuring and complaining, then comes slander, jealousy, envy, then attacking the members of the Body of Christ, which is antichrist in nature. If the devil is bound to his Wiles, then it behooves us to find out what those Wiles are. If we are given Weapons through God, it behooves us to find out what those Weapons are, so we don’t mix one into the other. Paul told us to preach the truth in love, the devil wants us to preach fear by deception.
Adam female and Adam male were in a state of exposure, God gave them more than their “need”, but they weren’t satisfied, greed took over, they sought things outside those God granted. There are only three subjects here, yet none of them said, “Hold it, wait, this is wrong”. They were “gathered” together, but not to edify. Now wait, if the Garden of God was protected, how could the serpent cause the fall? He was granted a position within, just like Judas. What motivated Judas? The bag, more money, he sought things outside those God granted.
Was Eve confused? No, she admits she was tricked, not confused. Three people can hear the same message, one hears Truth, then receives it, another is offended, the third is confused, yet all three heard the same words. If we have Truth, then we won’t be confused, or offended at the Truth, but if we have a Stronghold the Truth will expose the Stronghold, thus the Stronghold will cause the confusion, or offense. The enemy attempts to tell us the Confusion is the Truth, or the Truth is the Confusion. “Well I wasn’t confused until they showed up”. Ahh, it’s the clue, we held a stronghold, Truth came as a hammer to the stronghold, we became confused. Paul was not fooled by the false apostles, but the Corinthians were. What made the difference? Being Spiritual in nature, the Corinthians were carnal, thus they were easily impressed by personality and natural intellect. Paul was Spiritual, he was not moved by natural things.
Adam female didn’t run to the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil to take of the fruit immediately, rather she engaged in a theological debate. She then added to the Commandment, causing her to become enticed. She began to use the same means as those being used against her, which is the trick of the enemy. “Tell me, what do you think about all the terrible things going on in the world?”. The trap is open, if we say, “God is in control”, we are open for a retort, “do you mean God is killing all these babies?”. Ouch, we had the right answer, but lacked Wisdom. If we say, “Oh, it’s terrible, isn’t it, it really scares me?”, our words show we have taken the cares of this world, making us open for the insertion of more fear. Of course the world is corrupt, it’s suppose to be. Questions leading us into debates are demonic in nature, the devil used a question to draw the debate into the specific area where his plan waits. The conversation at the tree is an example of lying in wait to deceive. The devil didn’t ask Adam female, “Is the Tree of Life really in the midst of the Garden?”. Why? He wanted to focus the conversation in one area, the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil. Once Eve entered the debate it was only a matter of time before she would fall.
The devil challenges the Word, ignores the Word, or denies the Word, but his weapons are still the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. The devil can quote Scripture with the best of them, it’s the interpretation and wisdom he can’t get right. Simply quoting Scripture isn’t a sign of holiness, the Pharisees quoted Scripture, but Jesus interpreted it.
Adam felt he could violate the Commandment, yet still remain in the Garden with his the Tree of Life, thus he lacked a fear of God, as well as an awareness of God’s integrity, he found what God says, He means. Therefore, Adam assumed God would not punish him, he became overconfident in his position, just as Judas. “After all I’m Adam, I walk in the cool of the day with God, don’t you know”, “after all I’m Judas, Jesus told me to do this quickly”, both lacked a fear of God. While we are on this earth this lesson of Adam proves one thing, faith is a confidence in God to bring us through this, but we can become so overconfident in our position thinking we can’t fall regardless of what we do. The latter is why the Wicked do fall, faith in God will please God.
The paradox is seeing the Day of Rest had passed, here God was “working” on the result of the Fall. Adding we find the formation of the woman had to be after the Seventh day, since Adam named the animals and searched for his help meet. God’s work regarding the Judgment was done, but now it’s Day, the time of Redemption.
The devil also assumed the Woman would fall, be cast from the Garden, leaving the devil and Adam male as help meets; however, like all the plans of the devil, it soon turned to testify against him. From this we gain four elements, first and foremost the devil can’t see two seconds into the future. Second the moment we use slander against another, it testifies against us, not them. They may suffer as a result of our words, we may take pride in our efforts, we may even assume we got away with it, but in the end, if we fail to repent, we will pay. Thirdly we find the concept of a “point of view”, the devil’s point of view saw Adam female intruding into his space, but in God’s point of view Adam male and Adam female were to be One, the entire Garden was theirs. Fourth is how the devil knows the nature of natural man, so much so he doesn’t have to read mankind’s mind.
