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culties we have lo endure while we
are still human beings, " ... we know
that all things work together for good
lo them that love God, to them who
are the called according to bis pur–
pose" (Romans 8:28).
Pa ul goes on to explain in verse 29
that the purpose of God according to
which true Christians have been
called is that we might be sons of
God as Christ is a Son of God, born
into the Kingdom and Family of God
as Christ was born into the Kingdom
and Family of God! And so it is that
Jesus, the Captain of our salvation, is
called the
"jirstborn
among
many
brethren."
That is, Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
the only human being to be begotten
in the womb of a woman by God the
Falher in beaven, is tbe first human
being to become a Son of God by the
resurrection from the dead! (Romans
1:4.)
But only the first!
Any human being, by exerc1smg
lhe power of the Spirit of God, can
join that Firstborn Son in God's
Kingdom once he is called by God
the Father.
It
was from the beginning the plan
of our great God- the source of out–
going concern, the source of love- to
share His eterna! life, with a ll its joy
and majesty! Speaking of Christ,
Paul quoted the book of Psalms and
wrote, "What is man, tbat thou art
mindful of him? or tbe son of man,
that thou visitest him? Thou madest
him a little lower than the angels;
thou crownedst him with glory and
honour, and didst set him over the
works of tby hands: Thou hast put all
things in subjection under his feet.
For in that he put all in subjection
under him, he left nothing that is not
put under him. But now we see not
yet all things put under him" (He–
brews 2:6-8).
Certainly we recognize tbat all
lhings are in subjection to J esus
Cbrist! We all remember the scrip–
ture quoting Jesus, after His resur–
rection explaining to His disciples,
" All power is given unto me in
heaven and in earth" (Matthew
28:
18).
Notice in reading this quote
that Paul cites from Psalms that il
is not just the Son of Man (Jesus)
who is being talked about, but man-
36
kind. Tbat God created mankind
with tbe ultima te purpose of sharing
His own rulership of all things is
manifest by these verses. Christ is
not the only One to have Sonship in
the Kingdom of God-all of man–
kind was created with that purpose
in mind.
" But we see Jesus, who was made
a little lower than the angels for the
suffering of death, crowned with glo–
ry and honour; thal he by the grace
of God should taste death for every
man. For
it
became him [this Him,
you will notice in the context, is not
referring to J esus Christ, but to God,
the Father of Jesus Christ], for
whom are all things, and by whom
are all things, in bringing
MANY
sons
unto glory, to make the captain of
their salvation [this is referring to
J esus Christ] perfect through suffer–
ings" (Hebrews 2:9-10).
Yes, God the Fatber intends, it is
His will and purpose to add many
sons to H is Kingdom, His Family, to
have the same glory that the Captain
of their salvation, Jesus Christ, now
enjoys.
It
is in this context that Jesus
refers to called-out human beings as
brethren (verse 11 ). Really breth–
ren-not just called brethren.
" In
the Beginnlng
.. ."
In the first verse of the Bible, Genesis
1:1, God introduces H imself toman–
kind as the Almighty Creator. In the
English translation of the Hebrew it
is unfortunate that the term "God" is
used because it does not describe ful–
ly the Hebrew word from which it is
translated. The word "God" conveys
tbe idea that one being or individual
is involved. It is singular. In the He–
brew it is not singular!
God introduced Himself to man–
kind with a plural name!
God uses this plural name exclu–
sively over and over throughout the
first chapter of Genesis and through
verse 3 of chapter 2. That plural
word
in
the Hebrew is
Elohim.
In
English we use "s" as a pluralizing
letter on words. In Hebrew they use
"im" as a pluralizing form. In sorne
cases this is confusing. One example
of this is in Genesis 3 and verse 24
where the Hebrew word
cherubim
is
transliterated from the Hebrew. In
order to make people understand that
there is more than one individual in–
volved, this word is Anglicized and
spelled "cherubims"! Although this
conveys the idea to English-speaking
people that lhere was more than one
cherub involved- and so helps us un–
derstand the original language in
which the Bible was written- il is
also misleading in the sense thal lhis
practice is not consistently exercised
throughout the Bible.
lf the lranslators had been consist–
ent with this form of translaling,
then the firsl verse of your Bible
would read, " In the beginning
Elo–
himS
...."
So the word translated
"God" in Genesis
1-Eiohim
in the
Hebrew- means the Everliving ,
Eterna! Creating, All Powerful, Gov–
erning Family- Kingdom of God.
Elohim
does mean one God, not
many Gods- but that one God is a
Kingdom!
It
is similar to God' s
Church. There is but one true
Church- one Churcb, bul many
members! (1 Corinthians 12:20.)
The Greatest Creation
As far as is revealed
in
your Bible
there are only two Beings presenlly
in God's Kingdom-the Ones we call
God tbe Father and J esus Christ the
Son. Those two, in that beginning
chapter of Genesis said, "And God
[Elohimj
said, Let
us
make man in
our
image, afler
our
likeness"! (Gen–
esis
1
:26.)
Mankind al that time was crealed
physically in the form ofGod-"And
the Lord God formed man of the dust
of the ground, and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life; and man
became a living soul" (Genesis 2:7).
He did not have eterna! life, or im–
mortal life, at thal time, but, as God
said to him, "Dust thou art, and unto
dust shalt thou return" (Genesis
3:19).
Physical
creation was com–
pleted in the record we read in Gene–
sis 1, but the greatest creation- the
very purpose for the physical cre–
ation-was not complete. The great
process of
spiritua/
creation was just
begun with the creation of two hu–
man beings to produce the entire race
of mankind which was to be offered
sonship in the Kingdom of God!
Mr. Herbert W . Armstrong has
said: "The purpose of life is that in us
God is really re-creating His own
The
PLAIN TAUTH