THE TREE OF LIFE: WHAT IS IT?

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. (Gen 2:9) 

Out (from) the ground (adama)

 The word “kind” in scripture refers to taxonomy. The creation was the order of things. God did not create life first but firm things from which life is generated. The “gen” in generated refers to genetics. The Book of Genesis is about the beginning and spread of genetics. 

Adama is the source of the kind or “family” of man. The chosen family (the elect) is mankind who had dominion over the other families. 

 

Figure 1:Ranks of biological classifications

 

God created life (Gen 1:20) bringing “forth abundantly the moving creature that has life," 

The domain was the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:8) and the Garden consisted, not of just trees, but all things. 

It is thought that the Garden was like one that we would plant. A “domain” is a region controlled by one person or organization. The Garden was the domain of the One True God and in the domain, or Garden, was put life. 

Of all the life in the Garden Adam had some dominion. The domain was for his family…. “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.” (Gen 1:26). 

Hence, our family — the family of Adam — were the elect among all the other creatures. 

We should ask, “What creeping things?” Anything that is animated throughout the (‘eres) “firmament.” Thus the “domain” is the firmament, or cosmos (Gen 1:6). 

The family of man was superior to any other beings in the cosmos. The only other known creatures in the cosmos are the angels. We were elected to have dominion over even them. 

According to the II Enoch, rebellious angels are imprisoned in the second heaven, immortal souls both the good and evil, in the third heaven, and angels in the fifth heaven with God outside all the heavens. All the heavens combined are the cosmos and all of them are “firm” things; some of which can be seen and others that cannot be seen with the human eye. 

The family of Adam was created with bright eyes to see both God above and into the heavens. Mankind had special features and us alone in our kingdom. 

A “kingdom” in taxonomy is a monarchial state; “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters” (Gen 1:2) for Him (the Light) “to rule over the day and over the night” (Gen 1:18). Hence, God is the monarch of a kingdom, and that kingdom He is ruler of all. 

Next in taxonomy come “phylum” comes from “race” or “stock,” to include plants and animals. God clearly made mankind in the animal phylum because they were mobile (anthropoidal). Man was the only animal that walked upright without a tale to balance themselves while walking. Other primates were creeping things that balanced using their tails and arms. 

The taxonomical rank of “order” comes next. Orders are generally capitalized. The last of the order was man. We are of the highest rank in the creation. All things before are ranks. The beginning (Gen 1:1) was the first rank as the “beginning” literally means in the Hebrew. All things were made for the last rank that God called “Adam” (not the man, but his kind). 

Next on the taxonomy “tree” comes “family” — things that are related by consanguinity or affinity — by blood or relationships. By blood is of the same genetics. Human beings are all of the family of Adam, hence we are “mankind.” 

The woman was of the family of Adam; God created mankind male and female and the female He took from the male’s anatomy; “The rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman” (Gen 2:22). 

Sin changed the genetics of the woman. After sin, Adam renamed the woman, “Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living” (Gen 3:20). 

She was not the biological mother of but the source of our genetics. Through Eve, we have guile in us (Gen 3:13). The “Serpent” led her astray. The “Serpent’ was of a very different image (nahas) than that of God (Selem). She was beguiled by receiving the cunningness of another being of a different family from a different domain. Her “nature” had changed — she had guile in her blood. Original sin means genetic sin and Eve is the mother of all; all mankind has the genetics of Eve in us. (X chromosome?) 

The genetics from God through Adam had mutated. No longer was our family glorious but inglorious with evil within our natures. 

The set of our DNA, all of them combined, is our genome. The Image of God was the glorious Genome of God (Selem), meaning a shadow or phantom. The male Adam received the Genome of God. 

Perhaps the human “soul” is the whole of the chromosomal sacks within the human genome. All the genome of Adam would have contained the glorious DNA (Image)m of God (Y-chromosome?), so that Adam’s kind and his alone was glorious like God and had the nature of God in him. 

DNA is a carbon chain with two helical chains with alike but opposite characteristics. Everything about us is encoded in that carbon chain, even all who came before us, our natures, our biological characteristics, and even that we are living creatures. All life has DNA. If something is not alive, it contains no DNA. Hence, life is defined by our DNA and God encoded us with His Identity before the creation of the cosmos. 

East of Eden was not directional, but in ancient times, it meant before time. Adam may have lived for eons before time ever began, and hence time began with sin, The translators got that right: “In the process of time” (Gen 4:3), occurring after sin. Hence, life in the Garden was meant to be eternal, and “death” was not necessarily the loss of animation, but miscegenation wherein the races are mixed. (“Races” if you remember are “phylum”). 

Now consider “genus” in the rankings. Adam’s kind was a taxon before sin. After sin, the woman Eve was a different taxon with slightly different genetics that her husband. She remained of the family of man, but her gen changed, and indeed females and males have slightly different DNA chains. In addition, a female alone can pass down her DNA that is located, not in chromosomal sacks but in the mitochondrial vessels. Hence, Eve is the “mother of all living” since only the female can pass along mitochondrial DNA! 

