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Understanding the Hidden Spiritual Family of God! Part 4

(Ver 1.6)  This is now my second attempt to write and publish this article.  I had written and finished this article a long time ago, but I was waiting to publish it when my computer hard drive crashed last week and I lost many of my unpublished works that I had been writing.  Therefore, I am now in a recreate or recovery mode attempting to get back what I lost.  It is never a good thing when you lose computer files.   But, it is not an insurmountable obstacle, since I know it was God who gave me the information in the first place and I know He still knows what it all says.   Therefore, I’ll just trust Him to give it to me again, and I will retype it for you with a smile and I’ll be happy in my work for God.  Today’s lesson may not be the exact words that I typed before, but it will be close enough for you to see what He wanted to say.  One of the greatest frustrations with working with computers is when they do not work correctly or when they fail.  Since we live in a world that is deteriorating rapidly around us we just all need to become smarter in how we back up our work.  I learned this the hard way and I was reminded that just because a computer is not very old it does not mean that it cannot still fail and your work is lost.  Therefore, I have implemented a data backup plan that hopefully will fix this problem going forward.  But, enough about me and let’s move on to the Word of God which is why I’m here.  I have been doing a series of lessons on the “Hidden Spiritual Structure of God’s Family”.  This is now Part 4 in this series of extremely advanced Bible lessons and I know today’s lesson will contain more information that you have never heard of before.  If you have not read this series from the beginning, you really have no idea what I am talking about.   Therefore, I would strongly recommend that you go back and start your reading with “Part 1” to make sure you do not miss out on any important information that I have already covered.  I simply cannot guarantee that I will repeat everything that you need to know in every lesson.

In the first two lessons I taught about the direct family members in God’s spiritual family based upon patterns found in God’s created family of man.  I firmly believe that Adam was a pattern of Jesus who was to come and I also believe Adam’s family was a pattern of God’s family that already existed in heaven.  Since Adam had a natural wife that came out of his side, I believe that Jesus has a spiritual wife that came out of His side.  When the Roman soldier pierced the side of Jesus on the cross and blood and water flowed out, I believe this is a repeated pattern of what occurred when God took Eve from the side of Adam.  Certainly you can see the comparison that I am making and then you can choose to accept it or reject it.  But, hopefully you will see the significance of these two events given to us in the Bible as being something greater than just a coincidence.  I have also previously discussed that the theological doctrine of the Trinity of God directly identifies two males in the Family of God and these are God the Father and God the Son.  This foundational Bible doctrine of the Trinity of God further implies the existence of at least two females indirectly by logical association.  One female is the wife of the Father who is also the mother of the Son and the other female is the future wife of the Son of God.   You could go on and logically determine that the wife of the Son must also have a mother.  So we have at the minimum three unnamed and unidentified females that we will still need to try to ascertain.   People need to realize that when God created the natural world that the Bible says that He made these natural things to reflect and to reveal to us the things of the unseen spiritual world which I believe included His family.  We know this fact based upon Romans 1:20 and if you need to review this verse and see what God tells us, please do that.    So if God made them male and female in the beginning of human history, this must have been a reality that existed in the spiritual world by simple logical deduction.  We know that God is always called a male in the Bible so we are at the crossroads where we need to determine the existence of a spiritual female.   If she exists what is she, who is she and where did she come from?  The only way I can teach you this is to go into a lot of Bible verses that I do not have time to do today.  I will not be able to prove the spiritual existence of females to you in today’s lesson, but I will address this in a future lesson.  I know I sometimes say things that are hard to accept, but since you do not know everything that I know, you will either have to keep reading by faith or just stop here, go away and remain in your ignorance.

In the last lesson on this subject I revealed to you God’s hidden family prophesied to us from the Old Testament book of Micah.  Jesus took a seemingly isolated insignificant scripture from a very minor prophetic book of the Bible and revealed to us that this is one of the main reasons that He came to the earth in the flesh.  This statement was so profound that you do not even have a clue how important it is right now.   From this lesson I showed you scriptures in Matthew and Luke where Jesus reestablished the importance of this information without ever explaining it or telling you what He was talking about.  This is exactly why this information has never been revealed until now.  I believe that if God had not revealed it, it would still be unknown.   I hope that does not sound like I am trying to tell you that I’m anything important because He revealed it to me, because that is not what I am saying at all.  I am just a messenger who God chose and I did not ask for this revelation specifically, since I would have not known what to even ask for in the first place.  When I study the Bible, there are many times I do not know what I am studying until God shows it to me.   So it is always God’s glory for showing it to us, and never our ability that discovered it.  I learned this a long time ago and I believe that is why He gave it to me.

I think we should review the known facts for the spiritual family of God to make sure we understand what we know and what we do not know.  Let’s start by reviewing the family member titles given to us by God to see who they are called again and their relationships to each other.  If you would like to go back and reread these scriptures, you can go to Micah 7:6 to see the original prophecy or you can go to Matthew 10:34-36 or Luke 12:52-53 and see Jesus’ exact words on the subject.   Here are the family titles that were given to us:

  1. Son (the Man in Matthew)
  2. Father
  3. Daughter
  4. Mother
  5. Daughter-in-law
  6. Mother-in-law

We had 6 directly named family titles and these occur in almost any family on the earth.  However, Jesus reveals some other information that makes this family unlike almost any other family on the earth that I know of.   Reading from Luke 12:52-53 and Matthew 10:34-36 we came up with a short list of known facts and I will review this list for you so that you can refresh your mind on the complexity of this riddle:

  1. God is describing One Family.
  2. There are only 5 members in this 1 family.
  3. There are only 2 direct males mentioned by title (the son and the father).
  4. There are up to 4 direct females mentioned (daughter, mother, daughter-in-law, mother-in-law).
  5. This family will be divided 3 against 2 or 2 against 3.
  6. The Father will be divided against his son.
  7. The mother against her daughter.
  8. The mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law.
  9. A marriage is implied by the titles of “daughter-in-law” and “mother-in-law”.
  10. A man’s enemies are those of his own family.

These facts make this family so different, that it can only fit God’s family by design.  Hopefully you will better understand that statement as we continue.  I posted this puzzle on the internet over a month ago and still no one was able to come forward to solve it.  I suggested that you go through and read my other postings so that you could find some more clues, because I have all of the necessary information given and even a diagram of this family on my website and no one still could come up with the solution.  I can only assume that no one really extended any effort to solve the puzzle, so I am in a personal struggle to determine if I should do all of your Bible study for you and give you the answer or to just leave you hanging in the dark.  There are many times when I put lessons on the internet that I have to ask myself, am I casting my pearls before the swine that Jesus told us not to do (Mat 7:6)?  If a person does not see the same value of the Word of God that I do is that casting my pearl of great value to be trampled on?  To give away the Word of God for free is a perplexing contradiction.  Jesus seems to imply that some will value His Words and others will just trample upon them.  What I am teaching you today has opened up the Bible for me more than any other revelation of the Word of God that I have ever heard or learned about from anyone.  Therefore, I clearly understand the value of this knowledge, whether you do or not.  You need to decide what is valuable to you, if the word of God is not valuable, please stop reading my lessons and go away.  I know I said that already, but I am being very serious and I will probably say it again before I’m done today.  If you are an individual who sees value in what I am teaching you, then please be brave enough to tell me so that I do not decide to stop teaching because of everyone’s silence.

Since no one has solved God’s riddle, I will teach you how to solve it using Bible examples.  Today I want to start by exploring the first created family members and see what God describes to us about them in the Bible to help us to understand God’s spiritual family.  We will look at some of the children of Adam (but not all of them) to shorten this Bible example being described to us.  We know from the Bible that from the one created man Adam came every other human on the planet.  We know this based upon 1 Corinthians 15:22 since Adam’s sin was passed to every human.  Likewise we know that from the one woman Eve came every other human on the planet.  Eve is called the “mother” of all living in Genesis 3:20.  We do not technically know how many children Adam and Eve had in their 900+ years of life on the earth.  But, I personally believe that Adam and Eve had many children and I base this on a verse in Genesis where God says:

Gen 5:4  And the days of Adam after he had begotten Seth were eight hundred years: and he begat sons and daughters:

If Adam lived over 900 years on the earth, he had to have had a lot of children.  The number of children could possibly be in the range of several hundred children.  Everyone likes to ask the question “where did Cain get his wife” and God tells you indirectly right here in this verse in Genesis that Cain and Seth married their sisters.   Since that was all of the women that existed on the earth in those days this was a permissible occurrence.  Later I will show you that this was a common thing in the early days of human civilization, where men would marry their sisters.   But, for now take note that God says Adam had many daughters and we will leave it at that.  I will now give you a limited family tree diagram of Seth one son of Adam.   We know from Genesis 5:7 and Luke 3:38 that the son Seth has another son named “Enosh”.  Therefore we must conclude that Seth married one of his sisters to have this son in the family lineage of Jesus.  Now look at this family diagram and see what it reveals to us:

I am only focused in on the one son of Adam named Seth and his wife and both of these children had to come from Adam and Eve.  So we have one mother, one daughter, one father and one son.  That makes 4 in one family doesn’t it?  If the son Seth marries a daughter of Eve (his sister), then we have the new addition of the mother-in-law title to the mother simply by the definition of marriage even though she is still the new wife’s mother simultaneously.  Just take note that one single woman can carry multiple family titles by definition and circumstances.  For example, any daughter can become a wife, a daughter-in-law, a mother and a mother-in-law and she can possess all of these family titles simultaneously.   In my picture of Adam’s family the daughter of Eve would also become Eve’s daughter-in-law when she married Seth her brother.  Again we see that one woman can possess two family titles and this is a major clue to resolving the puzzling fact that God’s riddle had 6 named titles but then He said there were only 5 actual individuals.  Therefore it is essential to conclude that one woman in the family of 5 must have two of the titles given to us in order to resolve the difference correctly.  Do you understand this logic?  Since the females are the only in-law references given to us in Micah, Matthew and Luke I have ignored the male role titles.  Hopefully you can see in Adam’s family diagram that we have all six titles that were given to us in the prophecy, but yet we only have four family members and this does not match the 5 in one family that God has revealed to us in Luke 12:52-53.  So we have a family tree that is close, but it is not accurate enough to solve the mystery.  So we still have a monumentally perplexing puzzle to solve.  Do you understand what I have said so far?  I pray that you do.  So let’s shift gears to a different family tree diagram of a modern day family and see how that compares to the information given to us by Jesus.  This week in the news Prince William of England married a commoner name Kate and this next family diagram could very well apply to this marriage.

The son in this diagram would be Prince William, the daughter would be the woman Kate and then the parents of each would also apply.  As you can easily tell, using this diagram it has added too many family members to satisfy the riddle requirements.  It further complicates the matter by introducing an additional second family and that does not fit with the given description that  Jesus gave to us either.  Now instead of the 4 family members of Adam and Eve’s family we now have 6 members like in my family tree.  This diagram has two fathers, one son, two mothers and one daughter.  We also have a daughter-in-law, a mother-in-law in this diagram and all of this information is only partially accurate to the complex riddle information.   What we have done is gone from one too few family members, to one too many family members.  We have also increased the number of families from one to two, so we have actually moved further away from solving the riddle with this diagram.   However, look again at the diagram, study it and see why we have too many family members and then try to determine which one family member we can remove to make a single family of five with the same necessary six resulting family titles?  To me it is very logical to see that there are “too many” fathers in this diagram.  Clearly from reading the original prophecy we know that there is only one father mentioned and one son so we must take away one father and this will resolve every problem to solve this puzzle.  Since we are talking about God’s spiritual family and there is only one God the Father in the trinity, this tells me that there are not two Fathers in God’s family tree diagram.  These are just some of the factors that make a riddle a riddle.  If you could solve the riddle without giving it any serious thought then it would not be a riddle.  Looking again at this diagram of the 2 two families with 6 total family members, how do we remove one father and still leave two mothers that results in one family?  Wow, I think I just gave you a very major clue.  If you only have one father, he is always the head of one household and everyone that comes from him is still in the same family regardless of who the mother of the child is or how many wives he has.  You can see this logic found in the O.T. Bible in many places.  David had more than one wife, Solomon had way too many wives, and even Jacob had 4 wives that birthed the 12 tribes of Israel.  So we have just made some huge strides to solving the puzzle.  Are you getting it?  According to the Bible, a man is the head of a family and no matter how many wives he has had, they are still all in one family.  Please do not think that I teaching polygamy.   Wow, this is really getting tough isn’t it?  God as you will soon learn chooses to do something that was permissible in the Old Covenant but that is not permissible in the New Covenant in order to accomplish the ultimate hidden plan of God.  You see before the human race existed, I believe that God had a monogamous relationship.  We will learn in these lessons that God had more than one wife for an interim period of time.  Remember what a covenant is?  A covenant is a marriage to God according to the Bible.   How many covenants are there mentioned in the Bible?  You probably do not know that answer to that question and I do not have the time to tell you about them today.  However, we will find out some more information about this very soon as we continue.

I believe that after the plan of God is complete that He will end up with another monogamous relationship in the end with only one covenant being in effect.  I believe that this covenant is the one that was implemented by His Son Jesus and I pray that you can see it.  However, in the in between time in order to implement this New Covenant plan, God chose to do something that He would not have normally chosen to do.   We know that God is opposed to polygamy by the nature of creation.  Jesus taught us that in the beginning did you not read that he made them male and female (Mat 19:4)?  In other words God said that He did not make them male and females (multiple wives) or male and male or female and female.   Do you see how smart God is, with His riddle and His words?

I guess it is time to reveal the family of God to you.  There is only one family diagram that I could come up with that solved this riddle exactly and amazingly enough God uses this pattern as His family diagram.  This diagram will probably shock most of you.  You see when you look at this diagram it strongly resembles a known Satanic symbol that causes you to retract from believing it.  I purposely believe that Satan stole God’s family symbol and tried to pervert it intentionally to discredit it so that no one would accept it as being something from God.   By Satan taking a Bible pattern and making it his own, it will cause you to more easily reject the truth and this is a common way that he uses to deceive people.  Take a look very closely at this diagramed family tree and then I will discuss the facts of how only this diagram will solve the riddle completely.

Here we have a family of five and it is totally different than any family that I know of on the earth today.  However, that does not mean it is not possible.  I believe my Bible says with God all things are possible (Mat 19:26).  What I want you to do today is to change your perspective and to think about this diagram from a spiritual point of view.  Try to see it from God’s point of view.  Who are the two males in this family?  We know from the Bible that God is a Spirit (John 4:24).  We also know that God is called our Father many times in the Bible as well as the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 1:7, Rom 15:6, 1 Cor 8:6, 2 Cor 1:2).  We further know from scripture that God existed in the spiritual realm eternally before there was a natural realm ever created.  Now think, where was the Son of God conceived and born?  Clearly Jesus Christ was born a natural man in the physically created world.  So we can clearly understand that we have a natural Son that came from the spiritual realm of heaven to be born in the physical world as a man.  Therefore, we have two direct realms of reality being described to us in one diagram.  In other words this diagram originates in the spiritual realm, but it then crosses over into the natural realm simultaneously.  This is why we have two women who are married to God the Father, one is a natural woman and the other is a spiritual woman and if you have ever read my other Bible lessons you already know their names.  If you do not understand that a covenant is a marriage, then you should go and read my lesson on “Understanding Bible Covenants”.  God the Father was in covenant with two women in the Bible and I will explain this more clearly in the next Bible lesson.   So before I continue, I want to confirm this family diagram using an Old Testament family that God gives us as a natural type of His family.  God repeats patterns in the Bible to reveal hidden information to us.  However finding these patterns can be very difficult unless the Spirit of God points them out.  This hidden pattern is found in the family tree of Abraham and this should not surprise you at all since Abraham is a central figure of the Bible.  However the reality of connecting this family pattern to the matching God family pattern will take many by surprise since it was a well concealed secret.

You will look at my diagram and probably scratch your head and wonder how I got this information.  I will have to tell you that it was not me that got it at all; it was the Spirit of God revealing it to me that caused me to see it.  You see I was listening to the Bible on CD one day over 10 years ago and while I was listening to the book of Genesis chapter 20 all of sudden God said, “Did you hear that?”  I had to stop and back it up and then listen to it again and then God said that was an example of the five in one family.  Sometimes I think I shock people when I say that God speaks to me, but yet if you think that God doesn’t speak to you it is because you are not listening and for no other reason.  After I read the verse in the Bible, I saw it immediately and here is the exact verse that God spoke to me about, see if you can see it also:

Gen 20:12  And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.

Did you see it?  Did you notice that Abraham married his sister?  I told you that this was a common early Old Testament occurrence in the recorded events of human history and this verse proves it.  You see Abraham was born nearly 2000 years after Adam and this proves to us that men still married their sisters even then.  However, it changes things slightly when you see that his wife was only his half-sister.  Sarai had the same father as Abram but not the same mother.  Guess how many family member that comes up to be?  If you guessed that there were exactly 5 in one family you would be exactly right.  If you also saw that they were 2 males and 3 females you would also be exactly right.  If you go on and think with me  logically you will see that every family member title fits exactly the titles given to us in Micah 7:6.  It is only because Abraham’s father Tera had two wives that make it possible for there to be 5 in one family.  We have a precise match to the spiritual family of God using an Old Testament type and shadow that has been written about for thousands of years before Jesus came to the earth to tell us about it.  I believe that when you understand that God knew the end from the beginning that it made it easy for God to hide important information in the book of Genesis that we would need to know about before Jesus came back to the earth almost 4000 years later.  It is an awesome example of the extreme intelligence of God at work.  If you do not yet understand the complexity of God and the Bible after studying this Bible series, you might just be reading the wrong Bible teacher.

DIVISION IN ABRAHAM’S FAMILY

In conclusion today I want to show you how this family tree diagram causes you to understand the plan of God in action from beginning to the end.  Hopefully you will recall that Jesus taught us that there would be five in one family divided 3 against 2 and 2 against 3 (Luke 12:52).  This stated division of 3 against 2 is actually found to be present in the Old Testament shadow of Abraham’s family tree given to us by God in Genesis 20.  The exact same pattern of mentioned division occurs in the family of Abraham that was stated in the prophecy of Micah 7:6.  You’ll see what I mean as we continue to explore this subject in grater detail.   Why are these specific numbers important for God to mention?  Why is it exactly 3 members divided against exactly 2 other family members?  What exactly is a division?  A division by definition is the separation of one person, place or thing from another person place or thing.  A division is a departure from something, or even an isolation from a given object/noun.   Why would it be necessary for God to divide His existing spiritual family?  God actually answers this last question in the Micah 7:6 prophecy and you should review this fact so that you can understand what the plan of God is doing using this simple concept of division.  Remember the prophecy said “a man’s enemies are those of his own household”.   If God’s own spiritual enemies were close family members who could God be talking about?  From the diagram we can see that the enemies of God could possibly be found to be present as one of His wives or one of His children or all of the above.  That makes things much more complex for God to resolve in this riddle.  It goes back again to the old adage that you can choose your friends but you cannot choose your relatives.  It means if God’s enemies were a part of His internal spiritual family, how does He choose to get His enemies out of His house legally, morally and justly?  You really need to give that question some very serious thought before attempting to answer it.  I believe that the answer to that question boils down to, that God chose to start a brand new family apart from his current existing family and that is the only solution that is legal while being morally sound preserving the Holy character and nature of a loving God.  God is so much smarter than you or I, and He always does things in a legal justified way that does not reflect upon Him negatively.    Division can be a positive or a negative depending on the reason for the division being implemented.  A negative division would occur if you committed a crime and were convicted of that crime and sent to prison, you have now been divided from society by your personal bad choices.   A positive division occurs when you can see how our roads have been built; we have divided highways where one side cannot invade the space of the other side’s traffic to cause accidents or deaths.   These are two different types of divisions.  They both are in effect implemented to prevent something negative from happening.

But, what is a division in the terms of a family unit?  There are actually several different types of legal family divisions that can occur and I will discuss some of these briefly to help you understand how which legal pattern of division fits for the prophecy in Micah 7:6.  One possible family division occurs when a significant loved one dies.  Whenever a family member dies, that family member is no longer a part of the family living in the same house.  Thus natural death is a division between family members.   Of course they do not cease to exist; they just do not exist in the natural realm, but death is still a clear dividing line.  We learn this concept from the book of Ruth when Ruth says to Naomi “I will be with you until death separates me from thee” (Ruth 1:17).   You need to understand that this is one of the main reasons why Jesus was born a natural man on the earth, so that He could die a natural death.  The Spirit of God could not die in heaven so He became a man.   Once you understand that death is a separating force for covenants, you begin to understand why one of the reasons that Jesus had to experience physical death.   Consider death as a potential dividing force in this family of 5.  Which two would need to die or which three would need die in order to leave the others alive and divide them 3 against 2 or 2 against 3?  Well that could apply but this is not what is mentioned as the dividing line in the typology of Abraham.  Therefore, I will think that this type of division does not apply to Micah 7:6.

Another possible family division would be a type of divorce where one parent separates from another and one gets custody of the children and the other one does not.   In this case we could observe one mother taking custody of her child and departing the family and that would match 2 being divided against 3.  That is actually an interesting concept that we will see in other coming Bible patterns but that is not what is happening in the story of Abraham.  There is no divorce mentioned in the lesson from Genesis concerning Abraham, his mother or his father or Sarah and her mother and father.  Therefore we have again a close possible solution but no direct match from scripture typology.

These two types of family divisions are close but not a sufficient match for what is being communicated in this riddle from Micah 7:6.  You see based upon the fact that the daughter is called a daughter-in-law we have an established marriage of the son to the daughter.  We therefore, should know from scriptures that a marriage is also a type of family division even if you have never thought of it this way.  Marriage is a clear separating force in the eyes of God and that is exactly how He views it and planned it to occur.  Perhaps I will do a future series on the subject of division to explain these concepts more in-depth to you, but for now let’s move on.   If you look at the diagram that I have given you of the family of 5, this family is a perfect representation for this reality of 3 divided against 2.  Let me try to explain that statement by going back to Genesis again and showing you what God says to us about the covenant of marriage.  God tells us something in Genesis 2:24 that is very relevant to this situation and here is where I am going to connect some more dots for you to see something radically new and different from the Bible:

Gen 2:24  Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

You can clearly see that when a son takes a wife, there is a definite family division that is stated.  To “leave” one’s old family is a dividing line occurrence that begins a new family.  God says the son will leave his father and his mother and he will now be joined in covenant with his wife.  Anytime a son leaves his mother and father to become married, a family division has occurred.  This is a separation of being in the father’s family that results in the establishment of a new son’s family.  So when Jesus, the Son of God comes to the earth to establish a new covenant in His blood, He has just left His Father’s house in heaven and has separated Himself from ALL of His Father’s covenants by definition revealed to us by God’s created patterns and His very specific Words of Law.  Both the son and the daughter bride must leave their respective parents to become joined in covenant to form a new family household that is both independent and completely separate from the existing Father’s family household.  The father is not the one that is marrying the bride, the son is the groom to the bride so the father has no covenant relationship with this new woman.   If you do not understand how this works, I’m sorry for you, I do not know how to explain it more clearly.  You see I learned this concept because I lived it.  When I married my wife, I moved out of my parents house and got my own house.  My wife and I created a brand new family unit that never existed before and this family was now separate from both of our parents.  There is one fact that is still relevant for my new family house and this is my house had the same name as my father’s house.  Since I took my father’s name I was a builder of the family name keeping it going to the next generation and that is very important to apply to what Jesus is doing also.   When my wife and I moved out, our parents were no longer responsible for us to provide for us or to give us anything.   This is simply how life works, we still recognized where we came from, but we now we do not live with that old family since we have a new one with our own children.  Someday our children will grow up and get married and they will then become a new separate family and the endless cycle will continue until God’s timetable ends it.

So we have the son and his wife who are now two and using the diagram of the family of 5 they must leave their 3 parents that have been excluded from their new household.   We have two children who have become One New Family and we have an old One Family that was five members that now have become three by themselves.  I’m really not sure if you understood the simple math behind what I just said, but it was very deep and I know it went over many people’s head.  My Blog is called “Advanced Bible Studies” and this is why.  It is written for spiritually mature Christians who want to think.  I want you to see from my 5 in one family diagram that there are two children that leave 3 parents to be married and this is a division of 3 against 2.  This was the plan of God in a new revealed reality.   God has dissolved two covenants for the creation of one new covenant that is far better.  You probably still have a lot of questions and you are probably still lost to who these three women are, but I will explain them more in the next lesson and it will become much clearer.  If you are impatient and want to see who they are faster, just go and read my other Bible lessons and it will become much clearer more quickly.

I hope that you do not write me off as being crazy, because you do not understand all of these new Bible concepts yet.  Just realize that you still do not know everything that I know and it is just impossible for me to teach you everything that I know in one Bible lesson or even one series of lessons.  Anyway until next time, I will pray “may the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of Him who created us be there to open the eyes of your understanding to enlighten you with all of His truth”.  If you like what you are reading I would encourage you to tell me and then go tell a friend about what you are learning that is so different.  Thanks and God Bless!

If you would like to continue reading in this series you may proceed to “Part 5“.

Understanding the Symbolic Nature of Genesis 1, 2 & 3! Spiritual Symbols Found in Genesis!

(Ver 1.4)  In reading and studying the Book of Genesis I have found that it is essential to look at the first 3 chapters of this book using symbolic spiritual eyeglasses which allow us to see the concealed spiritual meanings that were hidden from the surface only reading that many Christians do.  By studying the book of Genesis I have discovered that most of the subjects written about in these three chapters contain natural symbols that convey a much greater and complex spiritual truth.  The difficulty comes in rightly dividing what is natural and what is spiritual and then interpreting both of these at the same time correctly.  Clearly the book of Genesis and especially the first 3 chapters contain both real naturally created realities and people, but at the same time it contains a vast number of spiritual symbolic references that are intermixed throughout the text in almost every verse.  This makes correct Bible interpretation of Genesis infinitely more complex, especially for carnal minded Christians.

1Co 2:13  Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 

I put this verse in this lesson to show you how important rightly dividing the Bible is to correct interpretations.  Here God says there are many who teach things in the Bible that are just from man’s own wisdom.  You can still find this in churches and on the internet everywhere.  But, God says there is a better way, let the Holy Ghost teach you spiritual things and then compare these spiritual things with other spiritual things. Most Bible scholars would certainly agree that this complexity is repeated in other books of the Bible like the prophets and especially the Book of Revelation.  Revelation is dominated by symbolic references throughout the entire book and it is widely one of the most controversial books with the most widely dispersed interpretations surrounding it.  So symbolism is an added layer of complexity that makes understanding these Bible books with it, much more difficult to comprehend and to understand correctly.  For example when God mixes natural fruit with symbolic spiritual fruit in the same chapter this forces us to see what is being discussed by the context and then to use the rest of the Bible to help us interpret the meanings of the spiritual side of the information given.  This is called “Comparing Spiritual Things with Spiritual Things” and “Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth” and we are required to see it correctly or we will remain hopelessly confused.  We must therefore, choose to rightly divide the Word of God deciphering or decoding every word between the spiritual definition and the physical definition or we will wrongly divide it and make them all spiritual or all physical references.  To make them all spiritual or all natural, we would get most of our interpretations wrong when doing this.  So God did this all by a grand design.  God purposely hid complex information in the Bible to keep it from Satan and to allow Him to reveal it to us His church in His perfect time.  It is the designed process that I call “Hiding the Truth in Plain Sight”.   So in today’s blog I am going to focus on the symbols recorded in the first three chapters of Genesis and give you a list of the most important ones that I have found.  Here is the List of Symbols in Genesis 1, 2 & 3:

Symbol

Description

Chapter Verse Reference

Adam A real man, but also a symbolic representation of the man Jesus Christ Genesis 2:18-26Romans 5:14
Afraid The symbolic spiritual force of the fear of the consequences of sin and death Genesis 3:10Heb 2:15;
Ashamed, Not Symbolic Spiritual Innocence Genesis 2:25; 1 John 2:28
Cleave The symbolic covenant of marriage between Christ and the church to be JOINED! Genesis 2:24; 1 Cor 6:17
Darkness The spiritual kingdom domain of Satan and those in it Genesis 1:2; Rom 2:19
Day Those in the Kingdom of God where the Sun of Righteousness has arisen Genesis 1:5;  Malachi 4:21 Th 5:5;
Day The days of creation were symbolic 1000 years of the history of Man Genesis 1:5, Genesis 1:8, Genesis 1:13; Genesis 1:19; Genesis 1:23; Genesis 1:31; Genesis 2:2; 2 Peter 3:8
Divided Symbolic separation of spiritual beings Genesis 1:4; 1:7; Luke 12:51
Dust The Symbolic Spiritual ground and the possession of man for 7000 years (7 days) Genesis 2:7; 3:14; 3:19;
East The Symbolic direction of the rising Spiritual Sun Genesis 2:14; 3:24; Mat 24:27;
Eat Spiritual enlightenment and understanding either of good or of evil Genesis 3:6; 3:11-19; 3:22; John 6:51
Firmament A spiritual division or separation, an expanse or spiritual dimension as a partition.  Above the firmament is heaven the throne of God.  Below the firmament is the future expanse of Satan’s domain.  The air realm represents man’s current position and where Satan currently resides. Genesis 1:7;
Flesh, One The symbolic covenant of marriage between Christ and the church Genesis 2:24
Fourth Day, the The 4000 year appointed time of the coming of Christ into the world Genesis 1:19
Fruit That which is produced by a Spiritual Tree either good or evil Genesis 3:2, 3, 6; James 5:7
Garden The heart of man, the symbolic soil of the earth where God plants His seeds to grow spiritual fruit Genesis 2:8; 3:2; 3:10
Greater Light, the (Sun) The symbolic Jesus, the ruler of the spiritual day Kingdom of Light Genesis 1:16; Mal 4:2
Hand Symbolic Spiritual Power Genesis 3:22
Lesser Light, the (Moon) Satan the ruler of the darkness of this world; the Prince of the Kingdom of Darkness Genesis 1:16; Eph 6:12
Light The God of Creation, God is Light Genesis 1:3; 1 John 1:5
Meat The symbolic food of a spiritually mature man Genesis 1:29-30; Heb 5:12
Naked The External Shame of Sin also the unclothed spirit of man Genesis 3:10; 2 Cor 5:3
Night Those in the spiritual darkness, who stumble and sleep and get drunk in the world; kingdom of Satan Genesis 1:5; 1:14; 1:16; 1:18; 1 Th 5:7
Rain The symbolic outpouring of the Spirit of God, the former and the later Genesis 2:5; James 5:7
Sea(s) Peoples/Nations of the earth Genesis 1:10; Rev 17:15;
Second Day, the The Covenant of Abraham to separate God’s people from the other people on the earth Genesis 1:8;
Seed The symbolic representation of children, words, and several other types of spiritual things Genesis 1:11-12; 3:15;
Serpent, the Satan the spiritual ruler of the darkness, the deceiver of the nations Genesis 3:1; Rev 12:9; Rev 20:2
Seventh Day, the The Millennial Reign of Christ; God’s symbolic Day of Rest Genesis 2:2; Heb 4:4Rev 20:6;
Sixth Day, the End of the The prophetic coming into maturity of the church of God before His return. Genesis 1:26
Skin The outward clothes of the spirit of man; God later removes this with the circumcision of the heart Genesis 3:21; Rom 2:29
Third Day, the God starts planting seeds and expecting fruit to grow in His garden; Moses given the Law Genesis 1:12
Thorns and Thistles The Weeds of the Enemy Satan Genesis 3:18
Tree(s) Any man who makes a choice to either produce good fruit or evil fruit Genesis 2:9; 3:8
Tree of Life Those men who have chosen to receive the Word of God and produce fruit unto righteousness Genesis 2:9; 3:24
Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil Those men who have seen good but chosen evil Genesis 2:9, 3:11;
Waters Symbolic people, the voice of many waters Genesis 1:6; Rev 17:15;
Way, the Symbolic Spiritual Path to Knowledge, Understanding and Wisdom from God Genesis 3:24
Woman The symbolic type of the Church who was taken out of Christ Genesis 2:22-23; 3:15; Eph 5:32

These are certainly not every symbolic reference in these three chapters of Genesis; these are just the ones that I have seen and feel are important to know.  You of course are welcome to look for others and if you find them please let me know so that I can add them to the list.  I will certainly confirm that I do not know everything and I like to learn new things.  God teaches me new things almost every day and it is very exciting when He does this.  I pray this list will be a helpful tool in your study of the Bible and specifically the book of Genesis.  God Bless!

Understanding Seeds! Seeds and Weeds! Part 11

(Ver 1.4)  Today is Part 11 of a very important series of lessons on Understanding Seeds in the Bible.  We have covered a lot of very significant information that will not be repeated so I would highly recommend that you go back and start your reading with “Part 1”.  Today is a follow up to some concepts that I have talked a little about before.  However, today we will get into the aspect of weeds in a much more in depth study from the Word of God which will certainly challenge you to think.  I will probably introduce you to several brand new concepts found in the Bible on this subject so be prepared to learn.  Let’s start by stating the basic concepts of weeds.  Weeds are plants that you did not plant!  This is the basic concept that is critical to understand.  If you wanted thorns and thistles growing in the front yard you would have planted them.  But, if you are like me you put out weed killer to eliminate these types of plants so that your grass will grow and be healthier.  Weeds grow in the same soil as plants from good seeds and in fact weeds also come from seeds, but just not the seeds that we plant intentionally.  I personally believe that weeds are a result of the sin of man and God’s curse and we will probably talk about this more as we go.  I would venture to say that weeds are a caused effect.  Nothing happens by accident in the world.  There are always causes and effects to everything.  These are basic laws of physics implemented by God’s design.  If you see waves in a pond of water you know that something caused the waves.  So you must realize that God when He created our world and looked out on it and said “It was very good”, that God did not create weeds.  I do not consider weeds to be good, but maybe you do.  It is a highly subjective topic.  Regardless, if weeds are present we know that something caused them to be here.  So let’s review some things that we covered before and then go into more details in other parts of the Bible.

If you recall we covered several parables on seeds and one that Jesus taught that said the Kingdom of God is like a man who planted wheat seeds in his field.  This parable is often called the parable of the Wheat and Tares.  In this parable, while the man was sleeping an enemy came and sowed the seeds of tares among the seeds of wheat.  It is interesting to note that by only looking at the ground at this point in time you cannot tell this was done.  The implication was given to us that this was done secretly when the owner was away from the field and the owner only finds out about these weeds after time goes by and both kinds of seeds come up and grow together.  In this parable the owner of the field is clearly God.  The field can be viewed as the mass of humanity which is a type of the soil of the earth that we live in where seeds are planted.  The good seed is again the Word of God.  The weed seed was sown by God’s enemy Satan and these are the words not from God.  The good seed produces the desired crop of righteous people on the earth; these are those who have chosen the narrow path and the weeds are those people who have been deceived and chosen the evil wide path to destruction.  In this parable the servants (symbolic angels), go and ask the owner if they should pull up the tares, but the owner says let them grow together, or when you pull up the tares you also take out some of the wheat.  So the harvest is representative of the end of the age that we are currently living within and the time for this harvest is extremely short.   The harvesters are the angels of God who will gather God’s crop into God’s barn in heaven and then cast the weeds into the fire to be burned.  You can read this parable in Matthew 13:24-30 if you would like to, but I covered the greatest parts of it in enough detail that you should understand these concepts pretty well.  What we learn from this parable is a fact that God did not plant the weeds.  God did not cause the weeds to be planted and in fact this parable states that God had nothing to do with the weeds.  That is one of the key pieces of information from this parable to understand, so get a hold of that.

In the parable of the Wheat and Tares God introduced us to the concept of both seeds and weeds and this is my primary subject today.  How are they related, where did they come from and who is responsible for each.  It is clear in this first parable that the weeds are the evil people who have bought into Satan’s deceptions and are not saved.  The wheat plants are the good people who have been saved by accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior and these are called the righteous seed in the Bible.  So in this parable the concept of weeds is related to people.  However, in another lesson the concept of weeds is potentially something completely different.  Maybe you recall in the Parable of the Sower that Jesus taught us some more seed concepts that were extremely important to know.  In the parable of the sower, the soil was the hearts of men and women in the earth.  The good seed was of course the Word of God still.  The sower was the preacher that would proclaim the Gospel of Christ and the Word of God.  This parable also contained the concept of weeds being introduced in it, but this time the weeds were not specifically people, they were the things that caused people distractions in this world so that they did not produce fruit unto to God.   It is critical to understand the difference in these two parables and to also put them together correctly so that you understand the similarities and the differences.  Both parables are about the primary subject of seeds and both parables contain the concept of weeds.  However, if you look at the first parable you could attempt to claim that the weed people were predestined to be weeds and the wheat people were predestined to be God’s harvest, but that interpretation contradicts the information given to us in the parable of the Sower.  We must balance both parables to understand the subjects being taught.  In the Parable of the Sower, everyone had the same opportunity to hear and understand the word of God, but clearly only three out of six soil types produced any fruit unto God. Here was Jesus’ explanation of these weeds:

Mat 13:22  He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word; and the care of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful.

The first thing that you need to understand from this verse is that thorns are weeds; something that was not planted by the original farmer.  So we can see that Jesus calls seed among the thorns to be those people who care more about things in this world than they do the eternal things that God says in His Word.  Part of the root of this problem is given to us as being the deceitfulness of wealth and money.  Often when people get a hold of money on the earth, they think they are in need of nothing including a savior.  You can read about this parable of the sower in Matthew 13: 3-9.  So we have two different parables with seeds and weeds using two different perspectives.  However, they have more in common than you can imagine.  They are actually the same people from two points of view.  Those who are the tares in the first parable are those who have let the weed seeds of Satan dominate them.  In fact the first three types of soil are all tares in the first parable that we looked at.  These are those who have rejected the truth, refused to hear the truth, let others in the world talk them out of the truth or as we have seen love things in the world more than they love the truth.  Both of these parables resulted in the same two separate groups of people, those who are weeds and are burned and those who produce fruit unto God and are harvested into heaven by the angels.  So let’s examine this subject in other areas of the Bible and see what else God says to us about weeds and seeds.  Where is the first mention or implied reference to weeds in the Bible?  I will give you a clue and tell you that it can be found in the Garden of Eden.

Gen 2:15  And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

Here we have the description of God’s creation.  God planted a garden and caused to grow every tree that was good for food the Bible says.  This subject so far sounds very similar to the two parables that we just read about where Jesus told us of God’s attempts at planting seeds into His gardens from two different perspectives.  Both of these parables involved planting good seeds that came from God to produce good crops and an enemy comes into the garden to cause weeds to try to overcome God’s garden.  Isn’t this what happened in Genesis 2 and 3?  I believe that it is exactly what happened in these two chapters and we will begin to see that more clearly as we go.  In Genesis 2:15 God describes the man’s purpose for being in His garden was to “dress” it and to “keep” it.   Both words denote delagated human resposibility and accountablity.  The first word is a word that means “WORK”!  To work a garden implies one thing, that there are potential enemies and weeds that may come in and therefore you must do something about them to keep them out.  Work involves two aspects in gardening, first caring for the plants that are good by feeding and watering them and eliminating the enemies and the plants that are bad to protect the good.  The next Hebrew word translated as “keep” is very similar to work and it means to “watch” and “protect” the garden.  A watcher or protector is someone who is given the task and responsibility to not only work the garden, but is required to protect it from any enemies who could potentially come and destroy it.  Wow, two words of instructions was all that is necessary from God and they say so much to us in light of the parables that we have just seen about seeds and weeds.  What we begin to understand now was that it was not God’s responsibility to keep the enemy out because that was given to Adam for him to do.

Gen 3:1  Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Here in chapter 3 of Genesis we now are deeply into the subject of an enemy coming into God’s Garden where he should not be.  Therefore, we are currently entrenched in the middle of the parable of the wheat and tares that we have looked at in the beginning of this lesson.  We see this enemy, the symbolic “serpent” coming to Eve and he begins to plant weed seeds into her mind that caused the doubts of deception to grow.  These are examples of the weed seeds of the enemy that God was teaching us about in the two parables we just reviewed in Matthew 13.  God places a man in His garden and then leaves him in charge and goes away and now the man is responsible to “dress” and “keep” it.  Satan brings the evil seed of the tares to Eve and she speaks them out for her husband to hear and he willfully hearkens to the voice of his wife and they are now captive to the deception of their enemy.  Adam had the opportunity to guard and protect the garden of his heart, but he allowed Satan’s words through his wife’s voice dictate his decision to intentionally sin.  I hope you understand what I just said as an overview of this story.  If not, you can go and read my detailed lessons on Genesis 3 and hopefully you will grasp these subjects more clearly.  I will drop down in Genesis to help you see a part of what I just said:

Gen 3:17  And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;

Here is a key verse that reveals to us God’s actions for the intentional sin of His man Adam.  You can clearly see that God says Adam listened to Eve’s voice and not to Satan’s voice.  There is no mention that Adam ever heard Satan speaking directly.  Do you understand this?  Probably not, because of the erroneous teaching of many tells us that there was a physical talking snake in the garden and if Adam was there he would have heard it all.  However, that is not what the Bible says at all.  You should go read my lesson on “Was there a Talking Snake In the Garden?”.  Then you can see that God says something else about the ground being cursed for Adam’s sake.  God then says that Adam will eat from it all the days of his life in sorrow.   What was “IT” that Adam is said to be eating from.  You can potentially say the ground that God just cursed, but I do not see it this way in the light of other verses found in the Bible.  I believe God was saying because you Adam chose to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will eat from it all the days of your life.   Isn’t this what Adam was just found guilty of partaking from?  So what was the ground in the two parables that we looked at?  The Garden soil was clearly the hearts of men and women.  So what does all of this mean?  If you search your Bible and read the references for this Hebrew word that is translated as “cursed” they almost always have something to do with someone who disobeys the Word of the Lord.  God says something for them not to do and they do it and a curse is brought upon them as a consequence for their sins.  However, curses are just the opposite of blessings.  So how does God or people for that matter bless someone or curse someone?   If you have read my other lessons you know that you bless people with the words of your mouth and you also curse people with the words of your mouth.  James 3:10 said “blessing and cursing from the same mouth, this ought not to be”.   So curses are spoken words that produce negative results in our lives or in the lives of those the words are spoken to.  I think I will continue to the next verse in Genesis just to show you the connection to weeds again in this story.

