I am not attempting to be factious with this query, but Gen. 1:26-27 has been quoted many times as to what God created in Genesis, after each time in Genesis when God created something He said "it was good" Gen. 1:4,10,12,18,21,25 but He did not say after Gen. 1:26-27 that "it was good." Although He did say in Gen. 1:31 "it was very good."
(There are some preachers that teach that the first man adam was created perfect and pure as God Himself.) Still, He did not say "it was good" after He created man..... that got me to wondering, was this man created "good? " didn't Jesus say there is none good but God?
Now this "man" is "humanity." It is always quoted that man was made in His image and likeness, yet that very humanity (image and likeness) disobeyed.
So I read in Eph 4:22 to put off from you, as regards your former behavior, the old humanity which is corrupted in accord with its seductive desires,
Eph 4:23 yet to be rejuvenated in the spirit of your mind,
(****2Co 11:3 )
Eph 4:24 and to put on the new humanity which, in accord with God, is being created in righteousness and benignity of the truth."
So this creation in the image and likeness was not "good"? If it was good, then why must we put on the new and put off the old?
I know this was discussed, but from a different point of few. I believe God is "creating" humanity and what He created in Gen. 1:26-27 was [spiritually] weak for His purpose just so the next step would be Gen. 3...... disobedience.
And humanity/man would "know." And the Lord God said as much when He said, "`Lo, the man was as one of Us, as to the knowledge of good and evil; and now......." (YLT)
Thoughts? :Peace2: :dsunny: Thanks
There is no Greater place than Gen. 1 & 2 to establish a Great foundation for All Truth, a Firm Foundation.
And it just happens to be my favorite place in scripture. I've dug a whole in this place. :smile:
If we look at Gen 1 and the seven days as God's Finished Work before it ever was made manifest, what you would see is a "Blueprint" for the whole plan of God to redeem All mankind through His Son "who is The Image and Likeness of The invisible God".
Isa_46:10
Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
Rom_4:17 (As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations,) before him whom he believed, even
God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. The whole scenario of the Garden and Adam's fall took place in Gen. 1:2 hence the reason for the darkness, and why the earth "Became" without form = waste. Hebrew. tohu va bohu. Figure of speech
We are "Being created in His image and likeness" Adam in the Garden was not. The first Adam was from beneath, The last Adam is from above, 1Co_15:46 Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which
is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
I would say that you are indeed on the right track, except your very last statement......
Quote from: micah7:9 on February 06, 2016, 12:21:47 AM
I believe God is "creating" humanity and what He created in Gen. 1:26-27 was [spiritually] weak for His purpose just so the next step would be Gen. 3...... disobedience.
This I would have to humbly disagree with.
For the ONLY ONE who could possibly have dominion over all things would be His Son who is the very image and likeness of God Himself.
It's just a matter of perspective.
These are the works we are told to enter into in Heb_4:3 For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into
my rest: although the works were
finished from the foundation of the world. Gen. 1:26,27 is our End in Christ, Strong and blessed and clothed with His Righteousness, .....The Garden in Adam is our beginning, which is weak and naked.
Gen. 1:26&27 is one of the Greatest vs. in Scripture that declares before it ever begins to be manifest That God will have All mankind to be redeemed.
The seven days of Gen. is not historical or natural but spiritual and in SEED form. It is seven thousand yrs. of our Redemption through the Light which is Truth, The Word of God, His Son. :dsunny: :HeartThrob:
Very good questions and pondering!
And to me this whole thing (issue) veRy strongLy suggests and supports UR!
It's my belief the whole (potential) problem was/is thinking ability. Yep, that thing that most resembles Him! It's my belief He endowed angel and man(kind) with rationality.. which.. sooner or later, includes the ability to make choices (albeit, thank the Good Lord, very limited!)
I mean think about it.. the ability to think and reason.. And there in the original garden was the one negative choice.. So I'm thinking, it could be said that mankind has not yet been "perfected" even at mankind's inception/beginning.
It's interesting He didn't say specifically that man was good.. but at the end of that creative day He did behold all he'd made and said it was very good.. As, man had not yet strayed away from God-who I believe is both Life and Perfection. (And honest, so there was that notorious tree in the garden.)