The devil began by questioning God’s command, when Adam female attempted to defend God, she introduced the first heresy, yet the male was the leader of the congregation, but sat idle. The role of a Pastor is to protect the flock in a Godly manner, here the leader watched as his flock was on the road of destruction.
The attempt of Adam female to go beyond the words to the introduce her opinion regarding what God said opened the door for the devil to insert his opinion. She attempted to “out God” the devil; we’ve all seen it, “God is so good, I needed five dollars and He delivered”, “Oh yes I know, I needed fifty, but He gave me a hundred”, “Oh I prayed and God healed my sore finger”, “Oh yes I know, I prayed and God healed my entire leg, and my neighbor’s sore corns”. Competition, even in the things of God relate to the fall nature entering competition. The devil’s presentations often seem “good to the eyes”, or able to “make one wise”, it can even “seem right” to the natural mind of man, but there is a way unto man which seems right, yet leads to death (Prov 14:12).
The devil hasn’t changed since the tree, the proof of his limitation is seen in Scripture:
Gen 3:6 – Saw the tree was good for food, pleasant to the eyes; one to make one wise
Mark 4:19 – Cares of this world, deceitfulness of riches, lusts for other things
James 3:15 – Earthly, sensual, devilish
1 John 2:16 – Lust of the flesh, lust of the eye, pride of life
Correlation indeed, the three elements of the spirit of man, are the same as the power, authority and seat of Satan, all of which are a product of the fall, all found in the prince of the power of the air, the same elements motivating the spirit of disobedience, as the spirit lusting to envy. No wonder Jesus told us to seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His Righteousness.
When Adam female took the Commandment out of context, the devil then gave his false teaching on the subject, introducing the first false prophecy. The false prophecy was “You shall not surely die”, which is a future tense statement, making it a prophetic, but it was based on false information, making it false. Adam male followed suit by making his own conclusion regarding the Commandment, but he also failed to protect his “help meet”. When God said, “cleave unto her”, it’s what He meant, allowing her to fall into the hands of the serpent, was hardly Cleaving. All three introduced the various false elements of wicked ministry, they brought about false teaching, false prophecy, carnal views regarding the Word of the Lord, with a failure to watch over the flock of God, then rebellion regarding the things of God. All these things happened in just a few moments in a conversation carrying repercussions Adam couldn’t even begin to conceive.
Prior God told Adam, “for in the day you eat thereof you shall surely die” (Gen 2:17). In the Hebrew the phrase reads, “In dying you shall die”, showing a progression of death, or a declining of life. The commandment was “not to eat thereof”, Adam could touch it, water it, look at it, wonder about it, make a painting of it, or ignore it, but he could not eat thereof. Adam female transgressed, or ventured into a place she should not be, Adam male failed to protect bone of my bone, thus both failed at their God given positions, both would reap what they sowed.
It’s clear the fall came because they failed to Obey the Commandment, but is there only one form of Obedience? No, one can obey out of fear, or obey out of love, or one can even obey reluctantly. If someone told us to hand them a glass of water, we could obey the command, but be nasty in the doing. We can hand them the glass, but in our minds we could be saying, “I always have to do this, I don’t like this guy anyway, but I’ll do it, bless God, I’ll do it because God told me to, but I hate it”. It’s not the type of obedience God is looking for. In the Greek there are several words for Obey, one is Hupakouo meaning To hear or hearken with the idea of listening to something with attention; it was used in Ephesians 6:1 in reference to Children Obey your parents. There is the Greek Hupakoe which was used in reference to a slave hearing their master, then obeying with joy and gladness. This word shows Faith must entail a willingness to obey, based in respect and honor for the Master’s desires. The point being, there are different ways to do something, then claim we Obeyed, when in fact, we did an act, but were we really obeying? Simply doing the act isn’t necessarily Godly obedience, we must obey in joy. Doing what God wants while being nasty about it, is hardly Godly Obedience.
