Messiah For All

First mention of a solution against death 1 To divine, serpent, opposition, satan and adversary

Out of the seed of Eve

A solution for a damaged relationship 2 Sinful nature

A solution for a damaged relationship 3 Insight and prophesies given

First mention of a solution against death 2 Harm or no harm and naked truth

First mention of a solution against death 3 Tempter Satan and man’s problems

First mention of a solution against death 5 Evil its law of death

First mention of a solution against death 6 Authority given to the send one from God coming out of the woman

Additional reading

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Other writings

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A solution for a damaged relationship 2 Sinful nature

February 14, 2017February 14, 2017Relating to God6 Comments

From the Bereshith its first chapters we can imagine that there was no ego till the animal stage. When man came into the picture there came a personal feeling direct the coarse. The first man or 1° Adam, felt lonely, though there was God and all His creatures. He wanted a helper and got it. She, being formed out of him, had everything she needed. But her ego started growing. she came to feel , like Adam did previously, that she was missing something. And she accused God of hiding things for her. As such she became the first accuser of God. We can say that’s the beginning of the original sin. She also tried to convince Adam to do like her. This meant that she convinced him that she was something and could do something.

“I am something. I am doing something. It’s I who can do it”.

are thoughts what make part of a sinful nature.

God has given man a free will. He allowed them to make their own choice. For that reason He also let them know what He preferred or what He wanted. It were His mitzvah or commandments. Man could follow them or go against them. In the end man has chosen to go against God’s Wishes. Eve, contradicting what God had said, and the 1° Adam showed God how weak they were and by not listening to him brought over themselves the curse God had warned them for.

Their going wrong (wrongdoing) or their sinning (misdeed, offense, iniquity,evildoing) brought to them “death“, their life coming to an end. It is their going astray and going against the Will of God (= sin) which made them to do an act of adversary, becoming an contradictor, opponent, adversary or satan.

So God said, “Let’s see. Let’s see their little courage, and let them decide.”

Consequently, the situations that our all-loving and all-wise God leads us into are consistently like being “delivered to death.” However, this action toward us is “for Jesus’ sake.” In our continual impossibilities, Jesus has repeated opportunities to manifest Himself. Our heavenly Father places us in circumstances we cannot handle by our own resources. We cry out to the Lord, putting our hope and trust in Him. He faithfully goes to work in us. The result is

“that the life of Jesus [is] manifested in our mortal flesh.”

You can be light in some-body’s darkness. You can bring colour to some-one’s grey and dreary world. You can bring cheer to a soul that is saddened, joy to a heart that has been broken; hope to those who have lost their way in the fog. You’ve got what it takes to live the life that pleases God and blesses others.

Preceding articles

Creation of the earth and man #9 Formation of man #1 Cure of souls

A multifold of elements in creation and a bad choice made

A solution for a damaged relationship 1 All vegetation for food except one fruit

Genesis – Story of creation 4 Genesis 2:16-25 Warning for Adam and Eve

Genesis – Story of creation 5 Genesis 3:1-12 Eating of the fruit-tree of knowledge

Genesis – Story of creation 6 Genesis 3:13-24 Enmity and curse

First mention of a solution against death 1 To divine, serpent, opposition, satan and adversary

First mention of a solution against death 2 Harm or no harm and naked truth

First mention of a solution against death 3 Tempter Satan and man’s problems

First mention of a solution against death 4 A seed for mankind

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 4

What others think about the tree of knowledge of good and evil

Necessary to be known all over the earth

Necessity of a revelation of creation 2 Organisation of a system of things

Necessity of a revelation of creation 3 Getting understanding by Word of God 1

Additional reading

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Messiah for all + 2016 statistics

January 17, 2017January 17, 2017Marcus Ampe2 Comments

2015 February 10 we saw “A beginning with many false starts” getting this blog in its starting block.

I know you could ask why an other Christian blog when there are already so many. there are also many ‘antichrist-blogs‘ and even more atheist bloggers at work. In that wood of blogs it is not bad to have one blog more from a blogger who wants to use Blogger or Word Press to go deeper in a matter not many are interested in but is of utmost importance. This world needs much more bloggers warning for the coming difficult times and willing to bring a subject different than the mainstream subjects of the popular blogs, and willing to work or blog for Christ.

This world has become a dark place, literally and figuratively and man can use some beacons of light on this globe. In that darkness lots of people do think they are safest when they hold on to other people. Many do not see that Some One is holding out a stretched arm to pick them up out of the swamp and to guide them to dryer and better places.

There is so much to distract man that most people are lured away from God and do not feel interested in spending time at religious matters.

I did not want to get off on the wrong foot, because what I have to defend is too precious. Confronted with so much hate from certain Christians I not only wanted to show the love a Christian does have to have and have to show for others, but found it the utmost important that more people came to understand that Jesus Christ is the Way to God and not God himself.

We also are aware that many people are afraid to question certain theological matters and are afraid to have doubts. They should not worry. With “Are people allowed to have doubts” we opened the lever and put the light on green to come with us on a voyage in the world of God’s Word. To go on our way we first looked ad the “Background to look at things“.

