Living souls

Foretold Messiah 1 First mentioning

July 20, 2017Marcus Ampe8 Comments

Jewish and Christian literature since the time of Yeshua or Jeshua have pointed to Genesis 3:15 as the first reference to the Messiah in the Torah.

Genesis 3:15 NHEBJE I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel.”

Here, because of the serpent’s seduction which brought separation between man and God, we see that God had already set in motion His grand plan for sending the Messiah (a seed) to redeem us back to Himself. This is what He tells the crafty serpent:

“I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring [seed/ zera] and her offsprin g [seed/ zera]. He will pound your head, and you will bite his heel.” (Artscroll Tanach)

Banished from the garden with Adam and Eve, we follow Cain and his descendants to determine if he carries this promised seed. But as we emerge from the waters of the Great Flood, we find that they have perished.

Though the world had to be on the look out for a woman bringing forth a child, born under the law, all the descendants of Adam and Eve having flesh and blood in common, the child of that woman would also share those.

Hebrews 2:14 NHEBJE Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in like manner partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil,

That devil or adversary of God would become bruised, damaged in such way that each adversary of God would be able to recognise that they are wrong to go against the divine Maker of the universe. For that reason God provided the solution of a man proving that man can keep pure and honest to Its Maker unlike the first human beings (from the beginning of times) and many of their descendants.

1 John 3:8 NHEBJE He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. To this end the Son of God was revealed, to destroy the works of the devil.

Though the world had to see that this child of that woman would not receive everything like that. It also had to work for his living and had to be tempted like any body else. He also had to suffer, but this time even more than many other people. He was not the only one to be brought to death by others; He also would also not be the only innocent one to be brought to death.

God is an eternal Spirit Being Who can not be tempted, not be killed by any living being or something else. He is also a loving God Who had a wonderful Plan for mankind and wanted it to be fulfilled. Therefore he gave man a second chance, by providing some one with the same attributes as Adam, being created from the nothingness, made to be a living soul with flesh and bones and blood. Jesus said

Luke 24:39 NHEBJE See my hands and my feet, that it is truly me. Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see that I have.”

Whoever does not do righteousness is not of God, neither is he who does not love his brother. {1 John 3:10} The one born from that woman showed the world he was righteous and loving, even so much loving the others, that he was willing to give his life as a payment for the sins of mankind.

1 John 3:7 NHEBJE Little children, let no one lead you astray. He who does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.

Romans 2:13 NHEBJE For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified

Adam and Eve had heard God telling what they where allowed to do and what not. They heard His Law, but did not take it at heart. They were no doers of the law of God. It can well be that they were listeners, but their own inner voice was stronger for their heart than the Voice of God. they ignored His wish not to eat from the tree of knowledge.

By their disobedience sin came into the world and by it death came over them and their descendants. by their act of disobedience posterity was now also damned. But from their offspring would come some one who would have a stronger mind, a stronger will able to put his own will aside, for doing the Will of God.

Romans 5:12 NHEBJE Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, because all sinned.

Luke 22:41-42 NHEBME He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and he knelt down and prayed, (42) saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”

In the hour of his death he may have had it not easy and could have preferred to avoid him to be taken prisoner and condemned to death, but much more the favour of the Most High Elohim, he gave himself to that Only One God, having faith in Him. And by himself offering himself up for others, the gift in favour of the one man, יהושע Messiah, overflowed to many.

Mankind has to know that the favourable gift is not as by one having sinned, for indeed the judgement was of one to condemnation, but the favourable gift is of many trespasses unto righteousness. Because the first Adam sinned or trespassed, the divine Maker kept to His warning that they surely would die. From that moment of taking the wrong decision man brought knowledge of good and evil to man but also knowledge of feeling fear, pain and death. By the first Adam death did reign over man but when the temptation was shown the real face of the righteous man, those who receive the overflowing favour and the gift of righteousness shall reign in life through the promised one, יהושע Messiah.

Romans 5:15-17 NHEBME But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Yeshua the Messiah, abound to the many. (16) The gift is not as through one who sinned: for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses to justification. (17) For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Yeshua the Messiah.

Preceding articles

Out of the seed of Eve

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

Messianic prophesies 1 Adversary – Root of the first prophecy

Messianic prophesies 2 Adversary – Root of the first prophecy

Additional reading

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

January 5, 2017Relating to God10 Comments

When God created everything, all things where like He wanted it and every time when He saw that it was good He continued creating something else. In this way the earth came to put forth living souls according to their kinds, domestic animal and moving animal but also wild beast of the earth according to its kind.