Did Adam or Eve repent? Not hardly, Adam blamed God and the woman, Eve blamed God and the devil. The devil had two workers speaking for him, it would seem as if the devil won, but God is the real winner in this, the evidence is Jesus. All this was in the Plan, God didn’t design it, His design included it. However, on the surface it would appear as if the devil’s plan worked, after all, there were only two humans, both followed the dictates of the devil, thus one would think the devil was able to win 100 percent of the subjects, but the beginning is not the end, the end shows there are a people of God, a people who refuse to use the works of darkness, a people who love the Lord with all their heart, who are willing to pay the price. God knew the potential was there, Adam was created in the Garden to be tempted of the devil. Much later Jesus would be taken into the wilderness by the Spirit to be tempted of the devil. The results between the First Adam and the Second Adam are much different, Amen?
At first we find Adam female wasn’t enticed, but she started to debate the issue, through debating she went beyond the truth to make her point, by making it sound greater than it was, therein she became bewitched. It sounded like she was defending the faith, but she was using the same means as the serpent. The second she crossed over the line she gave birth to the Pride of life causing her to receive a new mindset. All this is taking place before she took of the fruit, thus the taking of the fruit was the result of the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life, not the cause, making the fruit a victim. The evidence? Genesis 3:6 shows she Saw the tree before she took of the fruit, thus she was drawn away by her lust, then she did partake. Where did this lust come from? The debate, it was birthed from the flesh, the reproduction of the darkness. Once the exposure came it was time to deal with it, not play with it, but rather than deal with it, she used it.
When she “saw” the tree her eyes were being opened to self-awareness, the very things she saw as Good were about to turn into Evil. She became the center of attention, the devil made a promise to her, she was being entertained by the devil as he exalted her, yet she was being separated from God. The devil planted his tare through suggestions, then promising a condition and position he wasn’t able to provide, yet there was a transfer of attitudes, natures and characters taking place. The more the devil deceived, the more he became deceived. The Woman received a different thinking process, she began to see things as the devil saw them. Her mind turned to flesh centered, as her soul began to concern itself with the flesh. Was she demon possessed? No, she took of the works of the devil, she didn’t take the devil, he remained at the tree. By taking the byproduct of the devil, she also took of his mindset, nature, better the spirit of man.
The devil became the devil (deceiver) by his own words, he was created perfect, but when he used iniquity, he became the first worker of iniquity, the other beasts of the field follow his course. The devil used slander and accusation to promote his self-pleasure, but who was the first one the devil accused? God, he attacked the words spoken by God, thus the attack was against the Word of God. The same attitude was transferred to the soul of the woman, she became a byproduct of the works of the devil. She then gave the fruit to her husband who was with her, the two became one in death. The first product after the fall was Cain, the one who killed his brother over a sacrifice to God.
Jesus told us, “deny yourself, pick up your cross and follow Me”, at the tree we see the devil’s intent was “enhance your self nature, deny the commandment and be like me”. The three elements Jesus gave us will overcome the enticing ways of the enemy, the Water, Blood and Spirit are still the Witness. Without Jesus we haven’t a chance, we can pray fifty times a day, yet go to hell in a hand basket. However, with Jesus we’re in win, win situation, thus Jesus has won, we enjoy the victory.
As far as partaking of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, it’s still a sin, but it became iniquity for the devil to fail at his position of protecting by presenting it to natural man. When God appoints Pastors or Leaders, their job is to Feed the flock of God among them, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint (compulsion), but willingly; not for filthy lucre (selling the dove), but of a ready (willing) mind; neither being lords over God’s heritage, but being ensamples (examples) to the flock (I Pet 5:2-3). The word “oversight” doesn’t mean to guard, or keep in one place, rather it’s the Greek Episkopeo meaning To look upon, or Observe, as in examining the state of affairs in order to provide what is needed. The devil could have said it was exactly what he was doing, he needed the woman out of there, but he used a twisted concept of “covering”.
