Sardis synagogue courtyard. Remains of the Sardis Synagogue at the archaeological site of Sardis, near present-day Sart in the Manisa province of Turkey. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
During the time of the second temple (c. 516 BCE to 70 CE) Gentiles were excluded from entering the Temple past the outer court (which was known as the Court of the Gentiles). But there are numerous cases in Scripture of Gentiles attending synagogues around the Roman world. Of course, there could well have been some synagogues that did not allow Gentiles, but Scripture, as far as I can see, doesn’t mention any.
Here are some passages from Acts showing that gentiles did attend the synagogue:
(14) but they went on from Perga and came to Antioch in Pisidia. And on the Sabbath day they went into the synagogue and sat down. (15) After the reading from the Law and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent a message to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of encouragement for the people, say it.”
(16) So Paul stood up, and motioning with his hand said: “Men of Israel and you who fear God, listen. …
(26) “Brothers, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, to us has been sent the message of this salvation. …
(38) Let it be known to you therefore, brothers, that through this man forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you, (39) and by him everyone who believes is freed from everything from which you could not be freed by the law of Moses. …
(43) And after the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who, as they spoke with them, urged them to continue in the grace of God. (44) The next Sabbath almost the whole city gathered to hear the word of the Lord. (45) But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began to contradict what was spoken by Paul, reviling him. (46) And Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, saying, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken first to you. Since you thrust it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles. (47) For so the Lord has commanded us, saying, “‘I have made you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”
(48) And when the Gentiles heard this, they began rejoicing and glorifying the word of the Lord, and as many as were appointed to eternal life believed. (49) And the word of the Lord was spreading throughout the whole region. (50) But the Jews incited the devout women of high standing and the leading men of the city, stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their district.
Now at Iconium they entered together into the Jewish synagogue and spoke in such a way that a great number of both Jews and Greeks believed. (2) But the unbelieving Jews stirred up the Gentiles and poisoned their minds against the brothers.
Now when they had passed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. (2) And Paul went in, as was his custom, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, (3) explaining and proving that it was necessary for the Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead, and saying, “This Jesus, whom I proclaim to you, is the Christ.” (4) And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, as did a great many of the devout Greeks and not a few of the leading women.
Some two thousand years ago there was a man called Jeshua, today better known as Jesus, who claimed to be the sent one from God and to be bringing God’s Word. He used many old writings in his sermons which were considered writings from the ‘men of God‘ and part of the Holy Scriptures. Though several theologians consider those Holy Scriptures as the (absolute) Truth in every part and whole, because they are breathed out by God Himself. (John 17:17; Matthew 5:18; 2 Timothy 3:16-17; 1 Peter 1:23; 2 Peter 1:21) often they bring teaching contradicting what is said in those holy books.
Robert Kilwardby (c. 1215 – 11 September 1279) first member of a mendicant order to attain a high ecclesisatical office in the English Church [1352 fresco by Tommaso da Modena (1326–1379)- church of San Nicolò, Treviso]Those theologians want us to believe they are the only ones who can understand the Scriptures because they have learned to do that. They also want us to believe that we should listen to their words otherwise we shall not be able to find God. Giving us that impression they forget that Jesus claims to be the one who shows clearly Who his Father, the Only OneTrue God is and shows us the Only Way, Truth and Life by which one can come to be reconciled to God the Father, and that, the invitation to be reconciled comes from the Holy Spirit and not by human beings their ideas. (John 6:44, 14:6)
Joh 6:44-51 NHEBJE No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up in the last day. (45) It is written in the Prophets, ‘They will all be taught by God.’ Therefore everyone who hears from the Father, and has learned, comes to me. (46) Not that anyone has seen the Father, except he who is from God. He has seen the Father. (47) Truly, truly, I tell you, he who believes has eternal life. (48) I am the bread of life. (49) Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died. (50) This is the bread which comes down out of heaven, that anyone may eat of it and not die. (51) I am the living bread which came down out of heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
Joh 14:6 NHEBJE Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.
It is by Christ Jesus that God is revealed to us when God is willing to let His Power come over us and guide us. though we may live in a world where it looks like God is absent, He is not . Throughout the ages Jehovah, the Only OneTrue God has always being very involved.
Humankind should know that it is part of god’s attributes to Be, carrying the essence “I AM” in Him. Having Him always everywhere as an eternal Spirit, who cannot be seen by man or thy would die, God keeps revealing Himself constantly to mankind. Mankind has a hard time hearing, though. Even precious men of God sometimes lost track. Also for them at certain moments contact seemed to be broken.
Man should know that it is not always his ways which come true. Not always does God reveal Himself when and how we want. It might be annoying for us He does not follow always our timing, but God has His own timing for everything. We are just one tiny element in His creation. When we do not see, hear or do not feel any contact with Him it does not mean that God is absent and silent. It might mean that you’re missing his communication to you.
According to biblical and historical accounts, God has revealed Himself in the past by many means (including physically and bodily). Though often man does not hear the Voice of God or does not see His guidance.
Job 33:13-14 NHEBJE Why do you strive against him, because he doesn’t give account of any of his matters? (14) For God speaks once, yes twice, though man pays no attention.
We do not need the theologians to get to know God and to see what He has done. Jesus asks us to believe simply because of the things he has done and promises the Spirit. Like it was the Comforter of Holy Spirit Who came to teach the apostles everything, and reminded them of everything Jeshua had said to them, the Power of God shall also come unto us if we are willing to open our mind.
Joh 14:12-17 NHEBJE Truly, truly, I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. (13) Whatever you will ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (14) If you will ask anything in my name, I will do it. (15) If you love me, you will keep my commandments. (16) I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, that he may be with you forever, (17) the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive; for it does not see him, neither knows him. You know him, for he lives with you, and will be in you.
Illustration of each of the 28 articles of the Augsburg Confession by Wenceslas Hollar.
Denominations, clergy, & seminaries are using systems of thought that drive their ideals. The many churches you can find in this world often put their aims and goals in the front-line and do place the words of Scripture in the way it suits them. Many may want you to believe those theological theories and many philosophies (even ones that attempt to be biblically based) must be very important and may not be put aside because they drive everything that anyone ever does, writes, thinks or says. But in Christianity you should be driven by the teachings of Jesus Christ and not by human traditions nor by teachings of clergy, which most often or dogmatic teachings from their own denomination. They, who have taken time enough to study religions and to study the Word of God may guide you and help you to find ways to interpret the Bible, but the best guide is the Bible itself, and that you never should forget.
If the Scriptures themselves are unchanging, then why is it that different teachers seem to fall into different “camps” of interpretation?
you may ask.
Dr. Tony Garland writes:
There are numerous factors which contribute to these differences of opinion about what the Scriptures teach on secondary issues, but perhaps the largest influence has to do with how one reads the Scriptures. In particular, are the passages taken plainly at face value like normative communication? Or is some other interpretive lens imposed upon the text. Also: are distinctions which are found within the text accounted for or are they glossed over or worse, “spiritualized” in an attempt to find a deeper meaning or application which differs from that which the original author intended. Another influential factor concerns predispositions and biases which interpreters bring to the text. These predispositions and biases work to prevent the interpreter from accepting the plain meaning of the text – especially where it may differ from already-held ideas or beliefs.
The combination of these factors helps explain why the different theological systems came to be. Moreover, once certain aspects of one’s interpretive view have been established, other aspects of Scriptural teaching tend to follow. Thus, although there are many variations in theological positions, most tend to fall into one of several major categories such as Covenant, Reformed, or Dispensational. {Covenant, Reformed, and Dispensational Theology – What Do They Mean?}
What we can see is that several people had difficulties with previous teachings or interpretations of the Bible. Often they were confronted with powerful institutions against they wanted to react.
About the Reformed teachings it is said that they wanted to emphasize more strongly the belief that all Christian teaching and practice must find its origin directly in the Scriptures and should not be based upon tradition, though soon their teachings also embroidered on their own teachings and traditions.
Another aspect of Reformed Theology is a strong emphasis on what it sees as a cultural mandate for Christians to live actively in society and work for the transformation of the world and its cultures. Although sound in concept (believers are to be salt and light and oppose and expose works of darkness – Pr. 28:4; Mat. 5:13-16; Eph. 5:11), where this cultural mandate is taken to an extreme it can lead to an over-emphasis on social work and even the denial of Scriptural truth concerning the predicted apostasy of this age and the reality of the coming tribulation (Mat. 24:10-12; 2Th. 2:3; 1Ti. 4:1-3; 2Ti. 3:1) – in effect concluding that Christianity will reform the world rather than the Scriptural truth that the world will ultimately reject Christ ushering in a time of fearful judgment (Isa. 13:12; Jer. 30:7; Dan. 12:1; Mat. 24:21; Mark 13:19; Rev. 6; 7:14; 9:15; etc.). Influenced by this cultural mandate, the outlook of Reformed Theology is generally amillennial (there is no literal 1,000 year kingdom of Christ on earth: Rev. 20:4-7) or postmillennial (Christ returns after an indeterminate golden age where society yields to the reforming influence of Christianity). {Covenant, Reformed, and Dispensational Theology – What Do They Mean?}
By time also different theologies came into existence:
Generally speaking, one can divide theological reference tools into three broad categories.
Systematic Theologies – Seek to present theological material systematically according to specific categories that frame the discussion, e.g., the nature of God, the work of the Spirit, the essence of sin, etc.
Biblical Theologies – Seek to present theological material according to categories more directly related to those of the Biblical authors, books, and corpuses; seek to give special attention to the progressive unfolding of this theological material across Biblical history and the Biblical canon.
Historical Theologies – Seek to present developmnent of Christian theology throughout church history and spanning various theological traditions. Some are organized according to historical period while others are organized topically. {Key Bible and Theological Reference Tools: Theologies}
Understanding the Biblical use of the different terms was the debate point and the continued starting point of thinking by the Trinitarian Constantine doctrine which prevented a clear view and understanding for many clergy and theologians and their followers.
When people come to know Christendom better they over time shall become aware of differing interpretations, sometimes get to know these differing views their names (e.g., Covenant Theology, Reformed Theology, Preterism) and shall come to decide which opinion they would like to follow. Most important for their and your decision is to come to a choice about how to read and understand the Scriptures without doing violence to all that they teach.
Making a choice you also should consider if you want to be a disciple of Christ or a disciple of one or other theologian.
When you come to understand that humankind originally fitted within the universe as a divine agency, initially being designed by the Divine Creator to be a regent race on earth, but having drifted away from the Sovereign Maker, you have to wonder which way you want to go. With the knowledge that mankind’s current nature and ways are not now as the Creator originally intended we do have to take on our own responsibility and have to find out for ourselves what God’s intentions were and are and how we want to fit in in that Plan of God.
The Roman Catholic Church works diligently to acquire all sects, including Evangelicals, in the name of unity. Perhaps that comes as no surprise to those who are aware of 1994’s Evangelicals and Catholics Together. Yet, the more recent agenda of the Vatican comes as a result of Benedict’s declaration in 2010 that it is “time to revive the ecumenical spirit.” That statement was made on the 100th anniversary of the 1910 World Missionary Conference, which marked the beginnings of the modern ecumenical movement. More precisely, Benedict’s allusion finds its source in Vatican II, 1964 when Catholics began praying for “the soul of the ecumenical movement” (Christian Today). Thus, Pope Francis continues the rallying cry of unity; and, because of ECT, those who ascribe to the National Council of Churches and World Council of Churches lend their aid.
What you will NOT notice in this ecumenical “revival” movement is repentance from false teachings common to the Catholic Church and liberal Christian theology. {Time to Revive… The Ecumenical Spirit}
It is up to each individual to make the right choice, either to follow human beings who say of themselves they have the exquisite ‘knowledge of the theos’ because they have followed a university course in theology, or to follow the man who was sent by God and showed mankind the way to God, Jesus Christ.
The God of order and clarity let His son speak and do wonders in His name, so that we could see the works of God and could come to know God and could come at peace with Him. By keen powers of self-observation, we can tell if we are letting the flesh win or the Spirit win and can come to see if we are preferring to follow human tradition or are willing to give ourselves to the Words of the Bible, letting them to come unto us giving us biblical insight instead of human doctrines.
How far does one want to go about that ‘unity’ or an ecumenical church? What would be such ‘universal Church’ and how much would be allowed in the differences of believes? Would those people grouping together consider the different smaller groups still like sects?
Pope John Paul II
At first the Vatican did not give formal recognition to the existence of the ecumenical movement, which began with the Edinburgh Missionary Conference of 1910, and led to the foundation of the World Council of Churches in 1948. In 1960 the Roman Catholic Church established the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity and tried to jump on the boat, though it took until 1995 when Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Ut Unum Sint reaffirmed the Roman Catholic commitment to Christian ecumenism. Protestant and Orthodox Eastern observers were invited to the Second Vatican Council (1962–65), and the Decree on Ecumenism (1964) promulgated by that council encouraged new dialogues with Protestant and Orthodox churches. In 1999 Pope John Paul II also visited Orthodox nations and signed a joint declaration with the Lutherans on the doctrine of justification that resolved some of the issues that led to the Reformation in 1517. We have seen already several mergers between individual churches and can see that such churches in several instances also put aside some of their original teachings or rules. Though we also have seen that some proposed mergers, like the one between the English Methodists and the Church of England, were rejected by their church-members. On the other hand we can find groups which under the terms of the full communion, can hold joint worship services, exchange clergy members, and collaborate on social service projects.
A look at some articles on WordPress gives us an idea what people think about the reasons why God placed a Tree of knowledge of good and evil:
The Mystery Revealed who writes:
The reason why He placed the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the garden is because He wanted an honest and healthy relationship with Adam and Eve. He did not want to hide anything from them. He wanted them to know that in life they have a choice. God made Adam and Eve aware that they had a freewill to choose to believe God or eat the fruit.
The universe as we said in the previous articles has contrasts, like darkness and light, tranquillity and movement, to some activities it may look bad but is not really so bad, like the showers of God can be a blessing, though now not always felt as a blessing. At first those contrasts did not hinder or were not felt as something bad.
Man did not have to know what was evil or bad, but the elements had to be there, having braking chaos into order, and making elements into being. We do not think God ever intended for us to know evil.
A “revert” to the Catholic Church remarks:
There is nothing in tradition that claims the “tree of good and evil” was evil. In fact it wasn’t evil, it was good. The tree symbolized that it held the knowledge of what is good and evil. God told Adam and Eve not to acquire this knowledge of good and evil. The command was, “refrain from the experiential knowledge of good and evil.” {Did God Create Evil}
There are too many people who want to see the bad thing about such an element of knowledge, be it a book or a tree. We can have a library full of knowledge and in all those books can be hidden treasures, all sorts of stories, nice ones but also horror stories. Good and bad in a big collection.
Adam and Eve had already all goodness in front of them. They had no reason to go looking for the badness.
writes Exchanged Life Ministries which thinks like us that originally God intended for us to know and experience ‘good’ and to enjoy the beauty of the creation.
Because the fullness of God’s presence was on them, their souls were completely satisfied.
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil עברית: חטא עץ הדעת – ד”ר לידיה קוזניצקי (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
God gave us free will and allowed us to choose. Esther’s Crown does find a problem in this given liberty.
We think we can “choose” good from bad. We elevate ourselves above YHVH who has already defined Good from evil. {The Tree of Life}
That was the original problem, not the free choice, but the willing to be on the same line as God or even to be higher than the Divine Maker, willing to control everything oneself, not under the guidance of God.