Men and women are technically, but not scientifically, a different phylum in the same family; their genus is the same with a few differences. 

Of the last rank is “species.”

A species is a population of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction (Zimmer, Carl (19 February 2024). "What Is a Species, Anyway? - Some of the best known species on Earth may not be what they seem". The New York Times). 

Wikipedia used that source; humans are a species because the male and female genders can mate. The problem with human beings is that we are not the species we think we are! We believe ourselves to be “sons of God” but that is only partly true; Jesus said, “You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do” (John 8:44). 

That does not mean that the Devil, Lucifer, is our ‘father’ but we are of His kind, or family by nature since original (genetic) sin from Eve through Cain… “Cain, who was of that wicked one” (1 John 3:12). We are not truly Adam’s kind but Kenites and of the family of Cain. 

From the source, “Some of the best known species on Earth may not be what they seem,” that includes human beings. We are humane but we are not godly! No wonder works do not regenerate us for we cannot change our genetics. 

I admittedly took the liberty because of scripture, for the human species alone, to divided it into two phylum. That would not be the case in general because animals did not sin; hence only our kind is not what we seem to be! 

So, what might the “Tree of Life” be? Perhaps the genetics of the species. The word, genesis, sort of gives it away. 

(To be continued about biogenetics)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE CONVERGENCE OF THE GODHEAD IN THE WOMB OF MARY

THE TRUTH ABOUT JESUS - final

So, Jesus was a scholar and philosopher who revealed the truth to the greatest minds in Jerusalem. He would have been prestigious in the eyes of the intellectuals. He is endowed “rich” in mind and even independent of His believed to be parent, Joseph and mother, Mary.

Jesus was not the mother of God. God is Supreme. She was more so the vessel in which God walked. God had no need of anything. He just thought divine thoughts and they were there. If He had been thirsty, that would have been no issue. He was the fount of living waters.

If He was hungry, that would not be an issue for He is the bread of live. He would have provided for Himself manna from heaven. My point is to dispel the idea that Jesus was poor as anything He ever needed was right there, right then.

Anything that Jesus was, He chose to do… even His own death. He was never in agony for Himself but for all of mankind. Never underestimate the riches of Jesus; even riches He would never spend.

For example, the kings brought to Him at His birth, a tribute of gold, incense, and myrrh like they would a Caesar to whom they paid tribute.

Everybody knows the value of gold, but frankincense were very expensive and so were oils. They represented wealth; wealth which Jesus would never use nor waste.

Unknown is whatever happened to that cache! Perhaps Mary supplied the ointment for the burial of Jesus from those gifts (Luke 23:56) — literally aromatics and flowing juices. Incense is an aromatic and myrrh a sap that flows along the stripes cut on a tree.

Unknown is the amount of incense and myrrh that the kings brought but perhaps they were meant to be used on the body of Jesus. If so, since Jesus was not found in the tomb, the ointments, costly as they were, had gone unused. Their whereabouts, like the gold, remains unknown. The family of Jesus had gifts fit for a king, but Jesus never spent anything on Himself. He was not a “poor” anything!

Tradition has it that the gifts were chests for of each substance. If so, then Jesus was an extremely rich man who had no use for money. He even preached against the love of money as the root of all evil (1 Tim 6:10), but as rich as He was, Jesus told the scribe before His death, “The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has not where to lay His head” (Mat 8:20).

God (Himself) would provide. At last, Jesus had a place to lay His head, and that was in the unused, and quite expensive tomb of the upper crust man, Joseph of Arimathea. Jesus found a place to lay and bought it, not with the riches that He had, but the payment was His own life. Jesus died a wealthy, wealthy man in a small, small country, but His riches were in Paradise wherein there was a throne and great city.

Like George Washington long after, Jesus was land poor for His inheritance lied in another kingdom (John 18:36).

The Devil even offered Jesus a kingdom here, but Jesus refused the temptation. His riches were the vast Estate of God probated to Him when God suffered death on the Cross. Jesus’s supposed father, Joseph, may have been taxed for some small property in Bethlehem, the city of David, but Jesus would pay the “taxes” on His real, Real Estate (Paradise) with His own body — the most expensive sacrifice ever, and He paid that tax because He was both a Jew and the Son of God!

Now about the Cyrenius (Latin Quirinius) tax. The Roman tax could either be a head (poll) tax or a property tax, depending on the needs of the Romans.

There is a timing issue about the taxes of Cyrenius, but that may not be literal. Rather than Him collecting taxes as a prelate in 6 ACE. “Quirinius” fought wars in the mountains of Celicia, apparently to capture the rebels in the mountains near the boundary of Syria which at that time included all of Galilee and Judea in the time of the birth of Jesus. Perhaps he did tax, but not as governor, but as a general who needed to pay his troops; so don’t get caught up in accusations that the Bible is wrong.

