Part 2: Two Gods: The One True God
Don't misinterpret my capitalization.
There is only one God!
The One God is confirmed here:
Ephesians 4:6 "One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all."
Christianity and Judaism is monotheistic. They believe in One God. Likewise, Islam claims one God as well, but Islam is the one of the major monotheistic religions which rejects Jesus Christ as God and Savior. However, since Judaism has already rejected Jesus, then most people suppose that they do not believe in Jesus Christ.
Mark 12:10 "And have ye not read this scripture; The stone which the builders rejected is become the head of the corner:"
First off one should ask "Where in scripture is this written?" The answer is "in T
he Old Testament":
Psalm 118:22 "The stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the corner."
Scripture is referring to Jesus Christ because in
Ephesians 1:20 he's referred to as "the cornerstone".
The builders (the Jews) refused the Cornerstone. It was prophecy that they would reject him on whom the church was built. However, as we see Jesus, Jews still merely look at the horizon, because they still believe he is coming. There are
Thirteen Principles of the Jewish Faith: Here is the twelfth of them:
12. The belief in the arrival of the Messiah and the messianic era.
Yes, the Jewish people still believe in the Messiah and when he comes again theologians interpret that the 144,000 who will turn to Jesus are of the Hebrew faith. Furthermore, many theologians accept that Judaism reflects a belief in The Holy Spirit. (Principle 6):
6. The belief that G-d communicates with man through prophecy.
This isn't full-fledged "power of The Holy Ghost" from
Acts Chapter 1, but it does indicate that the scholars of Judaism does credit God with communicating with man and it's through prophecy. In order to receive prophecy it was necessary for the patriarchs to be inspired by the Holy Spirit. As such, I claim that Judaism is trinitarian in doctrine as is Christianity! In fact, I'll go one step further: Christianity preceded Judaism and the patriarchs worshiped God and communed with Jesus Christ both through pre-incarnate appearances and by spiritual means. Judaism is a sect of Christianity, but is apostate in that it rejects what has already been; the Cornerstone!
Most Christians believe in "the trinity'. This is the concept of three personalities of God in One God. Most used "three persons' to describe the trinity, but that seems confusing! God is One Person with three distinct personalities!
Let me digress for awhile on the God of
The Old Testament. Don't get me wrong; he is the same God as in
The New Testament, but viewed through different eyes! Let's look at Jesus in the eyes of the patriarchs!
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| Figure #1: The Word the Shadow of Jesus |
Very simply God the Father just IS! He IS Light, Truth and so forth. "The Word" is the personality of God who is the messenger to mankind. In Genesis we find him right there "judging" and offering "mercy":
Genesis 3:8 "And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden."
I submit that "the voice of the Lord God" was and is Jesus! Why not just say Jesus? Because he had yet to be incarnate. As such, "The Word" foreshadows Jesus. From the beginning Christ was the focal point for salvation because he was and still is "the presence" of God.
If a light is shined and there is no matter, if one looks toward the light, they cannot see because of it's brilliance. This light is what the Hebrews call "Shekinah" and is the glory of God. I have symbolized it as the sun in
Figure 1. We cannot look directly at the sun for any length of time before our retina would be impaired so badly as to be blinded. It's not death, but blindness here is symbolic of death!
John 1:18a "No man hath seen God at any time..." from the conversation with Moses:
Exodus 33:20 "And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live."
Hence, no one has seen God the Father either in patriarchal times nor in the gospel era. He is there!
Psalm 57:5 "Be thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let thy glory be above all the earth."
"God's glory" is repeated throughout scripture. What is it? It's a feeble attempt to describe his magnificence and presence. Beyond that our goal is to find "God's Glory" and it can only be found in what we call Paradise or Heaven, but it's "the kingdom of God". Right now that glory shines as it did in Eden. We feel it's presence and see it in nature, but if we saw it in its full power, no man could live!
We can't look right at God's light because of its glory. The rays can be seen, but before they can be, there must be matter. Visible light is reflected off particles in the air, and to see light rays there must be a creation. If I shine a light in a vacuum and stand squarely away from its rays, I can see the light. It isn't the direct light I see, but the reflection of it off the matter in the air. The light is invisible from this position, but we know it's there because what God made reveals his light to mankind! The Holy Spirit is represented by the sun's rays reflected to mankind in the physical world. We see the glory of God from our earthly vantage point because we are looking at it through the lenses of God's creation!
Hebrews 10:1 "For the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things..."
This verse is potent!
