When God formed Adam He created a being who would have the potential of becoming like Him in many ways. With the exception of the power to create from nothing, man (Heb.–Adam) COULD, by choice, become like his Creator. Jesus Christ was one such human creation. In John 14:12 He said that “He who believes in Me (which is proven by obedience to Him), the things I do He shall he do, and greater things than these shall he do.” Was not the first Adam like the second Adam (Jesus)? Also, Adam and his descendants, if obedient to God’s Law, would spend eternity with Him in a paradise headquartered in the Garden of Eden.

God created Adam in His own physical likeness and (potential) spiritual image. The God of the Old Testament (read the series. Key word–Old) created all other living beings “after their kind”–dogs after the dog kind, hawks after the hawk kind, etc. Likewise, He created Adam (Heb.-man) AFTER THE GOD KIND. GOD CREATED MAN TO BE LIKE HIMSELF. One of the many differences between man and other living beings would be that animals would have no choice as to their mental capacities and proclivities. Man, on the other hand, was given the power of choice in a variety of areas. This was accomplished when His Creator gave him (and all human beings after him) a human SPIRIT (Job 32:8; Zech. 12:1; 1 Cor. 2:11).

It is the human spirit that separates humans from animals in that it imparts the power of intellect which enables man to think, reason, make intelligent choices, invent, etc. which animals cannot do. And more importantly, man’s spirit enables him to communicate with God when, upon true conversion, he receives God’s Holy Spirit, which then resides within him. Each person’s spirit is unique to that person.

The Holy Spirit is the same in everyone and throughout the universe. The Spirit not only provides to the obedient saint Christ-level righteousness and holiness; it also provides Christ-level power and faith (1 Cor. 1:7-16; Jn. 14:12/ Jam. 2:1). It is through the Holy Spirit that Christ enters the minds of the truly converted (Phil. 2:5). This is the meaning of, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Jesus Christ abides in the true saint in the form of the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of both God and Christ.

Adam was given all of the above-mentioned powers upon His creation. This is born out in Genesis 1:26-28 where we find God creating Adam and giving him dominion (absolute power over) the earth and everything on it and above it and in the waters. Nothing has changed–except man. Having followed their original ancestor away from God, modern man has lost almost everything God gave to Adam. God did not take away his power and dominion; man willingly gave it up by obeying Satan. Recall that Adam went from being the king of the earth to be subservient to it. Instead of subduing it, man is now dependent on it for his life’s needs. He went from controlling the weather to depending on it for his existence. He went from simply plucking fruit from the many trees in the garden to plowing in the fields with sweat dripping from his face. Why? Disobedience to God’s Edenic Law which dictated that he 1) take care of the garden, 2) exercise dominion over the animals, etc. and 3) avoid the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. HE WAS NOT TO GET CLOSE ENOUGH TO EVEN TOUCH IT (Gen.1:28,29). God is no respecter of persons. What He made available to Adam He makes available to every man. Now, as then, HIS ONLY CAVEAT IS THAT MAN OBEY HIS WORDS (LAW/COMMANDMENTS).

Beginning with Adam and Eve, God has given man the right to choose between partaking of the symbolic tree of life through obedience to His Word, or partaking of the symbolic tree of death through disobedience to His Word (Law). Adam chose to claim for himself the power to determine what is good and what is evil. As did their first parents, the vast majority of mankind (99.99%) has chosen the latter, and therefore assumes that he knows better than God relative to good and evil. As a result, he now calls good evil and evil good (Isa. 5:20). Because of this God continues to pour out on him woe after woe after woe …. Read The “Voices” of God. Key word–Voices.