Poll taxes are taxes just because a person exists. It makes sense that THE EXISTENCE (Yahweh) would be taxed. Usually, in the US, poll taxes were only on adults, but if Quirinius needed money for his armies, then the birth of Jesus would add a poll tax. In other words, the world taxed Jesus, if that is true, just because He was born.

The other tax enumerated by Quirinius was property tax. Joseph and Mary both went to Bethlehem — apparently their home city — to pay property taxes which were very expensive in contrast to Jewish taxes (perhaps a farthing or so that would be used oftentimes for sacrificial purposes and Herod’s building projects.)

Joseph, as scripture indicates, was the “son of David,” meaning that He was of David’s family. That Joseph owed taxes in Bethlehem implies that Joseph had land there. Since he was of David, perhaps Joseph had inherited some quantity of David’s land, and if so, Joseph perhaps owned property in both Nazareth and Bethlehem, Nazareth, being in Galilee near where Quirinius was fighting a war. It can be reasonably assumed that, that taxation was for conducting a war and any wrongness of scripture is dispelled.

Jesus was known as the “son of David” — “When Jesus departed thence, two blind men followed Him, crying, and saying, ‘You son of David, have mercy on us” (Mat 9:27). Even poor beggars knew that Jesus was a pretender to the throne and perhaps even knew, because it was published as was the custom of the Romans, that He was royalty. No wonder Herod sought to kill the young Jesus. Since blind men that could not read knew the genealogy of Jesus, then educated men would certainly have known. In modern times, Joseph would be called a member of the “landed gentry.”

However, theologians have portrayed Joseph as a poor carpenter. Those in His own country (Galilee) were astounded at His mighty works and asked, “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at Him?” (Mark 6:3).

Would a poor family offend the common men and women in His home state? No, but wealthy men might very well. Was Jesus really a carpenter known by his structures or a Technician known by His astonishing miracles?

By now, everyone should know that wealth offends more so than poverty. Perhaps they were offended because the family of Joseph was too well off! Their wealth would support wars; perhaps that is why they shunned Him.

Joseph and Mary as righteous people would have hated war, but their taxes would have gone toward supporting the battles of Quirinius. That would explain why Jesus’s own people would reject Him; He may have been considered just part of the wealthy elite by His own people. Of course, those who were fair, knew that Jesus was a humble, humble man in His own land at Bethlehem.

Yes, there is speculation herein, but I do support the biblical account of things because they were inspired by God (2 Tim 3:16), meaning Jesus Himself. Jesus was not a liar! The writers were giving Jesus’s account of things.

Now consider the trade of Jesus and Joseph — a “carpenter.” They may have been but there is no evidence of any carpentry they may have done either in scripture or in archeology. Literally, in the Greek, they were “tekton” or “tradesmen” as they are called to this time.

In my book about, An Awesome Quantum God, I suggested that Jesus was a “technician” and because He made all things, He knew all things inside and out because He made them from nothing. Jesus was indeed a highly skilled, miraculous “Technician” who may have never sawed wood but in the genesis of all things, He literally cut firm things (Gen 1:1). He cut atoms and made sub-atomic particles. Nobody ever taught Jesus anything! In fact, Genesis is the only place that it is implied that He sawed anything.

However, admittedly Joseph was a tradesman of some sort, by why a carpenter? Because carpentry was a skill done by tradesmen in James’s England when the Bible was translated.

So, what happened to the gold? There may be explanations. Perhaps Joseph used part of it to pay for the head tax of the “Godhead” Jesus. Perhaps He paid property tax on the property he had inherited as the seed of David; or perhaps Jospeh was a jeweler, as many Jews are to this day! Perhaps that is part of the sin of envy that his people portrayed.

Did Joseph make jewelry from the gold the wise men brought? Had he made a crown of gold in preparation for the kingship of Jesus which he knew was planned because the kings revealed to Jospeph that Jesus would be king? Did Joseph fail to understand that gold would not be the crown of Jesus but thorns from a bramble bush like the ram of Abraham’s sacrifice?

Something did happen to the gold, expensive aromas, and ointments that the kings brought. My reasoning is as plausible as the next.

Why gold? Sacred writings explain that: 

After these things God said unto Adam, "Thou didst ask of Me something from the garden, to be comforted therewith, and I have given thee these three tokens as a consolation to thee; that thou trust in Me and in My covenant with thee. "For I will come and save thee; and kings shall bring me when in the flesh, gold, incense and myrrh; gold as a token of My kingdom; incense as a token of My divinity; and myrrh as a token of My suffering and of My death. "But, O Adam, put these by thee in the cave; the gold that it may shed light over thee by night; the incense, that thou smell its sweet savour; and the myrrh, to comfort thee in thy sorrow." (1 Adam & Eve XXXI:1-3) 

The gold was for the kingship of Jesus if that is true. A crown is a token of any kingdom. Kings brought the gold for something. A crown makes sense. If Jospeph was indeed a jeweler as many Jews have been, then perhaps he did use the gold to fabricate a crown as a “tekton” of sorts himself.