The Law is
The Pentateuch. It's the first five books of what Christians call
The Bible. These books describe the creation, sin, standards for knowing what sin is, worship, history, and for the discerning even more. Within these five books lies salvation and prophecy, but to see those things takes meditation. We must not only read God's word, but ask for and await the guidance of the Holy Spirit!
Hebrews 10:1 calls "the law" "a shadow" of "good things to come". What I tell people to do when they are reading
The Old Testament is to ask "What's this got to do with Jesus?" That's what is meant by "good things to come".
The Law is the story of Jesus and his grace and is concealed from those who doubt by "not being the very image of the things", but merely a shadow. This shadow is "the mystery of Christ"!
Romans 16:24 "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.
25 Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, 26 But now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith:"
In Romans Paul explains the "shadow". It was a mystery about Christ. Not only that, but the commandments were a "shadow" for the obedience to God for "the grace of our Lord Jesus".
Three-dimensional images throw two-dimensional shadows. Hence, it it wasn't a physical Jesus who appeared, but a 2-D image that appeared to mankind to represent Christ. "The Word" could take on many forms, most often "The Angel of Light". An angel is a messenger. The Word was the messenger. Hence, The Angel of God was "The Messenger", and with that many theologians believe that The Angel of God is the pre-incarnate Jesus!
The 'shadow" is not only about Jesus, but about his grace. Consequently, the dispensation of grace was always the way to salvation and salvation was always through Jesus Christ. In this era we believe that Jesus died as a propitiation for our sins. In patriarchal days, they believed that Jesus would soon come for one purpose: of dying for the sins of man! We believe in what happened; they believed through hope. Which does it take more faith? Obviously, the answer it takes more faith to believe that something will happen than it does to believe it did happen!
The standard of that faith is mentioned by Paul:
Romans 4:16 "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all..."
Galatians 3:7 "Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham."
In essence Abraham, just as we are, was not under
The Law, but under the dispensation of grace! It was not by obedience to rules that he received "the promise", but by faith he received grace. He did what God willed, but he did those things to show God that he loved him! When God gave him instructions, it was "The Word" doing the talking. It was "The Voice" of Jesus who explained the "why" as to sacrifice "his only begotten son"! Abraham knew why he was obedient and did it by faith. Therefore, the standard of measurement of faith for us all is compared to "the faith of Abraham" because he had faith in what had yet to be done! When God provided to Abraham the ram for the sacrifice, that substitution for Isaac was a shadow of Christ's substitution for us! (It is believed that Mt. Moriah is the identical hill of cavalry!)
Shadows have the shape of the original. The shadow of Christ is more than a uniform ellipse. The shadow of Christ appeared as a man, as a burning bush, a cloud, and a priestly person. His shadow was of many forms, but they were all a shadow of God in the flesh (matter)!
Part of the mystery of Christ, is that salvation not only is by grace through faith, but it is for ALL mankind, not just the Hebrews!
Colossians 1:27 "To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:"
Romans 16:25 "Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began..."
Jesus came to fulfill the mystery. He said so! Paul revealed the mystery. Salvation was about grace all along and it was all about Christ from the time the world began! It was "kept secret" to most, but the patriarchs understood because "The Word" told them all about it!
The Old Testament is an Autobiography of Jesus" written in future tense!
When someone writes an autobiography they are writing a story of their own life. When one writes about themselves before it happens, it's called what? A plan!
Jeremiah 29:11( ESV) "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope."
When the Lord "declares" it's "The Word" speaking! "The Word" as plans for each of us and that plan is "to give us a future and a hope"!
All the "keeping of The Law" which was done by obedience, for those who "The Word" spoke, knew it was to show love to Jesus for his grace! The commandments were not for salvation, but as a standard of measurement of love. Are we obligated to keep
The Ten Commandments today? Only if we desire to show God how much we love him! It's the same as it was then. God is unchanging! Compare:
Exodus 20:6 "And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments."
John 14:21 "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him."
Always "commandments" were a method of showing "love" . It's the only way we have to do that! Those patriarchs who kept the commandments were the ones who saw Jesus because Jesus said "I will love him, and manifest myself to him." Nothing has changed! If you want to see Jesus and beget his love, obey his will!
Let's now look at the key to the "mystery of Christ". It's found in
John Chapter 1, but before we discuss what they key to the key to the mystery is, let's look at the structure of the gospel message.