Placing ourselves in the “choosing” business creates confusion because all we are really looking at are the “good and evil” choices before us from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. But, in reality, there is only one choice we are intended to make – choose obedience, choose life! Eat from the Tree of Life. Yeshua is Life. He is the Living Torah. It’s not about choice, it’s about obedience. If we obey Torah (YHVH’s instructions for Life) we don’t have to stress over “right from wrong” and there is no place for confusion in our lives. He has already defined it for us. A simple example is how He defines what was given for food in Leviticus 11. Just because something is “edible” does not mean it was meant for food, nourishing our bodies without harming it. {The Tree of Life}
We are easily distracted with trying to choose between good and evil. Much time and energy is wasted pursuing the “quest” and finding ways to justify our desires. {The Tree of Life}
We ourselves can not make the choice to eat or not to eat from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, (like she gives the impression), but we can ‘eat’ from the Tree of life. Those fruits are prepared for us. Jeshua did not cut the tree of knowledge of good and evil, neither did he cut the tree of the Law. Jeshua grew onto the tree of the Law and his fruit frees us from the original consequences of sin, which is death, but brings us back to the original Law of the Garden of Eden, God’s Garden with God’s commandments. Those commandments are there to be respected by those who come under Christ Jesus.
Our response should be to get away from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil and run toward the Tree of Life. Torah teaches us what the fruit of the Tree of Life looks like. Don’t look to the right nor to the left. Stay focused on the Living Torah, Yeshua Messiah! He did not end that which He gave as instructions for life – He clarified its proper application. His sacrifice restores a right relationship with the Creator and brings us into eternal life. His resurrection empowers us to walk in life, not death. But, He defines what is right, healthful living, not us. {The Tree of Life}
Already very fast after the death of Jeshua (Jesus Christ) those in power wanted to nail the teachings of the Nazarene Jew Jeshua on the cross, the symbol of the god of evil Tammuz and get the people back on track of the Greco-Roman gods, with a plurality of gods and elements being worshipped.
Constantine and the early Church Fathers rejected the Torah and anything that resembled of Judaism. They cut off the Tree of Life from the people and planted the Church upon the roots of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Man now determined what is good and what is evil. They mixed and mingled it with pagan beliefs and traditions, mixing Biblical truth with false beliefs and idolatry, but calling it all good by putting a “spiritual” twist on it so we can feel good about the belief or action. {The Tree of Life}
We do not agree with her that
Perhaps the original intent was intended for good, using a cultural concept as a means to redirect thinking toward a Biblical truth, but sadly, the end result is always the same – a belief system built on partial truth. {The Tree of Life}
It was, according us, intentionally done and still preferred so,because than they would have the people on their hand and everybody could keep up to the pagan traditions, without feeling guilty or feeling on their own because of not joining in the pagan celebrations. But it is just there where we have to make choices today. It is there were it is all about being of this world or of being of Christ.
The ‘Divine spark within in us’ allows us to know right from wrong and the ability to choose between them, but not like the Presbyterian RevJanice believes we would be nothing more than puppets on a string or animals that have to follow their instincts. We , like the animals have an instinct or inner feeling, but God gave us extra brains and abilities to do more than animals and plants. God gave the humans the right to order that flora and fauna. the reverend thinks
being given the ability to make choices has meant an immense amount of heartache for the world, because all too often we make the wrong choices. But oh how wonderful it is when we make the right ones. I know when I have made the right ones, because that is when I feel God’s presence wrapped around me like a warm blanket fresh out of the drier. {Knowledge and Life}
At a certain moment it was like Adam and Eve lost the presence of God in their midst and let their ideas wonder away from their Maker, tasting their own lust.
God had breathed the breath of life into the beginning of mankind and when the 1° Adam felt lonely He gave him a companion and helper that was needed.
In the creation of the woman, God’s replication of His image and likeness was made complete. In the creation of the woman, marriage was born. {Genesis 3:1-22 – Marriage}
With that action we can understand that God has an eye on the relationship between the elements in His creation.
Two become one in mind, body, and spirit. The connection between a husband and wife is unlike anything else. God is all about relationships, so we find strong and significant connections with many people in our lives. {Genesis 3:1-22 – Marriage}
Though god was there in the garden, they did not want to take notice of Him, but preferred to listen to their own voice, the temptation from within, the creeping serpent by which evil came unto man.
Their failure to trust God and His love for them, led to their rebellious choice to eat of the tree’s fruit.
As a result, we are all keenly aware of evil as well as the great enemy: SELF.
Self is insatiable; it always wants something more or new and different.
Lust takes over and brings about sin, which brings about death.
When they got to deep into their own thoughts of wanting to become as knowledgeable as God they lost their innocence and got cursed by their choice to go astray, not obeying God, who knows best for man.
From the beginning of times there has been made an hierarchy by the divine Creator, bringing division in the chaos. God spoke and it came into being and was placed in the phases of evolution (day 1-6) Between the elements and all the living beings there was a relation. There is also one between God, man, and nature.
Before the Fall of man, Adam and Eve were in a very close relationship with God. Adam was basically God’s right hand man. God told Adam to name all of the animals. Adam was the middle man. He represented God to nature, and represented nature to God. {Hierarchy of God, Man, and Nature}
The relationship between Eve and God might have been different than between God and Adam. Eve was made out of Adam, and therefore part of Adam, but if she was not to blame we would not say.
After the fall, Adam lost his position of being God’s representative. He would have to instead work for nature. Eve, would now be blamed for the bad things she did, also having to endure childbirth. {Hierarchy of God, Man, and Nature}
The relationship between man, plants and animals also changed when the relationship of man with their Maker got damaged so much that God had to take action and set an example. God was not giving up His position but was well aware that man doubted His position, so He did not mind giving them even more possibilities to govern the world. By casting them out of the Garden they where placed in a world were they would be able to arrange everything themselves, but had to feel the consequences of their actions.
Though god still wanted to get the relationship in good order and provided therefore a solution with the seed of the woman. But everybody had to know that the Most High Maker always shall be the Most High divine to be recognised and respected as the Ruler of everything.
It was because of our foolish act that we do not get to enjoy the wonderful times that Adam and Eve did with God. {Hierarchy of God, Man, and Nature}
writes Perissa, but she should know that we still can go to that marvellous relationship between God and us, and between God and the world.Now we are stuck with the many choices which pull us from one to the other site. Nobody can escape temptation. Like it was important how Eve was to deal with it and how Adam had to respond, so it is also important for us to make the right choice and choose the right way to deal with it.
We all deal with it in our own ways, but we all have it. Temptation in and of itself is not a sin, but all too often it quickly turns into sin through our indulgence. Each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire, when that desire is allowed to continue it gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death (James 1:14-15). We all have desires in our hearts that lead us down different paths. Unfortunately those desires are wrapped in flesh and if we are not careful they can lead us straight to sin. Have heart though because if you are with Christ you died with Him when you entered into the watery grave and we believe also that we live with Him upon being risen from the water, just as Christ rose from the grave (Romans 6:8). When Christ died he died to sin once and for all and we must also consider ourselves dead to sin and alive in Christ. We must not let sin rule in our body by obeying its passions, for sin no longer has control over us (6:10-14). {Temptations are common}
We all have the 2° Adam taken up his position so that we could be liberated. Everything been given to the world makes us living elements in that world to choose either to be of that world or to make the best of it living in it but like Jesus doing not his own will but doing the Will of his and our heavenly Father. We have to choose in which direction we want to go, either that of the world or that of followers of Jesus Christ and lovers of God, looking forward to a restored relationship with God. In any case we have the best mediator between God and man, Jeshua, Jesus Christ the Messiah.
Still the message from the Old Times is going, we having to be the mirror image of God, requested to be also ‘imitators’ of the divine.
It wasn’t God’s fault for putting the tree there. It wasn’t God’s fault for warning them. It was Adam’s fault and Eve’s fault for being disobedient.
And giving in to sin is still our fault today. If you went to see Fifty Shades of Grey, it’s not God’s fault for allowing the movie to exist. It’s not some Christian blogger’s fault for making you aware of the movie or warning you not to see it. It’s your fault. You were tempted. You gave in to sin. (The good news is that if you will repent, God will graciously forgive you.)
As Christians we are to be imitators of God. “Whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.” (1 John 2:6) That means that when we see sin that could easily ensnare our brothers and sisters, we don’t turn our heads. We don’t mind our own business. We don’t keep our mouths shut to be polite. We do the same thing God did time after time in the Bible. We run into the fray to rescue those we love. {The “Forbidden Fruit” Fallacy}
We would not say or agree with us
not to blame if there are those who choose to charge headlong into sin rather than heed the alarm we sound. {The “Forbidden Fruit” Fallacy}
We should try to open the eyes of others, getting them back on track. We should help others to see the direction signs or road signs to the Right Way again. And that Way is Jeshua the Messiah.
Rena of Esther’s Crown’s Blog gives us good advice:
I encourage you to consider the doctrines you allow to guide your faith. Shake them through the sieve of Biblical truth from Genesis to Revelation. Just try assuming for the test that Torah still applies to our walk and see how many Scriptures now make sense, and how many doctrinal issues fall through the holes of the sieve. Look to how Yeshua taught Torah was to be applied. He did not redefine or reject Torah. Instead, He rebuked how the Pharisees had redefined Torah and made it a burden for the people.
Matthew 5:17-19 “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or tittle shall in no wise pass from [Torah], till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
In the previous articles discussing the “Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden” articles series by Alexander Rivera on his blog The Aeon Eye we looked at the seed having come to the earth.
From the seed can come a shrub or a tree and fruit. In Part 3 of his interesting series Alexander Rivera goes deeper into the exploration of the archetypal symbols of the Tree and Fruit.
He writes:
Genesis 3 relays how the Serpent offers knowledge in the form of a fruit grown from the Tree of Knowledge (the “Good ” and “Evil” part may have have been added later as a gloss.) Like the Serpent, the Tree of Knowledge is sometimes considered to be a phallic symbol. This Fruit along with the Tree also were used to signify the result or effect of some cause, having both a positive and a negative effect and origin.
And later on continues:
Eve gives the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of which she had eat to her Husband (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Tree of Knowledge and digesting the forbidden fruit in Genesis according to Jewish tradition represented the primeval mixture or intermingling of good and evil, light and darkness in an almost Manichean fashion. Eating the fruit forbidden set off a chain reaction where humanity developed a “yeitzer hara” or “evil inclination.” Unlike the earlier Hebrews, who blamed themselves for their woes, the Jewish Rabbis believed God had implanted in the ‘heart’, the Hebrew place of the unconscious of each individual, at his birth or conception. The yezer was not hereditary. It was intrinsically good and the source of creative energy, but had a strong potential for evil through appetite or greed. Only strict observance of the Law could keep the strong, irrational passions it engendered under control. To the commentators in the five centuries before Christ, Adam’s death was due to his own “sinful actions”, and not to the Augustine-authored “original sin nature” or “ancestral sin” inherent in the DNA in the race of man because of the disobedience of the primal parents. The Zohar claims that Adam and Eve lost their immortality by ingesting the fruit which is ironically enough compared to the occult: {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 3)
At first the creation was like God wanted it. We can hear that in his Voice, him every time when he had created something, saying it was good.
Gen 1:4 MKJV And God saw the light that it was good. And God divided between the light and the darkness.
Gen 1:12 MKJV And the earth brought forth tender sprouts, the herb yielding seed after its kind, and the tree producing fruit after its kind, whose seed was in itself. And God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:18 MKJV and to rule over the day and over the night; and to divide between the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:21 MKJV And God created great sea-animals, and every living soul that creeps with which the waters swarmed after their kind; and every winged fowl after its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:25 MKJV And God made the beasts of the earth after its kind, and cattle after their kind, and all creepers upon the earth after their kind. And God saw that it was good.
So, what happened with the following phase in the creation?
Gen 1:26-31 MKJV And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creepers creeping on the earth. (27) And God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him. He created them male and female. (28) And God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply and fill the earth, and subdue it. And have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the heavens, and all animals that move upon the earth. (29) And God said, Behold! I have given you every herb seeding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree seeding seed; to you it shall be for food. (30) And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the heavens, and to every creeper on the earth which has in it a living soul every green plant is for food; and it was so. (31) And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Once more we hear God saying:
Gen 1:31 NET God saw all that he had made — and it was very good!63 There was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.
Would it be said in the Scriptures that God Elohim saw every thing all that he had made worked , and, behold, it was very mighty good if it was not ‘picco bello’? Also in the way the phase is closed or coming to an end we may find the satisfaction of the Most High facing once again an evening and the morning were became the sixth day.
As such we find that to every beast live being of the earth, and to every fowl flyer of the air heavens, and to every thing that creepeth creeper upon the earth, wherein there is life a living soul, we notice that the soul is the being alive itself, not something extra in the living being, but the living element itself having life in it others it would not be a living creature.
We are told that it was that Elohim, the Most HighMaker who has given every green herb for meat food and it was so thus it became. Though one certain fruit was not to be eaten. By it man brought death over himself.
Hear what saith scripture when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree by which death entered into their souls or lower nature, ‘And when they heard the voice of the Lord of the Alhim walking in the garden’ (Gen. iii-8), or, as it ought to be rendered, had walked (mithhalech). Note further that whilst Adam had not fallen, he was a recipient of divine wisdom (hochma) and heavenly light and derived his continuous existence from the Tree of Life to which he had free access, but as soon as he allowed himself to be seduced and deluded with the desire of occult knowledge, he lost everything, heavenly light and life through the disjunction of his higher and lower self, and, the loss of that harmony that should always exist between them, in short, he then first knew what evil was and what it entailed, and, therefore, it is written, ‘Thou art not a God that approveth wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with thee’ (Is. v-5); or, in other words, he who implicitly and blindly follows the dictates of his lower nature or self shall not come near the Tree of Life.
The imagery of the tree is also included in Simon Magus’s cosmology, as reported by Hippolytus of Rome, is a powerful model that describing some rare concepts that Simononians in the early third century work described in the Philosophumena, asthe “Great Declaration” or “Great Announcement”. Simon very much describes a tree of fire that consumes itself. This is a third century Simonian document, positing that the root of all existence is infinite, and abides in man, who serves as its dwelling-house. The Logos or the Word is projected down by the luciferian Lightening Flash through the Aeons and into the manifest world and man. From the original root, the hidden principle, spring three pairs of manifestations of: Mind and Thought, Voice and Name, Reasoning and Reflection. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 3)
When the seed falls in the earth, starts to grow it can become a bush or grow out to a tree, being a wooden stake presenting fruits with new seeds. In the classical Greek Scriptures we also find the word stau·ros′ which meant merely an upright stake, or pale, or a pile such as is used for a foundation, a single piece of wood. In the New Testament we do find that Jeshua (Jesus Christ) is nailed at such a stake, a pale, without a crossbeam of any kind at any angle. By the apostles Peter and Paul we also find th word xy′lon to refer to the torture instrument upon which Jesus was nailed, and this shows that it was an upright stake without a crossbeam, for that is what xy′lon in this special sense means. (Acts of the apostles 5:30; 10:39; 13:29; Galatians 3:13; 1Peter 2:24)
Act 5:30 MKJV The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed and hanged on a tree.
Act 10:39 MKJV And we are witnesses of all things which He did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed Him and hanged Him on a tree;
Act 13:29 MKJV And when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, taking Him down from the tree, they laid Him in a tomb.
Normally every one that was hanged on a tree was considered to be a cursed one. In several cultures living beings where also like fruit was hanging on the wood, made to hang on the wood and burned as an offering. In this way Christ came also to redeem us – Εξηγορασεν· buying us us with a price made by his body loosing life in his flesh and blood. He became an atonement for our sins buying us free, like in the many cultures people thought to ‘bribe’ their gods getting some favours by offering a lamb or food or innocent children. Here an innocent lamb or innocent ‘child’ was offered by giving the God an innocent man. For whatever was offered as an atonement for sin was considered as bearing the punishment due to sin, and the person who suffered for transgression was considered as bearing the curse in his body; therefore, in the same day in which a criminal was executed it was ordered that his body should be buried, that the land might not be polluted, because he that was hanged, which was the case with every heinous culprit, was considered accursed of God, (Deuteronomy 21:22, 23).
