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”.
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.
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.
The question of “infant salvation” and “non-elect infant damnation”, also rests upon the dogma before us. “Orthodoxy” sends some infants to hell and some to heaven; though many “orthodox” persons are getting heartily ashamed of this part of the creed.
Sprinkling of water on the face of a baby by some churches considered as a valid necessary baptism – Hudson Patterson’s Baptism – Photo Christopher Michel
The apprehension of the damnation of their “immortal souls” on account of “original sin”, has given rise to the Romish conceit of the rhantismal regeneration of infants by the Holy Spirit in the scattering of a few drops of water upon the face, and the use of a certain form of words. This has been recently declared to be regenerative of infant souls by an English court of law! This question was actually gravely discussed by bishops, priests, lawyers and ministers, in the year of grace 1849! So true is it that “great men are not always wise; neither do the aged understand judgment”.
Job 32:9 (ESV): 9 It is not the old who are wise, nor the aged who understand what is right.
As far as the infant is itself concerned, this Romish ceremony is of no importance, for it does it neither good nor harm. In one sense, however, the subject of “the ordinance” is deeply injured. He is indoctrinated by system into the notion that he was truly baptized when rhantismally “regenerated”: and, therefore, when he is grown he troubles himself no more about the matter. Alas, what havoc the apostasy has made with the doctrine of Christ! Believers’ baptism transmuted into rhantizing an unconscious babe for the regeneration of its “immortal soul”! Would such a thing ever have been thought of but for the Nicolaitan “oppositions of science” “which”, says the Lord Jesus, “I hate”? I trow not.
Revelation 2:6 (ESV): 6 Yet this you have: you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.
Revelation 2:15 (ESV): 15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
– Thomas, D. J. (1848-1849/e-ed.1990). Elpis Israel: an exposition of the Kingdom of God (electronic ed., pp. 30–31). Birmingham, UK: The Christadelphian.
The God of order who planned everything does not yet look at the world which would be like He has planned it. We should know that this world is not yet according to the wishes of the Divine Creator.
Their are thousands of artworks created in the art world depicting St Paul. This painting was created by the famous artist called Rembrandt. It hangs on the walls of the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
It is worth reminding ourselves that this world is not as it should be. The Bible describes how suffering entered the world as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s sin. The apostle Paul says that “creation was subjected to futility” (Romans 8:20), and we see this “futility” in the world around us.
Rom 8:18-23 NSB I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that will be revealed in us. (19) For the earnest expectation of the creation is waiting for the manifestation (revelation) (disclosure) of the sons of God. (20) For the creation was subject to corruption, not by it’s own will but by reason of the one who subjected it on the basis of hope. (21) The creation will also be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. (22) For we know that the whole creation groans and is in pain together until now. (23) We also, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption and the release from our bodies by ransom.
2Co 4:17-18 NSB Our light affliction is for the moment. It works more exceedingly an eternal weight of glory for us. (18) We do not look at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen. For the things that are seen are temporal (for a season). But the things that are not seen are eternal.
People do not all live to ripe old age, but some are cut off prematurely through disease or accident, others loose their life by accident. The many tragedies we may witness in our life are reminders that the world is not as God originally intended – it is a world separated from God by sin. We also can see that lots of bad things happen because the people did not live according the rules of God, not respecting others or not respecting the laws of nature.
As long as we live in this world and with this world system, not having the theocracy set up which God has prepared for the world, those who believe in God and take His Words for granted, there is hope. The prosecutor of the first followers of Christ, got a shock and had his eyes opened. As a devote Jew Saul knew the Word of God but did first not see the light because he wanted to keep strongly to the traditions and the Jewish teaching by which he was grown up. When the sent one from God, the son of manJeshua (Jesus Christ) opened his eyes, Paul came to understand that God subjected the world to futility “in hope”, because there will come a day when the world will be delivered corruption and restored to the paradise that God intended (Romans 8:20-21).
The momentary and light affliction of ours is working out for us an eternal weight of glory, great beyond expression, while we are aiming not at things seen, but at things unseen; for the things seen are temporary, but the things unseen are eternal. Lots of people get blinded to day by all those modern gadgets which seem to enliven their circumstances. Lots of people do think they can gain lots of friends of social media which would make them so much more special. How are they mislead! Lots of people are trying to build themselves a super world which they loose as soon as they die. They do not see that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be set against that glory which is about to be revealed for us. (Romans 8:18)
Lots of them do not hear the words God gave the world. After the fall the God of love did not abandon his people. He also understand the weaknesses of man and did not mind His own son even crying unto Him why he would have abandoned him (Jeshua).
Mat 27:45-46 NSB Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. (46) About the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, »Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?« Which (translated) means: »My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?«
Mar 15:33-34 NSB It was the sixth hour and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour. (34) At the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying: »Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?« Interpreted it means, »My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?«
Jeshua who came down from heaven, not to do his own will but the will of Him (God) who sent him (Jesus), asking Jehovah the Only One God of Abraham to be with him and to help him to endure, saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done. “
God had not left Jesus alone, though he had perhaps that impression. (In case Jesus was God himself such a cry would naturally be ridiculous and when he would be God he could not leave himself alone or abandon himself.) Jesus who always tried to do God’s Will and not his own will, loved the God of Abraham very much and had always followed the Words of the God from the Holy Scriptures.
Mat 6:9-10 NSB »‘Our Father in heaven, holy is your name. (Exodus 6:3) (Psalm 83:18) (Isaiah 42:8; 54:5; 63:16; 64:8) (10) »‘Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:33) (Daniel 2:44) (Revelation 11:15) (Psalm 37:10,29) (Acts 24:15)
Mat 7:21 NSB »Not everyone who calls me Lord will enter the kingdom of heaven. He who does the will of my Father in heaven will enter.
Mat 12:50 NSB »For everyone who does the will of my Father who is in heaven is my brother, and sister, and mother.«
Mat 26:39 NSB Then he went forward a little, and fell on his face, and prayed: »My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.«
Mat 26:42 NSB A second time he went away and prayed, saying: »Father, if this cannot pass away, except I drink it, your will be done.«
Mar 14:36 NSB He said: »Abba, Father, all things are possible to you. Take this cup from me. Even so not what I will, but what you will.«
Luk 22:42 NSB He prayed: »Father if it is your will remove this cup from me, nevertheless not my will, but your will be done.«
Joh 6:38-40 NSB »I do not do my own will. I came down from heaven to do the will of him that sent me. (39) »This is the will of him that sent me that I should not lose any of those he has given me, but I should raise them up at the last day. (40) »For this is the will of my Father. Every one who sees the Son and puts active faith in him will have everlasting life, and I will raise him up at the last day.«
Joh 7:16-17 NSB Jesus replied: »My teaching is not my own. It is his who sent me. (17) »If any man does his will he shall know the teachings. He will know if it is from God, or whether I speak from myself.
When impaled, יהושע Jeshua (Jesus) cried onto his heavenly Father, the God of Abraham and the Only One True God: “Ěli, Ěli, lamah sheḇaqtani?” which is translated, “My Ěl, My Ěl, why have You forsaken Me?: My God, My God, why did You forsake Me?
Many have no eye nor ear for those Scriptures and have left God. They abandoned Him temporarily or for ever, but God stays open to receive them back. In our affliction many bad things may come over us, but we should also try to see the good things. some people do have to have first something very bad happening to them before they come to realise that they need God. When all these bad things have come upon them in the latter days, when they turn to the Lord of lord of lords, the Most HighElohim, come to recognise the existence of This God of gods, and hearken to His Voice because Jehovah, the Lord their God, is a merciful God; He will not forsake them utterly, nor totally destroy them. He will not forget the covenant of their forefathers, which in the very long past, Jehovah confirmed to them with an oath.
Deu 4:27-40 NSB »Jehovah will scatter you among the nations. You will become few in number among the heathen, where Jehovah will lead you. (28) »You will serve gods that are the work of men’s hands. Made of wood and stone. They cannot see, hear, eat or smell. (29) »From there you will seek Jehovah your God with all your heart and with all your being. And you will find him! (30) »When you are in trouble (distress) and all these things happen to you in the latter days, turn to Jehovah your God and obey his voice. (31) »Jehovah your God is a merciful God. He will not forsake you. He will not destroy you, nor forget the covenant he made with your fathers. (32) »Ask about the days from the past. A time that came before you, since the day that God created man upon the earth. And ask from one side of heaven to the other whether there has ever been anything like this great thing, or anything like it has been heard? (33) »Did people ever hear the voice of God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as you have heard, and live? (34) »Has God attempted to take a nation from the middle of another nation? Has he done this by temptations, by signs, and by wonders, and by war, and by great terrors? Yes, and by the use of his great power! Jehovah your God did all this for you in Egypt before your very eyes! (35) »This was shown to you that you might know that Jehovah Is God! There Is No One Besides Him! (36) »He made you hear his voice out of heaven. That way he could instruct (teach) (correct) (discipline) you. He showed you his great fire on the earth. You heard his words from the middle of the fire. (37) »He loved your fathers. Therefore he chose their descendants. In fact he watched over you and he brought you out of Egypt with his mighty power. (38) »He drove out nations far greater than you so that he could bring you in and give you their land as an inheritance as it is today. (39) »Know this and consider it in your heart today: Jehovah Is God in heaven above, and on the earth beneath: There Is No One Else! (40) »You must keep the regulations and commandments I commanded you today. Then all will go well with you and with your children after you. You may prolong your days on the earth that Jehovah your God gives you for all time.«
This God said so that people could come to understanding for not taking other gods as their god. Jesus knew this very well and tells us he did not want to do his own will but only the Will of his heavenly Father who Jesus considered to be the Only One God Whom we should worship, and not him or any other man. Jesus knew that it was over for him when he got impaled. (John 19:28) In order that the scripture might be accomplished or in order that the scripture might be fulfilled the sent one from Goddied with no bone of him being broken. (John 19:36)
Jesus, like several other men of God, did not abandon God nor His Laws. They followed the scrolls which were given from one to the next generation. In those scrolls we can see that though many times people did not want to see the wonders of God and were ignoring Him, He always came back to them when they had left Him.