Three of the gospels, the story of Jesus, were written by three different individuals:
The Book of Matthew was written by Matthew, a tax collector;
Mark was written by Mark (some say John Mark), a friend of Peter's; and
Luke was written by Luke, a physician. These three books are called synoptic gospels. Three people wrote of the savior Jesus providing a general view of Jesus and his purpose. (We'll look at the
Book of John shortly). The occupation of Mark is not known, but we have an average "Joe", a tax collector and a doctor describing Jesus and his ministry from the perspective of who they were. The writings of the three on the same topic made the whole. Thus, these three gospels are synoptic. Much of the time they tell the exact story from three different perspectives!
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| Figure #2: Three Synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark & Luke |
Please excuse the symbol library. No dishonor is intended. However, the world is in 3-D as far as what meets the eye. A fourth dimension may be the spiritual world, but that's a topic for another time. In the real world there is latitude, longtitude and elevation. People from different coordinates see the same things from a different perspective. In
Figure 2 Matthew, Mark and Luke tell of Jesus and his life from different viewpoints. All viewpoints are real and as such are truth, but the focus can either be on the same or different traits of Jesus because different personalities look at different things.
The "gospel" is the telling of Jesus' life and the ideas Jesus came to share. All three gospels are about Jesus and the three form the whole, thus being synoptic. Synoptic means "seen together" and as such form the whole. Since the whole forms a 3-D image, it's all there. These three gospels parallel each other in that the tell the same story in most cases. We don't know for sure if Matthew, Mark, and Luke witnessed all these things, but they did tell of them! Even with synoptic gospels only three views of the Son is formed. There are three other views unexplored!
The
Book of John adds another dimension!
John 21:24 "This is the disciple which testifieth of these things, and wrote these things: and we know that his testimony is true."
John's account is from an eyewitness to the events described. Most theologians credit the the apostle John and the apostle "who Jesus loved" as the writer. This is the same John who wrote the
Book of Revelation and was exceptionally divinely inspired, not that the others weren't, but because Jesus revealed so much more to John!
In addition John was very familiar with Jerusalem and the area where Jesus ministered. He was also closest to Jesus from an emotional standpoint. John was no ordinary man and we learn much more from him than we do the others. I personally believe that Jesus shared a intimate knowledge with his friend and John tells the story. Some believe that John added to his personal biography the knowledge of others, and in doing so provided a fourth dimension to the gospels!
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| Figure #3: Jesus in 4-D |
With the three synoptic gospels we have a "real" 3-D Jesus, but with the gospel of John we see Jesus from a multi-point perspective whether by first hand or by testimony from others. New light is shared from the
Book of John not found in the others! We see a 4-D Jesus! Because it's more comprehensive and looks at Jesus from many perspectives, most preachers encourage new readers to read it first.
I'm of the opinion that "the mystery of Christ" (aka, the mystery of the gospel,
Ephesians 6:19) is best revealed by John, especially in the first chapter!
John 1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 The same was in the beginning with God.
3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.
7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.
11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not.12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.
15 John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.
16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace.17 For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.
John with his 4-D vision of Jesus was the first to share "the mystery of Christ"! These passages are a full picture of whom the "shadow" in
The Old Testament is! Moses told of a 2-D Jesus; Matthew, Mark and Luke of a 3-D Jesus, but John describes a 4-D Jesus! He certainly validates of whom he's speaking when he said "the Word was made flesh". That voice in the wilderness and the man who wrote scripture was called Jesus. He is God before he was made flesh!
It's being "a mystery" can be seen from "the darkness comprehended him not". Jesus was the Light because he was God and his existence could be seen from the shadow he cast on the world. However, there was also a shadow of darkness (to be shown shortly) which concealed the man who was to be Jesus.
We also see that The Word was "the light of men". The patriarchs believed in The Word and recognized him as the Messiah. The Word spoke to Moses, Abraham and the prophets and revealed the mystery to them and they in turn wrote the mystery, but to most it was concealed in darkness. Those who saw the Light were inspired to have faith in Jesus before Jesus even was ever born, but was there in spirit!
John also said:
John 4:24 "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth."
John also said "The Word was God"! As such "The Word" was a Spirit. Throughout
The Old Testament the Spirit of God, Jesus, was right there with the patriarchs giving them his autobiography to write! Let's call "The Word" "Emmanuel", because Jesus was called that and as such, the name applies for all the ages. Emmanuel revealed the secret to the prophets, the secret was written there for all to see, but because of darkness, few saw the mystery revealed. When Jesus came the "mystery of Christ" was revealed to John by Jesus himself!