Gen 3:18  Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;

Thorns and thistles are clearly both weeds produced from evil seeds.  They are not produced by the Word of God so we can assume that these are produced from the seeds that Satan has just sown in God’s Garden of man’s heart.  In the parable of the sower God repeated “thorns” for us to make the connection to this story in Genesis.  What were thorns in this parable?  God said thorns represented “the cares of this world” and the “deceitfulness of riches”.  Do you think these apply to Adam in this story?  I certainly do.  I believe that God had just given the man and his wife the earth and Adam now believed that he was self-sufficient and did not need God’s help anymore .  Adam at this time thought he had everything under control, but soon he would find out that he did not have anything under control when his Son Cain would kill his first born son Able.  This was the beginning of Adam’s realization that what he had done was not so great after all.  The sin that Adam introduced into the world was only beginning and the evil seed influence was only going to get worse before it got any better.

So God tells Adam that “IT” will produce thorns and thistles.  So let’s back up and determine what “IT” is?   If you recall the Bible says that Eve spoke words to her husband and God said that Adam “hearkened to the voice of his wife”.  To hearken means to obey or do what she said to do.  If Adam did something that he should not have done because his wife said for him to do it, what was this thing that God is talking about?  Let’s back up and see what the Bible says Eve said.

Gen 3:2  And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:

Gen 3:3  But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

These are the only spoken words of Eve recorded in this chapter.  So either this is the key to what she said or it is not.  I believe that it is!  If Eve said to the serpent then she spoke words that potentially her husband could hear.  These words were partially correct but yet they contained some subtle differences to what God had said.  God did say you could eat of the trees of the garden, but God never said that you cannot touch it.  God simply said you shall not eat it or you will surely die.  So how is the middle of the garden different than the garden?  If God plants a garden and tells Adam every tree that is good for food I have given you for food but says this one in the middle of the garden is not for you, what is God saying?  If you read my other blogs you already know this answer, but I’ll go into some new perspectives to help you see it a new way.  I believe God was differentiating between two gardens in these statements.  There is a major difference between natural things and spiritual things and you should understand this if you are a Christian.  God gave man natural things as food and Jesus said that it is not what you put in your mouth that makes you unclean, so we know it was not anything that Adam physically ate that caused him to sin.  If you do not understand this you should go read my lessons on “Does Eating Fruit Kill You”.  So where is this middle garden that God is talking about where the tree of knowledge of good and evil is present?  Let’s do a word search for the Hebrew word translated as “midst” and see what we find.  I’ll start with one that I like in Proverbs because it is definitely related to my subject today:

Pro 4:20  My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.

Pro 4:21  Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart.

Remember that the Word of God is the Good Seed of God.  So what does God tell us to do with this seed?  God starts by saying “attend” and this is a critically related word that can mean to “hearken”.  Sound familiar?  This is an intentional act of listening, hearing, understanding and doing.  God then follows this up with “incline” your ears unto my seeds (words).  Then God says for us to keep them before our eyes and then to keep them in the “midst” of our hearts.  The word “midst” is the exact same Hebrew word used to describe the location of the tree of life and the tree of knowledge of good and evil in Genesis 2 and 3.  Do you get a hold of what God is trying to say here?  It is the heart of man that is the location of God’s garden.  It is the heart of man where God wants His seeds to grow.  It is also the heart of man where weeds grow from the enemy of God, Satan.  You can read about the heart of man being the middle of man in Psalm 22:14, 40:8, 40:10, and 143:4.  Some of these are difficult to see because the same Hebrew word is translated as “within”.  But, you should be able to find it if you look for it and see that within you is the spiritual heart location of God’s garden.  Knowing this fact you can now begin to see that where spiritual fruit comes from as well as where spiritual weeds are also grown.  These are spiritual concepts of seeds and weeds and are completely relevant to our discussion today.

Please allow me to take you to some more words of Jesus that are clearly and directly related to the story of Adam and Eve in the garden and hopefully this will help us to see the connections a little clearer of seeds and weeds.  You might recall that I spoke these next words in connection to two groups of people in the world and here is what Jesus said to us about them:

Mat 7:13  Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in there at:

Mat 7:14  Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

So we can clearly see that these two groups of people are traveling separate paths.  Those who are not of God are going down the easy path through the wide gate and the broad way to destruction.  Those who God calls saved are those that are traveling down the narrow path and way through the narrow minded gate of righteousness.  These are two distinct groups, two ways and two paths; one leading to life and the other leading to death everlasting.   These are symbolic representations of either seed paths of good or the seed path of evil.  There are many more opportunities in the world for evil seed than there is for the good seed.  God only wrote one book of Good Seed and the internet, libraries and book stores are full of millions of books that you can choose to read that distracts you from the good seed.  So let’s examine the next verse and see how it fits with what we are talking about in this lesson:

Mat 7:15  Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.

Here is a word of warning from Jesus our God that we need to watch out for certain types of people in the world.  The people specifically mentioned in this verse are called “false prophets”.  A False Prophet would be the opposite of a True Prophet.   A prophet is always someone who prophesies so we learn that not everyone that prophesies is from God in this verse.  What are prophecies?   These are spoken words aren’t they?  Spoken words are a type of seeds, get it?  God says beware the seeds of the false prophet and do not allow them to grow in your heart.  These types of people will come in the form of harmless looking sheep, but they will secretly be wolves.  So they disguise themselves to appear harmless and this is the first part of deception that you should become aware of.  Now learn the connection in the next verse that I was attempting to get to in the previous 3 verses of Matthew:

Mat 7:16  Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?

Jesus says you will know people by their fruit.  In other words when people come to you in sheep’s clothing and speak subtle words to you, stop and observe them for a time period to see what kind of fruit they are producing in their life.  In this verse Jesus connects or technically disconnects real fruit from weeds.  Jesus says that you do not get grapes from thorn bushes and you do not get figs from thistles.  Why did God use the exact same words in speaking to Adam that ‘it” would produce for him?  God clearly tells Adam that thorns and thistles would result from something that he has done and now we are clearly given the location of these weeds and as we can see from what Jesus said these are spiritual weeds and they are the opposite of bearing spiritual fruit.  Are you beginning to see and understand the connection that God is making to us in the Bible?  Do you understand spiritual weeds better today than you did before you read this?  I pray that you take this and continue to study the subject and go and find more verses that reveal and confirm this spiritual reality.  I hope you enjoyed my advanced Bible lesson on Seeds and Weeds and please go and tell a friend what you learned.  God Bless!

If you would like to continue reading this series of lessons on Seeds you can go to “Part 12“.

Understanding Angels! Satan the Anointed Cherub! Part 4

(Ver 1.2)  This is now Part 4 of a series of studies about the reality of angels found in the Bible.   We have covered a lot of information that is not going to be repeated, so if you have not read these lessons from the beginning, I would suggest that you go back and start with “Part 1”.  I personally believe that you cannot discuss the subject of angels and ignore the one angel that has caused God and man the majority of their problems.  Today I want to study and discuss the angel Lucifer as being one of the  created chief beings within the angelic class of creation of God.  I believe that when we study the subject of angels without studying about Satan, we miss out on understanding an opposing force to God and that which is good.  Many of the angels mentioned in the Bible are good and do many positive things for God and us.  However, there is a counter force to this good in the world and this is very important to understand.  I have actually already mentioned Satan in my last blog.  You might recall that God sent Gabriel to give Daniel a message and the Bible tells us that the Prince of Persia withstood him for 3 weeks until finally Michael came and helped.  The Prince of Persia was a symbolic reference to Satan.   The Bible reveals much about this spiritual being and it would take a long series of lessons to include everything but, we should still learn as much as we can about him, so today will be your introduction to him.  We will begin our study looking at some potentially controversial scriptures found in Ezekiel.  These are potentially controversial in the fact that they again do not name Satan directly.  This is one of the techniques that God uses to conceal information in the Bible and that is to call one person by many different names, titles, descriptions and symbols so that you do not know directly who he is talking about.  However these words written in Ezekiel are clearly about someone who is not a human, so most knowledgeable Bible scholars agree these verses are references to the unnamed spiritual being Satan.  We will start reading with verse 12 of Ezekiel 28:

Eze 28:12  Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.

I’ll start with the word “lamentation” first.  This is a very interesting word in that it has an implied meaning of a musical dirge that is usually sung at someone’s funeral.   It usually involves much “wailing” and “sorrow” for the loss of this individual being sung about.  It would appear to me that God is prophesying the impending demise of someone who as I said I believe is Satan.  The prophet is told that this lamentation is concerning the “king of Tyrus”, but clearly reading ahead it cannot be anyone that is natural or human.  Tyrus occurs 22 times in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos and Zechariah and that is too many verses to look at them all, so we will not go through all of these verses in this lesson.  The next statement is the beginning of the prophesy against this individual and it informs us of some of his past qualities and achievements.  It starts very interestingly with the words “thou sealest up the sum”.  This is a mathematical accomplishment that has negative connotations surrounding it.  It clearly implies that this individual has brought to an end something of increasing value, count or a numerical total; whatever this is of something not directly named.  In our past studies we had discovered that the number of the angels in heaven were said to be innumerable, but yet they are numbered with an end in Revelation 12 when God tells us that 1/3 of them have fallen to the earth with Satan.  This is what I believe that this is saying to us, I believe that Satan has done something that has caused an end to anymore angels being created.  Remember angels were called the sons of God in Job and Genesis and this implies that they are all a part of God’s spiritual family in heaven.  We should know that any family on the earth continues to grow and increases in total number as along as the family continues to marry and have children.  Is this a reference to what God has done with His spiritual family?  All of this is mostly just my opinion on the interpretations of this information and other scriptures that I have found in the Bible that we have not looked at yet, so you do not have to buy into what I just said at all.

The next statement in this verse is not very good information for us if this is describing Satan.  God says that whoever this is, was “full of the wisdom” of God.  To be full of wisdom is a goal that I am attempting to achieve as a disciple of Christ.  In fact it should be one of the utmost goals of any Christian to obtain first knowledge, then understanding and finally the wisdom of God.  Wisdom is always the ability to make right decisions based upon your knowledge and understanding.  So if this is Satan, I wonder what happened to change the good qualities that God put in him to the evil qualities that we see today.   What this also tells me is that Satan is not stupid.  He might have made some foolish choices, but God already had taught him a significant amount of spiritual knowledge before he sinned.  Do not underestimate the cunning craftiness of this angel.  He has been around much longer than you have and has much more experience at deceiving people than you have at resisting deception.  Let’s go to the next verse in Ezekiel to continue:

Eze 28:13  Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.

Now we get to some more revealing controversial statements and why people do not believe that this is a human being that is being prophesied about.  This individual is said to have been in Eden the garden of God.  Since we are literally hundreds or even thousands of years after the time of Adam when this is written, that is why most Bible scholars agree that this is not about a man that is alive at the time of Ezekiel.  But, I also want to point out a very subtle difference in this verse.  In Genesis 2 and 3 the place where God placed Adam was called the “Garden of Eden” and never “Eden the Garden of God”.  Am I being too picky or is God trying to tell us something else new.  You see I do not believe that God forgot the name that He gave it in Genesis, so this must be a different place.  Obviously both are reported to be gardens and both are named “Eden” but what we must understand is whose responsibility and control is over each garden mentioned.   Eden the Garden of God clearly means God had control over this garden, but now if we go back to Genesis 1 and read what do we find?  We must realize that Adam according to Genesis 1 was given control of the earth, the authority to rule the earth (Gen 1:28) and the responsibility to guard and protect it from invaders (Gen 2:15) and thus the earth was no longer a Garden of God’s responsibility.  Adam now held responsibility over the earth and Eden; do you understand why I bring this up?  I believe that God had a garden that Satan walked in and ruled long before the one that God gave to Adam.  If you know anything about the Bible you know that earth was made as a pattern for things that already existed in heaven.  You can see this in Hebrews and Galatians and other places.  So I believe that “Eden the Garden of God” is not the “Garden of Eden” where Adam was said to be.  Now again the “serpent” or Satan did show up in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve but this verse in Ezekiel does not say that there was any man present when Satan was there originally.  It must be different gardens.

I could go through and say many other things about this verse, for instance this individual has a covering of 9 precious stones.  There is a fascinating parallel given to us by God of the earthly Israel’s High Priest’s breastplate that also was covered with precious stones.  In fact these 9 stones that covered Satan are an exact match for 9 of the 12 stones found on the High Priest’s covering (Exo 28:17).  Did you notice what I just said?  You see I believe that this verse in Ezekiel reveals to us that Satan was a High Priest for God in heaven before he came to the earth.  Are these stones and coverings an amazing coincidence or is there some hidden information that God is revealing to us about Satan.  You see if you do an analysis of the High Priest’s breast plate you can see that they had 4 rows of three stones each.  Each row consisted of a different set of stones and each stone was different from all of the others.  We are told that these 12 stones on the High Priest’s covering were engraved with the names of 12 tribes of Israel.  But, if you cross off the stones found on Satan’s covering from the stones found on the High Priest’s breastplate you find that Row 3 is missing completely.  That is definitely not an accident, it is impossible mathematically for this to be a coincidence.  What does it all mean?  That is another really good question to try to figure out.  You see you can conclude that Satan lost three things that Israel had or Israel was given three things that Satan didn’t have.  Either way you come up with the same results.  However, I just don’t have the time to even try to talk about that in this blog nor do I know all of the answers to that question so I’ll definitely be moving on today.

Finally this verse ends with some important new information about Satan and all angels.  Satan was a created being.  This word created is the exact same word found in Genesis 1:1 where God says “In the beginning God created, the heaven and the earth”.  In general terms this is also the exact same Hebrew word used to describe God’s man Adam.  This same Hebrew Word is used to describe the origination of both individuals so we can clearly assume a connection between them.  In Genesis 5:1-2 Adam is said to be “created” just as Satan was said to be “created” in Ezekiel 28:13.  However, I do not know if they were created in the same way and I definitely do not believe that they were created at the same time.   You see God tells us very specifically that Adam’s body was formed from the dust of the ground.  This was definitely from the existing earth and I believe that God created this dust a long time before He created Adam.  If you do not understand this, you should read some of my other blogs on the subject of “The World that Was” mentioned in 2 Peter 3:6.  After Adam’s body is formed then comes his wife, Eve.  However, she was also not created from something new since her body came from that which already existed, the body of Adam.  So Adam and Eve were not a new creation.   So it could be different than Satan?  We do not know this for sure, but I’m just trying to put the pieces of the puzzle together and that is what I have concluded so far.  You also have to understand that the body of Lucifer is a spiritual immortal body and not a natural body that dies like Adam’s.  So they are clearly very different at the same time as being very similar to each other.   What I see in this information is that God says there could be a difference between Satan and Adam.  Satan was definitely a created being but it does not tell us when he was created, or how he was created and where his body originated from.  All we know for sure right now is that Adam was a being made from that which already existed and his body was clearly modeled after the preexisting angels in heaven as we have discovered in our previous studies on this subject.   However, both Satan and Adam are called sons of God and both are therefore made in the image and the likeness of God.  That may not go over very big with some people, I know.  It must be important to note the way God created Adam or He would not have included this information in the Bible.  Couldn’t God have said “Man Be” and then God see a man appear?  So why does God take existing dust and form the man’s body from it and then breath into his nostrils to give him life?  Then I want to ask you this about Adam, why did God create a new son Adam and give him a wife named Eve, if he already had a family of angels in heaven?   Believe it or not this was a pattern for what God was going to do in the spiritual realm with Jesus.  You see God tells us the law of marriage in Genesis 2, that a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and they two shall become one flesh.  If Adam is the son that cleaves to his wife, then God was his Father that he left to be joined to his wife!  This means that Adam would leave his Father’s house and be married to a wife (a woman) who would be the mother of the entire new natural human family on the earth not a part of God’s family in heven.  What is God doing?  God is establishing a new family outside of His current existing family in heaven.  This is very important to know and understand from a Bible perspective of what Jesus has also accomplished.  I guess I will stop there and let you do more research or read some of my other blogs on this subject.

Eze 28:14  Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

Now we are beginning to see some more information about Satan that is very important to understand.   Anointed comes from a Hebrew root word that means to smear with oil.  David was anointed king this way by Samuel.   But this word here means to “spread like wings” and it is the only time this word occurs in the whole Bible.  However, it is still important to see that Satan is said to be “anointed” of God.  This is a direct comparison to Jesus who was also said to be “anointed” of God with the Holy Ghost and power in Acts 10:38.  So now we have Satan being compared to Jesus the Messiah.  This is a clear Satan and Jesus connection.  You probably do not fully understand the concept of being anointed by God.  God anoints people in the earth to perform specific tasks like to pastor a church.  What this represents is a special divine ability to perform the duties being assigned to them.   So we learn from this verse that angels can also be anointed by God to do specific jobs and assignments.  An anointing can involve supernatural ability and even the power or divine knowledge or wisdom to do what you do not fully understand how to do.  This says a lot about Satan and his abilities.

Then Satan is called a “cherub” and this is a very unique name for a class of special angelic beings.  Not every angel falls into this class so we are beginning to see some new truths about angels.  The angels that appeared in Sodom to get Lot out I do not believe were cherubs.  Also, in the previous lesson we learned that Gabriel and Michael were described as “Chief” angels.  This just means they were a much higher rank than the others that were under them.  This word for cherub only occurs in around 66 verses in the O.T.   The first time it occurs is in Genesis 3 and God places a “cherub” and a flaming sword outside the Garden of Eden to guard the way to the tree of life.   Apparently someone wanted to take forcibly from this tree and live forever so God placed an angelic guard of the class of Satan’s ability to protect it.  It was obviously not Adam that God was guarding this way from and you can read my other blogs and find out why I can say that.  I believe that Satan was after this tree and God was guarding the “way” to the tree to keep him from partaking of it.

So what is a “cherub”?  That is another million dollar question for the day.  From what I can tell from reading these 66 verses in the Bible, a cherub is a type of angel which has “wings”, but this could also be symbolism for an anointing of God for a specific job or purpose.  God told Moses to make the golden Ark of the Covenant with two winged cherubs on the top with the mercy seat of God in between them.  This is clearly a natural pattern of something that we should know concerning spiritual things.  These are all symbolic representations of spiritual realities.

Exo 25:18  And thou shalt make two cherubims of gold, of beaten work shalt thou make them, in the two ends of the mercy seat.

In Psalm 99:1 it says God sits between the Cherubim.  The Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant was made by God’s instructions and described to us in Exodus which was recorded by Moses.  These patterns reveal to us information about angels and God’s relationship with Satan before he sinned.  I believe that God’s throne in heaven was between two anointed cherubs and one of these use to be Lucifer.  Now Jesus is at the right hand of the Father and to me that means Jesus has taken Lucifer’s old place of authority and power.  Again that is my opinion on stuff that I’ve read from the Bible.

I want to skip forward in Ezekiel 28:14 to the part that God speaks about Satan being in the Holy Mountain of God.  We should be smart enough to know that this is not an earthly mountain.  God did come down to Moses on Mt Sinai and God called this mountain holy at the time but, Satan was never there.  No this holy mountain is Mt Zion in heaven and this is the spiritual covenant mountain of God.  When God speaks about Mt Zion, He says many things.  For example, “I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a precious corner stone” (Isa 28:16).  So we know that Zion has had a new building project started on it from scratch by the Lord Jesus Christ.  This represents a “New Covenant” and it eliminates the old covenants with everyone else.

Let’s continue looking at Ezekiel 28:14 and how God describes Satan to us.  God told us he was an anointed cherub and then said that his job or assignment was to “cover”.  This Hebrew word means to cover as a protector or as a guard.  It can also mean a fenced in hedge of protection.  It can also mean to entwine as in join together.  These are all amazing definitions.  They imply a covenant relationship and that is very important to know.  I definitely believe from the information that I have seen in the Bible that God was in covenant with the angels of Heaven, including Satan.  In fact if you read Galatians 4 very carefully you will see that God reveals information about heaven that calls this city God’s wife as a type or pattern of Sarah as being Abraham’s wife.   She is called the freewoman in this analogy.  The Heavenly Jerusalem is what this city is called in Hebrews.  In Galatians 4 it is called the Jerusalem that is above.  This is the real spiritual city of angels and it is inferred to be a wife of God the Father.  If you understand covenants you know that God was in covenant with the natural nation of Israel and the earthly city of Jerusalem.  This earthly city Jerusalem is called the “bond woman” and is the type of Hagar and Abraham who had a slave child.  Angels were of the city of the “Free Woman” called Heavenly Jerusalem.  Galatians 4 tells us that God had two wives and that these were two covenants.

Eze 28:15  Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.

This is the last verse in Ezekiel that I am going to touch on today.  Since I am running a little long I will make these last parts brief.  You can clearly see that Satan was not created as Satan.  The original angel Lucifer was perfect in all of his ways.  That means he did things the right way, he made the right choices, said the right things and walked upright before God.  But, God says “sin” was found in him and that is the root of God’s problem with Lucifer.  How do you end a spiritual family covenant relationship with a spiritual being in a Godly and legal way that does not cause God to become as equally as sinful?   Do you understand the wisdom of God?  God is so much smarter than us that He came up with a plan that would solve our sin problem and His covenant problem simultaneously with the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, His Son.  I’ll end this blog with this last thought about Satan:

Isa 6:2  Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly.

Here in this verse found in Isaiah we see a new word describing what appears to be an angelic being.  This is also a winged creature that clearly flies using their wings.  It is not clear that this is describing Satan unless you look up the definition of the Hebrew Word “seraphim” in Strong’s.  This word is many times translated as “fiery serpent” and that to me describes Satan very well.  We clearly know from Genesis and Revelation that Satan is the “serpent” so we have an association to a new titled reference for this spiritual being.  A fiery serpent is a great symbolic representation for Satan.

So we have learned enough for one lesson about angels, and probably more than some can accept.  I will briefly review some of the high points:

Satan:

  1. Was a created being (Eze 28:13)
  2. Not created with evil in him (Eze 28:15)
  3. Was found with iniquity in him (Eze 28:15)
  4. Was in covenant with God the Father (Gen 2-3, Gal 4)
  5. Was anointed by God for specific purposes (Eze 28:14)
  6. Was in a class of angels called “Cherubs” (Eze 28:14)
  7. Was also described as a “Seraphim”; winged fiery serpent (Isa 6:2)
  8. Was a Priest unto God (Eze 28:13).
  9. Was called Lucifer a son of the early light (Isa 14:12)
  10. Named Lucifer means “Bright Morning Star”  (Isa 14:12)

These are just a very few things that we picked up from today and the previous lesson about Satan.  If you want to you can go and take a look at my list of Names, Titles, Descriptions and Types for Satan found in the Bible.  I know I said a lot of things and some of them are hard to accept because I cannot fully cover every related subject in a single blog.  You do not know everything that I know and I cannot teach you everything that I know in one blog so just keep reading and I’ll try to do a better job at filling in the gaps that I’m sure you feel that I have not covered fully.  If you have specific questions I would also appreciate hearing about them.   Maybe this way if I hear where I am the weakest I can address those areas first.  God Bless!

If you would like to continue reading this series you can go to “Part 5“.

Understanding Angels! The Named Angels in the Bible! Part 3

(Ver 1.2)  This is Part 3 of a series of lessons on understanding Angels in the Bible.  If you have not read this series from the beginning I would recommend that you go back and start with “Part 1”.   Today I want to discuss not something new, but a basic concept surrounding angels.  This concept states that angels all have names and that these names mean something.  Just as people on earth have names which are given to them when they are born, angels also have very specific names that I assume was given to them by God.  Of course the Bible does not reveal the names of every angel and since there are an innumerable number of them, I’m glad that it does not.  Throughout the Bible you discover that people did not normally just make up their children’s names.  These names were given to their children for a reason and it often involved the circumstances surrounding their birth.  So we discover that we can learn things about people from looking up the definitions of their names.  I believe that this applies to angels also.  I do not think that the angels got their names by accident or chance.  We are not told but a few names of the angels, but we are told enough to help us to understand these concepts.  The Bible says there is nothing new under the sun.  I take this to mean that what God has designed in this world were patterns for things that already existed elsewhere or in past times.  So what we see and observe in our world are not new things, new ideas or new concepts, but are things that have existed before.  That is very hard thing for many people to accept and even Christians today because they have widely been taught that creation happened 6000 years ago and God created the angels and people, heaven and earth and everything else at this time.  That would really be good, if that was what the Bible actually said, unfortunately for many Bible teachers it is not; so their teaching produces nothing but points of confusion.  What I am going to do today is start in the book of Psalms and show you a verse that informs us that angels have names:

Psa 147:4  He telleth the number of the stars; he calleth them all by their names.

You may recall that angels were symbolically called “stars” in Revelation 1:20, 12:4 and several other places in the Bible.  The stars seen in our heaven symbolically represent these created spiritual beings called angels.  They are also according to this verse all “named”.   God knows the names of every one of them and this is an amazing feat since there are so many of them.  Scientist can only roughly estimate the number of the stars in our universe; there is absolutely no way that they could count them all, since none of our telescopes reach to the ends of the entire universe.  So you cannot count what you cannot see.   Plus the fact that they estimate the number of stars to be between 10 raised to the 22nd power and 10 raised to the 24th power.  Both of those are huge numbers. 

Let’s turn to Luke and start to study about a named angel that you have already heard of.  This angel reveals some things that we have potentially already discussed as well as some new things to consider.  For example, this angel has a name and this is the first time we have discovered that reality.  In the first chapter of Luke is the story of Zacharias and his wife.  They are older mature people in Israel and Zacharias is a priest for God in the temple.  One day while he is in the temple suddenly something happens that he never experienced before:

Luk 1:11  And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.

The angel of the Lord suddenly appears within the physical dimension of space and time and Zacharias sees him standing there.  We have seen the angel’s ability in the Bible to appear or manifest physically in our world and this is another example of this.  Since the context of this verse says that there are many people on the outside of the temple and none of them are said to have seen the angel enter the temple, we can only assume that this angel from God steps out of the spiritual dimension and into the temple at the appropriate exact place and time.  So what would be the normal human reaction to something like this?

Luk 1:12  And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him.

What would be your reaction if you were in a room alone and suddenly a man appears before you out of nowhere?  You can certainly understand that this would be troubling to say the least.  The natural human reaction would be the emotion of fear.   As you study angels many times when they appear to humans, they would have to say to them “fear not”.  In other words they were saying “we are not here to do you harm”.  This is probably why angels are not sent more often by God.  I just don’t think that people could handle the supernatural appearance of a spiritual being, even if they are sent from God.

Luk 1:13  But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias: for thy prayer is heard; and thy wife Elisabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John.

This angel starts speaking to Zacharias and tells him God has heard his prayers.  We can obviously see an example of another angel being sent to the earth in response to words/prayers of a man in this example.  I do want to point out that I do not believe that Zacharias prayed for God to send him an angel.  I have not found any verses in the Bible that anyone ever prayed for God to send angels to help them.  When Jesus was about to be crucified He did say this:

Mat 26:53  Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?

So Jesus said He could have prayed to His Father and God could have sent 12 legions of angels to help Him from being crucified.  A legion can vary in numbers but generally it would be anywhere from 3600 to 6000 men in a roman legion.  So you multiply that by 12 and you get a lot of angels.  As you have seen two angels were sent to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah so that many angels would be a very strong force.  It is interesting that Jesus said He could have done this but yet He never did.  I would still say from the Bible that God says “Those who are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God”.  Meaning we do not pray for guidance by angels.  If God chooses to send you an angel, then it is probably for a bigger reason than you want to know right now.

We have not talked about Daniel yet, but God sends him an angel for his prayer also.  We can very easily assume God has heard this man Zacharias’ prayers and has sent His messenger with the Words of God for him to hear.  The angel continues to tell Zacharias what will happen in the next 3 or 4 verses.  He is told that he will have a son and that he will be filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb.  He will not eat or drink unclean things and he will lead many people to God.  After hearing all of this Zacharias should have been very happy, however he starts to question the angel and basically asks “How do I know this is true?”  That was the wrong question to ask the representative of God.  Here is the angel’s response:

Luk 1:19  And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God; and am sent to speak unto thee, and to shew thee these glad tidings.

The angel in effect says “Who do you think you are talking to?”  He then tells us and him his name and his normal daily duties.  This is the angel “Gabriel” and he normally stands in heaven in the presence of the Most High God.  In other words God the Most High sent one of the highest angels to bring him a personal message concerning his prayers and he wants to question and doubt us?  The angel implies “How do you think I knew about your prayers, what are stupid?”  Ok, I added some of my thoughts and interpretations to that response, but you can certainly understand why.   Zacharias was a priest of God was intimately familiar with the story of Abraham and Sarah and how old they were when they had their promised son Isaac.  So why would this old man doubt God’s ability to do what he has already proved that he could do?  Sarah was 90 years old when she had Isaac.  Age is not a determining factor for God’s ability to answer your prayer.  I believe this is what upset the angel more than anything; it was clearly Zacharias unbelief and total lack of faith in God that displeased God.

Luk 1:20  And, behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season.

So the angel gives Zacharias a sign that he was not expecting to happen.  Here we have another example of the supernatural power of angels.  In Genesis we saw how the angels blinded all of the men that wanted to have sex with them and here the angel tells Zacharias that he would not be able to speak until what was told him came to pass.  What was the difference in this story and the story of Abraham?  In Genesis God changed Abram’s name to Abraham which meant “Father of Nations”.  So God got Abraham to believe what was said to him, but Zacharias did not believe so his mouth was shut.  Abraham went around saying to everyone “My name is Abraham”, “I am the father of nations” which was what God said and then he had a son and it happened.  Zacharias could have done the same thing if he would have just believed the angel.  It is difficult not to talk about words even when you are studying angels because every subject in the Bible overlaps every other subject.  Your words and your beliefs have a determining factor to what occurs in your life.  Also note that the angel said that the words that he spoke would be fulfilled in the earth.  God spoke what was going to happen through an angel in the earth and then it happened.  Do you know this is how God works in our world?  God sends His words first into the world and only then do they come to pass.  We live within a Word Based World system.   This is why Gabriel shuts the mouth of Zacharias so that he could not counter the words that were spoken to him with his unbelief.  I could say a lot more on this subject, but I’m already off of the main subject of angels so I’ll leave it at that.

So the angel of God was named Gabriel and he had a problem and solved it by making Zacharias dumb.    So again we see supernatural powers being exhibited by an angelic being.  It is very interesting to note that the name “Gabriel” means “Man of God”.  It also has root words meaning a “warrior” and “strength”.   We can see from this information that again angels are not trivial beings to be ignored.   It is also interesting that they are called “men”.  If an angel appears to you and tells you that God has said something, I would suggest that you do not treat it with the same level of unbelief that Zacharias did.  If you question the words make sure you ask the right questions.  You might recall that when the angel appeared to Mary, she also questioned the words, but said it differently.  She asked “how will this be since I know not a man”.  That was a valid question and not one of unbelief.  She just wanted to know how God was going to do what he said to her.  Then after the angel told her how God was going to overshadow her with the Holy Ghost and she would conceive, then Mary said “Be it unto me as you have spoken”.  In other words she said “I believe it”!  Believing God is one of the most important things that you can ever do in life and this might have been the most important thing that I said in this whole lesson.  Let’s talk about Daniel’s experience now:

Dan 10:11  And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling.

The angel Gabriel is sent to another man on the earth named Daniel.  While it does not name Gabriel directly in this chapter you can see this is who it is by reading Daniel 8:16 and 9:21.  Again Gabriel is being sent in answer to a man’s words/prayer.  God directs the angel Gabriel to bring Daniel an answer and this story reveals to us that sometimes answers from God take “time”.  We like to think that God lives outside of time and that God is omnipotent so He can do anything instantly, but this story proves God can’t do just anything in our world instantly like we would like to think.

Dan 10:12  Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.

As you can read and see when Daniel prayed the angel was sent by God on the very first day.  However, we can learn in this chapter that Daniel has been fasting for 21 days before the angel actually shows up.  That is the problem with many religious minded people’s theology.  There is a 3 week delay from the time that Daniel prayed, God answered and the answer arrives.  Why is that?  That is the million dollar question of the day.  You see this chapter tells us that the “prince of Persia” withstood the angel Gabriel from coming to Daniel.  Persia of course is where modern day Iran is located.  But, this is not a human being and it has to be a powerful spiritual being with a spiritual army of resistance to keep another powerful spiritual being from coming from heaven. 

Here is the second most important thing that you should learn from today’s lesson.  Did you notice what the angel said?  The angel said I was sent for your “words”.  Uh oh?  We’re back to words again.  Did you know that angels get assignments based upon your words?  If you didn’t know this you just learned something new that is very important.  We’ll definitely talk more about this later so let’s keep looking at the name of the new angel in this story.

Dan 10:13  But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.

So God dispatches Michael another chief angel from heaven to help Gabriel to get to Daniel.  So Michael and Gabriel are two chief named angels from God found in the Bible.  The name “Michael” has the following meaning in the Hebrew “Who is Like God”.  To me that tells me something new about angels.  Angels are made in the image and likeness of God like men were.  You can of course take this definition two ways I know, you could say it like a question or you can say it like a statement of fact.   However we have one angel Gabriel that means “Man of God” and another angel named Michael that means “Who is Like God” and both of these have implications of our descendant Adam described to us in Genesis 1 and 2.  So you do not have to believe it like I believe it but, based upon what we have learned I have to conclude that angels were created being before men and that they were made in God’s image first.  They are also called a “prince” of God.  You will see this is a term of authority and power.  They are rulers of some dominion or domain that I have already alluded to in the first lesson.  Since they came from heaven we can assume at least that this rule use to be the kingdom of heaven.  But, God told us in Gen 1:16 that the Moon and the Stars will rule the night on the fourth day of creation.  The Stars definitely symbolize angels.   So the fourth day was a symbolic time of when Jesus came to the earth.   However at this time of Daniel was before Jesus came to the earth and this prophecy of Genesis had not been fulfilled.  I do not know if you understand that statement and I don’t have time to explain it.  You are welcome to read my other blogs to see if you can grasp these concepts.

What we have seen is the names of two of God’s angels from heaven mentioned to us in the Bible directly.   These are actually the only two angels of God that are directly named that I know of.  The other angels mentioned in the Bible were angels of God, but have fallen so they are not God’s anymore and we will look at them briefly:

Isa 14:12  How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

I believe that Lucifer is the name for Satan before he fell from heaven.  I will do a more in-depth study of this spiritual being in a separate lesson.  What I do want to point out in this verse is something I find very interesting.  Lucifer is again called a son of God in this verse, but it is not a direct named instance.  It is more a symbolic name based upon information from other verses in the Bible and it reveals something to us in it that we would not have fully known otherwise.  What you surely realize is that God hides information in words using techniques that I describe in other blogs.  In 1 John 1:5 we see a verse that says “God is Light”.  Then what we learn from this verse in Isaiah is very important if you can accept it.  The word “morning” means “early light”.  This is a symbolic revelation of God and Satan.  We know that God has neither beginning nor any ending and the Bible calls Him the “Ancient of Days”.  All of this tells us that God has been around a very, very long time.  But, if you think symbolically about a day cycle, when the sun comes up and then sun goes down; God is describing the timeframe of Satan’s creation using these terms of a symbolic day.  God is saying Lucifer was a “son of the very early light”.  This informs us that Lucifer has been around not as long as God has but so much longer than Adam or the rest of us could ever have imagined.  Scientists tell us that the age of our universe is estimated to be in the billions of years.  I imagine that Lucifer has been around at the very least that long and probably longer just based upon this simple information.  It is important to note that Lucifer is called a son of God like we saw the other angels called in Genesis and Job.  It is also important to note the meaning of the name “Lucifer”.  The word “Lucifer” means to brightly shine as the morning star.  Wow, that is an amazing statement that almost boggles my mind.  You see in Revelation 22:16 Jesus says “I am the Bright and Morning Star”.  How can both Lucifer and Jesus have the same names?  That is of course a very difficult question to answer especially in a blog like this about angels so I will not even attempt to give you an answer to that.  What I do want you to do is see the hidden complexity within the Bible and to show you that we have only scratched the surface to what is written there in and what it all means.  So far we have seen angels named Gabriel, Michael and Lucifer so let’s continue quickly and look at the other name found in the Bible of angels:

Rev 9:11  And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

Here in Revelation 9 it speaks of too many things to go through them all.  The book of Revelation is a heavily symbolic book of references.  Most of this information found here is widely controversial since hardly anyone has been able to agree on what anything means.  However, this error is mostly attributable to man’s private interpretations of God’s Word.  What I see in this verse is the fact that God is speaking of an angel.  This angel has a name and is called “Abaddon” in the Hebrew and “Apollyon” in the Greek.    This name means “destroyer” or “destruction”.  I am fairly convinced that this is just another name for Satan personally.  I believe that Satan is the one that has destroyed kingdoms and laid waste to the earth making it null and void in Genesis 1:2.  When I talk about Satan in the next lesson I will try to show you scriptures that seem to indicate Satan is responsible for these things.

So we have seen potentially 4 angels directly named in the Bible.  Two Gabriel and Michael are on God’s side and the other two Lucifer and Abaddon are definitely not good angels.

We have learned a few new things in this lesson so let’s review them.

Angel (s):

  1. Have Names (Luke 1:19, Rev 9:11)
  2. Names mean something
  3. Gabriel  means “Man of God”
  4. Michael means “Who is Like God”
  5. Are called Princes (those who rule under the King) (Daniel 10:13)
  6. Stand in the Presence of God (Luke 1:19)
  7. Can make people dumb (Luke 1:20)
  8. Lucifer was called a son of the early light (Isa 14:12)
  9. Lucifer means “Bright Morning Star”
  10. Abaddon means “Destroyer” (Rev 9:11)
  11. Are sent by God because of the Words of Men on the earth (Daniel  10:12, Luke 1:13)
  12. Bring messages from God and it matters if you believe them (Luke 1:18-19)

If you would like to continue reading this series you can go to “Part 4“.

Understanding Angels! A Bible Perspective to the Reality of Angels! Part 1

(Ver 1.1) This is “Part 1” in a study series on the subject of “angels” found in the bible from cover to cover.  People generally do not believe in things that they have never seen or that they do not have any proof of existence. It is very much like the subject of God who is a Spirit (Jn 4:24) and many people do not believe in Him either.  However, the Word of God known as the Bible says a lot about these spiritual beings, we call angels, and it informs us that they definitely are real and that they do certainly exist.  The rest of this lesson will cover things found in the Bible about angels that you should know.  Who are they, what are they, where did they come from, when did they come into existence, what is their purpose and whatever else God leads us to discuss about them.  I personally know people who claim to have seen angels and their descriptions of these creatures are not like the fat little baby angels you see in many picture books or art diagrams.  These creatures are generally very strong, large and tall.  Their strength is so much greater than the strongest man on the earth that there is no comparison that can be made.   In this lesson we will discuss a lot of scriptures and many of them you might or might not already know.  However, I will probably say some things that you probably have never heard or thought about before, so you should read the entire lesson series before you pass final judgment.  So let’s look at the first occurrence of the Hebrew word “H4397” that is translated as word “angel” in the English KJV Bible. The Strong’s definition for this word is “messenger”. In the ancient Hebrew lexicon this word is defined as “one who walks for another”. That appears to define one of the primary roles of angels in simple terms. If we search the Bible, we will find that the first direct mention of this word is found in verse 7 of Genesis 16:

Gen 16:7  And the angel of the LORD found her by a fountain of water in the wilderness, by the fountain in the way to Shur.

The Hebrew word translated as “angel” is used 213 times in the O.T. so that is a lot of scriptures to read and learn from. But that is not all of the references that can be found in the Old Testament. This is because these beings go by many other names, titles, descriptions, symbols, etc. For example, the first time I noticed a reference for angels was in Genesis 1:16 as the mention of “stars”. This symbol for angels occurs especially in Revelation 12:4 where the tail of the dragon sweeps 1/3 of the stars from the heaven. Most wise Bible scholars agree these stars are references to angels.

There are at least two references to angels in Genesis 3. In verse 1, Satan is referred to as a symbolic “serpent”. Most should know this is the fallen angel Lucifer, but we will hpefully go into this more later.  Then in verse 24 of Genesis 3, we find God placing “Cherubim” with a flaming sword to guard the way to the tree of life. This is a speciality ranking order of that angels that appear to have a different assignment other than being a “messenger” class of God’s angelic creation. We will discover that God is a very organized creator. There will be angels of differing ranks and responsilbities.

All of this introduction information tells us that angels were widely active in the O.T. times and that these creatures are still implied to be active today based upon what we will find the book of Revelation described future.  While not every occurrence is translated as “angel” of the Hebrew word, there are enough that are this way that I cannot mention them all.

As we learned, the word “angel” means “messenger” in the Hebrew; they are spiritual beings that are normally sent from God to deliver a message to man.  So, an angel could be viewed as a “Word carrier”.  You could also say a “Word courier” or someone who delivers God’s Words to the people on the earth.  You could compare angels to an earthly company like “Fedex” who delivers messages around the world, but of course angels are much more than that as we will find out.   It is interesting to note two things found in this verse.  First is that God qualifies the word “angel” with “of the Lord”.  Meaning there are other types of angels that are not “of the Lord”.  We will discover more about this shortly, but note that God claims some angels to be His and others that are clearly not His.  Later we will also see that within the organization of angels, there exist ranks, classes and orders.

The next thing that is interesting to see in this verse is the Hebrew Word translated as “found” in this verse. This word does not mean the angel had to search for Hagar to finally locater her.  According to Strong’s this word means “to come forth”, “to appear” or “exist”. Did you know that you cannot normally see angels in the world, but that this does not mean they do not exist around us at all times?  It is critical to note that this “angel of the Lord” came forth and appeared in the natural realm so that Hagar could see him and hear him with her physical eyes and ears.

What we will learn soon are that Angels are normally not visible, probably because they were created by God on a higher frequency of movement/vibration. All physical substance contains vibration frequencies. Some are more easily seen, and some are impossible to see with the unaided eye. But according to this verse and some other verses that we will look at later, God may cause or permit some angels to slow their spiritual frequency so that it allows them to become visible in the natural realm.  This means that angels can be visible at times or be invisible at other times.  How they do this, and it is accomplished, I have no idea?

There are many details in the Bible that we are not informed of directly and this is one of them.  We have to assume that they have some power or ability that allows them to do this.  You can read further in this chapter and also see that this angel of the Lord brings Hagar a message from God, and he informs her of what will happen to her and her son Ishmael in the future.  God who sees the end from the beginning can tell you this information, but this is not the normal way that God does things most of the time; I believe that this is an exception to the way God does things.