To come to understand where mankind is at this moment and why there is so much sorrow we do have to look at the early beginnings of mankind. For this reason we have to look at the total beginning of the world. “The very very beginning 1 Creating Gods” should shed a light on the beginning of universe and the first human beings. In two different series we looked at the beginning of the world and the beginning of all problems in this world. From those articles people should come to see what happened at the beginning of mankind and how man himself got trouble over him.

In those articles we also showed how the Divine Creator took care that there would be a solution for what man brought over himself. It is that solution which is the main focus of this blog. It is namely a Saviour, a Kristos or Christ, which God promised and 2020 years that Messiah was born and offered himself up for the whole mankind. He gave his all soul for all other souls (= living beings). It was by not doing his own will, but by doing the will of his heavenly Father, the Only One True God, that Jesus opened the Way to God.

There may have been “A multifold of elements in creation and a bad choice made” God has given all people the freedom to choose which way they want to go. The article “First mention of a solution against death 1 To divine, serpent, opposition, satan and adversary” is the opening to showing the solution which is there for everybody to see, if they are willing to open their eyes.

When you know there has entered a tempter in the life of man and how man wants to go for certain choices it is clear how man could come in such problems. (see about the “First mention of a solution against death 3 tempter satan and man’s problems“) In fact we can see that there are still to many people who do not want to know about God and about solutions for a better life He has provided. Though I am convinced that when more people would come to know God and come to know the solution God has provided for, namely God His only begotten beloved son, less problems would be in the world, because many more people would take on the right attitude which God wants them to take on.

When more people would come to know that seed for mankind, and come to follow the teachings of that master teacher rabbi Jeshua, we would be facing a nicer community of lovers of God who are open for those who do not know God yet and want to help them.

In the past two years I showed how “Out of the seed of Eve” has come a son of man who was willing to give his life for all sinners and how he was able to restore the relationship between God and man.

In the coming or next years I want to continue on this way, to proof how there is Only One God and how Jesus is the sent one from God, the son of man and the son of God, who has cleared the way to a better way of life, and ho he shows us the Way to God.

statistics-analysis-810026_1280

Life may be going with ups and downs. Knowing that not many people do want to hear that Jesus is not God, I do know I am not presenting a preferred or much liked subject. As such I also do not count on so much likes and so many followers. But I do hope I can reach some hearts and can come to let people think harder about the subject of the trinity and the nature of God and of the nature of Jesus.

In 2015 this blog got 1 716 views from 1 226 visitors, presenting me with 20 likes and 30 comments, for 83 posts published.

In 2016 1 393 visitors came along to offer me 1 849 views with only 8 likes and 12 comments on the only 14 published (or new) articles.

I noticed most visitors came from the United States of America (1055), followed by the United Kingdom with 122, Canada with 95 and Australia with 63 views. Belgium was only good for 35 views, which is not much and one more than South Africa.

Next to articles written under my name you can find also articles written in name of the Christadelphian community, specifically around Relating to God, and articles from guest-writers.

I am very gratefully you came along this blog and do hope to have you as a visitor more than once.

Looking forward to your next reading on this site, I wish you all the best for 2017.

Preceding articles

Are people allowed to have doubts

Necessity of a revelation of creation 4 Getting understanding by Word of God 2

First mention of a solution against death 3 Tempter Satan and man’s problems

First mention of a solution against death 4 A seed for mankind

Messiah for all 2015 in review

Additional reading

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Out of the seed of Eve

August 24, 2016Marcus Ampe29 Comments

The seed of Eve

In the previous postings we have seen that immediately after Adam and Eve sinned, the Divine Creator Jehovah determined that there would be offered a solution for mankind by a symbolic mannin or woman who was to bring forth a seed, or son.

God having His Book of Life and death had placed the name of that Send one in it, and as such this saviour was already there in the mind of God before Abraham was born. Jehovah did not predetermine from the beginning that Adam and Eve would sin and that the ransom sacrifice provided by means of Jesus Christ would be needed. From the beginning God allowed man to have a free choice and to use it according to their wants.

There was no “throwing down of seed,” before Adam and Eve sinned. Following the rebellion but before the conception of offspring by Adam and Eve, Jehovah foreordained the appearance of the “seed.”

The act of adversary had to come to an end. The 1st man had made the wrong choice and let himself be carried away with bad thoughts. Both were mislead by thoughts which went on in their mind. It was an act of adversary which is called the devil or satan in the Bible.

When Adam and Eve went in against God’s Wishes, they themselves became adversaries of Allah/God (satan). When Eve chose to eat from the forbidden fruit she committed an act of insubmission, going against the Will of God. By doing that she did wrong and sinned against a holy God; going against His righteous laws. Following her bad thoughts she committed sins against God His love, against His name and cause. Therefore God took action and delivered a judgement over them. When He did that, as a loving Father would rebuke His children He also spoke a prophecy that gave hope to their offspring, saying to the serpent:

“I shall put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He will bruise you in the head and you will bruise him in the heel.” (Genesis 3:15)

From the beginning, the identity of the promised “seed” was a sacred secret or a mystery of God. About those mysteries God declared they would become clear for the lovers of God in due time, not at the time of man but at the time of God.