Genesis 1:24-25 MKJV And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after its kind, cattle, and creepers, and its beasts of the earth after its kind; and it was so. (25) 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.

In the same way God decided to make man in His image according to His likeness. He allowed man to have those other living creatures in subjection. He wanted them to be fruitful and become many, meaning that the earth would be filled with human beings living in unison with each other and with their Divine Creator.

Genesis 1:26-28 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.

From the sixth day onward man was part of the universe and could created their earthen vessels, unfolding new life. But like clay pots are characteristically inadequate and vulnerable, man showed also to be so vulnerable, or susceptible, open to temptation, persuasion, censure, etc.. His vulnerability making man exposed to everything around him, having a soft spot, his effectiveness depending on his own free choices.

God had placed man in a safe environment, where man did not have to worry. A garden where there was nothing which could endanger man or would bring man open to attack or damage.

God had given all green vegetation for food except the fruit of one tree.

Genesis 1:29-30 MKJV 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.

The man made out of dust formed from the ground could use everything for him from that ground. After the water came down from heavens, watering the entire surface of the ground, out of it grew every tree desirable to one’s sight and good for food. As such there was also the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and bad.

Genesis 2:7-9 MKJV And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (8) And Jehovah God planted a garden eastward in Eden. And there He put the man whom He had formed. (9) And out of the ground Jehovah God caused to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food. The tree of life also was in the middle of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

The man was settled in that beautiful Garden of Eden to cultivate it and to take care of it. This means God trusted him to make something good out of it. Though having him placed there God also laid a command upon the man, him to be allowed to eat from every tree to satisfaction, but as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad he was not allowed to eat from. God also warned him that in the day he would eat from it he was positively to die.

Genesis 2:15-17 MKJV And Jehovah God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. (16) And Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, You may freely eat of every tree in the garden, (17) but you shall not eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. For in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

God also found it was not good for man to continue to himself and therefore had made him a helper, as a complement of him.

Genesis 2:18-25 MKJV And Jehovah God said, It is not good that the man should be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him. (19) And out of the ground Jehovah God formed every animal of the field and every fowl of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. (20) And Adam gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field. But there was not found a suitable helper for Adam. (21) And Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept. And He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh underneath. (22) And Jehovah God made the rib (which He had taken from the man) into a woman. And He brought her to the man. (23) And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called Woman because she was taken out of man. (24) Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave to his wife and they shall be one flesh. (25) And they were both naked, the man and his wife; and they were not ashamed.

She noticing that tree of which God had said not to eat, questioned if God had really said it to protect them, avoiding death to death, whatever this could mean (because they had no idea at all of pain or death), or because God did not want them to have the same knowledge He had. She started wondering if she would eat of its fruit she could not receive the same knowledge or understanding and powers as God did have.

So her doubting thoughts about God‘s honesty is presented in the third chapter of Moses book as a creeping hissing in the mind, like a creeping snake or serpent, because that animal proved to be the most cautious of all the wild beasts of the field that Jehovah God had made.

Genesis 3:1 MKJV Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which Jehovah God had made. And he said to the woman, Is it so that God has said, You shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

She wondered why she was not allowed to eat form its fruit nor to touch it and doubted God’s integrity.

Genesis 3:2-3 MKJV And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. (3) But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.

Her thoughts told her it was ridiculous that she would die. On the other hand she became more convinced that on the day she would eat from that tree her eyes would go open further and she would become like God. This attracted her so much see wanted very much to eat from that fruit which would give her the same powers as God.

Genesis 3:4-6 MKJV And the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die, (5) for God knows that in the day you eat of it, then your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as God, knowing good and evil. (6) And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasing to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make wise, she took of its fruit, and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

Having pulled her husband too in her adventure of opposing God’s command, she not only became herself an adversary of God but made man an accomplice. As an abettor Adam now had also to bear the consequences of his act. He still had the choice not to eat from that fruit and to keep faithful to God. But he made himself an accessory of Eve doing an act against God’s Wishes.

As accessory the 1st man contributed to or aided an activity or process in a minor way; subsidiary or supplementary to Eve’s adversary against God. In this way his relationship with God also became damaged, because in a certain way he gave higher value to his relationship with Eve than with God.