When Adam was caught he defined his sin as being naked, then he used a Fig Leaf as his covering. The act would produce another metaphor, the Fig Tree, which became a metaphor for the religious order of Israel, thus the religious order of Israel could not do away with sin, it would only cover it for the moment. The Law of Moses proves this concept, since it had two products, blessing (good) and cursing (evil), it still became a way to balance the scale for taking of the fruit, not a way to return man back to innocence. The Law of the Spirit is a changing of the heart, nature, condition and position unto the saving of the soul, justifying us so we will be innocent before God; much different.
The woman was in transgression, but it was based on being deceived; however, she became deceived based on two elements (I Tim 2:11-14). She wanted what the devil promised, then she entered a debate over theology. What theology? “Did God say”, discussions pertaining to what God has said become points of theology. The man was not deceived, he knew what was going on, but failed to intervene, thus his action was more iniquity, causing him to sin when he took the fruit. The wife became a symbol of the congregation in the Body of Christ, the husband a symbol of the leaders of the Body. This exact premise would be used by Paul to explain the danger of entering an ineffective condition by placing some veil or yoke between us and Christ (Anointing of the Body – I Cor 11:1-11). Look at what Adam male did as a leader, he gave his podium to the devil, then allowed the devil to preach to his congregation (Adam female), the result was his congregation becoming deceived, then falling into the snare of the devil, yet Adam male followed right behind.
Adam was now “afraid”, a trait of the spirit of man, causing him to run to the Fig Tree for his covering. His fear of God came after the fact, if he had obtained a fear of God before the fact, the fall would never have happened; however, God knew Adam didn’t fear Him, He also knew the fall would happen, it had a purpose. It’s for this reason we don’t find Adam connected to the word Faith. A Godly fear of God is connected to real faith, if someone has no fear of God, they are not using faith, they are using mind power.
How do we know there was a mind changing? The word Wise is the Hebrew Sakal meaning Intelligent, or Intellect, all Intellect relates to knowledge. Paul said there was a knowledge of man, and a knowledge from heaven. The knowledge they gained at the tree was destructive in nature, it was based on the Waster who knows nothing else but to destroy.
The result of the fall changed “bone of my bone” to “the woman you gave me” (Gen 3:12). Excuses with accusations became the result of “your eyes shall be opened”. Eve found both she and her husband ended as “gods”, but those “gods” were self-idols formed in their own minds. The first excuse out of the mouth of man after the fall was self-justification. “Well, I wouldn’t have done it if old so and so hadn’t made me”. No, every one is drawn away by their own lust, true the other did entice, but we our own lust did accept the enticement.
The first line of excuses came from man, Adam blamed Eve and God; whereas, Eve blamed the devil and God. Neither Adam or Eve took the responsibly for their iniquity or transgression, meaning the devil didn’t have to say a word (Gen 3:12-13). This becomes our first premise of Warfare. They used the wrong weapons by attempting to place the blame on others, rather than repentance. The heart of Repentance is taking responsibility for our failures, then seeking God’s restoration.
The devil was the first in line for judgment, really the only one of the three to be cursed (Gen 3:14). The ground was cursed because of Adam man, the Woman would suffer in childbirth, but the text shows out of the three only the devil is cursed. The first time we find the word Cursed, or Curse it relates to the Serpent (Gen 3:14).
Within all this we find a Prophecy which goes directly to the Seed of the Woman, not the Seeds of Abraham, there is a difference. The Woman will bring the Man Child, the Remnant are noted as the Remnant of her seed (Rev 12:17). The Remnant are never seen as the “Seed of God”, the word Remnant means The remaining area, thus the Remnant are the Lesser Light of the Seed of the Woman to complete the judgment, or as Jesus called them, the little flock. How will they bring Judgment? They die at the hands of the wicked, when all the “righteous” are gone, then comes the prophecy, “it’s appointed unto all men once to die, then comes the judgment”. God will not destroy the righteous with the wicked, but He will wait until the Wicked have destroyed everyone, including themselves.
We are the Greater Light who have the Seed of God, purposed for Salvation. There is a difference between “seed of the woman”, and “seed of God”. Jesus came as the Seed of the Woman, but who is the Woman? The Church? No, the Church was birthed on Pentecost, Jesus said He would build His Church, thus the Church didn’t give birth to Jesus, Jesus gave birth to the Church. The Woman is seen in prophecy as “a city”, not any city, but a special city, thus Jesus wept over the city, not the nation.
