WHAT IS IN A NAME

  Throughout the Bible, names mean things as do all the Words of the Bible for they are all God’s Word and the “Word” is Jesus. [i] Essentially, what that means is that when God manifested Himself orally by Word, Jesus is the Voice that is heard. John said that the Word was there in the beginning. Since the Word was there, just what was He doing? He was speaking to Adam and Eve. He was the Voice walking in the Garden in the cool of the day… [ii] to “call aloud” (Strong’s Dictionary). He was answering Abram calling Him.

  Therefore, pre-incarnate Jesus was there in the Garden and was sensed audibly and physically, since He was ambulating. There is no evidence that the two saw Jesus at all. So, Jesus rectified that. He made them coats of skin and clothed them. [iii] The coat, learned from sacred literature, was the flesh of a lamb that died so that they need not!

  With coats of sacred flesh, they could then see Jesus and feel His Presence again. Sin had isolated the two from God’s Presence. [iv] Theretofore, they could see the Presence of the Lord in the Tree of Life. They were sent from the Garden, away from the Tree of Life, but the Presence of God was still with them because of the coats made from that one lamb died on their behalf. Adam and Eve put on the “Lamb of God” and beheld Jesus just as John the Baptist introduced “Jesus” years later, to wit: “John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, ‘Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.’”

  Adam and Eve were “born again” [v] because they beheld the Lamb of God way back then; the Lamb who would take away the sins of their world. John was saying, See here IS your God!

  God was saying the same thing in the beginning — that God is Present, and here He IS! 

The apostle, John, wrote:

⁴ Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. ⁵ And ye know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin. ⁶ Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. (1 John 3:4-6)

  "Abideth in Him" is wearing the "Ghost" of Jesus. 

  Adam and Eve transgressed the Law, and there was only one — Do not eat of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. That was the Law and encompasses all  “The Ten Words” that Jesus scribed onto the Tablets of Stone. When the “finger of God” inscribed the Word on stone, that “Finger” [vi]was the manifestation of Himself, called “Jesus.”

  God manifested Himself as a “Coat” made from the holy, innocent flesh of a lamb. He did that to take away the sins of mankind (Adam’s kind, both himself and Eve). Like Noah long after, Adam and Eve found grace. God put Himself on the two! Then, “Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth not.” Implied is that so long as Adam and Eve kept their Coats on, sin would not be accounted to them. The Coat that each would wear was the “whole armor of God”… all that would be needed of God’s arsenal of wearing apparel just as Christians are called to do: “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Ephes 6:11).

  Adam and Eve were given weapons as well; they were not only shielded with armor, but they put on the Word as well — “the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Ephes 6:17). The Voice of God spoke the Word to them as well, “to till the ground from whence he was taken.” (Gen 3:23).

  That was “The Great Commission.” They would be “farmers” like Noah after the second creation. However, they would not plant vineyards but “living souls.” They would obey the other commandments: “to dress and keep the Garden” of living souls and to “multiply,” or plant new seeds in the ground from ‘adami. “Multiplication” was not producing mere flesh but living souls. So long as that was done, they would be protected by God’s Living Spirit in their coats.

  When “knowing” one another, what would happen? They would take off the coats provided by God and would be ashamed again. It is implied by scripture, that Cain was conceived under the forbidden tree, but God did not conceive Cain; Satan did, since Cain was “of the Wicked One” [vii]

  Also implied is that God conceived Abel. That was surely why his offering of flesh was acceptable. He was vicariously offering his flesh just as God offered His with the coats. Essentially, it appears that Abel wore a coat that God had made for him, surely from the sacrifice of his own lamb. Like Adam and Eve before, vegetation sacrificed by Cain would not even make viable aprons to protect any of his “things” from the Wicked One.

  Cain would multiply, but Abel never would. However, Abel was venerated by Seth and his seed. Matthew called him “Righteous Abel” [viii] Abel multiplied spiritually as he was replaced by Seth, “’For God,’ said she, ‘hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.’” (Gen 4:25).

  Yahweh provided the coats from the lamb. However, Yahweh is not God’s “Name.” It is His identity; He IS Existence — the Alpha and Omega’ the Beginning and the End. Yahweh (JHWH) is an acronym that identifies the LORD GOD. Again, it is not His Name!

  Now what has that to do with Abram?

