Wednesday, September 27, 2023

CHRISTIANITY FOR DUMMIES: The Nature of Man

So far, hopefully, the reader has come to understand what is called ‘the nature of God,’ but is more than that. God is supra-natural — beyond the natural — because He exceeds nature!

God should neither be called a ‘He’ nor a ‘She’ because gender is not His nature for God made both male and female in His Image, and that ‘Image’ was a ‘’shadow’ of the physical thing.

Like God, man was originally (Gen 1) some invisible creature that theologians call the ‘soul’ as has been related previously.

It is the ‘soul’ that is glorious. Moses and his children sang of the glory of the LORD GOD, “Your right hand, O Lord, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O Lord, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.” [i] It is discovered in the New Testament that the ‘right hand’ of the Lord refers to Jesus. His ‘Power,’ or literally firmness, is glorious. The glory of the Lord is the person, Jesus who is more than Spirit but material in substance.

Adam was made glorious as well. God took His Power and added to it material substance. The two Adams were made glorious, but they, unlike God had gender, and all together; the male, the female, and God became one because they were made like God but with flesh.

Compare ourselves to Jesus. Once we did not, but now come short of the glory of God, because all have sinned. [ii]

Therefore, man and woman were made glorious in the Image of the LORD GOD and without sin.

Just as nobody understands the invisible Substance of God, nobody understands the soul of mankind. Sacred literature indicates that the soul of man is exactly like his or her physical image — the body with all its appendages — but not of matter. Hence, the soul is invisible to the eye and not firm to the touch.

Just as Jesus would later be made firm from the ‘Word,’ as Moses sang, both the man and the woman were made firm before God rested (Gen 2). A body was placed over the soul. If the soul is the ‘breath of God’ and hence is Spirit, then the soul is like an invisible container for the ‘Waters’ of God. Jeremiah, the prophet wrote, “They that depart from Me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters.” [iii]

Living Waters, the Spirit of God, that flowed freely from the side of God in the beginning became the Spirit in man, and out of the belly of the male flowed living waters into the woman, just as Jesus would say to the woman at the well during His ministry, “He that believeth on Me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.” [iv] Jesus meant that Christians should multiply themselves, not in body, but in Spirit. Perhaps that is what God really meant when he told Adam and Eve to ‘multiply’ [v]

Neither do I know about the original nature of man but for one thing; it was once like God but was changed with sin; it was made like the ‘old creature” that was made firstly. Paul implied that when he wrote, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” [vi]

The ‘old creature’ is the Beast, Serpent, Dark Angel, the Devil, Satan, or the various other names given in scripture.

The nature of the Beast will come next.

Firstly though, mankind… both the man and the woman sinned, and their identities were changed. No longer were they glorious, so those two were the first to come short of the glory of God. The identity of the kinds is genetic.

Without you having to learn genetics, simply put, your DNA is a unique identifier of all things about you that is specific to you alone. As such, God knew, and loved you, “before the foundation of the world.”[vii] God ‘elected’ your kind over any other species of animals to love. You are not a privileged individual but a privileged species that God chose in the beginning to be glorious.

What makes man more glorious than the other animals. Man was endowed with a soul, but the other animals were not. As such, mankind was created with the Thoughts of God and imbued with His Good Knowledge. Sacred literature (1 Adam and Eve) indicates that the two could see unto the heavens; that they could see the invisible realm.

Endowed with knowledge and the mind to use it, mankind is homo sapien — ‘wise man’ — whereas the other animals are ‘beasts’ with brutish natures. Before sin, mankind once had dominion over the other animals; they changed as well; going from docile creatures to what nature made them out to be. They had to fight with both man and other beasts to survive because God cursed the beasts as well. [viii] The Beast and the beasts became dominant, and if you do not believe it, try spending the night with millions or even billions of mosquitoes!

Genesis chapter three reveals all the curses due to sin. The woman changed, the man changed, and so did all the beasts; all to be more like the so-called ‘Serpent.’ (That the ‘Serpent’ is not a snake will be discussed later. He was, however, the ‘generator of vipers’ as shall be revealed.)

God created mankind with their own identity. Science calls that identity, the human ‘genome.’ The Book of Genesis reveals from where that genome came; it came from God. Man was made glorious as the Images of God, but after sin, they came short, or changed.

The ‘Serpent’ was the progenitor of the inglorious two who had sinned. Somehow, perhaps by carnal knowledge, or even spiritual knowledge, sin got into the woman.

Prior to the original sin, there was no reproduction in a sexual sense. It was a spiritual union, as it seems; God passing along His Spirit to the male and then to the female without sexual consummation. Reproduction may have been in Spirit alone.

The first sexual encounter was revealed after sin. The male and the female had gained carnal knowledge, or the sensitivity of the flesh. Their spirits, once of God, somehow acquired the spirit of the Beast. The first encounter of the “Third Kind’ was this: “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, ‘I have gotten a man from the Lord.’” [ix]

At first glance, it seems that Adam had intercourse with the woman. Not necessarily… he ‘knew’ her, but it was surely that he only saw her (Strong 2006).

