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unfinished
pieces of God's work–
manship. Spiritual character was
yet to be built into all the world
that would spring from Adam and
Eve. And in the character-build–
ing process humans are required
to perform their own vital part.
Phys íca ll y thís perfectly
created pair had no chroníc aíl–
ments or tendencies toward dis–
eases or íllnesses. That ís testified
in part by the fact that Adam
lived to be 930 years old. And for
nearly 2,000 years the human life
span from Adam to Noah aver–
aged close to 900 years.
Think of ít! The first man lived
nearly one sixth of all the time
from human creation until now!
Remember, however-1 have
stated it before-God creates in
DUAL stages. The
physica/
phase
of God 's reproducíng of Himself
started with the first Adam. The
spiritual
phase began with the
second Adam- Jesus Christ!
So understand, at this point,
sorne basíc facts unknown by
science, untaught by modern edu–
cation, unrevealed by any reli–
gíon.
The first man and woman were
made wholly of matter. "The
Eterna! God formed man of the
dust of the ground, and breathed
ínto hís nostrils the breath of lífe;
and man [matter] became a living
soul" (Gen. 2:7) . Physical matter
became
a soul!
But in man, as covered in the
preceding chapter, was something
that was l)
not
matter, but spi r ít
in essence form, and 2) actually
no par t of the man, but something
in
the man. The
man
was wholly
composed of matter. If he swal–
lowed a small stone marble, the
marble would be
in
him, but no
part of the man himself. So with
the "human" spirit.
This spirit, previously ex–
plained , empowered the physícal
brain wíth intellect, yet the spirit
itself could not see, hear, think or
reasop.
It
enabled the brain to do
these things.
This "human" spirit does not
make man immortal. Man is
wholly mortal, subject to death.
He is limíted in knowledge to that
which may be transmitted into
the brain through the physical
6
senses of síght, hearing, tasting,
smelling and feeling.
THUS MAN lS LIMlTED BY NAT–
URAL BlRTH TO KNOWLEDGE OF
THE PHYSICAL AND MATERIAL.
Man's most serious problems are
spiritual
in nature. But man is
naturally confined to thinking
solely in terms of the physical and
material. He cannot grasp or
comprehend spiritual problems or
spiritual knowledge.
But man, with his one "hu–
man" spirit, was made to
need
another Spirit- the Holy Spirit
that emanates directly from the
very Person of Goo! Unless or
until any person receives God's
Spirit,
he is -not complete!
Not all
there!
As the "human" spirit empow–
ers the physical brain with com–
prehension of materialistic knowl–
edge, so the divine Spirit makes
possible comprehension of the
spiritual things of God! The Holy
Spirit also is the divine "spiritual
sperm" that impregnates with
immortal Goo-LIFE! But it is only
an impregnation- converting a
human into an
heir- not
yet an
inheritor! He may thus be
begot–
ten
with God-life, not yet a
born
son of God. Not until the time of
the resurrection and Second
Coming of Christ.
The Holy Spirit was freely
offered the first human, Adam–
with Eve his wife.
It
was made
available through the symbolic
tree of life
in the midst of the
Edenic garden. But Adam was
required to make the choice
between Satan's "GET" way of life
and God's "GIVE" way of outftow–
ing LOVE. This latter is the way of
God's spiritual
LA
w-the very
foundational Constitution of the
GOVERNMENT OF ÜOD!
lt
was shown in chapter 5 that
Adam rejected God' s govern–
ment- rejected God as Revealer
of basic spiritual . knowledge-as
his God and Giver of immortal
salvation-exce¡::ít to the infinites–
imal few God would choose and
individually call into His s.ervice.
Bear in mind at this point, that
otherwise mankind as a whole was
cut off
from voluntary contact
with God.
Man was left to devise his own
fund of knowledge- to form his
own concepts of God- to develop
his own religions, bis own forms of
governments, bis own society and
civilization! And all
cut off
from
God, and also all the world swayed,
misled and deceived by a wily
Satan the devil, the "prince of the
poweroftheair" (Ephesians 2:2).
That was the state of the world
as it developed from Adam and
Eve.
This originally created pair had
a number of sons and daughters.
But only three sons are listed in
the record. Tbe first son, Caín,
became a murderer anda liar. His
brother was called "righteous
Abel" by Jesus Christ. Yet hu–
manity, with a rapidly rising
birth-rate and descending moral
values, became more and more
evil and violent.
From Adam until the time of
Noah, sorne 1,500 years, only one
man, Enoch, is recorded as having
"walked with God." He had been
specially called by God. By the
time of Noah a population explo–
sion was engulfing the earth, even
as today. Human thought and
interests were "only evil contin–
ually.... The earth also was cor–
rupt before God, and the earth
was filled with violence . .. for all
flesh had corrupted his way on
the earth" (Genesis 6:5, 11-12).
This universal corruption and
violen~e
was inflicting suffering,
anguish, frustration upon an evil
humanity. It seems humanity
never realizes the "GET" way–
transgression of God 's Law–
inflicts increasing sufferíng on its
perpetrators-and on otbers.
This violence had become so
universal that God determined to
spare humanity from suffering
longer in mounting misery and
anguish.
God took away their miserable
lives, by the earthwide Flood,
to
be resurrected in the next second
of their consciousness
in the
"Great White Throne" resur–
rection (Revelati'on 20: 11-12).
They will be brought back to life
in a time when Christ is ruling
the earth in righteousness, peace
and happiness. Satan will be
gone. Their minds then will be
(Continued on page 39)
The PLAIN TRUTH