So, we have just looked at the first direct reference in the Bible about angels, however this is not the first time they are mentioned in the Bible so we will back up in Genesis and read some new very important verses about angels.  What you must realize when reading and studying the Bible, is that God calls the same things in the Bible by multiple names, titles, descriptions and each of these reveal new qualities or features of that person or object being referenced.  So, let’s read a verse that reveals angels to us in a totally brand-new way:

Gen 6:1  And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them,

God starts this chapter by informing us that the children of Adam and Eve began to multiply upon the face of the earth.  There were both males and females born to them and then these children married and had more children and thus continued the multiplication of the earth’s population.  This is of course what God told Adam and Eve to do; to be fruitful and multiply, and to replenish the earth’s population.  So, they were being obedient in this part of God’s commandments, I wonder why?  Now we are going to get into the part about angels, for the preceding verse was put there to set up the next very important verse:

Gen 6:2  That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.

In the next verse in the Bible, we learn some very valuable information about angels.  I’ll start by giving you the time frame for this information.  These verses are occurring within the first 1000 years of human history.  Since Adam lived to be over 900 years old, he must have come close to witnessing the beginnings of what was taking place on the earth during these verses.   The very next thing that you should recognize is that angels are called “sons of God”.  We know that Jesus was the Son of God, but notice angels are also called “sons of God.  It is the same designation of title, but in an entirely different context.  However, we know Jesus was God, but angels were never God. We know in Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14 that Lucifer was a created being. We also learn Lucifer was “anointed” by the Spirit of God. This would appear to indicate angles to be very similar to humans.

Notice this fact that the Bible calls us (the church) “sons of God” also (1 Jo 3:2).  Why is this?  This is directly attributable because God is called our “Father”.  In Hebrews 12:9 God is called the Father of spirits.  Angels are definitely spirit beings and people are spirit beings also, so God qualifies to be Father of both.

The next important thing to recognize about angels is that they can manifest themselves physically in this world as we saw with Hagar. But Genesis 6 provides greater details. It appears that angels can appear in the same form apparently as human males on the earth with the same sexual reproductive equipment.  Some try to explain that these “sons of Gods’ are not angels, but you can see that they are by other verses in the Bible.  This term “sons of God” is used only a very few times in the O.T.  Other than twice in Genesis 6, the term “sons of God” can be found only three times in the book of Job when Satan appears before God and the “sons of God” come with him.  Most knowledgeable Bible scholars will agree that this reference to “sons of God” is speaking of angels also.

It is very apparent in this verse that angels have physical bodies as well as spiritual bodies. I still believe this is just one body that is able to transition to slower frequencies that are visible in the created natural realm. However, angels are clearly not mortal like sinful fallen humans. Even angels that have sinned like Lucifer travel from the earth realm to the heavenly realm daily (Rev 12:10)  I believe from what I have read in the Bible that angels are spiritual beings that are capable of traveling between the earth and heaven where the throne of God is located at their own will.  I also believe that these angels can manifest themselves in a physical form on this earth when given a divine assignment. But Genesis 6 is an example of unlawful angelic manifestation in the physical realm as we will learn soon.

So, this verse in Genesis 6 says the angels of God looked at the women on the earth and thought they were “beautiful” and they took them for their wives and as we continue reading this caused a perverted race of human and angelic beings to come to be in the earth.  It is interesting to note that it does not sound like these women had much choice in this matter.   To me it sounds like a victory of the spoils of war type of mentality that came upon the angels.  They clearly thought they had a right to these women.  Knowing the strength and power of angels we can understand why.  Read this next verse:

Gen 6:4  There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

So, this is a very hard saying indeed.  One that is truly difficult to comprehend.  The “sons of God” are said to “come in unto” the daughters of men.  This is a very interesting concept being given to us by God.  It is spoken of in the terms of Noah “entering into” the ark (Gen 6:19).  This means God views the woman’s sexual organ as a door into her body.  In fact, it is designed by God as a two-way door; a man or angel enters in, and babies come out.  These exact same words are used in Genesis 16:2 when Sarah tells Abraham “go in unto my maid” so that I may have children of her”.  We can clearly see that this is natural sex using God’s perspective.  So, we know that the angels (the sons of God) had physical sex with women on the earth and they created a race of giants.

I wonder sometimes, if there are male angels which clearly there are, do female angels exist?  That is a question that I do not know the direct answer to yet.  I do not ever recall reading any description of an angel in the Bible that resembled a female.  But the Bible says that there are an innumerable number of these creatures in heaven, so we do not know everything, do we?

From my Bible studies I have to conclude that there are female angels but the only proof that I have found so far, is that the Bible says Heaven existed first and it is called the “Heavenly Jerusalem” (Heb 12:22) and this city seems to be a pattern of the one that God created on the earth that I call the “earthly Jerusalem”.  If the earthly Jerusalem has females, I can only conclude logically that this was a repeated pattern of the original heavenly city Jerusalem also.  So, in my opinion there has to be female angels, but I do not yet have a direct Bible verse for that yet, so you do not have to accept it.

Gen 6:4  There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

So where did all of these giants come from that were in the earth?  They had to come from the sexual union of Adam’s daughters (female descendants) and the angels (sons of God).  It is very apparent to me that this union between God’s new creation and the angels was an illegal sinful act and a perversion of creation, that God would have to do something about.  I can see two potential reasons for this union by angelic beings with humans. It appears to be motivated by their hatred of God and humans, using their willful and intentional act of rebellion to try to destroy God’s new creation.  Some can try to say that Satan and the angels were attempting to pervert the bloodline of man, and this is the only reason for what they did.   It is very easy to assume or jump to the conclusion that they were in effect attempting to eliminate the pure blood line for Christ to come into the world.  However, I’m not convinced that Satan or any of the angels knew Jesus (God in the flesh) was coming into the world at that time. Remember there were no Bibles written when all of this was taking place. Moses wrote about this many years later for the first time.

So ,their motivation for taking human women could have been just a conquest or sexual desire and the fact that they thought and believed that they could get away with it.  Angels, Satan and demons are not “all knowing” beings and God has not yet prophesied the Messiah to come in writing at this point of human time.  It is true that the plan of God was already in place before the foundation of our world.  However, there is no written word, no recorded law of God, no divine prophets speaking the word in the earth other than Enoch, that I know of. We do know that there were a few statements of God being spoken directly t Satan, Adam and Eve about the seed of the woman bruising the head of the serpent.  And that is certainly motivational information that Satan knew someone was coming, because what is the seed of the woman?   So, unless Satan understood what God was saying about the seed of the woman, how would Satan know to start corrupting this bloodline?   We can assume that Satan understood the words of God and that is why the angels did what they did to the women on the earth, but I have no verses to confirm either of these motivations at this time.

In this same chapter of Genesis is the beginning of the story of Noah.  I do not believe that this was just a coincidence.  I believe that Noah was chosen by God to preserve the bloodline and the seed of Adam.  God decided that He must intervene into this perversion by wiping out the human race with a universal flood.  God selects Noah and his 3 sons as those who would preserve the seed of Adam.  Looking at the genealogy of Jesus given to us in Luke 3, God shows us that Jesus mother Mary lineage goes all the way back to Adam through Noah and Shem who have preserved God’s plan.  In other words, there are no angels in the line that Jesus came from.  So, what happened to the angels that sinned and took the women of the earth as their wives?  We are actually given a clue to this event in the N.T. when Peter writes the following:

2Pe 2:4  For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

God tells us that the angels who sinned were forcibly thrown into hell and bound with “chains of darkness”.  It is interesting to note that this verse informs us something very important for you to understand.  Angels, demons, and Satan have never been to hell, do not want to go to hell and are trying everything in their power to stay out of hell.  Hell is not a good place that anyone that is halfway normal wants to be.  Too many people think that Hell is Satan’s dominion or kingdom, but you can clearly read in Revelation that even Satan has to be forcibly thrown into this place.  So, Satan and demons are not normal people, but they do not want to be in hell any more than I do.  Think about it, Satan was used to walking streets of gold in heaven why would he want to go to hell?  Did you notice that this verse said that these angels who sinned were cast into hell and chained so that they could not leave?  Does that sound like they wanted to be there, it does not!  The sin of the angels is not directly named in this verse found in 2nd Peter, but the next verse starts talking about Noah so we can clearly assume that the sin was having sex with the natural women on the earth when they clearly should not have in Genesis 6.  It is not rocket science to read Genesis 6 and 2 Peter 2 and figure this out.

So here we have Genesis 6 the first occurrence or mention of angels in the Bible, or is it?  You see I believe that the first mention of angels in the Bible is a symbolic occurrence way before this in the first chapter of Genesis.  The first two chapters of Genesis is the account of the creation of our world.  Within the first chapter of Genesis is a prophetic timeline of the entire history of mankind on the earth.  If you do not understand that statement, you should read some of my other blogs on the subject.  God uses symbolism in the first chapter from the things that are mentioned, and these things occur in a very specific ordered timeline that reveals a lot of great information to us.  I believe the first reference to angels occurs in verse 16 of Genesis 1:

Gen 1:16  And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

Where are the angels you ask?  That is the tricky part of the mysteries within the Bible; God has hidden significant information within verses that we do not understand until He reveals them to us.  In this verse God speaks of three heavenly objects found in our sky.  Did you notice I said “Heavenly”?  Where is God’s throne?  God’s throne is in “Heaven”.  So, we have three natural symbols that convey spiritual beings and meanings.  I will not discuss the sun or the moon in this lesson, if you need to know who these objects represent you should go read some of my other lessons.  However, the “stars” are innumerable in our night sky.  That is a key word that describes the angels in heaven.

Heb 12:22  But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

God tells us in Hebrews that Heaven contains an innumerable number of angels.  This means that God only knows the number of them, and we just do not have the time to count them all.  In other words, the number of angels is not an infinite number; it is just a very big number.  So here is the reason that I bring “stars” into today’s lesson.  If you read later in the Bible in Revelation, you will see how important it is note:

Rev 12:4  And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

As you can clearly see the tail of the symbolic dragon who is revealed to be Satan causes a 1/3 part of the stars of heaven to fall to the earth.  These are not real stars in our night sky; these are only symbolic stars that represent angels.  In the Bible “stars” many times represents angels symbolically.  This is definitely true in Genesis 1 and Revelation 12 and many other places also.  In this verse of Revelation, it clearly tells us that the number of the angels is not an infinite number because a specific fraction 1/3 of them is fallen from heaven to the earth.  If you can divide a number by 3 you have to know what that number is that is being reduced.   Again, this is just basic logic and the laws of mathematics.

This has been a basic introduction to the subject of angels using the Bible.  I have only speculated about one thing and that is I believe that there must be female angels but that I have not found a direct Bible verse to prove that.  The other facts in this lesson definitely are scripture-based teachings found in the Bible.  We have learned that there are many angels that exist, in fact more than we can count, however not as many as God can count.  We have learned that some of these angels do not belong to God anymore.  Those that are faithful to God are numbered in terms of 2/3 of the total population of angels.  The other 1/3 of the angels we are told are cast down to the earth.  We also learned from Peter’s writings that some angels have already been cast into hell for creating a perverted race of beings in an attempt to corrupt the seed of Adam.   So we have seen two witnesses so far that say that angels can manifest themselves in physical forms in our world.  That is a very important fact to keep in mind.  Here is another witness to this fact:

Heb 13:2  Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares.

I’ll end today’s lesson with this thought, God says for us to treat strangers like they could be a heavenly representative from God.  It is very clear to me that God is saying you never know who you are entertaining and that they could potentially have a message for you from God.  I base this on the fact that I believe that an angel’s number one assignment is to be a messenger of God since that is what the name “angel” means.   We will discuss more scriptures about angels in my next lesson and hopefully see what else the Bible says that they can do.   God Bless!

If you would like to continue reading this series about angels, you can go to “Part 2“.

Understanding Seeds in the Bible! We Are the Seed of Abraham! Part 10

(Ver 1.3)  Today I am writing Part 10 in the series of lessons that I have been doing on the spiritual concepts and laws surrounding God’s designed Seed planting principles.  If you have not read this series from the beginning, I would strongly recommend that you start with “Part 1”.  If you have been reading this series, then welcome back.  When you get a hold of this teaching it will change a lot of what you think and know about God and the Bible.  The concepts given in the Bible about seeds cannot be overly simplified because they are vastly complex in how God applies them throughout the Bible.  The concepts of seeds are overlapping and run in parallel at the same time.  Seeds concepts are truly woven threads in the fabric of God’s truth found throughout the Bible.  The subject of seeds is a common theme given to us in every part of the Bible.  You can find seeds mentioned in the beginning of Genesis 1 all the way to references to seeds in the last chapter of the Bible in Revelation 22.  Seeds are everywhere in the Bible if you know what to look for and if you understand the concepts behind them.  You see in Revelation 22:2 God speaks of the “Tree of Life” on each side of the river flowing from the throne of God.  These “Trees of Life” produce 12 kinds of fruit.  If you recall we learned that Fruit comes from planting seeds, naturally and spiritually.  You plant a seed, you get a tree and then it produces the fruit to produce more fruit trees.  It is a simple concept, yet so profound.  So who are these symbolic fruit trees in Revelation 22?  Do you recall reading back in Genesis 2 about the first mention of the Tree of Life?  God created a Garden for man.  In the garden God placed two trees, named Adam and Eve, I mean the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life.  It would appear to me that God’s plan was for man to eat of the Tree of Life and live forever, since this is the way it is described to end up in Revelation 22.  So what can we learn here?  We learned from the Parable of the Sower that the Word of God was the seed of God.  We learned that the hearts of men and women in the world were the soil where seeds are planted.  Let’s stop right there and analyze that statement.  What is a Garden?  A garden is where you plant your seeds to grow your fruit.  Genesis 2 describes vast amounts of seed principles being applied by God.  We have a symbolic Garden and we have 2 trees that are symbolic of something also.  One tree is OK to eat from and one tree is not OK to eat from.  Sounds like a good time for making the right decision.  Since Adam did not make the right decision we still see that God says I will make the right decision and it will end up the way that I planted it to end up.  After all it is my garden and my seed.  Are you beginning to see the concepts being given?

When you begin to understand just a little bit about seeds you can begin to see that God is smarter than us all put together.  I am a firm believer that God’s stated beginning in Genesis 1 & 2 was a symbolic representation of how He wanted it to end up when our time on this planet is completed.  We know that God is the giver of the “Good” Seed.  We know that we (the people) are God’s Soil or Garden.   That would make God the Ultimate Farmer!  Do you understand this?

Jas 5:7  Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

Here is an amazing verse of scripture that describes God’s Farm System.  The Lord God is described as being the “husbandman”.  This Greek word translated as husbandman in the KJV Bible means “a worker of land” or literally a “farmer”.   We can again see in this verse that Fruit is the desired anticipated outcome of God’s laborious seed planting.  God sowed the good seeds to produce the good fruit from the earth.  This verse is very symbolic in nature.  The “Husbandman” is the Land Owner who Works the Soil to plant His seeds in.   We can clearly understand that God owns the Earth, but that is only natural soil.  God is not talking about a natural crop of corn in this verse.  God is referring to a spiritual crop of fruit.  But, realize that seeds do not produce fruit, seeds produce trees that produce fruit.  This is a very critical part of the seed principle.  This is why I called Adam and Eve trees that had no fruit in Genesis 2 and 3.  Adam however, chose the wrong seeds and allowed the wrong fruit to grow, sinned and died.  Adam in effect sold his birthright for some wrong fruit to Satan.  We (the church) are now the purchased possession of God, by the redemptive price that He has paid with His own blood.  Christians have been purchased, redeemed without money the Bible says.  So we are God’s gardens that have allowed His Seed into our hearts to grow and produce fruit.  We produce the Fruit that God is after.  So when you read Revelation 22:2 and see the Trees of Life on each side of the river flowing from the Throne of God, we can understand that we are these trees producing this fruit every month of the year for an eternity to come.  That is pretty cool stuff, if you ask me.  If you can see it you will think it is pretty amazing also.  Only by rightly dividing the Word of God have I come to these conclusions.  By letting the Bible interpret itself and by understanding simple spiritual concepts like Seeds, Soil, Gardens, Planting, Sowing,  Rain, Watering, Fruit, Reaping and Harvests.

So that was a quick introduction to an overview of how to apply the knowledge that we have gleaned from the Bible subject concerning Seeds.  Like I told you before there are over 250 scriptures in the KJV Bible that directly mention the word “seed”.  In many modern translations the literal meaning of the word “seed” is translated as offspring, children, or some other word that loses the true meaning that God was trying to get you to see.  So while I do not try to tell you what to do, that is why I do not read many translations.  They take too many liberties with God’s Word and change it too much.  The best translation would be no translation, but since I do not speak Hebrew or Greek, I just look up the words in the dictionary and do the best that I can with God’s help.  So the best translation of the Bible is the one that is the most literal and I can’t tell you which one that is, I just know some that they are not.  People need to realize that God could have used any word that He wanted to and He picked “Seed” to describe these things we have been talking about.  I guess translators think that God is stupid and He did not know the right word to use.  Plus I use the KJV version because it is a FREE version of the Bible that is readily available to everyone without charge, limitations or restrictions.  Jesus said freely you have received so charge the heck out of everybody and get all that you can.  I think that is what some Bible manufacturers think, because this is the way that they act.  It is only for the money they think.  Oh, well I guess I’ll get off my soap box and keep teaching on the subject of seeds.  Let me briefly review two concepts that I have touched on before, but this time using some new scripture verses.

Heb 11:11  Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive  seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.

Hebrews chapter 11 is one of the most important chapters in the Bible.  But most people do not see what it says.  The chapter is dominated by one Subject and that is “Faith”.  We can learn that even though God did not reveal “Faith” in the Old Testament, He definitely made it a determining factor to what people received in their life.  This chapter goes through many examples of Bible faith and in this verse we are told of Sarah’s faith in God’s Word.  Sarah believed that God was faithful because He had promised them a child.  Now she was 90 years old when this child came, but yet God was not too late was He?  Many times God’s timing is not your timing, but yet we should not question God, just believe that it will happen like He said.  In this verse there is the direct mention of “seed”.  Sarah was able to “Conceive” Seed.  Did you know that this is how that Mary got pregnant with Jesus also?  These were examples of conceiving two different types of “seeds”, but yet the end results were both the same.  Sarah conceived natural sperm of her husband Abraham’s natural seed.  While Mary conceived the “Word of God”, God’s also known as spiritual seed.  Both women were required to believe that it would happen like it was told to them.  Both women heard the message, before it actually happened to them.   Neither woman had any evidence or proof that it would ever happen, did they?  There was no proof?  This is a pattern of how to receive anything from God.  If you want a baby and have not been able to conceive a child, here is your answer.  God does not show any favoritism to anyone!  God is no respecter of person!   What God did for Sarah and for Mary, He will do for you if you choose to believe also.

So I got off the subject of the Seed of Abraham.  That is what this lesson was supposed to be about when I started.  I guess God wanted to talk to somebody out there and tell them there was hope.  before I more on completely I also want to point out that God can exachange one seed type for the other by the lessons of Sarah and Mary.  What God has created in the natural can still happen by an equivalent type of substance usage or exchange from the spritual realm.  A spiritual seed can replace a natural seed and still give the same result.  Let’s move on to an example of this using the seed of Abraham.  The Bible clearly tells us that Jesus Christ came into the world as the Seed of Abraham.  Let’s prove that statement by reading this verse and see what God reveals:

Heb 2:16  For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.

The Bible is so complex, that it is impossible to teach everything that just one verse says in a short lesson like this.  Why would God mention that Jesus was not born or created as an angel?    That is a much more complex subject that I guess I shouldn’t have mentioned because I cannot talk about it in this lesson.  It only gives you something new to think about.  Learn to ask God questions when you read the Bible and you just may be amazed when He shows you the answers.  So Jesus was not an angel, just load that basic fact into your mind for a future reference to a new unkown question.  However, Jesus was born the “Seed of Abraham”.  We need to review the basic seed concepts again that we have previously learned that should be firmly established in you by now.  We learned that a man is a physical being that has “Seed” within himself.  I showed you several times now that when Abraham paid tithe, his future descendant Levi was reported to have also paid the tithe at the same time.   This was because the physical future seed Levi was in his great grandfather Abraham.   If you do not recall this you should go back and review the earlier lessons, because this is a very critical piece of spiritual information to fully grasp.  The principle revealed to us in this lesson was that every natural descendant of Abraham did exactly what Abraham did because they came from Abraham’s physical seed.  Now that would be really good information if you were a natural seed of Abraham and I’ll tell you why soon.  What about the rest of us on earth?  We were called Gentiles by the laws of flesh in the world that were not born from natural seed of Abraham?   Are we all left out because we were not born from the natural seed of Abraham?  We will find out as we continue.

Keep in mind that the Bible is so much more complex than you give it credit to be.  Also keep in mind that God is smarter than you and I are.  His ways are not your natural ways, so it makes it very difficult for us to grasp these very spiritual things being taught to us.  Let’s turn to Galatians and learn something brand new about seeds:

Gal 3:19  Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.

You can see that this is a verse with wide seed applications attached to it.  We talked earlier about that the word seed can either be singular or plural and you really have a very difficult time in determining which one it is by only reading on the surface.  The word in this context is clearly singular.  Jesus Christ is again called the Seed of Abraham as we can see.  This verse tells us clearly of all the natural seeds that were “IN” Abraham, only one of them carried the hope of the promise that was given to Abraham.  This was a very literal one in some several millions of future natural seeds, type of prophecy.  God singles out and separates “One Seed” to be the “Chosen Seed”.  We know that this Seed was God Himself.  Knowing this now doesn’t sound very good for all the other natural seeds that came from Abraham.  Can you see how the Bible presents us with puzzles and paradoxical predicaments?   We read in one place that being a seed of Abraham seems to be a good thing, but now we read that only one of the seeds actually carried the promise.  Wow are things getting complicated or what?

Gal 3:18  For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

Let’s back up one verse in Galatians and see some of the context of what is being discussed around this subject of the “Chosen Seed”.  I’ll try to stay on subject, according to what we just read in verse 19, we are talking about the Seed called Jesus Christ who we can see in this verse was promised the inheritance.   So the inheritance was not promised to every seed, just the One!  That is a pretty complex thing to think about and it can become a point of confusion, if we are not careful.  What is an inheritance?   Do you understand this concept?  Have you ever seen or been to a lawyer’s office who reads someone’s last will and testament?   Someone had to die in order for there to be an inheritance available to anyone.   Do you understand this?  This will certainly get more complicated than you can imagine when I tell you who died.    Who died to leave an inheritance to the Chosen Seed?  If you guessed that the Chosen Seed died you would actually be right!  God gave Himself to be the sacrifice for man’s sin.  God became the Chosen Seed of Abraham.  This Seed died and was planted into the natural ground for 3 days and rose up spiritually alive again forever.  God is the only one that I know of that is capable of experiencing death and then coming back to life to inherit that which He had left as an inheritance.  I don’t know if you understand these concepts or not, but I know they are staggeringly powerful spiritual laws in action.  Do you see how God used seed concepts and laws in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ?

What does all of this have to do with you and I?  How does it affect us personally in the church?  How do I apply seed information to me if I am not a natural seed of Abraham?  I think that is what interests many people, what is the bottom line for me today?  That is where I want to get to now.  If you are a true Christian, a born again believer in Christ, then it has everything to do with you.

Gal 3:22  But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

As you can see in this following verse of Galatians 3, the promise was by the faith of Jesus Christ that it might be given to us who believe.  Do you see why I included the scripture about Sarah?  Do you see how she was given a promise by God and trough her faith in His promised words, she conceived seed?  God has implemented a system within Christianity that is based totally and completely upon faith and seeds.  Let’s look at Faith in the terms of “Seed” concepts briefly.  If you went to your garden and planted some seeds in it, did you have any faith when you plant your seeds?  Do you believe that what you are doing is going to result in anything good in the future?  You see if you did not have any faith in these seeds you would not have planted any of them in the first place.  A seed is not a magic potion; you do not plant them and poof there they are like some magic bean stalk!  Faith is never a Jack in the Bean stalk reality or fantasy.   It always takes time and care to develop and produce that which was planted.  So farming is a faith lesson.   God planted a seed and expected a harvest.  That is the definition of what faith is in a nutshell; believing in a harvest by only planting seeds in the ground.  Remember that natural seeds are invisible substances when placed in the ground.  You see nothing for many days and only believe they are there by faith.

Are you a believer today?  Then you believe in God’s Seed principles.   Even though you have never seen Jesus personally, you believe that He is faithful who has promised.  The Bible says “Why stare ye into heaven?  This same Jesus that you saw go up into heaven, will come back down in the same way” (Acts 1:11).  Believing only in the words of angels written down in a book with no basis of proof and no physical evidence that you can take to court, that is what faith is.  God’s Word is the Seed, remember?  If you believe God’s Word it will conceive in your spirit the same as it did for Mary.  No, you won’t have a virgin birth, God did not promise you that, but you can go into the Bible and see what He did Promise you and believe for that.

Gal 3:7  Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.

This verse near the beginning of  Galatians 3 makes a declaration that is not widely understood.  As you can see this verse is addressed to the Church of Jesus Christ.  How can a widely Gentile congregation of people be called the children of Abraham?  If you look up the definition of the words, it actually calls Abraham our “father”.  I thought God was our Father?  Here is another perplexing puzzle given to us in the Bible.   You see there is NO WAY that I am a natural descendant of Abraham.  I was not born of the natural nation of Israel.  But, yet God still calls Abraham my father.  People obviously just ignore verses like these in the Bible, I guess?  Since I am not a natural child of Abraham that only leaves me to be a spiritual child of Abraham.  Do you understand this logic?  There are only two realms of existence and these are the created natural realm and the original spiritual realm.  If you are a living born again Christian on this earth you exist within both of these realms simultaneously.  If you are not a Christian you only exist in the physical realm until you die physically.  If you look at the context of this verse you can see that Abraham was justified by faith.  Abraham believed God, Galatians 3:6 says to us.  So this means that we have also been justified by the same faith that Abraham possessed.  Not just believing in God, but believing God came to the earth personally and died for your sins and was raised from the dead.  This is faith in God’s personal accomplished works and His Words.

Gal 3:14  That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

You should make a valid attempt at understanding every verse in this chapter of Galatians.  It describes who you are and reveals how you became what you are in very clear in-depth terminology.   Let’s start by realizing that Abraham was extremely blessed by God.  The natural descendants of Abraham have always been extremely blessed by God.  The natural nation of Israel has controlled vast amounts of the world’s wealth ever since they left Egypt and took all they could carry.  But, this verse says that the blessings of Abraham should come upon us, the Gentiles.  How did this occur?  It could only occur by you getting born again by your faith in Jesus Christ.  Now that makes you of the same faith as your father Abraham.  Again we see a principle of the seed within itself concept being given.  Whatever our father spiritual Abraham did, that is also what we who believe God have done.  Faith is a spiritual force of the human spirit.  So you cannot see Abraham’s faith unless he does something to demonstrate his faith to us.  When the lame man was brought to Jesus at the house where they tore the roof up to lower him to Jesus, the Bible says that Jesus could see their faith.  So faith can be seen depending upon what people do.  So what did our father Abraham do to demonstrate his faith?  If you recall you might remember that God changed his name.   When God changed his name from Abram to Abraham, Abram could have said that is not who I am and refused to go along with it.  The name Abraham means “father of nations”.  So by Abraham going around saying his name he confirmed that he was the father of nations even without having the promised child yet.  This is another faith lesson that is an excellent story to show you how God works with people.  But, this verse also says that the promise to Abraham was for us to receive the Spirit of God by this same faith.  I honestly do not know how to explain that verse of scripture, so I just accept it by faith for now and trust the Lord God to reveal it to me later.   Let’s skip down to the end of the chapter and see the last verse to wrap this lesson up:

Gal 3:29  And if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.

This chapter of Galatians ends with another seed concept and statement.  If you are Christ’s, meaning that you belong to Him, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to the promise.  We again see a reference to the promise of God made to Abraham and to his seed.  God promised the Seed of Abraham that He would be the heir.   This seed was Jesus Christ.  But, now it calls us this same seed at the same time.  Since you and I are not Jesus how do we explain what this verse says?  That is a very strong question that many people do not fully try to comprehend how that we in the church have become an equal heir with Christ.  God again exhibits His extreme intelligence in how He designed these things to work.   We are joint heirs with Christ by marriage covenant.  The church is the Bride of Christ and if you do not understand this, you should read the series of lessons that I did on this subject.  By being joined to Him by marriage covenant we have become one with Him.  The law of Genesis says that the two shall be even as one!  We have just seen another paradox being presented to us.  We have one body or seed but two heirs.  We can only resolve this paradox by studying how Eve came from the one body of Adam to make two.  So the Bible is complex I know and you may struggle with many of the things that I teach.  I hope and pray that you at least go and read all of these verses in your Bible and look up the definitions and meanings of every word you can find and see for yourself if they are true or not.  Do not ever take my word for anything, I am a man that makes mistakes, I am capable of failing since I am an imperfect growing Christian just like you are.  So the bottom line of today’s lesson was the Church was called the Seed of Abraham.  Did you know you were a seed?  I bet you are beginning to see that you are a seed in more ways than one.  I apologize for covering too much in one lesson and making it so long today.  God Bless You, until next time.

If you would like to continue reading this series of lessons on “seeds” you can go to “Part 11“.

Understanding Seeds in the Bible! The Seed of Resurrection! Part 7

(ver 1.2) This is now Part 7 of a series of lessons on the concepts and laws surrounding seeds found in the Bible.  The Seed is a naturally divinely inspired designed principle that demonstrates vast spiritual revelation and today will be another example of that.  In a previous lesson I taught on a parable that Jesus spoke on concerning the seed concept that if a seed ever produces fruit, it must first die and be planted (buried) in the ground (John 12:24).  We looked at Jesus being this seed, but of course He was also a man like you and I in the world.    The Spirit of God raised the man, Jesus Christ from the dead and He became the first man ever to be resurrected from the dead.  We know that the man Jesus Christ was crucified on a cross in Jerusalem.  We know that He hung there and died.  We know the Roman soldier pierced His side and His blood and water from His body flowed from His side onto the ground.  We then know His body was taken down and placed in a tomb.  We can now begin to understand the seed concepts being presented.  The body of Jesus was a seed.  This seed died and was buried in a earthly tomb.   But, after 3 days we know that God raised this man Jesus back to life in His own physical body.  So far I’m just stating things that you should already know, especially if you have been reading this series.  If you have not read this series from the beginning I would strongly suggest that you go back and start reading with “Part 1”.

Let us today start by discussing some basic seed concepts using a natural seed.  Did you know that a seed contains 3 main parts?  How many main parts does a man have?  A man also has 3 man parts; man is a 1). spirit that has a 2). soul, who lives in a 3). body.  So man has 3 main parts.  I believe the parallels to natural things and spiritual things are quite amazing.  God is also described as a 3 part spiritual being.  God the Father, God the Word and God the Holy Ghost are the three parts that comprise the One True God.   So what are the 3 main parts of a natural seed?  They are the 1). Seed Coat, the 2).  Endosperm and the 3). Embryo.   These are the 3 major components of a natural seed.   Let’s compare the makeup of a man to the makeup of a seed.   The outer portion that we can see would be the “human body” and this would correspond to the “seed coat” which is the outer shell membrane.    Then man’s next layer going from least important to most important would be his soul.  The soul of the man is his “mind” and this component corresponds to the seed “Endosperm”.   The final most important part of a man is his spirit.  The “spirit of man” corresponds to the most important part of a seed, the “Embryo”.   God can be very tricky to understand.  As you might have seen God calls the children of humans their “Seed”.   So God describes the human makeup of a man to be designed after a seed.  As you can see from the natural description of a seed this information corresponds very closely.   However, in another parable Jesus spoke of a man being the “Ground” that the seed is planted into.  However, this time the seed is the Word of God.  Jesus taught in the Parable of the Sower that man could be 6 different types of ground or natural earth.  This is the part that makes many people scratch their heads and say “how can we be both”, yet God clearly calls us both of these.  I believe it depends upon your perspective and the application that you are attempting to use it in.  Clearly there are different types of seeds and this is part of the difficulty of interpretation, being forced to determine the context and the correct type of everything being discussed by God.  No body that I know of says Bible interpretation is easy, if you think it is you have been deceived.

So I have gone through a long introduction, introducing some new things along with a review of some basic seed concepts that we should have all previously learned.  Today I want to show you something new in the Bible that applies to God’s design of us  being a type of seed.  The subject of the resurrection is of course a potentially controversial subject, since not to many people know much about it.  Some believe in it and some do not.  It is no different today than when Jesus walked the face of the earth.  You may remember in Matthew 22:23 that a group of people came to Jesus to ask Him a question.  These people were members of the Sadducees, who did not believe in the resurrection of the dead.  So it is really no different today, we still have people who do not subscribe to what the Bible teaches.  So let’s discuss resurrection and what it is briefly.  The “Resurrection of the Dead” is a basic foundational truth taught in the Bible (Heb 6:2).  The Greek word in the Strong’s dictionary means to “raise up”, to “stand up again” or “to raise to life again”.   These are those which were once alive who are stated to have died and behold are alive again.   That is the concept of resurrection being described to us and this is a seed concept being clearly demonstrated.   A seed lives, a seed dies and is raised again to a new life after being planted.  So if a man is a seed and his makeup or design resembles a natural seed we should be able to see how God plans to use this concept in the resurrection of our physical bodies. 

1Co 15:35  But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?

In this verse Paul is writing to the church at Corinth and answering some basic theological questions.  There must have been some raging debate on the subject to cause God to respond in this manner.  Of course it also helps us to learn what was being taught since we were not present when Paul taught it to them personally.  Two questions are presented to God.  First, how are the dead “raised up” and second what kind of body will they have?  I think these are two very good questions and we will see if God answers these questions.

1Co 15:22  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.

Backing up in the chapter we see some contextual verses that are also in reference to the seed resurrection principle.  Adam caused all men to die because we were all “in” Adam when he sinned.  Christ will cause all men to live again because we that are born again were in Christ when He was raised from the dead.  This is not a universal salvation, meaning that everyone will go to heaven however.  You see there are people trying to deceive others using these types of teachings where they only use the parts of the Bible that they like and then reject the parts that they do not like or that don’t fit what they desire to believe.   Here is a verse that Jesus gave us on this subject of resurrection. 

Joh 5:29  And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.

To “come forth” is a Seed concept.  You dig a hole in the soil, sow a seed in the ground, cover it with dirt and in the process of time it “comes forth” out of the ground.   Then Jesus tells us that some who have done good things will be resurrected into life and these are the good seeds that God planted.  However, then there is the bad news for the bad seeds, those that have done evil will be resurrected to damnation.  Wow, not very good news for some people.  Everyone is prophesied to be resurrected from the dead and come forth but there are two types of seeds being described and they are very different, even completely opposite.  We learned this concept when Jesus taught us the parable about the man who sowed good seed (Mat 13).  The enemy came and sowed tares among the seeds of wheat and they both came to bear fruit simultaneously.   What we discover is that the resurrection for the dead is a reality that everyone will face in the future; it is really dependent upon what type of seed you are in to where they end up.  Some will be very happy and some will be extremely sad.

1Co 15:32  If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not? let us eat and drink; for to morrow we die.

Here is a verse that I thought I would include simply because this is a common attitude found in the present evil world that we live in.  People are massively consumed with self-indulgence and have a self-centered attitude towards life.  If you have something and I want it I’ll just take it.  After all there are no consequences to life, we are just the same as every other animal on the planet, they think and have been taught.   If we evolved from monkeys and monkeys die that is the end of them so it is with us.  There is no God, no Judge, no hell, no way are we going to bear any responsibility for our actions so live it up and be all that you can be for tomorrow you may die.  People are so focused on themselves they do not know what they are doing to others.  That is really going to be the hardest lesson to learn when it comes to judgment day.

1Co 15:35  But some man will say, How are the dead raised up? and with what body do they come?

So let’s get back to finding the answers to the two questions being asked by the skeptics.  How is it possible that this resurrection will occur and what will I look like after it does occur?

1Co 15:36  Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:

God begins to answer the first question using the seed principle.  To quicken something means to be made alive.  This is a changing or reversal from death to life.  What God is describing is the basic seed concept we previously discussed.  A seed is useless unless it first dies.  Only after the death of a seed, can the new life come forth.  I like Paul a lot.  He is very straight forward and stands firmly behind what he teaches.  He says that those who are ignorant are fools because they purposely reject the truth.   You need to decide if you want to be a fool today or change to accept the wisdom of God.  God is revealing to us seed principles that are very profound and they apply directly to us in this subject of the resurrection of our physical bodies.  We wouldn’t be able to live again if Jesus did not die for us and plant the seed for our salvation.  Here is the next verse so pay close attention to what it says:

1Co 15:37  And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain:

God almost gives us a contradiction of terms.  One of the seed principles from Genesis is every seed produces after its own kind.  An orange seed will produce only an orange tree.  But, now we see another extension to the puzzle.  You plant a seed and you get a tree and not just another set of seeds.  In other words you do not plant a tree and get a tree.  Or you do not plant a seed and just get more seeds.  No the basic law is that you plant a seed and you will get a new living plant.  God is saying in this verse in 1 Corinthians that the physical body that you have right now is nothing but a bare grain of seed.  What God is alluding to is that your physical body you have now is not the spiritual body that you will have after the resurrection.

1Co 15:38  But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.

While wheat seeds only produce wheat, God is saying that every human is still a uniquely designed individual.  So while we are all human seeds, we look differently and have unique natural features like individual fingerprints and DNA.   These unique features will produce a similar design in the resurrected us.  In other words everybody will not be clones in the resurrected spiritual realm.  You can clearly see in this verse God is calling us each a seed, but at the same time also calling us all unique seeds.  That makes our seed discussion a little bit more complex, but yet same seed principles and laws still apply.  So let’s go through some of the other information revealed to us:

1Co 15:42  So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption:

I skipped down to verse 42 because it seemed relevant to our seed discussion.  God says He will take the corruptible natural part of us and sow it to produce the new incorruptible part of us during the resurrection.  That is pretty cool stuff, if you ask me.

1Co 15:43  It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power:

What was dishonorable and weak will become glorious and powerful.  God is giving you a clue comparison of the difference between the old and the new.  That which will become a new is highly better than that which was sown.  This is a result of being born again of the incorruptible seed of God and not the corruptible natural seed of man.

1Co 15:44  It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.

Our natural bodies will be planted as a seed that will produce the spiritual resurrected bodies.  God clearly declares that our future spiritual bodies are not the exact same as our current physical bodies.  The new spiritual body will not get sick, or grow old, will not fail, or even grow tired.  There are just too many new features to describe this new body.  The new body will certainly have many of the same features of the old body and still be able to do many of the things that old body could do.  The best of the old will continue to be present in the new.  Jesus after being resurrected from the dead would still eat natural food with his disciples.  So eating is a future good thing to look forward to and all the church people said amen!  So I think I have gone long enough on the subject of the “Seed of Resurrection”.  I hope and pray that you enjoyed the lesson and derived some benefit from reading it.  God continue to bless you until the next time.

If you like to continue reading this series you can go to “Part 8“.

Understanding God’s Design of a Man! Man Made In the Image of God!

(Ver 1.2) There is a vast amount of confusion surrounding the makeup of the human design of man.  Natural and carnal people think they are just a physical body much like every other mammal on the planet.   Certain intellectual people in the world think and believe that they are just a mind in the universal consciousness of Nirvana, or some C.R.A.P. (Christian Reasoning Applied Poorly) like that.  Please forgive my bluntness, but God is not an intellect or a mind over matter concept of a religion.  There are only a certain number of Christians that realize the truth and of course not all of them really know very much about the details of the design of man and they mix up the components when speaking about them.  There is just too many differing man made opinions on the subject and the definitions given to us in the Bible are being ignored.  So today I will attempt to explore and to explain the 3 separate parts that make up the human design and teach you how they are related, what they are and where they exist using only the Bible to explain them.  This will probably be a very long lesson on the subject, so I apologize for not breaking it down into a series of shorter lessons.  We should start with the basics from Genesis, because this was the beginning of man and it states God’s initial design concepts and purpose for a man.  Why is it important to study this subject?  Primarily because how you see yourself reflects whether you came from a monkey or from a created design of God.  Based upon the correct interpretation of Human design found in the Bible alone proves that the evolution theory of man is a myth.  In Genesis, God gives us His stated purpose for creating a man and what we will quickly discover in Genesis is that God designed man after a divine pattern of Himself:

Gen 1:26  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the…

So here is the stated beginning of man.  Man is a created being.  Man had a specific stated point of origin.  You could call it a point of origination, but God calls it a beginning.   Genesis means a book of beginnings.  However we can see that humans are uniquely designed after a pre-existing pattern of God.  Uh Oh?   That probably bugs natural thinking people who believe only in evolution.  God who is a Spirit (John 4:24) existed before time and space existed.  God is an eternal spiritual being.  This of course is not the complete verse and I left out the ending to simply concentrate on the subject at hand of where did man come from?  The rest of the verse speaks about man’s responsibilities and purpose for being here.  However, I want to focus in on two specific words in this verse, one is “image” and the other is “likeness”.

Image

From an unused root meaning to shade; a phantom, that is, (figuratively) illusion, resemblance; hence a representative figure, especially an idol: – image, vain shew.

This is an interesting Hebrew word from the Strong’s definition.   It overall means a resemblance.  In other words you could have looked at Adam and seen his family resemblance to his father God.  I know there are many religious people who do not like me to call Adam a son of God, but yet that is what the Bible says so I’ll stick with it.  I did not say that Adam was the Son of God, so put down your stones.  Now let’s look at the word “likeness” and see the Strong’s definition for this word:

Likeness

From H1819; resemblance; concretely model, shape; adverbially like: – fashion, like (-ness, as), manner, similitude.

While this is a very similar word to the first, it is also a completely different word.  So either God is trying to teach us something, or He is just repeating Himself and confused and I do not think that God gets confused.   The key meaning of this word is “resemblance” as in the “family resemblance” was with Adam resembling his father God again.  Similitude is another definition of this word.  One definition of the word “similitude” is “One closely resembling another”.  Adam when created closely resembled his Creator.  What we can clearly see is that if Adam closely resembled God, then whatever God was, man was a very closely designed pattern of this God. You cannot look at one and not recognize the other.  Adam possessed the traits of the family resemblance of God.   When my son was born and grew up, everyone looked at him and said “He looks just like his father” and he did.   What I want you to see is this same family resemblance is handed down from generation to generation.  Here is a verse in the Bible that says something about Adam’s son resembling Adam:

Gen 5:3  And Adam lived an hundred and thirty years, and begat a son in his own likeness, after his image; and called his name Seth:

As you can clearly see the same two Hebrew words are presented for another father and son combination.  Adam’s son Seth bore the resemblance of his father Adam.  Do you recognize a pattern?  It is the same pattern between God and Adam, just being perpetuated down the line.  Every generation of Adam contained the same resemblance to God.  Man has never lost the family resemblance to the Most High.  What I want you to realize is that whatever God is, that is also what man is on a smaller limited scale.  If God is a Spirit, then man is a spirit.  If God is a triune being, then man is a triune being.  If God is a speaking spirit, then man is a speaking spirit.  There are just too many qualities of God to list them all in this lesson.  If you do not understand the trinity of God, I have written a blog on “Understanding the Trinity of God”.   So go and read about God the Father, God the Word and God the Holy Spirit being One God in that blog.  Now, what I want to do is introduce you to the concepts about the triune makeup of man.  Man if created to look like God, must precisely follow the pattern of the makeup of God’s design.

