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CHURCH
(Continued from page 3)
one place. There is this instruction in
lsaiah: "Whom shall he teach knowl–
edge? And whom shall he make to
understand doctrine? ... For precept
must be upon precept, precept upon
precept; line upon line, line upon line;
here a little, and there a little" (Is–
aiah
28:9-1 O).
But most who try to
apply this principie in biblical under–
standing take each "little" out of
context, in order io interpret their
own
idea into it.
Much directly concerned with
what is revealed in Genesis
1
is filled
in by other passages of Scripture in
various parts of the Bible.
So now, let's UNDERSTAND the
background. Earth's angels had
not
completed the creation of this planet
by improvement, development and
beautification. Rather, they had
brought it to desolation and ruin. The
GOVERNMENT OF Goo had been nul–
lified on earth.
And now
only God
could be
cer–
tainly
relied upon never to depart
from
the way
of His law and His gov–
ernment.
No higher, more perfect kind of
being could be created than Luci–
fer- and he had rebelled. Since Goo
ALONE would never deviate or turn
from Goo's WAY, God now deter–
mined (or probably had already pre–
determined) to accompl ish the su–
PREME creative feat-to REPRODUCE
HIMSELF! In God's supreme wisdom
He knew this must be brought about
through matter!
Man in God's lmage
To prepare the earth for the creation
of MAN, God first renewed the face of
the earth. This is explained in Psalm
104:30: "Thou sendest forth thy spir–
it, they are created: and thou renew–
est the face of the earth."
Now back to Genesis
1: 2.
The
earth was in a state of ruin.
" ... And the Spirit of God moved
upon the face of the waters."
The first thing God did was turn
darkness back into LIGHT as original–
ly made. God said, " ... Let there be
light: and there was light" (Genesis
1:3).
The
PLAIN TRUTH March 1979
So in six days God RENEWED THE
FACE OF THE EARTH (the
SÍX
days in
Genesis
1
is not the time of earth's
original creation), preparing it for
the creation of MAN! Once again the
earth was a perfect creation-but
lacking the finishing touches.
The Purpose of Man
on Earth
WHY did the Creator God put MAN
on the earth? To
improve
the physi–
cal earth as God gave it to man,
fin–
ishing
its creation, which sinning an–
gels had deliberately refused to do;
and in
SO
doing to RESTORE the GOV–
ERNMENT OF Goo, with God's WAY
of Ji fe, and, further, in this very pro–
cess, TO FINISH THE CREATION OF
man
by the development of God's
holy, righteous CHARACTER, with
man's own assent. Once this perfect
and righteous character is inst illed in
man and man converted from mortal
to immortal spirit, then is to come t he
INCREDIBLE HUMAN POTENTIAL–
man being BORN INTO the divine
FAMILY of God and then participat–
ing in the completion of the CREA–
TION of the entire endless expanse of
the UNIVERSE!
So, on the sixth day of that
(re)creation week, God (Elohim)
said: "Let us make man in our image,
after our likeness: and Jet them have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and
over the fowl of the air, and over the
cattle, and over a ll the earth, and
over every creeping thing that creep–
eth upon the earth. So God created
man in his own image, in the image
of God created he him; maJe and fe–
maJe created he them" (Genesis
1:26).
Man was made to have (with his
assent) a special relationship with his
Maker! He was made in the form and
shape of God. He was given a spirit
(essence) to make the relationship
possible. Much more of that a little
later.
The Soul ls Mortal
But God made MAN
wholly
of MAT–
TER! This was necessary for the su–
preme accomplishment God willed.
"And the Eterna! God formed
man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath
[air] of life; and man became a living
soul" (Genesis 2:7). Man, formed
from material dust of the ground,
upon breathing air BECAME a living
soul.
It
does not say man is or has an
immortal soul. What was formed
from material ground BECAME a
so
u
l.
Therefore the SOUL is physical,
composed of matter, and can die.
This is a TRUTH believed by very few
denominations and probably by no
religions other than Christianity–
another PROOF that identifies the one
true Church of God!
How Human Mlnd Functions
Now we cometo another truth, so far
as
1
know exclusive in the one true
Church.
Did you ever wonder about the
vast difference between human mind
and animal brain? This incidentally
is another PROOF of the falsity of the
theory of evolution!
The physical brain of vertebrales
in the animal kingdom is almost pre–
cisely the same in physical form, de–
sigo, and constituents as human
brain-and the brains of whales, ele–
phants, dolphins are larger, and of
chimps almost as large. Yet the out–
pul of human brain is indescribably
greater. Few indeed know WHY!
Many passages of scripture show
that there is a spirit
in
man. Spirit is
not
matter, and man is wholly mal–
ter. But, as there could be a small
metal object swallowed by mistake
in
man, yet no part of the man himself,
so with the spirit within each human.
lt
is in the form of essence- not a
ghost or being of itself, and lo distin–
guish it from God's Holy Spirit,
1
designate it as the "human spirit."
Nevertheless, it is spirit and not mal–
ter.
This "human spirit" imparts the
power of intellect to the human phys–
ical brain. The spirit cannot see,
hear, taste, smell or feel. The
brain
sees through the eye, hears through
the ear, etc. The "human spirit" can–
not of itself think. The physical brain
thinks.
What, then, is the function of the
"human spirit" ?
Jt
is NOT a "soul."
But it 1) imparts the power of intel–
lect, of thinking and of MINO power
to the human brain; and 2) it is the
very means God has instilled to make
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