But see the 'paradox'(?) I'm thinking of? Once He endowed thinking ability, why, wouldn't a whole new world (or tree) of possibilities and potential come about? And what would be His other option?
No rational creatures? ..ever..? People find fault with God (not here at Tentmaker!:)) but the world.. and I always have to wonder "okay brainiacs, how would YOU create perfect paradise and one that would endure?
If thinking ability includes (sooner or later) choice, well, as soon as one chooses anything in any tiny degree, in thought, word or deed which differs with what He chooses, then they become imperfect the opposite of God, who is life, therefor the opposite of life.
Which would explain for one reason, why He built in the rescue from the beginning/foundation.
And also is a very strong support of UR.. since God Himself opened the whole Pandora's box.. why would He allow anyone to perish (or worse!) because of it?
My son asked me 17 or so years ago "why was the tree of knowing good and evil in the garden?" and "isn't it great we get to be an ant farm?" (a cynic is a frustrated idealist:)) I wasn't satisfied with my answers to Him so I prayed and what came back, the biggest part being He Is Perfect - and the things He showed me ended with a question.. which was "why did He wait so long, and only create the universe and man and woman not only aFter the first bound-to-occur rebel thought occurred, but after that thought had ripened into outright sedition? (Of course He knew what would happen!! Not like some doctrines which assume He made an error! :doh: :faint: or was caught unaware! :laughing7: )
:Peace2: :smile:
regarding this image and likeness..I believe when all is said and done...and we see Him face to face..we shall find we are all just like Him.
with the confusion of the mixing of good/evil..and the doctrines of the dragon..men have been told they are the evil one/wicked...
if our true nature were evil...we would be happy in it..murder,violence,strife..hatred filthiness sorrow death,suffering etc..if it
were what man truly is..he would be in his element.
But man is happiest when he loves and recieves love in return..with loving friends..living in peace and harmony,self-respecting
and respecting one another..in loving relationships..all healthy and sound and free of suffering..honouring one another,treating
one another with kindness...and the reason this is what makes man happy...is because this is man's nature in the image of God
wickedness/evil doesn't make man happy..it makes him miserable and cry out to God........
Man..though esteemed in honour[by God] without understanding[mix/confusion] is as the beast.
we need to ALL UNDERSTAND who we are...we are sons and daughters of the Most High God..we are princes and princesses of
a Great KING..we need to take hold of our high noble BIRTHRIGHT AS HIS CHILDREN..THIS IS WHO WE ARE.......
we need to reject that false image of the TOKOGAE..and cling to Our Father and the very TOL that is OUR FAMILY TREE...
the nightmare of the night when darkness come..and we believed we were cut off from our Father's love and rejected and cursed
and hated of Him..must fade with the coming of the DAY and LIGHT..we must awaken and shake it off..to the reality of who we
are..of who Our Father is and go forth to meet Him with open arms..and our hearts filled with the LOVE HE PUT THERE...
THIS IS WHO YOU ARE...AND THIS IS WHO HE IS.
AMEN!!! Very well said
:HeartThrob:
These are interesting points, I think, derived from what I personally perceive to be a parable of creation – a parable charged with Spirit Power, and a creation viewed in more than one way and also with many layers or spheres of understanding, not simply one literal one.
Made in the Image of the Giver of Life, made out of Him, of His very Substance – indeed, as I see it, made in perfection, for God cannot be imperfect. This is of course good.
I have no problem with understanding a fall, as Christians like to call it, a fall from a state of perfection rather than a 'place' – and yet, perhaps paradoxically, still perfect. Only in this fall, the individual has separated himself from the state of perfection and has created imperfection which surrounds and suffocates the gift of perfect Spirit with which he has been endowed forever. Separated through the disobedience of the perfect spiritual laws of the Supreme, as surely as a free man is taken captive as a slave. But the spirit has never been separated from the Great Spirit, the Creator.
Yet still, I believe, within is perfect purity, and that 'without' is the disobedient soul which must be brought into harmony with the Spirit within, which is of God. And when this happens it is of course be very good.
"He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly, who despises the gain of oppressions, who shakes his hands, lest they hold a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed and shuts his eyes from looking on evil."