What are the three parts that make up a man?  Also, I use the term man generically as “mankind” and I’m not leaving women out, so please understand this.  According to the scriptures that I have read and studied, the human makeup of man is that primarily of a spirit being.  After all God is a Spirit.  If a man had no spirit we would be purely just like a monkey.  Animals do not have spirits.  No animal was ever made in the image and likeness of God Almighty.  Therefore, man did not evolve from animals.  There are many idiots in the world that disagree and think God used evolution to bring us into the world, but they do err and make themselves to be fools.

Jas 2:26  For as the body without the Spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

Those who want to see what the Bible says clearly will accept verses like this one.  However, those who do not want to accept the truth will be deceived into believing the lies of Satan very easily.   Many times you just have to read the Bible and accept it for what it literally says and this is one of those times.  Man’s body we are told is dead without his spirit being inside of his body.  You can also read into this a complimentary implied truth that is given to us, if the body is dead, then the spirit has departed and is no longer in the body.  People who do not want to believe this fact try to say this word “spirit” means breath, to respire, to inspire, to take in oxygen physically.  After all God when He created Adam “breathed” the breath of life into his nostrils, Genesis 2 says.  When you think naturally you think wrong and this is most people’s problem with their interpretations of the Bible.  They forget who the author is; God is a Spirit and not a physical being.  Because God wrote the Bible in a manner to give man a choice to be wrong, many think they are right and do not understand they are completely wrong.  The Bible says that the “carnal” mind of man is enmity to God.  Natural thinking is an enemy to the thoughts and ways of God.  If you think that God came down to the earth and did mouth to mouth resuscitation on Adam to get him breathing and to live, you are clearly deceived.  God breathed His Spirit into the body of the man Adam and Adam became a living soul.  If you go back and look up the references in the Bible using the Greek word translated as “spirit” in James 2:6; you will find that it is used in context with every type of spiritual being.  God’s Spirit or the Spirit of God, who is also called the Holy Spirit are examples found with this same word.  The spirits of demons, unclean spirits and evil spirits are also defined using this word.  Does God breathe oxygen?  Does Satan breathe oxygen?  Do Angels breathe Oxygen?  If you said No!; you are correct.  So then do not think that man only breathes oxygen and that is what makes us human.  So man’s spiritual makeup is no different than God’s spiritual makeup, the makeup of angels, Satan or demons.  The only difference is that we exist physically here on this planet and that means, we eat, drink, sleep and breathe to be here.  Do not confuse natural things with spiritual things or you will be totally confused.  I guess I still need to discuss the triune nature of man so I will introduce you to this using the Bible:

1Th 5:23  And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

To declare something to be whole is to declare it to be complete, missing no parts.  Man is clearly described as a “triune” being in this verse.  Man has three distinct and separate parts that make up our “whole” existence.  These are listed in order of priority from most important to that of least importance.    The first part of man and the most essential component to man is the spirit of a man.  The spirit of man is the part that God breathed into Adam from His Spirit.  God is called the “Father” of spirits in Hebrews 12:9.  So if God is called the Father of spirits then God is only the Father of Adam’s spirit and not the father of Adam’s body.  Do you understand the difference?  When Jesus was born into the world as the Son of God, He is called the “Only Begotten”.  That means only Jesus was God’s naturally born physical Son.  God became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).  You can clearly see the difference between Adam and Jesus.  Jesus was born here and Adam’s body came from the dust of the ground.  These are two radically different creative works of God.  So getting back to our verse in 1 Thessalonians 5:25; we can see that Adam when created had to possess all three of these qualities in order to live on this planet.  The Bible says that when God breathed the Spirit of Life into Adam; Adam became a living soul so we can see that the soul of Adam is different that the spirit of Adam.   God did not put His soul into Adam, it says that Adam only “became” a living soul after God breathed into his nostrils and that is completely different.    We have not discussed what a soul is, so that is probably the point of confusion for many people right now.  The final component of man listed in this verse in 1 Thessalonians 5:25 is the physical body of the man.  This is the part that we all can see and touch, but yet it is not the man, just the house that the man lives in.  These are the three components that make up the human design.  We are a triune being, consisting of three distinct parts.  We exist in three different dimensions or realms of existence.  These realms are the spiritual realm, the mental realm and the physical realm.

I have been in many churches and they sometimes use the words spirit and soul interchangeably.   They seem to think that they are one in the same things.  They will say after a church service that God saved 15 souls today in church.  Or they will pray for the soul of Brother John, because he is going through a hard time right now.  Or they will say God bless the soul of our dear sister.  So what is the difference between a soul and a spirit?  I guess we should first determine there is a difference.  So let’s start with this verse:

1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

So here we have a verse with the two key words used in contrasting styles and references.  God calls the first man Adam a Living Soul; but then He calls the last man Adam a quickening Spirit.   If the spirit of man was the same as the soul of the man, it would not be necessary to use different Greek words, would it?  Jesus Christ is called the Last Adam and He causes spirits to live.  The inferred reference or opposite truth to this is the clear association that the first Adam has caused spirits to die.  Since it is impossible for spirits to die, then we have to figure out another explanation of what this means.  I believe that it means that unrighteous people who are alive in the world are soul dominated or controlled.  In direct contrast to this, true Christians in the world should be Spirit aware and controlled.  If a person dies without knowing Jesus Christ and accepting Him as their personal Lord and Savior, they are now separated from God.  So any way let me give you another verse that declares the reality that the spirit and the soul are not the same thing.

Heb 4:12  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

If God can divide the soul from the spirit, they are not one in the same things.  What God is revealing to us is that these two things are clearly closely related or even work in conjunction with each other in a joint function or purpose, but that they are clearly and distinctly different components of the human design.   God actually gives us a clue in the very last statement to the definition of these two words.  The Word of God is said to be a “discerner” of the thoughts of a man’s heart.  This word translated as “discerner” comes from a Greek word meaning a “Judge”.  The Word of God is able to judge your thoughts.  Where are your thoughts?  Your thoughts exist within the realm of your mind and intellect.  However, God declares that the thoughts are associated with your heart.  Your heart is your spirit.  So we can conclude that your mind is how you get through to your internal spirit.  I think this is a good time to introduce you to the Greek Word translated as “soul”.  Here is Strong’s definition:

psuchē

From G5594; breath, that is, (by implication) spirit, abstractly or concretely (the animal sentient principle only; thus distinguished on the one hand from G4151, which is the rational and immortal soul; and on the other from G2222, which is mere vitality, even of plants: these terms thus exactly correspond respectively to the Hebrew [H5315], [H7307] and [H2416]: – heart (+ -ily), life, mind, soul, + us, + you.

No wonder people are so confused.  Using this definition is very confusing.  It would seem to apply to everything from people down to plants and did you know that in a way this is correct.  You see every animal on our planet has a soul.  The predominate thing that I take out of this definition is the usage of the reference to the word concerning your “MIND”.   Maybe you can clearly see that the Greek word “psuche” is where we get our words like “psyche” or words like “psychology” or “psychiatrist” come from this word.   These are all Mind related curriculums and references.   These are the study of your mental health and the human mind.  This is the predominate realm of the soul of man.  To have the ability to think, rationalize, process, calculate, make decisions, among other mental functions are all related actions of the soul of man.  Your mind is of course a very complex part of your being, the ability to reason and to create come from God’s nature being imparted into man at creation.  This is part of the makeup of man that makes him different than animals.  All animals have limited soulish realms, but they do not create nor are they self-aware of their own existence!  Sure animals have limited feelings but not like those of a human.  Sure in very limited forms animals build themselves houses or things like that.  But, I’ve never seen an animal write a song or even try to play the piano on their own without the prompting or training of a man.  Animals are not wondering “Why am I here?” and “Who am I?”.  Creativity is a part of the soul of man that is unique to us.  We learned this trait from our creator God.  But, your mind is more complex than just that.  How about your memory?  The ability to learn information and to recall facts and material on a subject in an organized fashion is definitely a mental function of the human mind.  Many naturally thinking people in the world associate or attribute this to the physical human brain.  However, this is not what the Bible teaches.  Your mind, your reasoning, your memory have nothing to do with your physical brain and I can prove that to you using the Bible.

Luk 16:22  And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;

Jesus, God in the flesh tells us a real story about two men who both died.  One man was a beggar on the earth and the other a rich man.  The bodies of both the beggar and of the rich man are buried.  The Angels of God come and take the beggar.  Did you understand this?  The spiritual angels of God came and took the spirit of the beggar to the bosom of Abraham.  Now we are immediately told what happened to the rich man:

Luk 16:23  And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

The rich man now suddenly appears in hell.  We are not told if the angels carried him there or if this is just where you go by default after you die.  I find this story to be fascinatingly informative about the afterlife experience.  Before Jesus was resurrected, a human could not die and go to heaven, so the righteous ones who died were transported to a place called “Abraham’s bosom” and this is a place different than hell.  It is also interesting to note that the rich man could still “see”.  Spirits have eyes.  Interesting isn’t it?   The rich man tries to ask Abraham who was a far off from where he was in hell, to send Lazarus to give him a drink of water because he was being tormented in the flames.  Then the rich man asks Abraham to send Lazarus back to the earth so that he could tell his brothers not to come to this place of torment called hell.  Are you seeing anything here?  The rich man had all of his memory, his mental reasoning abilities; his entire soul realm was with him in hell.  Jesus told us that his body was buried in the ground so that means your soul works outside of your body.  Abraham was also physically dead and his body was buried and they were holding a conversation and using their minds to do it.

Luk 16:25  But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.

Here is one of Abraham’s responses to the rich man in hell.  He told the rich man to remember and this is clearly a mental function of the soul realm.  People in hell even without their bodies can remember, think and process things using their minds.   Many try to say this story that Jesus told is a parable and not a real story, but they make Jesus a liar then.  Is Abraham a real man?  Then if Abraham is real, the beggar is also a real man named Lazarus and finally the rich man must be a real man but one who is not identified by name.  I don’t think Jesus wanted to name the rich man or you could see that he didn’t make it to heaven and feel very sad if you knew him personally or he was one of your family members.

This story of Lazarus in the Bible, clearly describes all three components that make up the human design.  Every component is clearly identified and separated in one story.   It starts in the physical realm and ends in the spiritual realm.  The mental or soulish realm transfers wherever the spirit resides.  There are just many other Bible verses that speak about the triune nature and the design of man to resemble God, but I guess I have gone too long for one lesson.  I have certainly introduced you to some new concepts about the spiritual, mental and physical parts of the human design by God and I hope and pray that you can see them clearly.  God Bless!

Understanding Seeds in the Bible! Plant a Seed, Get a Harvest! Part 1

(Ver 1.6)  This of course is a difficult subject to cover, yet one that I believe is very critical for every Christian to understand.   God said in the Bible some things that are very profound about seeds and if you can understand them, you will gain vast amounts of spiritual knowledge and understanding of how almost everything in the world works.  I know that sounds like a very broad statement but, you obviously do not know very much about seeds right now or you would have to agree with me.  Seeds represent concepts that apply both to the natural realm and the spiritual realm simultaneously.  When you begin to understand them, you will begin to understand why things have happened in your life and how to affect or change your future results.  Too many Christians think that what happens to them in life is predetermined by God.  If it is God’s will I will live to be an old man, if not only God knows.  While God does know your future, it is definitely wrong to say that you can not change it.  If you do not believe me you should read your Bible more often.  When you read in the Bible in 2 Kings 20, you will see Isaiah the prophet coming to King Hezekiah and telling him that the Lord says for him to “Set Your House in Order, for thou shalt Die and Not Live!”.  The prophet of God tells the King what God has already told him will happen and these are the sayings of the almighty God.  King Hezekiah ends up praying to God and as a result God tells Isaiah to tell the King he shall live 15 more years.  What would have happened if Hezekiah had not prayed?  He would have died.  Who changed, God or Hezekiah to cause him to live 15 more years?  The Bible tells us “I am the Lord and I Change Not” (Mal 3:6).  So obviously God did not change his mind, so what happened?  That certainly is a mystery that too many Christians do not understand.  It is not totally up to God what happens to you, it is more up to you than it is up to God.  However, since that is not my primary subject, we will continue learning about seeds and see if you can figure this mystery out for yourself.    Here is one of my foundational scriptures for this series of Bible lessons:

Gen 8:22  While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

What God is revealing in this verse, is that there are established laws in the earth.  These laws consist of physical laws as well as spiritual laws.  These laws are representative of established natural patterns within creation and even reveal the hidden qualities of God.  These laws represent established cycles that will not cease unless God causes them to change in the future.    However, it is clear that God says these laws will persist as long as the earth is here, so they are not going away anytime soon.  God mentions 3 of these cycles and laws in this verse.  The first one mentioned is that of the law of seeds and harvests.   You plant a seed you reap a harvest.  The next cycle mentioned is that of our established pattern of annual seasons.  Winter and summer are just two of the 4 seasons mentioned.  Next we have the cycle of Day and Night and again this is representative of a 24 hour cycle of time that the earth revolves in every day.  What I want to focus on is just the subject of “Seeds” in this series of lessons.  You can read about Understanding Night and Day in another blog series that I have already done.

Planting seeds and getting harvests are a part of the essential design of God’s creation as well as being an essential part of God’s hidden nature and character.  Hopefully you will better understand this as we go through the Bible on this subject.  But, here is a challenge from God, there are multiple things in the Bible called “seeds” and this is one of the complexities found while studying the Bible.  God calls multiple things by the same name and we are required to figure out which one He is talking about to correctly understand each verse.  While the overall concepts behind each occurrence of the word can overlap, they are certainly not the same entity.  Let me give you some examples of seeds found in the Bible:

  1. Natural Grass Seeds
  2. Natural Fruit Seeds
  3. The Seed of a Man, His Sperm
  4. The Seed of a Woman, Her Children
  5. The Seed of a Man and a Woman, their offspring
  6. The Word of God
  7. The Seed of your Mouth, Your Words
  8. The Body of Jesus Christ
  9. The Church
  10. Your Body

So I just gave you 10 examples of a thing that the Bible calls seeds and that is certainly not a complete list of all of them.  Just for grins let’s start by looking up a dictionary definition of the word seed in a noun form:

A mature fertilized ovule of angiosperms and gymnosperms that contains an embryo and the food it will need to grow into a new plant. Seeds provide a great reproductive advantage in being able to survive for extended periods until conditions are favorable for germination and growth. The seeds of gymnosperms (such as the conifers) develop on scales of cones or similar structures, while the seeds of angiosperms are enclosed in an ovary that develops into a fruit, such as a pome or nut. The structure of seeds varies somewhat. All seeds are enclosed in a protective seed coat. In certain angiosperms the embryo is enclosed in or attached to an endosperm, a tissue that it uses as a food source either before or during germination. All angiosperm embryos also have at least one cotyledon. Many angiosperms were created with specific fruits for dispersal of seeds by the wind, water, or animals.

There are too many things in this description to take note of them all.  Also I changed the last sentence to state that seeds were created and did not evolve as some deceived scientists have theorized.   According to this definition a seed is a self-contained unit designed for the reproduction of a species.  A seed contains specific qualities that enables it to work even after extended times outside of the normal environment that they like to grow in.  We understand this because we can buy seeds at the farm and garden store to plant in our backyards to grow whatever we would like.

Seed is a unique word that can either be taken as a single unit or as a plural word meaning multiple instances of the same reproductive unit.  In other words if I said that I have a package of watermelon seed, we do not know how many I have in the package.  It is more than likely several and logically more than one, but yet it would be legal to just put one in the package and sell it with the same name.  The plural word for seed can also be stated as seeds, so the complexity of the words can be significant.  If you are a type of person who is into the details you will certainly get into these Bible lessons.

The first mention of seed in the Bible is within the context of the first chapter of Genesis when God creates the world that we all live in.  In Genesis 1:11 God says “Let the earth bring forth grass yielding seed”.   This is the first mention of seed and the first mention of the reproductive system for propagating the further existence of future plants in the world.  Within the same verse, God also tells us of “the earth bringing forth Fruit Trees yielding fruit after its kind, with the seed in its self”.  These are very important concepts being given to us from creation.  Some have called this the “Law of Genesis”.  Everything will reproduce after its own kind.  In other words a cat doesn’t come from a dog.  A watermelon doesn’t come from an orange.   Everything that God created comes from and reproduces after its own kind.  That means there was no evolution that took place at any time on the earth.  Evolution is a fantasy embraced by ignorant people who deny the design of God.  Everything that God created is self-sustaining and self-perpetuating.  Today on the evening news I watched a humorous story about which came first the chicken or the egg?   This has long been a debated controversial subject in the world.  However, according to the news, and a group of scientists in England who studied the subject, they have concluded that the chicken had to come first based upon scientific evidence.  They discovered that the shell of the egg comes from a protein found only in the ovary of a chicken.  Since this protein does not exist anywhere else in the world, they have concluded that the chicken had to come first.  But, they certainly did not say where the chicken came from.  Isn’t that interesting?  I can tell them where the chicken came from, but maybe another day.  I’m sure if you search the internet you can find more information on this scientific discovery and why they concluded this.

There are over 250 verses in the Bible that speak directly about seeds in the Bible.  I will not even attempt to go through all of these.  Then there are many other indirect references of seeds in the Bible so the total number of verses on the subject is by far greater than that.   We have already touched on the first occurrence in Genesis 1 of natural seeds from plants, so let’ move on to the second occurrence of seed found in Genesis 3 and it goes like this:

Gen 3:15  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

I have written a blog on this subject, so I will not attempt to repeat that information again.  If you want to learn about it you can go and read “The Seed of the Woman, the Seed of the Serpent!”   It is noteworthy to see that the woman has seed and so does Satan and I’ll leave it at that for now.  It is implied that these seeds are children, and we will find out more about this as we go.  The third occurrence of the word “Seed” arises in Chapter 4 of Genesis and this is Eve speaking and she says the following:

Gen 4:25  And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.

Eve tells us that “Seth” is her Seed.  His brother Cain had killed his other brother Abel and now she has given birth to another “Seed”.  Obviously the implication is given to us that all of the other children are also her “seeds”.  So we see a clear pattern that children are called seeds of their parents.   Let’s find a confirming scripture to this fact from the book of Ruth:

Rth 4:12  And let thy house be like the house of Pharez, whom Tamar bare unto Judah, of the seed which the LORD shall give thee of this young woman.

We can clearly see that God refers to children as seeds.  The term is related to a concept of planting and harvesting.  This concept was first introduced in Genesis 1 when God said to Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply.   You see two descriptive qualities of planting seeds, you always get a multiplied increase and it is always related to bearing fruit.  What we discover is that each child produced has the built in capability to reproduce more of its own kind in the earth.  The females carry the eggs, the males carry the sperms and they are joined together to produce more of the same kind as themselves.  What we have in the world is an exponential growth seed pattern of the population of the world.  From Adam and Eve, who were just two people on the planet just around 6000 years ago, we now have well over 6 billion and getting closer to 7 billion people on the planet.  That is God’s idea of a plentiful harvest field.  These are God’s plans and God’s designed laws of increase being demonstrated.  All of these are basic seed concepts, seed principles and seed laws.  I hope that you understand them.  Let’s look at the next occurrence of the word “seed” found in the book of Genesis.  You will find this one in the story of Noah and the flood:

Gen 7:3  Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.

What we have is a reproductive biology lesson from the story of God’s creation.  The stated law of how God can create the original pairs of each species, both males and females so that they reproduce and multiply and still be here today for us to enjoy.  God informs Noah to gather and place on the ark, the male and the female of every species so that their “seed” would not vanish from the face of the earth.  What we learn from this verse is that all we have to do is kill every animal of a particular species and that species is not coming back.   That kind of kill’s evolution doesn’t it?  Man is doing a pretty good job at eliminating species on this planet so what will the results be?

Gen 12:7  And the LORD appeared unto Abram, and said, Unto thy seed will I give this land: and there builded he an altar unto the LORD, who appeared unto him.

Obviously “seed” is a very important subject to understand.  God in speaking to Abram tells him that his seed will be given the land.   God is speaking about children or as we can read later in the N.T. God is speaking about a specific promised child.  Too many times people like to read a verse in the Bible in isolation and try to interpret it without using God’s helpful commentary and definitions.  This causes people to come up with erroneous teachings that results in confusion.  You see you can take this verse in many different ways.  Some try to take it literally and naturally and interpret it using their own human reasoning.  But, later we will discover that God gives us more information and we should always use the Bible to interpret the Bible.

Gen 13:15  For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.

Again we have a great mystery presented to us.  Is the land given to a natural seed or to a spiritual seed?  You will notice that God did not tell Abram that it was his forever, because obviously Abram died and is no longer here to possess it.  What we have to conclude is that whoever this seed is that will be given the land, must be an eternal seed or a seed that will live forever.   That certainly changes the interpretation dramatically doesn’t it?

This has been an introduction to the subject of “Seeds” in the Bible.  I hope that you have learned something that you can begin to apply to your life and to your understanding of the Bible.  In the next lesson we will talk further about the other types of seeds that I have listed in the top of this lesson.

If you would like to continue reading this series, please go to “Part 2“.

The Hidden Jesus in Genesis! Jesus Revealed in the Hidden Patterns of Genesis!

(Ver 1.5)  Jesus makes a very profound and awesome statement in the Gospels while He was speaking to the people of the natural nation of Israel.  These are such tremendously important words that we (Christians) need to grasp and fully understand what they say and what they mean.  Please read with me this statement spoken by the Almighty God personally to humans:

Joh 5:39  Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

A witness is someone who testifies in court of law.  A witness in a court of law is someone who comes in and testifies about what they know, what they have seen or for something as an expert that is relevant and pertains to the case in question.   An expert witness in a court case is someone who can speak with a certain level of authority on the specific related subject about the case.   So God’s claim in this verse appears to indicate that the Bible is an expert witness for God’s case that He is presenting to us about the existence of Jesus Christ and His true identity.   We should be able to clearly see what God is saying about the purpose of the Bible.  God claims that the Old Testament contained hidden information about who Jesus was and what He is going to accomplish before He was done.  Jesus also clearly informed us that we needed to search the scriptures to find this information.  If we are required to become a “Sherlock Holmes” type of Christian doing a search of the written word in order to find these facts, that would mean that this information is not always clearly presented on the initial surface reading.   This would also indicate that the information about Jesus was purposely hidden either from someone or for someone like us to find.  For example, why do parents hide Easter eggs for their young children?  Is it to protect the candy from being discovered?   No actually it is more for the fun of seeing their children search for them with eager expectations of finding them.    The purpose of hiding eggs is not to keep the children from ever finding the candy but it does simply create a challenge for them that provides the parents the pleasure of seeing the excitement derived from their discovery.  This is a key concept that is needed to fully grasp about the words found in the Old Testament.  The Bible contains literally many hidden secrets about Jesus and these concealed clues were placed there by our Heavenly Father for us (His children) to search and discover.

The Law of Moses was given to Israel on Mt Sinai and they carried these words for many hundreds of years.  The Jewish people preserved them and cared for them and then when the author of the book appeared before them in the flesh they killed him.  Why is this, I asked myself?  I can see Jesus in the Old Testament, why couldn’t they see Jesus in the same way?  That of course is a really good question to consider.  I would guess that it is extremely more difficult to see what you do not know personally exists.  For Christians who know Jesus personally, they have a much greater advantage over the people in Jesus’ days on the earth.  They did not know Him like we can know Him so it is much easier for us to discover Jesus in the hidden verses in O.T. books like Genesis.  The rest of this lesson will be about something that I have blogged on before, but maybe not in this direct context and under this specific title.   This lesson will focus on the hidden Jesus in Genesis and I will give you at least three really good examples of Him that maybe you have not seen before.   I will focus only on the first two chapters of Genesis and you will certainly be amazed if you can see it.  Before, we start, I pray that the eyes of your understanding be opened and enlightened to see God’s truth.

Genesis 1:1

alpha_omega3_6Let’s start with Genesis 1:1, where it says “In the beginning God created, the heaven and the earth”.  Did you know Jesus was Hidden in this verse in Genesis by the Author?  However, unless you read and study it in the original Hebrew language you probably did not specifically know this.  The 4th word of the original Hebrew text is a word that has been completely omitted from the English translation and this one word reveals Jesus in this verse in a very profound way.  The Hebrew word omitted in this verse is actually not a real word at all and thus the reason for the omission of a translation to the English language.  The translators simply did not understand what to do with it, so they omitted it.    This omitted word consists of only two Hebrew letters.  These two letters are the “alef” and the “tav”.   These two Hebrew letters just so happen to be the very first and very last letters of the Hebrew alphabet.  Does that help you to see Jesus better now?   What I am saying is that Genesis 1:1 should have read “In the beginning the A-Z God created the heavens and the earth”.  The translators did not understand the significance and they ignored the word being connected to the name of God.

Rev 1:8  I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

This new information should start to illuminate many spiritual light bulbs inside your heart and mind.   You see , here in the book of Revelation chapter 1 and verse 8 Jesus calls Himself the “Alpha and the Omega”.  It just so happens that these are also the very first and very last letters of an alphabet, but here it is of the Greek Alphabet.   If the translators would have converted these two Greek letters to English properly Jesus would have said “I am the A and the Z”.  Now do you see the connection more clearly? Also consider the fact that Jesus was a Hebrew.  He spoke predominately Hebrew to the Jewish people.  Therefore, when spoken this verse in Revelation could have been written in Hebrew and said “I am the Alef and the Tav”.  Since it was written in Greek the Apostle John did the inspired thing to convert into Greek letters from the original spoken Hebrew.  The English translators could have followed His example and legally translated it as the A and the Z.

What God is doing is revealing who created the world that we live in.  Jesus Christ was the Word of God and He created ALL things that we can see and observe.  Without Him was nothing that was made, made (John 1:1-3).  So Jesus is clearly identified as the creator God, the “A-Z God” who created everything that was created.  This is a very profound and priceless conformation of the identity of the Messiah to be the man Jesus Christ.  In the Beginning the A-Z God created the heavens and the earth.  That is how this verse should have read, now let’s go find Jesus in some other verses in Genesis.

 

Genesis 1:15-19  Day 4 of Creation

Gen 1:14  And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
Gen 1:15  And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. 
Gen 1:16  And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. 
Gen 1:17  And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth, 
Gen 1:18  And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good. 
Gen 1:19  And the evening and the morning were the fourth day. 

I want to skip down in chapter 1 of Genesis to the described Day 4 of creation.  This day is one of the most important hidden references to Jesus in all of Genesis.  I do not profess to know every hidden reference to Jesus in Genesis, but I feel this one is one of the most important to see based upon my current understanding of the Bible.   You see on Day 4 of the creation account, God tells us of two opposing lights.  What God is doing is speaking symbolically and prophetically in these verses about Jesus Christ and what will be accomplished by His appearance on the earth.

In studying the days of creation I learned that every day of creation represented a prophetic day of man’s future on the earth.  Since the beginning of Adam’s creation it has been approximately 6000 years.   6000 years can be divided evenly by 1000 giving us an answer of 6.   These 6 equal periods of 1000 years represent a prophetic day in the definition of God’s timetable for man.  We learn in 2 Peter 3:8 where God gives us a definition of a prophetic day that is a direct quote of a verse found in Psalm 90:4.  God defines that a day to Him is exactly like 1000 years to humans.  So the 6 days of creation plus the 7th day of God’s rest turn out to be prophetic days of all of man’s history on the earth.   So what happens on the 4th day of creation?   God assigns a greater light to rule the day and a lesser light to rule the night.  The greater light is of course a synonymous title for the Sun and the lesser light is certainly the moon.  But, God is not talking about only natural things, God is prophesying about two spiritual kingdoms to come.   Jesus was born on the earth some 4000 years after Adam and this can be easily translated as during the time of the 4th day of creation.   God is prophesying that Jesus will rule the kingdom of day and be the Sun light of our world.  God is further stating that Satan (the symbolic moon) will rule the kingdom of the night and all those people that live in this darkness.  There are so many scriptures that can be found in the Bible that speak of this profound revelation.  I will not attempt to give you them all, but I will go through a few to get you started.  You can read other blogs that I have written to find more information on this subject.  Or just search your Bible on your phone or computer and look for words like night, day, darkness and light.

Mal 4:2  But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

In Malachi 4:2 Jesus Christ is prophesied as coming again in a very similar way that was being described in Genesis 1.  Here Jesus is called the “Sun of Righteousness” that will “arise”.    In this verse He is not spoken of as the “Son of God”, but here He is in direct connection to being the “Sun of God”.  You can understand that God is speaking symbolically again about far greater spiritual truths.   These are clues to knowing the truth but we are required to search and put them together correctly with the Lord’s help of course.

Joh 1:7  The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. 
Joh 1:8  He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light
Joh 1:9  That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

In John 1:7-9, the Bible talks about John the Baptist and Jesus and calls Jesus the “True Light” in verse 9.   You see if you think about this logically you can see that our sun in the sky is our physical natural true light that rules over the day and the moon represents the opposite realm that rules over the night.  This is a direct comparison of the two great lights in the sky mentioned in Genesis 1.   In John 8:12 Jesus is speaking and He calls himself the “Light of the World”.  He then says that those who follow Him will not walk in darkness (night) where the unstated moon (Satan) rules.   You can again see a spiritual reference to a truth that is revealed in Genesis on the 4th day of creation.  These opposing truths are called Day vs. night, the Sun vs. the moon, and the Light vs. the darkness.   These are all symbolic representations of the hearts and spirits of men and women in the world today.  Two spiritual dimensions and conditions that are directly opposed to each other and ruled by opposite spirits.   Again in John 12:46 Jesus says, “I am come as a light to the world, that those who believe in me should not abide in darkness”.  Jesus says those who do not follow Christ and His ways are those that are walking and living in the darkness and who are ruled by the night and Satan.  This CANNOT be speaking of Christians.  There is absolutely no logical way this can come close to the truth for those that believe the moon represents Christians.  I have heard this belief from several people before, but it just does not balance with scriptures.  A Christian is either ruled by Jesus in the Day or governed and ruled by Satan in the darkness..

2Pe 1:19  We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

Here we have another great verse that declares Jesus to be the Sun that arises and shines in human hearts to light our spirits so that we can see and understand His truth.  Notice the keyword connection “arise” given here that matches what Malachi prophesied about the “Sun of Righteousness”.  That is NOT a coincidence.  These are all profound confirmations to the 4th day of creation.  Notice that this verse in 2 Peter is speaking about previously written prophetic words concerning a light arising in a previously named dark place.  We have to search and look for these words and find them, could this be those that we found mentioned in  Genesis and Malachi?  All you have to do is read it and see what it says about these two lights to see how much is related to what we have observed.

That is part of the difficulty in correct Bible interpretation.  The Sun is called by many different names, titles and descriptions in the Bible so we have to be wise enough to see the connections and find them all using God’s help.   In Genesis the Sun is called the “Greater Light”.   In John the Spiritual Sun was called the “True Light”.  Here in 2 Peter the Sun is called the “Day Star”.   You do understand that our sun is our closest star to our planet and normally this start is the only one we can see during daylight hours?  These are just some of the ways that God uses to hide information in the Bible for us to find.   In Revelation 22:16 you can see Jesus being called the “Bright and Morning Star”.  This again is a new symbolic reference to the Sun in Genesis 1 and Malachi 4 that arises in the hearts of men.  These are all extremely important things to learn and to understand.  I hope and pray that was sufficient to at least motivate you to go learn more.

 

Genesis 2  Adam and Eve

Another way God uses stories in the Old Testament to hide spiritual information concerning Jesus is through the use of typology.    These are true natural stories of real natural people, places and things that have greater spiritual meanings attached to them to reveal to us hidden things that we cannot see.  Sometimes types and shadows can be hard to recognize and difficult to discover  or understand.  However, God has given to us some clues in the Bible to help us and to point us to what to look for.  Always trust the Holy Spirit to help you in your Bible study.  He is the only one that truly knows what it means.   In the 2nd chapter of Genesis God gives us the detailed account of the creation of man and of the woman, the law of marriage and the story of the beginning of the first human family on the planet.  This entire chapter is a more detailed view of Day 6 of creation described in Genesis 1. Why is this detail information important and how does this relate to the claim of Jesus to be hidden in Genesis?  That is a really good question.  So here is the beginning of the primary reason why this is so important to know:

1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam  was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

Here is a direct clue from God showing us a direct connection between two different men both called Adam.   This verse compares the first created man Adam to the man Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ here is being called the “Last Adam”.   Why is that?   What you discover when you study Genesis 2,  is that the first natural man Adam was a natural pattern for the last spiritual man Adam that was to come.  So whatever God did to and for the first man Adam, is what will happen to the Last Man Adam in the spiritual realm.  That of course is some totally new information to many Christians and it may be hard to accept at first, but just keep studying and you will see that it is true.

God created Adam’s wife and took her body from his body.  You will recall God put Adam asleep and took from his side the bone to create a woman.  As a result of what God did, Adam says “She is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh”.  In other words, Eve was called the “body of Adam”.   According to the law of marriage given to us in Genesis 2, it says “The man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and the two shall become one flesh”.   One flesh is just another way of saying “One Body”.   Many people know that the Church is called the Body of Christ in the N.T. and yet they do not know how we became the Body of Christ.   We can answer this mystery very easily if we see that by the law of marriage and the pattern of the first man Adam Genesis 2, the church has now become the Body of Jesus by a new covenant of marriage.  You can see this very clearly by reading verses in Ephesians 5 about husbands and wives and then God reveals that this is a mystery that concerns Christ and the church.

Remember when Jesus was hanging on the cross?  He died on that cross and in the N.T. this is often referred to as being asleep (1 Cor 11:30, 1 Cor 15:51).  Jesus Christ being dead (asleep) on the cross was pierced in His side by a Roman soldier’s spear.   Does this sound familiar to what we read in Genesis 2?  Out of His side flowed Blood and Water.  These are two powerful elements of our salvation to become His bride.  Jesus Christ is the spiritual Last Adam who marries a wife who becomes His Body born out of His side.  Because Eve is a woman that births every natural and physical being on this planet she represents a natural type of another spiritual woman who will birth spiritual realities in God’s new covenant family.   I have many other blogs that talk about this in much more depth if you are interested.

Gal 4:19  My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,

 

Conclusion

These were just 3 of the examples of the hidden Jesus in Genesis chapters 1 and 2.  I hope that you learned something and can now begin to see how to learn to search out other hidden references to Jesus in Genesis trusting in God’s guidance.  Many times these hidden references are not obvious at all, so we have to search for scriptures and find references, definitions, types and patterns revealed in other parts of the Bible.  Jesus told us to search the scriptures, for these are they that testify of Him!   The evidence for God can be found in His Word.  God Bless!

Bible Creation Revealed! Pt 4 – The World that Was PT 2!

(Ver 1.1)  This is now Part 4 of a series of advanced Bible study lessons about the creation timeline using God’s perspectives.  If you have not been reading this series from the beginning I would recommend that you go and start with “Part 1“.  In my last blog I introduced you to the “World that Was”.  There are numerous Bible verses when viewed correctly, that reveal to us a civilization on our planet that was completely destroyed by God.  This previous world system helps to explain the age of the universe, dinosaurs, and other factors that science conflict with what some Christians seem to teach about creation.  You cannot look at a star in the night sky and say that it is only 6000 years old.  It took significantly longer than that for the light from that star to reach where we are so that we can see it.  Astronomers and scientist using radio telescopes, the Hubble telescope and other methods can look out into space and can view things that occurred millions, even billions of years ago.  I have heard some Bible teachers claim that God only created things with the appearance of age.  In other words they were saying God was a deceiver of mankind.  Create a world that looks really old but call it new.  Is this what your God would do?  Does this fit the character of God’s integrity?  I do not think so!  So we have to put the pieces of the puzzle together correctly to see what God reveals to us about creation in the Bible and that is what I have been trying to do.  I am attempting to put the puzzle pieces given to us in the Bible to discover the truth of creation.

There are many Bible verses that we need to see that speak to us and give us clues about creation and Genesis.  Let’s look at some additional verses found in the Bible that at least imply other worlds existed other than our present world.  Here is a verse that has clear implications written within it:

Gal 1:4  Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:

Do you understand that you do not need to qualify the noun “world” with the adjective qualifier “present evil” if this is the only world that ever existed or ever will exist?  What we see is an implied reference to both a world that was before our current world and a world that will be after our present evil world.  You have to be smart enough to see what the Bible says.  Think about this, if there are only two world systems, the evil world and the good world to come, you do not need to add the word “present”.  You only need to add the word “present” world if there existed a “past” world.  Otherwise, you could differentiate our world from the good one to come by the one adjective “evil”.  Do you understand this logic?  The Bible is very tricky that way.  God is so much smarter than us and He knows exactly how to say something so that you can gain a tremendous amount of information from just a few words, while making it difficult for you to see at the same time.  If you can see all of this it will help you to understand other Bible verses.  Here is another Bible verse that is more direct about the world that is to come:

Eph 1:21  Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:

You have to be blind not to see that God is telling us that we are living in a temporary world system right now that is not going to be the same world system in the future.  God will implement a change and recreate the world system.  God calls this a new heaven and a new earth in Revelation.  If there will be a new heaven and a new earth and a new world system that is to come, you have to admit that it is at least possible that there existed an older world prior to our current world also.

Eph 2:7  That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

Here is one more verse that speaks of a world to come.  This is the same Greek word translated in other places as “world”.   It speaks of a coming time where God will bless those who are in Christ Jesus.

Heb 1:2  Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;

We have seen several verses now that imply there is or was more than one world created by the Words of God.  In this verse in Hebrews 1:2 we can again see a reference to us being in the last days of our current world.  We can also see that Jesus created this world.  But, since the word for “worlds” is plural in the KJV Bible as it should be, we can understand that not only is there another world that will come in the future by the Word of God, we also know that there was a previous world that was also created by the Word of God in the beginning.

Heb 11:3  Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

I believe I gave this verse earlier, but I want to emphasize the plurality of the word “worlds” in this verse.  Some might try to say that this is only speaking of our solar system and the other solar systems in the universe and that is the plurality.  That is an interesting misinterpretation of this Greek word.  If you recall there are two words translated as “world” in the New Testament.   One meaning an “orderly arrangement” and the other meaning an “age”.  This word in Hebrew 11:3 means “ages”.  As in multiple slices of time.  We are living in a current world age, there is a coming world age and we have clearly seen that there was previous world age before Genesis 1:2.

So what happened to this world system that came before Genesis 1:2?  Who destroyed it and why?  We are not given a lot of clues in the Bible, but we are given some clues so let’s look at some of them:

Isa 14:16  They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;

Isa 14:17  That made the world as a wilderness, and destroyed the cities thereof; that opened not the house of his prisoners?

These verses found in Isaiah are widely believed to be a description of Satan.  I firmly believe that is exactly who these verses are talking about.  But, then you also have to notice what they say about Satan.  They are not prophetic words of any coming events, but they are more like the words of a news report of a past historic event.  These verses speak of a catastrophic event that occurred within earth’s history.  It speaks of a complete and utter destruction of a world system.  A system with inhabitants, with organized cities, and all of the other qualities that we possess now.  A city implies roads, buildings, walls, safety and security.  It implies an organized government and the rule of kings with kingdoms.  All of these things were destroyed between the verses of Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2 because of Satan.  Let’s back up in the chapter and view the conformation to who this is speaking about and what God reveals to us in his description:

Isa 14:12  How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

Let’s analyze the first part of this verse.  It declares that God is speaking about a spiritual “fallen” being named Lucifer.  The Hebrew word for “fallen” means “to cast down”,  “to perish”, “to overthrow”, and “to die”.  We can clearly see that something happened to bring Lucifer down.  This Hebrew word for Lucifer is also a fascinating word with a specific and direct meaning.   It implies “brightness” like the sun.  It also has the literal meaning of “the morning star”.   The morning star is not Venus or some other bright star like object in the night sky.  The “morning star” is our sun that rises in the morning.  This is a very significant name and title.  This verse calls Satan the “son of the morning”.  I hope that you understand that the word “morning” means “early light”.  God is giving us a very significant clue to the identity of Satan.  God is calling him his son.  We know in the New Testament that it declares that God is Light!  So being called the son of the “early light” implies a son of God from a very long time ago.  This verse has direct implications of being a long time ago by the word “early”.  This implies “first light” or the time when light begins to form in the sky before the actual sun rises.  If you have ever witnessed the sun rise, you can learn a very important lesson to what God is telling us about Satan.  Satan was one of the first, if not the first creatures created by God.  He would have been the equivalent to Adam the first creature of our world.   Lucifer would have been a pattern or a model of Jesus that was to come.  If you search your Bible you will find that Jesus gives us the same information in the book of Revelation for the name of Lucifer.  Jesus informs us in Rev 22:16 that He is the true “Bright Morning Star” because He is the root and offspring of David.  What Lucifer use to be, is what I really am, says Jesus.

Heb 1:5  For unto which of the angels said he at any time, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee? And again, I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to me a Son?

This verse in Hebrews is an interesting contradiction to what I just said or is it?   If you look closely at this verse God is speaking about angels.  We know that Lucifer was the chief angel.  So God is making and demonstrating a major difference between angels and His Son Jesus Christ.  God did not become a natural Father to any creature except to Jesus.  Because of the virgin birth of Jesus, Jesus has become the only son of God born of a natural woman.  This makes Jesus radically different from Lucifer doesn’t it?  Lucifer was never born naturally, so while he was a spiritual son of God, he was never a natural son of God.  Jesus was both a spiritual and natural son of God and this makes Jesus the true “morning star”.

1Jn 3:8  He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.

For this reason Jesus Christ came to the earth, to undo the works of the devil.  What works were these that caused God himself to come to earth to undo what had already been done?  That is an amazing question to ponder.  This verse in 1 John tells us that Satan had been sinning from the beginning.  Now that we have seen evidence for another world system that Satan caused to be destroyed, we can begin to understand why God created another new world system and came to earth personally to make sure it worked this time.  So we can assume that Satan was sinning from the beginning of time and not just from the foundation of the current world.  We must begin to understand that these two events are different times and different worlds.