Neh 9:6-17 NSB »You are Jehovah, even you only! You made heaven, the heaven of heavens with all their armies, the earth and all things in it, the seas and everything in them. You keep them from destruction and the armies of heaven are your worshippers. (7) »You are Jehovah, the true God, who took Abram and made him yours, guiding him from Ur of the Chaldees, and gave him the name of Abraham; (8) »You saw that his heart was true to you, and made an agreement with him to give the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Jebusite and the Girgashite, even to give it to his seed, and you have done what you said; for righteousness is yours. (9) »You saw the trouble of our fathers in Egypt, and their cry came to your ears by the Red Sea. (10) »You did signs and wonders on Pharaoh and all his servants and all the people of his land. You saw how cruel they were to them. So you made a name for yourself as it is today. (11) »You parted the sea before them, so that they went through the sea on dry land; and those who went after them went down into the deep, like a stone into great waters. (12) »And you went before them by day in a pillar of cloud and in a pillar of fire by night, to give them light on the way they were to go. (13) »You came down on Mount Sinai, and your voice came to them from heaven, giving them right decisions and true laws, good rules and orders. (14) »They received word of your holy Sabbath from you. You gave them orders and rules and a law, by the hand of Moses your servant. (15) »They received bread from heaven when they were in need, and you made water come out of the rock for their drink, and gave them orders to go in and take for their heritage the land that your hand give them. (16) »But they and our fathers, in their pride, made their necks stiff, and paid no attention to your orders. (17) »They would not obey you and gave no thought to the wonders you did among them. They became stubborn and turning away from you. They appointed a leader over themselves to take them back to their prison in Egypt. However, you are a God of forgiveness, full of grace and pity, slow to wrath and great in mercy, and you did not give them up.
Neh 9:18-33 NSB »Even when they made for themselves a bull out of metal, and said: ‘This is your God who took you up out of Egypt, and had done so much to make you angry.’ (19) »Even then, in your great mercy, you did not give them up in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud still went before them by day, guiding them on their way, and the pillar of fire by night, to give them light, and make clear the way they were to go. (20) »You gave your good Spirit to be their teacher. You did not hold back your manna from their mouths. You gave them water when they had need of it. (21) »Truly, for forty years you were their support in the wilderness. They needed nothing. Their clothing did not get old or their feet become tired. (22) »You gave them kingdoms and peoples, making distribution to them in every part of the land. They took for their heritage the land of Sihon, even the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og, king of Bashan. (23) »You made their children as great in number as the stars of heaven. You took them into the land, of which you had said to their fathers that they were to go in and take it for themselves. (24) »So the children went in and took the land. You overcame before them the people of the land, the Canaanites, and gave them up into their hands, with their kings and the people of the land, so that they might do with them whatever it was their pleasure to do. (25) »And they took walled towns and a fat land. They became the owners of houses full of all good things, water-holes cut in the rock, vine-gardens and olive-gardens and a wealth of fruit-trees. They had food enough and became fat, and had joy in the good you gave them. (26) »But they were hard-hearted, and went against your authority. They turned their backs on your law, and murdered your prophets. These prophets gave witness against them with the purpose of turning them back again to you. They did much to make you angry. (27) »So you gave them up into the hands of their enemies who were cruel to them. In the time of their trouble, when they prayed to you, you listened to them from heaven. In your great mercy you gave them saviors, who made them free from the hands of their enemies. (28) »When they had rest, they did evil again before you: so you gave them into the hands of their enemies who ruled over them. When they came back and prayed to you, you listened to them from heaven; again and again, in your mercy, you gave them salvation. (29) »You admonished them so that you might make them come back again to your law. Their hearts were lifted up, and they paid no attention to your orders. They went against your life giving decisions and turned their backs on you. They were stubborn and did not listen. (30) »You put up with them for years. You admonished them by your Spirit through your prophets. Still they did not listen. So you gave them up into the hands of the peoples of the lands. (31) »Even then, in your great mercy, you did not put an end to them completely, or give them up; for you are a God of grace (loving-kindness) and mercy. (32) »Now, our God, the great, the strong, the God who is to be respected, who keeps faith and mercy, do not let his trouble seem small to you. It has come on us, and on our kings and our rulers and on our priests and our prophets and our fathers and on all your people from the time of the kings of Assyria till this day. (33) »You have been in the right in everything that happened to us. You have been true to us, but we have done evil!
When Adam and Eve were cast out they could tell their children what happened. And their children could continue telling what happened in the Garden of Eden and what the consequences were of the things man had done wrong. The population grew and more and more things happened where God had to intervene and God had to give guidance again so that people would be able to come back on the good track.
To help man, enabling him again to restore the relationship with their Maker God gave them His Words so that they could get more understanding of all things.
Dead and Buried (fbcpolson.wordpress.com)
One of the grandest blessings in the entire Bible is often missed by believers. It is the burial of Jesus Christ! That’s right! The burial of Jesus is a blessing to you. Because not only have we died with Him, we have been buried with Him.
Christ Receives Sinful Men (headedhome.wordpress.com)
Jesus Christ is referred to as the “Lamb of God”. This symbol points to Christ being a perfect sacrifice for sin. It also conveys his meekness and his willingness to submit to suffering and death and that He did.
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Through the death of Jesus Christ, God has provided a means of removing guilt, thus op
Ten Commandments in Christianity – Intro (cmoneyspinner.wordpress.com)
Some think or believe that these Divine edicts were done away with via Christianity. This is false. In Christian Scriptures, these Commandments are restated in the gospels by Jesus Christ and in the epistles by His Apostles.
“… If We Only Had The Backbone To Do Our Duty?” (gunnygbb2.wordpress.com)
many professing Christians wrote me with comments to the effect that we should not be concerned about whatever global tyranny may be developing, because “it’s all a part of God’s plan,” or “Jesus is coming soon,” and similar statements. I, too, believe in the imminent return of Jesus Christ to earth.
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They seem to look at God as some kind of glorified fireman, who is obligated to rush in at the last minute to rescue them from a burning fire–a fire that they helped ignite, or at least, refused to put out themselves when they had the opportunity to do so. It’s the old, “God would not let that happen in America” syndrome.
Preparing For Eternity (therenewedreformedmind.wordpress.com)
God promises to give so much to his children and none of which we deserve. Peter tells us that our inheritance is unfading. He later in the same chapter tells us to set our hope fully on the grace that will be brought to us at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Learn how and why the bible is a revolutionary’s handbook and the antecedent for modern Individualism, Existentialism, Democracy, and Communism as Shawn and Aaron are joined by DJ Matt Hogan for a very special bible study.
Culture Change by the Apostle Paul (bpardekooper.wordpress.com)
The Apostle Paul was a dynamic leader as a founder of Christianity and the church of Jesus Christ. As a Jew, Paul was keenly aware of the culture of the Jewish people and their customs, but recognized growth was necessary for his people to follow Jesus the Christ. Paul’s central message throughout his ministry focused on a simple concept: to become like Jesus Christ and live a life in accordance with his teachings and example. (I Co. 11:1, Ep. 5:1, 4:22-24, Ga. 3.27, Ro. 8:29) In establishing Christianity, Paul was on a journey to change the culture of the Jewish people to embrace a new reality given to them by Jesus.
Joel Osteen’s false gospel (babylonexposed.wordpress.com)
We never like to close our broadcast, without giving you a chance to make Jesus the Lord of your life.
Who Will We Reach? (foolforhim.wordpress.com)
If we retreat from the world because everyone else is unholy, who then would be saved? If we retreat from preaching and praying and influencing people in the world, then who will we reach?
Christian Benefits (faithcounts.wordpress.com)
Whether you are a Christian or not, it is helpful to know what Christian benefits are, and are not. You might be surprised. Many people incorrectly think that Christians have health, wealth, no problems, and an easy life. — Not! God does not promise any of these to Christians.
When He had created man in His own image, and blown His breath in the nostrils of this man, the 1° Adam came into life with blood running through his veins, and could hear His creation talking to Him, giving him the surroundings to live in and to give names for all the things man could find in his life. Though not so happy on his own man requested a partner, so God provided a mannin (the female, part of the red blooded man) out of his rib. This woman, Eve, also could hear the Voice of God and live with her partner in the Garden of Eden, which was a perfect world. This female creature got a dignified role in the creation, and had to bring forth other human beings to populate the earth.
We may understand God expected man and mannin to be been a faithful to each other and to Him. He had organised the system, having created space, heavens, planets, solar systems, time and as such an organised system of things and asked them also to organise their life by first calling the things by name. They had to take care of mother earth.
God created things with the appearance of age. This allows a specific ‘literal’ interpretation of Genesis 1, 2. It is suggested that miracles such as the turning of water into wine indicate that the miraculously provided wine was created with an apparent age. This idea is extended for example to God creating trees with apparent annual rings that God had fabricated. God organised the whole system so that everything would become clear as soon as man got more insight in those things. Several different combinations of radioactive isotopes in the rocks independently indicate an age of several billion years, that way people can come to place the things in the time indication they are following, which can be different now from one group of humans to an other. Today we may find the Gregorian calendar, the Jewish, an Islamic and Julian calendar in use, making it that for each of these population we are in ‘an other time’.
God normally provided sun, moon and darkness to provide a time indication. This a lunisolar calendar is still being followed by the Jews. The time indication given by God for man is different than God’s time indication for Himself, being one day a thousand years.
Gen 1:5 NSB God called the light day. He called the darkness night. There was evening and there was morning, one day.