God gave mankind the power to choose to be like his Creator or to be like his destroyer. God desires that we make the correct choice so that He can re-create Himself in us as He did in the man Jesus of Nazareth who said: “When men see Me, they have seen the Father.” God’s people can say the same thing about themselves relative to Jesus, “IF” they 1) “walk as He walked” (1 Jn. 2:6) and 2) “… overcome (Satan) as I (Jesus) overcame (him) ….” Only those who walk as He walked and overcome as He overcame will join Him in the Kingdom of God (Rev. 3:21). Sadly, Jesus was right in Matthew 7:13,14 and 22:14 when He said that, though many are called to do so, the vast majority who hold His written instructions in their hands do not believe them. These are the same Words by which He will judge every human being. Read John 12:44-50.

When Adam and Eve set their life’s course for themselves, they did so for all of their future descendants–the whole of mankind. “And God said, ‘Behold, the man has become like one of us, deciding for himself what is good and what is evil.'” “Us” referred to God Himself and the Word–Jn. 1:1-4,14–His co-equal God Who would later come to earth as His human Son–Jesus of Nazareth. In Genesis 1:1 it is written: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth,” the English word “God” is “Elohim” in Hebrew. Elohim is a plural word which refers to God and the Word Who is referenced in John 1:1-4,14. The Holy Spirit is not a third member of a “trinity.” The Spirit is the power by which Elohim do what they do. Read The Trinity and The True Trinity. Key words–Trinity and True respectively.

In order to keep sinning man from eating of the tree of eternal life, God drove Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden and placed at the east of the garden Cherubims (mighty angels) and a flaming sword to keep man away from the holy tree of life (Gen. 3:22-24). In so doing God has allowed human beings to live their lives according to their desires, all the while HIDING HIMSELF FROM THE VAST MAJORITY OF THEM. Like their spiritual and biological ancestors, mankind has chosen to embrace Satan as his god because Satan gives man what man wants. Jesus told us this during His conversation with Satan as recorded in Mat. 16:23. Here Jesus told him that he was not interested in the things of God, but rather in “… the things of man.” The things man wants involve man’s exaltation of himself–the ultimate expression of self-righteousness, which is idolatry.

Man does not like to be controlled by God. Therefore he rejects the Lord’s definition of sin and creates his own various conflicting, competing, anti-Bible versions which are collectively known as “church doctrine.” Each church has its own set of doctrines (“truths”), not one of which aligns with the one and only Word of God, which Jesus calls “Truth” in John 17:17. God calls man’s doctrines “filthy rags” (Isa. 64:6). Man, in turn, claims that God’s holy, eternal Law is “dead.” This is the same Law by which He governs His true saints today, the same Law by which He will judge every human that ever lived (Jn. 12:44-50).

Since the time of Adam and Eve, God has been maintained a tiny cadre of true believers which, in the past, included His holy prophets. In the church age the group has consisted of those in His one true church which, as He prophesied, is very small, is rejected by those of the false churches and contains only His “spiritual Jews” which were discussed in the previous series. Sadly, the vast majority of those bearing the title of “Christian” have decided to define good and evil for themselves–a job open only to God. His true saints embrace this Truth. The Almighty will resurrect His tiny remnant of obedient saints upon His Second Advent and will take them to the Promised Land where they will build the Kingdom of God. Read about the future home of His Very Elect and about The Three Resurrections. Key words Kingdom and Three respectively. Those in the first resurrection will be those who have clung to Him and His Words in spite of the attitudes of the rest of “the church.”

God hides Himself from those who chose to go their own way and, as a result, have become parts of the Catholic/Protestant Religious System. These call themselves spiritual Jews (true Christians) but are not. Only true spiritual Jews will join the Lord in His kingdom. Read the previous series concerning this small group of true believers. Key word–Jews. Later, during the Millennium, the Lord will offer all of mankind a chance to reap some of the rewards of Christ’s sacrifice. It is during this thousand-year (millennial) reign of Christ and His true saints that all of mankind will be resurrected. At that time God will come out of hiding and will reveal Himself to them. Read about this future time using the word Millennium as the key. Also study about the second resurrection in the resurrection series.

The Lord knows the hearts of men. He knows who desires to please Him and who desires to be pleased. He lifts up the former and hides His face from the latter in this life. He makes the former like Himself and gives up the latter to what he wants to be. L.J.