Here are some more verses that are specifically related to the subject of the Bible account of creation.  These verses that I will show you will further confirm the existence of the previous world and what happened to it.  We will begin to read starting in chapter 4 of Jeremiah and verse 23:

Jer 4:23  I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light.

I hope that you can see the significant similarities of this verse with Genesis 1:2.  If you do, you will see they are directly parallel descriptions speaking of the exact same time period.  This verse is God’s commentary to Genesis 1:2 and gives us additional information that is related to what happened to cause this condition of destruction.  We can also see the declaration that the earth was covered with darkness.  It is assumed that there is something blocking the sunlight from penetrating to the surface, something like very thick clouds or very deep water or both.   We can clearly see that this verse is directly speaking of Genesis 1:2 and 1:3.  In Genesis 1:3 God says “let there be light”, this would be God’s answer to the problem of “no light”.  Let’s move to the next verse and see what else God is describing to us:

Jer 4:24  I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly.

I am not really sure how to take this verse, it says there were mountains, but yet it declares they were moving lightly.  To me that would seem to indicate that the currents of the oceans caused them to move and shake.  But, here is the verse that I want you to start taking note of for what it says:

Jer 4:25  I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled.

Now we have a major clue that God is talking about Genesis 1:2.  God says in this verse that there was no man or no Adam.  The Hebrew word “man” is the same Hebrew word for “Adam”.  God is saying there is no Adam yet and all of the birds that were in the sky have vanished.   Why would God speak of birds vanishing before there was no man named Adam in the same sentence?  Adam was created on the last part of day 6 of the recreation account in Genesis 1.  The birds and other animals come on the 5th day of God’s recreation.  So we can clearly see that whatever time God is speaking of is before both of these have occurred.   Yes?  There must have been birds back in Genesis 1:1 that all disappeared with the rest of God’s creation.   There really is no other logical explanation for this verse.   Now it is really going to get good, let’s read verse 26:

Jer 4:26  I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.

So what cities is God speaking of that was before Adam came along?  Again we have to be smart enough to put the pieces of the puzzle together correctly, but this is a major clue to what happened in Genesis 1:2.  God declares that the world that was changed from a fruitful place to a wilderness.  God specifically says that in this world there existed inhabited cities.  The Hebrew word for “city” in this verse means a place that is guarded by a watch.  This implies a government, organization, leadership and a lot of inhabitants.  But, God also informs us that these were all broken down.  This Hebrew Word for “broken down”  has the following definition:

A primitive root; to tear down: – beat down, break down (out), cast down, destroy, overthrow, pull down, throw down.

Isn’t that what God said to Lucifer?  How are thou “fallen”.  In this word it clearly means someone destroyed these cities intentionally.  They were leveled as if they had never existed.  God declares that He was extremely angry and this is why that world was destroyed.  Because of the sin and ungodliness that existed in that time God had to destroy it.

Jer 4:27  For thus hath the LORD said, The whole land shall be desolate; yet will I not make a full end.

In the next verse, God is still speaking of the time before Adam and says that world was completely destroyed and perished.  The Hebrew word for “full end” can mean “completeness”.    What God is saying is that just because that world perished, it was the not the end of all time.  There was more to come, a new world that Adam would be given.  All of these statements were given to us as clues to what happened in Genesis 1:2 before Adam was put on this planet.  God specifically speaks of a destruction that occurred that caused the world to be “void” and “without form”.   These are the descriptive terms given to us and they help us to see that these verses in Isaiah and Jeremiah are God’s commentary on the Bible creation account found in Genesis 1.

Because many people do not understand how God wrote the Bible, they do not know how to look for the hidden clues in the Bible.  The Bible is not in chronological order, nor does it have all information on any given subject in any one location or book.  God spread out clues in the Bible in widely dispersed random patterns, hiding them in and around verses that are not always related.   God can jump from one subject to another subject using a wide perspective of time periods, people, natural vs. spiritual things, places and many other ways that He has used to conceal information from his enemies.

So all that I have been trying to do is to read the clues found in the Bible and put them together logically to help us understand what God is really saying.  It involves work, research, study and a major effort to find all of these verses and then additional effort to understand them and put them together correctly.  I know it is not easy to see, I know it can be taken other ways, I know there are many other possible interpretations, I know you can believe what you want to despite what I said.  God will always allow people to be wrong.  So I have presented a new perspective and at least given to you some new things to think about and to consider.  I pray that you will study to show yourself approved unto God and not rely on me to do your Bible study for you.

There are still many questions that come to my mind about this world that God describes as being before our world.   Here are some of my questions, maybe you can come up with some others.

  1. Why didn’t God come to the earth and offer salvation to that world?
  2. Who were these multitudes of earth inhabitants that perished?   Angels?
  3. Did they all go to heaven after God destroyed this world?
  4. If the Bible says that death came by Adam, how could this world be destroyed and animals, birds and all the other creatures, plants and living organisms all have died?
  5. Why couldn’t God just throw Satan into Hell with his followers before He created our world?

There are just so many very tough questions to answer still.  Obviously the Bible is a very complex book full of answers if we can figure them out or better yet when God shows us in the Word what it all means.   I’ll end this blog with this verse of Jesus speaking:

Rev 1:8  I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning  and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

Jesus Christ is speaking and calls himself the beginning and the ending of all things.  The Lord that is, that was and the Lord which is to come.  We can again clearly see the significance to three different and separate worlds mentioned in this verse.  It says within the realm of time, Jesus existed in the world that now is, the world that was and the world that will be coming in the future.  The Bible has many verses like this all over it, if you can find them and relate them to the subject.  I never try to provide every scripture reference to a subject that I teach, that would be a very difficult task for anyone to do.   So I try to provide at least two or three good references to help establish every word that I teach from the Bible.  By doing this we can be assured that it is correct and then can go and try to find other confirming verses.  If you know of other verses that I did not include I would be happy to hear about them.  God Bless.

Bible Creation Revealed! Pt 3 – Introduction to the World that Was!

(Ver 2.0)  This is now Part 3 of a series of lessons on the Bible creation account.  It has been a little different, I know.  I recommend that you remain open minded and search your Bible to see if these things are so.  If you have not been reading from the beginning of this series I would suggest that you start with “Part 1“.  In the previous blogs, I talked about scriptures that established the beginning of time and matter and then I talked about the foundation of the world.  This present world that we live in was said to have had a beginning, a middle and a coming end.  I then showed you scriptures of a world that is prophesied to come after our present world.  Today I want to show you scriptures that teach us about a different world that use to be, before God created our current organized world system.  Some Bible teachers in the past have referred to this as a “PreAdamic” civilization and I guess that is what I am saying even though that word is not in the Bible, so I do not normally use it.  Before I get there let me review again that we are living in the last days of our present world:

2Pe 3:3  Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

It is interesting to note how God reveals little clues about creation in randomly dispersed patterns in the Bible.  In this verse it declares that we are living within the “last days” of God’s timeline for His current organized world system.  These “days” of course could be figurative or symbolic words that are referring us to something else of much greater significance.  I do not believe they are literal 24 hour days, do you?  I have spent many hours studying this subject and I do believe that these days are symbolical representations for two 1000 year time periods.  The phrase “last days” in the Bible is almost always referring to the last 2000 years of the allotted time given to the church.  It might help you to see this by studying Genesis chapter 1 very closely and recognizing what happened on each day of creation.  During this time period of these 6 days of creation, God does specific things on specific days and these events are all prophetic works of God that are symbolic of spiritual things that occur within our human history.  According to the Bible God gives us another clue when He tells us that a “day” to the Lord is as a “1000” years and a “1000” years is even as 1 “day”  (2 Peter 3:8).  So when God tells us we are in the last days of time we can conclude that out of the 6 days of time given to man, the first two days represent a specific beginning period of time where there was no law and great sin.  The middle two days would represent another time period dedicated to the Old Covenant and God’s Law.  Finally the last two days would represent the end of the symbolic 6 days of creation and the New Covenant of God with the church when man finally comes to maturity in the spiritual realm.  This 6000 year time period of recorded Bible history, is why many Christian have been taught that the universe is only that old.  But, we need to see more in the Bible in order to make sure that is correct.

There are around 10 different verses in the New Testament that reveal the “Foundation of the World”.  It is almost always spoken of as a starting point and several of the verses in the New Testament also allude to the coming “End of the World”.  If our world had a start, then it also has a middle and an end that is reported to be a 6000 year period of time.  Could it be possible there was another world that existed prior to this time period?  I just wanted to start by asking you again, is it possible?  If you do not think it is even possible, why not?  What Bible verses do have that says there were no other worlds before ours?  If one world had a start, a middle and an end could there have been any other worlds with these same attributes and qualities?  If you still do not think so you again do not know what the Bible actually says on the subject.  Let’s explore some verses that Peter recorded for God that speaks to  us directly about creation and a world that use to be:

2Pe 3:5  For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

This is an amazing verse of truth.  It is clearly easily misunderstood so let’s analyze what God is telling us.  We can clearly see that creation was said to be a result of the spoken words of God.   It does not directly tell us when this event happened, but it also declares that the heavens that we can observe are very OLD and not a recent part of creation.  This verse would seem to refute the notion of a young earth and a young universe that many Bible teachers try to convince people of.  God would have had a great opportunity to confirm a young earth theory in this verse, but instead He tells us the opposite is true.  Next you can see a reference to Genesis 1:2, being stated, the earth standing out of the water and in the water.  It would appear that God is referring to the universal global flood found in Genesis 1:2 and I’ll explain why it cannot be Noah’s flood soon.  If you read the context of this verse you can see that Peter is talking about a group of people who claim that nothing in the world has ever changed.  These people seem to declare that everything has continued like it is now from the very beginning of time.  This almost sounds like some Christians professing a young earth.  In fact let’s go back and read verse 4 in this chapter to see what they were really saying:

2Pe 3:4  And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

People were scoffing and criticizing the disciples saying where is this Jesus you say is coming back?  These people believed that the earth had not undergone any changes since the beginning of creation.  Everything is the same since before our fathers died.  There is no resurrection, there is no coming messiah, there is no savior.  Everything continues just like it always has since the beginning of creation.  Did you notice that this time they did not say “since the foundation of the world”?  You can assume that these people thought that the foundation of the world and the beginning of creation were one in the same events.  They are specifically calling it young and making a clear reference to the beginning of all matter and time.  Was this only 6000 years ago like they thought it was?  God and Peter did not think so.  Go back and read verse 3 and see what God says that the heavens are very old.  God does not say 6000 years and God does not imply a young earth or universe.  God says very clearly and specifically that creation occurred a very long time ago.  This Greek word for “old” means “a long time”.  Is 6000 years a long time to God?  God wrote that in Revelation 12 that Satan is extremely angry knowing that his time is short.  Since God declares this almost 2000 years ago, we can easily conclude that 2000 years to God is a very short time.  So if 2000 years is a short time to God what is 3 x 2000 or 6000 years to God?  A little bit or a short time multiplied by 3 is still not much to God.  If you do not understand God’s perspective on the Bible you will be confused to what it means.  To God a long time would have to be millions or billions of years and not a few thousand years.   Keep in mind the author of the Bible is God and God wrote the Bible from His perspective and not yours.  We also have to observe what else God tells us in this chapter.  Let’s examine verse 6 and see what God is saying to us:

2Pe 3:6  Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

This is God’s response to these critics that say nothing has ever changed since the beginning of creation.  God declares to us that there was a world prior to our world that was destroyed and covered with water.  The net result of this covering was the complete destruction of this previous organized system.  Remember that the Greek word kosmos translated as “world” means “an organized system” or “an orderly arrangement”.  The Greek word translated as “then was” means “at that time”.  We can clearly see that God tells us that time existed when this total destruction occurred.  So sometime after the creation of the earth and before Genesis 1:2, there existed an organized world system that was completely destroyed by water.  Many Bible teachers have attempted to explain this verse away calling it just Noah’s flood, but that cannot be so easily accepted as the truth, if you study the exact Greek wording very carefully.  The Greek word translated as “perish” in this verse means “to destroy fully”.  It literally means that this world being described was completely and utterly lost with no survivors.  Meaning there were NONE as in NOT ANY living creatures that existed after this flood event or anything that was saved from the destruction.  There is absolutely no way that we can make this fit the flood that occured during the time of Noah!  Noah and his family were all saved (8 people in total)  and they were all survivors of that flood.  Plus all of the animals on the ark also survived that flood.  After Noah’s flood God did not have to recreate any new trees or plants either.  Everything that was there before the flood of Noah came back as if nothing happened after the flood of Noah.  There was no utter destruction of the earth as described in this verse that speaks of the universal devestation of everything.  Go and reread Genesis 7 the flood account of Noah and see nowhere does God speak of utter or complete destruction.  God said in Genesis 7 that He would destroy the flesh of the earth, but this was not all-inclusive since God did not have to create any new flesh after the flood ended.

2Pe 3:7  But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

So why would God write about the “world that now is” being destroyed by fire if this universal flood was Noah’s flood?  You can clearly see the distinction that this world that we are now in, is NOT the same world that was destroyed by this flood of water.   We are now seeing a perspective of a world that existed that was completely destroyed by a universal flood of water.  So when was this cataclysmic flood that caused everything to perish referred to in 2nd Peter?  It has to be the flood that is mentioned to us in Genesis 1:2, where the earth was covered with water and darkness was on the face of the deep, it can technically be no other event that I have found in the Bible:

Gen 1:2  And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

We can see a description of circumstances that is informing us that the earth as described in this verse was completely uninhabitable.  It clearly describes a universal flood situation that has covered the entire face of our planet.  It also states that darkness covers the earth meaning that the water was so deep that light could not penetrate to allow anything to live beneath the surface.  Did you know that this state of creation directly contradicts other clues that God gives us in the Bible that tells us that this is not how God created the earth originally?  This next verse is absolutely critical for you to understand:

Isa 45:18  For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.

This verse found in Isaiah represents God’s commentary on creation.  God gives us some very important information in this verse and I guess many Christians do not understand the significance of it or just ignore it.  This is a valuable clue to understanding the Bible creation account so pay very close attention to exactly what God is saying.  We can see many of the same Hebrew words found in Genesis 1:2 repeated also in this verse.  This helps us to establish subject relevance and relationship.  In Genesis 1:1 it says “in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth”.  This verse of scripture in Isaiah also declares to us that God created the heavens and the earth so God is definitely discussing the same event in both verses.  But here in IsaiahGod says that when He made the earth originally, it was clearly an organized system created in an inhabitable and a useful state of existence.  God clearly says I do not create anything in vain.  The exact same Hebrew word is repeated in this verse in Isaiah that declares the earth to be “formless” or “without form” in Genesis 1:2.  But, this time God tells us that I did not create the earth this way yet it was this way in Gensis 1:2 so we have a major problem that needs resolution.  Do you think that God is giving us a clue by revealing this information to us?  I think that God is giving us more than a clue, let’s review the Hebrew definition of this word found in the Strong’s:

H8414

From an unused root meaning to lie waste; a desolation (of surface), that is, desert; figuratively a worthless thing; adverbially in vain: – confusion, empty place, without form, nothing, (thing of) nought, vain, vanity, waste, wilderness.

This is a very strong word and leaves little to the imagination.  This word calls the earth a worthless state of confusion in Genesis 1:2, and it clearly implies that something occurred to cause it to become this way.  The earth is described in Genesis 1:2 as a place that is a wasteland, an uninhabitable planet, an empty place without any organization.  To be “formless” and “void” you have to agree that the earth is not a livable place.  Then you can clearly see that God says in Isaiah this is not how it was created in the beginning.  So now we have a problem, we can see that many people have attempted to teach that the earth and the universe is only 6000 years old, but God is telling us some very different things in the Bible.  We have to interpret the Bible using the Bible to get an accurate understanding of what it actually means.  Only by interpreting the Bible correctly can we ever attempt to agree with true science.  We can see that God is the creator and caused all time and matter to have a beginning.  In Genesis 1:1 God created these things to be livable and inhabitable, but by reading Genesis 1:2 we can clearly see that the earth is not inhabitable so we have to conclude that something happened to destroy the earth and the livable organized systems that God had originally created.  That is why we see in Genesis 1 the reestablishment of the organized systems of our current world.  By God recreating the world, we have a place that is again livable.

I recently had a man discount this verse because he claimed that after God’s 6 days of creation the earth was created inhabitable and thus he explained away what is stated in the Bible using his human reasoning.  This same man when confronted on another question said God created the universe with the appearance of age fully mature.  That logic is a contradictory position of two different ways to explain why the Bible says what it does to justify a young earth theory.  On one had he said the stars were created mature and on the other hand the earth was created without from and became mature or inhabitable.  This is clearly contradictory to what God says in Isaiah.  God specifically says I never create anything without form and since the earth starts out without form you must conclude God did not create it then.  Do you see the problem?  Genesis 1:1 says God did create the earth and Genesis 1:2 says it was without form so something else had to occur to change the earth from an inhabited starting point to an unimhabitable mess.  God would not have created something from chaos by starting it out as something in a state of confusion and then changing it into what He intended in the first place.  Everytime God said something during creation in Genesis 1 it occurred just exactly like He said.  There were no transitional periods of evolution occuring.  God spoke and there it was fully complete.  If God would have said earth be, the earth would have been created and formed in its fully mature state as designed.

Let’s think about what Genesis 1 actually says.   Many have tried to establish the 6 days of creation in Genesis 1 as being the beginning of all time and matter of our universe.  But, if you look at the chapter carefully, using other Bible verses that we have already learned about, that everything was made by the Word of God, we can begin to see what really happened.  Nowhere in chapter 1 of Genesis does God ever say “Let there be Space!”, “Let There Be Stars”, “Let There Be Earth” or “Let There Be Time”.  These are all implied in Genesis 1:1, but never stated explicitly.  However, approximately 7 times in the chapter God does say “Let there be…” something and it comes forth either into existence or back into prominence.  You see on day 4 of creation it could be wrongly assumed that the Sun and the moon are created, but God only uses them as a prophetic statement of information for the coming of Jesus Christ.  You see the Sun already has to exist for the earth to exist.  The earth revolves around the sun and not the other way around.    The earth is not older than the sun.  Both of these have to come into existence simultaneously as part of God’s original creation.  Then there is the statement of the 3rd Day of creation, that God creates plants, grass, trees and they all come forth.  Do you know that sun light is an absolute requirement for the existence of any plant life on our planet?   If plants existed on Day 3, then the sun also existed on Day 3.   Without the sun, the existence of life on this planet would be impossible.  So we have to be smart enough to recognize when God speaks and when He does not speak and what He says on everyday of the recreation account in chapter 1 of Genesis.

Let me give you another valid question found in Genesis 1.  On day 1 of creation is a stated evening and morning day 1 of God’s timeline.   Morning and evening are both sun based dependent concepts of the earth’s rotation around it.  Because the earth rotates on its axis the sun appears to rise every morning and set every evening around the earth.  Therefore the sun must exist on Day 1 for there to be any reference to these events.  Without the sun’s existence we have no day or night, morning or evening nor do we have a calendar day.  These are major problems that most young earth Bible teachers ignore or try to explain away using God’s sovereign power or ability to superceede natural laws that God has created.  All earth time is based upon the existence of the sun.  Without the sun we have no hours, days, weeks or years.

Now let’s further examine what God tells Adam in Chapter 1 of Genesis.  In Genesis 1:28 God makes this very specific command to the man “Be Fruitful, Multiply and Replenish the Earth..”.   Now the word “replenish” is a very unique English word.  While there is no English word to “plenish”, to “replenish” carries a connotation of doing something again, and it still implies that the world was once filled with inhabitants.  God is now telling Adam to refill the earth with inhabitants again.  If God tells Adam to refill the earth, we can clearly see that something must have transpired to cause it to need this to happen.  If I asked you to replenish the cold drinks in the refrigerator that tells you that there were cold drinks there once, but something happened to them and we need to put more in to get cold.  This is not rocket science, so pay attention to what God is saying.  I have heard many Bible teachers attempt to explain away this statement  in terms that God is just telling them to fill the earth and not to refill the earth.  However, God gives us another very important clue to exactly what this means when He uses the exact same words later in Genesis:

Gen 9:1  And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

So if after the flood of Noah’s day God tells Noah to replenish the earth we can clearly see that God is saying the earth use to have more people in it and I expect it to be filled again.  A vast number of people perished in the flood of Noah’s day.  God is giving us a clue into the Genesis 1:2 flood by repeating this exact set of instructions to Noah that God first gave to Adam.  God was telling Adam that the world use to be covered with people, cities, organized inhabitation and now we need to redo that again.  This helps us to explain and understand many things that science has been reporting.  This knowledge gets us several steps closer to agreeing with true science.


Here is another potential major problem and conflict that modern Bible teachers and scientists have attempted to explain away with a more recent flood event theory ignoring the ancient flood Bible truth reality.  You see there were two universal floods revealed to us in the Bible and many modern Bible teachers and scientists want to ignore the first flood in Genesis 1.2 in favor of a shorter duration flood event called Noah’s flood found in Genesis 7.  You understand that since we are not told the duration of the flood event of Genesis 1:2 it could have been a flood of millions or even billions of years.   Because I do not know how long it was I will not speculate to the given duration of time that occurred.  However we do very clearly know how long Noah’s flood was and when it started exactly because God does give us this information in detail.  There was 1656 years after the creation of Adam when the flood of Noah occurred and came upon the earth after it rained for 40 days a 40 nights (Gen 7:12).  We know this by calculating the ages of every man from Adam to Noah and then reading that the flood came when Noah was 600 years old (Gen 7:11) and his triplet sons were 100 years old.

Now according to Genesis 7:24, the flood waters during Noah’s flood prevailed on the earth for only 150 days and not many years.  This 150 day flood is what many ignorant modern scientists say caused the fossil record in the earth’s crust, all of the earth’s geological layers, water landscape formations and the fossil fuel layers miles beneath the surface of planet.  That is some very creative science in my estimation that all of this formed in a flood that lasted a very short duration and less than 4500 years from present human time.  People want you to believe that and these are baseless theories that are more imaginative than evolutionist’s theories.

There was a geologist named James Hutton that observed and studied the earth nearly 300 years ago and he came up with a theory then that many have said is the basis for modern geological science.  I have included exerts of his writings below and you should read them with the knowledge of both floods in your mind and then try to determine which flood fits the description of his observations more clearly from the Bible record given to us.  If you are open you should observe that only one flood event is more accurately described from the evidence presented in the earth’s layers.

The solid parts of the present land appear in general, to have been composed of the productions of the sea, and of other materials similar to those now found upon the shores. Hence we find reason to conclude:


1st, That the land on which we rest is not simple and original, but that it is a composition, and had been formed by the operation of second causes.


2nd, That before the present land was made, there had subsisted a world composed of sea and land, in which were tides and currents, with such operations at the bottom of the sea as now take place. And,


Lastly, That while the present land was forming at the bottom of the ocean, the former land maintained plants and animals; at least the sea was than inhabited by animals, in a similar manner as it is at present.


Hence we are led to conclude, that the greater part of our land, if not the whole had been produced by operations natural to this globe; but that in order to make this land a permanent body, resisting the operations of the waters, two things had been required;


1st, The consolidation of masses formed by collections of loose or incoherent materials;


2ndly, The elevation of those consolidated masses from the bottom of the sea, the place where they were collected, to the stations in which they now remain above the level of the ocean
.

I read this theory and thought this was more the description of the conditions found in Genesis 1 and never Genesis 7.  Nowhere in Noah’s flood does God separate water from water and cause the earth to rise above the level of the seas as He does in Genesis 1:6.  While I do not agree with every word that James Hutton wrote in his theory it has many things that are clearly important to understand in light of the evidence given to us in the Bible.  In the article that read about him it said this; he was more interested in the contemplation of the truth than he was in the praise of discovering it.  Why are Christians today not following his example of searching for the truth?  No, they are mostly searching for evidence to support their theories and this is fallacy and a misdirected effort to nowhere.  I’m going to say this one more time; true science and true Bible interpretation will always agree because both were created by the same Author God.

I have just shown you significant evidence found in the Bible for the existence of a inhabited world prior to our world.  This world would have had inhabitants, animals, cities, and other organized structure.  I do not know how advanced or how primitive this civilization was.   I do not know if the people were human beings like us, or more like angels.  I would guess that this world was very primitive, but yet later I will show you verses that seem to imply some advancement in culture and organization.  This information does help to explain dinosaurs and the fossil records that would indicate an old earth.  Many Bible teachers have great difficulty trying to come up with a logical reasoning of where the dinosaurs went in the last 6000 years?  Perhaps they just didn’t fit on the ark of Noah’s day?  However, once you begin to understand that the earth is very old and that there existed an older civilization on this planet then you can begin to understand the Bible creation and how it fits with science.  In this world that existed prior to ours, God declares that it was utterly destroyed, nothing was left from it and we can see this in Genesis 1:2 as being the state of our planet and the basis for God’s recreation in the remaining verses of Genesis chapter 1.  I have heard some Bible teachers who claim a young earth say that dinosaurs were here with man at the same time.  They have found fossils that include dinosaur footprints with human like foot prints inside of them.  They would have had to exist together in order for the fossil to form and harden and preserve them for us to see.  However, these Bible teachers have simply discovered evidence for the world that was and not the world that is.  They prove nothing and still do not have an answer for where did the dinosaurs go in the last 6000 years.  There must have been a tremendous number of dinosaurs, plants and other animals on our planet based  upon the amount of fossil fuel we have beneath our surface.  Oil and gas came as a result of a large biological decomposition of living things.  How did these dead biological things get to be so deep beneath the surface of our planet?  If you consider that the earth was completely destroyed in Genesis 1:2 and covered with water completely so that no life could exist you can begin to understand where these fossil fuels came from.  Otherwise you have great difficulty in coming up with a young earth answer to the problem.  God does not tell us how long the earth was covered in water in Genesis 1:2.   It could be a few days or millions of years.  Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 do not have any time periods specifically attached to them.  After these two verses God starts talking of the 6 days of the earth’s recreation.  But, before that there is no time table mentioned.  Because it does not say we would be foolish to guess without either a specific Bible verse or some very strong scientific evidence.

In my next blog I will show you further scriptures that speak of directly of this world that was.  If you would like to continue reading this series you can go to “Part 4“.

Bible Creation Revealed! Pt 2 – Introduction to the Foundation of the World!

(Rev 1.6)  This is now Part 2 of a series of advanced lessons on Bible creation.  If you have not read from the beginning, I would recommend that you go back and start with Part 1.  Today, I want to introduce you to a potential new Bible concept.  Maybe this is something that will be totally new to you or maybe not.  In my last lesson I talked about the universe having a starting point with the origination of both time and all matter through the spoken Word of God.   I basically tried to teach you that we do not know when this event occurred based upon the evidence given to us in the Bible.  You cannot find the words “God said Let there be the universe and Let there be the earth in the Bible anywhere”.  Since these events and creative words are not included in the Bible then we must conclude that God omitted them for a purpose and the rest of Genesis 1 is a separate event.  Today, I want to introduce you to a new concept called the “Foundation of the World”.  I think many Bible teachers have jumped to the erroneous conclusion that the “Foundation of the World” and the “Beginning” are one in the same events and that they occurred at the exact same time.  But, I think you should reconsider that thought and try to see what else that the Bible actually has to say about both of these separate unique realities.  After studying the Bible on the subject, I am convinced that they are two completely different historical events within the timeline of creation.   Let me ask you a simple question that has a not so simple answer.  Why would God refer to the same event in the Bible using different titles, names, descriptions or characteristics?  If you have ever studied the Bible you should understand that this is a common technique used by God throughout the Bible.  God, calls the same thing, by many different titles, names, descriptions, symbols and other identifying characteristics for some unkown and unstated reason.  The net result of this technique is that it makes it very difficult for anyone to see what God is really talking about.  It also makes it very difficult to associate them together and to relate them to each other correctly.  You many times find yourself asking “Is it the same thing, or is it a different thing?”  How can we tell if two different named things are the same thing or different things?  What if there are two or three different named things, events, times or people and man thinks they are all the same?  Again it makes it very difficult for us to figure out when God is talking about the same thing and when He is not.  So here is our challenge for the day.  Is the “foundation of the earth”,  the “foundation of the world” and the “beginning” all the exact same events within time, just called by different names or are they just God’s way of describing completely different events?

Since we have already looked at verses about the beginning, let’s start today by looking at scriptures in the Old Testament that speak of a “foundation”.

Exo 9:18  Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now.

 2Sa 22:16  And the channels of the sea appeared, the foundations of the world were discovered, at the rebuking of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of his nostrils.

Psa 18:15  Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.

Job 38:4  Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.

Psa 18:15  Then the channels of waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were discovered at thy rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.

These are just a few of the examples of verses found in the Bible that speak about the “foundation of the earth”,  “the foundation of the world” and just the “foundation” in terms of an architectural building process.  I hope you understand how houses are built.  A laid foundation is always the beginning of a building process that implies there will come an ending to the process later in the future.  When God provides us information that the earth and the world had a foundation, it means that they also have implied endings.  Furthermore, when God’s builds one building foundation, God is also implying that He can build another building foundation and another and another.   What do people do on the earth?  If they don’t like an old building, they tear it down and start over to build a new one.  This is a Godly principle and characteristic work that man learned from God.   You need to understand what I just said, it was very important.  So we need to go through the Bible now and see if the “beginning” and the “foundation of the world” are the same events.

Mat 13:35  That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.

Jesus is described as the God who speaks things that were hidden from man and Satan since the “Foundation of the World”.  This Greek word translated as “foundation” can also mean “conception” or to “conceive”.  This is of course a term that would result in a pregnancy in a natural woman.  The next word to inspect is the Greek word “kosmos” which is translated as “world” in this verse.  This word from the Strong’s means “an orderly arrangement“.   Anything that has this characteristic of a “kosmos” contains organized structure that is free from chaos.  I want you to keep this word in your mind as we continue to discuss the chaos found in Genesis 1:2.  Was the world an orderly arrangement in Genesis 1:2 or was it a ball of confusion, destrution and chaos?  Do you understand what an orderly arrangement means?  Look at my picture and see how the blocks are arranged in an orderly fashion and this is how the world was created according to God.  That is a major Bible clue that God is giving us to correctly interpret the creation account found in Genesis.  I have had some young earth theorists try to tell me that just because the eart was chaos in Genesis 1:2 it ends up as an organized structure by the end of the chapter and thus we are just observing God’s work methods to create our world.  However, I want you to go back and reread Genesis 1 again and you tell me if you ever see God creating any transitional works.  Does God not look at the darkness and say light be and light was in Genesis 1:3.  There is no transitional phases of darkness to light.  What God says happens exactly as stated.  Do you see the major problem developing with a young earth theory?  God would have never created the earth in a chaotic format to begin with.  God is not stupid He know exactly what He wanted and He would have said earth be and there the earth would be formed exactly as envisioned in the mind of God.   This is another key reason why the young earth theory is full of holes.  God never in Genesis 1, not one time says “earth be” and the “earth was”.  Uh oh?  That is a problem isn’t it?  If earth is defined to be dry land as I showed you by God’s definition in Genesis 1:10 then there is no mention of the earth being created other than the reference of Genesis 1:1 that said this occured sometime in the beginning.  I have taught you that the Bible says the worlds were formed by the Word of God.  Since we have no recorded words of God in Genesis 1:1 of God creating the earth we must conclude an implied stated reality that God said “earth be” somewher back in the time of Genesis 1:1.  Then we must also conclude sometime after Genesis 1:2 God has to recreate the dry land again by dividing the waters because something happened to cause the chaos.  I know this is proably some very new things that you have never heard before, but don’t throw them away until you confirm that is really not what the Bible  says.  For now just keep studying and reading.

This Bible verse in Matthew tells us that the world that we now live in also had a beginning.  A foundation in natural building terms represent the start of the construction project.  The foundation is therefore the beginning of the rest of the building.  The current world system was conceived by God and spoken out of His mouth into existence as we have seen in several previous Bible verses.  But, who said the “beginning” and “the foundation of the world” were one in the same events?  God hasn’t told us that, so don’t even try to assume it to be the same events and close your mind to what God wants to teach you.  I want you to read another verse found in the New Testament that also speaks about this “Foundation of the World”:

Heb 9:26  For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

This is a great verse to examine more closely.  It actually has two different Greek words that are both translated as “world”.  The first Greek word translated as “world” is kosmos again and it is still defined to be an “An Orderly Arrangement”, but the second Greek word translated to “world” is aion and it means “an age”.   Here is an example of why English translations suffer grealty.  An age is representative of a period of time.  It almost never is used to describe all of time, but rather only a specific slice of the whole time pie.  You could say that an “age” is a piece of the pie and not the entire pie.  You can see this by science referring to the “Ice Age”, as a time period in past history where ice covered the majority of the earth.  Knowing this we can derive some implied meanings to the term given to us as the “end of the world”.  The “end of the world” in this verse is referring to the termination of a slice of the allotted time period and not the end of all time.  I want you to grasp this concept because it is significantly important.  This verse is referring us to the end of our current world, but that is certainly not the end of all time because we know reading later in Revelation that there will exist a time period of 1000 year where Christ will rule on the earth and then the new heaven and the new earth events take place and that is when time ceases.   In other words we still have a lot more we need to learn.

You can see some very complex works of Christ being described in this verse in Hebrews 9:26.  It declares that Jesus did not come to the earth in the beginning of the current world (age), because He would have had to offer Himself repeatedly for the sins of mankind.  But, then it makes a statement that is also very difficult to comprehend.  If the world (age) had a beginning, then it is also logical to conclude it to have a middle and an end portion.  Like in any natural building project, the foundation is laid first and the roof is one of the last exterior parts of a building to be built.  So as in every building project, it has a beginning, a middle and an end.  This verse says that Jesus came nearer to the end of the world, so that he would only have to offer one sacrifice for all sin.  So how can you say Jesus came at the end, when it has been close to 2000 years since He was here and died and was raised from the dead?   To us and our perspective of time 2000 years is a very long time period, but is this how God views it?  To understand the Bible correctly many times it takes a shift in natural perspectives to a spiritual perspective to see things as God sees them.  Since we can mathematically calculate that it has been approximately 6000 years since Adam was placed on the earth and we know that Jesus came to the earth nearly 2000 years ago and that God said that this was near the end, we can subtract 2000 from 6000 and get 4000.   Using this simple logic to calculate time periods, what would have happened if Jesus came in the year 2000, God would have been able to say that Jesus came near the beginning of the world (age).  If Jesus would have come in the year 3000 it would be in the middle of our world’s history.  But since Jesus came to the earth at year 4000, God calls this nearer to the end of the world (age).  Think about that for a while and let it sink in and you will soon understand what I’m trying to say.  According to young earth theologians all time has been 6000 years since the beginning of creation and here is the problem that starts to emerge.  Why did God call it the end of the age and not just the end.  God does know the difference between an age and the begining of all time why does God use different words to describe these events?

1 Peter 1:5  Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

Here is another witness to the fact that during the time of the early church, God considered this to be near the end.  If that was near the end back then, how close do you think we are now to the end?  I think we can begin to see we need to change our perspective of what time is to God.

1Jn 2:18  Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.

Again we see another verse that claims the early church was within the time that was near the end.

Rev 10:6  And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:

This verse contains confirmation again of creation having a starting point.  Prior to this starting point this verse implies that time did not exist.  It is also a prophecy that this state of living outside of the dimension of time will come again.  You can see that when it declares that there will be no more time, it also implies a clear ending to the world as we know it now.  There is coming a change and an end to the world that we know.  But, I do not anticipate the end of time for at least another 1000 years.  If you recall from Genesis God created the world in 6 days, but on the 7th day He rested.  We are informed of a coming day of rest and commanded to strive to enter into it (Heb 4:1).  This would imply that there will be another 1000 years of human history on this planet prior to the creation of a New Heaven and a New Earth.  Time would still need to exist and continue like it does today for at least another 1000 years before God eliminates it.  Let me briefly introduce you to the new age that will come:

Heb 6:5  And have tasted the good word of God, and the  powers of the world to come,

Here in this verse in Hebrews there is a reference to a coming aion (age) that has not yet started.  Here is a new concept that is given to us that we are in an aion (age) that is coming to end and there is another aion (age) that will follow that is not the same aion (age) that we are experiencing.   The Greek word translated as “world” is the exact same word “aion” that we have already seen before.  God is teaching you a brand new important concept about ages in the spiritual realm.  If you can have one slice of the pie God is inferring there is potentially many more slices in the pie of time.

I have probably gone long enough in this lesson.  Today I introduced you to two new concepts called the “foundation of the world” and these were the kosmos and the aion.  Are both of these the same as the beginning?  Are there any other worlds (kosmos or aion) either before ours or after our current world described to us in the Bible?  I also showed you scriptures that prophesies an end of time.  An end always implies there was a beginning of time.   A coming ending of the kosmos and aion also implies there will be another new beginning.  We have only scratched the surface to what we need to learn on this subject so we will continue to discuss more Bible verses that reveal the definition of what a world is in relation to the beginning in my next lesson.

If you would like to continue reading in this series please continue with “Part 3

Bible Creation Revealed! Pt 1 The Introduction to Basic Bible Concepts!

(Ver 3.4)  This will be an advanced Bible study of God’s supernatural divine creation.  This study will involve an in depth analysis of the information given to us by God from within the pages of the Holy Bible concerning the events surrounding the creation of our universe and our world.  And those are two different events in our history as we will learn.  This series may or may not be what you currently believe to have occurred, but it will be what the Bible says, if we will seek to find the truth, to see it and understand it.  I have been criticized because I pull verses from all over the Bible and put them together in a logical way that helps to reveal their hidden meanings.  I did not write the Bible so I cannot help to explain to you why the clues found in the Bible are in such widely dispersed and random patterns.  I cannot fully explain why a single verse of information found in John, Isaiah or Jeremiah can reveal something that was hidden by God simply by the words being omitted. , I believe that in the first chapter of Genesis, God gives us truthful and factual information designed for a specific introduction to the subject of creation.  But I further believe from studying the Bible that Genesis 1 is incomplete information.  I found that God wrote about creation from Genesis to Revelation and these other creation verses were written by God’s prophets and New Testament writers hundreds or thousands of years later.  Because people do not understand how God designed the Bible with an enumerable number of hidden facts and clues, they simply criticize and like to call things heretical when they do not understand them or just because they are something new that they have never heard before.  Coming into this lesson with a preconceived prejudice will cause anyone to close their spiritual eyes and ears to anything that God wants to say.  But, that of course is an old religious spirit that got the Jews in trouble when Jesus walked among them, and they killed Him for no good reason.

There is a major debate raging in the Body of Christ about the age of the universe.  Because science has declared the universe to be billions of years old, Christians have suddenly determined they need to believe in a young earth and universe and they have gathered their own scientists to counter what they view as a naturalistic perspective for the existence of all matter.   The young earth proponents have developed a semi-convincing theory but it is really full of holes not unlike the evolutionist’s theory that is equally full of holes.  As you can tell I do not endorse either theory.  I am a proponent of letting the Bible interpret the Bible and that will be my goal in this series of lessons.  What we need to do is start out by asking ourselves is our God a deceiver?  I asked some young earth believers this question and they ignored it and tried to explained it away.

What is deception? According to the Bible deception is appearing to be who or what you are not. You can find this in the story of Jacob in the book of Genesis when he dressed up like his brother Esau and went in to get his brother’s blessing from his father Isaac. Jacob was fearful of being called a deceiver if his father discovered his acts deception. Wow, is that a lesson in itself.  Again in another story of Genesis we find the deception of Tamar who dresses up like a prostitute to make Judah give her what was promised to her. In both of these stories clever deception was used by taking on the appearance of what they were not in order to gain what they felt they deserved. Ok, what do these stories have to do with creation?  The problem with the young earth theory is that the scientists in the world can clearly see that light takes 2.5 million light years to reach earth from the galaxy of Andromeda. When a Bible teacher comes to us and says that the earth and the universe are only 6000 years old, they have in effect made God to be a liar and a masterful deceiver. They claim that God created something that looks very old, but that is actually very young. That is an act of clear deception no matter how you want to slice it.  If the earth is not old then God is the primary contributor that has deceived many people into believing it not young.  That is a major problem upon our reflection of the character of God, the nature of God, the love of God, the truth of God and I could go on and on.  Rather than ignore this problem like Christians want to do, I’m going to address the problem in this series to see if God solves it in His Word.

If the universe has the appearance of millions or even billions of years and it is only 6000 years old God has deceived a tremendous number of people.  Is that your God because that is not my God!  The young earth theorists like to explain this by saying that God created the world and the universe in a mature state.  They have concluded that creating light rays that take on the appearance of age is not and impossible feat for an omnipotent God.  You know I understand that logic, God is certainly omniscient and omnipotent and He is certainly able to do anything.  But, just because God is able to do anything does not mean that God has done any of these things that people give Him credit for doing.  I’ll ask a new question. If God is able to do anything then can He lie? We all know from reading the Bible that it is impossible for God to lie. Keep this in mind when studying creation.  If the universe was created 6000 years ago and the speed of light is 186k miles per second and it takes light from many galaxies billions of years to reach us we are clearly viewing events that took place a long time ago.  This would be very clear deception and lies and this is impossible for God to do.   However, we must find Bible verses that confirm our beliefs or we will find we are just believing in someone’s opinion.

As a foundation for this mature creation belief my young earth theorists have stated that Adam was created a mature man and thus this helps us with our beliefs of a mature universe creation.  They have also further concluded that all the trees were created as mature entities.  They have further concluded that all animals originated as mature entities.  You know I absolutely agree with at least part of their reasoning for the necessity of maturity.   You see if God would have created Adam as a newborn baby he would have died and never survived without a mother caretaker.  Therefore, I believe God chose by His sovereign will to create a mature man, a mature woman along with mature birds, fish and animals.  But here is where their theory begins to fall apart if you really start to analyze logically that type of thinking.  Why didn’t God create a mature earth in Genesis 1:1?  Instead of a fully mature earth God describes an earth that is uninhabitable and chaotic. This new earth had to be changed into an inhabitable planet by the end of the chapter in order to support life. That is the complete opposite of creating a fully engaged human male from the beginning.  Isn’t it? Please answer the question, if you are able.  Why didn’t God create a fully mature earth that was fully sustainable for all the soon coming life?

You can clearly see that there was no life on the earth in Genesis 1:2 and then at the end of the chapter there was organized structured inhabitation.  Why didn’t God create it the way that He wanted it to begin with?  What we are going to find out by studying the Bible is that God did create it this way and something major happened to destroy it in Genesis 1:2.