2Pe 3:8 NSB Do not forget this one thing, beloved, that one day is with Jehovah as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. (Psalm 90:1, 4)
Psa 90:4 NSB In your sight a thousand years are like a single day, like yesterday, already past like an hour in the night.
Hebrew or Jewish calendar (הַלּוּחַ הָעִבְרִי, ha’luach ha’ivri), showing Adar II between 1927 and 1948
In the time span of God man could live freely but had to respect the days of God. By time passing, days were added and as such man was requested to organise special days for God. These holy days could be determined by the the dates on that calendar of the People of God or Hebrew calendar. With it people can organise for Jewish holidays and for Christian holidays, to get the dates right for the appropriate public reading of Torah portions, yahrzeits, and daily Psalm readings, among many ceremonial uses. In Israel, it is still used for religious and for civil purposes, providing also a time frame for agriculture. Although the civil calendar usage has been steadily declining in favour of the Gregorian or Western calendar also sometimes called the Christian calendar, which is internationally the most widely used civil calendar.
The Julian Day calendar, introduced by the authority of Julius Caesar in 46 bce, brings a system of astronomical dating allowing the difference between two dates to be calculated more easily than conventional civil calendars with their uneven months and is still used by used by some Orthodox Churches. Dates in the Julian calendar are sometimes designated “Old Style.”
An Election Entertainment featuring the anti-Gregorian calendar banner “Give us our Eleven Days”, 1755. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
God gave preparation days and special days to remember and to take rest. For mankind it had to be followed and to be a “legacy,” or “inheritance” (nachala) (Time (of) Year) Later in history we shall see that the Roman emperorConstantine organised the Council of Nicaea in 325 CE, one of the key concerns was to determine a date for celebrating Easter that would be the same across the board for all Christians and in accordance with the celebration of the god of fertility Eostre, the namesake of the festival of Easter. Constantine wanted to have all the Christian festivities falling together with those of the Romans and having the Christians to accept the Roman tri-godhead celebrations in their meetings. The determination of a dating method for the pagan feast which later became a holiday in many Christian communities called Easter, got all the different Christian communities who came to accept the tri-une godhead to celebrate Easter on the exact same day, whilst the other true Christians kept on celebrating God’s Days but got it more difficult to know which day had to be celebrated. As such the Romans and those who got more power from emperor Constantine hoped they would not be able to follow God’s holidays and soon would join the public holidays.
But before the adversaries of God had taken most in control god took care that His Word would keep sounding all over the world at all times. The order and organisation offered to man by god was rejected by the man and mannin, they questioning His right to govern everything and to decide everything, being Master over everything and especially over the Knowledge of good and evil (with the Tree of good and evil). The order of hierarchy became damaged and God had to provide a new world order with man having now given the right to organise everything himself. After the fall, the first sin of man, the human beings could receive all the robes in their hands to arrange life.
Destructive plate margin; oceanic crust is forced below the continental crust because oceanic crust is denser than continental crust. Friction between the moving plates causes earthquakes. The heat increase due to friction and being pushed into the asthenosphere causes the oceanic crust to melt, and reduced density forces the newly formed magma to rise. The magma rises up through weak areas in the continental crust, eventually erupting as one or more volcanoes.
Man and mannin were cast out of the perfect world which was all the time in harmony. Now they came in the outer boarders where God had allowed the world continually to develop. From then onwards people would feel the creation evolving with among others the movement of the earth’s liquid interior causing earthquakes and volcanoes as lava is forced to the surface and the plates of the earth shift. However, movement of the earth’s liquid core also creates the magnetosphere, a magnetic field shielding the earth from cosmic rays. This all made part of God’s Plan but now man got more knowledge of it and had to bear the consequences of their actions contrary to the Will of God. Whilst at the beginning, man had not to fear volcanoes, they now came to fear them for their destruction. Instead of gaining the knowledge they had hoped for, becoming equal with or even higher than God they lost their innocence and their inner peace, coming not to see straight ahead what possible benefits such eruptions of volcanoes could have. Volcanoes are part of the earth’s carbon cycle, regulating temperature and carbon balance so that life can survive and flourish.
God had everything placed so nicely in His system, but man wanted to be master over their own system. Now they got it. Perhaps the Garden of Eden was such a sacred place where there would not have been any problem with the further development of the universe that the movement of the earth’s surface plates over-there would not have created deadly earthquakes and tsunamis. Spread out over the earth’s surface people had to find places to live which perhaps were not provide for such conditions at first, but with man moving to the wrong places, making the wrong decisions to live somewhere they came to suffer by those actions of the earth were the movement of these plates is also essential to life on earth and were the streams of water are also necessary for the development and fertilisation of the soil.
The God of order had everything in His ‘head’ and enclosed in His ‘heart’ and had everything foreseen for His human beings. The divine Creator is the One to Whom belongs Rulership and awe. Dominion and fear are with Him. He establishes order in the heights of heaven and He makes peace in His high places.
Job 25:2 NSB »Rulership and awe belong to God. He establishes order in the heights of heaven.
Adam and Eve were created perfect. We do believe, unlike most trinitarian Christians, that God made His creation perfect and that Adam and Eve had everything to be and to stay perfect. God was not a cruel god who imposed laws he knew man could not keep. The Divine Creator did very well know that the Laws or Commandments He gave to the human beings could be followed by every human being. In case Eve had listened to God and not driven her own will, there would not have been any problem. Now she got judgement over her and got damned with suffering. With her the 1° Adam also was taken into to temptation and into the damnation of the fall. Man became consigned to perdition, being made from dust he was to return to dust again.
Gen 2:7 NSB Jehovah God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. The man became a living being.
Gen 3:12-19 NSB Adam said: »The woman you put here with me gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it.« (13) Then Jehovah God said to the Eve: »What is this you have done?« The woman answered: »The serpent deceived me, and I ate.« (14) So Jehovah God said to the serpent: »Because you have done this you are cursed above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. (15) »And I will put enmity (hostility) (hatred) between you and the woman, and between your offspring (seed) and hers. He will bruise (overwhelm) (crush) you in the head, and you will bruise (overwhelm) (crush) him in the heel.« (Romans 16:20) (16) He said to the woman: »I will greatly increase your pains in childbirth; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.« (17) He said to Adam: »Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. (18) »It will produce thorns and thistles for you. You will eat the plants of the field. (19) »You will eat your food by the sweat of your brow until you return to the ground. You came from the ground. For dust you are and to dust you will return.«
Job 34:15 NSB »All flesh would perish and man would return to dust.
Psa 90:3-10 NSB You turn men back into dust and say: »Return, O sons of men!« (4) In your sight a thousand years are like a single day, like yesterday, already past like an hour in the night. (5) You sweep mortals away in the sleep of death. They sprout again in the morning like grass. (6) In the morning they blossom and sprout. In the evening they fade and wither away. (7) Your anger consumes us. We are troubled by your rage. (8) You set our sins in front of you. You put our secret sins in the light of your presence. (9) Indeed, all our days slip away because of your fury. We live out our years like one long sigh. (10) The days of our lives are seventy or eighty years if we are in good health. But the best of them bring trouble and misery. Indeed, they are soon gone, and we fly away.
The God of order and love presented an ending to the suffering, an end to the misery by the end of life. But this end of life does not fit the Plan of god and therefore He provide a solution to return the consequences of disobedience in the hope more human being would come to obey His orders and be prepared to honour Him as the Only One God.
To help them to find the right way to restore the damaged relationship He continued to give His Word with the people in the world.
Ides of March: What Is It? Why Do We Still Observe It? (fromthetrenchesworldreport.com)
Aside from its historical connection, the concept of the Ides of March would have resonated with English citizens in 1599, the year Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar was probably performed, Ziegler said.
“This whole business of the Ides of March and timekeeping in the play would have had a strong impact on audiences,” she said.
“They were really struck by the differences between their Julian calendar [a revision of the Roman calendar created by Caesar] and the Gregorian calendar kept in Catholic countries on the continent.”
Because the two calendars featured years of slightly different lengths, they had diverged significantly by the late 16th century and were several days apart.
Fisher: The coming of spring (themorningsun.com)
Anxious people stop me on the street and at parties. I can tell by their expression that they are worried. I clasp their hand firmly in both of mine. “What is wrong, friend?” In a hushed tone they respond, “When is Easter coming?” “Why, the first Sunday after the first full Moon after the Vernal Equinox,” I assure them.
We orbit the Sun every 365.24+ days each year. Think of a clock face, with the Winter Solstice at 12 o’clock, and the Summer Solstice at 6 o’clock. Our planet moves counterclockwise on the clock face. Earth is now very near 9 o’clock, the spring, or Vernal Equinox for the Northern Hemisphere. It will occur at 6:45 p.m. on March 20. (The Southern Hemisphere reverses these: they are entering their fall.)
Cultures throughout history have celebrated the coming of spring, thanking the gods for delivering them from the miseries of winter. Sacrifices, feasts, wild parties and lots to drink were accessories to this time. It was important to understand when spring arrived so farmers knew when to plant their crops. The atmosphere was one of joy and rebirth.
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Among the oldest such festival is Passover, April 3 this year, a Jewish celebration of Moses leading the Hebrews out of Egypt. Christian Easter, the most important celebration in their calendar follows from this. Jesus was crucified after the Passover feast of Seder, in 30 CE. Easter is a moveable feast, which means that it does not occur on the same date every year.
In the previous articles discussing the “Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden” articles series by Alexander Rivera on his blog The Aeon Eye we looked at the seed having come to the earth.
From the seed can come a shrub or a tree and fruit. In Part 3 of his interesting series Alexander Rivera goes deeper into the exploration of the archetypal symbols of the Tree and Fruit.