This prophetic statement revealed that there would be a seed, which would not have to be literal children, or offspring, though later he declared also by His Word seed would come from the tribe of King David. This meant that this promised seed, God His speaking, would only become a reality “after” King David, as an offspring of this great man of God. That also means that the promised seed was not yet in the heaven with God, though the thought of it was already there with Him … in God’s mind.

The origin of the seed and the being of the seed originated by God. Like everything came into existence from nothing, by the Speaking of God, it also was the Word of God that gave existence to the seed. By God’s Power, the Spirit of God, a woman got pregnant with the send one from God. And this only happened many many years, even centuries, after the first sin of man, long after Adam was created and Cain and Abraham were born.

All who came after Adam and Eve in a way were from the devil (satan) because they all came forth from a man and a woman who were under the spell of treason to God. As such all born on this earth came under the same spell or from the same “father”.

John 8:44 NHEBJE You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and its father.

1 John 3:10-12 NHEBJE In this the children of God are revealed, and the children of the devil. Whoever does not do righteousness is not of God, neither is he who does not love his brother. (11) For this is the message which you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; (12) unlike Cain, who was of the evil one, and killed his brother. Why did he kill him? Because his works were evil, and his brother’s righteous.

Many would not like to hear it, but everyone who does not carry on righteousness does not originate with God, whilst the others do. And the one who proved never to go against the Will of God is the one who most of all can claim to be son of God. More than that, this special envoyé was placed in a particular way in the womb of a devout Essene young lady. She bore the pains of insult and of birth as well having to see how her son was being slaughtered. When her son was of age and went public, it was God Himself Who declared that man standing in the river Jordan to be His only begotten beloved son.

Luke 3:21-23 NHEBJE Now it happened, when all the people were baptized, Jesus also had been baptized, and was praying. The sky was opened, (22) and the Holy Spirit descended in a bodily form as a dove on him; and a voice came out of the sky, saying “You are my beloved Son. In you I am well pleased.” (23) Jesus himself, when he began to teach, was about thirty years old, being the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Eli,

From the 1° Adam and Eve, the first parents, came forth all people. From the 2° Adam were to come forth those who would choose to follow Jesus and to love God. Like the 1° Adam was part of a creation now the 2° Adam was the beginning of a new creation. Both those creations came into existence by the Speaking of God. God‘s Voice sounding and bringing into being. From the beginning this Voice or God’s Word was with God. And from the beginning of mankind God’s Word, His promise for a solution, was with God also. God His Word was to come in fulfilment much later, bringing a very important person (a god) to man, by whom no new creation could come into being and everything would have stayed the same as after the fall of man. But now, that promised seed brought a new world for mankind.

John 1:1-3 NHEBJE In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (2) The same was in the beginning with God. (3) All things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made.

That important man (a god), the seed of the woman but also seed of King David, was a deliverer who would destroy the one really represented by the serpent, namely, the great serpent and enemy of God, “Satan” the “Devil”.

Revelation 12:9 NHEBJE The great serpent was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

From the early times many people would be deceived. From the revelation of St. John we can figure out that the devil and satan would have a “seed.” It would require time for the two seeds to be brought forth and for enmity to develop between them. This happened not before the fall of man, but long after. Both seeds came into existence even after Adam and Eve their act of disobedience. When the brought forth children, soon came a time that we could see that the seed of evil was again planted and a brother killed his own brother.

Jehovah also foresaw the result of the enmity between his woman and “Satan” and between their opposing seeds. Although Jehovah would allow the seed of God’s woman to suffer a bruising in the heel, in God’s due time, the seed would bruise the serpent, or satan the devil, in the head. In the meantime, Jehovah’s purpose unfailingly advanced through the chosen genealogical line down to Jeshua the Kristos or Jesus Christ.

Jeshua or Jesus, like he is most know in Anglophile countries, was of the natural seed of Abraham, through his mother Mary (Miriam); he was of the tribe of Judah; and both naturally through Mary and legally through his adoptive father Joseph, he was of the line of David.

Some may say

“It was not until Jesus was begotten by the spirit, thus becoming a spiritual son of God, that he became the ‘seed of the woman’ and the seed that was to bless all nations.

This occurred at the time of his baptism by John in the Jordan River, 29 C.E. Jesus was then about 30 years of age. The holy spirit, coming upon Jesus, manifested itself to John in the form of a dove, and God himself acknowledged Jesus as his Son at that time.

Matthew 3:13-17 NHEBJE Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to John, to be baptized by him. (14) But John would have hindered him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and you come to me?” (15) But Jesus, answering, said to him, “Allow it now, for this is the fitting way for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he allowed him. (16) And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up directly from the water: and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming on him. (17) And behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

John 3:3 NHEBJE Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I tell you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.”

With that rabbi who came to declare his heavenly Father, a new generation could start. A new seed be fertile. By the 1° Adam death had entered the world, now by the 2° Adam life could once again enter the world. Consequently, God’s promise,

“I shall surely multiply your seed like the stars of the heavens and like the grains of sand that are on the seashore,”

has a spiritual fulfilment and means that others, who “belong to Christ,” are added as part of Abraham’s seed and shall also be able to enter the Kingdom of God to enjoy a non-ending life.

Genesis 22:17 NHEBJE that I will bless you greatly, and I will multiply your seed greatly like the stars of the heavens, and like the sand which is on the seashore. Your seed will possess the gate of his enemies.