This man from Nazareth coming under the curse of the Law — more or less artificially, and in the manner of his death only — whilst living a perfectly righteous life. This way Jeshua removed that curse and made it meaningless. He took away the chains of that curse and as such became a liberator, a Kristos or Christ, a Messiah. He died innocent and gave his body as a ransom for all souls (all living beings) but they will have to recognise him as their liberator, their saviour who would then become “in Christ” also liberated from the curse of death.
Jesus has become that seed on a tree which justifies.
Gal 3:13 MKJV Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone having been hanged on a tree”);
Though “Trust, Faith”shall be necessary to have a knowledge which shall bring comfort and should make a fundamental condition through which a man becomes well-pleasing to God, and partaker of the gracious gift of life, presenting also works according to that faith. In his letter to Galatians the apostle Paul states that one is declared righteous or well-pleasing to God, in consequence of faith whereby truth is included.
Wanting to have the seed bearing fruit it has to find good soil. In barren land it shall not be able to shoot. Only there where people are really willing to obey God rather than men shall be found such fertile ground which shall bring forth the fruits from the seed which the God of our ancestors raised Jesus, whom was put to death by hanging him on a wooden stake. It is this Jesus whom God has exalted to his right hand, to be a Guide, Ruler and a Saviour, to give Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins.
Act 5:29-31 MKJV And Peter and the apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. (30) The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed and hanged on a tree. (31) This One God has exalted to be a Ruler and Savior to His right hand in order to give repentance and remission of sins to Israel.
In the many creation myths we can find gods who are favoured by one or the other but in the Judaic Scriptures the Divine Maker only favours the human beings in allowing them to give names to plants and animals and to use them as food. But in between the human beings the Elohim does not places one before the other. That God of the Universe does not show partiality, but it is true He wants recognition for Himself as the sole Creator and for being the Only One God. He is the One Who gives life and he is the one who cursed the 1° Adam and his seed but also provided a new pure seed which could grow fluently and be rich in giving good seeds, even providing a very pure seed which could become a new tree of life by being hang on the tree of death. We also have to notice that God has sent His Message to the Israelites and told them, through Jesus Christ, the Good News of peace — and that Jesus is Lord of all! Today there are many who know the story which spread through all Judea, how good news,which sprang from Galilee, after the baptism preached by John brought the story of Jesus of Nazareth, and how God consecrated him His Christ by enduing him with the Holy Spirit and with power; and how he went about doing good and curing all who were under the power of the adversaryof God, because God was with him. The apostles were witnesses to all that he did in Judea and in Jerusalem and how he was put to death by hanging him on a tree, a piece of wood that could not give any fruit any more, but by God now was made higher to become a symbol of life giving fruit which all who would take it would give eternal life by receiving remission of sins.
Act 10:34-43 MKJV Then Peter opened his mouth and said, Truly I see that God is no respecter of persons; (35) but in every nation he who fears Him and works righteousness is accepted with Him. (36) You know the Word which God sent to the sons of Israel, preaching the gospel of peace by Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all!); (37) that word which was published throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John proclaimed; (38) how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and He went about doing good, and healing all those who were oppressed by the Devil, for God was with Him. (39) And we are witnesses of all things which He did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed Him and hanged Him on a tree; (40) but God raised Him up the third day and showed Him openly, (41) not to all the people, but to witnesses hand-picked before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead. (42) And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained of God to be the Judge of the living and the dead. (43) All the Prophets give witness to Him, that through His name whoever believes in Him shall receive remission of sins.
Hanged on a stake as a criminal but also as the King of the Jews
In the writings of Livy, a Roman historian of the first century B.C.E., crux means a mere stake. “Cross” is only a later meaning of crux. A single stake for impalement of a criminal was called in Latin cruxsim′plex. One such instrument of torture is illustrated by Justus Lipsius (1547-1606) in his book Decrucelibritres, Antwerp, 1629, p. 19.
The instrument on which Jeshua died was in the original writings called “σταυρός [stau·ros′] which means every upright standing pale or tree trunk. At Jesus’ time of the Romans beside scourging, according to the gospel accounts, only the simplest form of Roman crucifixion comes into consideration for the infliction of punishment upon Jesus, the hanging of the unclad body on a stake, which, by the way, Jesus had to carry or drag to the execution place to intensify the disgraceful punishment.
. . . Anything other than a simple hanging is ruled out by the wholesale manner in which this execution was often carried out: 2000 at once by Varus (Jos. Ant. XVII 10. 10), by Quadratus (Jewish Wars II 12. 6), by the Procurator Felix (Jewish Wars II 15. 2), by Titus (Jewish Wars VII. 1).” {Paul Wilhelm Schmidt, DieGeschichteJesu (The History of Jesus), Vol. 2, Tübingen and Leipzig, 1904, pp. 386-394}
Just as the popular Greek hero Prometheus was represented as tied to rocks people found it right to have cursed ones being tied up on a rock by the sea or on a tree on land. The Greek word that the dramatist Aeschylus used to describe this word stauros, simply means to tie or to fasten, the Greek author Lucian (Prometheus, I) used a·na·stau·ro′o as a synonym for that word. In the Christian Greek Scriptures a·na·stau·ro′o occurs but once, in Hebrews 6:6. The root verb stau·ro′o occurs more than 40 times, that is also a reason why we render it often as “impale,” or ‘fasten on a stake (pole) and you shall find us saying “Jesus was impaled” instead of the wrongly understood “Jesus was crucified”, making people think of the pagan cross-concept, the sign of Tammuz, the god of evil and personification of death.
Alexander Rivera writes:
The Stauros (Cross), which means to “stand” or “straighten up” (e.g. the “Standing One” per Simon Magus?) in its true self is a living idea, a reality or root-principle of separation and limit, dividing entity from non-entity, being from non-being, perfection from imperfection, fullness and emptiness, Light from Darkness. The Stauros or Horos was also seen as synonymous with the Logos and was also seen as the sign of victory as per the doctrine of Christus Victor atonement i.e, that Christ defeated the powers by duping them into crucifying him. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 4)}
The apostle John in the opening of his gospel-book refers to the Genesis story where God every time spoke and had His Word (Logos) bringing something into being. The Logos or Word is that what is said, not exactly a person like many Christians want to see it. Out from the darkness and chaos light was created and out of the darkness of the sordid world came again the Word of God bringing light with bringing that what the Elohim had promised in the Garden of Eden (long before Abraham was born) into flesh, giving the world His onlybegotten son, Jeshua, Jesus Christ.
From eternity there was the Elohim God. Him being there from eternity had His Thinking or His Pneuma, His Mind or Spirit with Him in Him. But with Him was also the coming forth form the Thinking which gave sound or a beginning of ordered vowels presenting sound and giving Words. As such The Word was in the beginning, and that very Word was with God. That speaking coming from God belonged to God and as such also could be considered being God, because God is spirit and not a person like we see ourselves as human beings.
That Word, The speaking of God, the Promises he made, were in the beginning with God and they are still with God. It was in the beginning of times God had already to make a promise about the seed. As everything came into being by The God of gods, there were seeds in the Garden of Eden, but having now Adam and Eve out of the Garden there had to come a new seed and a new tree of life. By that tree or stauros life had to enter again in the world of man. By the Hand of God the 1° Adam was made but also the world could find the 2° Adam being made. By God’s Word spoken to the young girl Miriam (Mary/Maria) God’s Word brought His Word onto earth. The Elohim took care speaker for Him was to be presented under man. This voice in the world would be high placed, being a god between people. Like everything came to be by God His Hand; and without Him not even one thing came to be of what was created, so also this seed of the 1° Adam was going to multiply with seeds full of life. Like the life was in the Elohim God Most High, Jehovah provided a solution for the fall in the Garden of Eden, and gave the world a new tree of life in which the world found again the light of man.
Joh 1:1-4 MKJV In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (2) He was in the beginning with God. (3) All things came into being through Him, and without Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. (4) In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
In many man-made stories we can find lights of man, emancipators, bringers of strength, bringers of fortune, guides and leaders.
Guarding this Horos was the Limit-Setter, the Across-Taker, the Emancipator, the Guide or Leader that guides the initiated soul from its astral journey from the underworld, to the zodiacal cosmos, to the eighth heaven or “ogdoad” where Sophia is said to dwell, near the gates and finally to the Heavenly Cross, functioning like a portal or gateway into the realm of the Father or the Pleroma. The Logos himself is designated as a “door” or a “gate” into eternal life symbolized as pasture, for the saved sheep (or souls) (John 10:9).
This region was also called the “suburbs”, a frontier or the barrier, demarcating the boundary between the worlds. The term “suburbs” is also used in a Peratic text that the Church Father Hippolytus quotes at length called The Suburbs up to the Aither in the Philosophumena or the Refutation of All Heresies, which I will briefly touch on later on. In Plato’s Timaeus, he refers to the soul-stuff of the universe in terms of two circular strips joined together like the Greek letter chi (X). Similarly, tau, the last letter of the Phoenician and Old Hebrew alphabets, is shaped like a cross, and was popularly held to be a protective emblem of supernatural power. Crosses were also said to be used by Roman General Marcius Turbo’s forces in the first century to carry their food and clothing. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 4)}
Hanged on the sign of the god Tammuz as persons of evil. – Kreuzigung Christi: 1509, Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553)
The sign of the god of evil, Tammuz, being two beams crossing each other was used in many cultures and was also taken over later in Christendom by those who wanted to have a sign for their god as well to bow down for. Though those Christians should have know that the Elohim Creator does not want His people to bow down in front of graven images.
Exo 20:1-7 MKJV And God spoke all these words, saying, (2) I am Jehovah your God, who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. (3) You shall have no other gods before Me. (4) You shall not make to yourselves any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. (5) You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them. For I Jehovah your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and fourth generation of those that hate me, (6) and showing mercy to thousands of those that love Me and keep My commandments. (7) You shall not take the name of Jehovah your God in vain. For Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain.
The most commonly known format of the Rosary, flanked by the Bible and a free-standing Crucifix.Islamic prayer beads for dhikr (remembrance of God)
Today we still can find lots of Christians making themselves an idol, like sculptures of a Jesus hanging on a cross, a Christ with a red open gleaming heart, a virgin Mary, all sorts of saints, all statues where they pray for. They seem to forget The God asked His people not to bow for in worship for a picture of Himself nor for the likeness of any thing, which is in the heaven above, or in the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. Though by the warp and weft, it is for many the order of the day to burn candles or to pray in front of pictures or statues. By many Trinitarian Christians this seems to be the run-of-the-mill to them and they often do not feel happy when they could not do such an action or are afraid that something could happen to them.
Also by several Muslims we do find such a fear and like we can find Christopher or rosebuds or rosary (paternoster) in cars hanging on the front mirror or on the dashboard we find prayer beads hanging on the front mirror by Muslims as well. When they would not have such symbols in their car or in the house, like ‘sacred or blessed palm’, they think the seed of evil might come over them.
Mural “God’s Mather” in Belyova church
Real Christians should take God Words at heart and remember:
Deu 5:8 MKJV You shall not make a graven image for you, any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters beneath the earth.
Deu 27:15 MKJV Cursed is the man that makes any graven or molten image, an abomination to Jehovah, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and puts it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen.
Psa 97:1-12 MKJV Jehovah reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of islands be glad. (2) Clouds and darkness are all around Him; righteousness and judgment are the foundation of His throne. (3) A fire goes before Him and burns up His enemies round about. (4) His lightnings lit up the world; the earth saw and trembled. (5) The hills melted like wax at the presence of Jehovah, at the presence of Jehovah of the whole earth. (6) The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the people see His glory. (7) All those who serve graven images are ashamed, those who boast themselves in idols; all gods bow down before Him. (8) Zion heard and was glad; and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of Your judgments, O Jehovah. (9) For You, Jehovah, are high above all the earth; You are lifted on high far above all gods. (10) You who love Jehovah, hate evil; He keeps the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked. (11) Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. (12) Rejoice in Jehovah, righteous ones; and give thanks at the memory of His holiness.
Isa 40:18-20 MKJV To whom then will you compare God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him? (19) The workman melts a graven image, and the goldsmith spreads it over with gold, and casts silver chains. (20) He too poor for that offering chooses a tree that will not rot; he looks for a skillful workman to prepare a graven image that will not totter.
In having a figure of a man on a piece of wood or a sculpture of a god-man people find themselves presented as God and have their god from mankind in their own world. As such they created themselves a go son, a god father and a god mother and twist the Words of Scriptures to suit their man madedogma of a Trinity or triune god, a three headed god, like such a god can be found in lots of ancient pagan religions.
“The trinity of persons within the unity of nature is defined in terms of ‘person’ and ‘nature’ which are G[ree]k philosophical terms; actually the terms do not appear in the Bible. The trinitarian definitions arose as the result of long controversies in which these terms and others such as ‘essence’ and ‘substance’ were erroneously applied to God by some theologians.” {Dictionary of the Bible, John L. McKenzie, S.J., p. 899}
Seed was the essence of life and out of seed came more than one element or fruit and more than one god. The evangelist John referring to the seed promised in the Garden of Eden, speaking about the first-born of all creation should have people to open their eyes and to question them why, if the Trinity doctrine is true, the Father and the Holy Spirit, god’s Pneuma, not also said to be the firstborn of all creation? When we look closely at what is written in the Holy Scriptures we can see that the Bible applies this expression only to the son.
In the Old Testament we can find more than once the seed of Adam being blessed and bringing forth children of God. We also get to see that there is the firstborn of Abram (Abraham) being requested as an offering but that what came out of the seed, the bush, getting into fire, giving light and promising Abraham much more seed and letting the world to be known that out of his seed would come more light and salvation. Many years after Abraham a child is born which is spoken of as the “firstborn,” who is also presented as the newborn of the new world, the 2° Adam. It indicates that Jesus is the eldest in Jehovah’s family of sons. With this new seed, promised in the Garden of Eden and having come into blossoming a two thousand years ago
“by means of him allotherthings were created “
we get a figure that can create again some would say, but it indicates that God uses Jesus Christ to continue His creation and as such
. . . Allotherthings have been created through him and for him.”
Thus he is shown to be a created being, part of the creation produced by God who has delivered us from the power of darkness? It was the Father of this son Who is the Deliverer or Saviour, because he accepted the offering of His son who is the saviour for mankind. That seed of King David is the one who was promised and who brought us the way to the kingdom of God. It is by that seed on the tree by whom we have obtained salvation and forgiveness of sins. He is not only a first-born but also the pure image of the invisible God, and the first-born of every creature. In case that seed would not have grown and have been purified we would not have had any chance. Without him our names would not been written in the Book of life, which is in heaven. Whether imperial thrones, or lordships, or angelic orders, or dominions, all things were in his hand and as such could be considered as having been created by him, because when God would not have provided that seed in the Garden of Eden and would have destroyed Adam and Eve at once, no human being would have lived on this earth. Therefore Jeshua, the promised seed, is before all things, and by him all things are sustained. Though many people do not want to respect what he really has done, dying for the sins of many (remember that God cannot die), Jesus who was first lower than angels (remember that God was, is and always shall be the Most High) Jesus became the seed of the woman that could become the head of the body, the church, for he is the beginning, the firstfruits of the resurrection from the dead. It is like seed has to fall on the ground after it had dried up or died from the plant, this seed of a man also died and became the shoot of Jesse that in all things he might be the first; for it pleased God to complete all things in him; and by his hand to reconcile everything to himself; and through his blood shed on the stake made peace both for those who dwell on earth and for those who dwell in heaven.
Col 1:13-20 MKJV For He has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son; (14) in whom we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins. (15) who is the image of the invisible God, the First-born of all creation. (16) For all things were created in Him, the things in the heavens, and the things on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through Him and for Him. (17) And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. (18) And He is the Head of the body, the church, who is the Beginning, the First-born from the dead, that He may be pre-eminent in all things. (19) For it pleased the Father that in Him all fullness should dwell. (20) And through Him having made peace through the blood of His cross, it pleased the Father to reconcile all things to Himself through Him, whether the things on earth or the things in Heaven.