He writes:
Genesis 3 relays how the Serpent offers knowledge in the form of a fruit grown from the Tree of Knowledge (the “Good ” and “Evil” part may have have been added later as a gloss.) Like the Serpent, the Tree of Knowledge is sometimes considered to be a phallic symbol. This Fruit along with the Tree also were used to signify the result or effect of some cause, having both a positive and a negative effect and origin.
And later on continues:
Eve gives the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of which she had eat to her Husband (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
The Tree of Knowledge and digesting the forbidden fruit in Genesis according to Jewish tradition represented the primeval mixture or intermingling of good and evil, light and darkness in an almost Manichean fashion. Eating the fruit forbidden set off a chain reaction where humanity developed a “yeitzer hara” or “evil inclination.” Unlike the earlier Hebrews, who blamed themselves for their woes, the Jewish Rabbis believed God had implanted in the ‘heart’, the Hebrew place of the unconscious of each individual, at his birth or conception. The yezer was not hereditary. It was intrinsically good and the source of creative energy, but had a strong potential for evil through appetite or greed. Only strict observance of the Law could keep the strong, irrational passions it engendered under control. To the commentators in the five centuries before Christ, Adam’s death was due to his own “sinful actions”, and not to the Augustine-authored “original sin nature” or “ancestral sin” inherent in the DNA in the race of man because of the disobedience of the primal parents. The Zohar claims that Adam and Eve lost their immortality by ingesting the fruit which is ironically enough compared to the occult: {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 3)
At first the creation was like God wanted it. We can hear that in his Voice, him every time when he had created something, saying it was good.
Gen 1:4 MKJV And God saw the light that it was good. And God divided between the light and the darkness.
Gen 1:12 MKJV And the earth brought forth tender sprouts, the herb yielding seed after its kind, and the tree producing fruit after its kind, whose seed was in itself. And God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:18 MKJV and to rule over the day and over the night; and to divide between the light and the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:21 MKJV And God created great sea-animals, and every living soul that creeps with which the waters swarmed after their kind; and every winged fowl after its kind. And God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:25 MKJV And God made the beasts of the earth after its kind, and cattle after their kind, and all creepers upon the earth after their kind. And God saw that it was good.
So, what happened with the following phase in the creation?
Gen 1:26-31 MKJV And God said, Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over all the creepers creeping on the earth. (27) And God created man in His image; in the image of God He created him. He created them male and female. (28) And God blessed them. And God said to them, Be fruitful, and multiply and fill the earth, and subdue it. And have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the heavens, and all animals that move upon the earth. (29) And God said, Behold! I have given you every herb seeding seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree seeding seed; to you it shall be for food. (30) And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the heavens, and to every creeper on the earth which has in it a living soul every green plant is for food; and it was so. (31) And God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.
Once more we hear God saying:
Gen 1:31 NET God saw all that he had made — and it was very good!63 There was evening, and there was morning, the sixth day.
Would it be said in the Scriptures that God Elohim saw every thing all that he had made worked , and, behold, it was very mighty good if it was not ‘picco bello’? Also in the way the phase is closed or coming to an end we may find the satisfaction of the Most High facing once again an evening and the morning were became the sixth day.
As such we find that to every beast live being of the earth, and to every fowl flyer of the air heavens, and to every thing that creepeth creeper upon the earth, wherein there is life a living soul, we notice that the soul is the being alive itself, not something extra in the living being, but the living element itself having life in it others it would not be a living creature.
We are told that it was that Elohim, the Most HighMaker who has given every green herb for meat food and it was so thus it became. Though one certain fruit was not to be eaten. By it man brought death over himself.
Hear what saith scripture when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree by which death entered into their souls or lower nature, ‘And when they heard the voice of the Lord of the Alhim walking in the garden’ (Gen. iii-8), or, as it ought to be rendered, had walked (mithhalech). Note further that whilst Adam had not fallen, he was a recipient of divine wisdom (hochma) and heavenly light and derived his continuous existence from the Tree of Life to which he had free access, but as soon as he allowed himself to be seduced and deluded with the desire of occult knowledge, he lost everything, heavenly light and life through the disjunction of his higher and lower self, and, the loss of that harmony that should always exist between them, in short, he then first knew what evil was and what it entailed, and, therefore, it is written, ‘Thou art not a God that approveth wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with thee’ (Is. v-5); or, in other words, he who implicitly and blindly follows the dictates of his lower nature or self shall not come near the Tree of Life.
The imagery of the tree is also included in Simon Magus’s cosmology, as reported by Hippolytus of Rome, is a powerful model that describing some rare concepts that Simononians in the early third century work described in the Philosophumena, asthe “Great Declaration” or “Great Announcement”. Simon very much describes a tree of fire that consumes itself. This is a third century Simonian document, positing that the root of all existence is infinite, and abides in man, who serves as its dwelling-house. The Logos or the Word is projected down by the luciferian Lightening Flash through the Aeons and into the manifest world and man. From the original root, the hidden principle, spring three pairs of manifestations of: Mind and Thought, Voice and Name, Reasoning and Reflection. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 3)
When the seed falls in the earth, starts to grow it can become a bush or grow out to a tree, being a wooden stake presenting fruits with new seeds. In the classical Greek Scriptures we also find the word stau·ros′ which meant merely an upright stake, or pale, or a pile such as is used for a foundation, a single piece of wood. In the New Testament we do find that Jeshua (Jesus Christ) is nailed at such a stake, a pale, without a crossbeam of any kind at any angle. By the apostles Peter and Paul we also find th word xy′lon to refer to the torture instrument upon which Jesus was nailed, and this shows that it was an upright stake without a crossbeam, for that is what xy′lon in this special sense means. (Acts of the apostles 5:30; 10:39; 13:29; Galatians 3:13; 1Peter 2:24)
Act 5:30 MKJV The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed and hanged on a tree.
Act 10:39 MKJV And we are witnesses of all things which He did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed Him and hanged Him on a tree;
Act 13:29 MKJV And when they had fulfilled all that was written concerning Him, taking Him down from the tree, they laid Him in a tomb.
Normally every one that was hanged on a tree was considered to be a cursed one. In several cultures living beings where also like fruit was hanging on the wood, made to hang on the wood and burned as an offering. In this way Christ came also to redeem us – Εξηγορασεν· buying us us with a price made by his body loosing life in his flesh and blood. He became an atonement for our sins buying us free, like in the many cultures people thought to ‘bribe’ their gods getting some favours by offering a lamb or food or innocent children. Here an innocent lamb or innocent ‘child’ was offered by giving the God an innocent man. For whatever was offered as an atonement for sin was considered as bearing the punishment due to sin, and the person who suffered for transgression was considered as bearing the curse in his body; therefore, in the same day in which a criminal was executed it was ordered that his body should be buried, that the land might not be polluted, because he that was hanged, which was the case with every heinous culprit, was considered accursed of God, (Deuteronomy 21:22, 23).
This man from Nazareth coming under the curse of the Law — more or less artificially, and in the manner of his death only — whilst living a perfectly righteous life. This way Jeshua removed that curse and made it meaningless. He took away the chains of that curse and as such became a liberator, a Kristos or Christ, a Messiah. He died innocent and gave his body as a ransom for all souls (all living beings) but they will have to recognise him as their liberator, their saviour who would then become “in Christ” also liberated from the curse of death.
Jesus has become that seed on a tree which justifies.
Gal 3:13 MKJV Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us (for it is written, “Cursed is everyone having been hanged on a tree”);
Though “Trust, Faith”shall be necessary to have a knowledge which shall bring comfort and should make a fundamental condition through which a man becomes well-pleasing to God, and partaker of the gracious gift of life, presenting also works according to that faith. In his letter to Galatians the apostle Paul states that one is declared righteous or well-pleasing to God, in consequence of faith whereby truth is included.
Wanting to have the seed bearing fruit it has to find good soil. In barren land it shall not be able to shoot. Only there where people are really willing to obey God rather than men shall be found such fertile ground which shall bring forth the fruits from the seed which the God of our ancestors raised Jesus, whom was put to death by hanging him on a wooden stake. It is this Jesus whom God has exalted to his right hand, to be a Guide, Ruler and a Saviour, to give Israel repentance and forgiveness of sins.
Act 5:29-31 MKJV And Peter and the apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. (30) The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you killed and hanged on a tree. (31) This One God has exalted to be a Ruler and Savior to His right hand in order to give repentance and remission of sins to Israel.
In the many creation myths we can find gods who are favoured by one or the other but in the Judaic Scriptures the Divine Maker only favours the human beings in allowing them to give names to plants and animals and to use them as food. But in between the human beings the Elohim does not places one before the other. That God of the Universe does not show partiality, but it is true He wants recognition for Himself as the sole Creator and for being the Only One God. He is the One Who gives life and he is the one who cursed the 1° Adam and his seed but also provided a new pure seed which could grow fluently and be rich in giving good seeds, even providing a very pure seed which could become a new tree of life by being hang on the tree of death. We also have to notice that God has sent His Message to the Israelites and told them, through Jesus Christ, the Good News of peace — and that Jesus is Lord of all! Today there are many who know the story which spread through all Judea, how good news,which sprang from Galilee, after the baptism preached by John brought the story of Jesus of Nazareth, and how God consecrated him His Christ by enduing him with the Holy Spirit and with power; and how he went about doing good and curing all who were under the power of the adversaryof God, because God was with him. The apostles were witnesses to all that he did in Judea and in Jerusalem and how he was put to death by hanging him on a tree, a piece of wood that could not give any fruit any more, but by God now was made higher to become a symbol of life giving fruit which all who would take it would give eternal life by receiving remission of sins.