Mark 9:41 NHEBJE For whoever will give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because you belong to the Messiah, truly I tell you, he will in no way lose his reward.

1 Corinthians 15:22-24 NHEBJE (22) For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. (23) But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then those who are Christ’s, at his coming. (24) Then the end comes, when he will deliver up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; when he will have abolished all rule and all authority and power.

Authority was given by the heavenly Father to Jesus, who was to be called King of the Jews. He was not like and brought animosity at the time of the Romans in Jerusalem. The ill feeling against him and his followers continued after his death. We can see that in this way the great serpent satan the devil produced “seed” that has manifested the bitterest enmity toward those who have served God with faith like Abraham, as the Bible record abundantly testifies. Continueously adversaries of God or satans tried to block or hinder the development of the woman’s seed. Jesus also had already warned his listeners about what man can produce or which seed man can saw.

Matthew 13:24-30 NHEBJE (24) He set another parable before them, saying, “The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field, (25) but while people slept, his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat, and went away. (26) But when the blade sprang up and brought forth fruit, then the tares appeared also. (27) So the servants of the householder came and said to him, ‘Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where did these tares come from?’ (28) “And he said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and gather them up?’ (29) “But he said, ‘No, lest perhaps while you gather up the tares, you root up the wheat with them. (30) Let both grow together until the harvest, and in the harvest time I will tell the reapers, “First, gather up the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them; but gather the wheat into my barn.”‘”

We all shall have to bring forth seed, people who sincerely love God and want to step in the footsteps of master Jeshua. The real followers of rabbi Jeshua shall try to be stronger than the temptations those adversaries of God bring. They shall try to proof they are worthy the sacrifice that man brought and by whom blessings have come all over them who have faith in him and who love his heavenly Father the Only One True God.

At the times of the apostles it was not easy. The enmity reached its height, however, in the persecution of the spiritual seed, particularly in that displayed toward Jesus Christ.

Acts 3:3-15 NHEBJE Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked to receive gifts for the needy. (4) Peter, fastening his eyes on him, with John, said, “Look at us.” (5) He listened to them, expecting to receive something from them. (6) But Peter said, “Silver and gold have I none, but what I have, that I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, get up and walk!” (7) He took him by the right hand, and raised him up. Immediately his feet and his ankle bones received strength. (8) Leaping up, he stood, and began to walk. He entered with them into the temple, walking, leaping, and praising God. (9) All the people saw him walking and praising God. (10) They recognized him, that it was he who used to sit begging for gifts for the needy at the Beautiful Gate of the temple. They were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. (11) And as he held on to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the porch that is called Solomon’s, greatly wondering. (12) When Peter saw it, he responded to the people, “You men of Israel, why do you marvel at this man? Why do you fasten your eyes on us, as though by our own power or godliness we had made him walk? (13) The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified his Servant Jesus, whom you delivered up, and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had determined to release him. (14) But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a man who was a murderer to be granted to you, (15) and killed the Prince of life, whom God raised from the dead, to which we are witnesses.

Paul refers to the prophetic drama to illustrate, saying:

“Just as then the one born in the manner of flesh [Ishmael] began persecuting the one born in the manner of spirit [Isaac], so also now.” (Galatians 4:29)

And a later report, in reality a prophecy, describes the Kingdom’s establishment in heaven and the devil’s being hurled out of heaven down to the earth, with only a short time to continue his enmity. It concludes:

“And the dragon grew wrathful at the woman, and went off to wage war with the remaining ones of her seed, who observe the commandments of God and have the work of bearing witness to Jesus.” (Revelation 12:7-13, 17)

For sure the world shall have to face a terrible war, bigger and more fearful than the Great War. It shall be a war between people who claim to be fighting in the name of Allah/God, but they will be deceivers. Children and parents shall have many discussions with each other. Their internal, war between families shall be just part of the bigger picture where nation shall fight against nation and many shall ridicule religion and spit on the God of gods. Then we may see a war against the remnant of the woman’s seed which shall end when ‘Satan is crushed under their feet.’

Romans 16:20 NHEBJE And the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

Preceding

The very very beginning 2 The Word and words

Means of creations

First mention of a solution against death 1 To divine, serpent, opposition, satan and adversary

First mention of a solution against death 2 Harm or no harm and naked truth

First mention of a solution against death 3 Tempter Satan and man’s problems

First mention of a solution against death 4 A seed for mankind

First mention of a solution against death 5 Evil its law of death

First mention of a solution against death 6 Authority given to the send one from God coming out of the woman

First mention of a solution against death 7 Human sacrifice

Additional reading

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Further related articles

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First mention of a solution against death 7 Human sacrifice

July 7, 2016Marcus Ampe15 Comments

In the previous articles about the solution for man and offerings, we talked about the way human beings looked for ways to restore their relationship with God and how they wanted to please God with offerings.

The first human beings had the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge, symbolizing potentialities or possibilities that God has made available to Man, who is free to choose and explore as much as he pleases, even to separate himself from God, like the Prodigal Son from his Father.