Unto the place of the altar (between Bethel and Hai), which he had make there at the first: and there Abram called on the Name of the Lord. (Gen 13:4)

  Abram found grace just as Noah before him, as did Adam and Eve even before that! Adam worked by the sweat of his face, and so did Noah and Abram. [ix] Noah built an Ark with his own hands because of his faith in God’s Word to do so. He trusted “Jesus” albeit he would not see Jesus until he was safe on Holy Land. The rainbow was how God manifested His Name — that “it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud” (Gen 9:14). During the exodus from sin in Egypt, the Hebrews saw a cloud by day, but Moses saw the rainbow in the cloud. That is why Moses had faith in the Cloud of God… he saw Jesus in the Cloud!

  Abram did his work as well. He destroyed all the idols in the house of his father, Terah. Then he too found grace. He was chosen to continue the Noahic Covenant. God would put Himself on Abram as he did Adam and Eve and Noah. Noah’s “coat” was the “Bow” that he could not see until later. That invisible Bow tugged the Ark where God Willed it to go.

  For Abram, it would be different. Rather than put on a physical coat, his would be one entirely spiritual. His own flesh would be cut off! He sealed the Covenant with God by circumcision of the foreskin of his shame. By “coincidence?” the English word “name” in Hebrew is “shem” (or “sem”) and is pronounced shame. Abram was a Semite, and “Shem” was their names.

  Abram called on the Sem (or Shem) of the Lord. Noah honored God by giving his eldest son the Name. Semites would carry that Name through the generations until this day since the seed of Abraham are still called “Semites.” The Abrahamic Covenant was that the Name of God would be of the seed of Abram, the Semite, through his seed, Isaac and Israel (Jacob).

  “Shem” was the Name above all names. He was God’s first chosen and peculiar person because his seed would carry the Name of God. [x]

  Abram’s only work was making an altar to God, surely by the sweat of his face, and multiplying his seed to plant in the “vessel” (Ark) of Mary’s womb. Before Mary would be the Ark, though, Saria would. Her barren womb would carry the seed of the Name of the Righteous One — the second “Abel.”

  What would Abram wear after circumcision of his foreskin? The whole armor of God! God would use His “Sword” of the Spirit to do what? Circumcise the heart of Abram. Abram put on the Holy Spirit! “Then Abraham gave up the ghost, and died in a good old age, an old man, and full of years; and was gathered to his people” (Gen 25:8).

  He was gathered with his forebears in Paradise and was taken to the Cave of Machpelah in Ephron, and maybe buried there with Abel in the Cave of Treasures.

  The dust from which Adam was made would return to the dust, [xi] and that was possibly in the Cave of Machpelah in Ephron — “the place of the dust.” Abraham was buried there with his fathers after he gave up his ghost. Death was gain for Abraham because he had become a new person in Christ… from a mere Abram to Abraham. Sinful Terah, of the Wicked One, had named him Abram, and the Righteous Name had named him Abraham. Abram and Abraham mean the same thing, but the Name named him “Abraham” — “father of the multitude” and that he would be… the multitude who would kill Jesus… the very Name to whom Abram built the altar.

  Right there, Abram “called on the Name of the Lord.” He called on Jesus to do what? Manifest Himself to him. What did Abram need? Brotherly love! He and his nephew, Lot, were at odds over “Paradise.” Just like the apostles, Who would be greatest there in the Kingdom of God? [xii]

  God would meeken Abram. He would relent Paradise to Lot. He would give Lot first choice! And what did that get Abram? “Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth” (Mat 5:5). Abram inherited the Promise Land and Lot only got Sodom and Gomorrah, both of which perished.

  Of course, Abram called on Jesus! What do you suppose Jesus said? Perhaps, Abram, it is not the paradise in earth, but Paradise in Heaven that matters! Abram got it! He was blissed. Abram found grace, and this time it was written down on parchment and survives to this day. No longer would the Covenant only be written in the sky under the bow, but as Holy Scripture.

  Abram called, and the Name answered. Together, they made a deal, Abram signed it in the blood that he shed, and Jesus in His own Blood much later, on the Cross. There Jesus attested the Abrahamic Covenant, but long after Abraham would walk through it himself, an early version of the Via Delarosa that Jesus would walk himself. He performed it solemnly on the very places Jesus would walk it later! He followed the Way before the Cross even pointed to it.

  That one Word means so much. The unspeakable Name that is called “Jesus” is “Ya saves” … “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other Name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Abram called on the only Name that would save them. He put on the Spirit of God, and when he died, his “gain” was giving up the Ghost of Jesus to be with the Person of God in the Flesh!

(picture credit: ChristNow; "Where is Jesus now?")