If so, then Jesus never wore the crown of gold for as a modest man he wore a crown of thorns.

The point is that Jesus was likely a wealthy propertied man who had riches that meant nothing to Him. God, His Father, had made for Him the gold, incense, and myrrh; making Him the Son (gens) of God as well as the gens of David.

Through the line of David, Jesus was king of Judea for only a few weeks, then He abdicated by death to be King of kings, and Lord of lords in the real, real estate in Paradise. If anybody used the crown, his successor, Herod Agrippa II would have. He was the last Herodian king of Judea, and it is likely that the Romans ended up with the crown made for Jesus.

Caesar, Caligua, so says AI Overview, gave Agrippa II a gold diadem (crown) when he made him king of Judea. It remains unknown who made that crown, but the Romans got the gold when Jerusalem fell. Did Jospeh make the crown that went unused until his son was deposed? We will probably never know!

With this commentary, perhaps we should quit thinking of Jesus as a man of poverty but one of prudence. He indeed could have had anything that He wanted, but all He wanted was that none who believed in Him should perish (John 3:16). Riches meant nothing to Him, so why would He be considered poor?

So, in summary, Jesus was not the son of Joseph, not a poor man, not a carpenter, not a king here but just as His Name suggests: “Ya(hweh) saves” and even at no charge because He pays by grace. And to the Jews, He was Teacher whose class mostly failed.

THE TRUTH ABOUT JESUS

Yesterday on social media I asked people in general this question: 

Jesus is said to have been a poor man. Was He really? Jesus is said to have spoken only Aramaic as a common man. Is that true? Think on the picture scholars have painted. Have they sketched a false picture?

How many times have you heard that Jesus was “just a poor carpenter?” Was He? What other misconceptions do we have? 

The first account that we have of Jesus is at His birth: “She,” referring to Mary, “brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn” (Luke 2:7). The Book of Luke says the most about the infancy of Jesus, but John said the most.

God was “born” in Bethlehem; not in a biological sense but “Jesus was born,” gennao in the Greek, “in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king” (Mat 2:1). Jesus was literally sprung off from some divine genes as the “Son of God,” son being genetic. In other words, the birth of Jesus is the genetics (Genome) of God engendered within the child in the womb of Mary.

As the “last Adam” (1 Cor 15:45) Jesus was endowed with the “quickening Spirit” of God. Jesus was genetically of God.  John clarified that birth: 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God; the same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life (the quickening Spirit of God); and the life was the light of men…  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. (John 1:1-4,14) 

As the only begotten (monogenes), Jesus was the Sole Being of God’s kind (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon). In other words, Jesus is the very Image of God and as such was like Adam, but that would be the last time God would need to generate anymore Adams.

Point made: Jesus is God and along with that notoriety, God called His physical Image, “Jesus” (Mat 1:25) and to make that clear, God in the flesh of an Adam, was also called “Emanuel” — God with us. (Mat 1:23).  

Theologians write of Jesus as if He is just a man with the Spirit of God in Him. That is not the case, Jesus was the walking, talking, critical thinker that encountered Adam in the Garden: “They heard the Voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day” (Gen 3:8).

The shepherds had sensed the Voice of God in the person of Jesus, so they came to investigate. Indeed, God Himself was imbued within the flesh of Jesus. He was the “Word” from the Garden of Eden who spoke to them.

What makes a god? Any existence that creates makes One True God.

Jeremiah wrote to the Jews, “The Lord is the true God; He is the living God, and an everlasting king” (Jer 10:10). The wise men knew those words. They came to honor the newborn king! Jesus was born king of the Jews but even more so, king of Adam’s kind back before time began. He was the “king” in the Garden of Eden and the wise men brought Him part of a king’s bounty: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. (Mat 2:11).

Jesus was born, not only a baby, but a king. The baptism of Jesus was a sort of coronation. When the Image of God came onto Jesus in bodily shape, the Voice said, “You are My beloved Son; in you I AM well pleased (Luke 3:22).  Jesus was not the biological “Son” of God but the genetic “Son” or “Gens” in the Latin: 

In ancient Rome, a gens was a legally defined unit of society. It represented a collection of people related through a common ancestor by birth, marriage, or adoption, sharing the same nomen gentilicium (family name). (Latin Is Simple) 

Jesus was of the family, or genetics, of God. Yahweh was in Him at His coming. Although Yahweh still could not be seen, He could be detected by good virtue.

At the baptism of Jesus, God was revealed to be in Him. The same thing happened at the transfiguration. The first time He stood in the water and the last time on the firm mountain. God revealed to mankind that it was Jesus who “divided the waters from the waters” (Gen 1:6). Those “waters” were figurative the “semen” of God (Strong 2006). In both instances, Yahweh was revealing His divine Genome in Jesus. Jesus was genetically God walking, talking, eating, sleeping, and even dying as a man to experience what we experience. The “Voice” had left the Garden in another realm to experience life on Earth.