Man had made his choice and had to leave the Garden of Eden, trying to build up a decent life. Though now he had to work hard for everything and was aware he had disgusted or displeased God. First there was only the Most High Divine Creator of all things Who was above Adam and Eve and above all other living creatures, the plants and animals. There was no hierarchy.

The first story were we saw human beings ‘fighting’ for a place or rang order is the one of Cain and Abel. Slowly hierarchy entered the human system. From simple hunter-gatherer tribes to complex, modern industrial societies we can find a hierarchy which is loved by people. Some scholars argue that gender played a central role in the formation and functioning of stratification systems. They showed that women’s exclusion from social life placed them in an inferior position, resulting in lessened life chances and status. While women’s standing in social and economic life has improved over the past half-century, women are still restricted by gender roles and patriarchy. Rich literatures examine the impact of family structure, occupational segregation, devaluation of women’s work, and sex-based pay gaps.

We also can see that the colour of skin, the place of origin, became important to place people on a step of the ladder. One’s racial and ethnic background or ethnicity, also greatly came to influence one’s life chances. When not belonging to the troop it could well be that people saw the person suitable to be used as an offer to the gods.

Human life was looked at as something very special and was considered by many as the most valuable material for sacrifice. The killing of a human being, or the substitution of an animal in place of a person, has often been part of an attempt to effect communion with a god and participation in his divine life.

We may find two primary types of human sacrifice: the offering of a human being to a god and the entombment or slaughter of servants or slaves intended to accompany the deceased into the afterlife. The latter practice was more common.

The realisation of human sacrifice to the promotion of the earth’s fertility may explain why the phenomenon has been most widely adopted by agricultural rather than by hunting or pastoral peoples.

In a study published in Nature¹, Joseph Watts, a specialist in cultural evolution at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, and his colleagues have analysed 93 traditional cultures in Austronesia (the region that loosely embraces the many small and island states in the Pacific and Indonesia) as they were before they were influenced by colonization and major world religions (generally in the late 19th and early 20th centuries). {On Human Sacrifice (Article Nature)}

By mapping the evolutionary relationships between cultures, the team suggests that human sacrifice and social hierarchy co-evolved. Although societies can become more or less stratified over time, societies that practised sacrifice were less apt to revert to milder degrees of stratification.

Clearly there were different ways to look at the sacrificial bodies. They could be seen as something very special and very worthy but also as something they did not want in their community and found good enough to give to the gods. More than animal sacrifice human sacrifice helped to stabilize hierarchy, and conceivably, therefore, had a common role in the development of highly stratified societies that generally persist even today. Instead of killing the one in power a substitute was taken to receive for some time divine status and then was put to death. Sacral kings (considered to embody gods of vegetation) were sacrificed when their vigour declined, in order to prevent reciprocal effects on soil fertility. In various places in Africa, where human sacrifice was connected with ancestor worship or veneration of the dead, some of the slaves of the deceased were buried with him, or they were killed and laid beneath him in his grave.

There were also places were people thought the elements of nature, like the moon and the sun, needed human nourishment, which led to sacrifices in which thousands of victims perished annually in their rituals, like by the Aztecs. The Incas confined such wholesale sacrifices to the accession of a ruler.There were instances of human sacrifice in Peru and among tribes of North American Indians.

All human societies have been shaped by religion, leading psychologists to wonder how it arose, and whether particular forms of belief have affected other aspects of evolved social structure. According to one recent view, for example, belief in a “big God” — an all-powerful, punitive deity who sits in moral judgement on our actions — has been instrumental in bringing about social and political complexity in human cultures.

The network of small and island states stretching from Madagascar to Easter Island — challenges that theory. In these states, a more general belief in supernatural punishment did tend to precede political complexity, the research finds, but belief in supreme deities emerged after complex cultures have already formed ².

Joseph Watts, a specialist in cultural evolution at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, who worked on the study, wanted evidence to examine the idea that “big Gods” drive and sustain the evolution of big societies. Psychologist Ara Norenzayan at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada, has suggested that belief in moralizing high gods (MHGs) enabled societies to outgrow their limited ability to police moral conduct, by threatening freeloaders with retribution even if no-one else noticed their transgressions^{3, 4}.

Watts says

“Austronesian cultures offer an ideal sample to test theories about the evolution of religions in pre-modern societies, because they were mostly isolated from modern world religions, and their indigenous supernatural beliefs and practices were well documented.”

The believers in moralizing high gods (MHGs) got in their system some people who got control by aligning themselves with those supreme deities and then making lists of things people could and could not do. We can imagine their way of getting more power by making the people afraid with ideas of suffering or torture (in the underground or hell) and by the possibility to become a target of offering. For centuries certain religious organisation or churches made their followers afraid of doomplaces and told them that they could buy themselves free from those torture chambers by giving money to their church. People could buy indulgences.