The name ‘Eve’ has great significance. Like Adam that is generally a family of the animal kingdom, Eve is as well. The first time the name ‘Eve’ was specified was after the woman had sinned, “And Adam called his wife's name ‘Eve’ (Hebrew; ‘Issa) because she was the mother of all living.” [x]  Not to get technical, but Issa is the female gender of the male Is in the Hebrew. The woman was of the man.

When Eve sinned, Adam sinned because both were Adams. It is their kind that sinned, not specifically the male, Adam. None of the other kinds had sinned.

So, since Eve was the ‘mother of all living,’ a new kind erupted. Once generated by God, because of sin, they had degenerated.

They had not evolved into homo sapiens but devolved to be more like the “Beast’ itself. Technically, no longer are human beings ‘wise men’ (homo sapiens) but foolish, as Aaron said to his brother Moses when he the Hebrews did wrongly, “Lay not the sin upon us, wherein we have done foolishly, and wherein we have sinned.” [xi]

The original sin was what made them fools. Part of the glorious nature before sin was wisdom. That makes sense because there had been no knowledge of evil from which to choose.

With original sin — sin that has been passed down to everyone via the DNA of Eve, we all have sinned, or as David confessed, “I was shapen in iniquity.” [xii]

Iniquity is ‘depravity.’ Even in the womb, David had sin in his DNA because he, like us, are not ‘man’ (Adam) but ‘Eve’s,’ meaning ‘Life-giver’ (ibid). God had given life to Adam, both the male and female of that kind. According to Genesis 4:1, Eve took credit for giving life to Cain.

Adam saw it all happen but said nothing! Eve said it all: “I have gotten a man from the Lord.” By convention, theretofore, scripture had identified the Creator as ‘LORD GOD,’ but now, Eve referred to the ‘lord’ only, not the LORD GOD.

She had become the lord in her domain — in her mind.

Before this time, the Hebrew word, ‘Adam’ had been used for ‘man.’

Eve renamed her child not ‘Adam’ (man) but ‘Is’ instead of man. Working backwards, no longer was the woman from Adam, but the ‘creature’ that she had made was from herself, with the LORD GOD not part of the conception, and neither was Adam.

A new type of being devolved at that time. The Hebrew word, ‘Is, means ‘extant’ (ibid), or existing. Not entirely God, and not entirely demon, Cain was a new kind of being, and much later, this encounter with the Third Kind was revealed.

The apostle John was apparently revealed, not only the ending, but the beginning which he described well in John 1. Then he added some more significant information about the original sin: 

This is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous. [xiii]

 Much is said therein. The fourth kind in existence was Cain. The animals were the ‘first kind,’ the Adams the ‘second kind,’ the ‘Serpent’ and the angels the ‘third kind,’ and Cain the “fourth kind.” As a result of mixing of the kinds (miscegenation; Gen 6), what we call ‘mankind’ comes from a series of degenerations that throughout scripture has been corrected many times, but only to end in more depravity.

Mankind, as we think of ourselves, is a delusion. We all are of the ‘Wicked One’ like Cain.

Even the Hebrews had become ‘lords’ in the manner of Eve. Jeremiah wrote about them, “Therefore have you also taught the wicked ones your ways.” [xiv]

The ‘lost’ are genetically inclined toward wickedness, or evil, and all they need to be like the Demon Lucifer is to be taught the ways of the Serpent.

Indeed, babies are not born into sin, but they have a genetic predisposition to sin, and all they need is exposure to it. That exposure is called ‘temptation’ and that is what leads to sin.

We think of ourselves as ‘gods’ just as the Serpent warned. [xv] Of course, since our thoughts are not God’s Thoughts, then we deceive ourselves.

We are not ‘gods;’ we are fake gods, and even at that, only in our own minds. The flesh is the ‘idol’ of us all that must be appeased… unless God intervenes, and He did, when He presented His own flesh as a propitiation for genetic sins, to wit: Jesus “Whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past…” [xvi]

As we are, we are not glorious at all, thusly coming short of the glory of God. No longer is Eve’s kind glorious and incorruptible like Adam was meant to be, but depraved and corruptible.

We self-estimate as great and even glorious but all the while, we are depraved. Jesus called out the worst of the worst of the arrogant ones, the Pharisees, “O generation of vipers!” [xvii]

Many of us gloss over that truth. Jesus was speaking genetically. He was not speaking of the present time, but that the Pharisees, like all of Adam’s kind, had changed to be like the original ‘viper,’ the Serpent.

Cain was the first generation of the “Viper’ and through the generations, Cain’s seed (his genetics) had remained like the ‘Serpent.” Jesus recognized that they were of their ‘father the Devil’ whose will they would do: 

You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. [xviii]

 Take no pride in who you are! Jesus as much as called the Pharisees ‘devils’ because they were of the Devil, just like Cain who was the direct gens of the Serpent. To be blunt, Cain had both the DNA of Eve and the Serpent in him, or better said, ‘it’ since Cain was not really a him but another alien existence that got worse as time went by.