 

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[i] John 1:1-3,14

[ii] Gen 3:8

[iii] Gen 3:21

[iv] Gen 3:8

[v] John 3:7

[vi] Deut 9:10

[vii] 1 John 3:12

[viii] Mat 23:35

[ix] Gen 3:19

[x] Deut 14:2

[xi] Gen 3:10

[xii] Mat 18:1

PARADISE LOST; PARADISE FOUND

   Where is Paradise? Whatever happened to the Garden of Eden? Why can no one rediscover Paradise? Is Paradise Lost? What land is it in? Is it between the Tigress and Euphrates Rivers in the land of Shinar where Noah embarked? There are many clues in the Bible, but perhaps Abraham’s “inheritance” is the Garden Paradise! How could that be; there is a Dead Sea within that area.

The Promised Land, from God to Abraham is shown in figure #1. It is Abraham’s inheritance and what the fighting is about to this day. Along with that is always, Whose god is stronger? If that territory is given up, then to the Muslims, their god is the One True God. If Judeo-Christians win out, then Jehovah God, called “The Lord God” in Genesis, is the One True God.

“Eden” is the greater land. It may have been the land mass in the beginning, or Eden could be the extents of the Promised Land. Regardless, Israel, and Jerusalem proper, are in the “midst of the Garden.” [i] Some maps show all of Saudi Arabia as the Promised Land as well as portions of Egypt up to the Nile. At the southern tip of Saudi Arabia is the small country of Yemen which was once Called “Adan” — another spelling of Eden.

  Also, west of Jerusalem in what was the land of Dan, is ancient Eden. It appears that the whole of the Promised Land includes Eden, but the area called Shinar, was perhaps once Eden as well, and became too evil to be included in the Promised Land. Much of the “fertile crescent” was within the Promised Land because its properties were very much like Paradise.

 

Figure 1:mi yodeya; "The Borders of the Promised Land"

  Abram and Lot separated so as to share the Promised Land. Lot chose the plain of Jordan:

And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. (Gen 13:10)

  Zoar is on the plain of Jordan, what is now the Dead Sea, as shown in figure #2.

 

Figure 2: Wikipedia; "Zoara"

  The inference in that verse is that the “Dead Sea” was not dead at time. It was, “even as the Garden of the Lord.” The extent of the Garden of the Lord is not known, but what is known from that verse is that the Garden of the Lord was on the plain of the Jordan River.

  In Hebrew, Naral Ha Yarden is what the Jordan River is called. In the Hebrew that means, “River of the Garden.” One of the four rivers of the Garden of Eden would have been the Jordan. God lists the rivers of the Garden:

⁹ And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. ¹⁰ And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from thence it was parted, and became into four heads. ¹¹ The name of the first is Pison: that is it which compasseth the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; ¹² And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the onyx stone. ¹³ And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia. ¹⁴ And the name of the third river is Hiddekel: that is it which goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the fourth river is Euphrates. (Gen 2:9-14)

  First off, modern geography needs to be ignored because the flood changed the one land into seven continents. The lands adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea rotated about the “navel of the world.” That “navel” is the Foundation Stone now beneath the Dome of the Rock. “Mediterranean” means “center of the Earth.” It is the sea at the Navel of the Earth.

  Taking the easy one first, the Euphrates (The fourth river) is well known. Except for its direction of flow because of continental drift, it can be accepted as intended. That is river number “4” in those passages.

  The next easiest is the river “Hiddekel,” the third river. Although it too is questioned (See Abararim Publications) most assign it to be the Tigress River which indeed goes East of what is now believed to be Assyria (Shinar).  

  Note that there were not four rivers but four “heads” from one river. So, there were five rivers in all!

  The boundaries of Ethiopia have changed over time, but the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden (Aden is Yemen) encompass what would have been the eastern side. On the other hand, the Sudan is described as such: “The Kingdom of Kush and was an ancient Nubian state centered on the confluences of the Blue Nile and White Nile, and the Atbarah River and the Nile River” (Wikipedia; “Sudan”). The boundaries of Ethiopia in the beginning are unknown, but this area is encompassed by the Nile River, true to the Word.

  That the Gulf of Aden is there means much, as well. It would have been the “Gulf of Eden.” It does appear that the Gihon (river “2”) is the present-day Nile River and its branches. That accounts for three rivers: the Gihon, the Hiddekel, and the Euphrates.