The granting of indulgences was predicated on two beliefs. First, in the sacrament of penance it did not suffice to have the guilt (culpa) of sin forgiven through absolution alone; one also needed to undergo temporal punishment (poena, from p[o]enitentia, “penance”) because one had offended Almighty God. Second, indulgences rested on belief in purgatory, a place in the next life where one could continue to cancel the accumulated debt of one’s sins, another Western medieval conception not shared by Eastern Orthodoxy or other Eastern Christian churches not recognizing the primacy of the pope. {Indulgence –
Roman Catholicism, encyclopaedia Britannica}

Certain faithgroups or churches wanted their believers to believe that offerings could reduce the the debt of forgiveness of sin. The offers could exist out of many gifts but also by the performance of good works in their life (pilgrimages, charitable acts, and the like) and if their offerings were not yet sufficient they would get a lesser penalty after they died, by temporarily suffering in purgatory instead of eternal suffering in hell. Indulgences could be granted only by popes or, to a lesser extent, archbishops and bishops as ways of helping ordinary people measure and amortize their remaining debt.

In different cultures an other way was less bloody, having the sacrifice taking place by going under water. Whilst in Mexico young maidens were drowned in sacred wells, others found it sufficient to have an immersion. As such we can find Celtic rituals. Whilst the burning of children occurred in Assyrian and Canaanite religions and at various times among the Israelites, it became a custom by the Israelites to be cleared of sins by immersion to enter a new life. John the Baptist as such came to immerse his cousin Jeshua, Jesus Christ, who was the long awaited Messiah. About 40 days after Jesus’ birth, his parents had brought the customary sin offering permitted in the case of the poor,

“a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.” (Luke 2:24; Leviticus 12:6-8)

The offerings and human sacrifice legitimises political authority and social class systems, functioning to stabilize social stratification. It was also an ideal way to get rid of unwanted people or to take care that those who stood in the way could disappear from the scene.

In this way the Nazarene Jeshua an annoying person and possible peril for the security and peace in the Roman empire and in the Jewish community. Though it was not thought him to be an offer, several thought it better to give him away to be killed instead of the vigilant or robber Barabbas. Pilate knew that it was out of jealousy that the chief priests and elders wanted Jesus out of the way, i.e. being killed.

“Give us Barabbas!”, from The Bible and its Story Taught by One Thousand Picture Lessons, 1910

The man being called to be crucified did not have his roots in the right soil because nobody thought anything good could come out of Nazareth. (John 1:46; 7:41, 52) Although he was a perfect man and a descendant of King David, his humble circumstances did not impart to him any “stately form” or “splendour” — at least not in the eyes of those who were expecting the Messiah to come from a more impressive background.
Spurred on by the Jewish religious leaders, many were led to overlook and even despise him. In the end the crowds saw nothing desirable in the perfect Son of God.

Matthew 27:11-26 NHEBME (11) Now Yeshua stood before the governor: and the governor asked him, saying, “Are you the King of the Jews?” Yeshua said to him, “So you say.” (12) When he was accused by the chief priests and elders, he answered nothing. (13) Then Pilate said to him, “Do you not hear how many things they testify against you?” (14) He gave him no answer, not even one word, so that the governor marveled greatly. (15) Now at the feast the governor was accustomed to release to the multitude one prisoner, whom they desired. (16) They had then a notable prisoner, called Barabbas. (17) When therefore they were gathered together, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release to you? Barabbas, or Yeshua, who is called the Messiah?” (18) For he knew that because of envy they had delivered him up. (19) While he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent to him, saying, “Have nothing to do with that righteous man, for I have suffered many things this day in a dream because of him.” (20) Now the chief priests and the elders persuaded the multitudes to ask for Barabbas, and destroy Yeshua. (21) But the governor answered them, “Which of the two do you want me to release to you?” They said, “Barabbas!” (22) Pilate said to them, “What then shall I do to Yeshua, who is called the Messiah?” They all said, “Let him be crucified!” (23) But he said, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the louder, saying, “Let him be crucified!” (24) So when Pilate saw that nothing was being gained, but rather that a disturbance was starting, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, “I am innocent of the blood of this man. You see to it.” (25) All the people answered, “May his blood be on us, and on our children!” (26) Then he released to them Barabbas, but Yeshua he flogged and delivered to be crucified.

In the time before Jeshua the ancient temple courtyard was the altar for offering sacrifices. This foreshadowed God’s provision, according to His will, for a perfect human sacrifice to ransom the offspring of Adam. (Heb 10:1-10; 13:10-12; Ps 40:6-8)

This man, born in Bethlehem, at his immersion was proclaimed by God Himself to be the “Only begotten beloved son of God“. Nobody had managed to fully do the will of God neither could have brought a perfect sacrificial body in front of the Most Divine God. This time that man managed to put aside his will and managed to keep all the time to God’s Will. He was the living proof that man, if he wanted, could keep to God’s Commandments. Still to today there are religious groups in Christendom who want others to believe no man would ever be capable to keep God’s commandments, and therefore Jesus would have to be God himself. This idea makes of God a very cruel God Who imposed Laws to man which He knew they would never be able to keep. But God is a God of love and order Who does not asks more of people than they can endure or do. That what God asks of mankind Jesus managed to fulfil and by doing God’s Will all the time, not going against the Will of God, he was not at any time an opposer or adversary of God. Jesus him being a perfect human being made the sacrifice of his life acceptable in the eyes of God to be the best ransom that could be paid for making an end to the curse of death.

God even expanded the gift of Christ to mankind by declaring all those who have faith in Christ’s sacrifice, righteous on the basis of their faith. By believing in Jesus Christ and following his teachings, when they after their immersion try to keep to the commandments of God, they are viewed by God as sinless while in the flesh.