The language of Genesis 3:15 is strange at best, if we forget about the rest of the Bible. Verse 14 clearly shows the serpent is cursed, yet one can only give what they have, thus the only thing the serpent can bring is cursing. Did God curse the serpent? No, the serpent cursed himself, God merely made the obvious more obvious. From this we find the Law of Moses is a two-way street, if a one under the Law failed at the Law then the Law would cause the curse to take effect. Therefore, we are told to bless and curse not, we are under a different Law.
In verse 15 we find Jesus isn’t going to bruise the serpent, rather the serpent will bruise the heel of Jesus; however, we also find an “it” will bruise the serpent. There is only one group who can fit an “it”, the Body of Christ, who are neither male or female, but an “it”. The Remnant are a people, as a them. Another division between Day and Night, in the Night the Father will make the enemies of Jesus His footstool, thus the enemies will bruise the heel of Jesus when He sets His foot on the earth. One would think Jesus would gain the bruise by slamming His heel down, but it’s not the case. The Footstool of the Lord is the earth (Isa 66:1), yet God so loved the world, thus the bruise is one of pain and sorrow. What is a bruise made of? The bruise is just under the flesh caused by blood gathering, but not leaving the Body. In the Day the Wicked are seen as “antichrist”, in the Night they are the Beast of the Earth, but it’s in the Night where they end as the enemies of Jesus, becoming His footstool. Since they entered, yet denied the purpose for entering, they cause a deep pain in the Body of Jesus, something none of us want to do.
This prophecy in Genesis 3:15 comes as a result of the fall, not as a result of faith, we don’t want to forget all this is relative to the Night. We worship at the footstool of Jesus since His Footstool is the earth, yet there will come a time when the beast of the “earth” will bruise the heel of Jesus. Division of Seasons makes it easier to understand the difference between the Day and Night.
If the violation was based on a Commandment, why not give Adam a “law”? Why not the “Law of Adam”? Why wait for Moses? There was a Law, when God spoke of the consequences of the Fall it became a Law, called the law of sin and death.
Eve became a slave to her husband, she lost her Help Meet position, Adam lost the relationship with God, yet he would continue with a type of life, since he lived past the fall, but his life was a flesh based leading to death (Gen 3:16-19). The more we learn of the differences between a soul life based in the flesh, and a Living Soul, as well as between a Living Soul and a Quickening Spirit the more we can appreciate Jesus.
It’s very important to see how the “slave” issue came as result of the Fall, rather than of Grace. Before the Fall she was a “help meet”, not a slave. Holding the slavery mentality is still holding to the fall nature. Why was the ground cursed? Adam was formed of the ground, his flesh was a byproduct of the earth, he was called to be a caretaker of the Garden, thus the makings of his flesh were now his enemy. His soul made the decision, his flesh consumed the fruit. From this we find Adam was not from the monkeys, or God would have said “cursed are the monkeys for your sake”.
Adam male said, “it was the woman you gave me”, Adam female said, “it was the serpent”, but the serpent said nothing, why not? (we’re not going to say he didn’t have a leg to stand on, oops, just said it). The serpent heard his advocates speaking for him. Did the devil care if Eve said, “the serpent beguiled me”? Not at all, he enjoyed it. Why? She was saying the devil won, she became the first to give the devil credit. Whenever we give the devil credit we are saying he has won, yet the death of Jesus on the Cross made the devil ineffective, how than can he win?
God separated the Tree of Life from Adam, since the twisted knowledge of good and evil is completely opposed to the purpose of the Tree of Life. Adam became flesh minded and self-based, now his concern was to keep his corrupt flesh in existence for as long as he could. His soul then became servant to the flesh, he would use intellect to keep the flesh happy and safe, in return the soul would have pleasure in the things of the flesh. The fruit of the fall was in full force. Is there Hope? We will have to move in the Process to conclude some of the elements leading up to the first sacrifice. Would Adam be the first to give a sacrifice? One would think so. Let’s go on to the next lesson and see.
By Rev. G. E. Newmyer – s.b.i.les1rev9/© 2003