  There is one problem with the Gihon River. There remains to this day, the Gihon Spring;

(It) is a spring in the Kidron Valley. It was the main source of water for the Pool of Siloam in Jebus and the later City of David, the original site of Jerusalem. One of the world's major intermittent springs – and a reliable water source that made human settlement possible in ancient Jerusalem – the spring was not only used for drinking water, but also initially for irrigation of gardens in the adjacent Kidron Valley, which provided a food source for the ancient settlement. (Wikipedia; “Gihon Spring”).

  That spring is to the Jews as the Nile is to the Egyptians and Ethiopians. “The Nile used to run much more westerly through what is now Wadi Hamim and Wadi al Maqar in Libya and flow into the Gulf of Sidra’ (Wikipedia; “Nile River”).  The Nile was thought to be the boundary between life and death:

  The Nile was also an important part of ancient Egyptian spiritual life. Hapi was the god of the annual floods, and both he and the pharaoh were thought to control the flooding. The Nile was considered to be a causeway from life to death and the afterlife. The east was thought of as a place of birth and growth, and the west was considered the place of death, as the god Ra, the Sun, underwent birth, death, and resurrection each day as he crossed the sky. Thus, all tombs were west of the Nile, because the Egyptians believed that in order to enter the afterlife, they had to be buried on the side that symbolized death. (ibid)

  That is important in Judaism as well. The Promised Land was to the East of the Nile. It was, indeed, the place of birth and growth. Not only did Eden extend from there, but outside Eden, to the West, was death. The flow from the Spring is ambiguous since it has been channeled to provide water for the city of Jerusalem and for the Siloam Pool. However, like the Nile, its flow is intermittent. The Nile River is the smallest river in existence, according to flow rate. It is and always been the source of life in Jerusalem, even preserving them in Hezekiah’s time from destruction.

  There is a “spiritual” connection between the Gihon Spring and the Nile. Perhaps there was a physical relationship as well since the Nile flows Northward into the “Center of the Earth” and all the other rivers flow southward into the sea at the Center of the Earth.

  No one knows about the Pishon River, nor the exact location of Havilah. The person, Havilah, was the son of Joktan, the son of Eber from which the word, “Hebrew” comes, and means “across the river.” The first usage of the word, “Hebrew,” is referencing “Abram the Hebrew” [ii] Abram was descended from Eber who was the seed of Shem, the son of Noah. The question is: What waters did Abram cross? He concluded his journey by crossing a river, the Naral Ha Yarden — the Jordan River, so named because it is the River of the Garden of Eden.

  Biblically, the Jordan River had to be the first of the four rivers. Scripture as much as says that: “Lot beheld the plain of the Jordan… that it was well watered every where… even as the Garden of the Lord.”

  Mentioned as well is that previously before the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, those two cities were “well watered every where.”

  The location of those two cities were on the Jordan. Because of sins of the flesh, Sodom and Gomorrah were burned with fire and brimstone from God. [iii] Because Lot’s wife looked back at the pleasures of sin there, she was turned into a pillar of salt. [iv] It seems that the Dead Sea is the consequence of sin. It turned the River of the Garden Paradise into a fiery furnace wherein there is only death!

  Four Rivers of the Garden have been identified, but where is the headwater river? The only clue of the fifth River is that “a river went out of Eden to water the Garden.” “Eden” is the Garden and the land outside the Garden. Its extent is not known but Eden is likely what geologists call, “Pangea.” (See my commentary on Pangea at https://kentuckyherrin.blogspot.com/2016/10/eden-pangea.html).

  Known quite well is how “Pangea” (Eden) was formed:

And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. (Gen 1:9-10)

  The land was one mass. There were no continents because until then there had been no rain and no flood. Sometime between that time and Peleg’s time, the continents drifted apart, and from maps of Pangea, the drifting spiraled around the “Navel of the World” (The Foundation Stone in Jerusalem) and “The Center of the Earth” (The Mediterranean Sea).

  God “gathered the waters.” I did not rain, but the waters were “gathered.” Those waters came from the belly of the Earth just as with Noah: “All the fountains of the great deep were broken up” in the Second Creation.

  The “river going out of Eden” was the same fountain of the deep. It was the same as the mist that made the earth of Adam into clay. Adam was created, as many believe on the Foundation Stone, and the “mist” would have come from the abyss beneath that Stone.

  The River of the Eden was the “fountain of the deep.” The River of God is the water from beneath the Earth’s surface. The River of God is the water from which springs are fed. The Greatest River of God is the vast oceans 400 miles beneath the surface of the Earth that is the storehouse of the waters of the Deluge. Jewish theologians credit the abyss beneath the Foundation Stone as the access for waters from the deep, and the journey to death as well of those who missed the Ark.