In the false world which a consciousness of sinfulness maintains, there is the contrived appearance that good and evil are on a level footing - but good overcomes evil never to be taken prisoner again; good will do this because Christ has conquered the world; good will be seen as all that there is, and that a false consciousness has kept the spirit within bound to the sinful man without.
"All that the Father has is mine."
In spite of carefully constructed creeds and constructs which block the true Light, an instant recognition of the Good of God brings a consciousness that one is really of God. And all the time this hidden inner Substance is one with God, seeking to force upon the mind of the body its true nature, a Divine nature.
"Son, you have always been with me, and all that is mine is yours."
I have no doubt that the fall is over for such a one who has realised at-one-ment, the Real seen, the false revealed. Not a pleasing revelation of sacred words but a living reality of life-giving spiritual water. Not a separate spirit from the Parent Spirit but a state of permanent at-one-ment. Not simply a consciousness of a greater Being but an existence in that Being and that Being existing within. One for ever. This is the place which is not a place, and is spoken of in parables, and to which the Master referred in many ways.
"I and the Father are one".
There is no fear in God. Fear is of the duality of the sinful world, the false world of the counterfeit consciousness upheld by the enemies of God - the unseen tempters, the fallen not yet turned by the refiner's kiln. The inner Christ unravels to each one what is rightly his own through the right of birth - he is one with Him, one with his brothers and sisters, one with God - a beautiful ideal which has become a reality for some and shall, through faith, become a reality for all men when he seeks God for God's sake and for the sake of others.
People who shake from the after effects of the religions of the minds of men can say now: "Be gone liar, get behind me!" and in front you shall feel the spiritual golden rays of the Christ heal thee at once and you shall not wish them to go. One can know, time after blessed time, the sweet nectar of devotion which so perfectly infuses its way into every darkened area of falsehood to reveal the very goodness of the Light which has always been.
I think to my self, if the Good God has been so kind to a wretch like me, I can only know that God gives oh so lavishly, sweetly, gently, secretly, and yet so overpoweringly to others, and He only waits for His children to be ready to take!
Amen...
Quote from: micah7:9 on February 06, 2016, 12:21:47 AM
I am not attempting to be factious with this query, but Gen. 1:26-27 has been quoted many times as to what God created in Genesis, after each time in Genesis when God created something He said "it was good" Gen. 1:4,10,12,18,21,25 but He did not say after Gen. 1:26-27 that "it was good." Although He did say in Gen. 1:31 "it was very good."
(There are some preachers that teach that the first man adam was created perfect and pure as God Himself.) Still, He did not say "it was good" after He created man..... that got me to wondering, was this man created "good? " didn't Jesus say there is none good but God?
Now this "man" is "humanity." It is always quoted that man was made in His image and likeness, yet that very humanity (image and likeness) disobeyed.
So I read in Eph 4:22 to put off from you, as regards your former behavior, the old humanity which is corrupted in accord with its seductive desires,
Eph 4:23 yet to be rejuvenated in the spirit of your mind,
(****2Co 11:3 )
Eph 4:24 and to put on the new humanity which, in accord with God, is being created in righteousness and benignity of the truth."
So this creation in the image and likeness was not "good"? If it was good, then why must we put on the new and put off the old?
I know this was discussed, but from a different point of few. I believe God is "creating" humanity and what He created in Gen. 1:26-27 was [spiritually] weak for His purpose just so the next step would be Gen. 3...... disobedience.
And humanity/man would "know." And the Lord God said as much when He said, "`Lo, the man was as one of Us, as to the knowledge of good and evil; and now......." (YLT)
Thoughts? :Peace2: :dsunny: Thanks
Micah, you ask : Was this creation of man in the image and likeness was not "good"? It was good for the fact that the ultimate end is for good, very good. Everything God does is for good. Just because He did not state the words "it was good" as in earlier verses does not negate that it was good. All earlier references to Him stating that "it was good" was because it was a completed act. Very good acts of creation.
But with mankind it is a work in progress. As we know it says that God IS CREATING man in His image and likeness. I know our departed friend L. Ray Smith pondered this and gave his opinion on it.
I am left with the thought in verse 31 which you mention states that all that proceeded these verses says all was VERY good.
All is of God and for His glory. :2c: :2c: :banana:
Yes it was good at that time. But it was not good for the end as you said, "But with mankind it is a work in progress."