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that is innately selfish. It can pos–
sess and express !ove on the human
le~eJ.
out witbout tbe
Hmy
Spirit
of God it cannot possess or express
!ove on the God leve!, nor can it
acquire knowledge of that which is
spiritual, as revealed in I Corinthi–
ans 2.
Only God Reveals
"But God hath revealed them
[spiritual things] unto us by his
Spirit ..." (verse 10). Notice par–
ticularly spiritual knowled'ge is not
revealed by a Person called the
Holy Spirit.
It
is revealed by God,
and to us today through God's
Spirit, which may be received only
as God's gift through his merey
and grace. God is the revealer. The
Holy Spirit is the instrumentality
by which we may comprehend tbat
which only God can reveal.
"For what man knoweth the
things of a man, save the spirit of
man which is in him? ..." (verse
11).
lf
the Holy Spirit is the third
Person of a Trinity, then is not the
spirit in man also another man? A
cow, sheep or dog cannot know the
things a MAN knows-and neither
could a man, except by the spirit of
man that is
in
him. For example,
such knowledge as chemistry,
physics and technological and sci–
entific knowledge. Likewise, the
natural man with this one spi rit is
limited- "even
so the things of
God knoweth no man, but the
Spirit of God."
ÜNLY when the Holy Spirit en–
ters, combining with the "human"
spirit, can a man come to really
comprehend that which is spiri–
tual-"But the natural man re–
ceiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God: for they are foolishness
unto him: neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually
discerned" (verse 14).
The most highly educated view
al! things through the eyeglasses of
evolutionary theory. Evolution is
concerned solely with material life
and development.
It
knows and
teaches nothing about spiritual life
and problems- and all the evils in
the world are spiritual in nature.
That is WHY the most highly
educated are, overall, the most ig–
norant-they are confined to
knowledge of the material, and to
"good" on the self-centered level.
January 1986
Knowledge of God and the things
of God are foolishness to them. ·
But, of coorse, God says, "the wis–
dom of this world is foolishness
with God"
(1
Cor. 3:19) .
World Cut Off from God
Now back to the first human,
Adam.
Remember God's PURPOSEin cre–
ating man on the earth: 1) to restore
the GOVERNMENT OF ÜOD on earth
and by regulating human life
through that GOVERNMENT, a) com–
plete the physical creation of earth
where angels turned it to ruin, and
b) in the process complete the cre–
ation of MAN by developing righ–
teous spiritual CHARACTER; and 2)
to establish the KINGDOM OF ÜOD,
and eventually the incredible human
potentia! of finisbing tbe creation of
tbe vast UNIVERSE!
This supreme PURPOSE required:
l) that MAN reject Satan's WAY,
embracing GOD'S WAY OF LOVE,
based on God's spiritual law; and
2) that man be made first of matter
so that, if he was led into Satan's
way of "GET," he could be
CHANGED, converted to Goo·s
w
AY
of LOVE, or if he refused to change,
his life would be blotted out with–
out further or continuous suffering
just as if he had never been.
Spirit beings, once a finished
creation (as were lhe one third of
the angels who became evil charac–
ters),
could not be changed!
Spirit,
once its creation is completed, is
constant and eternal- not subject
to change. But physical matter is
constantly
changing.
Through God's master plan for
his spiritual creation, to be covered
later, it had been master-planned
by God and the Word that the
Word would divest himself of his
supreme glory, and in due time
take on him the likeness of human
flesh, as Jesus Christ, making pos–
sible the spiritual phase of the cre–
ation of MAN-God REPRODUCING
HIMSELF! What a MASTER PLAN for
the extreme ULTIMATE in creative
accomplishment! How GREAT is
our God, in mind, purpose, plan–
ning, designing, as well as CREAT·
ING-from the tiniest germ or in–
sect to the most huge sun, dwarfing
our own great sun to insignificance!
And the incredible human po–
tential is that the GREAT MAJESTIC
Goo is, in MAN, reproducing him–
self- man can be born into the
GOD
FAM.'L y ,l
The first human, Adam, was cre–
ated with the potential of qualify–
ing to replace Satan, the former
Lucifer, on earth's throne, restor–
ing the GOVERNMENT OF ÜOD.
But it was necessary that he resist
and reject Satan's "GET" way, which
was the foundation of Satan's evil
government, and choose Goo·s
w
AY
of his law- the way of LOVE (GIVE) ,
the basis of God's government!
His Maker talked first to Adam
ano Eve-instructed them in the
GOVERNMENT and spirituaJ LAW of
God-though in Genesis 2 only the
most condensed summary of God's
instruction to them is revealed. Sa–
tan was restrained from any con–
tact with them until God fi rst had
taught them. .
The Two Symbolic Trees
In the gloriously beautiful Garden
of Eden in which God placed them
were two very special symbolic
trees. Little has been heard about
these trees and their tremendous
significance, except what most peo–
ple have heard about "Adam's ap–
ple." The forbidden tree, however,
probably was not an apple tree.
The real significance of these
two symbolic trees explains the
very foundation of the world. In
them is the answer to the great
mystery of our time in this modern
twentieth century. Today we live in
a world of awesome progress and
advancement, yet paradoxically of
appalling evils. The baffling ques–
tion today is, Why cann,ot the
minds that can learn to fly to the
moon and back, transplant hearts,
produce computers and technologi–
cal marvels, solve their own prob–
lems? Why no peace in the world?
We cannot understand the mys–
tery of today's events and condi–
tions unless we go back to the very
foundation of the world, and learn
what developed from its origin to
the pulsating, confused present.
The world began at the time of
these two special trees. We hear
virtually nothing in the biblical
misteaching of today about the tree
of life, and almost nothing about
the forbidden tree.
But now consider, God had cre–
(Continued on page 25)
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