So, it is established, Jesus was not just a human being but had the very Genome of God within the genome of Adam’s kind. He was both the “son of man” and the “Son of God“ genetically.

As the “Word” Jesus created all things. While Matthew gave the genealogy of the son of man, Luke went one step further; he gave the genealogy of both man and God, going back to Adam and God. John cut to the chase; his genealogy went directly to God, the Living Word, also known as the “Quickening Spirit.”

So, as God, like Yahweh, Jesus was creative. He was a mighty, mighty God in a needy, needy land. Jesus, when he healed, lost virtue (Luke 6:19. In the Greek, that was “Dynamos” or Dynamic in English. That Good Dynamic, is Yahweh, as only God is good (Luke 18:19, etc). That Dynamic is that Jesus has the Power of God in Him.

He certainly was not just a man but Almighty God who spoke good things, even from the beginning. The Jews thought that Jesus was just a good man, but He was a Good God. They worshipped an invisible God but because they could not see His invisibility, they failed to see Him in Jesus. In like manner, Christians still focus on Jesus as a poor carpenter than King of kings and Lord of lords — a Caesar-type.

Christians are blinded in another manner; they see Jesus as a man but not as the Holy Ghost — the very Image of God — in Him. As such, Jesus is much short-changed.

Theologians limit the dynamics of Jesus to the real, scientific world. Some believe that it was Joseph that taught Jesus the things of God while they sojourned in Egypt. Not so, Jesus taught Joseph, just as He taught the wisest of men in the Temple. 

The child grew, and waxed strong in Spirit (of God), and was in the deserts till the day of His shewing unto Israel. (Luke 1:80) 

As His body grew, so did the phantom Spirit of God within Him. God made Jesus more virtuous (Dynamic) as He grew, just as the Spirit of God imbues babes in Christ to make mature Christians. The Power of God grew in Jesus and when He matured, there He was — teaching in the Temple.

“And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon Him” (Luke 2:40). Joseph had not taught Jesus anything. He was God; God grew in Him as Jesus grew in the flesh. As Jesus matured; He became wiser, not from anyone else, but because the Word in Him enlarged to the point that Jesus was wiser than the doctors: 

After three days they (Joseph and Mary) found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions. And all that heard Him were astonished at His understanding and answers…  And He said unto them, “How is it that you sought me? wist you not that I must be about my Father's business?” (Luke 2:46-47, 49) 

Joseph was the supposed father of Jesus (Luke 3:23). Jesus denied to the doctors that Joseph was His father. He would have explained His miraculous birth to the so-called “doctors” (philosophers) and perhaps they believed Him because of His wisdom.

Jesus was about His Father’s business. Was Jesus a mere carpenter? Jesus was explaining who His “Pater” (Progenitor) was; albeit that He was of the gens of God; that Yahweh was His Genome within His flesh.

Joseph’s business was some type of tradesmen; it could be carpenter, mason, jeweler, or about anything that required skill. Where translated “carpenter” the Greek word is “tekton.”

His supposed father’s business was some skilled trade. His real Father’s (Yahweh) business was more creative. He made all things, just as John wrote.

Point made: Jesus was not a mere carpenter but a creative “astrophysicist” who knew all things about all things. He had within His mind the Thoughts of God just as Isaiah had written, “’For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my Ways,’ said the Lord.” Perhaps Jesus was telling the philosophers His real business; as an omniscient “Technician,” He was telling them how He created all things, and that He had come to regenerate in the manner that He had generated in the begging; that Yahweh, the phantom Image, was in Him. They were amazed as I am!

So far, Jesus is not who they thought He was: (1) He was not the son of Joseph, (2) Joseph did not apprentice Him, (3) Jesus knew all things, (4) and that He is the Son (Genome) of Yahweh. Joseph wandered where Jesus might be. God knew that He was in His House, safe and sound as well as He was believed! He was among those who had come to trust Him. (They would have understood that Jesus was born, not only king of Judea, but King of all the things that Yahweh had made as only true heir to the entire Estate of God.

Now add to that; Jesus was not in the business of Joseph, but in the business of regenerating as His Father had. He would alter the genes of those who might be born again or engendered from God above (John 3:7). Jesus was more so a "bio-geneticist" than a mere carpenter, so herein are many trades, not just one. We will find another of His Father's business was ruling the world and saving mankind.

Note that the vocation of Jesus was not necessarily sawing, but the business of His Father; in Genesis 1:1 (creating) is literally "cutting firm things" like the so-called "trees" of the Garden; literally firm things in general, not just trees (from the Hebrew). 

Now let’s address the poverty of Jesus. He was given three gifts at His birth from kings from the East. The custom was for kings to give extravagant gifts at the birth of their fellow kings. Herod may have been jealous and intimidated for several reasons; among them that not his sons would be king of Judea, but that along with Jesus came treasures of great value ostensibly from the vault of God. (More on that next; to be continued).

