In Genesis 1:1 we are told: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Then in verses 26,27 we read: “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness ….’ So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” In John 1:1-4,16 we see that, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was (a) God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and Truth.”

Notice that in the Hebrew language the term which refers to God is “Elohim,” a word commonly used in the singular but involving more than one entity–Gods. In English the word “team” is similarly used to indicate a single entity with several parts. In that Jesus said that He and the Father are “one,” meaning one in character, will, Word, etc., henceforth the words God, Lord, He and Him will be used to refer to the two-bodied Godhead unless specified otherwise. Some sects reject this characterization, believing that there is only one God. Let us briefly examine the passage most often used by these church organizations to “prove” their theology. In John 10:30 Jesus states: “I and My Father are one.” This seems definitive enough until the Truth-seeker does what the masses refuse to do–study all correlating passages in order to be approved of God (2 Tim. 2:15). Having done so the “Jesus only” sect would read in John 17:21-23: “I do not pray for these (apostles) alone, but for those who will believe in Me through their Word (future believers); that they ALL MAY BE ONE, AS YOU, FATHER ARE IN ME AND I IN YOU, THAT THEY ALSO MAY BE ONE IN US …. THAT THEY MAY BE ONE AS WE ARE ONE, I IN THEM AND YOU IN ME, THAT THEY MAY BE MADE PERFECT IN (AS) ONE ….” In summary, those who believe and obey Him are ONE, just as He and His Son are ONE, just as the Godhead and true believers are ONE. Which, as the following will reveal, is exactly how They created man–ONE with Them (the Godhead). See Human Nature. In that God made them male and female, we know that He was referring to mankind in general. Now let us examine the spiritual condition of man upon his creation.

In Genesis 1:31 God looked upon “… EVERYTHING He had made, and indeed it was VERY GOOD.” When God says something is “good” He is judging by His standard of measure. God said that man was VERY good. Being perfect Himself, He created perfectly. To see how GOOD Adam was, let us recall what the man Jesus said to the seeker who called Him “good.” Jesus told the man that He was not good, that only God was, at that time, good. Notice that God called Adam not merely “good,” but “very good.” Jesus, on the other hand, did not call Himself “good,” let alone “very good.” This shows us just how “good” Adam was following his creation. Though Adam was created VERY GOOD, he was lacking in one aspect of human life–he had yet to prove himself in the arena of personal choice. As had Lucifer and the angels, man had options.

In order to complete the process of becoming perfect as was His Maker, man had to exercise his option in favor of God. Lucifer, who was created perfect in every way and given the Garden of Eden in which to live (Eze. 28:12-15), was given the same choice. Note that iniquity was “found,” not created, in him. Though created “perfect in all your ways,” he nevertheless had to exercise the option of obedience to God in order to complete the qualifying process. Adam and Eve, created equally perfect, had to exercise the same option in order to define themselves spiritually. Without this qualifying process, they would have been nothing more than puppets. Like Lucifer, who became Satan the devil, Adam and Eve realized that they were free moral agents with the power of personal choice. The problem was that they did not believe that their choice would carry a life or death consequence. They did not believe God when He told them that they would die if they disobeyed Him. Rather, they did what man has been doing ever since; they believed Satan who told them that, because of who they were, they could disobey God and live eternally. Their modern counterparts are assured that, having followed a sect-prescribed ritual, the fix is in–their sins will result, not in death as God declares, but in eternal life as Satan declares.

Lucifer, initially God’s most wonderful creation, convinced himself that he could rebel against his Maker and suffer no ill effects. Rather, he would rise to the level of God as a determiner of good and evil, right and wrong. Having failed in his attempt, he focused his attention and power on the man whom God had destined for kingship of the earth–Adam. By overcoming Satan, Adam would replace Satan as the ruler of the earth–his and his descendants’ inheritance. Lucifer realized that should Adam sin, his (Satan’s) rulership of earth would continue. He needed only to persuade God’s man to make a wrong choice. Satan accomplished his goal by offering his prey the one thing man has always insisted on relative to religion–self governance. The rest is history. To be continued. L.J.