The Creation Narrative: The Bible Says Man Did Not Fall
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To begin this article, here again is the Covenant of Promise of The Messiah from the book of Isaiah: "For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. "I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right. "Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save. "Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me. "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. "Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. "In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory." (Isaiah 45:18-25) There is no clearer expression of the Covenant of Promise in the Bible than this, and I accept that Covenant of God with all my heart. The fulfillment of this Covenant was the purpose of Jesus allowing Himself to be "lifted up" before the world. God is Creator of the whole earth, and all the peoples in it. In Acts we read: "God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; "And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: "For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring." (Acts 17:24-28) It has always been God's Will that all men and women be 'saved', so why do men preach otherwise? Many Christians, for example, seem to believe that God is God over them only. But that wouldn't make sense according to the Creation Narrative. God's people are all the seed of Adam.
Jesus told us that God is Good, yet we know from Genesis that God knows Good and evil. How then does the creation story make sense? "And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God." (Mark 10:18) In the creation story, God created Adam in His Own Image - but Adam was not entirely in God's Image, because Adam did not yet know good and evil as God does. Adam and Eve knew only Good, because for God to force knowledge of evil upon them would have made it necessary that God do evil. Adam and Eve also had "free will", the ability to choose what they would do on the earth. For God to have made them without free will God would have made them slaves to Himself. Being Good, then, the only way for God to teach Adam and Eve evil was to allow them to use their free will, and to decide to learn evil on their own. God placed the tree of knowledge in the garden, He made it a beautiful tree with appealing fruit, but God commanded Adam not to eat from it. Adam ate from it anyway, of course. God knew this would happen, yet He set it up so that Adam and Eve would eat from the tree even so. There was only one reason for God to do this: Because God is Good, and to complete His creations it was necessary for Adam and Eve to learn Good and evil, and learn Compassion, Mercy, and Kindness at the same time. God follows His own Law, He does not kill - not even in self-defense as Jesus Witnessed to us. God takes all responsibility for everything we do, however, because He created us, and the evil we do would not happen if He had not created us. So as God set up the garden incident, Man did not fall - rather man did the Will of God. God's way of looking at what Adam and Eve did is recorded in Genesis: "And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever..." (Genesis 3:22) Thus did God elevate man from the status of perfect robots to the status of mortal gods, as witnessed elsewhere in Psalms, the Key of David: "God standeth in the congregation of the mighty; he judgeth among the gods." (Psalms 82:1) "I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the most High." (Psalms 82:6) "Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods." (Psalms 97:7) "I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee." (Psalms 138:1) Confirmed by Jesus: "Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are gods? If he called them gods, unto whom the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken; Say ye of him, whom the Father hath sanctified, and sent into the world, Thou blasphemest; because I said, I am the Son of God?" (John 10:34-36) Far from "falling", then, as part of the Plan of Salvation God has loosed mankind to learn good and evil, thus also Compassion, Kindness, and Mercy, on his own.
We have learned good and evil, Compassion, Kindness, and Mercy now. We have enough information and history under our belts to understand that we will never be perfect as God is perfect, that we are incapable of even being good stewards of the earth without God's presence among us. Today we are sons of God, as the Bible says - mortal little-"g" gods that kill and slaughter, steal and lie, accuse and cast out. To be Sons of God, endued with the full measure of God's Spirit as Jesus was upon His baptism, we, as a people, need to admit our inability to become like God by knowing good and evil, but choosing to do good ONLY. That is what we've been attempting to do all these years, and failing. The Apostle Paul wrote: "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God." (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4) Today that son of perdition is revealed, and he is US in the form of the imperfect Body of Christ that is today acting as God, is sitting in the temple of God with us, and with most Christians who fornicate with government today, is shewing himself that he is God. That Wicked son of perdition is we, you and I, as we continue supporting the evil of the world we've been sent into rather than witnessing Jesus Christ, and ministering unto sinners and those who have nothing, as He did. By supporting evil thusly we give all power in the Kingdom of God over to Satan rather than God.
The Plan of Salvation is akin to a loving father allowing his son to learn the dangers and benefits of FIRE while the father is present. When the lesson is learned the father will be there to heal and comfort the son. The son will not misuse fire again... In our case we must submit to God, a symbolic 144,000 of us, and voluntarily surrender that part of free will that prevents us from attaining perfect Love for Him and perfect Love for our fellow creations, as Jesus Christ Witnessed to us that we must have. When we do that, we will be changed in the twinkling of an eye at Jesus' return, finally made complete in the Image of God as He set out to do in the beginning without doing evil Himself. "Only acknowledge thine iniquity, that thou hast transgressed against the LORD thy God, and hast scattered thy ways to the strangers under every green tree, and ye have not obeyed my voice, saith the LORD. Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion" (Jeremiah 3:13-14) So yes, let's hold God to the above promise, that all peoples whom He has created will in the end be saved and become our brothers and sisters under God. This is what He Wills, according the Apostle. And who are we to stand against God's Will because we are too lazy to spread the Gospel? "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not! "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate: and verily I say unto you, Ye shall not see me, until the time come when ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." (Luke 13:34-35) Today God has the whole world in His Hands, literally. Let us follow Jesus Christ in seeking God in the Bible and elsewhere, praying constantly for the return of Jesus.
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