The seed from the dead wood was a single man, not one who existed out of three seeds or three gods. God Himself has revealed that seed as His only begotten belovedson.
Mat 3:16-17 MKJV And Jesus, when He had been baptized, went up immediately out of the water. And lo, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon Him. (17) And lo, a voice from Heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
The “You are My Son, the Beloved” gives an indication that this son of man is also son of god and not like some interpret it to be ‘god the son’. His “goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” is about that seed spoken off in the Garden of Eden. It is noteworthy that, instead of saying “days of eternity,” RS renders the Hebrew as “ancient days”; JB, “days of old”; NW, “days of time indefinite.” That seed was not eternal it had the beginning in those older days way back at the beginning.
Mic 5:2-5 MKJV And you, Bethlehem Ephratah, you being least among the thousands of Judah, out of you He shall come forth to Me, to become Ruler in Israel, He whose goings forth have been from of old, from the days of eternity. (3) Therefore He will give them over until the time the one giving birth has given birth; then the rest of His brothers shall return to the sons of Israel. (4) And He shall stand and feed in the strength of Jehovah, in the majesty of the name of Jehovah His God. And they shall sit, for now He shall be great to the ends of the earth. (5) And this One shall be peace. When Assyria shall come into our land; and when he shall walk in our palaces, then we shall raise against him seven shepherds and eight anointed ones from men.
The seed like a mustard seed has grown and from the smallest seed shall have to come forth a great tree of seeds of the Father, the Most High Creator, all children of God.
If Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were coequal, comprising one Godhead then we would find a God who at several occasions did not tell the truth, because God is an all-knowing God, but Jesus on several occasions says he does not know a certain thing; He even does not know when he would come back. God also says He is an eternal Spirit which would make Jesus faking his death and telling lies when he says that a spirit has no flesh and bones and when he shows his wounds to his disciples to proof he is no spirit.
Luk 24:34-40 MKJV And they said, the Lord has indeed risen, and has appeared to Simon. (35) And in the way they related the things happening, and how He had been known by them in breaking of the loaf. (36) And as they spoke this, Jesus Himself stood in their midst, and said to them, Peace to you! (37) But they were terrified and filled with fear, for they thought they saw a spirit. (38) And He said to them, Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? (39) Behold My hands and My feet, that I am He! Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see Me have. (40) And when He had spoken this, He showed them His hands and feet.
In case Jesus is God then Jesus being in God like we should be in Jesus and in God would make us God as well, when you take it that being in some one is being that one and that the unity of Christ means that Jesus is god than the unity of us with Christ means that we are Christ and as such are also God.
Jesus asks to believe in him and to know that the works which he does, his Father in heaven shall do even greater works than these which Jesus could not do without his Father. And Jesus was on earth but told the others, not he was doing al this but the One to Whom he was going to. He was going to the place of his Father, Who he was going to join. He also told his followers that he was going to his Father who may be glorified through him, Jehovah God His Son. It is this son of God who will ask of his Father; and it is Him Who was to give the apostles another Comforter, to be with them for ever.
Jesus tells his apostles that he will be gone and that the world shall not able to see him any more. On the day the comforter or the Force of God would come over them their eyes would go open and they would come to understanding of all those things they saw happening. At the time they happened they did not understand but after the Pneuma, God’s Power came over them they came to understand everything and came to know that Jesus is with his Father. But at the same time Jesus would be there for them with them and they would be with him. Everybody should get the faith in Jesus, the son of God and love him so that he also will be loved by Jesus his Father.
Joh 14:12-21 MKJV Truly, truly, I say to you, He who believes on Me, the works that I do he shall do also, and greater works than these he shall do, because I go to My Father. (13) And whatever you may ask in My name, that I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (14) If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. (15) If you love Me, keep My commandments. (16) And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, so that He may be with you forever, (17) the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him nor know Him. But you know Him, for He dwells with you and shall be in you. (18) I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. (19) Yet a little while and the world does not see Me any more. But you see Me. Because I live, you shall live also. (20) At that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. (21) He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will reveal Myself to him.
Jesus never claimed to be God and addresses the Father as “the only true God”; so, Jesus as “a god” in the first chapter of John merely reflects his Father’s divine qualities and looks at Jesus as a high or important person person, like Apollo, Zeus, Pharaoh, Moses, angels and others are called ‘god’ in the Bible, but where never is intended them to be The God.
In several stories written before the New Testament several gods are presented to bring new light and to bring change in life because crossing axes would bring in new breath (life). But to get the life the occult signs, the making of a cross repeatedly had to be done regularly, because otherwise the gods of evil would get more force and conquer again over light and bring darkness again.
Little Known Facts About the Christmas Tree (articles.we-wood.us)
For thousands of years, people have brought live greens into their homes during the dark weeks surrounding the winter solstice. Ancient Egyptians picked palm fronds to honor the sun god Ra, while Romans decorated with holly for the solstice celebration of Saturnalia.The pagan tradition of decorating with branches and trees was adapted by early Christians in Germany, where Germans decorated trees with apples to remember Adam and Eve. In the 1600s, Protestant reformer Martin Luther was walking home through a fir forest one night while composing a sermon and was inspired by the stars shining on the snow to add candles to his family’s Christmas tree.
Retreat Notes on Authority (supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com)
Eve’s sin was curiosity (which I wrote about here) and when the snake began to talk, as animals did not talk (Eden is Not Narnia) she should have left the scene immediately and asked Adam for discernment and help.
Heave is for Real – The Most Believable Depictions (mybloglogb.typepad.com)
Some spiritual topics simply can’t be done seriously in movies very often. I wrote recently about how Adam and Eve have never been depicted very seriously in film (other than a couple of times), and it seems heaven is the same way. Like Adam and Eve, we can’t get our head around what the reality of these spiritual topics may be, and we’re probably not supposed to in the grand scheme of life. In the movies, translating the ineffable means bringing plenty of irony, and the depiction of heaven has had plenty.
Adam and Eve are Ancient “Archetypes” (jacksonwu.org)
the book demonstrates the importance biblical training with respect to interpretation method. I’m not simply referring to theological instruction. In fact, Walton’s argument suggests that theological presuppositions are precisely what keep us from understanding God’s authoritative meaning in Gen 1–3.
The Truth: Who Are You (a Must Read) (eyeopenerunity.wordpress.com)
So if good was already known and evil was presented as good than what does that tell us??
Glycon was considered to also be a snake god in satirical form as mentioned by the satirist Lucian, and was said to be the incarnation of Asklepios in the mysteries of Alexander of Abonutichus, a pagan philosopher of the 2nd century.
In Orphic mythology, the serpent was sometimes linked with the primordial egg from which all things emerged and is shown entwined around the egg. Epiphanius in The Panarion discusses the doctrines of the Epicureans who believed that the universe was formed by chance rather than providence:
Originally the entire universe was like an egg and the spirit was then coiled snakewise round the egg, and bound nature tightly like a wreath or girdle. (3) At one time it wanted to squeeze the entire matter, or nature, of all things more forcibly, and so divided all that existed into the two hemispheres and then, as the result of this, the atoms were separated. (4) For the light, finer parts of all nature—light, aether and the finest parts of the spirit—floated up on top. But the parts which were heaviest and like dregs have sunk downwards. This means earth—that is, anything dry—and the moist substance of the waters. (5) The whole moves of itself and by its own momentum with the revolution of the pole and stars, as though all things were still being driven by the snake like spirit. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 2)
That the world goes in circles and time repeats itself is also brought forward by the circular symbol of the serpent eating its own tail, known as the Ouroboros, the primal being who said,
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last (Rev. 22:13).
Rivera reminds us that the serpent is also seen in the Syriac Hymn of the Pearl as it depicts the soul’s descent into the world, forgetting his mission but eventually roused by the call on high to remind him of his original nature and duty, his glorious rising again into the Kingdom of the Father.
It was that passion of egotism, the deep longing to have everything for oneself that made Eve testing her Creator. She had a craving to become as wise as He is. The yearning came also over the 1° Adam by listening to his wife. The female partner was much stronger than the male and could convince him that it would not heart. Their aching to possess as much wisdom and power as God made them to disobey their Maker.
In several man made stories we do find such evil thoughts of jealousy coming into the picture and destroying a relationship. Often such thoughts creep into our mind as a serpent and as such it is pictured.
Epiphanius of Salamis (church father, ca. 310–20 – 403), fresco at Gracanica monastery, near Lipljan in Kosovo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Typical to Jewish and Christian tradition, another negative portrayal of serpent imagery was used by the Church Father Epiphanius in his closing comments in the Panarion to high-light the “evil nature” of Simon Magus as being like a snake, asp and a viper. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 2)
We also find acquisitiveness coming into life of many, bringing wrong actions and evil thoughts. The embodiment of greed brings also pictures of extra terrestial figures of angels (fallen angels) or devils. When we look at the Targum Psuedo-Jonathan we do find the Serpent with the fallen angel Samael, the “Blind One” who was a originally a great prince in heaven, descended to earth and rode upon the serpent to deceive Eve and seduce her. The fruit of his seduction, as the same text claims (like the Gospel of Philip) was Cain, being the son of the Devil.
And the woman saw Sammael, the angel of death, and she was afraid, and she knew that the tree was good for food.
Rivera tells about Rabbi Isaac who in The Treatise of the Left Emanation, also compared Samael and Lilith as husband and wife, much like Adam and Eve — an inverted, “Satanic” power, a concept which is featured later in the Zohar and Jewish myth concerning evil. Samael acts as an evil doppelganger of the first man that came into being with the first human transgression:
The first prince and accuser, the commander of Jealousy and Enmity…he is called ‘evil’ not because of his nature but because he desires to unite and intimately mingle with an emanation not of his nature… it is made clear that Samael and Lilith were born as one, similar to the form of Adam and Eve who were also born as one, reflecting what is above. This is the account of Lilith which was received by the Sages in the Secret Knowledge of the Palaces. The Matron Lilith is the mate of Samael. Both of them were born at the same hour in the image of Adam and Eve, intertwined in each other. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 2)
He continues:
As this passage suggests, Jewish mysticism contains a dialectic notion of “evil”; all things emanate from God, so Samael is one of God’s “severe agents,” yet he grows beyond the attenuated form God intended because he feeds upon the evils of the world. The Zohar builds upon the image of Samael found in Rabbi Isaac’s text as the demon king and consort of Lilith; together they are the evil counterparts of Adam and Eve. Samael is the tempting angel from who “copulates” with Lilith as the male and female principles of the “left side emanation”, united and achieve their full potential by spawning demons. Samael is in effect the evil left-side counterpart of Tiferet in the Sefirotic system of the Tree of Life. In the Apocryphon of John, Samael also happens to be one of the alternative names for Ialdabaoth, the Satanic creator god. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 2)
Also the mind, the thinking or the being of a person got out of a seed but was also like a serpent.
The Ophites connected the eternal principle, Nous, “mind”, with Naas, the Greek word for serpent—stating that the serpent in the Garden of Eden was actually Nous in serpent form. Accordingly, the Demiurge tried to prevent Adam and Eve from acquiring knowledge, and it was the serpent who persuade them to disobey the Demiurge and taste of the fruit. This was the origin of gnosis. Because the serpent frustrated Jehovah’s designs, the serpent was cursed (Gen. 3:14). The Naasenes also agreed with the sentiments expressed in the Gospel of Philip, in that the separation of sexes marked the beginning of death and evil when they claimed that sex was “…man’s fatal effort to become one without recognizing that the only real unity was spiritual.” {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 2)
In Church-history we find peculiar ideas about the relationship with the seed, the serpent, man and Jesus.
According to the Church Fathers, the Ophites had a peculiar ritual meal involving a snake. The Ophites made a distinction between Christ the Savior, and Jesus, the man. Christ equated the serpent with the Son of Man (John 3:14), whereas Jesus equated serpents with scorpions, and spoke of the serpent as the “enemy” (Luke 10:19). For this reason some Ophite sects vilified Jesus. Origen in Contra Celsum records that the Ophites cursed Jesus, and wanted converts to do the same. St. Paul’s reference to those who curse Jesus (1 Cor. 12:3) may point to these snake-worshipers. The Ophites also happened to believe that Adam and Eve were originally beings of light, according to Irenaeus in Against Heresies, I, 30.9:
Adam and Eve previously had light, and clear, and as it were spiritual bodies, such as they were at their creation; but when they came to this world, these changed into bodies more opaque, and gross, and sluggish. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 2)
No surprise Rivera wants to make the link also to some titles which we can find in Christianity, like “Lord of Hosts” as a reference to יהוה YHWH Jehovah/Yehowah/Yahuwah/Yahweh. which can be found in some translations at 1Samuel 1:3,11; 4:4; 15:2; 17:45; 2 Samuel 6:2,18; 7:8,26-27 and James 5:4 for example.
2Sa 7:26-27 NET so you may gain lasting fame,43 as people say,44 ‘The LORD of hosts is God over Israel!’ The dynasty45 of your servant David will be established before you, (27) for you, O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have told46 your servant, ‘I will build you a dynastic house.’47 That is why your servant has had the courage48 to pray this prayer to you.
2Sa 7:26-27 MKJV And let Your name be magnified forever, saying, The Jehovah of Hosts is the God over Israel. And let the house of Your servant David be established before You. (27) For You, O Jehovah of Hosts, God of Israel, have revealed to Your servant, saying, I will build you a house. Therefore Your servant has found in his heart to pray this prayer to You.
Several Christians do want to believe it than relies to Jesus but it is all about יהוה The ElohimHashemJehovah to Whom belongs the victory.
Clarke wants us even to believe:
“It having pleased God that, between the time of a Messiah being promised and the time of his coming, there should be delivered by the prophets a variety of marks by which the Messiah was to be known, and distinguished from every other man; it was impossible for any one to prove himself the Messiah, whose character did not answer to these marks; and of course it was necessary that all these criteria, thus Divinely foretold, should be fulfilled in the character of Jesus Christ.
But in those passages of the Lord of Hosts is not spoken about the Messiah but about the bringer of the messiah, Jehovah God.
Clarke agrees that God declares himself the Father of the Son.
God declares himself the Father of the Son here meant; (see also Heb_1:5); and promises that, even amidst the sufferings of this Son, (as they would be for the sins of others, not for his own), his mercy should still attend him: nor should his favor be ever removed from this king, as it had been from Saul. And thus (as it follows) thine house (O David) and thy kingdom shall, in Messiah, be established for ever before Me: (before God): thy throne shall be established for ever. Thus the angel, delivering his message to the virgin mother, Luk_1:32, Luk_1:33, speaks as if he was quoting from this very prophecy: The Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David, and he shall reign over the house of Jacob For Ever: and of his kingdom there shall be no end. In 2Sa_7:16, לפניך lephaneycha, is rendered as לפני lephanai, on the authority of three Hebrew MSS., with the Greek and Syriac versions; and, indeed, nothing could be established for ever in the presence of David, but in the presence of God only.
It shall be the Divine Creator Who makes everything and Who is the Father of everything and Host for all things and beings, who shall provide in His House the seed of peace and the seed for a new paradise, the Kingdom of God with the Garden of God once again here on earth. And for that Garden Jehovah God shall provide a gardener from the seed of Adam bringing the seed of Abraham, continuing the line with bringing seed to King David by which the offspring shall be the seed long awaited which shall bring the offering like the seed which formed the bush and got burning, the world shall have to see a burning light and bright morning star. to that seed Jehovah shall be a Host and He shall take him to sit at his right hand to become a mediatorbetween God and man.