Romans 3:20-26 NHEBME Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. (21) But now apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the Law and the Prophets; (22) even the righteousness of God through faith in Yeshua the Messiah to all those who believe. For there is no distinction, (23) for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; (24) being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Messiah Yeshua; (25) whom God set forth to be an atoning sacrifice, through faith in his blood, for a demonstration of his righteousness through the passing over of prior sins, in God’s forbearance; (26) to demonstrate his righteousness at this present time; that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him who has faith in Yeshua.

Romans 5:1-2 NHEBME Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Yeshua the Messiah; (2) through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

Differently than in other religions where every time a new sacrifice is needed, the blood of Christ is for ever and makes that no other sacrifices have to be made.

Romans 5:9-10 NHEBME Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we will be saved from God’s wrath through him. (10) For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we will be saved by his life.

Romans 8:1-7 NHEBME There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Messiah Yeshua. (2) For the law of the Spirit of life in Messiah Yeshua made you free from the law of sin and of death. (3) For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh; (4) that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (5) For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. (6) For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace; (7) because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.

References:

Watts, J., Sheehan, O., Atkinson, Q. D., Bulbulia, J. & Gray, R. D. Nature http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature17159 (2016).
Watts, J. et al. Proc. R. Soc. B 282, 20142556 (2015).
Norenzayan, A. Big Gods: How Religion Transformed Cooperation and Conflict (Princeton Univ. Press, 2013).
Norenzayan, A. & Shariff, A. F. Science 322, 58–62 (2008).

Please find also to read:

Preceding articles:

Gone astray, away from God

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 4

Creation of the earth and man #3 Of the Sabbath day #1 the Seventh day

Necessity of a revelation of creation 5 Getting understanding by Word of God 3

Creation of the earth and man #6 Of the Sabbath day #4 Mosaic codes, Sabbaths and Sunday

Creation of the earth and man #17 Man in the image and likeness of the Elohim #1 In the image and after the likeness

First mention of a solution against death 1 To divine, serpent, opposition, satan and adversary

First mention of a solution against death 2 Harm or no harm and naked truth

First mention of a solution against death 3 Tempter Satan and man’s problems

First mention of a solution against death 4 A seed for mankind

First mention of a solution against death 5 Evil its law of death

First mention of a solution against death 6 Authority given to the send one from God coming out of the woman

Not trying to make the heathen live like Jews #2

Additional reading

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First mention of a solution against death 2 Harm or no harm and naked truth

May 20, 2016Marcus Ampe28 Comments

When Adam and Eve ignored God’s request not to eat from the Tree of knowledge of good and evil, and ate the fruit, their eyes were opened and they came, like God had spoken about the knowledge of good and evil, to see what was good and what was bad or evil.

We have no idea how long Adam and Eve had lived in unison with their Creator. But we are told that they themselves choose to go against God’s Will. It was their own choice to close their ears for God’s commandment not to eat from that tree. It was by their own choice of will that they made an irreversible act and created a different history for themself and, in fact, for all mankind.

Normally it was foreseen that they could live for ever in a paradise, but know, as God had warned them they had to face death. Now their days of life became numbered.

They had thought that in the day they were eating thereof, then their eyes would be opened and then they could be as wise and knowledgable as God. Having the same knowledge as God attracted them. They also wanted to have the same power as Him.

The metaphorical use of elements, like animals speaking, is often used in the Bible Books. Concerning Balaam the apostle Peter endorsed the account

2 Peter 2:16 NHEBJE but he was rebuked for his own disobedience. A mute donkey spoke with a man’s voice and stopped the madness of the prophet.

opening his ears, where previously his eyes were opened involving an occurrence with an angel.(Numbers 22:31) In later books of the Holy Scriptures references are made to the many lies which continue to live in this world. The lies Eve and Adam heard are like we may hear the lies of the false teachers (Genesis 3:4 vs 2 Corinthians 11:13) and want to follow them. The world may spread subtile or beguiling beliefs. (Genesis 3:1 vs 2 Corinthians 11:3,13) and get people seduced bringing them in danger of loosing their life (2 Corinthians 11:3).

After their own choice doing that act, Eve’s fall was disastrous.

1 Timothy 2:14 NHEBJE Adam was not deceived, but the woman, being deceived, has fallen into disobedience;

2 Corinthians 11:3 NHEBJE (3) But I am afraid that somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve in his craftiness, so your minds might be corrupted from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

Today in Christendom we still can see how people let their ears be tangled by human teachings, instead of listening to the Biblical truth, and accepting God’s Words for what they are and say. In the same way as the serpent beguiled Eve by its craftiness, so are many minds corrupted from the simplicity which belongs to Christ, the sent one from God. Lots of so called Christians keep to the false idea that Jesus has to be God because they do not want to believe that Jesus is the sent one from God, who as a man of flesh and blood managed to do what the 1st Adam and the 1st woman did not succeed, namely to put his own will aside and only doing the Will of god, his heavenly Father, the Only One true God of gods.