So I want to start this study by establishing Biblically that the universe that we currently exist within, had a stated beginning or a starting point somewhere in time past.  Modern scientist have predominately ascribed to the notion of a historic concept that they  refer to as the “big bang”. They say this occurred somewhere in our distant past probably close to13.8 billion years ago.  They have concluded this based upon scientific observation of our rapidly expanding universe. The universe can be observed to be expanding in every direction around us and thus reversing this reasoning it can be logically deduced to have had a single point of origin.  By reversing where we are right now and putting everything back to its original point of origin, science has concluded that there was a beginning point of all matter and time.  Something occurred at this point in this beginning point of time to cause all matter to appear and to be accelerated into a widely dispersed explosive pattern of a powerful fashion that fast-tracked the chunks at astronomical rates of speed outwardly.   Did you know that is what the Bible tells us also, that the heavens are expanding.  Look at this verse found in Isaiah:

Isa 40:22  It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:

You can again see that true Bible interpretation and true science will always agree.  The Bible recorded that the earth was a spherical circle long before man could prove the earth was not flat.  Early religious leaders would excommunicate a scientist who thought the world was round and not the center of the universe.   They had in their minds how it ought to be and if anyone disagreed they would reject them.  Who was right back then?  We are experiencing a very similar behavior in parts of the church today.  Many claim the earth to be only 6000 years old and scientists today say the complete opposite.   Knowing that the light that we see from distant stars took much longer than 6000 years to even reach us to see, who looks foolish?  How can we attempt to reach a secular man with the salvation message who obviously knows more than we do about creation?

Then there is the “who spreads out the heavens” in that verse.  This verse claimed that the universe that we can observe is expanding long before anyone had an idea that it was.  The Hebrew word here means to “stretch out” to “spread out”.  God told us that the heavens were expanding long before anyone could prove it.  This verse also claims that the heavens are like a curtain of fabric.  A fabric has closely joined threads that are woven together and this again describes the condition of what many scientist have reported.  The fabric of space and time is a widely publicized scientific discovery.  God wrote about it 1000’s of years before any man came up with this idea.  So we must learn what the Bible really says and learn to accept God’s words as the truth.  Here is another verse found in the Bible about the earth being round that was written long before man discovered it:

Pro 8:27  When he prepared the heavens, I was there: when he set a compass upon the face of the depth: 

This verse says the “compass” of the depth.  The word “compass” means a circle.  So again God declared the world to be a circle long before man discovered it.  This verse was written by King Solomon hundreds and hundreds of years before Christ was born.  How was Solomon smart enough to write this information if it was not given to him by God.  Here is another verse about the expansion of the universe:

Job 9:8  Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea.

Again we see a reference to the an expanding heavens.  This is the same word that means to stretch forth and to spread outwardly.  This is clearly words that were written down for our benefit to see and understand the nature of creation and its harmony with the true scientific observation and study of many.

Job 26:7  He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.

There are many Bible verses that can be found that say things that only a creator God could have written.  In ancient times, many men believed that the world was held up by a god named Atlas and on his shoulders the world revolved.  This was clearly a fantasy attempt to explain what they did not understand about the power of God to create the gravitational planetary and solar system that we live within.  When the Bible declares that the earth hangs upon nothing within the time space continuum it clearly was written by someone who knew more than any man in the past could imagine or make up.  This verse is clearly factually accurate based upon scientific observations of men and it was written in the oldest book of the Bible.  You cannot deny that these facts not found in Genesis are truly amazing.

Now you can either be an ostrich Christian and bury your head into the ground or you can look and see if the Bible also says anything that will match the well-known scientific observations that are being taught today.  What we must embrace as true Christians is the fact that true science and the true interpretation of the Bible will always agree.  You might ask me, why do these have to agree?  Because God created both of them and God does not make any mistakes nor does He ever contradict Himself.  So what God says in the Bible must match what we find scientifically from what God has created and vice versa.  Too many times I have seen preachers and theologians teach something that is 180 degrees opposite to what science has reported.  I therefore, know that  one of these two positions is wrong and potentially both are incorrect.  For example, many scientists embrace a theory of evolution for the existence of the human race and all living things in our world.  However, I know this directly contradicts the Bible and so the theory of evolution is man’s attempt to explain away the existence of a God as a creator.  This is an example of Bible teachers being right and ignorant scientists being wrong.  However, I have also heard many Bible teachers teach that the earth is only 6000 years old and scientist have estimated the age of the earth to be in the billions of years.  There is a major difference between these two positions again and this time I tend to agree more with the scientists and not the ignorant Bible teachers.  Nowhere in the Bible does it say that the earth is only 6000 years old!  Nowhere in the Bible does it say that the earth was created 6000 years ago!  If you think it does, you are ignoring a lot of scriptures that says otherwise.  This is a religious man’s attempt to prove a theory of young creation by not reading what the Bible actually says about God’s creation.  We must make true science and true Bible interpretation agree or we will be viewed as ignorant men and women.  So I have given you two examples of the debate between Bible vs. Science where each side is right one time and wrong one time.  So let’s find some more scriptures that speak of the existence of a beginning and for now we won’t worry about when this occurred.

Isa 40:21  Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the  beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth?

In this verse found in Isaiah we can see that God is clearly telling us of a starting point.  Two direct references are established.  The beginning and the foundation of the earth.  The foundation of the earth would imply the beginning of our planet.  A foundation would also imply a structure that holds everything else together.  So who created this structure and this system of the time and space fabric that holds it all together?

Joh 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

This Bible verse states that the universe had a point of origin.  This Bible verse implies God existed prior to the existence of time and space as we currently know it today.  This Bible verse gives us some insight into the creation of the world by this Supreme Creator.  This creator God is called the Word.  God is described in a paradoxical term, being both the Word and God simultaneously.  How can God be the Word and the Word also be with God?  I think that is one of the mysteries of God and I do not have a good explanation for it, I just accept it as being true.  This Word God is said to have created everything that we can see in this next verse of scripture:

Joh 1:3  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

All things were made by Him!  Who is Him?  It is the Word of God!  God gives us some amazing information to how things were created in the world around us.  By God speaking, things suddenly appeared.  Do you understand that things were not created from nothing?  I’ve heard preachers claim that everything appeared from nothing, in other words nothing became substance and now exists in the physical dimension of time.  But, this is not what the Bible says happened and I believe we should become very picky to see exactly what God is revealing to us in the Bible.

Isa 48:3  I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass.

The Bible declares that the universe was made by the Word of God.  God spoke and it came to pass.  Things sprang forth from the words that God had spoken.  So, if you can read you can see things were made by Words and words are not nothing.   The earth and the stars in heaven were made from words.  Let’s explore another verse about this important subject of God’s Word:

Heb 11:3  Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of  things which do appear.

We have to understand what this verse is saying.  It implies that all of creation was accomplished by God’s Words.  It does not say that the things that we can see came from nothing.  It actually technically says that the things that we can see came from things that we can’t see.  Have you ever seen anyone speak?  I know you can see their mouths move, but, you do not actually see any words coming out of their mouths do you?  These sound waves are things that you cannot see with your natural eyes.  The voice of God caused all matter that we can see to exist in the natural realm.  Sound waves from God are the basis of all of creation.  In this verse the Greek word translated as “worlds” comes from “aion” which means “an age”.  This word refers to a span of time, either in the past, the present or the future.  Time can always be viewed within one of these three descriptions, even though Einstein claimed this to be a convincing illusion.  Einstein believed that all time occurs simultaneously, past, present and future.  But our view of this illusion is that we have all had a past, we live in the present now and tomorrow is our future.  In my next blog on creation I will expand this word for “worlds” and explore it with additional scriptures.  But, for now let’s continue to look at the beginning of creation.

The verse in John 1:3 says that nothing that we can see came about by evolution or by accident.  This verse implies an intelligent design by a very highly intelligent creator God.  I have heard some scientists who have tried to analyze and  prove the most rudimentary makeup of the elements in our physical world and heard what some now are saying.  These scientist have split atoms, and examined parts and components of the most minute levels that they can measure and observe, and guess what they have said makes up every atom that we see in this universe?  Sound waves!  I have actually heard some report that it appears that sounds hold all things together.  Did you know that this is what the Bible actually says?

Col 1:17  And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

This verse in Colossians again states that Jesus Christ existed before all things that we can see in our world.  We can again conclude that this means there was a beginning.  Jesus Christ was called the Word of God in John and other places in the Bible and we can see that in this verse in Colossians that Jesus Christ causes everything that we see to exist.  This Greek word that is translated as “consist” in this verse means “to set together” or “constitute”.   This verse is telling us that the world and the universe is held together with God’s Words.  God’s words are the rudimentary component to everything that we can see around us.  Let’s discover an additional verse concerning God’s Word holding things together.

Heb 1:3  Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;

In this verse in Hebrews we can see that God is revealing to us the source of all of His power.  This verse is primarily about Jesus Christ, but it also says that God is causing all things to be held together by His Words of Power.  God’s Word is the source of all creation and everything exists because of sounds that came out of God’s mouth.  These sounds represents God’s power and they surround us in everything that we can see, touch, taste, smell, perceive and sense around us.  Words created all of the universe that we can see.    I hope you understand this concept, because it is a very important part of the Bible to know.

Gen 1:1  In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

This is now the third Bible verse that I have given you today in this lesson that states the earth and the universe had an observable origination point also known as a beginning.   In this very first verse in Genesis, we can see clearly that God is again referred to as the creator of the things that we can now see.  It very clearly says that there was a defined starting point of all matter and time.  Now here is where Bible teachers start to get confused and make many wrong assumptions.  They have concluded that because you can mathematically calculate the duration of time from Jesus backwards to Adam that the world is now only approximately 6000 years old.  What they have done is assumed that Genesis 1:1 goes with the rest of the chapter in a relative short time sequence.  However, they do err, because they ignore what this verse says and many other verses found in the Bible that shows us other information and clues to a much older history of creation.

I want to point out one key Hebrew word in this verse that is very important to understand.  The Hebrew word translated as “earth” is a word that means “to be firm”.  It is used in the Old Testament in over 2000 verses.  Therefore it is a widely verifiable word that can easily be understood by reading God’s usage of it.  Over 1500 times in the Old Testament it is tranlated as “land” as in the land of Egypt.  Therefor God is informating us that in the beginning He made our planet earth with inhabitable dry land.  We can actually get God’s definition of this word earth simply by reading down in the chapter in verse 10:

Gen 1:10  And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the  waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was  good.

The same Hebrew word is given to us that we observed in Genesis 1:1 and it is again transalated as earth but this time God defines what the word earth means.  God called the dry land earth and the water He called seas.  Why is this so important?  If you read Genesis 1:2 you will begin to discover why this is so controversially important.  The planet as described by God in Genesis 1:2 is said to be fully covered in water.  There is no dry land mentioned in verse 2.  Since we understand and can read in Genesis 1:1 that God states explictiy the earth (dry land) was created in the beginning, we have a major contradiction that needs resolution in a young earth theory.  This little detail is simply ignored by most young earth theorists because they cannot explain it.  To ignore God’s definiton of the words forces them into inventing their own definitions and this is why they are so vastly confused.  If God says “earth” is dry land, then earth is dry land and I refuse to call it anything different.  I guess you are free to do what you want and that will be between you and God.

Genesis 1:1 tells us clearly that there was a stated beginning and God created everything, but it did not say when this occurred.  If you assume something and base your faith upon your assumption, most of the time you will be wrong.  We must base what we believe only upon the scriptures found in the Bible and correctly put all of the clues together to see what God has been trying to show us.  Unless you can find specific Bible verses to support your young earth theory, then I would reccomend you use wisdom and look for the truth.  The Bible does not tell us anywhere the age of the universe and that is where Bible teachers start to fall into error.  Teach only what the Bible says and quit guessing on what you think it means.  I also started teaching you the imortance of getting God’s definitions to the words that are used in the Bible and this will greatly assist you in learning what they mean and what they say.  So far we know from the Bible that there was a beginning of matter and time at some point in our past.  We know that God created everything by speaking it into existence.  But, we do not know when this occurred so please stop telling people that you do know.

So far let’s review the facts that we have learned about creation:

  1. God is the Creator!
  2. God Created Everything By His Word!
  3. God is the Word!
  4. The Universe had a point of Origin.
  5. All matter exists because of God’s Word
  6. Time had a Beginning!
  7. God Existed before Time!
  8. We do not know when the beginning of Time and Matter occurred!
  9. God defines earth to be dry land!

These are the basic concepts from Bible creation that you need to know for now!  In my next blog I will talk about some new concepts and introduce you to some very new things to consider, but for now review what you have learned and go find more scriptures that talk about these 9 things that you learned today.

If you would like to continue reading in this series you can go to “Part 2“.

Genesis 6: Prophetic Salvation and Redemptive Patterns in Noah? Pitch Within and Pitch Without!

(Ver 1.1)  I know I teach things that are new and different than anything you have ever heard before, but that doesn’t mean they are not true or what the Bible says.  If you diligently study the Bible I believe you will come to the same conclusions that I have.  In my blog today I want to teach you about something prophetic that God showed me about the story of Noah.  Noah as you recall was selected by God to preserve the human race.  God looked at humanity and said “The end of all flesh has come up before me.”  This was obviously not a good thing because violence and sin had filled the earth.  Men and women were lovers of themselves and didn’t care about anybody else.  However, Noah found favor before God.  God told him to go and build an ark that him and his family could get into along with the animals of the world and God would then send a flood to cause a new beginning or a new starting point.  Apparently something this catastrophic came as a result of the tremendously sad state of the human race at that time.  Jesus told us “As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the coming of the son of man” (Mat 24:37).  We do not have much to look forward to, if this is truly the case.  There does seem to be a growing evil presence in the world.  It would appear that those in the darkness are growing darker and more evil.  A day does not go by on the 6:00 evening news where someone has not done something evil against another human on the earth.  But since this is not my mainline subject I will not go into that in any more depth.  What I want to show you today is God’s plan of salvation and redemption in some hidden types and patterns found within the Old Testament story of Noah:

Gen 6:13  And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

This pattern and type is not easily found, but it is not hard to understand once you see it.  In studying the Bible maybe you noticed that many English translations are void of the original Hebrew language meanings and that they also lack the true importance of what God had originally intended it to say.  Today’s scripture verse will be a prime example of this problem.  It would appear that the translators did not know how to correctly translate the verse so they used their best guess method at what they thought that it meant to say.  After you read the rest of this lesson you will understand why it is so important to study the original Hebrew words in order to see what you might be missing.  So here is the key verse to our subject lesson today:

Gen 6:14  Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.

God told Noah to make an ark out of gopher wood.  The Ark is a symbolic representation of humanity and the human condition.  God uses the Ark to save humanity.  This is also symbolic of God’s plan of salvation and redemption.  God comes to the earth personally and becomes the very thing that He wants to save.  By becoming a man, God is now able to save the human race.  It is a fascinating concept to consider.  But that is not my subject today either.  So let’s look at the Ark.  God told Noah to put pitch on the inside and then to put pitch on the outside of the ark.  Let me stop right there and describe the human condition.  Humans are spiritual beings that inhabit or dwell in a physical body.  The body is the outside part that we see, the inside of a person is their spirit that we do not see.  I do hope that you understand spiritual things enough to see what I am telling you is true.  So what we have described to us in the form of a symbolic ark are the external vs. the internal parts or dimensions of a man.   A man or a woman alive in the world today is in contact with both the natural and the spiritual worlds simultaneously, whether they know it or not.  The vast majority of the unsaved people of the world are not aware of the spiritual dimension of things at all.  Even a great number of carnal Christians are also oblivious to spiritual things and there lies the problem.  Oh well?

So we have man in two separate dimensions simultaneously, one is natural and one is spiritual and God’s plan of salvation and redemption must include both of these dimensions in order to be fully effective.  Do you understand that concept?  Well the story of Noah and the Ark gives us some valuable clues to how God did this and most have never seen it.  You see the two words translated as “pitch” in Genesis 6:14 are not the same Hebrew words.  Both Hebrew words are related to each other, in fact one word comes from the root word of the other.  But one Hebrew word seems to mean something almost completely different than the other one means.  So why would translators make them the same word in the English translation?  That is a really good question, I guess they couldn’t figure out what other words to use so they assumed they both meant pitch.  If you look at the base definition of each word the root of each word means “to cover”.  To cover something implies that you are hiding something or removing something from plain view.  This is an intentional act of taking something found in plain view and covering it with something else to not be seen.  I personally think that this applies to God’s work of salvation.   In building a physical Ark, Noah would have had to do something to make it water tight.  In boat making this usually involves some coating or a sealant; especially for a wooden boat.  If a wooden boat sits in water without a water tight coating, the wood would eventually become water logged with the water that you were hoping to keep out and it would probably soon leak and sink.  So a coating of pitch was placed on the inside as well as the outside of the Ark to make it waterproof.  But what was this covering and what is the symbolism a representation of with these two different Hebrew words translated as “pitch”?

Let’s consider the facts.  A human is a spirit being made in the image and likeness of God.  God being a spirit being created man to look and resemble Himself.  However, God limited man’s ability by confining him to a physical body.  By confining the man to a physical body, he is limited to a specific three dimensional time and space.  In other words, while God can be everywhere at every time all at once, man can only be in a single location at any given point of time.  Man is confined to a specific environmental condition range of temperatures and living requirements.  Physical man needs oxygen, food, water and other essential elements to survive in this world.  By God’s intelligent design man was severely limited in a state of specific fragile circumstances in order to learn and to be able to make choices without affecting any other spiritual eternal being or spiritual place or location.  While one physical human being can kill another physical human being, one physical being can do nothing to the real spirit man in their body.  God created our lives as a series of lessons in a temporary natural environment so that we could choose where we will spend our eternity.  Spiritual beings will never die or cease to exist somewhere.

So what is a human body?  Your physical body is your earth suit and it is comprised of a multitude of different physical elements and parts.  The number of trace elements in the human body is over 50 different types ranging from Oxygen to Tungsten.  The human body by weight is 70% water.  Oxygen is the most abundant element in both the earth and the human body by weight.  The top three elements in the human body are Oxygen, Carbon, and Hydrogen.  It is really most interesting to note that the human body can be called a hydrocarbon unit.  These are two of the key elements found in bitumen.  Bitumen is a waterproofing agent used in asphalt and other areas and surfaces to keep water out.  According to the Strong’s definition of the Hebrew word H3722 translated as “pitch” for the “within” inward part of the ark this word represents this type of waterproofing agent called bitumen.  But if you think of the human spirit as being like the interior of the ark, it is also covered with a waterproofing surface called a body.  I just think that is interesting to note.

So let’s explore the human body from a different angle other than its physical composition.   I personally believe that the physical human body is the only factor that gives you legal access to this planet.  To be born here of a woman is the only legal entry or door into this physical world.  Your physical body gives you the right to choose your eternal destiny.   Jesus said unless a man is born again he cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven (John 3:3).  To be born again means you first must be born the first time physically to even qualify to be born again spiritually.  That is a very difficult concept for some to consider, but it also means that it severely limits Satan and the other demons from participating in God’s plan of salvation.

So let’s do an analysis of the two words translated as “pitch” in this verse and see what they reveal to us.  The first word that I will look at is the “pitch” that is said to apply to the inside of the ark.  The inside of the ark would be representative of the spirit of man so let’s see what God says about our spirits.  This “pitch” word comes from a Hebrew word in the Strong’s number H3722 and has the following definition:

WITHIN

H3722

A primitive root; to cover (specifically with bitumen); figuratively to expiate or condone, to placate or cancel: – appease, make (an) atonement, cleanse, disannul, forgive, be merciful, pacify, pardon, to pitch, purge (away), put off, (make) reconcile (-liation).

This word has a lot of potential overlapping meanings.  First, let’s talk about the last meaning found in this definition called “reconciliation”.  To reconcile one thing to another is to restore it into right relationship.  Of course in this lesson we are talking about the condition of the fallen man being restored back into right relationship with the One True Creator God.  The word reconciliation is a very important theological concept given to us in the Bible.  Here are some definitions for this word reconciliation.

Reconcile:

  • to make (two apparently conflicting things) compatible or consistent with each other; often passive; usually foll by to) to make (oneself or another) no longer opposed
  • to become friendly with (someone) after estrangement or to re-establish friendly relations between (two or more people
  • make peace between, reunite, propitiate, bring to terms, restore harmony between, re-establish friendly relations between

Whether you realize it or not before you were saved, you were an enemy of God.  God directly opposed everything that you stood for, even though He died for your right to change and be saved.  The human race was separate and directly opposed to God and everything that a Holy God stood for.  After sin entered into the world, the human race was in direct opposition to God.  After sin, the human nature was no longer God’s nature.   Knowing this God had to do something to reconcile the situation.  We have one spiritual being, God being opposed to another spiritual being, man and God’s plan of salvation includes something called “atonement”, “forgiveness”, “mercy” and “grace”.  The implied ways of this reconciliation are represented to us as a cleansing process.  A cleansing process involves a washing in the blood of Jesus, spiritually speaking of course.  Our sins have been purged or annulled by the shed blood of Jesus.  Through what Jesus did for us as a man on the cross, God was able to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.  Now we have been given the ministry of reconciliation.   What is that?  It means to go and tell people, God is not mad at them.  God is not opposed to them anymore.  They are not God’s enemies anymore.  God has invited them to be His friend and a part of His family.

2Co 5:18  And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

2Co 5:19  To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

You can clearly see what I just described to you take place in God’s plan of salvation.  In these two verses God declares that the Church should be telling people this good news.  This should be the emphasized message from the church of God to the lost world.  Reconciliation is the prophetic representative work of the “pitch” within in the Ark of Noah.   Our spirits have now been forgiven and reconciled back into the right relationship with God is part 1 of God’s plan.  But, man lives in a physical body and God’s plan of salvation must also include this external part of man to be an all inclusive work and fully effective.  So let’s explore the symolic “pitch” which is applied to the external portion of the ark called the body of man revealed in this Hebrew word in the Strong’s number H3724:

WITHOUT

H3724

From H3722; properly a cover, that is, (literally) a village (as covered in); (specifically) bitumen (as used for coating), and the henna plant (as used for dyeing); figuratively a redemption price: – bribe, camphire, pitch, ransom, satisfaction, sum of money, village.

This word is contrasted to be a completely different work of God.  Where the first “pitch” on the inside meant to “forgive'”, this “pitch” on the outside has a financial implication of someone paying a sum of money to buy back an object.  This is where “redemption” comes into play.  Maybe in your Bible study you have heard about Christ’s work of “redemption”.  But maybe you did not understand the difference between “redemption” and “atonement”.  As you can see they are dramatically different realms of man.  One work applies to the “spiritual” side of man and the other applies to the “physical” side of man.  By God accomplishing both of these simultaneously, man is wholly saved in one act of God’s grace.  Let’s look briefly at the definition of “redeem”:

Redeem

  • To recover ownership of by paying a specified sum
  • To set free; rescue or ransom
  • To save from a state of sinfulness and its consequences

Again we see a process of someone paying a sum of money to buy something back.  Something is implied to have been taken either legally or illegally and a sum of money is paid to recover what was taken or lost.  This is more of what Jesus did on the cross, even though you might not have fully understood it.  How did Jesus accomplish this redemption and what price was paid for our redemption is now the part of the lesson that we have arrived at:

1Ti 2:5  For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

1Ti 2:6  Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

You see in these verses, Jesus Christ is said to be the price paid for our redemption.  Jesus gave himself for a ransom.  A ransom is a sum of money you pay to a kidnapper to get your child back.  Apparently the human race belonged to or was taken captive by someone that had to be paid in order to get us back to God.  What are we talking about though?  We are only talking about the human body.  The spirits of the man and women were already forgiven and reconciled to God.  What we find is that God had to pay a price for the bodies of the human race.

Isa 52:3  For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.

In this verse God prophecies that man will be redeemed without the payment of cash, gold, silver or monetary value changing hands.  God makes a statement that the human race had sold themselves and gotten nothing in return or of value for their stupid act.  So God’s plan of salvation and redemption did not cost Him any money either, but it was certainly not FREE!.

1Co 6:20  For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

We can understand from this verse that we, the human race were bought out of something or someone’s possession and now belong to God.  God paid the price for our redemption from sin with His blood sacrifice.  It is very much like a person who takes a valuable item to a pawn shop and temporarily sells it for money.  They are given a specific time limitation to redeem their item and if they do not the item is forever lost.    We have been purchased back from our sad sinful state and by accepting Jesus as our Lord have received the free gift of salvation and redemption.  Unlike a pawn shop analogy where the item sold never has a say or a voice on its destiny, people are the objects that was sold and they can choose to be redeemed or stay where they are at.  But the redemptive work of God is more complex than my simple pawn shop analogy.  We are actually still awaiting for a part of the redemptive work of God to occur or be completed in the future:

Rom 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

You see if you look for verses in the Bible, you will see that we are still waiting for the full redemptive work of God to be accomplished.  We still have mortal temporary bodies on this planet and according to the Bible we will be transformed on the outside very soon and all get new bodies that our spirits can live in forever.  God writes in Roman’s 8:23 that we are all awaiting this to happen with anxious anticipation.  A groaning is applicable to a birthing process, I believe.  God has already paid the price for our redemption, but yet we still await the redemption of our bodies.  It is a very complex subject, I know.

I hope you enjoyed this lesson on the pitch within and the pitch without and how it relates to the Word of God for the salvation and redemptive work of Christ.  This two part work of God completed the salvation which involved the forgiveness of the human spirit as well as the purchased redemption of our bodies.  God has hidden little things like this in the Bible for a reason and they can only be seen if you look for them diligently.   I pray that you see them and understand them.  Until my next blog, God Bless You.

Genesis 12: Was Abraham A Liar? Seeing the Truth in Genesis!

(Ver 1.3)  Today is a subject that contains some very deep water concepts.  As you can see from my diagram in this post, these are warning signs concerning water hazards.  So please be advised that this is an advanced Bible study lesson with some new concepts that forces you to get into things that may be over your head.  So many times I have heard ministers in the pulpit accuse Abraham of being a liar because of one story in the book of Genesis that they clearly misunderstood.   In this story, we find that Abraham is faced with what he perceives as a threatening situation and he makes a decision that many have thought was a lie.  But, what we have is an example of how preachers can take a part of a story and try to make it the whole story and as a result they have jumped to some erroneous conclusions and an incorrect interpretation of the Bible.  I do not attack these preachers personally, I just attack their ignorance.  Truth will always prevail if you want to see it.  We will pick up with the story of Abraham starting in Genesis chapter 12 and verse 11:

Gen 12:11  And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon:

We can see in this verse that Abraham is traveling about and he comes near the country of Egypt.  Abram begins to speak to his wife and this is where it starts to get good.  Abram tells his wife Sarai that she is very beautiful and this must have been the truth.  No one that I know of has ever questioned the beauty of Sarai his wife.

Gen 12:12  Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive.

Abram begins to speculate and imagine some very negative things as he approaches Egypt.  Egypt is a type of the world, if you did not know that, keep that in mind as you read accounts in the Old Testament about Egypt.  We can see that Abram’s fear is that the men of this country will see how beautiful his wife was and kill him in order to take her to be theirs.  So Abram was very concerned about his own personal well being and safety and did not think much beyond that, it appears.  So Abram comes up with a plan or so the ministers said, he lies about who his wife was.

Gen 12:13  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.

We can see that Abram asks his wife to tell everyone that she is his sister and not to mention that they are married.  Abram thinks that he will be spared and be safe if anyone in Egypt wants his wife Sarai.  So this was Abram’s plan, a plan or work of some sort of alleged deception to save himself from being killed, or was it?  You see if you only read these verses and come up with a sermon based upon this limited information you would probably conclude that Abraham was a liar.  That he out of fear chose to purposely lie to a group of people because he was afraid of being killed.  This would in affect make Abram a type of Satan, the deceiver.  I just can’t go along with that picture because it doesn’t fit his character.  Nowhere in the Bible that I know of is Abram ever called a liar.  So if God does not call Abram a liar, I do not feel it is right that a preacher should call him a liar.  So we have to come up with another explanation or interpretation of the verses or at least some more information that helps us to understand what the real truth is about Abram and Sarai.   So we continue to read the book of Genesis and we read chapter after chapter and finally come to the answer later in Genesis 20.  During these chapters and this time period, Abram and Sarai have a lot happen to them.  God changes their names.  Abraham enters into a covenant with God.   But, it seems that Abraham repeats the same plan when he comes to another country called Gerar, ruled by Abimelech the king of Gerar.  We can see that Abraham didn’t learn very much from his Egypt experience and he repeats the same plan.

Gen 20:2  And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah.

So Abimelech believed what Abraham said, that she is my sister and he takes Sarah to be one of his wives.  God again saves the day and keeps the king from doing anything to Sarah with a dream.

Gen 20:3  But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife.

Apparently God frowns upon one man taking another man’s wife.  I guess that is putting it very lightly since God told Abimelech that he was a dead man.  Apparently God thinks it is very serious to take another man’s wife.  That would be a very strong lesson for many Christians to learn, I don’t think God has changed his mind any time in the last 6000 years.  So as we continue down the chapter we discover that Abraham gets his wife back and he is not killed.  God saves the day again and preserves the linage of Christ.  But did Abraham lie?  We still haven’t resolved the situation or the circumstances that he was faced with.  I believe the answer to the question and the solution to the problem is finally solved by reading Genesis 20:12:

Gen 20:12  And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.

You see from this verse the solution to the problem that Abraham never lied.  Abraham did marry his sister.  However, she was a half-sister, the daughter of his father, but not the daughter of his mother.  Abraham had a different mother than Sarah, but she is still called his sister, legally and truthfully.  Abraham could call her, his sister and omit the wife part and still not be called a liar.  If you omit part of the truth and only tell a different part that is true, what would you call that?  I call it being very tricky.  I do not defend what Abraham did at any time.  It seems if it was not for God saving the day that Sarah would have ended up in someone’s harem.  God is faithful though to save them both.

I had one reader write me a comment that Abram was guilty of the sin of omission.  In other words by not telling all of the truth he committed a sin.  I thought that was an interesting misinterpretation of the Bible again so I spent time studying the subject in more depth.  I looked for any scripture that said withholding information was a sin and I could not find any.  Then I went and studied the subject of deception and I learned some new things found in the Bible that are very profound.  While Satan is called a deceiver, the Bible does not indicate that every deception is a sin.  I could give you more examples found in the Bible, but I wrote a blog on this subject and you should go and read that to find out more about the subject of “Righteous Deception“. 

We can really learn a whole bunch from this story of Abraham if we look for it.  I will not go into all of it, but I will tell you that Abraham is a type of Christ a picture of Jesus the man born of the natural woman Mary.  God is both the spiritual and physical father of Jesus Christ.  Mary is Jesus’ natural mother in the flesh.  The church is called the spiritual children of the “heavenly Jerusalem” in Galatians 4.  We can see that if there is a spiritual mother there also has to be a spiritual father in order to have spiritual children.  So the picture of Abraham as being a type of Christ with the same father of his wife Sarah, but with different mothers, actually fits the pattern given to us of Christ and the church.  The Bible is full of little complex imbedded hidden truths like this.  If you understand how to look for them you can learn a lot.  In another blog I told you that Jesus married his sister.  I told you that Solomon was also a type of Jesus and that 3 or 4 times in the book of Songs that Solomon calls his lover bride to be his sister.  Interesting isn’t it?  Why are things like this written in the Bible for us to figure out?  So I’ll end this blog with a picture diagram of Abraham’s family and hopefully you will that this is a pattern of another family that I will talk about in the future: 

Night and Day Defined! Understanding the Spiritual Heart of Man! Part 2

(Ver 1.2)  This is a series of lessons on a basic spiritual truth that reveals the hidden conditions of the hearts of men and women in the world.  God reveals this spiritual truth using the things created and found in the natural universe.  These natural things are clearly symbolic and represent a far greater spiritual truth.  I am convinced that this is an essential basic truth that every Christian should become intimately familiar with.  This is now part 2 of the series and I would suggest that if you have not read from the start that you go back and start with Part 1.

There is a real man or a real woman inside of the physical bodies of every person on the earth.  These real people are spirit beings that will live forever somewhere after their body dies.  However, most people in the world today don’t know about this fact and are oblivious to this stated reality found in the Bible.    The Bible often times speaks of these spiritual individuals in the hidden terms of the “heart”.  The “heart” of a man is the spirit of the man.  God is not talking about the physical blood pumping organ, God is talking about the center of your being, as in the heart of an apple or the heart of a tree.  The “heart” term used by God is a figurative Bible term and describes the center of a human.  This center of your being is the real you that you can not see.  When a physical body dies, the person’s spirit is immediately transported to one of two possible places.  One place is very good location called heaven and the other one is a very bad location called hell.   The spiritual things are the real eternal things, the natural things are the temporary things (2 Cor 4:18).  God has designed a system in the world that limits humans to a three dimensional realm with specific time constraints.  All of these constraints represents natural boundaries and laws.  When your body dies, you leave the natural realm you enter into the spiritual realm and you normally never come back (2 Cor 5:8).  I have heard of a few people dying and going into the spiritual realm and then they are revived or come back to life in their physical bodies, but I would not put all my eggs in this basket hoping that is what will happen to you.  Many times these people can see in both realms simultaneously.  These people can see the hospital room, the doctors, the nurses, their family and their body but usually they are above all of this looking down on it all.  These people are either sent back by God or God has allowed them to see and experience this in order to tell others that there is more to life than these few years we have on the earth.    So this was a brief explanation of the spiritual realm.

In my last blog I introduced you to a number of scriptures that reveal the hearts of people to be either in darkness or in the light of the knowledge of Jesus Christ.  Darkness and Light are symbolic references and are synonymous terms for Night and Day.  Today we will explore more scriptures found in the New Testament that further enlighten us to these truths.

Isa 9:2  The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

I’ll start with this prophecy from the Old Testament.  This verse is speaking about Jesus coming to the earth personally walking among us.  This verse calls Jesus Christ the “great light” and that is of course a very significant statement.  In my last blog we read verses that showed Jesus to be the spiritual Sun, the spiritual light of the world.  Just as the physical sun is the source for all natural light on our planet, Jesus is the only source for all spiritual light on our planet.  In this verse in Isaiah the people are described as being in the darkness.  The darkness is caused by something that is blocking the light and causing a shadow.  You do understand the concept of shadows?  A shadow is an area where the direct light is not shinning.  The direct light has been blocked by another object that casts a shadow on the ground.  We were the people in this shadow and this shadow was caused by “death” and Satan.  If you read the New Testament you will find verses that describe Satan as holding the power of death.  So that is why I related the two together.  The Bible says Jesus was made manifest in order to destroy him that had the power over death (Heb 2:14).  So we can clearly see who is causing the darkness in the spiritual realm, it is Satan.  So the term “great light” let’s explore that term to learn more about the spiritual hearts of men.

Gen 1:16  And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser lightto rule the night: he made the stars also.

You see in the fourth day of creation God makes a prophetic and symbolic reference to spiritual things that were to come.  God makes the “greater light” AKA “great light” to rule the “day”.  God then makes a “lesser light” to rule the “night”.  These lights are very significant to see and understand for other Bible interpretations.  The “greater light” is the Sun and represents Jesus Christ.  The “lesser light” is the moon and represents Satan.  These two spiritual rulers are over their own separate domains or kingdoms.   The Sun rules the Day (Ps 136:8), the moon rules the night (Ps 136:9).  These separate 12 hour periods represent two different spiritual realms and conditions of the hearts of people.  So the planet earth is a type and pattern of the human heart.  The sun shines on the earth in a constant and consistent manner and the earth revolves and is either in the shadow or darkness or in the light depending on how it is positioned at any given time.  The earth represents the hearts of men that have the opportunity to change and allow the light to shine or to turn away and stay in the darkness.  When Jesus was walking the face of the planet some 2000 years ago he told us this:

Joh 8:12  Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

Jesus made a bold and direct statement that He was the Spiritual Sun, the Greater Light that shined in the world.  Jesus said by following Him we would never again walk in the darkness but always have the “light of life”.  So light represents Life and darkness represents death.  Life and death are very strong analogies and very important to understand.

Act 26:18  To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

We can certainly see what I told you about the hearts of men having to be turned from darkness to light.  It is clearly the responsibility of the men and women to do the turning, God will not force you to turn, but He will help you if you ask.  Then there is another stark contrast given between these two realms.  Satan has the power to rule in the darkness.  To say Satan is powerless would be an error.  But what is important to note is that his power is limited to the realm of “darkness” and the “night”.  If you are in the light you are outside of the realm of his influence and power, or at least you should be.  Satan will still attempt to deceive you and influence power over you until you learn not to let him.

Col 1:12  Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

Col 1:13  Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

You see these two spiritual realms being starkly contrasted again.  The power of darkness is where, we the church use to be, but we are now called “saints in light”.  These two spiritual domains are also called different kingdoms.  The Kingdom of Light and the kingdom of darkness.  Again day and night are symbolic references to two separate and distinct spiritual states or places to be.  Even though we walk the same planet with those who are still in darkness we are not of the darkness and darkness is no longer ruling our hearts and minds.  To be in the world but not of the world as the Bible says.

Eph 6:12  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

So Satan and his demons are spiritual forces that rule the darkness of the world around us.  This verse clearly confirms that Satan is the moon, the lesser light, the ruler of the darkness that we referred to from Genesis 1.  A ruler clearly implies a kingdom, a kingdom of darkness.  Satan has been trying to establish his own dominion and kingdom outside of God since the beginning when sin was found in him.

1Jn 2:8  Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.

In this verse in 1st John we are told for those who are in the light that the darkness has passed.  It is interesting to note that when the lights are on you don’t have any darkness.  But this verse also tells us that Jesus is the “true light”.  The Sun of Righteousness has arisen in our hearts and He is shinning a true light that we might see the truth.  It is interesting that the characteristics of the moon is used to describe Satan symbolically.  The moon has no life or produces any light of itself.  The only reason we can see the moon at night is because it reflects or masquerades as an object of light.  The moon is a pretender and shadow caster and a false light.   It is so different than the sun that is the key to the source of our life on this planet.  But as the Bible says, men who love the darkness are deceived by it and succumb to the trickery of the ruler of the darkness.  But here is some good news and hope for those that are in the darkness:

Eph 5:14  Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

You see God says that those who are in the darkness are simply asleep and capable of waking up and seeing the light.  This is a very strong typology and the spiritual information is significant.  Pray for those in the darkness to wake up and see the light of day.  To turn and allow Christ to arise in their hearts.  Again if people do this they are translated into the light and the life of God.  If they refuse to turn they are already dead.  That is a very sad state of many people in the world today.

There are many other verses in the Bible that speak to us on this subject of Day and Night and I would suggest that you get your Bible search program and look for the key words, like day, night, darkness, light, sleep and any other word that you can think of that are associated with these spiritual realms.  By studying the subject you will better understand why people don’t see Christ like you see Christ.  Why they have been turned off when the light shines in on them.  Jesus told us that “now ye are the lights of the world” so it is our responsibility to be a light to others.  But this should be done in a Godly manner using the same ways that God worked through Jesus.  Learn to be like Jesus and walk like Jesus and you will get others attention by just being so radically different than they are.  Here is a quick chart of some of the lessons we have learned about the spiritual realms of Day and Night:

 Day And Night Characteristics

DAY NIGHT
Light Darkness
Sun Rules the Day Moon Rules the Night
See Blind
Awake Sleep
Sober Drunk
Life Death
Good Evil
Love Hate
True Light False Light
Greater Light Lesser Light
Righteousness Unrighteousness
Power of God Power of Satan

If you would like to continue reading in this series of lessons, you can continue with “Part 3“.

The Bride of Christ Revealed – Part 5 The Law of Marriage

(Ver 1.3)  In the last blog on this subject we talked about a covenant being a marriage.  Before that, I talked about a woman being a nation of people and a city.  We have been building our scriptural knowledge base to understand the identity of the bride of Christ and today I want to talk about the Law of Marriage.  I hope you realize that the Old Testament holds the law of God written down by Moses.  In these books God has established principles, concepts, definitions, and laws concerning every subject you can think of.  So today I want to establish what happens when God enters into a marriage blood covenant with a group of people.  If you have not been following this series from the beginning I would strongly recommend that you go back and start reading from Part 1, The Introduction.

I know this is a very new advanced study of a complex subject.  I know that it will be difficult for some to see and understand.  Based upon your current spiritual level of maturity, that alone will determine if you are able to fully grasp what is in this lesson series.  Many times I know people read my stuff and think it is not true.  It is funny how Jesus would go around and tell people “let him who has ears, hear”.  Jesus was not talking about just hearing sounds with their ears, he was talking about them understanding with their hearts and that is something completely different.   Too many people know how to read, but do not know how to see what was written.  Getting understanding is the key to growing in spiritual maturity.  Just as you cannot hand a first grader a college calculus book and say learn this, if you are struggling with the things that I have been saying you are probably not ready for this lesson.  I would recommend that you either go back and study the basics some more until you fully grasp the foundational truths before you attempt to tackle any of the advanced subjects found in the Bible.

Let’s get into the second chapter of Genesis and see the account of the creation of woman and the first recorded marriage covenant and what happened to all of the participants.  After all, we are talking about the identity of a woman called the bride of Christ, so where did the woman come from?

Gen 2:21  And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

Gen 2:22  And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

We can clearly see from these famous well known verses where God says woman came from?  You’ve read this before I’m sure, but I doubt if you really fully understood what you read.  You see these verses declare that woman was taken out of a man.  That is representative of a mathematical operation of division or subtraction.  You could say God took one and made two.  One divided by 2 gives the same answer as one subtracting one half.  Using either division or subtraction the result could still be two halves.  But here is another perspective of division and mathematics.  If you divide one by one you get one.  Isn’t that an interesting concept.  The reverse multiplicative principle would be to multiply one by one and you would still get a result of one.  One male times one female equals one flesh and here is why I say that.  Look at the next verses in Genesis in what Adam has to say about his wife:

Gen 2:23  And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

Gen 2:24  Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

Since the woman was taken from his body, Adam then declares that she was his body.  Did you see that?  What is flesh and bones?  His flesh and bones is the same as his body.   Adam’s body consisted of flesh and bones.  God took a portion of his body and made her body.  Flesh and bones are the primary parts or pieces that make up his body.  I hope all kind of light bulbs are going off in your mind based upon this revelation.  Flesh and bone and the body are different terminology for the same thing.  There are so many ways to describe, label or name the same things that we have to be smart enough to know when they are the same and when they are not.  When Adam looked at his wife he called her the body of Adam.   This is a pattern for another New Testament marriage we will see later.  If God took a part of man out and created a woman who became the mother to all the natural living descendants on the planet earth, then you might say it would be legal for God to put back a woman into his son Jesus Christ.  I’m sure you are wondering how I came to that reasoning and conclusion.  It starts with this fact, did you know that Jesus is called the “last Adam” in the New Testament?  Read this verse:

1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

Not only is Jesus called a quickening spirit in contrast to a living soul, but Jesus is specifically called the “last Adam”.  Meaning there is a direct and specific relationship and connection to the “first Adam”.   The distinct parallels and patterns between the two Adam’s are quite profound.  I hope you are grasping this concept.  2 different Adams, one natural and one spiritual.   If it was legal for God to take one man or as we have seen one Adam and create one male and one female, then the reverse logic would be to take one male and one female and multiply them together giving you one flesh again.  Multiplication and division of 1 and 1 always results in 1.  It is the only set of numbers that I know of that you can do this with.  2 times 2 doesn’t equal 2.  2 divided by 2 doesn’t equal 2.  This is of course, very basic math truths, but it is amazing how God does things.  Sometimes it is the really simple things that God uses to confound the wise.