Act 10:34-43 MKJV Then Peter opened his mouth and said, Truly I see that God is no respecter of persons; (35) but in every nation he who fears Him and works righteousness is accepted with Him. (36) You know the Word which God sent to the sons of Israel, preaching the gospel of peace by Jesus Christ (He is Lord of all!); (37) that word which was published throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee, after the baptism which John proclaimed; (38) how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and He went about doing good, and healing all those who were oppressed by the Devil, for God was with Him. (39) And we are witnesses of all things which He did, both in the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed Him and hanged Him on a tree; (40) but God raised Him up the third day and showed Him openly, (41) not to all the people, but to witnesses hand-picked before by God, even to us who ate and drank with Him after He rose from the dead. (42) And He commanded us to preach to the people, and to testify that it is He who was ordained of God to be the Judge of the living and the dead. (43) All the Prophets give witness to Him, that through His name whoever believes in Him shall receive remission of sins.
Hanged on a stake as a criminal but also as the King of the Jews
In the writings of Livy, a Roman historian of the first century B.C.E., crux means a mere stake. “Cross” is only a later meaning of crux. A single stake for impalement of a criminal was called in Latin cruxsim′plex. One such instrument of torture is illustrated by Justus Lipsius (1547-1606) in his book Decrucelibritres, Antwerp, 1629, p. 19.
The instrument on which Jeshua died was in the original writings called “σταυρός [stau·ros′] which means every upright standing pale or tree trunk. At Jesus’ time of the Romans beside scourging, according to the gospel accounts, only the simplest form of Roman crucifixion comes into consideration for the infliction of punishment upon Jesus, the hanging of the unclad body on a stake, which, by the way, Jesus had to carry or drag to the execution place to intensify the disgraceful punishment.
. . . Anything other than a simple hanging is ruled out by the wholesale manner in which this execution was often carried out: 2000 at once by Varus (Jos. Ant. XVII 10. 10), by Quadratus (Jewish Wars II 12. 6), by the Procurator Felix (Jewish Wars II 15. 2), by Titus (Jewish Wars VII. 1).” {Paul Wilhelm Schmidt, DieGeschichteJesu (The History of Jesus), Vol. 2, Tübingen and Leipzig, 1904, pp. 386-394}
Just as the popular Greek hero Prometheus was represented as tied to rocks people found it right to have cursed ones being tied up on a rock by the sea or on a tree on land. The Greek word that the dramatist Aeschylus used to describe this word stauros, simply means to tie or to fasten, the Greek author Lucian (Prometheus, I) used a·na·stau·ro′o as a synonym for that word. In the Christian Greek Scriptures a·na·stau·ro′o occurs but once, in Hebrews 6:6. The root verb stau·ro′o occurs more than 40 times, that is also a reason why we render it often as “impale,” or ‘fasten on a stake (pole) and you shall find us saying “Jesus was impaled” instead of the wrongly understood “Jesus was crucified”, making people think of the pagan cross-concept, the sign of Tammuz, the god of evil and personification of death.
Alexander Rivera writes:
The Stauros (Cross), which means to “stand” or “straighten up” (e.g. the “Standing One” per Simon Magus?) in its true self is a living idea, a reality or root-principle of separation and limit, dividing entity from non-entity, being from non-being, perfection from imperfection, fullness and emptiness, Light from Darkness. The Stauros or Horos was also seen as synonymous with the Logos and was also seen as the sign of victory as per the doctrine of Christus Victor atonement i.e, that Christ defeated the powers by duping them into crucifying him. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 4)}
The apostle John in the opening of his gospel-book refers to the Genesis story where God every time spoke and had His Word (Logos) bringing something into being. The Logos or Word is that what is said, not exactly a person like many Christians want to see it. Out from the darkness and chaos light was created and out of the darkness of the sordid world came again the Word of God bringing light with bringing that what the Elohim had promised in the Garden of Eden (long before Abraham was born) into flesh, giving the world His onlybegotten son, Jeshua, Jesus Christ.
From eternity there was the Elohim God. Him being there from eternity had His Thinking or His Pneuma, His Mind or Spirit with Him in Him. But with Him was also the coming forth form the Thinking which gave sound or a beginning of ordered vowels presenting sound and giving Words. As such The Word was in the beginning, and that very Word was with God. That speaking coming from God belonged to God and as such also could be considered being God, because God is spirit and not a person like we see ourselves as human beings.
That Word, The speaking of God, the Promises he made, were in the beginning with God and they are still with God. It was in the beginning of times God had already to make a promise about the seed. As everything came into being by The God of gods, there were seeds in the Garden of Eden, but having now Adam and Eve out of the Garden there had to come a new seed and a new tree of life. By that tree or stauros life had to enter again in the world of man. By the Hand of God the 1° Adam was made but also the world could find the 2° Adam being made. By God’s Word spoken to the young girl Miriam (Mary/Maria) God’s Word brought His Word onto earth. The Elohim took care speaker for Him was to be presented under man. This voice in the world would be high placed, being a god between people. Like everything came to be by God His Hand; and without Him not even one thing came to be of what was created, so also this seed of the 1° Adam was going to multiply with seeds full of life. Like the life was in the Elohim God Most High, Jehovah provided a solution for the fall in the Garden of Eden, and gave the world a new tree of life in which the world found again the light of man.
Joh 1:1-4 MKJV In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (2) He was in the beginning with God. (3) All things came into being through Him, and without Him not even one thing came into being that has come into being. (4) In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
In many man-made stories we can find lights of man, emancipators, bringers of strength, bringers of fortune, guides and leaders.
Guarding this Horos was the Limit-Setter, the Across-Taker, the Emancipator, the Guide or Leader that guides the initiated soul from its astral journey from the underworld, to the zodiacal cosmos, to the eighth heaven or “ogdoad” where Sophia is said to dwell, near the gates and finally to the Heavenly Cross, functioning like a portal or gateway into the realm of the Father or the Pleroma. The Logos himself is designated as a “door” or a “gate” into eternal life symbolized as pasture, for the saved sheep (or souls) (John 10:9).
This region was also called the “suburbs”, a frontier or the barrier, demarcating the boundary between the worlds. The term “suburbs” is also used in a Peratic text that the Church Father Hippolytus quotes at length called The Suburbs up to the Aither in the Philosophumena or the Refutation of All Heresies, which I will briefly touch on later on. In Plato’s Timaeus, he refers to the soul-stuff of the universe in terms of two circular strips joined together like the Greek letter chi (X). Similarly, tau, the last letter of the Phoenician and Old Hebrew alphabets, is shaped like a cross, and was popularly held to be a protective emblem of supernatural power. Crosses were also said to be used by Roman General Marcius Turbo’s forces in the first century to carry their food and clothing. {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 4)}
Hanged on the sign of the god Tammuz as persons of evil. – Kreuzigung Christi: 1509, Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472–1553)
The sign of the god of evil, Tammuz, being two beams crossing each other was used in many cultures and was also taken over later in Christendom by those who wanted to have a sign for their god as well to bow down for. Though those Christians should have know that the Elohim Creator does not want His people to bow down in front of graven images.
Exo 20:1-7 MKJV And God spoke all these words, saying, (2) I am Jehovah your God, who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. (3) You shall have no other gods before Me. (4) You shall not make to yourselves any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. (5) You shall not bow yourself down to them, nor serve them. For I Jehovah your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the sons to the third and fourth generation of those that hate me, (6) and showing mercy to thousands of those that love Me and keep My commandments. (7) You shall not take the name of Jehovah your God in vain. For Jehovah will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain.
The most commonly known format of the Rosary, flanked by the Bible and a free-standing Crucifix.Islamic prayer beads for dhikr (remembrance of God)
Today we still can find lots of Christians making themselves an idol, like sculptures of a Jesus hanging on a cross, a Christ with a red open gleaming heart, a virgin Mary, all sorts of saints, all statues where they pray for. They seem to forget The God asked His people not to bow for in worship for a picture of Himself nor for the likeness of any thing, which is in the heaven above, or in the earth below, or in the waters under the earth. Though by the warp and weft, it is for many the order of the day to burn candles or to pray in front of pictures or statues. By many Trinitarian Christians this seems to be the run-of-the-mill to them and they often do not feel happy when they could not do such an action or are afraid that something could happen to them.
Also by several Muslims we do find such a fear and like we can find Christopher or rosebuds or rosary (paternoster) in cars hanging on the front mirror or on the dashboard we find prayer beads hanging on the front mirror by Muslims as well. When they would not have such symbols in their car or in the house, like ‘sacred or blessed palm’, they think the seed of evil might come over them.
Mural “God’s Mather” in Belyova church
Real Christians should take God Words at heart and remember:
Deu 5:8 MKJV You shall not make a graven image for you, any likeness of anything that is in the heavens above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters beneath the earth.
Deu 27:15 MKJV Cursed is the man that makes any graven or molten image, an abomination to Jehovah, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and puts it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen.
Psa 97:1-12 MKJV Jehovah reigns; let the earth rejoice; let the multitude of islands be glad. (2) Clouds and darkness are all around Him; righteousness and judgment are the foundation of His throne. (3) A fire goes before Him and burns up His enemies round about. (4) His lightnings lit up the world; the earth saw and trembled. (5) The hills melted like wax at the presence of Jehovah, at the presence of Jehovah of the whole earth. (6) The heavens declare His righteousness, and all the people see His glory. (7) All those who serve graven images are ashamed, those who boast themselves in idols; all gods bow down before Him. (8) Zion heard and was glad; and the daughters of Judah rejoiced because of Your judgments, O Jehovah. (9) For You, Jehovah, are high above all the earth; You are lifted on high far above all gods. (10) You who love Jehovah, hate evil; He keeps the souls of His saints; He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked. (11) Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart. (12) Rejoice in Jehovah, righteous ones; and give thanks at the memory of His holiness.
Isa 40:18-20 MKJV To whom then will you compare God? Or what likeness will you compare to Him? (19) The workman melts a graven image, and the goldsmith spreads it over with gold, and casts silver chains. (20) He too poor for that offering chooses a tree that will not rot; he looks for a skillful workman to prepare a graven image that will not totter.