Rev 7:9-12 MKJV After these things I looked, and lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, out of all nations and kindreds and people and tongues, stood before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palms in their hands. (10) And they cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God sitting on the throne, and to the Lamb. (11) And all the angels stood around the throne, and the elders, and the four living creatures, and they fell before the throne on their faces and worshiped God, (12) saying, Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever. Amen.
Act 7:55-56 MKJV But being full of the Holy Spirit, looking up intently into Heaven, he saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. (56) And he said, Behold, I see Heaven opened and the Son of Man standing on the right hand of God.
Heb 10:12-17 MKJV But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right of God, (13) from then on expecting until His enemies are made His footstool. (14) For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are sanctified. (15) The Holy Spirit also is a witness to us; for after He had said before, (16) “This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord; I will put My Laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them,” (17) also He adds, “their sins and their iniquities I will remember no more.”
1Ti 2:5-6 MKJV For God is one, and there is one Mediator of God and of men, the Man Christ Jesus, (6) who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.
Rivera writes:
Interestingly, the Alexandrian Gnostic teacher, Basilides called the demiurge “the Seven” which could have been a reference to the seventh planet, Saturn, which rules the rest. The Hebrew name of the planet Saturn is Shabbathai, clearly transcribed in the form “Sabbataios” in Gnostic verbal play on the term “Lord of Hosts” as a reference to YHWH. Tacitus in Histories 5,4 associates the Jewish God with Saturn. Saturn is naturally also honored on the same day by the Pagans that the Jews did with Jehovah on Sabbath. Since the Jews worshiped on Saturday, the Graeco-Roman world in which Basilides lived in tended to identify Jehovah with Saturn. Saturn is the Graeco-Roman sky-god so consumed with fear of being overthrown that he devours all his children, missing only Jupiter (Zeus), who does later overthrow him. In Rome the overthrow of the old year by the new, the hunched-up old man by the babe, was celebrated in the Saturnalia. Similarly, for Gnostics, the Christ child replaced the tribal god Jehovah. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 2)
Today we still find the majority of Christian believers not willing to accept Jesus to be a man of flesh and blood who had really enough reasons to be afraid of death. They still make Jesus into a god, because they think no human being would ever be able to keep to God His commandments. They forget that they make a very cruel Creator of this Most High God, having Him made immature imperfect beings to which He demands the impossible. For those Binarian and TrinitarianChristians the human beings where deficient from the beginning, not able to keep to God’s Wishes.
Michelangelo Bounarotti – The Fall and Expulsion of Adam and Eve – detail (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
We do not believe in such a cruel God, who than after the Fall would have waited so long before to intervene and Who keeps us still waiting so many years before He stops us to let us suffer. For us it is more acceptable that God created a perfect universe in which He gave the human beings a free will. They were perfect and could have stayed faultless.
To stay without fault people had to make the right choices. Eve got tempted by her own greed, her willing to be even more like God. She had the breath of God blown in her nostrils and as such got the ‘soul‘, the ‘being’ ‘life’ in her. Those refusing that life itself was the essence given by God Himself wanted as in the different creation myths see their other gods providing that life, and as such used the figure Jesus as that bringer of life and bringer of love and eros.
As Irenaeus relates in his Against Heresies, Ialdabaoth is the eldest of seven rulers born of Lower Wisdom (See the Secret Book of John for this story). Ialdabaoth is depicted as a grotesque mutant—a lion-headed serpent which fits with Plato’s distinction of the “rational soul” part from the lion and the many headed beast portions of the soul in the Republic along with the Orphic Phanes or Eros. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 2)
11. Babylonian Talmud of the Pharisee & the Zohar (12160.info)
the Pharisees have delivered to the people a great many observances by succession from their fathers, which are not written in the law of Moses; and for that reason it is that the Sadducees reject them and say that we are to esteem those observances to be obligatory which are in the written word, but are not to observe what are derived from the tradition of our forefathers.
Gospel, 3rd Sunday in Lent, Year B (jessicahof.wordpress.com)
Origen comments that our souls are the Temples of Christ, and he has especial solicitude for them, and here is driving from us impure thoughts and things which drag us down. Augustine sees the same symbolism. The Church, the Temple of Christ, has within in those who buy and sell holy things, and they need to be driven out too.
All the Fathers see the reference to Jesus being the Temple and being raised on the third day. It is the Father who raised Him up after He was obedient, unto death, even death upon the Cross. Augustine and St Cyril both comment on his caution in entrusting himself fully to those not yet born again of the Spirit.
The Blame Game Again (supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com)
The societal sins are merely those made individually by unique persons choosing the wrong way over and over and over and over. The sins of a culture or civilization are not some types of sins which just happen, but sins done repeatedly by those persons in that culture or civilization.
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There would be no weak men without Adam, and the long line of couch potatoes, sports idolizing , game obsessed men who have given up all responsibility for their families and eschew commitment. Individuals sin and make movements.Just because the men are nameless, does not mean it is not yet another “movement” of weakness changing the culture one decision at a time.
To blame a “movement” is to push blame onto nothing….some amorphous event in history. Of course, men and women decide to choose good or evil, thus creating the course of their own lives, that of their families and even nations.
A Life Bearing Fruit (therealdaniel.com)
The greatest commandment that so many reject is to love God with all our hearts, soul, mind and strength, and the second commandment is to love our neighbor as ourselves. When self becomes god as Satan is all too familiar with then a separation from the Creator of all things good is inevitable.
Cleo and her asp. (barrywax.wordpress.com)
According to Plutarch (quoted by Ussher), Cleopatra tested various deadly poisons on condemned persons and concluded that the bite of the asp (from aspis – Egyptian cobra, not European asp) was the least terrible way to die; the venom brought sleepiness and heaviness without spasms of pain. The asp is perhaps most famous for its alleged role in Cleopatra’s suicide
God had given an instruction to safeguard them. God knew what could happen but they did not listen out of their own choice. When He fretted that Adam had become “like one of us“, God was not talking to some other gods or other beings but speaking in the Royal We, like any higher person still uses the Pluralis Majestatis today. (Genesis 3:22) The author of the Testimony of Truth wants us also to look negatively at the Maker and says:
But what sort is this God? First he maliciously refused Adam from eating of the tree of knowledge, and, secondly, he said “Adam, where are you?” God does not have foreknowledge? Would he not know from the beginning? And afterwards, he said, “Let us cast him out of this place, lest he eat of the tree of life and live forever.” Surely, he has shown himself to be a malicious grudger! And what kind of God is this? For great is the blindness of those who read, and they did not know him. And he said, “I am the jealous God; I will bring the sins of the fathers upon the children until three (and) four generations.” And he said, “I will make their heart thick, and I will cause their mind to become blind, that they might not know nor comprehend the things that are said.” But these things he has said to those who believe in him and serve him! {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 1)}
It is the same as parents who noticed their children having done something wrong. They know where they are, and when they are hiding they mostly also know exactly the place where they are hiding, though still ask them to say where they are, trying to give them a chance to come out themselves and to show themselves in the condition they are.
Yale Papyrus Fragment from the Nag Hammadi Gnostic Library Codex III, containing The Dialogue of the Savior (Yale Beinecke Library). (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Alexander Rivera of The Aeon Eye dedicated to research and ideas regarding scholarship in theology, various ancient texts spanning different cultures of all ages, comparative mythology, philosophical exegesis, apocrypha, patristics, the Nag Hammadi Library and the Bible, believes the author of the Testimony of Truth designating the serpent as a positive figure, telling the story from the view of the serpent.
Concerning the text also distinguishing Christ as the “Son” or messenger he talks about the “unknown Father” which is distinct from the “LordGod” of Genesis or the Lawgiver which was equated by many Gnostic groups such as the Sethians, Naasenes and the Valentinians with the Demiurge or the “Craftsman” who fashioned the cosmos from a chaotic pre-existent “prima materia”.
The Marcionites held a similar position, but lacked the speculative and imaginative cosmologies that were a staple in later Gnostic mythology, but held both the creator god as a lesser god and the Good, Supreme God as distinct, but co-eternal beings in a constant state of antagonism (we see this idea carried into the later doctrines of the Manichaeans and the Cathars). The Demiurge did not derive from the Supreme God by emanation or by a fall of another aeon. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 1)}
Marcion, much like his Gnostic predecessors denied that the God of goodness could have created the cosmos of corruption and entropy. Therefore, in his place, the creator god was assigned as author of the physical universe, while treated as an inferior being, not good, but only just. He is also the author of evil (as Isaiah 45:7 boldly asserts), as he is as much a lover of war (Exodus 15:3), erratic blood-lust in his constant demand for animal and human sacrifice, rejoicing in death (Deuteronomy 28:63), condoning slavery including sexual (Exodus 21:1-11), commanding the Israelites to rape, pillage and destroy at a moment’s whim (1 Chronicles 21, Deuteronomy 3, Joshua 6) all the while contradicting his own commandment of “Thou shalt not kill”. At his express command, the world is turned into a place of pain and “thorns” (Genesis 3:18)
A lion-faced deity found on a Gnostic gem in Bernard de Montfaucon’s L’antiquité expliquée et représentée en figures. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The saying by the prophetIsaiah that the Elohim would be a God of evil is indicating that the Most HighMaker Who has no peer, no God but Him, allows evil to come over people, even making His People arm them for battle. It is true that the Bible says even though man does not recognize Him, He does this so people will recognize from east to west that there is no God but Him. Already early at the Creation God made it clear that out of the void it was Him Speaking and making it to happen. From the very start of the universe the living creatures had to know that it was Him Who made them. All had to understand that it is Him The One Who forms light and creates darkness. It was Him Who created out of chaosorder and brought about peace and created calamity. Waters had to flow, air had to flow, but now that man had interfered with creation and disturbed the peace and tranquillity they themselves brought great misfortune over themselves, not out of God’s Will but out of their will. It where they who wanted to rule the world and have everything to say, so God allowed them to arrange the things like they want to do it. But up until now they still not have given any proof to be capable to order the world decently.
True, God by giving everything in the hands of incompetent human beings made that affliction became master of mankind. Though He allows all those things to happen in the hope that at one point those people will come to recognise that He alone is the Divine Supreme Maker Who deserves all worship and honour. God is patient enough to find enough people who are willing to recognise that the ElohimHashem Jehovah is the Most High Lord over the Lord of lords, Who accomplishes all these things.
People shall also have to notice that certain things that happen may look at one moment good but at an other may look bad, like the changing skies with clouds sending down showers of deliverance. Also figuratively people shall get to see that the earth shall have to absorb the ‘showers’ from God so salvation may grow, and deliverance may sprout up along with it. This all in the knowledge that it is the Divine Supreme Being Who creates it.
Isa 45:5-8 MKJV I am Jehovah, and there is none else, no God besides Me; I clothed you, though you have not known Me; (6) that they may know from the rising of the sun, and to the sunset, that there is none besides Me. I am Jehovah, and there is none else; (7) forming the light and creating darkness; making peace and creating evil. I Jehovah do all these things. (8) Drop down from above, O heavens, and let the clouds pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, and let salvation bear fruit; and let righteousness spring up together. I Jehovah have created it.
Lots of Christians accuse Muslims to have a cruel God (Allah), because they hear stories of what that God says and do not seem to know that they have the same God saying naturally the same things. But those hard words God speaks in the Old Testament, which many Christians do not know, are part of God reacting on the bad things the people did.
That God allows it all to happen is that otherwise an intervening God would again being able to become the accused as being a dictator, only allowing that to happen what and how He wants it, not giving any liberty to man. That was the charge in the Garden of Eden. God was wrongly accused as wanting all right to govern Himself. Man forgot that they were given freedom to name and manage their own world.
Those who want to believe the world that God only executes the law without mercy or compassion when it is convenient for Him are the one the Bible is calling satan or adversary. The opponents of God, the antagonists and objectors are the ones who are mentioned many-fold in the Bible. The ones who want the world to believe that God would be a person of king-like jealousy and pride, with great appetite for praise and sacrifices are the ones who gave breath to the enemy and what motivated many early Christians to interpret “the Lord God” as either an ignorant but just creator or at worst, a malicious and belligerent demon called “Ialdaboath”. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 1)}
Many assume wrongly that Jesus is talking about his heavenly Father being the father of evil and the one owning this world, but The Elohim has given the world in the hands of man, God’s adversary. It is not about God when there is said
He was a murder from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. {John 8:44 / Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 1)}
Jesus is giving reference to the “father of lies” who is not his heavenly Father, but the master of evil, God’s adversary (the ‘devil‘), who can be any human person who doubts the existence and the right of power of God.
Alexander Rivera points out:
it was Yahweh who said that they would die if they ate from the Tree of Knowledge, whereas the snake said that they wouldn’t—and of course, as we know, they didn’t. All that they Serpent said is that they would become as gods, which Yahweh confirms when he says, “Look, they have become as gods. Now we must remove them from the garden, lest they eat of the tree of life and live forever.” The night preceding his crucifixion, the Johannine Jesus says in John 12:31-33:
Now is the judgment of this world. Now the prince (archon) of this world will be cast out.
The prince or “archon” is a direct reference to the Demiurge, the “god of this aion” as Paul calls him 2 Corinthians 4:4. Before, the creator God said to both Adam and Eve “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” On the other hand, the Serpent said pointedly: “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 1)}
The author of Genesis let us know that Adam and Eve where cast out of the Garden of Eden and would have to face death, because God told them so and that all their offspring would have to face the problems and will have to die as well. This penalty form one to the other generation is a thorn in the eye of many Christians as well, but otherwise God would intervene again and could be accused of favouritism, giving partiality to His own people.
The eyes of both of them were opened, making them aware of what they had and what they now had to loose. Eve in her heart had hoped to get more wisdom. She did not want to believe that they would die. How could the one Who made them, losing them again? Reason why we do not follow the Gnostic writings is that they continue to follow the path of Eve and the adversaries of God who want us to believe that it was the Serpent who was right and the creator God Who was the one who had lied.
He said that Adam and Eve would die if he ate the fruit, but neither died. Instead, the Serpent was telling the truth. As a matter of fact, the creator himself ended up agreeing that the Serpent was right! The creator Lord God had proved himself to be a chronic liar as well as plagiarizer. To the Gnostics, the entire stratum of material creation was a failed and botched attempt to imitate an unknowable world of light. Likewise, the “Good Book” or “Word of God”, which being the Bible itself is based principally on pre-Biblical Babylonian and Egyptian texts. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 1)}
Rivera looks also at the claim of St. Augustine of Hippo in Adversus Haeresis, 46, 147-153, that the Manichaeans had also taught that “Jesus the Splendor” or the “Third Messenger” was the Serpent that illuminated the minds of both Adam and Eve of their predicament and their divine origins.
Before the arrival of the Serpent in the Garden, man was in a state of ignorance and was blinded to his true position—as automatons in blind servitude to their creators. This is confirmed by an unnamed Manichean text in which the 8th century historian, Theodor Bar Konai quotes:
Jesus the Splendour approached sinless Adam and awoke him from the sleep of death, that he might be delivered of innumerable demons… Then Adam examined himself and realized, who he was. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 1)}
Man has always played with the idea of being master of creation becoming superior to its Creator. In the races of worldly people, human artefacts have become objects of fear for their creators – for example statues and images and everything that is made by human hands as representing a god. In Christendom we still find many Christians who have that urge to bow down in front of graven images, though the Maker has clearly demanded not to do so. Several Christians made them crosses, statues of Jesus, Mary and several saints where they bow for and where they burn candles for or in certain countries even provide food and clothing. Though this is all abomination in the eyes of God.
Trees, fruit and seeds have always played an important role in many cultures and were often used symbolically as well.