Ancient tools & History of Woodworking – Journeyman's Journal

 

 

 

 

 

IMPRISONED AND NOT KNOW IT

Jesus said to the Jews: “If you continue in My word, then you are my disciples indeed; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

Free from what?

“He (God) drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”

You might think that mankind was emancipated, but they were imprisoned in the world where Satan is the evil “warden.” Mankind is so foolish that they fail to know their life is a prison without bars. We even beg to remain enslaved.

That is the truth of which Jesus spoke. If you continue to follow Him, He opens the door to freedom. Some, having the “Stockholm Syndrome,”have been turned to follow their new master and prefer to remain incarcerated.

The Way to the Tree if Freedom to live a better life is the door back to Paradise that only Jesus holds open.

You are in prison. The Bible reveals your way to freedom but first you must discover that you are bound by sin.

So, you think not? Then try to escape sin and your bondage will be revealed.

Try to cease lusting. Try to quit tobacco or other drugs. Put away your bottle or even fattening food. Now you may find that no walls do a prison make.

CAN YOU SEE THINGS THAT I SEE?

In theory, the most intelligent should believe in God the most. However, that is often not the case. Rather than knowledge revealing the truth; knowledge creates a “scotoma” wherein truth is still there, but the even most intelligent are blind to it. Scripture addresses that issue: 

KEY VERSE: Ezekiel the prophet wrote about Christ hundreds of years before Jesus came onto the scene, “Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house” (Ezek 12:2) 

The “son of man” in that case was not Jesus, the “Son of Man” (Mat 8:20), but Ezekiel himself as the gens (ben) of Adam. Ezekiel had the genetics of the first male man, “Adam” and as such, Ezekiel apparently had senses beyond the ordinary.

What could Adam do that few could do? Before sin, Adam had extrasensory perception: 

Upon sinning and being cast out of the Garden Paradise onto the Earth Adam and Eve found that they were lesser beings than in the Garden, “And because at that time they were filled with the grace of a bright nature. and they had not hearts turned towards earthly things” (1 A & E II:4). 

 There were no objective things (the Serpent was Lucifer, an elohim) in the Garden that would obscure their view of both God and the spiritual realm; hence, the things of the Earth are scotomas to truth. Things within the visible world which get into our way and block our view of the other realm.

Adam and his mate, before sin, had nothing to interfere with their numerous senses. They could see and hear beyond the capacity of even the most sensory animals. They had dominion over the other creatures (Gen 1:26) because they were a fragment of God, as the Hebrew word rada implies. Their capabilities before sin were supranatural.

Because of their sin, the sensory perceptions of Adam and Eve were limited, as God said: 

Of your own free will have you transgressed through your desire for divinity, greatness, and an exalted state, such as I have; so that I deprived you of the bright nature in which you then were, and I made you come out of the garden to this land, rough and full of trouble. (1 A & E VI:5) 

The Earth, according to the supposed sacred Word of God dulled the senses of mankind. The Earth was their huge spherical scotoma between themselves and the realm of heaven.

The characteristic of scotomas is that they avert the attention from real things that exist; they remain there, but the viewers are blind to reality because something distracts their attentions. 

On a personal note, I witnessed an auto accident while in the prime of my life when my senses should have been optimum. I saw the car that was wrecked but there was another car between me and the wreck. I saw the action around the wreck but missed the object that should have been foremost in my sight. I had a “scatoma” — the dynamics of the wreck made me blind to the huge car that was nearest me. It had become invisible because I was distracted by other activity. 

My point is that the things of the Earth are a distraction, so that people do not see other real things beyond Earth.

In the beginning, both the male and female of Adam’s kind were extraordinary… glorious if you prefer; they could sense things while in the Garden that they would not be capable of on the Earth, to wit: 

And the eyes of them both (the man and the woman) were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. 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. (Gen 3:7-8)

After sin, although they remained in the Garden, their senses were dulled. They saw the nakedness of each other, and that blocked their view of God. Before, they had been naked and not ashamed (Gen 2:25). “Ashamed” is only one translation; they were not yet “confounded” (confused) (Strong 2006) while they were in the Garden. After sin, they were confused.

God was still there it is known for before that time they could see Him, although the Image of God was a phantom Image (selem).

After sin, they were confounded and confused. Their own pudenda got in the Way of seeing God and to correct that poor vision, they covered their scotomas with the leaves from a fig tree. They thought that by covering their distractions that they could see God again, but rather, they could only detect God by His movement revealed by things in the Garden. They could hear God in the sense of motion (walking) but they were dull to the Image of God that they could see before! 

Then Adam wept and said, "O God, when we dwelt in the garden, and our hearts were lifted up, we saw the angels that sang praises in heaven, but now we do not see as we were used to do; nay, when we entered the cave, all creation became hidden from us." (1 A & E VIII:1) 

The two could even see the angels (elohim), so they could see God (Elohim). God had been with them in full view (as Immanuel, called “Jesus”). They could see Jesus before their bright natures were lost. Yes, Jesus existed from the beginning as the Word or Voice (John 1). Before, they could see the Holy Ghost of Jesus, and now they could not. They knew that He was there by His actions (Virtue — Dynamos in the Greek), but they could no longer see the Image of Him even with their eyes wide open! 