In having a figure of a man on a piece of wood or a sculpture of a god-man people find themselves presented as God and have their god from mankind in their own world. As such they created themselves a go son, a god father and a god mother and twist the Words of Scriptures to suit their man madedogma of a Trinity or triune god, a three headed god, like such a god can be found in lots of ancient pagan religions.
“The trinity of persons within the unity of nature is defined in terms of ‘person’ and ‘nature’ which are G[ree]k philosophical terms; actually the terms do not appear in the Bible. The trinitarian definitions arose as the result of long controversies in which these terms and others such as ‘essence’ and ‘substance’ were erroneously applied to God by some theologians.” {Dictionary of the Bible, John L. McKenzie, S.J., p. 899}
Seed was the essence of life and out of seed came more than one element or fruit and more than one god. The evangelist John referring to the seed promised in the Garden of Eden, speaking about the first-born of all creation should have people to open their eyes and to question them why, if the Trinity doctrine is true, the Father and the Holy Spirit, god’s Pneuma, not also said to be the firstborn of all creation? When we look closely at what is written in the Holy Scriptures we can see that the Bible applies this expression only to the son.
In the Old Testament we can find more than once the seed of Adam being blessed and bringing forth children of God. We also get to see that there is the firstborn of Abram (Abraham) being requested as an offering but that what came out of the seed, the bush, getting into fire, giving light and promising Abraham much more seed and letting the world to be known that out of his seed would come more light and salvation. Many years after Abraham a child is born which is spoken of as the “firstborn,” who is also presented as the newborn of the new world, the 2° Adam. It indicates that Jesus is the eldest in Jehovah’s family of sons. With this new seed, promised in the Garden of Eden and having come into blossoming a two thousand years ago
“by means of him allotherthings were created “
we get a figure that can create again some would say, but it indicates that God uses Jesus Christ to continue His creation and as such
. . . Allotherthings have been created through him and for him.”
Thus he is shown to be a created being, part of the creation produced by God who has delivered us from the power of darkness? It was the Father of this son Who is the Deliverer or Saviour, because he accepted the offering of His son who is the saviour for mankind. That seed of King David is the one who was promised and who brought us the way to the kingdom of God. It is by that seed on the tree by whom we have obtained salvation and forgiveness of sins. He is not only a first-born but also the pure image of the invisible God, and the first-born of every creature. In case that seed would not have grown and have been purified we would not have had any chance. Without him our names would not been written in the Book of life, which is in heaven. Whether imperial thrones, or lordships, or angelic orders, or dominions, all things were in his hand and as such could be considered as having been created by him, because when God would not have provided that seed in the Garden of Eden and would have destroyed Adam and Eve at once, no human being would have lived on this earth. Therefore Jeshua, the promised seed, is before all things, and by him all things are sustained. Though many people do not want to respect what he really has done, dying for the sins of many (remember that God cannot die), Jesus who was first lower than angels (remember that God was, is and always shall be the Most High) Jesus became the seed of the woman that could become the head of the body, the church, for he is the beginning, the firstfruits of the resurrection from the dead. It is like seed has to fall on the ground after it had dried up or died from the plant, this seed of a man also died and became the shoot of Jesse that in all things he might be the first; for it pleased God to complete all things in him; and by his hand to reconcile everything to himself; and through his blood shed on the stake made peace both for those who dwell on earth and for those who dwell in heaven.
Col 1:13-20 MKJV For He has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son; (14) in whom we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins. (15) who is the image of the invisible God, the First-born of all creation. (16) For all things were created in Him, the things in the heavens, and the things on the earth, the visible and the invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created through Him and for Him. (17) And He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. (18) And He is the Head of the body, the church, who is the Beginning, the First-born from the dead, that He may be pre-eminent in all things. (19) For it pleased the Father that in Him all fullness should dwell. (20) And through Him having made peace through the blood of His cross, it pleased the Father to reconcile all things to Himself through Him, whether the things on earth or the things in Heaven.
The seed from the dead wood was a single man, not one who existed out of three seeds or three gods. God Himself has revealed that seed as His only begotten belovedson.
Mat 3:16-17 MKJV And Jesus, when He had been baptized, went up immediately out of the water. And lo, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon Him. (17) And lo, a voice from Heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
The “You are My Son, the Beloved” gives an indication that this son of man is also son of god and not like some interpret it to be ‘god the son’. His “goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting” is about that seed spoken off in the Garden of Eden. It is noteworthy that, instead of saying “days of eternity,” RS renders the Hebrew as “ancient days”; JB, “days of old”; NW, “days of time indefinite.” That seed was not eternal it had the beginning in those older days way back at the beginning.
Mic 5:2-5 MKJV And you, Bethlehem Ephratah, you being least among the thousands of Judah, out of you He shall come forth to Me, to become Ruler in Israel, He whose goings forth have been from of old, from the days of eternity. (3) Therefore He will give them over until the time the one giving birth has given birth; then the rest of His brothers shall return to the sons of Israel. (4) And He shall stand and feed in the strength of Jehovah, in the majesty of the name of Jehovah His God. And they shall sit, for now He shall be great to the ends of the earth. (5) And this One shall be peace. When Assyria shall come into our land; and when he shall walk in our palaces, then we shall raise against him seven shepherds and eight anointed ones from men.
The seed like a mustard seed has grown and from the smallest seed shall have to come forth a great tree of seeds of the Father, the Most High Creator, all children of God.
If Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were coequal, comprising one Godhead then we would find a God who at several occasions did not tell the truth, because God is an all-knowing God, but Jesus on several occasions says he does not know a certain thing; He even does not know when he would come back. God also says He is an eternal Spirit which would make Jesus faking his death and telling lies when he says that a spirit has no flesh and bones and when he shows his wounds to his disciples to proof he is no spirit.
Luk 24:34-40 MKJV And they said, the Lord has indeed risen, and has appeared to Simon. (35) And in the way they related the things happening, and how He had been known by them in breaking of the loaf. (36) And as they spoke this, Jesus Himself stood in their midst, and said to them, Peace to you! (37) But they were terrified and filled with fear, for they thought they saw a spirit. (38) And He said to them, Why are you troubled, and why do thoughts arise in your hearts? (39) Behold My hands and My feet, that I am He! Handle Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see Me have. (40) And when He had spoken this, He showed them His hands and feet.
In case Jesus is God then Jesus being in God like we should be in Jesus and in God would make us God as well, when you take it that being in some one is being that one and that the unity of Christ means that Jesus is god than the unity of us with Christ means that we are Christ and as such are also God.
Jesus asks to believe in him and to know that the works which he does, his Father in heaven shall do even greater works than these which Jesus could not do without his Father. And Jesus was on earth but told the others, not he was doing al this but the One to Whom he was going to. He was going to the place of his Father, Who he was going to join. He also told his followers that he was going to his Father who may be glorified through him, Jehovah God His Son. It is this son of God who will ask of his Father; and it is Him Who was to give the apostles another Comforter, to be with them for ever.
Jesus tells his apostles that he will be gone and that the world shall not able to see him any more. On the day the comforter or the Force of God would come over them their eyes would go open and they would come to understanding of all those things they saw happening. At the time they happened they did not understand but after the Pneuma, God’s Power came over them they came to understand everything and came to know that Jesus is with his Father. But at the same time Jesus would be there for them with them and they would be with him. Everybody should get the faith in Jesus, the son of God and love him so that he also will be loved by Jesus his Father.
Joh 14:12-21 MKJV Truly, truly, I say to you, He who believes on Me, the works that I do he shall do also, and greater works than these he shall do, because I go to My Father. (13) And whatever you may ask in My name, that I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (14) If you ask anything in My name, I will do it. (15) If you love Me, keep My commandments. (16) And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, so that He may be with you forever, (17) the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive because it does not see Him nor know Him. But you know Him, for He dwells with you and shall be in you. (18) I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. (19) Yet a little while and the world does not see Me any more. But you see Me. Because I live, you shall live also. (20) At that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you. (21) He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will reveal Myself to him.
Jesus never claimed to be God and addresses the Father as “the only true God”; so, Jesus as “a god” in the first chapter of John merely reflects his Father’s divine qualities and looks at Jesus as a high or important person person, like Apollo, Zeus, Pharaoh, Moses, angels and others are called ‘god’ in the Bible, but where never is intended them to be The God.
In several stories written before the New Testament several gods are presented to bring new light and to bring change in life because crossing axes would bring in new breath (life). But to get the life the occult signs, the making of a cross repeatedly had to be done regularly, because otherwise the gods of evil would get more force and conquer again over light and bring darkness again.
Little Known Facts About the Christmas Tree (articles.we-wood.us)
For thousands of years, people have brought live greens into their homes during the dark weeks surrounding the winter solstice. Ancient Egyptians picked palm fronds to honor the sun god Ra, while Romans decorated with holly for the solstice celebration of Saturnalia.The pagan tradition of decorating with branches and trees was adapted by early Christians in Germany, where Germans decorated trees with apples to remember Adam and Eve. In the 1600s, Protestant reformer Martin Luther was walking home through a fir forest one night while composing a sermon and was inspired by the stars shining on the snow to add candles to his family’s Christmas tree.
Retreat Notes on Authority (supertradmum-etheldredasplace.blogspot.com)
Eve’s sin was curiosity (which I wrote about here) and when the snake began to talk, as animals did not talk (Eden is Not Narnia) she should have left the scene immediately and asked Adam for discernment and help.
Heave is for Real – The Most Believable Depictions (mybloglogb.typepad.com)
Some spiritual topics simply can’t be done seriously in movies very often. I wrote recently about how Adam and Eve have never been depicted very seriously in film (other than a couple of times), and it seems heaven is the same way. Like Adam and Eve, we can’t get our head around what the reality of these spiritual topics may be, and we’re probably not supposed to in the grand scheme of life. In the movies, translating the ineffable means bringing plenty of irony, and the depiction of heaven has had plenty.