Rivera writes:
As we can see, the Tree was an important universal symbol for not only the Gnostics, Simonians, Valentinians, etc, but to groups like the Jewish-Kabbalists, alchemists and many occult groups throughout the ages. The Tree is highly associative with the idea of the descent and crucifixion (and eventual ascent and resurrection) of spirit into and from matter as seen in Sophia-Achamoth’s fall from the celestial world and into the prima materia which parallels the Genesis account of the fall of Eve, the “mother of the living”. In Plato’s Timaeus, do we find the account of the Fall of Atlantis, (as strange as it might sound) which could be read as symbolic of the Divine tragedy and catastrophe so predominant in Gnostic cosmology and theology. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 3)}
We too look at the seed of Adam which brought forth the seed of Abraham, giving us the servant David, giving seed to next generations bringing into the world a new light, a seed without intervention of a man.
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Please do find the very interesting articles by Rivera:
For Gnostic Christians, the story of salvation is the story of human beings learning of their true position in the world and of their taking the necessary steps to escape the bondage of the evil Creator God. The Gnostic goal was the return of their Spiritual Light, which the Creator God had trapped within their bodies, to the Father Of Light.
Many Gnostics believed that the Savior was sent by the Father Of Light to help us in this quest. Others, like Marcion, believed that the Savior was sent by another deity entirely, an “Alien God” completely uninvolved in the creation of our particular cosmos, but who, knowing of our condition, took pity on us and sent the Savior to deliver us.
What If God Were NOT Good? (hammeringshield.wordpress.com)
The beliefs we today associate with Christianity and the Bible became the orthodox set of beliefs, the form of Christianity in which God is good. But there was another form of Christianity, that of the Gnostics. Unlike the Orthodox Christians, many Gnostic Christians believed God to be a malevolent being. Both types of Christians believed in the Savior, but they had different versions of his mission. And whereas Orthodox Christians believed in salvation via faith in the divinity of the Savior, the Gnostics believed that salvation is to be obtained via knowledge (“gnosis“) of our true condition, hence their name.
Deceptive Practices (culturalatheist.wordpress.com)
The first lies recorded (although we know he was already telling them in heaven) are the the lies about God’s character. He lied to Adam and Eve about God’s love and care for them. The lies were relational.What if Satan’s deceptive practices begin with or are grounded in lies about others? It would be in his best interests if we think the worst about others – their beliefs, their practices, their intentions and character. I also suspect that we reveal our acceptance of the lies and our culpability in spreading them when we say, “All (insert person or group) are (insert belief, practice, intention).”
Can a Gnostic army fix the world? (vaticproject.blogspot.com)
God gave us dominion over the animals to care for them, and that is in Genesis. And Christ reinforced those sentiments, so I don’t know where he got that, unless he has not read the Bible, which is possible. In fact, it was Christ who brought a new coverant stopping the slaughter of animals by the Jews and instead offered himself as the redeeming sacrifice. So, I am not sure where he got that, but be it as it may, just focus on the recommendations which I think are reasonable, actually. How do you protect society from those that murder at will for no earthy good reason, especially little children and babies.
Humble beginnings: a rib and an apple (annabelfrage.wordpress.com)
As a little aside, when God in Genesis 1 creates Adam, the name denominates mankind rather than a specific dude. In Genesis 2, however, God moulds Adam the man from the earth and breathes life into him. It is this Adam who is gifted with Eve, lest he become too lonely playing with himself.
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The tree, however, was always on their minds, a little teaser that now and then had them taking a couple of steps in its direction before remembering it was out of bounds. Eve would pick an apple from another tree and bite into it, eyes stuck on the perfect, Christmas-red apples that hung from the Tree of Knowledge. She bet those apples tasted sweeter, were crunchier and jucier. Adam would pick an apple and eat it while watching Eve, considering just what he would do to her after their meal. men are, at times, rather singleminded…
Great Day (theotherjc.com) God is…my Father. That’s a revelation that doesn’t come easily to everyone but one we need to get. We can be disappointed by our own Father but without realising it not notice that God has filled our lives with many Fathers. Thanks to Rachael for sharing her journey in this in such an honest way.
Jesus the Phoenician – Karim El Koussa on GW Radio (gnosticwarrior.com)
“Yāwshu (Jesus) is the son of the Canaano-Phoenician Most High God Ēl-Alyon, being the Son of the Virgin Lady Maryām by the Divine Will of the Lord, who blessed this conception of a child that would be named Immanuel. He would live among us as “God Ēl with us,” a Nazarene, sacredly chosen to consecrate himself for keeping the word of God in his heart, mind, and spirit, healing the human race from its many errors and sins. He is the Galilean Meshiha (Messiah) who would anoint the people—who believed in him, his mother, and Father, and who believed in the Great Message he came to deliver, Love and Peace—with sacred water, the purest form of what is considered as the origin of life here on earth. He is the Khristós (Christ) who came and had himself crucified on the altar of life so that we may be clean and have life abundantly. He is the Good Shepherd.”
― Excerpt from Jesus the Phoenician
Fear & Loathing In… God? (cwoznicki.com)
How can God loath his chosen people? How does that even make sense? In one of John Webster’s sermons on this very Psalm he addresses how this can be. Honestly its one of the best explanations of God’s wrath and hatred and anger that I have ever read…
Trust (activeinspiration.wordpress.com)
Trusting in riches instead of our Father means you can’t attain to a relationship with God, you have replaced God with riches, thus you can’t attain, only fall.
Scripture of the Day, 3/13 (sowegalive.com)
1 Timothy 2:5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
The Aeon Eye with Alexander Rivera looks also at the very beginning of the Bible and the Torah where we are presented with the idea of the origins of mankind in the Primordial Garden of Eden that we first see in the Book of Genesis, the Bereshith.
Alexander Rivera remarks:
The traditional Orthodox reading of this story, of course, presents the age-old legend as literal evidence for the claim of mankind’s original sin and subsequent fall from primordial perfection and divine grace, as if God was still holding an eternal grudge against mankind for eating a fruit that he created in the first place, and still cursing mankind and the world for a multitude of generations after the fact. From this disobedience to God, alienation was given rise from the creator and humanity was once again condemned under the Law that God later gave to Moses at Mt. Sinai. In this reading, humanity is specifically condemned because of their inherently wickedness due to their rebellion and disobedience. And so the story goes, God had to send his innocent Son to die a cruel death to shed his blood to atone for the transgressions of a sinful and destitute humanity. Yet, beneath this callous, misanthropic reading lies a deeper layer of spiritual truth.
Adam and Eve were both naked & were not ashamed, as in Genesis 2:25: “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” (KJV) illustration from the 1728 Figures de la Bible; illustrated by Gerard Hoet (1648–1733) and others, and published by P. de Hondt in The Hague; image courtesy Bizzell Bible Collection, University of Oklahoma Libraries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In the previous Readings from the Scriptures we could see how the female got tempted to get to know more about good and evil and how there was a delight to the eyes, the tree to be desired to make one wise. When she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat she wanted her partner also to be part of her disobedience to the Elohim. She lured him into eating of it as well, though God had prohibited them to touch the tree.
By eating of this tree of the forbidden fruit the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons. Suddenly the innocence of nakedness made place for an uncomfortable feeling. Their discomfort being so naked for each other and for the rest around them gave them a bad feeling.
Throughout history the story of the beginning of sin got merciless made in a weapon to unconscionably threaten people with demons, un-heavenly creatures who would damage the human soul and torture the human beings who got tempted by their words and actions. Their living quarters being deep under the ground in the burning alcoves of the underworld.
In the Bereshith, the Tanakh, the Holy Jewish and Christian Bible the adversary of God, could be any tempter, but people wanted to see not themselves in it but preferred to see an extra-terrestrial being in it, giving the noun satan (adversary) the surnames Satan and Lucifer. We do not know if it is like Alexander Rivera thinks that this interpretation would have come into the picture much later with the Book of Wisdom (2:23-24) revealing in this version:
For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity. Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world: and they that do hold of his side do find it.
Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lyons, writes in Against Heresies 5.23, which started the ball rolling for the Orthodox exegetic interpretation:
But that God was true, and the serpent a liar, was proved by the result, death having passed upon them who had eaten. For along with the fruit they did also fall under the power of death, because they did eat in disobedience; and disobedience to God entails death. Wherefore, as they became forfeit to death, from that [moment] they were handed over to it.
Originally the serpent was the metaphor for the creeping evil, the danger that could come up to man, and by moments could have been very beautiful and attractive, very cunning. In life we can encounter slyness and man has found ways to use subtlety and tricks to bring deceit, not always playing clever or subtle games.
In the Revelation of John 12:9, the serpent is equated with a dragon, a devil or satan, which many people take to be a specific figure with the name Satan or Lucifer:
The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
In the Book Wisdom is told that God created man unto His own likeness without corruption. Nevertheless through envies of the devil, the inner-thought of man going against the given purity of the Master Creator, came death into the world. Everybody in the creation of the Most High has elements of Him in him or her and by this gift of God has the possibility to feel the essence of the Creator in themselves. It are the wicked thoughts which separate from God and do come into the mind of those who think themselves wise or want to test God. Eve clearly wanted to test the Elohim. Therefore the Power of Jehovah had to come to her to condemn her. It was His Spirit Which filled the world but has all the right to give and take and man doubted His rights.
Wis 1:1-7 WEBA Love righteousness, all you who are judges of the earth. Think of the Lord with a good mind. Seek him in singleness of heart, (2) because he is found by those who don’t tempt him, and is manifested to those who trust him. (3) For crooked thoughts separate from God. His Power convicts when it is tested, and exposes the foolish. (4) Because wisdom will not enter into a soul that devises evil, nor dwell in a body that is enslaved by sin. (5) For a holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and will depart from thoughts that are without understanding, and will be ashamed when unrighteousness has come in. (6) For wisdom is a spirit who loves man, and she will not hold a blasphemer guiltless for his lips; because God bears witness of his reins, and is a true overseer of his heart, and a hearer of his tongue: (7) Because the spirit of the Lord has filled the world, and that which holds all things together knows what is said.
Wis 2:21-24 WEBA Thus they reasoned, and they were led astray; for their wickedness blinded them, (22) and they didn’t know the mysteries of God, neither did they hope for wages of holiness, nor did they discern that there is a prize for blameless souls. (23) Because God created man for incorruption, and made him an image of his own everlastingness; (24) but death entered into the world by the envy of the devil, and those who belong to him experience it.
For to the light of day succeeds night, but against wisdom evil does not prevail (Wisdom 7:30) Adam and Eve having had evil thoughts of God by giving heed to their wish to know as much as God knows. They were not not ashamed concerning their soul and now it was to late to hide for God. Sirach 7:1 tells us not to do evil so will no evil overtake you. Now the relationship between God and man got disturbed and they knew very well that they had done wrong.
That satan and lucifer are not wicked beings, can also been seen in other places in Scriptures where the evangelist John equates Jesus Christ with Lucifer, the Latin word for “light-bearer” which stems from the “Latin Vulgate” Bible, produced by Jerome, commissioned by Pope Damascus in 382 A.D. In Revelation 22:16, “Jesus” proclaims that:
“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give youthis testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”
In the verses about the penalty coming over the man and female, the 1° Adam and Eve, the Creator offers a solution and talks about the evil being crushed by the foot of the send one, the darkness eliminated by the light. The ‘Light” spoken off in the Bible refers then to the promised one, who got born in Bethlehem out of the tribe of God’s servant King David.
Of course, the Latin “Lucifer” (“Lux Ferre”) was associated with the planet Venus, which is called “Phosphoros”, the “morning star” or “dawn-bringer”, who was both a minor god in Greece and Rome, who according to the Greek Historian Diodorus Siculus, was a:
…son of Atlas, who was fond of astronomy, and once, after having ascended Mount Atlas to observe the stars, he disappeared. He was worshipped with divine honours, and regarded as the fairest star in the heavens. (Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.) {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 1)}
We have goodness in us but there is also badness which “lies in wait to turn things that are good into evil” (Sirach 11:31). When Jehovah’s Word came into the world everything got created and out of chaos came order, but that does not mean that disorder would have gone for ever. In the Plan of God everything should stay in good order, but man got the right to order things themselves as well. Jehovah God is a God of order. Normally man had to be the seal of full measure, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Man was placed in the beautiful Garden of Eden, the Garden of God.
To dwell in the awesome presence of a perfect and holy God, many would agree that those being there in the Garden of God had to be perfect. What went wrong is seen in the reaction of the woman ignoring God’s commandment. there was light that made an end to darkness, which was set up on the holy mountain of God. This light is also called “Lucifer” in Scripture who also fitted the name, ‘Son of the Morning’ being perfect in its ways from the day that it was created, until unrighteousness was found in it. (Ezekiel 28:2-19)
A “Son of Light” bad and good. Lucifer the evil one.
Man got its insides filled with badness, a violence against the Will of God, and this the Bible calls sin. We come to hear in the Scriptures that splendour and beauty did not last forever. It is told that Lucifer while ministering, began to consider his own position of prominence and became prideful, believing that he deserved more than what he already had. He wanted to become like the Most High. This is the main problem of what went wrong in the Garden of Eden. This is also still the problem of today. There were those who wanted to be like God in a bad sense of having the same power as God, wanting to be God. This became the reason to cast them out as ‘wrongoers’, ‘wrongdoers’ or sinners as profane ‘out of God’s mountain’.
Lucifer was also known by the Greeks as the Titan Prometheus, the son of Iapetus. (As a side-note compare this description of Phosphoros with Isaiah 14: 13-14: “For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most high”). {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 1)}
Man was stripped of his beauty, his position, and his rights to heaven. The lucifer got his light dimmed. Lucifer’s name, ‘son of the morning,’ was given to a far more deserving individual, the Son of God. He is the seed of the New Generation, the beginning of the New World. Jesus Christ is called the ‘Bright and Morning Star’ (Revelation 22:16).
Today, the one promised in the Garden of Eden, who was in the dark for a long time, has become the light of the world again and is now back close to God, seated at the right hand of the Most HighDivine Creator. The 2° Adam is now dwelling in the presence of the Almighty. Christ’s words hold true, even ‘in the account of Satan’:
“Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:12).
In what has happened in the Garden of Eden we have an example which we should seriously take at heart. We shall have to look deep in our heart and question ourselves which position we do want to take in. We should see and understand what the 1° Adam and Eve did wrong and how we can avoid falling in the same trap as they did. We should come to understand that recalcitrance and aversion to God will make us weaker and defenceless. The rebellious attitude will bring us only in the dark, like it did with Adam and Eve being brought in a grim world.
We should know that still today the adversary of God is willing to control the world, therefore it is also said that ‘Satan’s attempt’ to control this world system is nothing to take lightly.
Vos on Creation (greenbaggins.wordpress.com)
If the creation history is an allegory, then the narrative concerning the fall and everything further that follows can also be allegory. The writer of the Pentateuch presents his work entirely as history (Reformed Dogmatics, volume 1, p. 161).
Imagination: What does the Bible say? (endtimesprophecyreport.com) they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward
Did Plato influence the Book of Genesis? (lionoftheblogosphere.wordpress.com)
the belief among Orthodox Jews is that the book of Genesis is very old, but as the web page points out, there are no outside historically dated references to the book of Genesis until the second century B.C., which is two hundred years after the founding of Plato’s Academy.
We Will Always Be Tempted (birdchirp.wordpress.com)
The devil is as dangerous to us as he was to Adam and Eve. Peter refers to him as “a roaring lion…seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet.5:8). According to Jesus, he is the prince of this world (John 12:31). We must remember, however, that the devil rules as a usurper.
Servants of God (christopherjmoorewriter.wordpress.com)
if we choose to put ourselves above God, then ultimately we will join Satan in the eternal fires of hell. It’s our choice. Jesus, in allowing himself to be crucified for our sins provides another way.All we have to do is repent of our pride, put Christ as the centre of our lives and be his servant – feed the hungry, visit the prisoners, comfort the sick and dying. These charitable acts provide us with the opportunities to be servants of God. And we don’t have to travel to distant lands to perform them, just look around you, the area where you live. There are plenty of God’s children who need and deserve your help.