  Each of the four rivers are spring fed. The Tigress and the Euphrates are fed from the underground waters of the Taurus Mountains where Noah’s Ark rested (see my commentary at https://kentuckyherrin.blogspot.com/2021/05/in-search-of-noahs-ark-part-2-of-2.html).

  The Jordan comes from the anti-Lebanon Mountains, and the Nile comes from Lake Victoria, high in the mountains of Africa. The middle of the Garden of Eden (Jerusalem) has no river. The “river” that supported the Tree of Life is the Gihon Spring. That spring has always kept Hebrews safe from harm, and from where does it flow? From the River of God beneath the surface of the Earth!

  Jerusalem is not only the “Center of the Earth,” the “Celestial Axis,” and the “Navel of the World,” but is also the “Spiritual Magnet” that draws mankind to that great City of God. Even in death, people are drawn to Jerusalem as the access to Paradise, and the Mount Olivet Cemetery is full of the dead who want to rise first when the trumpet of Jesus is sounded. It attracts so many that wars are still fought there for access to the heaven… the access to Paradise in the Third Heaven.

 

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[i] Gen 2:9

[ii] Gen 14:13

[iii] Gen 19:24

[iv] Gen 19:26

THE APPEARANCE OF THE SOUL

   Children soon discover the flesh and ways to please it. I remember discovering the lust of the flesh at about seven years old. However, discovering the soul took much longer! I discovered my own soul at about fourteen, and once my soul was found, life since that time has been mostly about the preservation of it!

  The first mention of “soul” in the Bible is in the beginning when Adam was made “a living soul.” [i] The next mention is two-thousand years later when Abraham recognized the “souls” of others [ii] and his own “soul;” to wit: “My soul shall live because of thee.” [iii]

  The human (humane) soul is invisible and is of another realm. What do souls look like? The body of the person, albeit they are incorporeal. That is “having no material body or form” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). The “Spirit” of God entered Jesus when he was baptized “in bodily form” with the motion of a dove. [iv] The Spirit that entered the body of Jesus resembled Jesus but was immaterial.

  Once the Holy Spirit entered Jesus, that portion of God’s Spirit, not only resembled Jesus, but is the incorporeal Jesus. Jesus IS the Holy Ghost who remains in the world to comfort. At the crucifixion, Jesus gave up the Ghost. [v] The centurion, Longinus, identified the Holy Ghost of Jesus when he remarked, “Truly this Man was the Son of God” (Mark 15:39).

  Longinus had not recognized Jesus as God when He was alive, but he recognized the Ghost of Jesus as God. Had he seen the Man, or had he recognized that the Ghost of Jesus IS God?

  Jesus asked, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me” (Mat 26:39). The “cup” is figuratively speaking. The Greek word is “poterian,” meaning a drinking vessel. Jesus referred to the “Living Water” [vi] that would be drunk because of His death.

  Living Water is the blood and water that flowed from Him when Longinus pierced His side. The soldier saw the Holy Ghost of Jesus in the Water flowing from the side of Jesus. He knew that Water was Jesus, apparently because it was the bodily form of Jesus that was poured out. Why is that a good hypothesis? Because those who saw the Spirit enter Jesus recognized that God entered Him, and at the crucifixion God departed from Him, at least until the work of the Holy Ghost was accomplished while the Body of Jesus “slept.”

  The drinking vessel of Jesus IS His Soul. As such, the material Body of God, was the visible vessel and inside, with the exact shape, was the incorporeal vessel. The incorporeal vessel in Jesus was emptied that day in a reversal of its filling. Why was Jesus baptized? Was it for repentance for the remission of sins as with all the others? No!

  God had told John, “Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, the same is He which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost” (John 1:33). All the others had been immersed but only Jesus was filled with the Spirit of God. That is important for two reasons: (1) The Holy Ghost was recognized as the Spirit of God, and (2) It is the Ghost of Jesus that is saving.

  The purpose of the Holy Ghost of Jesus is twofold: (1) to baptize believers with Living Water, not running water, and (2) so that Jesus may be sensed when the Holy Ghost indwells in Christians.

  The Living Water would wash away the spirit of the Wicked One, and the blood provide the DNA of Jesus, so that those washed clean by the Water from Jesus would become Sons of God in the image of Jesus.