When Jesus is called “Adam” in the New Testament, this of course is the same Hebrew word that we looked at earlier.  This Hebrew word can be translated either as “man” or it can be translated as “Adam”.  Both translations originate from the exact same word and this makes understanding the Bible much more complex.  It is a puzzle of sorts, but that is the way God works.  God is much smarter than we are and he could have chosen any words that fit, but he specifically selected these words to describe a man/Adam.

So, what other relationship do these two Adams share?  I’ll probably lose some of you right here, but here goes.  Both Adam’s were sons of God and therefore they are natural brothers.  Both Adam and Jesus had the same Father.  If you don’t understand that, don’t throw it away because it does have significance.   There are things in the Bible that are difficult to grasp and understand at first because they are so different.  The more religious you are the harder it will be for you to grasp certain things in the Bible and this is probably one of them and there are many others.  I did not say Adam was God, but I will say Jesus was.   Jesus the Last Adam was also the son of Adam.  Jesus walked the face of the planet and constantly called himself the “son of man”.  You lose the meaning and significance of that statement by reading an English translation.  Jesus being a Hebrew and of the house and lineage of David was saying I am a son of Adam.  The Hebrew word for “Adam” can and is translated as “man” several times.  It’s the same word “H120” and “H121”.  Sometimes translated as “Adam” and other times as “man”.  How can the Son of God also be the Son of Adam?  The Son of Adam and the brother of Adam?  It’s pretty tough to grasp, but nevertheless this is what the Bible says.  Nobody ever told you that the Bible was easy to understand.  If they did they lied to you.  If you look at the family lineage of Jesus given to us in Luke you will see that it goes all the way back to Adam and then to God.  There is a clear implication that Adam was also called a “son of God”.  Not God, not “The Son of God” either just a “son of God”.

Luk 3:38  Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.

Reading this verse is very informative, even if the words “son of” are added by the translators.  Some say since these words are not in the original Greek we can explain away what actually is being conveyed.  However, I believe the words “son of” do assist us in correctly interpreting the meaning.  The clear implication is that Adam is called a son of God.  You don’t go through a long list of names in a genealogy and every named pair represents a father and a son relationship except the last one.  That would be idiotic to attempt such reasoning.  I’ll say it again, be consistent a list is a list and every entry in the list should be treated the exact same.  I know I got off of the subject for a side trip, but I believe it was important.  Let’s get back to the original husband and wife.

We can sometimes ask questions that help us in our discussion.  When God formed Adam’s body from the dust of the ground as it says he did, why didn’t God also make the female’s body from the dust of the ground?  He wasn’t out of dirt or dust?  It is of course an interesting puzzle?  Why take out a part of something you already made to make another complementary piece of work?  That of course is a hard question.  Obviously God had a good reason, or He wouldn’t have done it.   Let’s figure out why he did it?

Believe it or not the verses that we read in Genesis 2, gives us an established foundation of how we the church became the body of Christ.  If the first Adam has a wife, God is saying it is Ok, for the “last Adam” to have a wife.   The first Adam’s wife was a physical woman, the last Adam’s wife is a spiritual woman.  Let’s go back and reread verses 23 and 24 in Genesis 2, because these are absolutely critical to understand.

Gen 2:23  And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

Gen 2:24  Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

We see again in verse 23 that Adam declares his wife’s body to be his body and obviously that is where it originated from.  God purposely selected this way to create the woman.  This was a prophetic event of Biblical proportions.  Again I will reemphasize that “flesh and bone” is the same terminology for the “body”.  In other words a human body consists of both flesh and bones.  Jesus actually confirms this with words in the New Testament when he used this terminology in the Gospels, he told his disciples, “handle me, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones”.(Luke 24:39).   So Jesus confirms that he has flesh and bones and the clear implication is that is also called his body.   If Jesus says “touch me” where would a man put his hand on Jesus to see if he was real?   It seems obvious to me that Jesus is referring to his body as being flesh and bones.  This is not rocket science, and you should be seeing something new by now.

Moving on to verse 24 in Genesis 2 we see God’s law of marriage being established.  This is the first reference in the Bible of the marriage covenant relationship between a man and a woman.  This again sets the “type” or “pattern” for every marriage relationship between a man and a woman in both the natural and the spirit worlds.  I call this God’s “Law of Marriage”.  God gives us a rule or a law for a blood covenant marriage.  God said that a man in this case Adam would leave his father (God) and his mother (the earth) and would cleave unto his wife (the woman).  I probably lost some of you again by including explanations in that preceding statement.  I’ve already dealt with who Adam’s father was so you should already understand that.  Since Adam did not have a birth mother and God formed his body from the dust of the ground I consider “the earth” to be his mother.   That of course is my opinion, since I don’t have a Bible verse for that statement.  You’ve heard the common term “mother earth” before haven’t you?  Then the verse finishes up with the most critical thing that you should learn on the subject of marriage with a woman and that is it says the two (the male and the female) would become one flesh (body).  This reveals how the church became the body of Christ, it was by marriage.  You can obviously still reject everything I’ve said up to this point and say I don’t believe it.  However, I’m not through though and I have many more scriptures that confirm what I just said.  Is this what God really meant?  Did Jesus believe this?  Well guess what, I think so, because here is what Jesus said to us on the subject.  If you notice these words are in Red, meaning Jesus in person spoke them directly.

Mat 19:5  And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?

Mat 19:6  Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

Again we see a clear reference to the exact same words spoken by God in Genesis 2.  Within the context of these scriptures you will find that the subject being discussed is divorce and is it lawful?  Jesus’ attitude toward divorce is the same as it is today, he says “can’t you read?”, “didn’t God create them male and female in the beginning?”  “Aren’t the two joined together and are they not one flesh.”  How can a man cut off a part of his own body and get rid of it, isn’t that what he is really saying?  Are they not the same body?   Jesus said there should be no divorce if it was done right.  Jesus is saying that the man and the woman were two, but after they are married God considers them to be one body.  This is the Biblical law of covenant marriage.  Two people have become one body.  This is why Jesus when he married the church with the New Covenant has become one body with her.  We can now begin to see how the church became the body of Christ.  Just as Eve was the body of Adam, so the church is the body of Christ.  These are very important truths to learn and remember.  We will continue this study of the identity of the bride of Christ in my next blog.  I hope you are beginning to see and understand these important spiritual concepts.  We have now laid a foundation for getting into the subject of the identity of the bride of Christ using scriptures we can search for in the New Testament.  We have discovered that a covenant is a marriage.  God when in covenant is always the male in the relationship.  The people that God is in covenant with is always the female.  A female in covenant with God is a nation of people consisting of males and females and is always associated with a city named Jerusalem.  Then we discovered the law of marriage that states when they are joined together, they become one body.  I have another lesson that might be good to go read now that might help clarify some things or give you more information on the subject.  This lesson is called “How did the Church become the Body of Christ“. Within this lesson I actually answer many questions that I have presented in this series.  I hope that you are learning and we should be able to move into the identity of the bride in the next lesson in the series.

If you would like to continue reading this series, please go to “Part 6“.

Gen 3:15 The Seed of the Woman! The Seed of the Serpent!

(Ver 2.6)  This is Part 9 in the Bible study series on Understanding Genesis 3.   If you have not read the series from the beginning you might benefit from starting at the beginning and reading “Part 1” first.  I have given some important key points in the first lesson in the series that is needed for you to understand this lesson completely.   This lesson concerns the words spoken to the serpent and you need to understand who this serpent is identified to be in order to understand how to interpret these words in this verse.   One of the keywords in my title today is the subject of “seeds”.   I have already touched on this subject in other Bible lessons that I have published, but since we are studying in Genesis 3, I feel that this needs to be discussed again so that people will understand it more thoroughly.  It is disturbing to me how people can read the Bible and not see what it really says.  In my opinion there are too many Christians that don’t have a clue what the Bible actually says.  There is a great number of Christians who rely on others to tell them what to believe.  If their preacher says it’s true then they are instantly on board with it without studying it for themselves.  That kind of attitude has caused a bunch of people in the church to be deceived.  Do not believe anything I say or anything anyone else says without you reading it in your own Bible and you seeing it for yourself; you must be able to determine if it is really true for yourself and no one else can do it for you.  Here is today’s central Bible verse found in Genesis 3, let’s look at it carefully and consider what God says to us:

Gen 3:15  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

From the context of this scripture we know that God is speaking.  This verse occurs after the man and his wife had sinned by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  God is speaking to each participant in the ordeal in the reverse order of mention found in the chapter.  If you read all of chapter 3 you will see that Satan (the serpent) is mentioned first, then the woman and finally Adam.  But, God comes to the man first, since he is supposed to be in charge of the situation.  Did you know if you are just a member of a church that God will not come to you and tell you how to run the church?  God always communicates from the top down and not from the bottom up.   I just threw that in for good measure; there is no extra charge for any new information that helps you personally.  So if you look at this verse God is finally speaking directly to Satan who has initiated the problem.  We know that in Chapter 3 of Genesis Satan is referred to in the terms of a symbolic “serpent”.  That only means that there was not a literal talking physical snake in the garden during this chapter.  If you don’t understand that statement you need to read my lesson on the subject called “Was There A Talking Snake In The Garden“.  In that lesson I gave at least 4 sound Bible reasons why there could not be a literal talking serpent.   I will not repeat that subject in this lesson to try to prove to you what I have already taught and confirmed with the Bible.  If you do not understand there wasn’t a talking physical snake then go and read about it and then come back to study this subject about the seed of the woman.  So we can see that God is speaking directly to Satan in reference to a woman.  If you automatically try to assume that this woman is Eve, you would be totally wrong.   Even though at this point in time Eve is the only physical woman on the planet, we can clearly see that God is speaking of a prophetic woman and this woman has to be a spiritual woman, since Satan is her spiritual opponent.  A physical woman is not capable of stepping on the head of a spiritual being.  If you think so, you would be wrong again.  There are too many distinct differences between natural things and spiritual things for you to think otherwise.  Let us start an analysis of the verse by reviewing the nouns in this verse and see what God has said to us.  We can see that there are 8 primary nouns given to us in this verse.  Here they are in order of mention:

  1.  I  (God)
  2. Enmity
  3. Thee (Satan, the serpent)
  4. Woman
  5. Seed of the serpent
  6. Seed of the woman
  7. Head
  8. Heel

If you look at my list and you study the verse you might notice that I left off two nouns.   One being “it” and the other being “his”.  These I believe are mistranslated words and do not reflect correctly the true meaning of the verse so I left them off for now.  The first noun in Genesis 3:15 is “I” and this is God and God tells us and all the other participants what He was going to do as a result of their actions.  This is the first thing that you should recognize, if God says something you can believe it will happen exactly like He said it would.  We can see that this is one of the first direct statements of God’s plan of redemption that has far reaching implications.  You can also see that this is God’s Will in action.   God says “I will” and then tells you what He is going to do or make happen.   Now, here is a list of the important verbs found in the sentence:

  1. Put
  2. Bruise

We can see that there are far fewer verbs given than there are nouns.  Let’s start with the verse’s first verb “put”.  We can clearly see that this is something that God says He will do.  This word has a meaning “to place”.  For example, you can “put” something on a shelf.  You can “put” something in the refrigerator.  But this verse says God will put something between two other direct nouns.  The implication is given that God will change the order of something from one thing to another.  You could say a reversal of roles, for example?  You could also say this is a division or a separation of one noun from the other noun being separated with something in between.  You might see this more clearly if you read my other blogs.  What we need to do at this point is see who God is talking to and then to see what was placed between them to cause this separation.

Let’s start by looking at the second noun in Genesis 3:15 and this is “enmity” and this word clearly means “a hatred” or “hostility”.  These are words normally between enemies.  What we can clearly see at this point is that God says that He will put ”hatred” between the next two nouns.  These nouns are of course the “serpent” and the “woman”.  You can clearly see that God who has not identified who the woman is, has told Satan that there will be a hatred between him and her.  In other words these two will become great enemies who will do battle.   These are implied meanings derived from the chosen words and wording from this verse given to us by God Himself.  Please note these important items and then notice the next two nouns in the verse.  God seems to shift into talking about something new, or does He?  I believe what we have here is a new point of view being given but, God is still talking about the same original two nouns.  Notice what God says, I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed.  So did God change subjects?  We are still talking about the same enmity, right?  So what makes you think that the “seed” of the serpent is separate from the serpent?  Have you ever thought about that?   You see if you logically conclude that the enmity is the same between the serpent and the woman as the enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman, then you could say that God is still talking about the same two individuals.  Let’s look at the very first verse in the Bible that talks about “seed” and see what it reveals to us by the law of first mention:

Gen 1:11  And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

What we discover is a basic principle of the nature of seeds.  A seed is something that when planted produces something else.  But it only produces, based upon the law of Genesis “after his kind“.  In other words apple seeds produce apple trees and not orange trees.  Now here is the really important part of the verse, it says that the “seed is in itself”.  In other words you cannot separate the seed from the tree or the fruit; they are considered to be one.   An apple tree will produce apples, that have seeds that when planted will cause there to be more apple trees that produce more apples, that have more seeds that go on and on.  These are the basic Bible laws surrounding seeds.  If you do not understand them you can go read my blog series on “Understanding Seeds”.   The principles of seeds are quite simple but the implications are vast and complex.  If Genesis 3:15 is talking about the seed of the serpent, you have to go back to Genesis 1 and apply the seed law principles and see that they are considered to be one in the same.  The seed of the serpent is in himself.   The serpent is representative of a spiritual tree that has fruit with seeds in it.  These seeds can be planted and will cause to multiply and grow and become greater in number.  Yet this multiplication system still demands that no matter how many that are produced from it, they all originated from the one.  If you have never studied the Bible on the subject of “seed” you should because it is a wealth of information.  Most everything that God does is based upon a seed principle.   Jesus told us a parable of a man sowing seeds and said if you don’t understand this one you will not understand any other.

So let’s go a little further with what a seed is in the relationship to a woman.  If you search the Bible you will find some very interesting statements.  I’ve heard preachers get up and declare that the “seed of the woman” is Jesus of Nazareth.  That would mean that the woman in Genesis 3:15 would have to be Mary.  Mary was the physical mother of natural Jesus, yes?  Did God ever put enmity between Mary and Satan?  I think you are smart enough to see that this does not fit the scriptures that we can read.   Then you could say that “the seed of the woman” is Jesus Christ who was raised from the dead and called the firstborn from the dead (Col 1:18).  That would mean the woman in Genesis 3:15 is the “Heavenly Jerusalem” who we are told is the spiritual mother of Jesus Christ and the church (Gal 4:26) and I hope you can see that this doesn’t work either.  God never put enmity between this woman and Satan.   So the seed of the woman cannot be Jesus just from thinking logically along these lines.  Before we go any further let me show you a verse in Genesis that I think is the first actual reference to a woman having seed.  This will at least establish that a woman can have seed.  I’ve heard many ministers say that a woman cannot have seed and that only a man or male has seed and they are thinking of sperm as being the only type of seed there is in the Bible.  What people don’t realize is there are many different types of things in the Bible all called seeds.  Here is just one of them:

Gen 4:25  And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.

Hopefully you can see from this verse of scripture a principle being established.   A child that is born of a woman is called her seed.  Eve is called the mother of all living human beings since she was the first woman.  Given modern DNA research, most have concluded that every human being has originated from this one woman they called “Eve”.  This is a basic implementation of the seed principle from Genesis 1.  But of course it is more complex than that.  Adam and Eve were one flesh, meaning they were one body in the eyes of God.  Adam’s sperm or male seed was implanted into his wife, she bore him a child and this child was also their seed.  This seed has the potential to reproduce after the original pattern and produce more seed; it is an endless perpetual self-sustaining model of life on this planet.  But we know that no matter how many seed are produced, they are still considered to be one with the original model from whom they originated from.  Whatever Adam did everyone he produced did, it is a very extensive spiritual and physical law.  The sum of the whole is always equal to one.  All of the separate and individual parts are still one in the same in the eyes of God.  You can learn this principle in the N.T. by reading 1 Corinthians 15:22, where God says “For as in Adam ALL die…”.  Did you notice that verse said you were “IN” Adam?  That is the powerful concept of the seed being in itself.  That means whatever Adam did you also did and that is why death passed upon all humanity by the acts of just one man.  This is God’s definition of the natural seed always being within itself, whatever your father did, you did principle.  Let me give you another N.T. example of this spiritual and physical seed law:

Heb 7:9  And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham.

Did you notice that Levi was in Abraham?  Whatever Abraham did was what his future descendant Levi, also did.  So when did Levi come into the earth?  You should look at the genealogies given to us in the Bible and see that Levi was generations away from Abraham, yet Abraham paid tithes and therefore Levi paid tithes.  We can confirm this by reading the next verse in Hebrews:

Heb 7:10  For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him.

Hopefully you understand the principle of seeds a little bit better now.  Levi is said to have paid tithes because his great grandfather paid tithes to Melchisedec.    Levi a future descendant was in Abraham and therefore whatever Abraham did, Levi did.  That is one of the most important things that you can learn from our lesson today and it is certainly indirectly related to our primary subject of who the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent is in Genesis 3:15.

So let’s approach the subject of the seed of the woman as being Jesus Christ but, from a different perspective.  If the seed of the woman is Jesus Christ then who is the seed of the serpent?  We know the serpent is Satan, but who is the seed of the serpent?  You see you cannot say one type of seed is an individual male child without saying the other is also an individual male child.  You must be consistent in your interpretations and not try to make one noun a specific object type and then try to change the definition of the other identical noun to make it to be something else entirely new, do you get it?  So if Jesus Christ is the seed of the woman in Genesis 3:15 as many preachers have said, then who can the seed of the serpent be?  I do hope you see the logic behind that question.  What the Bible says matters, every word and every detail matters and then how you interpret the Bible also matters.  If you are not being consistent and treating every word the same, then you are being selective in what you teach and therefore getting it wrong by default.  So pay very close attention to every detail; then ask questions.  When you read across a detail that you do not understand, start to formulate questions and make notes on them.  You never know when you will be reading a verse in the Bible and suddenly realize that you just read the answer to your question you had a few days or weeks ago.  So I hope you can see logically that the seed of the woman cannot be Jesus Christ, because we have not named the “seed of the serpent”.  Here is another difficulty that I have with saying that Jesus is the seed of the woman, I have not found any verses in the Bible that says that Jesus bruised the head of the serpent.  Can you find one?   What I discovered in studying the Bible, is that it says Jesus sat down at the right hand of God waiting for His enemies to be made His footstool (Hebrews 10:13).  What we learn from this one verse is that Satan (God’s enemy) is not yet completely under the feet of Jesus.   Do you get it?  So what is God waiting for?  So let me ask you again who is the seed of the serpent?  Is this Satan’s physical child?  I don’t think so.  But you have to be consistent, if one seed is a man child you have to make the other seed the same.  This is just a basic law of correct Bible interpretation, be consistent and apply what you do equally across the board to each occurrence of the word.  If a word occurs twice in one verse interpret them equally. 

Getting back to the problem with this KJV translation of Genesis 3:15 I alluded to the fact that two nouns “it” and “his” were mistranslated because some translators thought they were speaking about Jesus Christ and this idea crept into the translation.  The word “it” in this verse is a Hebrew feminine word that is actually translated as “her” or “she” many times in the Bible.  You can see that in Genesis 3:12 when Adam says “the woman that you gave me, SHE gave me of the tree”.    This “SHE” is the same Hebrew word, so SHE is a valid translation for this word.  Search your Bible and see it for yourself.  Then the term “his heel” does not have an actual Hebrew word associated with it that tells you the actual gender of the owner of the heel.  In other words “her heel” would work for this verse equally as well and I believe it could be a much better translation.  It totally depends on whose heel we are talking about doesn’t it?   Look at your Bible and see if these are true.  Is there a Hebrew word for “his” that has a Strong’s definition?  I couldn’t find one!  So I am convinced based upon other scriptures in the Bible which I haven’t given you here that this verse in Genesis 3:15 should end like this: “she shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise her heel“.

If you need more scriptures I’ll give you a quick synopsis of more evidence from the Bible of who this woman is.  In Luke 10:19 Jesus told his church “I give you power to tread upon serpents…“.  Reading that verse you have all of the key elements and nouns repeated from Genesis 3:15.  You have a woman, who is the church, you have the mention of the serpent who is Satan, and you then have the action verb of stepping on the serpent with your feet.  This is just the exact same stuff that we read in Gen 3:15, using different words.  I hope you can see it.  Then there is another verse that is very critical to understand found in Romans 16:20, “The God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly…“.  Again we have a verse of scripture written to a woman (the Church) whose feet are to be used by God to bruise the head of Satan (the serpent).”    You see, these two verses alone tell me that Jesus Christ did not accomplish this already and they confirm to me who is directly prophesied by God to complete this bruising of the serpent’s head.  The Church is a spiritual woman, in covenant with Jesus Christ.  Here is another perspective to consider, the church is called the “Body of Christ”.  Jesus Christ is said to be the Head and the church is said to be His body (Eph 5).  Where exactly are the feet located?  Are your feet located on your head or on your body?   So if God is going to use anyone to bruise the head of the serpent, would He not use His body?  It’s not rocket science you just have to read and see what it says.

I have already blogged on most of the rest of this information when I gave you information about the woman in Revelation 12.  Maybe I should rehash it again so that you can see it more clearly.   You see the Bible in Revelation 12 speaks about a woman and since we are talking about a woman in Genesis 3:15 we should approach this woman as a potential candidate for the prophecy that God has given to us.  You do not know it is not this woman do you?  What I found absolutely fascinating was all of the clues given to us in Revelation 12 that fit the pattern of the prophecy in Genesis 3:15.  First God is talking to the serpent when He prophecies in Gen 3.   God actually reveals to us the true identity of the serpent in Revelation 12:9.  Knowing this fact alone should give you some clues that God is revealing something that is much bigger in that Genesis 3 and Revelation 12 are related.   You should be able to see that Genesis 3 and Revelation 12 are closely related if you study both chapters very closely.  In Revelation 12 we have two primary nouns being repeated.  These two nouns are the woman and Satan (the ancient serpent).  The dragon we are told in Revelation 12:9 is definitely the “old serpent” so we can now see that the woman certainly could be the same woman being prophesied about in Gen 3.  Now skip down to the last verse in Revelation 12 and notice another direct mention that is certainly not a coincidence.

Rev 12:17  And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

So now we have some information that the dragon hates the woman.  The dragon is said to be at war with the woman and that makes him and her enemies.  What did God say in Genesis 3:15?  God said that he would put “enmity” between you (the serpent) and the woman.  Again we see some amazing parallels being spoken of.  Then here is the real kicker, did you notice that verse in Revelation 12 spoke of the “seed of the woman” again?  Satan was at war with the woman’s seed.  Do you understand that statement?  It certainly sounds like this is the prophesied woman in Genesis 3:15.  If you do not understand how the heel and the head of the serpent come into play you need to stop here and go and read my blog on “The True Identity of the Woman in Revelation 12“.  Once you realize that the woman in Revelation 12 is standing on the moon with her feet you will begin to understand this is the woman that God spoke of way back in the beginning.  I know this is different than anything you have ever heard before, but yet if you can read with your eyes open you will see that it is all true.  I pray that this has been a blessing to you and that you will pass it along to someone who can learn from it also.  God Bless. 

If you would like to continue to read in this series concerning the spiritual subjects hidden in Genesis 3 please go to “Part 10“.

Gen 3:21 God Clothes Them With Coats of Skin!

(ver 1.2)  This is Part 8 in the Bible study series on Understanding Genesis 3.  I have been going through the key verses in Genesis 3 and bringing out many new spiritual perspectives based upon God’s explanations found in verses in other parts of the Bible.  I do not do this randomly because I use a set of rules that God has taught me about correct Bible interpretation.  I will try to teach you these rules later.  If you have not read all of the Genesis 3 series from the beginning I would recommend that you go back and read from “Part 1“.   I believe by looking for related linked scriptures in the Bible we have a better opportunity to fully understand what God actually meant when He gave us these original writings.  I believe the Bible is progressive revelation.   What I mean by that is that God systematically builds upon layers of knowledge in a structured manner that increases our understanding of the beginning words.  It is like reading a basic math book before you ever try to learn calculus.  By learning the basics you can then add to this knowledge and apply it to the more advanced and everything flows together in harmony.   You see the complexity of the Bible is so great because the intelligence of the author is so far beyond us.  But knowing that God is so much smarter than we are, He didn’t leave us in the dark to figure it out all on our own.  God has provided us a vast amount of commentary in the Bible on every subject and in fact I believe He has given us all the information we need to figure out these hidden and secret things, if we learn to follow His Word.

Too many times people teach a verse of scripture in the Bible in total isolation.  They focus into a verse and want to figure it out with their own human logic and reasoning.  But, God being a highly intelligent spirit being doesn’t write us a book that we can figure out alone in isolation.  Even though many men and women have tried, they have all failed miserably. Today I want to focus in on one verse found in Genesis and see what God says to us in the Bible about this verse.  This verse occurs in Genesis 3:21 and it says the following:

Gen 3:21  Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

I have heard many Bible teachers read this verse and claim that God killed an animal and used its skin to make for the man and the woman external physical clothes.  They have tried to assume that this is the origination of the blood sacrifice.  But I am not convinced that this is what the Bible actually says.  What do we know from other verses up until this point in the story.  We know that Adam and Eve after they had sinned became afraid and told God it was because they were naked.  God confronts them and asks “who said you were naked?”  In other words God did not say they were naked?   From God’s perspective of the situation they were spirits clothed in a body.  But what changed from chapter 2 where Adam and Eve were not ashamed of being naked to chapter 3 where they obviously felt shame and embarrassment.  I went into a little bit of this whenever I wrote about them being naked in chapter 2.  I will not repeat everything here again.  What I said in synopsis is that the man and the woman were more like innocent children who are not concerned with clothing because they are spiritually aware and realize that they are spirits clothed with a body.  At a certain age of accountability, children suddenly become conscious of their bodies more than they are conscious of their spirits.  Now they are focused upon their bodies and wholly consumed with the natural.  This is what happened to Adam and Eve, they are now oblivious to spiritual things and now consumed with natural things.

So did God kill an animal and make them clothes or was this statement reflecting some other action that God did.  First let me start by asking this question, who or what were Adam and Eve that God was concerned with?  You see if you think naturally you focus in on their bodies and think that is what God is focused in on also.  However, God who made these natural things is not that concerned with the condition of these natural things like He is with the spiritual things.  We can determine by reading the Bible that natural things are “temporal” or “temporary” (2 Cor 4:18).   But, we are also told there that spiritual things are eternal.  So what is more important to God, the temporary house of the man’s spirit or the man’s spirit that will live forever?  I do so hope that you are following my logic.  I believe and am convinced that God cares infinitely more about spiritual beings and things than he does about the planet or natural things that He has made.  You see God can make a new heaven and a new earth and He will very soon.  What does that have to say about the old heaven and the old earth?  The Old will be gone and done away with and its value has ceased.  So what should Christians be focused on?  Should they be spending all their time and effort trying to save the whales and the trees or should they care infinitely more about the babies that are being aborted before they are born into this world.  These babies are the bodies for the eternal spiritual beings that God has planned and sent to be here.  For some reason so called Christian want to vote for a president who works against God’s design for them to be here and kill them.  Liberal politicians want to place all value on saving the planet and no value on babies and that is a crime.  Oh well I’ll change subjects and get back to our topic about skin.

What does it mean to be clothed with skin?  If you have never thought of it before that is what you are right here and right now.  You are a spirit that is clothed with a body that is covered with skin.  Skin is the largest organ in the body.  It is a vital part of why you are here.  Now I’m going to shift gears again and bring in a new perspective on the subject of skin.  Did you ever wonder why God initiated a practice with Abraham that started a process that is called circumcision?  This is a practice that most educated medical professionals will agree is a sound procedure that promotes health in the men that have this done.  Circumcision is a procedure that entails the removal of unnecessary skin.  Have you ever asked yourself if this skin is so unnecessary, why did God put it there in the first place?  Didn’t God know this when He was creating a man?  That to me is an interesting and an extremely valid question.  I would go so far as to say that anything that God does has a purpose and this skin also has a purpose.   What was the purpose of this skin?   It was done to show us something or teach us something that applies to the spiritual realm.  When God makes a covenant with Abraham one of the signs of the covenant was Abraham was required to be circumcised.  This was a outward sign of the covenant.  It was also a pattern of something else that was to come.  God gives us some insight into this practice in the New Testament:

Rom 2:28  For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:

We can see from the subject of this verse a comparison is being made between two types of individuals.  It is a known practice that the Jews have practiced circumcision ever since God spoke it to Abraham.  This is the outward sign of the covenant from the Old Testament.  But God now informs us some new things about this practice and why it was implemented.  This verse actually says that those who are circumcised in their flesh are not the true Jews and that this outward practice means nothing except being a pattern to something greater.  By continuing to read the next verse you will see the revelation of God being given:

Rom 2:29  But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

This is an awesome verse of truth if you can see it.  It declares the church to be the true Jews because of a circumcision of their hearts that has been performed by God.  If God removes the unnecessary skin surrounding our hearts (spirits), when did God put this skin on our hearts?  I think that is a really good question to consider.  God declares in Romans 2:29 that he has performed a circumcision of our hearts.  This would be a spiritual surgical procedure which mimics the natural procedure, to remove all of the unnecessary skin that covered our spirits.  This is actually an amazing concept being given to us.  Since we all still have the same bodies that we had before we are saved and they all have the same bones, flesh, organs and skin, we can assume that this outward skin is not what God has taken away.  It must have been an inward spiritual skin that was removed.  Isn’t that what God is saying to us?  God is not that concerned with your outward as you are.   God is focused in on our inward parts and these are the areas that change us to affect the outward parts.  Every spiritual process that God performs works from the inside out and not from the outside in.  So I’ll ask this question again, where did this spiritual skin that has been removed from our spirits come from?  You see I believe it came from Genesis 3:21 when God clothed them (the spirits) with skin.  This skin that God put on Adam and Eve must have been a spiritual covering to shield them from something or someone.  I believe it was a spiritual covering of unnecessary skin to keep them from knowing too much, too soon.  Every human born on this planet has this spiritual covering that makes them unaware of their true identity as being a spiritual being.

However, now God has removed this skin covering from the church and for the last 2000 years, we are the ones that God has stated to know the truth.  We are the ones that will discover all that God has done for us.  We will see things of the spirit more clearly than anyone before us.  We are the church, the body of Christ the ones that are purposely chosen to know what God is revealing.  You can choose to participate or you can choose to close your eyes and stay out of this blessing.  I’ll end this blog with this last point, in the New Testament the church is repeatedly commanded to “put on Christ”.  This is of course a spiritual exercise and not a physical one.  How do you put on Christ?  The term put on means to be clothed with.  Doesn’t that sound familiar.  You see if God removed your spiritual clothing of skin you would be spiritually naked unless you put something else on.  So God instructs the church to “wear” Jesus Christ as a garment.  To invest your spirit with a new spiritual set of clothing.  These are some powerful truths to consider and I hope that you enjoy studying the Bible as much as I do.  Jesus informed us that if we continue in His word, then we would be his disciples and then we would know the truth and then the truth would set us free.  Too many people are looking for God to do what He has already done.  People cry out for God to set us free from this world of evil and temptation.  But God said when you arrive at knowing the truth, then and only then will you be free from everything else.   Apparently there is so much more to learn and understand to obtain this freedom.

If you would like to continue reading in the Bible study series on Understanding Genesis 3 please continue to “Part 9“.

Gen 3:22-24 Guarding The Way To The Tree of Life Pt 2

(Ver 2.1)  This is Part 7 in a study series on the subject of Understanding Genesis 3.    It is also a continuation of the last lesson concerning the Tree of Life introduced by God in Genesis 2 & 3.  If you have not read the Genesis 3 lesson series from the beginning I might suggest that you go and start with verse 1 and read Part 1 first.  If you have not read this current subject on the tree of life from the beginning I would suggest that you go and start with “Part 6” first before you study today’s lesson.  Studying the Bible is one of the greatest challenges we will ever face in life, God who is a Spirit writes us a book about both natural and spiritual things and we have to be smart enough to discern which words are speaking of which.  This is by far one of the greatest challenge and the trickiest methods that God has implemented in this Book to conceal the truth.  You can clearly see that God calls spiritual things and natural things by the same name and that He rarely ever tells you which one He is talking about.  In my last blog I introduced you to some more complex subjects found in the Bible.  We began trying to figure out if the trees in the garden in Genesis 2 and 3, were physical fruit trees or were just symbolic representations of spiritual truths.  I am a firm believer that these trees, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life were symbolic spiritual representations.  I have a number of reasons for this logical deduction based upon many verses that I have already given to you and then some more we will discuss today.  In my last lesson on this subject I also showed how that God places a Cherubim to guard the way to the tree of life and how God was not keeping the way from the man, but from another spiritual being, someone who was interested in obtaining its power and benefits.   If you understand compass directions and reading maps you can understand what I showed you last time about the differences between east and west.

Next I also took you to Revelation and showed you in the last chapter the clear reference to the tree of life.  It is funny how things from the beginning are repeated in the prophecies of the end.  It seems to me that God must have wanted it (the tree of life) to play a major role in His plan if it ends up the way it started.  We can see that this information found in Revelation 22 seems to imply we are that tree, that produces fruit and drinks from the river of life flowing from the throne of God, but that is my opinion.  Today I want to go through other scriptures found in the Bible that describes this tree.  These are the verses that represent God’s commentary on the subject so I place great value upon them.  Hopefully we can, by searching the Bible see who or what this tree of life is and who God was keeping from it.  If you search your Bible using your computer you will discover around 11 verses that contain a direct reference to this “tree of life”.  These three words occur, four times in Genesis, three times in Revelation and four times in Proverbs.  It is absolutely fascinating what these verses say to us.  We will start with the last verse in the Bible about this tree.

 Rev 22:14  Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.

In this verse that is written to the church it declares that those who keep God’s Words may have the right to the tree of life.  The word “right” here is a very interesting word because it means authority, power, and liberty.  But more than that, it can refer to someone who is a potentate, magistrate and superhuman.  These are all terms of royal sovereignty and ruler ship; terms given to kings for example.   I believe what God is saying is that He wants it to end how it started, but without the influence of evil.  To me it goes along with Genesis where God said that Adam could stretch forth his hand (power) and take from the tree of life.  God intended the man to eat from this tree of life from the beginning, but Adam made the wrong choice.  Now let’s go to the first occurrence in Revelation and see what that verse says to us.  Here we find Jesus speaking to the church:

Rev 2:7  He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God.

You see some more valuable information given to us.  Jesus is speaking directly to the church and He tells us, that whoever overcomes, to him will be given to eat from the tree of life.  Overcoming implies an enemy or opposition force that is opposing us, trying to keep us from eating and partaking of that which was promised.  The prize of winning this battle or contest appears to be us eating from this tree of life.  That sure seems to be the reward for overcoming these evil forces of opposition.  Finally, we see the location of this tree given again.  This time it does not contain any reference to or is any way associated with the Garden of Eden.  Even though we do not know the actual location of this tree of life we can clearly see its relationship being repeated with it being in the “middle” of the paradise of God.  Adam, when God told him of this tree said it was in the middle of the garden.  So what was this garden?  Where is this paradise?  What does it mean to be in the middle?  I feel that the term middle could be a symbolic reference to someone who is well centered.  Not into the extreme of this or that, but one that holds on to a well-balanced understanding of God’s Word.  Of course this is my opinion again and I would hope that you can at least understand how I arrived at that opinion. I would also make this suggestion for you to consider, Jesus when asked about the Kingdom of God always told people it is not here and it is not there, but the Kingdom of God is within you.  People wanted to focus on outward things and God wants us to focus on inward things.  Inward things would be things associated with the heart and the spirit of man.  Keep that in mind when trying to figure out where this paradise of God is located.  I believe that God’s garden is within us.  We are the garden of God that produces the precious fruit that God places such great value upon that He purchased it with His shed blood.

We can now move to the only other direct references in the Bible to the tree of life and these are found in the book of Proverbs.  Proverbs was written by King Solomon and holds great understanding and wisdom from God.  This book contains extremely valuable spiritual information about which we need to better understand.  I’m going to start with a verse found in the 11th chapter and it goes like this:

Pro 11:30  The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.

This verse speaks to us about fruit in relation to a tree of life.  But did you notice where the fruit was and what type of fruit it is speaking about?  The clear implication is given to us that this is a spiritual tree with spiritual fruit.  The church is declared to be the righteous ones by faith, in the New Testament (Rom 10:10, 2 Cor 5:21), so we can claim this verse as applying to us directly with great confidence.  If we are supposed to produce fruit unto God as it says in Romans 7:4, then what kind of fruit is this that God is looking for?  We can clearly assume it is spiritual fruit and that spiritual fruit only grows on spiritual trees.  This is the “fruit” of the righteous and this verse says this comes from a tree that has eternal life.  I guess I paraphrased that verse a bit, but we will get there eventually so hang in there.

Pro 3:18  She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.

Here we have another verse which has great spiritual implications.  This verse points us to the origin for the fruit that we are supposed to be producing.  God’s words are declared to be the spiritual seeds of life.  If planted in our hearts and watered correctly it will produce this spiritual fruit.   In this verse in Proverbs God speaks about a woman who is symbolic of a spiritual force to be desired.  This woman if you look at the context of the chapter is called “wisdom” and “understanding”.  To have a sexual relationship with this woman is a covenant act of knowing her.  God declares that by knowing “wisdom” and “understanding” you will participate in eating from the tree of life.  It is a spiritual system of planting and reaping.  God’s word contains all of the essential ingredients necessary to produce this tree of life.  It actually says that by us knowing and understanding His word it would cause us to live and eat from the tree of life.  But it really says more than that, it implies that we are the trees of life that produces the fruit for God’s glory.  It is fascinating that we have read a couple of direct references to the tree of life and that these point us to spiritual things and not to any natural fruit trees in a physical garden.  God did make the natural fruit trees, to help us to understand these spiritual concepts, but too many Bible teachers have ignored the spiritual things to focus only on the natural.  Let’s continue in Proverbs to the next reference to this tree of life found in chapter 13:

Pro 13:12  Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

Pro 13:13  Whoso despiseth the word shall be destroyed: but he that feareth the commandment shall be rewarded.

Pro 13:14  The law of the wise is a fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.

Pro 13:15  Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard.

These words again point us to spiritual things.  In verse 12 it declares that “desire” is a tree of life.  That to me is an interesting concept.  If you look up this word in the Strong’s, we can learn that this word means “lust”.  That implies there are certainly good and positive desires and things to lust after.  Conversely it means there are bad or evil things that you should not desire to know or participate with.  To lust after God and God’s Word are right desires that produce good results.  By reading down to verse 14 we can see another reference to the waters of life that flow from God’s throne.  These waters are again are God’s words and what He has spoken to us.  So within the context of these verses we have a relationship established between the tree of life and God’s words.  These are very awesome verses in Proverbs and we are at the last direct mention of the tree of life, given to us in chapter 15:

Pro 15:4  A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit.

This is probably the most important of all the verses that we have seen so far on this subject.  This verse informs us that the words coming out of our mouths produce this tree of life.  You see just because God says something good for you in the Bible, does not mean that you have to accept it.  You can say something totally opposite to what God has said and you will not benefit from what God has said in any way.  What you say is far more important than what you can possibly imagine.  What you say affects you personally more than it affects anyone else.  What you say personally determines if you are saved or not.  If you recall from another verse I gave in an earlier blog, also from Proverbs that says “death and life are in the power of the tongue” and then it says “those who love it will eat the fruit thereof”.   We can clearly see that God has given us the choice to live or die based upon what we say.  God’s spiritual system is a word based system.  Everything that God has done has originated from His spoken words.  God’s words have dominion over all other words, but yet they do not overrule the words that you speak.  God’s words are ultimate truth, but your words are what are true for you.  God does not force His will on anyone.  Your will and your words rule your life and determine your destiny.   The subject of words in the Bible is probably one of the most important subjects you can study and yet many ignore it and close their eyes to it.  Just because you ignore the subject doesn’t mean your words are not working for or against you.  The law of gravity works for you regardless of whether you understand it or not; if you do not believe in the law of gravity and step off a tall building you will find that your fall will be met with a disastrous end regardless of your beliefs.  It is much better if you cooperate with the laws of nature than if you ignore them.  This is the way of spiritual laws found in the Bible also.   Be smart enough to learn about spiritual laws and then let them rule your life.  Perhaps someday I will get into more depth on this subject of words in a future Blog.  I hope that you have been challenged to see these spiritual subjects today in some new light and that they have become more real to your spirit.  I have believe that I have given you sufficient evidence that the church is the ones who partake of the tree of life and produce fruit unto God.  There are many, many more scriptures in the Bible that speak to this subject and further confirm what I have been attempting to say to you.  If you can you should go and search for them and see what they say.  God Bless!

If you would like to continue reading the Bible study series on Understanding Genesis 3 please continue to “Part 8“.

Gen 3:22-24 Guarding The Way To The Tree of Life!