Then God the Lord said unto Adam, "When thou wast under subjection to Me, thou hadst a bright nature within thee, and for that reason couldst thou see things afar off. But after thy transgression thy bright nature was withdrawn from thee; and it was not left to thee to see things afar off, but only near at hand; after the ability of the flesh; for it is brutish." (1 A & E VIII:2) 

No longer could they see God, not because they were blind, but because they were distracted by the things of the visible world. The gens of mankind were changed; no longer were their natures bright but they became distracted. However, they still knew it was God that moved the grass and pounded the Earth, so they were worth saving. Although they could no longer see God; they understood He was there by His Dynamic, just as we should know that God is real because of His creative Dynamic: 

For the invisible things of Him from the Creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal Power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse. (Rom 1:20) 

Adam and Eve, even after sin while in the Garden, in a sense, saw God by His Dynamics. They could no longer see His Spiritual Being, but they could detect God by His actions. So, it is today — we know that God is real because of the motions of the world (the planets, suns, and such in the cosmos)

Now back to the key verse: God called Ezekiel, “son of man.” God had changed the nature of Ezekiel who thereafter could see God. Ezekiel saw God as Jesus and his words were written to reveal Jesus to the Jews who were blind to Jesus being God.

That Ezekiel was of the gens of Adam meant that he had the bright nature and bright eyes of the first man while they were in a glorious condition!

Ezekiel was given the eyes of glorious Adam so that he too could see God. The world was no longer a scatoma to Ezekiel for he was not distracted by the things of the world. With the world removed from his mind, Ezekiel saw God as the “Son of Man” so subsequently, because Ezekiel had the bright nature of Adam, he could see the “last Adam” — Jesus. 

So it is written, “The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.” (1 Cor 15:45)

 Ezekiel would have seen that “quickening Spirit” as the same one that Adam saw. Ezekiel could see the Spirit, or Phantom Being of God, by His Dynamics — the quickening.

Yes, Adam even with his deficient nature, still knew that it was Jesus to whom he spoke (The Voice) by the movement of His Spirit.

Then the walking Spirit that the two Adams detected, put flesh upon their naked bodies, “Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them” (Gen 3:21).

Adam and his wife had not been naked in the sense that their fleshes were showing, but that God could see the corrupted and confused nature of them. God had grace upon them, so He put human fleshes much like the beasts wore to make them safe in a cruel world.

Noah wore his own “coat of skin” because he was unusual even in the womb, sort of like Adam was when he was naked, to wit: 

The Book of Enoch provides a more elaborate description of Noah's birth, suggesting he was a unique individual even from the moment of his arrival.

It describes Noah's body as "white as snow and red as the blooming of a rose" and his hair as "white as wool."

The text also says that when he opened his eyes, he illuminated the entire house like the sun, and that he spoke to the Lord of Righteousness shortly after birth.

Lamech, Noah's father, was initially afraid and confused by Noah's appearance and abilities, believing he might be a child of the angels of heaven rather than a human. (AI Overview) 

Noah was born with both a bright nature and bright eyes. He had the gens of Adam in the same manner as Ezekiel. Because of his unusual appearance, Noah found grace (Gen 6:8); that grace was a bright nature from the womb, so apparently to make him seem “normal” like other men, God put onto him the Garment of Adam.

Noah was born like the angels (elohim) and in the very Image of God. He was the second Adam, not the quickening Spirit of God, but the superhuman man that God used to do His work. In other words, Noah was glorified, and he too was the “son of man” long before Ezekiel and Christ.

Neither Noah nor Ezekiel were messiahs, but they were subsequent “Adams” born in the Image of God but not God.

Remember the key verse saying, “which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not.” Ezekiel had not rebelled… he was of the genetics of the sinless Adam. Unlike the normative, Ezekiel could see and hear things that rebellious mankind could not see. He could see the Messiah in the quickening Spirit of the Invisible God by the things that He does. Ezekiel never let the world cloud his view of God and he understood that the Invisible God was the Dynamic (Word or Voice) of the soon to come Immanuel, God with us. The world was not scotopic to him because he saw through the cloud and saw Jesus.

To some extent, we all have a sort of macular degeneration as original sin ages us. An example of what is seen is revealed in the photo below:

Macular Degeneration (Wikipedia)

Therein is something in the eyes that block full vision of the world. That blockage is a scotoma and is as if there is no world there. A spiritual scatoma is seeing the world where the darkness is, and not God who is the "Light in whom there is no darkness at all" (1 John 1:5).

 

ABOUT THE ELECTION OF THE CHOSEN

How arrogant can Christians be? Some think of themselves as royalty that were chosen by God from among the masses for special treatment! 