John wrote of John the Baptist. John was born before Jesus, but yet he said "He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me." John the Baptist validated that Jesus WAS ALWAYS before he was born. That's part of "the mystery of Christ"!
Jesus made all things! He was the architect of the world. If Jesus can create by grace, he can surely save by grace! Yes, it was an act of grace that we were blessed with our being!
Jesus gave Life. This is past tense! We think of Jesus of giving his Life two-thousand or so years ago. He gave Life at the Creation! When Adam was formed from the dust of the ground, he was created in "their image". He had spirit, a soul to contain it and he had Life! Inert matter was transformed into a creature with lifeblood. As Jesus is the one who gave us Life through our circulatory and respiratory systems, Life is given for eternity by the blood. Jesus' blood made man and Jesus' blood can save man.
Emmanuel was "the Light of men" and "the light shineth in darkness". Light is truth. In this case it's the truth about "The Word". It's his Light that would save the world. That Jesus is Light and always was is part of "the mystery of Christ"! The Father is the source of that Light. However, let's look at an analogy.
If we look back at
Figure 1 we can see that the light source which is the Father is so intense that man cannot look upon it because of it's glory! If the sun (or an intense light source) is shined directly in your eyes, you must close them because the light is so intense that it can harm. With God, his glory is so intense that it can actually kill.
If an observer stands to the side of an intense light source in a perfect vacuum where there is no contamination, light rays cannot be seen. Before one can see light rays, there must be matter from which light is reflected and meted out to the eye. The intensity is reduced and man can see the light without harm. This is the purpose of The Word! When the world was created (matter) God allowed Jesus, represented by the rays of the sun, to be reflected into the world so that all mankind could see. Jesus is that Light we see in the world still today!
Light is pure. It's only matter which contaminates it. Jesus is truth and although we see light reflected off matter (in the world), the Light is still true and for the world! Jesus is the Light of the world, and always was!
Light consists of photons. Their luminescence is what we see! They are active and move with great speed. Those photons are symbolic of the Holy Spirit. We can't see them, but they're there! They can be seen through a special technique. If we look toward Jesus the Holy Spirit is manifested.
Luke 4:1 "And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit..."
In
The Old Testament times, Jesus was yet to be physical. He was still in this world in Spirit, but at most times he could not be seen. For those with whom The Word spoke, they were given special powers by the Spirit to see things unseen. That's faith! The Word, represented by a body in
Figure 1, stood between God's glory and the world. Light shined on The Word and cast a shadow on the world. That "shadow" represents Jesus. His presence has been here since the creation, and John testified to that!
Because Jesus the Light was a shadow when darkness is there, the shadow is obscured and "the darkness comprehended him not". (I'll discuss that "darkness in the next section).
And then John revealing totally "the mystery of Christ" said "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us"! It's clear who was made flesh. He's speaking of the miraculous birth of Jesus. The Spirit of God was given a body just like ours... or is that the case? No! God has foreknowledge. God had a plan! He created us in "their image". Men were created in the image of what The Word would look like when the plan was fulfilled! How prideful to think that Jesus looks like us. It's us that were copied after Jesus!
Guess what John also revealed? "Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ"! Moses gave
The Law, but Jesus gave grace and truth! My contention is that salvation was always by grace and that truth is what The Word gave to the patriarchs. They understood from The Word himself that it wasn't
The Law which saves, but grace granted by faith!
It appears that Paul was speaking to those who were under
The Law (apostles and prophets) when he said this:
Ephesians 2:1 "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; 2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: 3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.
7 That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
Those who were dead under The Law, Jesus gave Life. Paul speaks of "times past" and "the ages to come" and past tense, then spoke of grace and Christ Jesus. This proclamation is that it was never obedience to
The Law which saved, even in times past, but by faith in the coming Christ, and his grace! In times past it wasn't obedience which saved, but grace which saved through faith! Mankind was always under "The Dispensation of Grace"!
Now let's look at "Other Gods".
Part 2: Two Gods: Other God:
We must face the music! There are other gods in addition to JHWH whose name is "I AM". JHWH is the tetragrammaton for the Hebrew for God's name. There are variations in which letters are used, but for the most part, this is where the name "Jehovah" arises. Because God just IS and has ALWAYS been "I AM" is very fitting. What I believe is that God is too magnificent to be "called" any name because he just IS! I base this on
The New Testament which says God is CALLED "Jesus" and is CALLED "Emmanuel". In other words, God is without name until he is given one at his birth. All other names are feeble attempts to quantify by naming one who is without bounds!