  “DNA” is not a biblical term, but it is inferred. Only by the blood of Jesus can anyone be saved.[vii] Cain had the DNA of the Wicked One because Eve drank of the “cup” of Lucifer, and then Cain had the DNA of the Wicked One in Him.

  That DNA must be washed out by Living Water for cleansing, then the blood of Jesus transfused into the repentant. Only baptism of the Holy Ghost can wash clean, and real water is strictly a ceremonial cleansing of the outward flesh. John’s baptism, if not done in conjunction with baptism of the Holy Ghost, is merely bathing in water to cleanse the flesh.

  There is “One Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Ephes 4:5)! And that is not water baptism but baptism with the Holy Ghost of THE LORD. The baptizer is nothing more than a washer of the outside of the  vessel. The Living Water from the belly of Jesus washes the inner vessel from within; when it is imbued with the Holy Ghost.

  Now back to Abraham: Whereas, Noah found grace, and was most certainly washed from the inside out, and not from the water; Abram found grace, then continued to worry about his soul. Abraham was the first to identify the soul in the bodies of others and his own body as well: “Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee” (Gen 12:13).

  Abraham was depending, not on the Lord God for safety in sinful Egypt in the Presence of an evil Pharaoh, but his sister-wife.

  Abraham was savvy. He was not worried about his temporal flesh but his immortal incorporeal soul.  He saw things that no other person had before him. Genesis chapter twelve is the first written awareness about the immortal soul.

  Even blind Bartimaeus saw Jesus. He saw Jesus as the “Tree of Life” when Jesus approached him. He said so — “I see men; as trees walking” (Mark 8:24). He saw the Ghost of Jesus before he saw Jesus!

  As such, I believe that the Garden of Eden was a Garden of Living Souls that Adam was assigned to “dress and keep.” [viii]  God’s Garden was surely one of beautiful souls because, “According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love” (Ephes 1:4). Adam’s role was to keep living souls holy and without blame (dress and keep), but Jesus had to do that since Adam failed their Father.

  Jesus knew everyone before anyone was sent out into the world. Out of nowhere, Jesus said to Philip about Nathaniel: “Nathanael saith unto him, ‘Whence knowest thou me?’ Jesus answered and said unto him, ‘Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.’” (John 1:48).

  Jesus recognized Nathaniel. No mention had been made of any tree, let alone a specific “fig tree.” Jesus, as the Tree of Life, saw the bodily shape of the incorporeal, Nathaniel, standing under the fig tree with Adam and Eve back in the beginning. He saw his soul standing under the wrong tree, and now since all have sinned, Nathaniel would stand with the Tree of Life, Jesus. Jesus, as the Tree of Life, had looked over and saw Nathaniel in original sin. Nathaniel was one of the “tares” of the Wicked One. [ix]

  Nathaniel had not even been a tree in the Garden. He was merely a tare under the Tree of Knowledge but now he would be made good seed and would stand with Jesus. Jesus then saw Nathaniel in person standing under the “Olive Tree” (Himself) so to speak. What had Nathaniel’s soul looked like? Just like Nathaniel! What had Abraham’s soul looked like? Just like Abraham.

  The soul of Abraham came down on Sarai’s barren womb and Isaac was borne (transported) there by God. Abraham had great faith, but he too was a sinner. It is truthful that Sarai was his half-sister, so he did not lie with Satan. But the issue was that Sarai would be the one to save his soul from the Devil in Pharaoh. As soon as Abram found grace, he took it vainly, and trusted the woman rather than God… just as Adam had done long before.

  Abram knew God would take care of his flesh, but he was more concerned with his soul, and rightfully so! Jesus related that many years later: “Fear not 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). Abraham feared Pharaoh more than God, but he thought that Pharaoh could kill his soul!

  Yes, even Father Abraham was deceived, but he then obeyed God. He would be willing to destroy the flesh of his own son, knowing that God would save his soul.

  The philosophical question is, Why me? You are your soul. Freud even recognized that you are your psyche. The psyche cannot be seen but it has a nature and motives. Inside the psyche there wages a war between good and evil…between the ego and Super-Ego — to whom the soul belongs; to you or God? “Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own” (1 Cor 6:19).

  Why would God be so concerned with your body? Because He wants that the vessel inside never perish.  [x] The human soul is an invisible vessel within the body that resembles the body. Abraham detected his soul because he had found grace; not in lifeless idols, but in the Living God; thus, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the True God.

