The Mind: Part 1

One of our unseen substances is our "minds". Since we are created in the image of God who said "in our image", one of them was the Father. There are many reasons, or better - excuses, why Elohim is translated in the singular when it is in the plural. (Singular is El). Some say that there was also a mother God, which is blasphemous, or a group of gods because of its plurality. That too is blasphemous because God himself says that He is "one God". Bear with me for a time while I explain the Holy Trinity, and the trinity of man.

Deuteronomy 6:4 (ESV) “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Yhovah - "the self-existent", our 'Elohiym - "God" in this context, is 'echad - "united" or "one". This verse from Deuteronomy specifically identifies the concept of the Holy Trinity: The plural "Elohiym" is taken as singular because He is united. This unification in God are His three homeostases -  "substances" - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Therefore, in Genesis 1:26 "our image" is derived from the plural Elohim, meaning God's three substances. In Genesis 1:27 "his own image" (singular) is used with the same plural Elohim. Note that the singular noun tselem "image", is used both in the plural and singular. The root word for tselem is "shade". Therefore, mankind was created as a shadow of God, who was one, but cast three phantom (also from tselem) shadows - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Those three shadows cast from Elohim to Adam were mind, body, and spirit. The mind is the shadow of the Father. God is called Father because he is the Creator, in addition to His being the Father of the Son:

Isaiah 64:8 (ESV)  ^"But now, O Lord (Yhovah), you are our Father ('ab); we are the clay, and you are our potter; we are all the work of your hand."

Elohim is the Son because His Holy Spirit created Jesus, the Son of God. Jesus was the Word before he became flesh (John 1:14),  but the Word is symbolic of  mankind's body.

Elohim is the Holy Spirit as well. We find that many places, most notable in (Matthew 28:19) where the entire Godhead or Holy Trinity is mentioned. Adam was born with the Holy Spirit. His soul contained God's Spirit. However, because of original sin inherited from Adam, we are not! Mankind since Adam are born with immortal souls (nephesh - living creatures). Soul and spirit are not interchangeable since spirit is ruwach - wind or breath. My thought is that the "soul" is the poterion (Greek) "cup" which Jesus asked the Lord to take from him in Matthew 26:39. Especially since it means more directly "a drinking vessel". Throughout the New Testament Jesus refers to his cup as holding living water, which is the soul.

Consequently, sinful men are born wit empty souls, which are subsequently filled with amounts of sin as the person is deceived. With the second birth, the soul is emptied and imbued with the Holy Spirit, and the Christian becomes again as innocent as Adam was with the same propensity to be deceived. (i.,e., free will remains after being born-again).

Since God is Spirit, Jesus was surely implying that before he died, his humanity would be taken. We know from scripture that he would be glorified thereafter.

As such, to understand the mind, we must understand both God and man. God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but man is mind, body, and soul - mankind's trinity. Tomorrow we will look specifically as to why God is Mind, and what the mind is, and that mankind also has a mind but much weaker than God's.