The selfish thoughts of Eve, represented by the serpent, led Eve away from the Elohim יהוה YHWH Jehovah God, in small steps leading to self-assertive independence. Today also there are the personal wishes to be in control of everything and there are still other people who desire to draw people away from God. The serpent, by its poison and its loathly form, is the natural symbol of such an enemy of man, the adversary of god or a satan. The insinuating slyness of the suggestions of evil is like the sinuous gliding of the snake, and truly represents the process by which temptation found its way into the hearts of the first pair, and of all their descendants. For it begins with casting a doubt on the reality of the prohibition.

‘Has God said?’

is the first parallel opened by the besieger.

Often we also hear others say

“What does it matter” or “There is no harm in it”

this is even more dangerous than by Eve, who was warned that there was something bad to happen. But now that message of the badness that can happen to us is also blurred by what happened in the garden of Eden.

The woman could have been protected from her serious fall if she had referred the matter to her husband, who had been given the place of headship. Because she ignored this she was deceived into deliberate disobedience to God. She saw the tree was good for food: it appealed to her taste. It was pleasant to the eyes: it appealed to her sight. It was desirable to make one wise: it appealed to her pride (See 1Jonn 2:16). she therefore trusted her own inclinations and ignored the word of God (v.6). Before consulting her husband she ate the fruit of the tree. {L.M.Grant}

Like doubt may have been filtered into the ear of Eve today we also see the reality of moral distinctions, the essential wrongness of the sin, being obscured by a mist of sophistication. Where often scholars say to the people they can not understand it because God is too complicated. But God is a God of order and a God of love, Who wants clarity and righteousness. He would not withhold something for certain people because they had no opportunity to study or to learn certain things.

Mankind came to see, like they were warned. There was the temptation. They could have chosen to let it pass, like later on Jesus did several times. Going against the Wish of God is called sinning. The promise of knowing good and evil was indeed kept, because God always keeps His promises. Though their minds were hoping for things which were not for them. Instead of their eating of the fruit making the sinners ‘like gods,’ it showed them that they were like beasts, and brought the first sense of shame.

Perhaps they now got more knowledge, but this knowing of good and evil was not such a blessing as they hoped for. Their ignorant innocence was changed into bitter knowledge, and conscience awoke to rebuke them. The first thing that their opened eyes saw was themselves, and the immediate result of the sight was the first blush of shame. Before, they had walked in innocent unconsciousness, like angels or infants; now they had knowledge of good and evil, because their sin had made evil a part of themselves, and the knowledge was bitter.

Before their act God had left them to do the things in the easy way, but now with the relation disturbed, them having questioning the power of God and His right to govern the world, got the admission to take care of themselves and the world themselves.
Before their sinful act they had not to fear God but now sin had broken familiar communion with God and turned Him into a ‘fear and a dread’. Hearing His Voice (asking them in what condition they were) but not answering or showing themselves, they brought up an excuse that they were afraid because they were naked, so they hid themselves.

Genesis 3:9-12 NHEBJE Jehovah God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” (10) The man said, “I heard your voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” (11) God said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” (12) The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”

After eating of the fruit the man and mannin found they were no longer fit for God’s eye, and that made them hide from Him, forgetting that God always sees us and knows our thoughts and feeling of our heart. From all this, as shown in the previous part, it is thus the work of conscience which is to expose us to ourselves, like it did to Eve. Shame had come over man and it will not go away until God gives us the tools to take that shame away. If man’s shame was to be effectually removed, God must do it.

Adam and Eve tried to submerge such feelings of guilt by sewing fig leaves together to make aprons for themselves. Since that time people have resorted to every kind of artifice to cover up the guilt of their sins, perhaps these may be professed “good works” or religious ceremonies or observances, but all are ineffective. The fig leaves were so unsatisfactory to Adam and Eve themselves that when they heard the voice of the Lord God in the garden they hid themselves. So today our own consciences tell us that our efforts to cover our sins fail so badly that we are afraid to face God. But fig leaves and trees are only part of God’s creation: they can give neither protection from sin nor a hiding place from God. {L.M. Grant}

Preceding posts:

The very very beginning 2 The Word and words

A multifold of elements in creation and a bad choice made

What others think about the tree of knowledge of good and evil

First mention of a solution against death 1 To divine, serpent, opposition, satan and adversary

Next: First mention of a solution against death 3 Tempter Satan and man’s problems

Additional reading

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What others think about the tree of knowledge of good and evil

March 18, 2015March 18, 2015Guestspeaker14 Comments

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.

God didn’t create the tree to tempt them with evil, God created the tree of knowledge of good and evil tree to show them what evil was. It is kind of like a parent who wants to teach their child about the ugly side of life so that they are not naïve about the reality of the world. {Why would a good loving God put a tree of knowledge of good and evil in the middle of the Garden of Eden?

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.

In order to know good from evil, one would have to know evil. {Good vs. Evil Part 2: Knowing Good from Evil

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.

Lust was never an issue for them. {Good vs. Evil Part 2: Knowing Good from Evil

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.

{Good vs. Evil Part 2: Knowing Good from Evil

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.”

Choose Life! {The Tree of Life}

Preceding:

Genesis – Story of creation 5 Genesis 3:1-12 Eating of the fruit-tree of knowledge

Genesis – Story of creation 6 Genesis 3:13-24 Enmity and cur