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man. God created man as a dust–
and-ashes copy of Himself.
Use and Abuse
Adam was assigned a
creative
task almost immediately. "You
are going to be in charge. Syste–
matically begin the naming of the
animals and birds. Learn about
plant life; understand how each
bit of the creation can be useful
to you and your descendants."
For "out of the ground the Lord
God formed every beast of the
field, and every fowl of the air;
and brought them unto Adam to
see what he would call them. .. .
And Adam gave names to all
cattle, and to the fowl of the air,
and to every beast . .. " (Genesis
2:19-20). Only an imaginative,
truly creative mind could be
called upon to invent name after
name as this multitude of crea–
tures is brought forward .
The next step in the story of
man is one of misguided imagina–
tion. Lacking the direction she
should have had, the mother of all
mankind "saw that the [forbid–
den] tree was good for food, and
that it was pleasant to the eyes,
and a tree to be desired to make
one wise, she took of the fruit
thereof, and did eat, and gave also
unto her husband with her; and
he did eat" (Genesis 3:6) . They
had heeded the advice of a dis–
qualified teacher (Satan). They
speculated, they experimented
with their lives at stake, and carne
to an utterly wrong conclusion.
A series of steps follow that
show imagination in action once
more. Adam and Eve now looked
at life with a guilty conscience for
they knew that they had done
wrong. Shame took over and
"they knew that they were naked;
and they sewed fig leaves to–
gether, and made aprons" (verse
7) . They were able to visualize
clothing and then fashion it; they
too were creators!
More imagination follows as
they give their Creator a rather
biased account of their actions
and easily see (visualize) that the
other party was to be blamed.
Then lest these
creative
individu–
als gain eterna! life as habitual
evil doers, they were driven from
30
the source of Eterna[ Life. They
would have to learn obedience
first befare that chance to live
forever would again be given.
Jesua Clalma Adam as a Son
"1 am the
root
and offspring of
David . .. 1 am
Alpha
and Ome–
ga, the
beginning
and the end, the
first
and the last" (Revelation
22:16,
r3).
Not only was Jesus
descended from King David, but
He was also David ' s earliest
ancestor in that He had been a
member of the Creating Team
(Elohim)
and had participated in
the creation of Adam and Eve.
Repeating from Luke 3:23-38,
"Seth, which was the son of
Adam, which was the son of
God."
In Genesis 1:26 we found
Elohim
as the Creator, "And
God [Elohim] said, Let
us
make
man in
our
image." Nearly 4,000
years later a member of this Elo–
him was
born
to Mary, a
deseen–
dan!
of King David. Thus He
(Jesus) was both
"root and o.ff–
spring oj David"!
Isaiah repeats this same theme,
"For unto usa child is born, unto us
a
son
is given ... bis name .. . The
mighty God, the everlasting Fa–
ther.. ." (Isaiah 9:6) . Again in Mal–
achi 1:6 we find that the Creator of
mankind is termed man's
father,
"if.. . . I be a father, where is mine
honour? . .. saith the Lord of
hosts" and in 2:1
O,
"Have we not all
one
father;
hath not one God
createdus? ..
."
In recognizing Jesus ' claim to
be the ancestor of Adam, we must
not forget that
He was not alone
in that creation of man. His exis–
tence from the beginning as God
with
the One we now know as the
Heavenly Father is attested to iri
John 1:1,2: "In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. . ..
All things were made by
him. . .." Both individuals, the
Ones known as the Father and
the Son, participated in creation .
Note the introduction to the book
of Hebrews, "God . . . hath in these
last days spoken unto us by bis
Son . .. by whom also he made the
worlds." Or again in Ephesians 3:9,
" .. .God, who created all things by
Jesus Christ."
The parentage of the human
race is thus clear. It is from the
Creator God Family that we have
inherited our creativity!
How to Use the Gltt of Creatlvlty
Creativity is interesting; creativi–
ty is fun. It is an attribute pos–
sessed by man alone among all
the earthly life forms.
Let geologist Crandall express
the joy he experiences in putting
that talent to use searching out ways
to bring petroleum to the surface
from deep in the earth: "Science
and art and any creative activity are
essentially fun. They are enjoyable
to the practitioner. Exploration is
like a game-the more difficul t ,
often the more enjoyable and sweet–
er the success."
Unguided, that samecreative tal–
ent has brought untold misery to
mankind. Properly used in line with
God's revealed laws for human
behavior, creativity brings untold
blessings.
Children must b.e taught the
proper use of their imaginative,
innovative minds. Thus God said
of the descendants of Abraham:
"I know [Abraham] , that he will
command bis children . . . they
shall keep the way of the
Lord ...
that
the Lord may bring
upon Abraham that which he
hath spoken of him" (Genesis
18:19) . Without
that
teaching,
Abraham's children would turn
their
imaginations
to wicked
ways atso, and would not be a
blessing to the rest of mankind.
Creativity then was a gift of our
Creator.
It
was a free gift, intended
to be possessed in conjunction with
eterna! life. With the opportunity
for eterna! life made possible for
mankind through Jesus Christ and
the Spirit from the Father, all man–
kind once more will have·access to
the promises made to Adam and
Abraham.
Mankind, the sole possessors of
this talent of creativity, has yet to be
united in a Father-Son relationship,
a Husband-Bride relationship and
an Older Brother-Younger Brother
relationship.
Dust and ashes will be changed to
spirit and thus man, boro again, will
have an opportunity to use this
creativity forever. o
The
PLAIN TRUTH