Difference between revisions of "Introduction (More than animals)"

"What the heck am I?" is a thought that has crossed most of our minds. Some say that I am just the product of a blotch of goo with time, energy and chance added to the mix. Others say that we are gods or potential gods. Most churches teach something in the middle: We are in the image of God, and therefore have value.

These are not satisfactory answers.

If I am just a lucky blotch of goo, then there is no such thing as love. It is just an ingenious illusion created by the manipulation of chemicals by the same things by which we were created: time, energy and chance. It cannot be a surprise that those who's thoughts lead them this way have difficulty in finding meaning to life and relationships. As the goo changes with time, so fades love. The one who is a goo knows his own hypocrisy when he is angry. His belief does not match his actions. If circumstances are just haphazard occurrences, then anger is senseless. Though he can justify using others for his own survival, resents when he himself is used.

If I am a god, then I too have a disconnect between my belief and my experience. God's don't suffer. God's don't lie. God's are self-sufficient and do not covet or need assistance.

The Christian answer is no more satisfactory. I am made in the image of God and therefor have worth. Yet no one recognizes my worth. I feel alone. People don't respect me or my choices. And should I visit a mega church, I may be among thousands of people who say I have worth, yet they do not recognize their own members, cannot identify me as a visitor and I stand alone after the service hoping to dialog about the God they claim to know. Many small churches are no better as people flee to the parking lot to continue the day with their preconceived notions of how their day should progress.

It would appear that being in the image of God allows you to be a God as you determine what is good for you.

Since no one seems to know, it appears that we can make our own choices of life and death, good and evil. We can consciously make choices or flow with our instincts. We are told to ask God. That is a convenient dodge when you don't have an answer. Everyone is allowed to talk to God; but if you hear back from him you are deemed insane.

Those who are sane appear insane to the insane. The answer is not to ask God, but to hear God.

Here is a secret. I don't know why it is a secret. You would think that churches would want to teach it, and that everyone would want to know.

God's name 'Elohim' means 'God separated from his people by ignorance'. ^[1] This is good news. He wants to teach us.

It means that God created us knowing that we did not understand him. He wants us to know him so that we can believe (trust) him and understand. ^[2] Before you can hear God, you must believe he wants to be heard and you must wish to listen. This is just like anyone else. Before you can understand your neighbor, you must believe that he is, and wants to be heard. ^[3]

1. ↑ 'el' אל God separated from 'ee' י creation finished by the son ם 'm' by 'h' ה ignorance.
2. ↑ ▸ ± Isa 43:10 Ye [are] my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I [am] he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.</span> </li>
3. ↑ ▸ ± Heb 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.</span> </li> </ol>

Though we share many attributes and characteristics with animals, we are not animals. This goes beyond the 'opposable thumbs' and the use of tools.

1. When Eve was tempted, she was tempted to live by her instincts like an animal. ^[1] By choosing what was good for her, using her instincts, she usurped God position of declaring good and evil.

When she was cast out of the garden, she was not cursed, but confronted in her sin. "If you wish to live like an animal, try bearing children without increased pain." ^[2]

2. The spirit of animals goes to the earth and the spirit of man returns to God. ^[3] Without needing to debate what the spirit is, we know that the destination of the spirit of animals is different than that of the spirit of man.

1. ↑ ▸ ± Ge 3:6 ¶ And when the woman saw that the 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.</span> </li>
2. ↑ ▸ ± Ge 3:16 ¶ Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow [pain] and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire [shall be] to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.</span> </li>
3. ↑ ▸ ± Ec 3:21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward, and the spirit of the beast that goeth downward to the earth?</span> </li> </ol>

There is only one God.

Ge 1:1 ¶ In the beginning [the God who is separated from man by ignorance] created the heaven and the earth.

When translated properly, there is no debate if 'Elohim' is a plural form of God, as some would say. When translating it as "God who is separated from man..." "El" אל is unambiguously singular. "Man" is plural since it refers to creation י which is everything or a plural.

He created the heavens... The word is 'hashamayim' השמים. Your Hebrew dictionary is in error because it drops the hei ה and lists the word as 'shamayim' שמים.

Hei is a prefix meaning 'the', so it is understandable why they do so. But in Hebrew, words get their meaning from all the letters in them.

What we miss in the translation is that he created 'ha-shem-im' ה-שמ-ים or 'the names'. Some people believe that you aren't allowed to say the name of God. This is silly. God told Moses to call him YHVH יהוה. Instead of calling him God, they call him 'the name' or 'Ha-shem'.

In Dinner Theater in the Dietary Law we saw that Adam gave the animals their names or reputations based on their behavior. The name 'Ha-shem' means 'the reputation of God. In plural, Ha-shem-im, it means 'his reputations'.

John says that the one God told us he had three reputations in the word for 'the heavens' השמים ^[1]: Father, Word, and Spirit. The word for 'the heavens' tells us that God has revealed himself in the Trinity. The three are one God. There is only one God. We are not God. ^[2]

1. ↑ 1Jo 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father מ, the Word ם, and the Holy Ghost ש: and these three are one.
2. ↑ Isa 43:10 Ye [are] my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I [am] he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

Read closely what God said:

▸ ± Ge 1:26 ¶ And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

▸ ± Ge 1:27 So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

He has a diminishing scope of what he accomplished:

1. ↑ ▸ ± Heb 1:3 Who being the brightness of [his] glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;</span> </li>
2. ↑ ▸ ± 2Co 4:4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. </span> </li>
3. ↑ ▸ ± Col 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:</span> </li>
4. ↑ ▸ ± Col 3:10 And have put on the new [man], which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:</span> </li>
5. ↑ ▸ ± 1Jo 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. </span> </li>
6. ↑ ▸ ± Eph 5:32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.</span> </li>
7. ↑ ▸ ± Lu 24:27 And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself.</span> </li>
8. ↑ ▸ ± Joh 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.</span> </li> </ol>