Preceding articles

Coming to the creation of human beings in the image of God

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

Creation of the earth and man #18 Man in the image and likeness of the Elohim #2 Assimilation of character

Creation of the earth and man #22 Man in the image and likeness of the Elohim #6 Spirits, spiritual bodies and illusory perception

Man in the image and likeness of the Elohim #8 The Formation of woman #1

Man in the image and likeness of the Elohim #9 The Formation of woman #2

A multifold of elements in creation and a bad choice made

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

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 1

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 2

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 3

Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden 4

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

Additional reading

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Creation of the earth and man #23 Man in the image and likeness of the Elohim #7 Corporeal and spiritual change

February 2, 2016February 2, 2016Christadelphians4 Comments

In the previous chapters we have looked at the corporeal change of those, who have first been morally renewed unto knowledge after the image of Him that had created them from “sinful flesh” into spirit, which is an absolute necessity, before they can inherit the Kingdom of God. After people get to know God’s Word and come to understand Who created the earth and Who had sent His son for the good of man they shall have to come to see that even when we still have to face death in this system of things we may live by the hope of something better to come.

Though we have the sleep in death and shall perhaps have to face very difficult times, even facing persecution we should be convinced not to sorrow as the others. We should not react like the unbelievers, who may react heavily because they do not have such a hope the followers of Jeshua have.
For if we have given ourselves to become disciples of the sent one from God believe that this son of God, Jesus, died and rose again, we do have our hope in him because knowing that God can not die, but the son of man Jesus really died, we have hope in this example God has given the world. This man of flesh and blood is really take out of the dead and taken up in the skies to sit next to God, not on God’s throne, but at His right hand.

These who take Jesus to be their god and think no man is capable to be sinless and doing God’s Will, make from God a cruel God Who created beings who were not capable to follow His commandments. They deny the resurrection of the dead and are refuting God’s Power to have man following His commandments. Those gainsayers are as such believing that man can only do his own will and not believing that man is capable to transform and to become changed into spirit, or immortalized, by the Son of Man, doing God’s Will.

The believers in Jeshua, him being the son of God and not making him into a god son, may comfort one another with the words which are given to us in the Bible.

It will be seen from this, that survivors of the dead were not consoled in the first age of Christianity for the loss of their friends as they are now by those who “improve the death” of the influential among them. In “funeral sermons”, the “immortal souls” of the deceased are transported “on angels’ wings to heaven”, and the living are consoled with the assurance that they are singing the praises of God around the throne; feasting with Abraham, and the prophets, with the saints and martyrs, and with Jesus and his apostles in the Kingdom of God; and they are themselves persuaded, that the souls of their relations, now become angels, are watching over them, and praying for them; and that when they die their own souls will be re-united with them in the realms of bliss.

Need I say to the man enlightened in the word, that there is no such comfort, or consolation, as this in the law and the testimony of God?

Such traditions are purely mythological; and come of the Nicolaitan dogma of saved “ghosts, and goblins damn’d” which has cancerously extirpated “the truth as it is in Jesus”.
No, the apostles did not point men to the day of their death, and its immediate consequents, for comfort; nor did they administer the consolations of the gospel to any who had not obeyed it. They offered comfort only to the disciples; for they only are the heirs with Jesus of the Kingdom of God. They taught these to look to the coming of Christ, and to the resurrection, as the time of a re-union with their brethren in the faith. At death, they should

“rest from their labours, and their works should follow them”;

and

“to them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation”. {a Heb. 9:28.}

Such were the practical and intelligible “words” with which the apostles comforted their brethren; but words which have become sealed and cabalistic, both to the unlearned and “the wise”.

The Unisphere, attributed to “uribe”/Uri Baruchin

In conclusion, then, as far as power is concerned, God could have created all things upon a spiritual or incorruptible basis at once. The globe could have been filled with men and women, equal to the angels in nature, power, and intellect, on the sixth day; but the world would have been without a history, and its population characterless. This, however, would not have been according to the plan. The animal must precede the spiritual as the acorn goes before the oak. This will explain many difficulties which are created by systems; and which will for ever remain inexplicable upon the hypotheses they invent. The Bible has to do with things, not imaginations; with bodies, not phantasmata; with “living souls” of every species; with corporeal beings of other worlds; and with incorruptible and undying men; but it is as mute as death, and silent as the grave, having nothing at all to say about such “souls” as men pretend to “cure”; except to repudiate them as a part of that “philosophy and vain deceit”, {b. Col. 2:8} “which some professing have erred concerning the faith.” {c 1 Tim. 6:21}

– Thomas, D. J.; Elpis Israel: an exposition of the Kingdom of God (electronic ed., pp. 45–46). Birmingham, UK: The Christadelphian.