Adam and Eve are Ancient “Archetypes” (jacksonwu.org)
the book demonstrates the importance biblical training with respect to interpretation method. I’m not simply referring to theological instruction. In fact, Walton’s argument suggests that theological presuppositions are precisely what keep us from understanding God’s authoritative meaning in Gen 1–3.
The Truth: Who Are You (a Must Read) (eyeopenerunity.wordpress.com)
So if good was already known and evil was presented as good than what does that tell us??
The Aeon Eye with Alexander Rivera looks also at the very beginning of the Bible and the Torah where we are presented with the idea of the origins of mankind in the Primordial Garden of Eden that we first see in the Book of Genesis, the Bereshith.
Alexander Rivera remarks:
The traditional Orthodox reading of this story, of course, presents the age-old legend as literal evidence for the claim of mankind’s original sin and subsequent fall from primordial perfection and divine grace, as if God was still holding an eternal grudge against mankind for eating a fruit that he created in the first place, and still cursing mankind and the world for a multitude of generations after the fact. From this disobedience to God, alienation was given rise from the creator and humanity was once again condemned under the Law that God later gave to Moses at Mt. Sinai. In this reading, humanity is specifically condemned because of their inherently wickedness due to their rebellion and disobedience. And so the story goes, God had to send his innocent Son to die a cruel death to shed his blood to atone for the transgressions of a sinful and destitute humanity. Yet, beneath this callous, misanthropic reading lies a deeper layer of spiritual truth.
Adam and Eve were both naked & were not ashamed, as in Genesis 2:25: “And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.” (KJV) illustration from the 1728 Figures de la Bible; illustrated by Gerard Hoet (1648–1733) and others, and published by P. de Hondt in The Hague; image courtesy Bizzell Bible Collection, University of Oklahoma Libraries (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In the previous Readings from the Scriptures we could see how the female got tempted to get to know more about good and evil and how there was a delight to the eyes, the tree to be desired to make one wise. When she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat she wanted her partner also to be part of her disobedience to the Elohim. She lured him into eating of it as well, though God had prohibited them to touch the tree.
By eating of this tree of the forbidden fruit the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig-leaves together, and made themselves aprons. Suddenly the innocence of nakedness made place for an uncomfortable feeling. Their discomfort being so naked for each other and for the rest around them gave them a bad feeling.
Throughout history the story of the beginning of sin got merciless made in a weapon to unconscionably threaten people with demons, un-heavenly creatures who would damage the human soul and torture the human beings who got tempted by their words and actions. Their living quarters being deep under the ground in the burning alcoves of the underworld.
In the Bereshith, the Tanakh, the Holy Jewish and Christian Bible the adversary of God, could be any tempter, but people wanted to see not themselves in it but preferred to see an extra-terrestrial being in it, giving the noun satan (adversary) the surnames Satan and Lucifer. We do not know if it is like Alexander Rivera thinks that this interpretation would have come into the picture much later with the Book of Wisdom (2:23-24) revealing in this version:
For God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of his own eternity. Nevertheless through envy of the devil came death into the world: and they that do hold of his side do find it.
Irenaeus, the Bishop of Lyons, writes in Against Heresies 5.23, which started the ball rolling for the Orthodox exegetic interpretation:
But that God was true, and the serpent a liar, was proved by the result, death having passed upon them who had eaten. For along with the fruit they did also fall under the power of death, because they did eat in disobedience; and disobedience to God entails death. Wherefore, as they became forfeit to death, from that [moment] they were handed over to it.
Originally the serpent was the metaphor for the creeping evil, the danger that could come up to man, and by moments could have been very beautiful and attractive, very cunning. In life we can encounter slyness and man has found ways to use subtlety and tricks to bring deceit, not always playing clever or subtle games.
In the Revelation of John 12:9, the serpent is equated with a dragon, a devil or satan, which many people take to be a specific figure with the name Satan or Lucifer:
The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.
In the Book Wisdom is told that God created man unto His own likeness without corruption. Nevertheless through envies of the devil, the inner-thought of man going against the given purity of the Master Creator, came death into the world. Everybody in the creation of the Most High has elements of Him in him or her and by this gift of God has the possibility to feel the essence of the Creator in themselves. It are the wicked thoughts which separate from God and do come into the mind of those who think themselves wise or want to test God. Eve clearly wanted to test the Elohim. Therefore the Power of Jehovah had to come to her to condemn her. It was His Spirit Which filled the world but has all the right to give and take and man doubted His rights.
Wis 1:1-7 WEBA Love righteousness, all you who are judges of the earth. Think of the Lord with a good mind. Seek him in singleness of heart, (2) because he is found by those who don’t tempt him, and is manifested to those who trust him. (3) For crooked thoughts separate from God. His Power convicts when it is tested, and exposes the foolish. (4) Because wisdom will not enter into a soul that devises evil, nor dwell in a body that is enslaved by sin. (5) For a holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit, and will depart from thoughts that are without understanding, and will be ashamed when unrighteousness has come in. (6) For wisdom is a spirit who loves man, and she will not hold a blasphemer guiltless for his lips; because God bears witness of his reins, and is a true overseer of his heart, and a hearer of his tongue: (7) Because the spirit of the Lord has filled the world, and that which holds all things together knows what is said.
Wis 2:21-24 WEBA Thus they reasoned, and they were led astray; for their wickedness blinded them, (22) and they didn’t know the mysteries of God, neither did they hope for wages of holiness, nor did they discern that there is a prize for blameless souls. (23) Because God created man for incorruption, and made him an image of his own everlastingness; (24) but death entered into the world by the envy of the devil, and those who belong to him experience it.
For to the light of day succeeds night, but against wisdom evil does not prevail (Wisdom 7:30) Adam and Eve having had evil thoughts of God by giving heed to their wish to know as much as God knows. They were not not ashamed concerning their soul and now it was to late to hide for God. Sirach 7:1 tells us not to do evil so will no evil overtake you. Now the relationship between God and man got disturbed and they knew very well that they had done wrong.
That satan and lucifer are not wicked beings, can also been seen in other places in Scriptures where the evangelist John equates Jesus Christ with Lucifer, the Latin word for “light-bearer” which stems from the “Latin Vulgate” Bible, produced by Jerome, commissioned by Pope Damascus in 382 A.D. In Revelation 22:16, “Jesus” proclaims that:
“I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give youthis testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.”
In the verses about the penalty coming over the man and female, the 1° Adam and Eve, the Creator offers a solution and talks about the evil being crushed by the foot of the send one, the darkness eliminated by the light. The ‘Light” spoken off in the Bible refers then to the promised one, who got born in Bethlehem out of the tribe of God’s servant King David.
Of course, the Latin “Lucifer” (“Lux Ferre”) was associated with the planet Venus, which is called “Phosphoros”, the “morning star” or “dawn-bringer”, who was both a minor god in Greece and Rome, who according to the Greek Historian Diodorus Siculus, was a:
…son of Atlas, who was fond of astronomy, and once, after having ascended Mount Atlas to observe the stars, he disappeared. He was worshipped with divine honours, and regarded as the fairest star in the heavens. (Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology.) {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 1)}
We have goodness in us but there is also badness which “lies in wait to turn things that are good into evil” (Sirach 11:31). When Jehovah’s Word came into the world everything got created and out of chaos came order, but that does not mean that disorder would have gone for ever. In the Plan of God everything should stay in good order, but man got the right to order things themselves as well. Jehovah God is a God of order. Normally man had to be the seal of full measure, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Man was placed in the beautiful Garden of Eden, the Garden of God.
To dwell in the awesome presence of a perfect and holy God, many would agree that those being there in the Garden of God had to be perfect. What went wrong is seen in the reaction of the woman ignoring God’s commandment. there was light that made an end to darkness, which was set up on the holy mountain of God. This light is also called “Lucifer” in Scripture who also fitted the name, ‘Son of the Morning’ being perfect in its ways from the day that it was created, until unrighteousness was found in it. (Ezekiel 28:2-19)
A “Son of Light” bad and good. Lucifer the evil one.
Man got its insides filled with badness, a violence against the Will of God, and this the Bible calls sin. We come to hear in the Scriptures that splendour and beauty did not last forever. It is told that Lucifer while ministering, began to consider his own position of prominence and became prideful, believing that he deserved more than what he already had. He wanted to become like the Most High. This is the main problem of what went wrong in the Garden of Eden. This is also still the problem of today. There were those who wanted to be like God in a bad sense of having the same power as God, wanting to be God. This became the reason to cast them out as ‘wrongoers’, ‘wrongdoers’ or sinners as profane ‘out of God’s mountain’.
Lucifer was also known by the Greeks as the Titan Prometheus, the son of Iapetus. (As a side-note compare this description of Phosphoros with Isaiah 14: 13-14: “For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most high”). {Forbidden Fruit in the Midst of the Garden (Part 1)}
Man was stripped of his beauty, his position, and his rights to heaven. The lucifer got his light dimmed. Lucifer’s name, ‘son of the morning,’ was given to a far more deserving individual, the Son of God. He is the seed of the New Generation, the beginning of the New World. Jesus Christ is called the ‘Bright and Morning Star’ (Revelation 22:16).
Today, the one promised in the Garden of Eden, who was in the dark for a long time, has become the light of the world again and is now back close to God, seated at the right hand of the Most HighDivine Creator. The 2° Adam is now dwelling in the presence of the Almighty. Christ’s words hold true, even ‘in the account of Satan’:
“Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:12).
In what has happened in the Garden of Eden we have an example which we should seriously take at heart. We shall have to look deep in our heart and question ourselves which position we do want to take in. We should see and understand what the 1° Adam and Eve did wrong and how we can avoid falling in the same trap as they did. We should come to understand that recalcitrance and aversion to God will make us weaker and defenceless. The rebellious attitude will bring us only in the dark, like it did with Adam and Eve being brought in a grim world.