Calvinism teaches that mankind is ‘totally depraved.” The first two beings were totally glorious as God genned them (gave them His DNA).

The Old Testament is about, not a genesis, but a degeneration of the glorious kind until they were as evil as the Serpent. If we were totally depraved, there would be no reason for grace from God. We had better watch out, mankind did become totally depraved in the days of Noah, but God rescued Noah and he became the ‘Second Adam’ in a sense. Caution should be taken because the ‘Last Adam’ — Jesus — has come and gone, [xix] leaving behind His Holy Ghost!

There will be no more Adams to regen us glorious again. Jesus finished that task! Christians, and them alone, will be ‘glorified’ when Jesus comes again: 

We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. [xx]

 God Himself will return to breathe into our dust, life again. Christ will deliver His ‘Divine Spark’ and in a moment — ‘the twinkling of the eye’ — we shall be changed, and receive the glorious flesh that God intended! In that day, Jesus — God Himself — will create in us a new creature, replacing the old creature that Eve made.

Therefore, mankind’s problem is self-esteem, and that must be dealt with. We need to see ourselves for what we are. We are sinners, for all have sinned, and as such we are doomed if it was not for the mercy of Jesus Christ!

Hence, the solution to our problem is Christ-esteem; that we are not gods. that He is the One True God! “Whosoever shall call on the Name of the Lord shall be saved.” [xxi]

God (JHWH) finally got a Name; He is called ‘Jesus.’ That is the Name that we must call on. Our own name will not do the change.

Remember, we are what we are because of original sin that is genetic from Eve. We have no power to change our complex and encoded DNA, so never depend on that. Beware of anyone, other than Jesus, who tampers with what human DNA that we have left, as genetic angels did in the days of Noah. [xxii]

We are degenerate, full of depravity, have no other way. That truth should humiliate you, as it has me. I am nothing more than the dust from which I came  [xxiii]— minerals and fertilizer — if it was not for the grace of God who values our souls enough that He sacrificed Himself via the Flesh of Jesus. He carried not only the Cross, but all the sins of mankind to Hell where they belong!

I am from the Devil; you are from the Devil, and so is everyone else before us. Only Jesus can correct who we are by a process of rebirth and a regenning.

Whatever kind of being we are, we are arrogant, thinking all things are about us. We even think salvation is for us alone, forgetting the ‘whosoever’ in John 3:16. We seem to worry about our own souls but neglect the souls of others, all of whom God loved so much that He sacrificed Himself. We must never forget that Jesus is the Flesh of God that carries the Image of the Father Creator!

What are you doing about your own stink? You worry about yourselves. We all stink in some manner, and we all need a pleasant ‘aroma’ that can only come from Jesus.

Jesus wasn’t kidding when He blessed the meek! [xxiv] Meekness is understanding exactly who we are. What are we? We are certainly not humane beings; we are liars, cheats, fornicators, and such like the Devil himself.

Why should we be proud? Humans stink… Whereas glorious Adam did not! There was no death in Paradise and sacred literature reveals that mankind even had no revolting digestive tracts because digestion means death.

How shall we be in Paradise? Nothing like we are today. Beasts eat meat and even vegetation for nourishment. Those are organisms and eating them causes them to decay. Nothing perished in the Garden, and neither will it in Paradise. (No, they did not eat herbs. That will be discussed later.)

The first step in knowing God is to know yourselves. You are what you are. Your flesh is of the same elements and composition as the ground itself; no wonder both man and ground have the same origin — Adam.

Your intrinsic value is probably just a few dollars if it were not for one thing… your soul filled, and not empty, of the Spirit of God.

The monetary value of the elements in the average human body is $576. (Teacher's College n.d.). That would be what you are worth to the Devil in Judas. God values you much more than that! His Thoughts are that you are worth much more than that, so God paid the ransom with His own life.

As such, scripture says to, “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up.” [xxv]

Be honest with yourself; you will be a humble, even an alien being, until the Lord lifts you up at His coming to raise you from the dead. Next, the nature of the Beast will be examined.

(picture credit; Science Photo Library, "The God Pan")



 



[i] Exod 15:6

[ii] Rom 3:23

[iii] Jer 17:3

[iv] John 7:38

[v] Gen 1:22

[vi] 2 Cor 5:17

[vii] Ephes 4:1

[viii] Gen 3:14

[ix] Gen 4:1

[x] Gen 3:20

[xi] Num 12:11

[xii] Psalm 51:5

[xiii] 1 John 3:11-12

[xiv] Jer 2:23

[xv] Gen 3:5

[xvi] Rom 3:25

[xvii] Mat 3:7

[xviii] John 8:44

[xix] 1 Cor 15:45

[xx] 1 Thes 4:15-17

[xxi] Acts 2:21

[xxii] Gen 6

[xxiii] Gen 3:19

[xxiv] Mat 5:5

[xxv] Jas 4:10

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