We try to never consider death, but death is inevitable. For us, it may take just a few decades but Adam had 930 years… but he would still die. What makes us think that our bodies will live forever and that our souls are impossible to kill? Satan still deceives and you will die! The key phrase today is simply, "he died," referring to Adam.
Right now, people fear death. So much that they will subject
their DNA to peril, thinking that tampering with God-given DNA is appropriate. That
foolishness denies the inevitability of death. You shall not die until the time
has come, and no tampering with Adam’s and God’s DNA will change that.
Oftentimes the simplest thoughts are just overlooked in the
Bible. Nowadays death is taken for granted. “It is appointed unto men once to
die, but after this the judgment.” So far as is known, Cain was the first to Kill, and then he was judged. If Abel was pre-incarnate Christ, Abel judged his
brother. Since, all men are judged according to their relationship to their
brothers, to wit, “Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the
children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the
Lord.” (Cain became “Lord” or so he
thought. He lorded it over Abel who may have been the Lord.)
You would think that Jesus said that because it was his answer
to the Greatest Commandment. Jesus did say that, but that was His Word to Moses
thousands of years before He was ever born. It is from Leviticus 19:8, and is
not even one of the Ten Commandments, but is the composite of the last six.
Adam was the second to die. There is no evidence that he ever
wronged his children, except for one thing; he sinned, and they inherited sin. The
sin of Adam is a curse long after his death:
4 Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 6 And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. (Exod 20:4-6)
To whom did Adam bow down? He bowed to the Tree of Knowledge
when he ate the fruit, and unwittingly he bowed down to Satan for Satan was in
the Serpent and in the Tree. But is it not a graven image that is
forbidden? “Graven” is carved, or made by hands. The English word, “created” in
Genesis 1:1 in the Hebrew is literally “cut wood” (Strong’s Dictionary).
Therefore, no man should bow down to the creation in place
of the Creator. Adam and Eve, like their progeny, “changed the truth of God
into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator”(Rom
1:25). Paul was telling the Romans, not only what sinners still did, but the
sin of Adam and Eve as well. He spoke of the things, “from the creation of the
world” (Rom 1:20). That means Adam and Eve and was said about them and all
their generations: “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools” (Rom
1:22).
Adam and Eve did gain “knowledge.” They knew only good
before, but after bowing to the Image of Satan in the Tree; they became fools.
Knowledge is good if it is truthful, but foolish if it is deceptive. To this
day ‘adam-kind is foolish, and the foolishness of Adam has come down more
than 160 generations!
Adam was created “very good” or literally entirely good (Gen
1:31). With sin, Adam became a fool. Modern era sinners are no different than
Adam, and babies are born “good” but learn “evil.” Of course, just as David was
“shapen in iniquity,” babies are as well. Once they are in the world, out of
the safety and sanctity of the womb, they become fools like their father Adam.
But if they are descended from Cain, as all men are, they are more like Cain,
who had Satan in him, and his father was the Devil.
Focus now on the death of Adam: “And all the days that Adam
lived were nine hundred and thirty years: and he died” (Gen 5:5). People
are so accustomed to death, that “he died” is merely overlooked. What had God warned?
“Thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou
shalt surely die” (Gen 2:17). When Eve ate, she did not seem to die,
so Adam ate as well. God seemed as if He had lied, but He did not. Adam did
die! Death is the consequence of sin. If anyone sins, he or she will perish.
But God so loved Adam so much, that although his body died, his soul did not.
Adam is alive right now because “To live is Christ; to die
is gain” (Phil 1:21). Adam, at his death, lived in the tribulation of the
world, but his death was a return to Paradise lost. It could have been written,
“Adam suffered the after-effects of sin in the world, then he regained Paradise.”
As such, funerals should not be “celebrations of life,” but celebrations of
death!
The Hebrew word translated “died” is “mut.” It means not
only “die” but “killed” (ibid). Adam’s body was killed. Satan killed both Adam
and Eve just as Satan in Cain killed Abel. It was Cain’s hand that slew Abel,
but it was Satan in him, not the spirit as such, but seed of Satan, which
kills. All mankind has that seed within. The Devil doesn’t make anyone do anything,
but inborn is that the will of people is the will of Satan. All mankind are “of
their father the Devil” (John 8:44). Not through Adam per se, but Cain
whose father was surely the Wicked One (1 John 3:12).
Because everyone is of Cain, everyone is “of the
Wicked One” and the Wicked One must be overcome, to wit: “Ye (Christians) have
overcome the Wicked One. I write unto you, little children, because ye have
known the Father” (1 John 2:13). Everyone sins. Even little children sin
because they know not what they do. The only thing that can overcome the Wicked
One is to be born again. To never perish, “Marvel not; ye must be born again”
(John 3:7)! You must be emancipated from your father the Devil and adopted by
your intended Father, God. You must be in the image of your brother and depend
on Him (Jesus; John 3:14).