Where Are You? (psychologytoday.com)
God doesn’t rage or leave. God simply responds by asking the first question of the Torah: “Ayeka?”Translated literally, Ayeka means, “Where are you?” and upon first pass, that question seems silly for a Higher Power to be asking. First, why does it matter where they are hanging out? Second, shouldn’t God “know” anyway?
By Faith? (hiwaychristian.wordpress.com)
Take note as to how all the creatures involved in creating what is creation, did not hear the reason until some distance into the building. And even while salvation among men is in full swing, the angels still long to look into these things. Unless the translation is wrong, I noticed that Peter did not use the past tense of the word “long”.Remaining obedient though we have no clue, is not only essential now, it is a pattern of behavior for all God’s creatures for eternity. And this ought to renew our devotion to serve without full understanding. Frankly folks, that will be our state of affairs forever.
Psalm 80 (embodiedtorah.wordpress.com)
The theology of this verse reminds me of the comment on the first verse of Genesis by the medieval French commentator Rashi, in which he explains that the purpose of beginning Torah with creation, rather than with the first mitzvah given to Israel in Exodus 12, is to remind us that the world belongs to God. In this Psalm, God is a gardener and the world is God’s garden.
Nearly everyone has heard of Abraham and his faith in God. What most do not realize is that he struggled with Fear. You see, Abraham had a drop-dead gorgeous wife and he knew it too. Because of her beauty, he feared that the wicked ruler of the land they were passing through, might kill him in order possess his wife.
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Today, the whole world remains blessed by the faithfulness of God toward Abraham. How so? Because our Savior, Jesus Christ, eventually came from that same line of Abraham and his beautiful wife!
It is commonly believed that the One who speaks as the Creator of all things in Isaiah chapters 44 and 45 is the triune God consisting of three Persons. The language of Isaiah 44:24 cannot possibly be reconciled with the popular idea:
“Thus says the Lord (Yahweh) your Redeemer who formed you from the womb: ‘I am the Lord who made all things, who stretched out the heavens alone, who spread out the earth. Who was with me?’” (RV)
The implied answer is, of course, that no one was present with the one Lord in the act of creation. Yahweh stretched out the heavens alone. The Hebrew word rendered “alone” means “in a state of separation, by one’s self” (Brown, Driver and Briggs, Lexicon of the Old Testament, p. 94). No one assisted God, the Father at the creation. Moreover, the Creator is one Person, not three:
“Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us?” (Malachi 2:10).
Nowhere does the Old Testament speak of a Trinity of Persons in the Godhead.
Elsewhere in the Old Testament it is said:
“You, God, even You alone, You have made the heaven…the earth and all things” (2 Kings 19:15).
“You are the Lord, even You alone; You have made the heaven, the earth and all things” (Nehemia 9:6).
The Lord God is always distinguished from the promised Messiah. They are never said to be members of one Godhead.
Venn diagram-like symbol for the Christian Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit) a so called monotheism but having a triune god (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This simple information should prevent us from ever believing that Jesus, the Messiah, the Son of God, was present with the Father when the latter created the heavens and the earth. The idea that Jesus actually created the heavens and earth of Genesis 1:1 has been promoted by the Worldwide Church of God. Their teaching was that there are two members in the one “God-family.” Isaiah 44:24 (cited above) clearly states that ONE person alone created the heavens and the earth. Language has no way of expressing this more distinctly.
Trinitarians hold that the second member of the triune God was instrumental in the creation of Genesis 1:1. This, however, contradicts the statement that the one Creator was the Father (Malachi 2:10, cited above).
When Jesus came into being at his birth he enjoyed a unique communion with his Father. Thus he says,
“I am not alone, because the Father is with me” (John 16:32).
Jesus always speaks as a person distinct from his Father, exactly as every son is an individual separate from his father. The personal “I” of the New Testamentnever refers to the Father and Son together. So also in the Old Testament the personal “I” refers to one Person, not three.
“one even as we [the Father and I] are one” (John 17:11).
This is a unity of purpose and will. Jesus prays also:
“May they [the disciples] all be one as You, Father, are in me and I in You, so that they may also be in us” (John 17:21).
It is obvious from these texts that the Father and Son use the ordinary personal pronouns to distinguish themselves as any father and son would. It is thus beyond question that Jesus was not with the Father when the latter described His act of creation:
“Thus says the Lord [Yahweh], your Redeemer…I am the Lord who made all things, who stretched out the heavens by myself…Who was with me?” (Isaiah 44:24).
Jesus did not exist as a person when the Lord God created all things. God, the Father, was alone responsible for the creation of the universe. (The “us” of Genesis 1:26, in connection with the creation of man, probably refers to attendant angels, cp. Job 38:7.) Most believers in the Trinity no longer use Genesis 1:26 as a proof of the triune God.
Jesus came into being as the Son of God when Maryconceived him supernaturally. Luke is careful to tell us that it was because of the miraculous conception in Mary’s womb, not because of any so-called “eternal generation,” that Jesus was the Son of God:
“Holy Spirit will come upon you [Mary] and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, and for that reason the child conceived will be holy, the Son of God” (Luke 1:35).
If God, the Father (the Lord, Yahweh of the Old Testament) was alone the author of the creation, why does the belief that Jesus was an active agent in the creation persist?
The answer is that two creations have become confused in the minds of Bible readers. Jesus is indeed the mediator of the New Creation (Colossians 1:15-18). But he is not the creator of the universe. That creation is the work of the One God, the Father who acted alone when He stretched forth the heavens and the earth (Isaiah 44:24).
Unfortunately, one or two verses in the New Testament have been translated to give the impression that all things were made “by” Jesus. In fact the original states that all things were made “through” Jesus (see the margin of Colossians 1:16: “in him,” “through him” and “for him,” not “by him”).
Jesus was indeed the reason for God’s creation. The Father “foreknew” him from the beginning (1 Peter 1:20). In God’s great purpose Jesus was “slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). But he came into existence as the Son of God at his conception (Luke 1:35). There is no biblical text to support the idea that the Son of God was alive before his conception (though a few verses in John’s gospel have been used to support the idea).
When Jesus prayed to receive the glory which he had with the Father before the foundation of the world, he was asking for the glory which had been reserved for him and which he would receive after his resurrection (John 17:5). Peter speaks of an inheritance which is “reserved in heaven for you” (1 Peter 1:4). That inheritance is, of course, the earth which Jesus has promised to the meek (Matthew 5:5) and which he will give them when he returns to establish the Kingdom of God. The same glory which was planned for Jesus from the beginning had also been given already (John 17:22) to the disciples, even those not yet born! (John 17:20). This glory is a glory which all disciples “have” even though they have not yet received it. Similarly Jesus “had” glory laid up for him with the Father long before his birth. In John 17 he prays to receive it.
Isaiah 44:24 should settle forever the question about who created the universe, and Hebrews 1:10 should be read with careful attention to the fact that the writer says he is speaking there of the inhabited earth to come (i.e., of the future):
“God did not subject to angels the world to come of which we are speaking” (Hebrews 2:5).
There is no contradiction between the two Testaments on this issue. Jesus will indeed be instrumental in laying the foundations of the coming new heavens and earth (Isiah 51:16). But the original creation is the work of the One God, the Father, alone (Isaiah 44:24).
For once, AmChurchSpeak makes an important point: Lent is a journey to Calvary… (denvercatholic.org)
For two weeks, the Letter to the Hebrews draws on images from the Old Testament to introduce us to that “great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God:” a mediator between God and humanity who “has been tempted as we are” and with whom we can “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” [Heb 4: 14-16]. Here, the biblical author writes, we find that “great cloud of witnesses” in whose company we are enabled to “run with perseverance the race that is set before us” [Heb 12: 1] Here is “Mt. Zion … the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” to which we are brought through the mediation of Jesus, and where we join “innumerable angels in festive gathering” [Heb 12: 22].
The Liberation of the Triune God (derekzrishmawy.com)
One of the helpful emphases of the Reformed tradition is its acknowledgment of the continuity as well as discontinuity of Old and New Testaments. This comes through very strongly in Turretin’s Institutes and even makes an appearance in his doctrine of the Trinity. After a couple of clarifying questions, as well as a lengthy question devoted to proving the doctrine of the Trinity from New Testament Scripture, he moves on to try and demonstrate the revelation of the Trinity in the Old Testament. For while it is admittedly true that God reveals himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with greater clarity in New Testament, that does not at all mean that we cannot see him revealed as such in the Old as well.
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There are a number of features worth noting in this treatment. The first is Turretin’s view of the Angel of the LORD, or the Angel of YHWH. As he makes clear in a number of places, Turretin views this as an appearance of the pre-incarnate Son. It is an appearance in angelic/human form that is, nonetheless, distinct from his incarnation in that there is no hypostatic union, but only concrete manifestation. Still, this is a thesis that Christian theologians have long appealed to in order to explain the way the Angel is both identified as a distinct agent who nonetheless is identified as the LORD somehow.
Learn From Christ (birdchirp.wordpress.com)
To prove that He was the Son of God by turning stones to bread was not necessary for Jesus or for Satan. Satan already knows all about Jesus Christ.
The Beauty of John’s Prologue (christianity201.wordpress.com)
The first 18 verses of John’s gospel (commonly known as the Prologue) represent a literary masterpiece of inspired Scripture. On the one hand, John’s introduction is so simple a child can understand it, yet it is also so theologically deep, the most intellectual scholars could never mine every detail held within its verses.
There have been many debates regarding the structure of John’s prologue. The most convincing in my opinion is that the first 18 verses are a narrative which summarize not only the entirety of John’s gospel but make a broad sweep of salvation history. The prologue begins in eternity before creation, declaring that in the beginning the Word already existed. It proceeds through the creation (all things were made by Him) and He is the source of all life and light. Then John skips over the majority of Israel’s salvation history and shows that a final prophet, John the Baptist, came to testify to the light. This light is the revelation of God Himself. He came into the world and was rejected by the world. Yet, those who received Him became the sons of God.
The prologue finishes by showing the culmination of Israel’s salvation in Jesus. The law (which was itself a grace given to men) came through Moses but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. Jesus has completely explained the Father. Jesus is the Father’s final word to man. – This culminates salvation history. So, we see that the prologue begins in eternity past and concludes with God’s final word of salvation and redemption.
The Day Son of God Jesus Preaches (brentkuhlman.wordpress.com)
Now is the perfect time for Jesus to flex His Son of God muscles. Pull out all His divine Son of God stops. Unload the whole enchilada of His almighty Son of God power to break the bonds of systemic oppression, bust Locusts and Wild Honey out of jail, overthrow the wicked Roman oppressors and establish a Son of God millennial utopian reign that would make all community organizers of the world jealous!
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You’re in charge of your own life. You’re in full control. The master of your universe.
That’s precisely why Son of God Jesus preaches. With Him the promised and long awaited kingdom of God has come! God reigns on the earth in Jesus. God is at hand! It’s Messiah Time! And it’s perfectly obvious then that you need a preacher – Against Your Wishes! Against Your Desires! Against Your Idolatry! Otherwise, … well, let’s just say it will all end hellaciously for you. You’d be held captive eternally – kept under lock and key — in Satan’s gloomy prison!
Names, Titles, and Characters of Jesus Christ (goodnewsnow.wordpress.com)
The Blue Letter Bible has published a page with information taken from the whole Bible about the God we worship, Jesus Christ. Seeing all the names, titles and other attributes with which he is labeled in both the Old and New Testaments and contemplating those titles and their meaning to me personally is a wonderful way to worship Him. Worshiping Him is what we are made for. Worshiping Him is what those who know Him will do for all eternity. These Name, Titles and Attributes allow practice in this life.
Amazingly when some Bible readers arrive at Genesis 1:26 and they read that God said “Let us make…”, they leap to the conclusion that God is more than one Person.
There is no logical reason for this. Scripture describes God as “I”, “He,” “Him,” “Me” thousands of times.
Suddenly lots of readers do seem to forget that the person speaking is the very highest person in the world. all important people when they speak to the general public or address their audience will use the pluralis majestatis or Royal We. As the Most High, God speaking to man or letting His words written down by His writers shall let it those Words been notated in the plural form.
Others like to think that when on a very rare occasion God says, “Let us…” it means that God, who is one person, involves others with Him. How is it that Bible readers imagine “Let us…” to mean “Let us Three…” The verse says nothing about three members of a Godhead. There are theologians you take it that there where other celestial beings like angels with God and that He spoke to them and about them. As such we do find a not in the NIV Study Bible (on Genensis 1:26) that points out that God involved His angels in some way with creation. Angels, when they appear, look like men (Genesis 18:2). Both man and angels bear a resemblance to God Himself. From the Word Bible Commentary (“From a team of international scholars, a showcase of the best in evangelical scholarship”):
“When angels appear in the OT they are frequently described as men (Gen. 18:2). And in fact the use of the singular verb in v. 27 does in fact suggest that God worked alone in the creation of mankind. ‘Let us create man’ should therefore be regarded as a divine announcement to the heavenly [angelic] court, drawing the angelic host’s attention to the master stroke of creation, man. As Job 38:4, 7 puts it: ‘When I laid the foundation of the earth all the Sons of God shouted for joy’ (cp. Luke 2:13-14).”
The idea that Genesis 1:26 even hints at the Trinity is false. The Word Bible Commentary states correctly,
“It is now universally admitted that the use of the plural in Gen. 1:26 did not mean to the author that [God was more than one Person.]”
Real truth-seekers will make an effort not to start their investigation with the assumption that the Trinity is a true biblical teaching. They will begin with an open mind and look for clear evidence. Is there such evidence in the Old Testament?
Many have abandoned Genesis 1:26 as any indication of plurality in God. The NIV study note, widely available, provides the public with the needed information pointing out with many commentaries that God was addressing His attendant council of angels. There is no shred of proof for the Trinity in Genesis 1:26.
Nor is there any evidence for the Trinity in the word “one” in the famous Jewish and Christian creed (Deuteronomy 6:4, cited by Jesus as a Christian in Mark 12:28ff.). That most basic creed says:
“Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one Lord.”
A very misleading and unfair argument has gained wide circulation to the effect that the word “one” really means a “compound one.” Of course, even if it did, that verse tells us nothing about God being three. But “one” means “one.” “One,” of course, can modify a collective noun, like “bunch” or “herd.” But it is the word “herd” or “bunch” which conveys the idea of plurality, not the word “one.” This compound-unity argument is not used by scholars of the Hebrew language. One has only to consult a lexicon of Hebrew to see that nothing compound is implied in “one.”
In a long book on the Trinity (The Trinity, Evidence and Issues), Robert Morey claims that the Hebrew word “one” (echad) really means “more than one”! He states without evidence from a lexicon that “one” means “compound oneness.” Morey includes a footnote to p. 25 of the standard Lexicon of Biblical Hebrew for support. But the page he appeals to contains not a word of support for his theory that “one” really means “compound unity.” The lexicons rightly define “one” as the cardinal number “one.” Echad is the word for “one” in counting. Imagine the chaos of communication if “one” really means more than one. Ecclesiastes 4:9 speaks of two being better than one (echad). The use of “one” in the sentence “The two shall become one flesh” does not mean that “one” is really plural. It means that two human beings in marriage become one (not two) things. The idea of plurality is not found in the word “one” at all. It is found in the context: male and female human persons.
The lexicons of Hebrew tell us correctly that “one” means “one single.” Echad is used about 770 times and there is never any doubt that it means “one,” not two or more.
In the central creed of Israel and of Jesus (Deuteronomy 6:4; Mark 12:28ff.) the LORD is described as “one Lord,” i.e. “one single Lord.” One single Lord means one Person, not three.