Notes & quotes

a Hebrews 9:28 (ESV): ²⁸so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

b Colossians 2:8 (ESV): ⁸See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ.

c 1 Timothy 6:21 (ESV): ²¹for by professing it some have swerved from the faith.
Grace be with you.

Preceding article:

Creation of the earth and man #22 Man in the image and likeness of the Elohim #6 Spirits, spiritual bodies and illusory perception

Necessity of a revelation of creation 11 Believing and obeying the gospel of the Kingdom of God

Bible, God speaking words profitable for doctrine, for reproof and for correction

Additional readings

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Jesus on hell (1)
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What happened when Jesus rose from the dead? (tithebarn.wordpress.com)
Rabbi Schochet echoes Paul: dead are free from Law & resurrected born-again Jews live in new reality (roshpinaproject.com)
Christ’s Kingdom. Advent Midweek 3, 2015 (deprofundisclamaviadtedomine.wordpress.com)
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Wheaton, Islam, and the Christ-Centered University (pietistschoolman.com)
Islam, Islamic Terrorism and “Chrislam” (standupforthetruth.com)
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Decor Around the World: Day of the Dead (kirklands.com)
Food for Thought-Foolish Waiting and Advent Waiting (richardsfoodforthought.com)
Don’t Retreat. Stay, and Help with the Shouting (epistole.wordpress.com)

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

November 20, 2015Christadelphians17 Comments

Man in the image and likeness of the Elohim

“Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels.”

Men and beasts, say the scriptures,

“have all one ruach or spirit; so that a man hath no pre-eminence above a beast”.

The reason assigned for this equality is the oneness of their spirit, which is proved by the fact of their common destiny; as it is written,

“for all are vanity”:

that is,

“all go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again”.

Yet this one spirit manifests its tendencies differently in men and other creatures. In the former, it is aspiring and God-defying, rejoicing in its own works, and devoted to the vanity of the passing hour; while in the latter, its disposition is grovelling to the earth in all things. Thus, the heart of man being

“deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know or fathom it?”

—Solomon was led to exclaim,

“Who knoweth the spirit of the sons of Adam, ruach beni headam, which exalts itself to the highest, and the spirit of a beast which inclines to the earth?” {a: Eccles. 3:19–21.}

We may answer,

“None, but God only”;

He knoweth what is in man, and needs not that any should testify of him. {b:John 2:25.}
But, from this testimony someone might infer that, as man was made only “a little lower than the angels”, and yet has “no pre-eminence over a beast”, the beast also is but a little lower than the angels. This, however, would be a very erroneous conclusion. The equality of men and other animals consists in the kind of life they possess in common with each other. Vanity, or mortality, is all that pertains to any kind of living flesh. The whole animal world has been made subject to it; and as it affects all living souls alike, bringing them back to the dust again, no one species can claim pre-eminence over the other; for

“one thing befalleth them; as the one dieth, so dieth the other”.

Man, however, differs from other creatures in having been modelled after a divine type, or pattern. In form and capacity he was made like to the angels, though in nature inferior to them. This appears from the testimony that he was made “in their image, after their likeness”, and “a little lower than the angels”, or Elohim. {c: Psalm 8:5.} I say, he was made in the image of the angels, as the interpretation of the co-operative imperative,

“Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”.

The work of the six days, though elaborated by the power of Him “who dwelleth in the light”, was executed by

“his angels, that excel in strength, and do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word”. {d: Psalm 103:20.}

These are styled Elohim, or “gods,” in numerous passages. David says,

“Worship him, all ye gods”; {e: Psalm 97:7.}

which Paul applies to Jesus, saying, {*}

“Let all the angels of God worship him”. {f: Heb. 1:6.}

Man, then, was made after the image and likeness of Elohim, but for a while inferior in nature. But the race will not always be inferior in this respect. It is destined to advance to a higher nature; not all the individuals of it; but those of the race

“who shall be accounted worthy to obtain that age (αἰὼν μέλλων, the future age) and the resurrection from among the dead (ἐχ νεχρω̂ν) … who can die no more; for they are equal to the angels (ἰσάλλεγοι); and are the sons of God, being the sons of the resurrection.” {g: Luke 20:35, 36.}

The import of the phrase “in the image, after the likeness” is suggested by the testimony, that

“Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his image, and called his name Seth”. {h: Genesis 5:3.}