We should know that still today the adversary of God is willing to control the world, therefore it is also said that ‘Satan’s attempt’ to control this world system is nothing to take lightly.
Vos on Creation (greenbaggins.wordpress.com)
If the creation history is an allegory, then the narrative concerning the fall and everything further that follows can also be allegory. The writer of the Pentateuch presents his work entirely as history (Reformed Dogmatics, volume 1, p. 161).
Imagination: What does the Bible say? (endtimesprophecyreport.com) they hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward
Did Plato influence the Book of Genesis? (lionoftheblogosphere.wordpress.com)
the belief among Orthodox Jews is that the book of Genesis is very old, but as the web page points out, there are no outside historically dated references to the book of Genesis until the second century B.C., which is two hundred years after the founding of Plato’s Academy.
We Will Always Be Tempted (birdchirp.wordpress.com)
The devil is as dangerous to us as he was to Adam and Eve. Peter refers to him as “a roaring lion…seeking whom he may devour” (1 Pet.5:8). According to Jesus, he is the prince of this world (John 12:31). We must remember, however, that the devil rules as a usurper.
Servants of God (christopherjmoorewriter.wordpress.com)
if we choose to put ourselves above God, then ultimately we will join Satan in the eternal fires of hell. It’s our choice. Jesus, in allowing himself to be crucified for our sins provides another way.All we have to do is repent of our pride, put Christ as the centre of our lives and be his servant – feed the hungry, visit the prisoners, comfort the sick and dying. These charitable acts provide us with the opportunities to be servants of God. And we don’t have to travel to distant lands to perform them, just look around you, the area where you live. There are plenty of God’s children who need and deserve your help.
Where Are You? (psychologytoday.com)
God doesn’t rage or leave. God simply responds by asking the first question of the Torah: “Ayeka?”Translated literally, Ayeka means, “Where are you?” and upon first pass, that question seems silly for a Higher Power to be asking. First, why does it matter where they are hanging out? Second, shouldn’t God “know” anyway?
By Faith? (hiwaychristian.wordpress.com)
Take note as to how all the creatures involved in creating what is creation, did not hear the reason until some distance into the building. And even while salvation among men is in full swing, the angels still long to look into these things. Unless the translation is wrong, I noticed that Peter did not use the past tense of the word “long”.Remaining obedient though we have no clue, is not only essential now, it is a pattern of behavior for all God’s creatures for eternity. And this ought to renew our devotion to serve without full understanding. Frankly folks, that will be our state of affairs forever.
Psalm 80 (embodiedtorah.wordpress.com)
The theology of this verse reminds me of the comment on the first verse of Genesis by the medieval French commentator Rashi, in which he explains that the purpose of beginning Torah with creation, rather than with the first mitzvah given to Israel in Exodus 12, is to remind us that the world belongs to God. In this Psalm, God is a gardener and the world is God’s garden.
Nearly everyone has heard of Abraham and his faith in God. What most do not realize is that he struggled with Fear. You see, Abraham had a drop-dead gorgeous wife and he knew it too. Because of her beauty, he feared that the wicked ruler of the land they were passing through, might kill him in order possess his wife.
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Today, the whole world remains blessed by the faithfulness of God toward Abraham. How so? Because our Savior, Jesus Christ, eventually came from that same line of Abraham and his beautiful wife!
Gen 3:1-12 NHEBJE Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which Jehovah God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?'” (2) The woman said to the serpent, “Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat, (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.'” (4) The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t surely die, (5) for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
(6) When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit, and ate; and she gave some to her husband with her, and he ate.
(7) The eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked. They sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.
(8) They heard the voice of Jehovah God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah God among the trees of the garden.
(9) 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.”
Next: Genesis – Story of creation 6 Genesis 3:13-24 Enmity and curse
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Humble beginnings: a rib and an apple (annabelfrage.wordpress.com)
One could argue that in creating man, God showed lack of judgement – or maybe we are testament to His faith – in us. Why else give us free will, lead us constantly into temptation, pollute our souls with the seven deadly sins, and gift us with sufficient intellect to question His existence. Not that all of us do, mind you. Many are the men and women through the dust-lined road of time who have fought and died on His behalf, professing with their dying breath that God exists.
The Truth: Who Are You (a Must Read) (eyeopenerunity.wordpress.com)
How was man made in the beginning(Adam & Eve)? Genesis 1:26 “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 air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth on the earth.”
Servants of God (christopherjmoorewriter.wordpress.com)
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that original sin was committed by Adam and Eve when they chose to follow their own will rather than to be servants of God. In Genesis we read that Satan, disguised as a snake contradicted the consequences asserted by God should Adam and Eve eat the fruit of the forbidden tree. He said to them, ‘No! You will not die! God knows in fact that the day you eat it your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods.’ Genesis 3:4-6
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Jesus was subjected to the very same temptation. After his 40 days in the desert, the devil lead him to the very pinnacle of the temple, and told to throw himself off so the angels would come and save him. This is the temptation – to put ourselves above God and thereby have no need of Him.
The Rest of Your Story (christianmommameditations.wordpress.com)
Adam and Eve knew no fear, no shame – only love and devotion to their Creator.
And everything was going just fine until satan’s hand puppet – the snake – came into the picture.
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No one is immune to bad decision making. It can be something little, like telling a white lie to get out of working at the school’s book fair to a much worse decision, like having an affair outside of marriage.
But no matter the bad decision, once our spirit kicks in and we realize our sin, the initial emotions are typically the same – fear of what God or others will now think of us, fear that we will be found out, and shame that we ever made such a horrible choice.
Kelly Gissendaner and the Consequences of Adam and Eve (unsettledchristianity.com)
The immediate consequence was pain in childbearing for her and hard, unappreciated work, for him. The extended consequence was that the human race was now separated from God and thus dying. Sin had entered into the world.
All thanks to Eve who ate the fruit and then forced/led/seduced/enticed Adam to do the same.
Catholic theologians agree that if Adam had said “no” to Eve, the human race would not have fallen into Original Sin.
Original Sin is traditionally called the “sin of Adam”. Why?
Adam was the “head”, the first-made. He was “over Eve” in age, (one week it seems), strength, and so on.
He could have said no and he did not. A Second Adam, Christ, had to come and undo the horrible damage chosen, yes freely chosen, by Adam. He put Eve’s approval before God’s.
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One chooses to listen to the self, the world or the devil. Freely we choose sin and corruption. There would be no communism and Marxism without the decisions of Marx, Engels, Lenin. There would be no hatred among the Islamists for Catholics without the hadith and Koran written by individual men. There would be no radical feminist movement without the writings of Simone de Beauvoir, Margaret Sanger, Shulamith Firestone, Kathie Sarachild, Ti-Grace Atkinson, Carol Hanisch, and Judith Brown, among others.
There would be no weak men without Adam, and the long line of couch potatoes, sports idolizing , game obsessed men who have given up all responsibility for their families and eschew commitment. Individuals sin and make movements.Just because the men are nameless, does not mean it is not yet another “movement” of weakness changing the culture one decision at a time.
To blame a “movement” is to push blame onto nothing….some amorphous event in history. Of course, men and women decide to choose good or evil, thus creating the course of their own lives, that of their families and even nations.
The Daily Gospel and Readings 13 February 2015 (prayersandmeditations.com)
God knows well that the moment you eat of it
your eyes will be opened and you will be like gods
who know what is good and what is evil.
A conversation in my head. (omharris.com)
Adam was standing right there. He heard everything. He knew what God had told him, and he had no reason whatsoever to doubt God. He had the same relationship with God that Jesus did. It was an intimate communion, like what you see in a good marriage. It was what Enoch had, and if you do your homework, you will find that Enoch walked this earth at the same time as Adam. Prior to the flood, it is not recorded that anyone, other than Able, had that kind of relationship. I guess that Enoch asked Adam what that was like, and Adam told him. Enoch proceeds to live like that, and walks off the earth.
Interesting Similarities (eisdoxan.wordpress.com)
For his eleventh labor (Apollodorus Library 2.5.11), Heracles was commissioned by Eurystheus to bring him the Golden Apples of the Hesperides, which were a gift from Gaia to Zeus and Hera at their wedding. These apples were the source of immortality for the gods and, interestingly, were guarded by a dragon, itself the offspring of Typhon and Echidna.
Gen 2:16-25 NHEBJE Jehovah God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; (17) but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall not eat of it; for in the day that you eat of it you will surely die.”
(18) Jehovah God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him.” (19) Out of the ground Jehovah God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. Whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. (20) The man gave names to all livestock, and to the birds of the sky, and to every animal of the field; but for man there was not found a helper suitable for him.
(21) Jehovah God caused a deep sleep to fall on the man, and he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. (22) He made the rib, which Jehovah God had taken from the man, into a woman, and brought her to the man. (23) The man said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” (24) Therefore a man will leave his father and his mother, and will join with his wife, and they will be one flesh. (25) They were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil עברית: חטא עץ הדעת – ד”ר לידיה קוזניצקי (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
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Adam was given a wife in his innocence, they lived harmoniously.
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evil is on the outside. Obviously since it came from an outside source
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the second tree known as the knowledge of good and evil must have been the tree of death. Because only than could we discern what was good and what was bad. When everything was good. It was no other. There is were choice comes from. It states in Genesis 2:17 if you eat of the tree of knowledge (good and evil) you shall surely die.
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+Good and evil, tob and ra, thus have a much wider meaning here than good and evil in our terminology. The words tob and ra speak of an ultimate split in the world of humankind in general that goes back behind even the moral split, so that tob means also something like “pleasurable” and ra “painful” (Hans Schmidt). Tob and ra are concepts that express what is in every respect the deepest divide in human life.
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