Adam died in body but is alive in spirit. The soul of Adam was
surely resurrected with the death of Jesus. Jesus’s death was Adam’s gain: “The
graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose” when Jesus
was resurrected (Mat 27:52). When Christ arose, most certainly Adam arose with
Him! He need not wait on the General Resurrection, but surely arose when God’s
Son, Abel, arose (See my previous commentary on Abel as the Son of God).
Adam died but is not dead. That is the crux of Christianity:
“God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
Adam died but never perished because his immortal soul lived on to the regeneration
of mankind on the Cross. Adam was from the mist of the Garden of God mingled
with the blood, symbolized by the red clay, and then God breathed life unto him
(Gen 2:6-7). When Jesus was pierced, His blood and water gushed onto the earth
beneath, and the skull of Adam had life breathed unto it as well, as all did his
dead bones beneath Calvary. [1]
If Adam was not raised from the grave with Jesus, then who
would have been? Jesus came to redeem ‘adam-kind and with that Adam would
have been the first to re-experience life in the Garden of God by regeneration!
Satan, through the virus of sin, could not kill Adam’s immortal soul, but only
his body, just as with Job. Adam feared death but also feared, “them which kill
the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able
to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Mat 10:28).
Adam feared the Word. The Word (Jesus, John 1) killed an innocent
lamb to cover the sin of Adam and Eve. Only God has the power to kill both the
body and the soul! Satan and sin killed the body of Adam, but Satan could not destroy
his soul! The Word preserved Adam’s soul to regenerate it with a new glorious
(entirely good) body that was the same image it was created. That happened on
Calvary — the place of Adam’s skull!
Who then was the master of Adam? Satan murdered his body, but
Jesus redeemed his soul and provided it with a new body like he had in Paradise.
What is required of sinners such as Adam for eternal life — to never perish? “As
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be
lifted up” (John 3:14).
Moses was carrying a “tree” with a bright brass serpent
atop. The Serpent thereon was a graven image made by Moses. That Tree with
Satan in it did not save the Hebrews who were bitten by the viper from dying,
but Jesus on His “Tree” (Acts 5:30) is who can save the soul from dying. The
pole that Moses displayed was not the vibrant Serpent in the Tree of Knowledge
but Judas with Satan in him (Luke 22:3), and dead in the Judas Tree.
Adam never died of natural causes as it seems; Satan murdered
him (John 8:44), but Adam had consented to his own death when he tasted the
fruits offered by Satan. Jesus was offered the same fruits with the Temptations
of Christ but refused them. Adam died guilty as charged but redeemed by the
Word, but the Word was innocent although charged. Jesus died for Adam! “Wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Rom 5:12). Paul stated it correctly…
Adam’s death was because of sin. Satan murdered Adam, albeit slowly.
Those who have not been born again by baptism with the Holy
Ghost are murdered by sin. It is just done so slowly it goes unnoticed. It took
Adam 930 years to wither after the barbs of Satan infected him, and for
modern-day man, a mere eighty years or so. The withering is still so sublime
that even the most astute fail to detect approaching death. (Strangely, some
cats and other animals can detect death.)
The time is nearer than when you first believed. Now is the
time of salvation.
1 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven: 2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; 3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up… (Ecc 3:1-3)
Now is the season. There was a time to plant “trees; as men walking” (Mark
8:24), then time for the “tree” to wither and die. But there is also a time to
heal. Jesus came to “heal the nations” (Rev22:2) that his creatures never wither
and perish. He died to redeem all of Adam’s kind.
Right now, just as Adam’s body withered for 930 years, your body has
withered equal to the time that God has allowed. Satan murdered you years ago,
but Jesus redeemed your soul two-thousand years ago and perhaps revealed his Power
that same time. As the Serpent died on the Judas Tree, Adam arose from his
grave. It was not only redemption for Adam but all his kind!
What the Devil did to Adam, he can do to you because you are Adam’s
kind. What the Lord did for Adam he can do for you because you
are of Adam’s kind through righteous Seth.
Right this moment, you are not worried about withering nor your imminent
death. Adam was a “fool” for not heeding God, and Adam’s kind remains foolish
to this day. Indeed, “Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out
of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed” (Rom 13:11). Adam
was covered by the Lamb of God, but he was not saved until his soul was
redeemed on Calvary. Those who are born again are covered by the Holy Ghost of
Jesus but are not saved until the dead in Christ arise at the Rapture.
At death, like Adam, the body dies but the soul is saved but you yourself
can still kill the soul as you act as God. Both body and soul are saved
at the General Resurrection (Regeneration of Adam’s kind), and it is Jesus who
can save both the body and the soul.
No comments:
Post a Comment