In this respect, Seth stands related to Adam, as Adam did to the Elohim; but differing in this, that the nature of Adam and Seth was identical; whereas those of Adam and the Elohim were dissimilar. Would any one be at a loss to know the meaning of Seth’s being in the image of his father? The very same thing is meant by Adam being in the image of the Elohim. An image is the representation of some form or shape; metaphorically, it may signify the exact resemblance of one character to another. But in the case before us, the parties had no characters at the time of their birth. They were simply innocent of actual transgression; no scope having been afforded them to develop character. The Elohim, however, were personages of dignity and holiness, as well as of incorruptible, or spiritual, nature. The resemblance, therefore, of Adam to the Elohim as their image was of bodily form, not of intellectual and moral attainment; and this I apprehend to be the reason why the Elohim are styled “men” when their visits to the sons of Adam are recorded in the scriptures of truth. In shape, Seth was like Adam, Adam like the Elohim, and the Elohim, the image of the invisible Increate; the great and glorious archetype of the intelligent universe.

– Thomas, D. J.; Elpis Israel: an exposition of the Kingdom of God (electronic ed., pp. 37–39). Birmingham, UK: The Christadelphian.

Notes & Bible quotes:

a: Ecclesiastes 3:19–21 (ESV): ¹⁹For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. ²⁰All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return. ²¹Who knows whether the spirit of man goes upward and the spirit of the beast goes down into the earth?

b:John 2:25 (ESV): ²⁵and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.

c: Psalm 8:5 (ESV): ⁵ Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.

d: Psalm 103:20-21 (ESV): ²⁰ Bless the Lord, O you his angels, you mighty ones who do his word, obeying the voice of his word! ²¹ Bless the Lord, all his hosts, his ministers, who do his will!

e: Psalm 97:7 (ESV): ⁷ All worshipers of images are put to shame, who make their boast in worthless idols; worship him, all you gods!

{*} *. Paul’s quotation is verbatim from Deuteronomy 32:43 (LXX)—not Psalm 97.

Deuteronomy 32:43 (ESV): ⁴³ “Rejoice with him, O heavens; bow down to him, all gods, for he avenges the blood of his children and takes vengeance on his adversaries. He repays those who hate him and cleanses his people’s land.”

Psalm 97:9 (ESV): ⁹ For you, O Lord, are most high over all the earth; you are exalted far above all gods.

f: Hebrews 1:6 (ESV): ⁶And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, “Let all God’s angels worship him.”

g: Luke 20:35–36 (ESV): ³⁵but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, ³⁶for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection.

h: Genesis 5:3 (ESV): ³When Adam had lived 130 years, he fathered a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth.

Children of Adam and Eve: All we are told about Adam’s offspring is that the first son was named Cain, the second son named Abel [Genesis 4:1-2 ], then after Abel’s murder, another son named Seth, who may not be confused with the beneficent god in predynastic Egypt, associated with darkness and later identified as a god of evil and the antagonist of Horus. Adam’s son Seth was “begotten when Adam was 130 years old.” After that, Adam “begot sons and daughters” [Genesis 5:3-4]. This same passage also tells us that Adam lived for 930 years [Genesis 5:5]. Therefore, according to Scripture, Adam and Eve‘s family consisted of sons Cain, Abel and Seth (who be came 912 years old), plus a minimum of two other sons and two daughters, giving a total of seven children. However, accepting that Adam, and likely Eve, lived for 930 years, seven children would be the minimum number.

In gnosticism, Seth is seen as a replacement given by God for Abel, whom Cain had slain. It is said that late in life, Adam gave Seth secret teachings that would become the kabbalah. The Zohar refers to Seth as “ancestor of all the generations of the tzaddikim” (Hebrew: righteous ones).

Preceding:

Creation of the earth and man #16 Formation of man #8 Dust, flesh, blood,breathing and life

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Creation of the earth and man #15 Formation of man #7 Living creatures of the natural world