(picture credit: Learn Religions: "The Transfiguration")

 

 

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[i] Gen 2:7

[ii] Gen 12:5

[iii] Gen 12:13

[iv] Luke 3:22

[v] Mark 15:37

[vi] Jon 4:10

[vii] Mat 26:28

[viii] Gen 2:15

[ix] Mat 13:38

[x] John 3:16

SUBSTANCE AND SOULS

  You might have missed a word of great importance all the many times that you have read about the adventures of Abraham. That one word has tremendous implications! Read on.

  In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. [i] Those are two substances — one seen and the other the unseen. God, the heaven, and the earth are three substances, and three stasis. They together are one person. Hence, the “Godhead,” or “Holy Trinity,” is “homeostasis,” meaning similar states. They too are in “homostasis,” (sic) a new word in this commentary to mean three states in one man.

  Substances make up existence, and them working together is all existence in harmony. In the beginning was the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Yes, the Son was there! [ii]

  Now, here we go again… a new beginning and a new genesis:

And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their substance that they had gathered, and the souls that they had gotten in Haran; and they went forth to go into the land of Canaan; and into the land of Canaan they came. (Gen 12:5)

  Abram took three substances to Canaan: physical substance, souls, and invisible Substance, for God went with them. How is that known? Abram built altars to honor his traveling Companion.

  Abram and Sarai were the new “Adam” and the new “Eve” just as Noah and his unnamed wife had been. God would regenerate Adam’s kind again, but this time, Cain’s kind would be allowed to live. “Prosperity” would be for the seed of Abram. That was the Covenant from God. Hence, God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel). The Israelites are God’s chosen and peculiar people. [iii] The Israelites descended from Shem, and indeed they would live in tents. [iv]

  By “tents” it is meant that they would travel wherever God would take them, and He would be their God, and they would be His people. [v] Cain means “wanderer” but the Israelites would have a destiny; their land would be the land of Canaan.

  To prove that the Israelites were God’s people, God soon established a test: “Moses said unto the people, ‘Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.’” His people would shun sin.

  How to identify the rules against sinning? The Finger of God wrote them on stone for perpetuity. His people are to sin not. His people do not break the tablets of stone, or even the invisible “tablets” for the Law is written on the hearts of His people. [vi] There are always seen substance and the unseen. The Law can be summarized as “love” [vii]— good will toward God and others. You cannot see love but it is there if God’s Will is done!

  Moses broke the Tablets of Stone, but even broken, they remained the Law. Thus, erecting stone tablets means little, because Jesus, “The Finger of God,” writes them on the hearts of God’s people.

  Just as the stone means little, neither did the real substance that Abram carried with him. Those physical substances were real property. They were things tangible that were a burden to the men or animals that carried them.

  They were headed to what would later be called, “The Land of Milk and Honey.” They were headed to Paradise, and therein would be all the real property that they would ever need. Now, to the meat of the message: “The souls that they had gotten in Haran; into the land of Canaan they came.”

  Abram multiplied his entourage in Haran. The word, “Haran” used as a place name means “parched.” (Wikipedia). Abram took souls from a parched land to a paradise. If one is observant, the Bible, as well as ancient Jewish sacred writings, identifies the land of Canaan (Israel) as the Garden of Eden. Abram was symbolically taking dying souls from a parched land to a place of life; the very place that God breathed life unto Adam, to wit: “The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen 2:7).

  “Father Abraham” is antitypical of the Lord God. He took men from parched ground back to the Garden, and therein, they became living souls (nephesh). Why is it not written “the men” rather than “the souls?” Men would be ‘adami. The intent may have been for Adam’s sin not to be repeated, thus, “souls” rather than “men.”

  God was not worried about their flesh when he sent them to the land of Canaan. The Canaanites there were merely flesh. They were all “Cains” and “Canaans” without souls. They were of the Wicked One. God intended to displace soulless Canaanites with Semites with souls. He would do that to provide a place for souls to live in peace. Jesus said to the Israelites:

In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. (John 14:3-4)

  God took Abram to a place that He would prepare. He had used the Canaanites to repair Paradise lost.

  In the midst of that Paradise was a great city. As servants of Shem, Canaanites (Jebusites) built Jerusalem, and Melchizedek would be their priest. As priest, Jerusalem would be built to God’s Instructions and prepared a place for the Israelites (Semites). Jerusalem was God’s big “Tent,” built for Shem’s progeny, and there it is: “God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant” (Gen 9:27); from God’s Covenant with Noah, and here was Abram headed that way!