Isaac Newton (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Opposition to the Trinity is not confined to so-called “cults.” That is a public myth. How many know what Sir Isaac Newton, John Locke and John Milton have in common? They are recognized as among the most intelligent Bible students of the seventeenth century. All objected strongly to the doctrine of the Trinity. These men cannot just be dismissed as ill-educated or prejudiced. They had very good reasons for what they believed and defended in writing. All three were vigorous anti-Trinitarians. So also was Thomas Jefferson, who examined the Trinitarian question carefully in the light of the Bible. How many know that Harvard University at one time expressed non-Trinitarian views? Many contemporary biblical scholars recognize that the Trinity is a post-biblical development.
Miguel Servet, (Villanueva de Sigena 1511- Genevra 1553) Spanish scientist and theologist of the Renaissance. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
One of the cruelest episodes in church history occurred when the reformer Calvin used the strong arm of the Catholic Church to burn at the stake a brilliant linguist, physician, geographer and Bible expert, Michael Servetus. The burning of others over an issue of doctrine is absolutely forbidden by the Bible and may cause some wonder about the spirit which drives such persecuting zeal over the definition of who God is. (For a recent fine account of this horrible cruelty in support of the Trinitarian cause, see Marian Hillar, The Case of Michael Servetus: The Turning Point in the Struggle for Freedom of Conscience, Edwin Mellen Press, 1997).
For once, AmChurchSpeak makes an important point: Lent is a journey to Calvary… (denvercatholic.org)
For two weeks, the Letter to the Hebrews draws on images from the Old Testament to introduce us to that “great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God:” a mediator between God and humanity who “has been tempted as we are” and with whom we can “with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need” [Heb 4: 14-16]. Here, the biblical author writes, we find that “great cloud of witnesses” in whose company we are enabled to “run with perseverance the race that is set before us” [Heb 12: 1] Here is “Mt. Zion … the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” to which we are brought through the mediation of Jesus, and where we join “innumerable angels in festive gathering” [Heb 12: 22].
Episode 63: Ezra and the Compilation of the Pentateuch (notevenpast.org)
The authorship of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament–known as the Torah or the Pentateuch–has been traditionally attributed to Moses. This raised some questions, however: would the most humble of men really describe himself as such?
A Stack of Bibles! (openlettersmonthly.com)
Sometimes, when it comes to propitiating the Deity, circumstances warrant going right to the top – and with poor wretched Boston staring wide-eyed at the latest ferocious oncoming “monster storm,” today seemed like one of those times. So with fear and trembling, I crept to my bookshelves and assembled the proverbial stack of Bibles on the altar … er, that is, the couch, in the silvery light of an afternoon rapidly being crumpled under the building weight of the “snow hurricane” bearing down from the upper Midwest. There in those pages I sought to know afresh the mind of a Deity who suddenly doesn’t like navigable sidewalks, pretty sunsets, or the MBTA.
A Local Flood Interpretation of Genesis 7 (aviewfromtheright.com)
First, regarding mankind, some who hold to (or at least entertain the idea of) a local Flood have theorized that the story deals only with a subset of the planet’s population at the time, who were essentially wiped out by a regional flood, but the rest of humanity was not directly affected. However, I agree with RTB’s position that the Genesis text gives clues indicating that humanity at the time was geographically limited, most likely to what we now call the Persian Gulf, Mesopotamia, and the Arabian Peninsula. So, a “local flood” only needed to be sufficiently large to reach all of mankind in this region, as well as the land and animals most likely to have been affected by their sin. (This goes to the subject of God’s judgment and how He handles it in Scripture, which is outside the purview of this article.) In other words, the Flood was geographically limited but anthropologically universal.
When looking at Genesis some Christians do want to take it literally, being oneday of 24 hours, and as such forgetting that one day for God is as thousand years for man.
Simplified human evolution (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Lots of Christians do not see that it is talking about swarming and creeping creatures and does not specify how they looked like. big problem of many conservative Christians is that they do want to see the 1° Adam and the 2° Adam to be copies of the Caucasianhuman being of today. They resist to accept that the first creature being called man was full of hair, running on his four limbs and not talking proper English but making audible noises not comparable to the languages we do know today. Such an ‘animal like’ human being is for them unacceptable, but it is not a contradiction with the writings of the Bible.
Several conservative Christians by making the heart of Christian and/or Christadelphian theology contingent on evolution being false is setting people who uncritically accept such wholesale rejection of most of modern science up for failure. When they discover that the Earth is indeed ancient, and that humans and apes do share a common ancestor, the tragedy is that they will think that this falsifies Christianity, and reject belief altogether.
John Thomas, the founding figure of the Christadelphian movement was somewhat inconsistent in his position on this subject, but in the article ‘The Bible Doctrine Concerning the Tempter Considered. No. II.’, he unambiguously states that both Adam and Eve would have eventually died in time:
‘Adam’s nature was animal. Very good of its kind, as was the nature of all the other creatures. These did not sin, yet they returned to dust whence they came. So probably would Adam, if he had been left to the ordinary course of things as they were. But he would not have returned to dust if he had continued obedient.
He would doubtless have been “changed in the twinkling of an eye” on eating of the Tree of Life. But, being disobedient, his sin determined his fate, and that of the creatures. It doomed them all to death according to law, and “nature” unchanged was permitted to take its course.’ {Thomas J. ‘The Bible Doctrine Concerning the Tempter Considered. No. II.’, The Herald of the Kingdom and Age to Come (1852) 2:181}
Christians should look at the Bereshith as a book of Beginnings telling in a short way what happened in the past, not telling in detail what went on from day 1 to day 7 as 24 hours periods but as periods in the development of things, Having first chaos and darkness, than light. From dryness to humidity getting waters which started to depart and showing up dry land. Next having water creatures moving around looking for different ways and also finding dry land. Going on land changing form by time, we can see land-creatures coming into existence.
Such an evolution of those animals changing in form does not at all have to contradict what is written in the Holy Scriptures. Problem by lots of people is their superior thinking, not willing to accept that the human being would not be at once a very intellectual being, looking very nicely shaved and manicured, speaking a very complex language.
Human beings have received brains from God which they should use. God gave us His Word in the Book of books and provided evidence in nature to be found by research. We may not neglect such evidence, for the fact of evolution comes from many disciplines ranging from comparative anatomy to the biogeographical distribution of species.
An other mistake of many Christians when they here of a Christian who believes in a sort of evolution is that they think that that Christian agrees with the evolution theory of Darwin, which should not be the case. We can disagree with Darwin’s theories but accept a sort of evolution. We can not be blind that our ancestors looked totally different than we. Look for example at the length of the people in the 16th century, the length and constitution of the people around the two World Wars and the present generation of youngsters who are much greater than our world war and boom generation. We can not deny man has changed a lot the last 50 years.
We also do have to accept we still do not know a lot about different sorts of animals, of which there are many still species discovered and undiscovered of which we did not know of their existence.
In the 154 years since Darwin published the first edition of The Origin of Species, the fossil evidence for evolution has increased considerably. In particular, we can demonstrate the evolution of tetrapods from lobe-finned fish, whales from terrestrial mammals, birds from dinosaurs, and humans from primates to a degree that would have astonished earlier palaeontologists. While the nature of speciation and the sheer improbabilities involved in dead animals being fossilised and then found mean that the fossil record will always be an imperfect record, what we have demonstrates the reality of large-scale evolutionary change beyond reasonable doubt. {The Fossil Evidence for Common Descent 1: Missing Links and other Special Creationist Fallacies}
Despite this, special creationists still continue in their desperate attempts to wave away the evidence. Given that practically no special creationists (and certainly no Christadelphian science denialists) are palaeontologists, their arguments invariably hinge on quote mining mainstream scientists, peddling out-of-date arguments which betray a lack of familiarity with the contemporary scientific literature, or advancing ideas about ‘missing links’ that indicate a failure to recognise that evolution is a tree, not a ladder. {The Fossil Evidence for Common Descent 1: Missing Links and other Special Creationist Fallacies}
The fundamental special creationist misconception is the belief in evolution as a ladder, with single celled life at the bottom rung, with all other life arranged progressively on higher rungs from worms to fish to amphibians and so on with mammals on the top rungs and humans at the top. Coupled with their quote mining of Darwin’s remarks that as “innumerable transitional forms” are not found “embedded in countless numbers in the crust of the earth”, this forms the basis of the special creationist claim that evolution cannot be true because of the alleged lack of transitional fossils. {The Fossil Evidence for Common Descent 1: Missing Links and other Special Creationist Fallacies}
The evolution of life is modelled not as a ladder, but as a tree, something that is obvious when we think of the pattern that develops when the process of descent with modification from an original ancestral population is mapped out. We start with an ancestral population that diverges into more than one group, with each successor group in turn likewise diverging, and so on:
The diagram of divergence of taxa presented by Charles Darwin in On the origin of species (1859)
{The Fossil Evidence for Common Descent 1: Missing Links and other Special Creationist Fallacies}
Concept: Artificial Intelligence (gradypbrown.wordpress.com)
Human beings, plants, and animals undeniably have souls, but whether or not a construct that was made by mortal hands has a soul is still an ongoing mystery. Some of my characters in my upcoming third volume will be an example of this age-old puzzle.
Another Catholic defends the historicity of Adam and Eve (whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com)
When I was in Mississippi last week, I was once again given Catholicism as an example of a faith that has no problem with evolution. I politely disagreed, noting that the Church’s official doctrine accepts Adam and Eve as humanty’s literal ancestors, that Catholicism sees humans as evolutionarily special since God vouchsafed us a soul, and that the Church accepts the existence of demons afflicting us and has an Official Vatican Exorcist (and many other exorcists elsewhere) to expel them. Further, even though the Church sort-of-accepts evolution, 27% of American Catholics are still young-Earth creationists. At the very least, one must describe the Church’s stand on evolution as “mixed.”
And even reputable Catholic theologians take an anti-evolution stand. One of them is Dennis Bonnette, whose ludicrous essay “Did Adam and Eve really exist?” (answer: “YES!”) appeared in November’s Crisis magazine.
Where is Light (divinedirection.typepad.com)
If God called down the presence of the glory of the Lord, then what happened since that time? Why isn’t it being manifested on the earth today? After all, if we are truly filled with the divine light of God, then wouldn’t we be like human, electric bug zappers? This isn’t just any light we’re talking about here; it’s the light of Almighty God! Think about it for a moment: If any darkness or any evil even gets close to the light of God, shouldn’t it supernaturally disintegrate, kind of like getting too close to the sun?
Adam and Eve are Ancient “Archetypes” (jacksonwu.org)
“Adam” is not actually a proper name for a single individual. It is a collective noun, which refers to humanity. On rare occasions, it points to an individual, but people in the neighborhood wouldn’t have called him “Adam” if they wanted to invite him over for a steak and salad.
Adam bears this representative status as the “image of God” (language found in other ancient documents besides the Bible). This imagery indicates that Adam has royal authority to govern over God’s creation.
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Adam and Eve are “archetypes.” For Walton, this means Adam was “a representative of a group in whom all others in the group are embodied” (240). A person is an archetype if what is true of the one is also true for all those who are represented by in him. Adam and Eve are historical, not fictitious. In some sense, Christ, Abraham, and Melchizedek are also archetypes.
By the way, Walton suggests that Genesis 2 is a “sequel” of Gen 1. Chapter two does not go back and elaborate further on Day Six (from Gen 1). So, we shouldn’t confuse the “Adam” (or “man”) in Gen 1:26–28 with the “Adam” of Gen 2–3.
An anarchistic reading of the Bible (2) – Creation and what follows (thinkingpacifism.net)
The very beginning of the Bible provides much important information about the Bible as a whole, about the cosmology of the whole, about the character of the God seen to be central to the entire story, and about the relationships between humankind and this God.
Though the creation account in Genesis one portrays God as the power behind what is, the actual exercise of that power is muted. God speaks and what is is made. The dynamic is quite peaceable—in contrast to some other ancient creation myths (especially the Babylonian) that portray violence at the heart of things.
Remarkably, this creator God speaks of human beings (male and female) being created in God’s own image. There humanity is commissioned to care for the rest of creation as God’s stewards. This picture connects with both of our key anarchistic factors. The relationship between God and humanity is not one of domination, command-and-obedience. It is rather a relationship of like with like. God is not Other; rather, humans are created to be like God. And, perhaps even more importantly, the picture here is that all humanity shares in this divine image—kingly, perhaps, but in a strongly egalitarian sense. As well, human beings are given power and responsibility.
An anarchistic reading of the Bible (1) – Creation and what follows (thinkingpacifism.net)
On the one hand, the Christian Bible is a collection of widely disparate writings—spanning close to 1,000 years from the earliest to the latest books, numerous social and political settings, various genres of literature, and two main languages. It is clearly a human book, its separate pieces written as occasional statements that address specific issues and settings.
On the other hand, the Bible as a collection of writings is the master story for Christians. It is assumed to have, on some level, a meaningful coherence that allows it to be used as sacred scripture. Some parts are seen as more clear and definitive than others, but as a rule Christians think of the authority of the Bible involving all of its parts.
How the Bible works as an authority is a complicated and contested issue. One general approach, that stands in profound tension with an anarchistic sensibility, it to approach the Bible as the source of absolute truths that simply need to be heard and followed (“the Bible says it, I believe it, and that settles it”). In this view, though, the Bible never actually stands alone as an authority. Theologian Edward Farley has developed a critique of what he calls “the house of authority” which requires three authoritative presences: the Bible as the revealed truth from God, official doctrinal statements (creeds, confessions, etc.) that provide definitive interpretations of the Bible, and institutions of authority that enforce the official interpretations (See his book Ecclesial Reflections. In light of this analysis, we can see why biblical authority is a problem for an anarchistic sensibility—it is tied in with centralized human authority (often centralized human authoritarianism).
A Unification of Creation and Evolution (robertjrgraham.com)
When people say that “god created the heavans and the earth in six days and on the seventh he rested”, who can say how long one of god’s days is. Why are we so egotistical as to believe that his day is the same as our’s. We don’t know god (Most of us who believe in god do so because we want to not because we have proof.) but if there is a god why can’t his, her or it’s day be a thousand or a million or even several billion of our years.
Chapter 2, verse 7 of the book of Genises states “then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” It does not state how long this took or what form the being we call man originally took. God’s image can be many things. We have no way of knowing. Additionally, although the bible is supposed to be the word of god, it was written by humans and therefore subject to human interpretation.
Big Brother has a lot to offer (georgehach.wordpress.com)
We all have a big brother who would like to help us have a better quality of life. His name is Jesus. He inspired 4 books in the Bible: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. They will give you great insight into how to live better.
![Robert Kilwardby (c. 1215 – 11 September 1279) first member of a mendicant order to attain a high ecclesisatical office in the English Church [1352 fresco by Tommaso da Modena (1326–1379)- church of San Nicolò, Treviso]](https://messiahforall.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/robert_kilwardby.jpg)
There is nothing in tradition that claims the “tree of good and evil” was evil. In fact it wasn’t evil, it was good. The tree symbolized that it held the knowledge of what is good and evil. God told Adam and Eve not to acquire this knowledge of good and evil. The command was, “refrain from the experiential knowledge of good and evil.” {
There have been many debates regarding the structure of John’s prologue. The most convincing in my opinion is that the first 18 verses are a narrative which summarize not only the entirety of John’s gospel but make a broad sweep of salvation history. The prologue begins in eternity before creation, declaring that in the beginning the Word already existed. It proceeds through the creation (all things were made by Him) and He is the source of all life and light. Then John skips over the majority of Israel’s salvation history and shows that a final prophet, John the Baptist, came to testify to the light. This light is the revelation of God Himself. He came into the world and was rejected by the world. Yet, those who received Him became the sons of God.
whole Bible about the God we worship, Jesus Christ. Seeing all the names, titles and other attributes with which he is labeled in both the Old and New Testaments and contemplating those titles and their meaning to me personally is a wonderful way to worship Him. Worshiping Him is what we are made for. Worshiping Him is what those who know Him will do for all eternity. These Name, Titles and Attributes allow practice in this life.
Messiah For All 