October 28, 2015November 5, 2015Christadelphians3 Comments

From these testimonies it is manifest that the ruach or spirit is all pervading. It is in heaven, in sheol, or the dust of the deepest hollow, in the uttermost depths of the sea, in the darkness, in the light, and in all things animate, and without life. It is a universal principle in the broadest, or rather, in an illimitable sense. It is the substratum of all motion, whether manifested in the diurnal and ellipsoidal revolutions of the planets, in the flux and reflux of the sea, in the storms and tempests of the expanse, or in the organism of reptiles, cattle, beasts, fish, fowl, vegetables, or men. The atmospheric expanse is charged with it; but it is not the air: plants and animals of all species breathe it; but it is not their breath: yet without it, though filled with air, they would die.
The atmosphere, which extends some forty-five miles in altitude, and encircles the globe, is styled the expanse, by Moses; and the breath of God, in Job. It is a compound body, consisting, when pure, of nitrogen and oxygen, in the proportion of 79 of the former and 21 of the latter, in 100 parts.* These are considered as simple bodies, because they have not yet been decomposed; though it is probable they have a base, which may be the ruach. This may exist free or combined with the elementary constituents of the neshemeh. Uncombined, it is that wonderful fluid, whose explosions are heard in the thunder, whose fiery bolts overthrow the loftiest towers, and rive the sturdy monarchs of the woods; and in less intensity gives polarity to light, the needle, and the brain. These three together, the oxygen, nitrogen, and electricity, constitute “the breath“ and “spirit” of the lives of all God’s living souls.

File:Rouach-goslar.jpg — Statue representing the Rouach (ruach) Holy Spirit in the church market (Marktkirche) Goslar; contemporary work

Thus, from the centre of the earth, and extending throughout all space in every direction, is the Ruach Elohim, the existence of which is demonstrable from the phenomena of the natural system of things. It penetrates where the neshermet el, or atmospheric air, cannot. When speaking, however, of the motivity and sustentation of organized dust, or souls, they are co-existent within them. In this case, the ruach Elohim becomes the ruach chayim, or “spirit of lives”; and the neshemet el, the neshemet chayim, or “breath of lives”; and both combined in the elaboration and support of life, the neshemet ruach chayim, or “breath of the spirit of lives”. Living creatures, or souls, are not animated, as physiologists and speculative “divines” erroneously imagine, by “a vital principle”, capable of disembodied existence as the ghost of a man, or the transmigrating spectres of other animal species: — ghostly things, the laws and functions of which in the animal economy physiologists are unable to discover; and theologists are nonplussed to prove the existence of from the word of God. On the contrary, “souls” are “made living” by the coetaneous operation of the ruach chayim and neshemet chayim upon their organized tissues according to certain fixed laws. When the as yet occult laws of the all-pervading ruach, or spirit, shall be known, this subject will be understood; and men will then be as astonished at the ignorance of the “divines” and physiologists of this “cloudy and dark day”, respecting “living souls”, as we are at the notion of the ancients, that their ”immortal gods“ resided in the stocks and stones they so stupidly adored. This, however, is quite as reasonable a theory as that of “immortal souls” dwelling in sinners of Adam’s race.

The ruach chayim and neshemet chayim are lent to the creatures of the natural world for the appointed period of their living existence. But, though lent to them, they are still God’s breath, and God’s spirit; nevertheless, to distinguish them from the expanse of air and spirit in their totality, they are sometimes styled, “the spirit of man”, and “the spirit of the beast”; or collectively, “the spirits of all flesh”, and “their breath”. Thus, it is written,

“They have all one ruach, or spirit; so that man hath no pre-eminence over a beast; for all is vanity or vapour.”

“All go to one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.” {a}

And in the sense of supplying to every living creature, or soul, “spirit” and “breath”, Jehovah is styled by Moses,

“God of the spirits of all flesh”. {b}

Besides the ruach and neshemeh without, there are certain elementary principles, in a state of combination, within all living souls, which are related to them by fixed and appropriate laws, for the manifestation of living actions. The light to the eye, and the eye to the light; so also, the breath and the spirit of God to the constituents of blood, and the blood to them. These, acting and re-acting upon each other in the lungs of all breathing frames, cause that motion throughout their structure which is termed life. The following testimonies will throw some light upon this part of our subject.

– Thomas, D. J.; Elpis Israel: an exposition of the Kingdom of God (electronic ed., pp. 34–35). Birmingham, UK: The Christadelphian.

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Notes:

*. Since this was written argon and other rare gases have been discovered; but all scientific research favours the hypothesis here laid down.—Publisher.
{a} Ecclesiastes 3:19-20 (ESV):¹⁹For what happens to the children of man and what happens to the beasts is the same; as one dies, so dies the other. They all have the same breath, and man has no advantage over the beasts, for all is vanity. ²⁰All go to one place. All are from the dust, and to dust all return.
{b}: Numbers 27:16 (ESV): ¹⁶“Let the Lord, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation

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Creation of the earth and man #14 Formation of man #6 The Uncreated One, neshemet ruach chayim and nephesh

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