  Abram headed to Canaan, not for himself, but to plant his seed. God’s time is not our time. Those souls would need to be patient and persevere sin in Egypt. They would wander around (in the manner of Cain, “the Wanderer”), until the place for them was prepared. When sin became so severe that the Israelites were all but lost, then God gave them grace. He told Moses, “I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared” (Exod 23:20). That “Angel” is Jesus.

  God’s Plan was always to have a place for His people. Abram, along with Melchizedek, prepared that place on Mount Moriah. Canaanites were the servants who built that place. Hence, the Palestinians to this day claim Jerusalem and Canaan’s land as their own. They merely squatted in Israel until God handed the deed to that land to Abraham.

  Adam and Eve were told to multiply. Noah and his wife were told to multiply. They each thought to multiply their flesh, but God had another substance in mind. God meant to multiply souls. Then Lucifer stepped in and multiplied flesh. Cain was “of the Wicked One” [viii] and he was sent out unto the parched  land of Nob to multiply flesh.

  Before the flood, Seth’s seed was sown on the plain (Nob) beside the City of Adam, not in the ground, but in the flesh from Cain’s multiplication. When the flesh multiplied, they built a city and a tower to reach the heavens to make a name for themselves. [ix] Then their flesh was scattered. God had not wanted flesh, but souls that belonged to Him!

  Abram did that! He understood God’s Will for him. He went to the parched land of Haran and converted the dying, and then God breathed life unto their nostrils, just as in the beginning. Abram multiplied souls for God. That is what God had in mind all along until Satan sneaked into Paradise in the Serpent.

  Why did Adam and Eve make aprons of fig leaves to cover their genitalia? Because they misunderstood God. God would plant their seed, but they most certainly planted their own. Since Cain was of the Wicked One, Satan planted his seed in Eve and Adam’s seed perhaps fell to the dirt from which it came.

  God covered all their flesh with the skin of a lamb. God provide a full-body chastity belt! He would show them how to multiply. Righteous Abel was made a living soul by God. There was no carnal knowledge to do that. God did not begat Abel, but He overshadowed Eve and Abel was conceived in the womb just as the Holy Spirit of God overshadowed Mary. However, outside the Garden, Adam and Eve would need to use the carnal knowledge that they had obtained from the Wicked One.

  Thereafter, the flesh is the idol of fallen men. Everything in the world are substances to appease the flesh. Even righteous Abraham carried substance for the flesh, as he also brought souls to Canaan land. God saw no sin in those souls, but only in those who brought the substances for the flesh. Sin would remain in the world even with righteous Abraham.

  The Garden Paradise to this day contains parched land around the Dead Sea. Sin parched that land, and soon sin burnt it to the ground with fire and brimstone as Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed.

  Not to worry, sinners! Those two cities have been rebuilt. Joppa and Tel Aviv are now that “parched land” where sin abides in the flesh. Those twin cities are the eastern homosexual “paradise” (for them) and parched land to God. My bet is that when Jesus returns to reign, that Joppa and Tel Aviv will burn to the ground, if not before He returns!

  I am nearly finished. “The Great Commission” is to, “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” (Mat 28:19). That is what God meant all along when He commanded to multiply!

 Abram got that right. He would do as God requested. He saw men as “souls” for God’s Purpose rather than flesh for the purposes of Satan. Abram would do as suggested. His seed would be planted on holy ground (Canaan) to displace the unholy there, and then enlarged all over the Earth.

  Abram multiplied living souls. He got it right. That is why to Christians and Jews, he is “Father Abraham” and why God is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The seeds of Abraham are more than flesh, but souls that multiplied from his seed.

  The best Seed was used for the Greatest Seed ever planted. Abraham planted Jesus on Holy Ground on Calvary, and thereafter life was again breathed unto all of Adam’s kind… if only they breath God’s Breath of Life. Adam perhaps spilled his seed on unholy ground to no avail. Jesus, however, spilled the breath of life on the ground for all to “drink” of its Living Water. But for that to happen those of the Wicked One must come to the “well” to “drink” on Calvary.

  Adam did not multiply in the Garden, so long afterwards, Jesus multiplied living souls. Adam was to do that, but Jesus finally did what Adam did not!

(picture credit: Dreamstime.com; "Soul")

 

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[i] Gen 1:1

[ii] John 1:1-3

[iii] Deut 14:2

[iv] Gen 9:27

[v] Lev 26:12

[vi] Rom 2:15

[vii] Mat 22:40

[viii] 1 John 3:12

[ix] Gen 11:4