About the doctrine of election, it is written: 

First of all, we (Calvinists) must affirm that all Christians believe in election; if you believe the Bible, you believe in election since it is taught both directly and indirectly in so many passages. So the question is not whether we believe in election, but rather how we understand the meaning of the word. (Lutzer on the “Doctrine of Election,” Moody Church Media) 

Although Lutzer never defines election in that article, he adds: 

Ephesians 1:4 reads, “Even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.” Such verses—and there are many others—teach that (1) God made the choice as to who will be saved, and that (2) it was made before the creation of the world. (ibid) 

Rather than ideas which support election, Lutzer refutes the verses which he accused others of misunderstanding. It could not possiblly be them that misunderstands but half of the Christian community which he denies are Christians when he wrote, “We must affirm that all Christians believe in election,” whatever that is, he does not say, but you must believe in it. 

Recently, I wrote an article on the eleven “must be’s” from Holy Scripture. None of those say you must believe in election. 

Lutzer ends the first passage implying that so many do not understand the word “election.” 

Nowadays, we think of an election as when the majority votes among several candidates like a democracy. Indeed, Adam and the woman had no say in the matter of their own souls that would be saved, so that left the Image of God (Jesus) as the judge, to wit: 

The Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son. (John  5:22)

Well Jesus just happened to be there before the foundation of the world, so the “Word” Jesus (John 1) is the judge. 

So, who were the “candidates” in the running in the beginning?  Paul asked, “Know you not that they which run in a race run all, but one receives the prize? So run, that you may obtain” (1 Cor 9:21). 

Now there are many ones that receive the prize, but in the beginning, there was one, one. 

What is the prize? 

Therefore I (Paul) endure all things for the elect's sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. (2 Tim 10:2) 

 

Paul wrote, “before the foundation of the world,” so where should we look for that election? Before the foundation in the world! 

Looking in the Book of Genesis, do you find any type of election? I did and God predetermined the order of importance by “Divine Selection.” 

The elect are those who were predestined to obtain salvation, defined as in Christ with eternal glory. 

Both the male and the female “Adam” were made in Christ: In the Image of God (Gen 1:27). They were one flesh, or one kind (Gen 2:24). 

God would not separate them, would He? So, God elected both the male and the female of their kind. 

When did God do that? The first mention of the “elect” was in the Hebrew (“mine elect;” Isa 42:1), meaning chosen. There was no campaigning at all. God had sovereignty — He and only Him chose the two Adams to put His Image into them. 

Chosen among whom? All the other kinds that came before them. 

Now consider the term from scripture, “before the foundation of the world” (Ephes 1:4). 

“World” in the Greek is the cosmos (kosmos) and “before the foundation” is pro katabole — at the first conception of the cosmos; i.e. God planned the elect before He started the Creation, and the Creation was all for the elect. 

Human beings were His prototypes and to them alone, God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth” (Gen 1:26). 

Now consider that none the other kinds, but mankind, had dominion. God chose to do that because He was the Sovereign. 

Charles Darwin defined selection as well — “natural selection.” In that theory the fittest would survive, and the fittest in his opinion were the most numerous: that would be mosquitos, viruses, and bacteria. 

Divine selection was by the fewest of the number of the possibilities; they would survive because they had Christ in them.  Mankind was predestined just was Paul wrote: 

For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. (Rom 8:29) 

Adam and his wife conformed to the Image of God and so they were the “sons of God” — the elect, “sons” meaning genetics. Their kind by genetics would be favored. 

Looking back before the foundation of the world, who alone did God foreknow? He planned both the male and female Adams. Their kind was to have dominion, so they were the chosen ones. 

Dominion in the Hebrew is rada; literally “to crumble-off”  (Strong’s Dictionary). There was the so-called “election.” Mankind was the kind that crumbled off God, being made in His Image. 

I found the only “election” that could be found and before the foundation of the world. 

There were further crumbling throughout the generations: 

1.     About the Hebrew people God said, “You are an holy people unto the Lord your God, and the Lord has chosen you (their kind) to be a peculiar people unto Himself, above all the nations (all the other kinds) that are upon the earth, (Deut 14:2) and

2.     About the appointed (Christians) Paul wrote, “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light… and are now the people of God, who now have obtained mercy… (who) are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. (1 Pet 2:9-10) 

Noah became the husbandman. His people crumbled off first and they became the elect. Next came Abraham who became the husbandman, and his people became the elect. Finally, came Jesus and Him as the “Husbandman” and His people became the elect. 

So, as you Calvinists sneer your noses at the rest of us, but we too share the Image of Christ! Unlike Lutzer, non-Calvinists will not exclude others who must be, not elected, but born again in the manner of the first two Adams before the foundation of the world. 

And it should be noted; so far as the covenants go, even the elect failed, and so it goes for Christians: 

As Jesus warned: “For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect” (Mark 13:22) 

The first elected were seduced, so don’t be so arrogant to think you cannot be!

You can be!

 About the elder (elect) Christians Paul wrote to Peter, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour. (1 Pet 5:8)

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