A note on what Jesus said about himself when walking on water:
Matthew 14:27 (Disciples Literal New Testament; DLNT) "But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take-courage, I am the One. Do not be afraid.”
Who then did Jesus say he was? "I AM". He said that because Jesus IS God!
Who then are the "other gods"? God specifically said:
Exodus 20:3 "Thou shalt have no other gods before (or besides) me."
What are those other gods? There are more than one for sure!
Romans 9:8a "That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God:"
The first God is mentioned last in this passage. God is Spirit! Those who follow God are "children of God" and Jehovah is what he's called. Who then is the god of "children of the flesh"? It's simple. Who of this world has flesh? Animals, and most notably human animals. Out god is "The Self". "But", you say, "that is only one other god!" Not true. Each of us have our own "Self" as god and there are billions of gods. When we worship images of other gods, we're doing what we want to do! We're all satisfying "The Self".
As I've written before, "The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil", what I call "The Other Tree", offered what satisfies the Self:: pleasure, knowledge and high living (wealth). Wealth comes from the tree being "good for food" when God already supplied good food. They wanted Epicurean food; the food of the wealthy!
In truth people don't worship the sun, stars, moon, graven images or anything other than The Self because by worshiping objects they are doing what's right in their own eyes! This logic is called "reason". After eating of the "Other Tree" man had reason and as such could rationalize any type of disobedience!
Here's a confirmation on my contention:
Galatians 5:17 "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."
The Spirit is God! The flesh is contrary to the Spirit. Hence, it's God against "the flesh", the flesh being "the other gods" besides him, or the population's "Selfs".
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| Figure #4: Shadows of Evil |
"The Word" exists between God and the world. He is our mediator. He speaks for God and takes back to God what we say to him! Guess, who else does that?
1 Timothy 2:5 "For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;"
Christ is Greek for "The Messiah" in Hebrew coming from
The Old Testament. Christ and Messiah are the same title! The mediator is Jesus and he was such as Messiah and as Christ. Nothing changed between patriarchal and apostolic times!
As demonstrated earlier in
Figure 1,
The Old Testament projects a picture of The Word, or Messiah, onto the earth; A 3-D Jesus is seen in The Old Testament in 2-D and it took strong faith to look toward the Light and recognize Jesus there in "The Word". That was revealed in
John Chapter 1. All scripture is "all about Jesus". We just need to open our eyes and reveal that 3-D image from what is written in 2-D language.
There are other shadows in scripture as well! Satan goes "to and fro" in the world casting a smaller shadow, but he and his angels get around enough that black and white are turned into shades of gray. Satan casts a gray shadow and rides a gray horse!
Revelation 6:8a "And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth..."
If we look at the text from
The Book of Job we see Satan who had been going "to and fro" (
Job 1:7) in the earth. God gave unto him some power, not to kill the body, but to kill the Spirit of Job. Satan, I believe rides the pale gray horse and those who fall under his power die and go to Hell! This "pale horse" in
Revelation can be found in
Genesis as "the serpent" and other places as "the beautiful angel Lucifer". Just as "The Word" can appear as "The Angel of God", Melchizedek, a burning bush, etc. Satan can appear in different forms as well. However, Jesus casts one shadow hard to see without the Light, but Satan casts a pale, or gray, shadow.
Oftentimes the shadow of Satan passes between God and The Word or between The Word and us, and is totally concealed. He's able to present himself as "good" because he has shades of gray and is hidden from those who have little faith in God. He did that in patriarchal times and he does it now!
Satan is not "another god" besides God. He's a weak angel. He's the deceiver who tricks us, not into abandoning God, but to idolize our Self. Never give Satan "god worthiness". He's a weak pretender to the throne! Jesus is King of the Universe and Satan is a mere prince for a time in this world. He's a power grabber, but
Revelation tells that God grants him only limited power!
We have looked at two trees and now two (G)(g)ods. The cross represents what the flesh can fashion. I don't believe that we should hold the cross in high esteem. It's the emptiness of the cross which should be dear to Christians. Christ is no longer on that alter made by hands. He sits on a spiritual throne next to the Father and lives!
Another set of trees are "The Tree of Life" and "The Other Tree", the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil". Both are trees created by God, but the former represents Jesus while the latter represents "The Other gods" or "The Self" where reason trumps the Spirit.
Next we'll look at "two books". One is for children of the "Tree of Life" and the other for "The Other Tree". That book is called "The Other Book". The next installment will look at the "The Two Books".