(Ver 1.5)  This is Part 6 of the Bible lesson series on Understanding Genesis 3.  I am going to take this subject out of sequence and teach a 2 part Bible Study series on the Tree of Life first mentioned in Genesis 2.  From reaching in this 3rd chapter of Genesis we discover the story of how Eve was deceived by the serpent into eating from the spiritual tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil.  Adam then listened to his wife’s voice and he also ate from the same tree.  The Bible says Adam was not deceived (1 Tim 2:14) so whatever he did was an intentional rebellious act of disobedience to commit sin.  If you have ever studied the Bible, you know that God shows up on the scene and places curses on each party involved in Genesis 3 and I have not taught on these subjects yet.  However, we know from scripture (1 Jn 4:12) that no man has ever seen God.  This fact would include Adam or 1 John 4:12 is not a true statement from God.  So how did God curse everyone without making himself visible to them?  That is an interesting point to consider, but since it is not my subject today, I’ll leave it alone for your consideration.   Now after Adam’s sin, we have the man and woman in covenant with Satan, the symbolic serpent of old.   We can now get to today’s subject from Genesis, guarding the way to the tree of life.    Who was God trying to keep from eating from the tree of life?  You can make the logical conclusion that if God wanted to guard the way to the tree of life, there must have been someone who was greatly interested in it.  You don’t place guards on your garbage piles so it must have been something of great value to someone.  So, who was after this tree of life?    What exactly is this tree of life?  Why is it important to keep it safely out of the hands of someone?  So many questions to consider?  Let’ start with the 22nd verse of Genesis 3 and see what God says to us:

Gen 3:22  And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

I’ve already addressed the 1st part of this verse in another blog so I will not rehash that part of the verse.  It is just important to note that God says the man has become like Him, in covenant with good and evil.  That is some very powerful information, and it helps give us some foundational information for why God came in the flesh.  If you need more information, please go back and read the Blog on “Gen 3:5 You Shall Be As God Knowing Good and Evil!“.  Now pay attention to how God ends that verse.  God says “because the man might also eat from the tree of life and live forever…”.   Then God abruptly stops talking.  This is one of the only places in the Bible that I know of where God doesn’t finish His sentence or His thought.  God stops talking and leaves us wondering what was He going to say?  Based upon the creation account in Genesis 1, we can see that whatever God says happens, so I would venture to guess that God did not want what He was thinking to come to pass so He shut His mouth and stopped talking about it.   But that is just my opinion on the verse.   But, I do think that is a powerful lesson for us all to learn from.

Let’s briefly address whether this is a physical tree or a spiritual tree.  If it was just a physical tree why couldn’t God have just cursed the tree like Jesus did with the fig tree in Mark and bam the tree would not be a problem anymore.   You see I do not believe it is a physical tree, with physical fruit.  In this verse God says that the man could have “put forth his hand” and taken from the tree.  What does that reference invoke in your mind?  Most would think that it is speaking of Adam’s physical hand reaching out and picking a natural apple from a natural fruit tree.  But I do not believe this is what God is saying.  The term “hand” is a reference to power and ability.  Adam had the power and ability to eat from the tree even after they had eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  The word hand is a very popular word in the Old Testament.  It occurs over 1400 times.  Many times it is used in reference to a individual’s power and ability.  Here is just one example of this found in the book of Job.  Satan is in conversation with God about Job and he makes this statement to God:

Job 1:11  But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.

You can see the reference here to God putting forth his hand.  This is clearly the same terminology used in Genesis 3.  Satan was telling God if he used his power to “touch” all that Job had, Satan thought that Job would curse God.  Without getting into the story of Job, I will tell you that God did not take anything from Job.  God did not hearken to the voice of his wife and do the wrong thing, like Adam did.  What I want you to see is the reference that God has a hand that can be stretched forth.  If the Spirit of God has a hand it must be spiritual.  Just understand the difference between a spiritual hand and a physical hand and both are called a hand.  This is one of the trickiest ways God has used to conceal information in the Bible.  Speak of spiritual things in natural terms and then challenge your reader to figure it out.

Apparently, Adam had power and ability and was still capable of eating from the tree of life and living forever even after God said he would surely die.  Obviously Adam did not understand what had happened, much less how to eat from the tree of life.  We know from Genesis 2, that God had commanded the man not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  But God never said anything about not eating from the tree of life.  There appears to be an assumption that eating from the tree of life is good.  But now that Adam was in covenant with Satan, what does God do?  Who is God attempting to keep from the tree of life?

Gen 3:23  Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

We can see from this verse that the man and his wife are sent out of the garden of Eden.  They are returned to the ground from where he was originally created.  Exactly where was that?  Where was Adam created in relation to the Garden of Eden?  The Bible tells us if you look for it and pay close attention.  Let’s go back to Genesis 2 and read:

Gen 2:7  And 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.

You can clearly see that this is the creation account of the body of Adam.  Adam’s body was formed from the dust of the ground.  So where was Adam when this occurred?  All you have to do is read the next verse and pay attention to the compass directions given.

Gen 2:8  And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

If the garden of Eden is located to the East of where Adam’s physical body was formed, what direction was Adam and Eve returned to after they had sinned?  If you guessed back to the West, you would be correct.  Why is east and west and these direction so significant?  We can begin to ascertain the importance only after reading the last verse in Genesis 3.

Gen 3:24  So he 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.

So God drives the man out of the Garden and then it says God places a Cherubim at the east of the garden holding a flaming sword to keep the way of the tree of life.  Are you beginning to see the paradox?  Where did God drive Adam?  God put the man and his wife back to the ground where they were created and this was West of the Garden of Eden.  So where was the guarding Cherubim placed?  They were placed to the East of the Garden.  It is so fascinating when you see things correctly, isn’t it?  God is obviously not attempting to keep the man away from the tree of life, if he was he would have placed the Cherubim on the West side where the man was.

(North)

(West) Adam  ——-> Garden of Eden  ——>  Cherubim (East)

(South)

I wrote an earlier blog about the differences between the east and the west.  I will not rehash all of that, but if you study the earth from the context that Israel is the middle of the world, then east of Israel towards Asia you would see that the religions of the world become increasingly darker and in some countries non-existent.  Generally speaking if you move west from Israel you see the majority of the Christian nations in the world being to the West of Israel.  Knowing this fact alone should help you see who God is guarding from the way to the tree of life.  It is not from the Christians, but it is from the enemy of the church, the devil that God is keeping from the way to the tree of life.  If you didn’t realize it, Satan is still looking for a way out of judgment.  Eating from the tree of life would by association mean the establishment of a new covenant relationship with those for who it is intended.  If you have followed what I showed you earlier you know that by Adam eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, it established a covenant between Adam and Satan.  So whoever is intended to eat from the tree of life, Satan is looking to get into covenant with to save his rear end.  The tree of life is mentioned again in the last chapter of Revelation and this chapter starts with this statement:

Rev 22:1  And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

We can see that this verse describes the throne of God and the Lamb.   It declares that there is a river of water of life flowing from the throne.  That of course is an interesting concept since Jesus told us in John 7:38, that out of our bellies will flow rivers of living water.  Our bellies is referring to our spirits, the true inner man.  This reference is about the words that we speak and them being a river of life to others in the world.  So the river of life flowing from the throne of God must also be the Words of God.

Rev 22:2  In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Revelation 22:2 now directly mentions the tree of life.  But did you notice where or what this tree is?  It says this tree grows in the middle of the streets around the throne of God.  Who walks the streets of heaven?  I personally believe this is a reference to Christians.  It further says that there are more than one of these trees of life.  In fact if you look closely it implies there are many, many trees of life everywhere surrounding the throne of God.  If you use your brain a little bit you might be able to see that the implication is given to us, that we are the trees of life.  But that might be hard for some to see.  Let’s approach it from a different perspective?  It says this tree is suppose to produce 12 fruits monthly.  Exactly what is fruit?  To the natural mid it is just apples, oranges, grapefruits, etc.  But to the spiritual mind it is much different.  God being a spiritual being is speaking of spiritual trees that produce spiritual fruit.  So what are the fruits of the spirit?  Oh, that changes everything doesn’t it?

I guess I’ll end this blog here and just leave you hanging.  Maybe I have given you some new things to consider and challenged you to think on a higher dimension.  God had to guard “the way” to the tree of life from Satan.  Satan is still after this tree, but I don’t believe he has a shot at it.  You see Jesus said “I am the Way”, so nobody can come to God except Jesus allows him access.  Jesus Christ is the only legal way to this tree of life and if you belong to Him, you now have access to this tree of life to produce the fruit of the spirit.  I’ll try to continue this in another blog to help expand our understanding of this deep subject.

If you would like to continue reading this series on Understanding Genesis 3 you can go to “Part 7“.

We Are God’s Garden! God’s Farm System for Spreading the Word!

(Ver 1.1)  This is now “Part 4” in the Bible study series on Genesis 3.  Today will be a different perspective to the study of the Garden of Eden.  If you have not read the lessons from the beginning I would recommend that you go and start with “Part 1” first.  I believe today’s modern families miss out on the concept of farming and raising your own food to eat.  In our modern society, if we are hungry we go the restaurant or go to the grocery store and everything is nicely packaged and easy to buy.  Less than a hundred years ago, people normally didn’t have it so easy.  Many people grew up on farms that planted crops that not only fed them but were used to sell to others to earn a living.  The modern farm has everything heavily mechanized and machines take the place of what use to be done by hand.  These large corporate giants have eliminated the need for people to grow their own food to eat and have created a population that is totally dependent upon someone else for what they eat.  Someday when the antichrist shows up, he will certainly use this leverage to gain control over the population.

For thousands of years, farming and growing food was the normal everyday life style of the majority of people.  When Jesus was physically present on the earth he taught many lessons using principles found in farming and raising crops.  These natural elements and systems that God had created pointed us to spiritual truths and reveal to us the spiritual principles we are confronted with on a daily basis.  So even though we don’t normally grow our own food these days, it does not mean it is not important to fully understand these concepts.

 1Co 3:6  I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.

1Co 3:7  So then neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.

1Co 3:8  Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.

1Co 3:9  For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.

The Bible actually declares that God has a garden.  This is obviously not a physical garden but a spiritual garden.  The term translated as “husbandry” in the KJV of the Bible is a Greek word that means “farm”.  This term is referring to a place where things can grow.  These verses in 1 Corinthians 3 are describing to you a farming process, using farming methods.  To clearly understand what is being taught you really need a firm grasp of how farms operate.  I am not an expert, I have learned a few things from some who were farmers so I’ll just hit the highlights of what I have learned.   Farming is a multi step process.  It involves many factors and while it seems simplistic, it is actually very complex to do it correctly.  The ground or soil must be prepared.  It normally involves a process that breaks up the hard surface and turns the soil revealing the parts that are covered.  We can then begin the process of sowing or planting seeds.  There are many ways of planting seeds and the exact method used depends upon the seed that is being planted.  The depth of the seed can vary depending upon anticipated amounts of rain that you are expecting.  The number of seeds per inch or foot can also vary depending on the crop.  Then there is the time factor.  Time is a necessary component to allowing the plant to develop.  The amount of time can vary tremendously based upon the type of seed planted.  Another key factor for planting is the timing or season to plant in.  There are designated times to plant specific crops, some are in the spring, some in the summer and even some in the fall.  So timing is everything in the process of getting a crop.  The other essential element to a successful crop is rain and water.  In 1 Corinthians 3 6, it implies that is what Apollos was doing, even though it was the exact same thing that Paul did, the first one planted, the second one watered.  Too much water is not good and not enough can be detrimental to the outcome.  In these verses it strongly suggests that farming is work.  A laborious task and an extraordinary effort to produce a crop.  But these verses also speak that it is not just one’s effort that produces the crop.  The other factors are the seeds that you are sowing, the timing of the planting, the amount of water the seeds get, the amount of sunshine that these growing plants get, the fight to eliminate pests and creatures that eat you crop before you get to harvest, then there are climate and temperature variations that can cause harm to crops.   The lessons of farming and the implications to sharing God’s Word are phenomenally important.

Mat 15:13  But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.

How many know that Jesus is not talking about a natural farm crop?  Jesus is speaking of a spiritual crop of people.  Those that belong to God will be harvested, those that do not will be burned.  This verse declares that God has specifically planted seeds into the hearts of men and women.  It also implies there are some plants that God did not plant also.  Where did these plants or weeds come from?  You see in natural and spiritual farming there are a number of  known enemies to the expected outcome.  You didn’t have to plant a thing for these enemies to show up and they are not what you want to grow in your soil.  I noticed I don’t have to plant thistles and wild flowers in my yard, they somehow just magically appear.  Isn’t that amazing?

Lessons from the Parable of the Wheat and Tares

Jesus tells us a parable that has a direct relationship to the Garden of Eden.  In this parable Jesus describes to us a spiritual garden.  This garden is a place that we are told where God has sown good seed and an enemy has come in and sown bad seeds.  We understand from other parables that the good seed is the Word of God.  The soil is the hearts of men and women.  The fruit that is produced from the good seed represents the harvest and the tares are those that will be damned to hell and burnt.  Here is the story that Jesus gives us:

Mat 13:25  But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

Jesus tells us in this parable that God’s garden has an enemy.  It implies that while God was away from the garden, his enemy came in and sowed tares among his wheat crop.  There is an amazing truth given to us in this verse if you understand farming.  By only looking at the surface of the ground you cannot tell what has been planted.  The wheat represents the desired crop of the seed that God has purposely planted.  But, the tares are the result of the seed of God’s enemy.  We can learn a valuable lesson from just this one verse.  You are wise if you recognize that not everything in the world is intended to help you.  Every false religion and philosophical writing that is out there are the seeds of the enemy. I’ll go so far as to say that every Hollywood movie and non-Christian television show are seeds of the enemy.  I know that went over big?

Mat 13:26  But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.

Jesus then tells us that both of these seeds are growing together, in the same soil, competing for the same water supply, competing for the same nutrients of the soil and existing in the same duration of time.  It is only after some time that you can even tell that both are present.  This process speaks to the power of God as well as the subtly and deceptive power of the enemy.

Mat 13:27  So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?

In verse 27, Jesus, describes us, the servants of the householder asking God a question.  This is obviously a great question and one more of us should be asking today.  Where did all of these things come from that are opposed to the truth?   Where did all of these things come from that distract us from what we should be focused on?  Oh well, I guess I will move on.

Mat 13:28  He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?

Jesus reaffirms to us that these weeds are a result of what Satan has done in the earth.  Then in verse 28, the servants ask another question of the LORD.  Many have asked the same question but in different terms.  We have all questioned God why, when something bad has happened to us?  Here we have a bad plant in the garden and what would you normally do with a weed in your garden?  The servants want to know if it is OK to pull up these weeds and get rid of them.  I’ve often times have pondered the same reality in the earth, why after the resurrection of Jesus Christ did God not eliminate evil from the planet.  There must have been a legitimate reason for leaving it here.

Mat 13:29  But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.

So Jesus’ reply is No!  Many times in war the Generals are faced with acceptable casualty rates.  Acceptable civilian casualties.  According to God’s philosophy, there are no acceptable loses.  Every plant is important.  If you have ever had a garden you know that pulling weeds can sometimes hurt the real plants that you want to grow.  The roots are many times intertwined with each other.  So if you pull one you may destroy the other. In God’s garden this is not acceptable.  God wants every plant that He can get.

Mat 13:30  Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

Finally, we see the anticipated end to the world described to us.  To those that teach there is not a hell, I don’t know how they ignore verses like this.  According to Jesus there is a time of harvest coming.  We know from basic farming practices that plants are harvested normally when they become mature.  That is an interesting spiritual concept.  God’s garden will be harvested when it becomes mature also.  This verse in Matthew clearly indicates there is a difference coming, a division into two different groups.  Those that are to be discarded and to be burned and those that are going to be put into the barn.  The barn is a storage facility a home for mature crops.  The analogies and lessons of farming are immensely important.  I have only grazed the surface of the subject so I pray that you continue to research and learn from what God has done in His Word.  I’ll end this blog with this:

Jas 5:7  Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

In this verse in James, our God is called the husbandman.  A husbandman is a term for a farmer.  The Greek word literally means a worker of the land or ground.  The husbandman is the one that harvests what he plants.  He plants, he cares for his harvest, he works the harvest and brings in the fruits of his labors.  These are all farming concepts and methods.  We can see that God who is a spirit has planted a spiritual garden and He expects to receive the fruits of His labors.  So these are spiritual Bible concepts, sow the seeds, water them, care for them and expect God to produce the fruits to harvests.

Now go back and reread Genesis 2 and 3.  See how God plants a garden, what kind of garden do you believe this was?  If God is a Spirit which the Bible declares is accurate then God planted a spiritual garden.

If you are reading and studying in the Genesis 3 series you may continue to Part 5 now.

 

Genesis 3:1-6 – Does Eating Fruit Kill You? Pt 1

(Ver 2.3)  This is Part 1 in the series of Bible lessons on “Does Eating Fruit Kill You”.  But this is also Part 2 in the series of Bible lessons on the subject of “Understanding Genesis 3”  If you would like to start reading the Genesis 3 series with “Part 1” you may click the link and start there.  Two of the primary themes found in the 3rd chapter of Genesis are man’s response to God’s instructions and the temptation of man to ignore God’s instructions.  If you have been reading my lessons, you probably noticed that I do not stray from controversy and today will be more of the same.  The book of Genesis is full of complex subjects, symbolism and many hidden spiritual truths that challenges us  to figure out what is literal and what is symbolic of a much higher spiritual truth.   Differentiating between the physical and natural things found in Genesis from the spiritual and supernatural things found there is one of the greatest challenges that God has given to us in reading and understanding the Bible.  Over and over I have heard Bible teachers teach that the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were literal physical fruit trees in the middle of a natural garden; real physical trees, producing real physical fruit.  It is a fascinating idea or concept, but one that I believe does not hold water when analyzed by other scriptures found in the Bible.  Too many times people teach the Bible in isolation, ignoring what the rest of the Bible says on the subjects that they are studying.  This of course results in private interpretations based upon very limited information and leads us into confusion.  In order to correctly interpret the Bible we must always follow God’s rules of Bible Interpretation.  If you do not know that God has given us rules to interpret the Bible then you should probably go find out what these are before you do any more study of the Bible.

Well in my last Bible lesson on Genesis 3:1 I feel confident that I proved scripturally that the serpent being described to us was not a literal physical talking snake and that it had to be a symbolic named representation for Satan speaking to the mind of the woman.  You can go back to this Genesis 3:1 blog and reread this article to review that information “Was there a Talking Snake in the Garden?” lesson or just read it for the first time if you missed it to understand the concepts.  So based upon that information, what else in this 3rd chapter is literal and what is symbolic?  We should be able to logically conclude that Adam and Eve were literal spiritual beings in real physical human bodies, but that they were confronted by another liteal spiritual being named Satan that they could not see with their natural eyes.  So we automatically see that God combines physical and spiritual realities in the same story and this makes the information more difficult to understand correctly.    Let’s look at verse 1 again:

Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD god had made.  And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

So we see Satan speaking a thought in the mind of Eve, questioning the command of God.  Or was it a question?  It appears to me to be a statement of fact.  So many times we want to look at Satan as the father of lies and think that is all he is capable of speaking, but that is definitely not true.  Satan will always use the truth if he thinks it will work to his advantage.  Satan is very tricky and many times he will start with the truth and then twist it or misapply it to get you off of what was originally intended.  You see the truth was that God did make that statement and told Adam that “every tree in the garden was available to him for food”.

Genesis 2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

Reading this verse in Genesis 2:16, I immediately saw something that the LORD God had taught me about Genesis 3:1.  The term “Every” is another ALL INCLUSIVE statement that omits none.  Again we can see a group association being established.  A set of related items can be associated together by a common name to form a well-known and clearly defined grouping of common items.  We can clearly see that in this grouping by God’s definition is included EVERY TREE that was designed to produce ANY food to be physically eaten.  If the tree did not produce any natural food to eat then it was not in the defined group.  Every fruit tree, every nut tree, every tree that produced any kind of edible food substance must have been included in this one group set.  If it was not on the list in the set then it did not have food on it.  If God said you can eat from EVERY tree that has food on it, then you can certainly see the major conflict and the problem being stated.  Since most Bible teach that the fruit that caused Adam to sin was something like an apple, that interpretation would directly conflict with what God has just spoken to Adam.  Was God a liar or are we not understanding what is being taught to us here?   I’ll vote that we do not fully understand the interpretation that the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil” was a physical fruit tree?  Let’s look at the next verse in Genesis 2:

Genesis 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

You can see the apparent contradiction to the previous statement of God or possibly just a fact that has been missed by most casual Bible readers in that God must have just changed the subject and we missed it.  Instead of talking about natural physical food for the body, God is now speaking about a spiritual food and its impact on Adam’s life span on this planet.  In Genesis 2:17 God is not talking about natural food trees anywhere but changes subjects to symbolic spiritual trees.  I’m sure that you’ve seen the painting of Adam and Eve with the serpent wrapped around a tree and Eve holding an apple.  Do understand the contradiction and the problem we have just discovered?  If it is a literal fruit tree with physical natural food that is good to eat then God LIED!  Since most of you know that it is impossible for God to lie, we must have misunderstood the meaning of God’s statements.  What we can say is that in Genesis 2:16, God is speaking of natural physical food and told Adam that they could eat of every tree that has food on it.  But in verse 17, God changes the subject and most have just automatically assumed He was talking about the same things.  It is a very tricky technique used to conceal the truth in the Bible.  Mix spiritual things with natural things and dare people to figure out the difference.  God said don’t eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or you will die.   This could not have been a natural physical tree for many reasons.  First, where is this tree today?  Does it still exist?  Did it suddenly vanish from the planet?  Then there is this, in the book of Proverbs it reveals some very strong information about this tree:

Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it will eat the fruit thereof.

Uh oh?  We can clearly see another paradox of Biblical proportions.  God tells us how we live and how we die and it is a result of the power of our tongue.   What God is doing is showing you the difference that your spoken words can make in your life.  The human mouth is a uniquely designed opening in the human body.  The mouth takes physical food in, but it also speaks spiritual words out of it.  This is why God connects both kinds of trees together in Genesis 2.  Adam didn’t die by physically eating anything.   It is fascinating that it also speaks of this process as being related to eating fruit, but, this is spiritual fruit and not physical fruit.  Is this a coincidence or is God trying to teach us something about the connection of natural fruit to spiritual fruit.  Isn’t fruit what Eve and Adam are said to have eaten?

Genesis 3:6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit  thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her and he did eat.

This has to be a spiritual tree for several reasons.  First, God said that every natural tree that was good for food to eat was permitted to eat from.  Then Eve saw the tree in her mind and it was a tree that could make one wise.  Does eating natural fruit make you wiser?  If you think it does you are deceived.  Nothing you eat physically makes you smarter.  This spiritual tree is an interesting concept; Eve could see it and understood that it would make her wise.  Science for a long time has tried to claim certain foods make you smarter, but that is not what this is talking about.  There is a dramatic difference between being smart and being wise.  A lot of people know things, but have no common sense.  I guess I won’t go there today though.  I want to shift focus and show you some other related verses in the Bible that are very relevant to our current subject.  This is what Jesus said about what we eat physically:

Matthew 15:17 Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out at into the draught.

Here are words directly from God about natural food.  He asks us a simple question; “don’t you understand the difference between natural things and spiritual things”?  He tells us that whatever we put into our mouths goes to our stomachs and is then flushed down the toilet.  He is declaring a very simple truth that this is not what killed Adam.  God says that this is not what makes a man unclean.  If you continue reading in the chapter Jesus says that it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles a man, because these are the things from his spirit.  This is what kills a man physically.

Matthew 15:18 But those things which proceed out f the mouth come forth from the heart (spirit) and they defile the man.

It is so fascinating when you put things together correctly in the Bible.  You can see that Jesus tells us what killed Adam and we didn’t even know it until now.   Too many times we try to interpret the Bible with our natural minds and we just need to figure out what God says about the subject to really understand it.  God’s perspective is so much better than ours.  Don’t you think?  What we have seen is information found in the Bible that tells us that a spiritual reality is more important to see than a natural one that is not true.  So people, who teach that there was a physical apple tree that Eve picked fruit from and ate it to kill them, do not understand many things about what God wants to teach them in the Bible.   I hope if nothing else that I have challenged you to think differently today and not to try to understand the Bible story of Adam and Eve in isolation from the other related verses found in the Bible.

If you want to continue reading this series you can continue to “Part 2”. 

Genesis 2:25 And They Were Both Naked

adam_eve_Genesis_25(Ver 1.1) This title sounds like an interesting Bible subject and statement to study.  And it probably gets a lot of people’s attention. This was a description of Adam and Eve in the beginning that God spoke in Genesis 2:25. No this verse does not promote nudity as the normal state for human existence. Nor does it specify that we should all go to church without any clothes on.  There are obviously some that would like that, but this is not what God is telling us here.  God is giving us a view into the spiritual state of the first man and woman before sin entered into the world.   Let’s look at the complete verse:

Genesis 2:25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

In this verse we can see God’s initial created state of innocence.  I only know of one time in a normal person’s life when they are not ashamed of being naked, and that is when they are children at the age of 2 to 4 years old.  My son use to take his diaper off and run around naked and it seemed to be his preferred dress code.  Isn’t it interesting that children do this without any consciousness of their nudity?  Why is this?   Here is a verse that Paul speaks about this state of innocence:

Romans 7:9  For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.

You see this is a complex verse that is easily misunderstood if applied incorrectly.  It speaks of a time in Paul’s natural life after birth when he was alive in a state of innocence.  This of course is speaking of a spiritual state of being alive.  Paul claimed to be spiritually alive in this verse before he had reached the age of accountability.  I many times hesitate in calling it a spiritual life and a spiritual death, because spirits can not technically ever die or cease to exist.  The human spirit will forever exist somewhere.  I often times refer to this state of existence as a type of spiritual awareness.

You see children when they are young are more in tune with their spirits than many adults.  I like to say it this way, children a closer realization that they are spirits clothed or covered with a body.  As a child ages and matures,  Paul says sin is revived and he died.  In other words he became spiritually unaware or dull and was separated from God.  No longer was Paul an innocent child when he came into the age of accountability and he became much less aware of spiritual things.  Now he was more body aware and much less spirit aware.  How did I come to these conclusions?  First by having children, then I saw it in the Bible:

2 Corinthians 5:4  For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

You see in this verse is again found a complex statement with widespread implications.  The primary subject of the verse is the human body.  Paul is writing about our current earthly body in the terms of it being a temporary dwelling place or a spirit cover.  God calls our bodies a tabernacle (2 Peter 1:14).  The Greek word for tabernacle is defined as a hut, a tent, or any other temporary residence that we will not be staying long in.  In this verse God refers to our natural human bodies as being the clothes for our spirits within our body.  When we die and leave this world, our bodies do not go with us and Paul calls this a state of being unclothed.  But he says we are anxiously awaiting an immortal and permanent dwelling place that will be coming soon.  Do you understand this better now?

So what we can say about Adam and Eve at this point in time is that they are spiritually alive and significantly more spiritually aware, in a child like state of innocence.  They were spirit beings that were clothed with natural human bodies that God had created for them.  Later we will see in chapter 3 the effects that sin had on them and what God did about it.

Thank you, for reading and studying the Bible with us.  Please leave a comment if you would like.  I’ll stop here for now and we can move on to another subject in the next chapter of Genesis.

Genesis 2:8 The Confrontation Between East and West

(Ver 2.0)  When you read the Bible and begin to understand that every word has significance and meaning, you start to pay much closer attention to which words God selected to describe the events within creation.  Knowing that God is so much smarter than we are and that He could have chosen any words that He desired to convey His thoughts to us, we must realize that He chose these exact words found in Genesis to describe creation to us.  Recently in my blogs I have been skipping around in Genesis 2 for no particular reason, just giving you glimpses into the variety of subjects found there.  Today we are going to look at verse 8 of Genesis 2 and see what God says to us.

Genesis 2:8  And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

I often times wondered why God said that he planted a garden eastward in Eden.  We can clearly see from the information in this verse that man or Adam came from or was created somewhere to the west of Eden.  Isn’t that interesting?  Why is this so important that God included this fact in the Bible out of all the information that He could have given us?  We don’t know exactly where Eden was located; we are only given the general location of Eden using the names of 4 rivers which are said to have flowed through it.  We can assume using the general information of the location of these four rivers given to us that Eden must have been somewhere in or near the area between Israel and Iraq or in that general vicinity.  I don’t really feel that the exact location is that important, but I believe that the general principles and concepts surrounding them are very important to today’s lesson.  We can also assume based upon this location that somewhere to the west, probably in Northern Africa, the Man was created and then moved to the Garden.  So why is this significant?  It is the first mention of any compass direction in the Bible.  The first mention of any subject in the Bible always has significance.  There are many implied truths given to us in this scripture.  We can see that much clearer later when we get to what happens later in chapter 3 after the fall of man.

What I will tell you now is just some overall concepts of the differences between human civilizations and the developmental differences between the east and the west.  If you’ve never thought of this before, it is very fascinating to see the spiritual implications of east vs. west.  The Far East as it is called has always been dominated by spiritual darkness; religions of the mind, religions of the body and the religions of idol worshippers.  All of these types of religions focus more upon worshipping creation and ignoring the creator.  You can go to places in China, Japan, Indonesia and other places and see the temples and idols of gods that have dominated that part of world.  These are gods made by the hands of men and worshipped by ignorant and deceived humans.  As a result we can see the rise of communism and dictatorships of godless governments that do everything in their power to attempt to limit and restrict Christianity, the Bible and the spread of the truth.   Nowhere else in the world is this so prevalent as it is in the eastern Asia.

Then we can see another conglomeration of religions centered around the region of Eden which are primarily dominated by Judaism along with Islam and some Christians.  Moving to the west we see the rise of more dominate Christianity and free societies and governments.  What we begin to see is a dividing line and a growing trend of a clash between the cultures of the east and the west.  Of course we understand that we wrestle not with flesh and blood but the spiritual forces, the rulers of the darkness of this world (Eph 6:12).  It seems that these spiritual forces while attempting to make inroads into the west have predominately through history have controlled more of the far eastern nations.  In the book of Acts and in the Epistles there are a couple of mentioned times that Paul is not allowed by God to go to the Far East.

Acts 16:6 Now when they had gone throughout Phyrgia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,

Paul is directed specifically by God to go west only.  In fact it specifically says God forbid them from going into Asia.  I would assume from this that it was too dangerous and the people in those regions would have just killed them.   If you look at the world today, the hardest places for Christians to go into and teach and preach are still predominately in areas of the Far East and the continent of Asia.  In recent news articles there were several aid workers who were giving the people of Afghanistan free medical care; these good Samaritans were executed by the Islamic extremist.  The claim was that they were preaching the Bible trying to get Muslims to convert.  Isn’t that religious tolerance and freedom and the free will exercise of the people’s mind?  Why is it that Islam wants to force you to become a Muslim and then once you are a Muslim they will kill you for leaving?  There are no choices in Islam your decisions are made for you, is that your God?  The control of people by fear seems to be their only message.  Other than fear they have no message of salvation.  They cannot stand up to the truth so they have to shut up those who try to teach it to others.   What I want you to think about is how different the cultures are in these two parts of the world.  Communism still dominates China and Russia.  The country of India is dominated by people who revere cows.  Between those three countries lies almost half of the world’s population.  I cannot thank God enough for being born in the free country of the United States of America.  We are not a perfect country but at least I can go to church without fearing that the Government will come in and throwing everyone into prison, at least today I can.  I’ll bring out more information about east and west as we get into chapter 3 of Genesis, but I just wanted you to start thinking along these lines and notice what God said about it in chapter 2.

Genesis 2:18-23 God Creates Woman from a Man

Genesis 2:18  And the LORD God said, It is not good that the man should be along; I will make him an help meet for him.

I read this verse in the Bible and it was astounding what it said to me.  I don’t know if people ignore what it says, or just don’t see what it says.  God makes a man on the earth and turns over control of His creation to this him.  Almost every time in the work of creation, God would do something and say, that was good.  This is the first time we have a statement that something is not good that God has done.  Before this we have had occasions to notice like on day two of creation when God did not make the statement that it was good, but now we have a direct and explicit confirmation that something wasn’t good.  What is the implied information given to us by that statement?  The implication was that the man was alone?  Did that mean spiritually as well as physically?   We know that God is a spirit, later we see in chapter 3 where God would come down and walk in the garden to talk with the man.  But apparently in the eyes of God the man was a separate being not a part of the heavenly family.  Not a part of the angels, not apart of the trinity.  Not associated with anyone or anything in heaven.  This if you did not realize it is a division or separation from God.  The creation of a being that was not in covenant relationship to God.  Of course that does not mean as I noted earlier that the man could not have a conversation with his father, God.  We will see more implications of this as we go but for now, I thought that was interesting.

 Genesis 2:21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof.

Genesis 2:22  And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

There is more valuable information in these two verses of scripture and you’ll see why later.  We have the fact given to us that the woman was taken out of the side of the man.  That is another reason God called both of their names Adam, because they both came from the same body.  This is so important to see.  What was the surgical operation that God performed?  God opened the flesh of his man and took a bone out of his side and creates a woman from it.  Where did Adam get his DNA, it had to be from God his Father.  Where did Eve get her DNA, it was from the man.  All of this was done for what reason?  So that the man would not be alone.   What was Adam’s response to what God had done?  He makes this statement which is absolutely critical to understand:

Genesis 2:23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh she shall be called Woman because she was taken out of man.

Did you see the statement?  Adam declares the woman’s body to be his body.  A body consists of flesh and bones.  God created her body from a part of his.  So the end results is that they are one body.  It is really a simple math problem,  If you take 1 and multiply it by 1, you get 1.  1 male x 1 female = 1 body.  Or you could say it this way, God divided 1 body into 1 male and 1 female.  1 divided by 1 is 1.  This is God’s basic math of marriage.  There is a principle stated here that will be applicable later when I talk about Jesus.  Then in verse 24, God restates what Adam has declared in the Genesis law of marriage:

Genesis 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh..

This is another one of those verses that I don’t think people have understood completely.  You see it has vast Biblical implications and explains many things that happen in our relationship with God, but I won’t get off track for now and attempt to explain any of that.  What we should see is the statement and how it applies to Adam since that is what we are talking about.  What we observe is God’s three step program for marriage.  First step, we can see that God says that the man will leave or separate from his family, which consists of his father and his mother.  Step two the man will marry a wife.  The term cleave is used but it means to be joined to.   Finally step 3, the two will become one flesh.  Isn’t it  absolutely amazing that God didn’t know Adam didn’t have a father and a mother.  Ok, I was being a little facetious trying to get your attention.  Of course God knew who his father and his mother were, but did you?   I think if you have been reading my blog you know that Adam’s father was God.  Now who the mother is, I will not be able to address for a while.  So what is the net results of this statement?  What we see is another stated division between man and God and a joining of the man to the woman to be one.

What normally happens when humans get married?  They usually move out of the parents house and establish a new family and household.  So while they were a part of one family, they left that one and now they are the establishment of another new family.  You do understand that God has a family in heaven?  So by creating a man on earth, we saw that already Adam had moved out of the family of God in heaven.  But God said it was not good for the man to be alone, so God creates a woman for the man and they two now create and establish a new and separate family on the earth.  The key words here are New and Separate.  A family that didn’t exist before, a family not a part of God and the beings in heaven.  In case you didn’t know it, God is working on a plan.  What does that plan involve?  Not only the creation of a new family on earth, but how does God get rid of the unwanted family members in heaven?  Some might say God is God and He is sovereign and He can do anything He wants.  When people think like that, it just shows how little they know God.  God is a covenant making God.  What is a covenant?  I probably need to spend weeks exploring all the information in the Bible about covenants.  I would suggest if you have never studied covenants that you do some research and study covenants.  What is a covenant?  How are covenants made?  Who can covenants be between?.  Briefly I will tell you that a covenant is equivalent to a marriage.  A marriage in the eyes of God as we have seen means that they are one.  I know I’ve implied a lot of new information in this blog that you have probably never considered, so I’ll stop here and let you think about it.

Genesis 2:7 – Our Source of Life

Here is another perspective or way to look at the creation of man.   I will give you some advanced spiritual concepts and truths, using scriptures in the Bible.  We know from Genesis 2:7 that God forms the body of the man from the dust of the ground.  Then let’s read what happens:

 Genesis 2:7  And 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.

 We can see that man’s life came directly from God, for it says God breathed into his nostrils, the breath of life.  What exactly is the breath of life?   The Bible gives us some valuable clues if we are able to put them together and see them.  The first thing we should realize is that the body was not the man and did not contain any life until God did something to produce the life.  God must have imparted something that made the man unique from the rest of creation.  No where in the Bible, does it say God breathed into the body of a monkey or a chimpanzee to cause them to live.  Right there we can see a major difference between animals and man.  I believe there is sufficient scientific evidence such as DNA that when interpreted correctly shows man did not come from monkeys.  But natural men who are convinced there is no God will always try to come up with a natural explanation of how we got here. 

 James 2:26 For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

 This verse in James declares a universal truth that applies to every man, woman and child.  It says if the body is alive, it (the body) has a spirit within it.  I guess what it actually says, is without the spirit, the body is dead.  So when God formed a body from the dust of the ground for Adam, was it dead or alive at first?  Let’s start by asking, was Adam a spirit being?  Of course he had to be a spirit being.  God is a spirit (John 4:24) and man was made in the image of God, so man has to be a spirit.  So where did Adam get his spirit?  Of course it had to come from God.  It is interesting that it says God breathed into the nostrils the breath of life.  I take that to mean his spirit and not just God’s attempt at CPR.  If God breathed spirit life into Adam whose spirit was it?  Of course it was God’s spirit.  Again, more difficult concepts to grasp and understand.  But we can confirm this by looking at other scripture in the Bible:

 Hebrews 12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of sprits and live?

 Here is another fascinating scripture that contains another universally true statement.  It says God is the Father of spirits.  That of course would be every spirit, good, bad or indifferent.  Therefore, Adam by implication was a son of God.  People will automatically think that I just put Adam on the same class and level as Jesus, but I didn’t.  I did not say Adam was God, I just said he was a child of the Almighty.  So put down your stones and read.  Why is it important to see this relationship between God and Adam?  I’m sorry I don’t have time to explain that right now.  Perhaps we will get into that later.  So does the Bible say that Adam was a son of God?  We just read a scripture that implied it very strongly but there is another reference that comes to mind.  In the genealogy of Jesus in Luke the 3rd chapter we can read a long, list of father and son relationships starting with Joseph going all the way back to Adam.  Then guess what says in verse 38:

 Luke 3:38  Which was the son of Enoch, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.

 Here is a key to correct Bible interpretation, be consistent.  If every named pair represents a father and a son relationship except the last one, that would be an inconsistent interpretation.  You have to apply the same logic to very member in the list or else it is not a list of anything, just a bunch of names. 

 What we have discovered is that God is the source of our life and that our life is not physical first, but spiritual first.  Then after the impartation of the spiritual, we can see the clear implication that only then can we have physical life.  This is applicable to many things in the Bible and contains valuable lessons for us all.

Genesis 2:7 – The Redemption of the Body

There are so many ways to look at scripture that it is a challenge to know which way to go.  If you have been reading my blog, you know that I try to provide new perspectives into standard teachings.  I always use the Bible to explain and interpret the Bible so I’m not making stuff up.  However, since a lot of what I teach is new, I’m to you and stuff you never heard, it will be difficult for you to see at first.  That is just the way the Bible is.  People can look right at a verse of truth and never see what it says.

 Genesis 2:7  And 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.

 We can learn a lot by seeing inside the implications associated with property ownership.  Since the man’s body was formed from the dust of the ground, that automatically implies the body can be bought and sold as any piece of property can be bought and sold.  If you have ever bought a piece of property you will understand this concept.  But what does that have to do with Adam?

 Isaiah 52:3  For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; ye shall be redeemed without money.

 Here are the words of God spoken to us.  God declares that Adam sold himself for nothing.  In other words Adam did not gain anything from the sales transaction with Satan.  There was a transfer of ownership of a piece of property and Adam lost everything.  After the fall of man we now have a new god of this world (2 Cor 4:4) who was in charge until Jesus came and died for us.  Did you notice the last part of Isaiah 52:3, God says, I know you sold yourselves for nothing, but I will redeem you without any money. 

 Redemption is a fascinating concept.  In natural terms, people in our world pawn or sell items to stores called Pawn Shops.  The establishment gives the person some money for their items of value and then sets a time limit that the person who sold the item can come back and repurchase the item back, usually for a premium.  If the time limit expires, the item is now property of the store owner and he can sell the item for usually more than he paid for it.  That is an interesting concept and actually a parallel to what the Bible says happened to Adam.  Adam sold his property to Satan, but God had an established time period to redeem it and God said I will pay the price to get it back, and it won’t cost me any money.  We know that God paid the price with His life and His blood, so even though it didn’t cost money, it wasn’t free or cheap.

 Romans 8:23  And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.

 In Romans 8:23 we can see a statement that declares the time period for land transfer has not completely expired.  If we are waiting, like Paul was waiting what are we waiting for?  When is this expiration or redemption period  over.  When will the property revert to the correct ownership?  Well this is what God’s law said about personal property and ownership.

 Leviticus 25:10  And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man his family.

 You see God instigated a time when every possession that was sold would be returned to the original owner.  Every 50 years, a Jubilee would take place, a time of liberty a time of freedom for everyone.  Any person who had been sold into slavery would be returned to his family.  Any property sold to pay a debt would be returned to their original owners.  This was God’s law and God’s solution to Adam selling what he couldn’t afford to sell.

 Genesis 6:3  And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.

 I found Genesis 6:3 fascinating, did you notice that it said “man is also flesh”.  This verse places a higher importance on something that man is above his body.  Man is of course a spirit being that lives in a body.  But in the eyes of God  the man belongs in a body.  Paul said in the New Testament, “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”  So we can see that the man’s spirit can be separated from his body.  In which case if the man’s spirit leaves his body we know the body is dead.  If you die and go to heaven that doesn’t mean that you are not still waiting for your glorified body.

 So many will question this reasoning, but I can see it based upon other scriptures in the Bible so I believe it.  In Genesis 6:3 God speaking about the years of man said they will be 120.  Most people these days don’t live that long, but a few have reached ages near that number.  But I don’t think God was talking about that, or I guess I should say God was implying something else.  If you take 120 and multiply it by 50 (Jubilees) you get what?  The answer comes to 6000, that is an amazing number in light of the Genesis 1 prophecy.  It seems that man’s time period of physical redemption is 6000 years.  At this time the property will revert back to the original owner.  There are really no coincidences in the Bible, there are really just a lot of clues.  Putting the clues together is where we come in and that is our job.  God has given us an assigned task to figure out the clues.  In a short Blog like this, I can’t really give you every scripture reference and all the information that you probably need to figure these things out.   All I can do is give you some snippets and a few references to help you search for the truth in a new way.