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February 22, 2008
©Homer Kizer Commentary —
From the Margins
The Spirit of Man _______________ And I when I came to you,
brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God in lofty speech or
wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him
crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and
my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in
demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that you faith might not rest in the
wisdom of men but in the power of God. (1 Co 2:1–5) _______________ The
invisible things of God are revealed by the visible things of this world, with
one of those visible things having been the Apostle Paul coming to the saints
at In order for a person to hear the things of God,
the person must have received the Spirit or divine Breath of God [Pneuma ’Agion — A<,Ø:" U(4@<], with pneuma
[B<,Ø:"] being the Greek linguistic icon most often used
to mimetically represent moving air as in wind or deep breath, the icon
borrowed into English as the root of pneumatic
tools and pneumonia, the first being air-powered
tools and the latter being the illness that causes lungs to fill with fluids. At The weakness and trembling with which visibly Paul
spoke is today the shadow of the endtime good news being delivered by those
disciples who are without strength in this world (Rev 3:8), with their lack of
strength as much of an embarrassment to them as Paul’s physical
weaknesses (especially his eyes) were to him. For those who deliver the endtime
good news that all who endure shall be saved are often called upon to help
genuinely needy disciples in impoverished areas of this world and are not able
to do so for they are themselves the impoverished of this world. Nevertheless
in an invisible demonstration of power, this message, within a few hours
of being written, will be circulated around the world, and will have been read by
someone on every continent but But how can there be an invisible demonstration of
anything? Isn’t an “invisible demonstration” an oxymoron like
cold heat? The Apostle Paul continues the introductory
thought: Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although
it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to
pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed
before the ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this,
for it they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But, as it is
written, “What no eye has seen, nor ear head, nor the heart of man imagined, What God has prepared for those who love
him—” these things God has revealed to us through the
Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who
knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in
him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
(1 Co 2:6–11) If no one can know the thoughts of God except
through possession of the Spirit of God, then a dichotomy exists that makes
knowing the thoughts (the things) of God privileged knowledge, unobtainable by
ordinary or extraordinary means, unknowable by scholarship or by casual
reading. This makes translation an on-going problem, especially when the
subject under discussion, by its context, declares that without being one of
“those who love Him” (and all those who love God keep His
commandments), the person cannot understand the things of God, revealed by the
Breath of God. Understand the above! Unless you are a person who
loves God—and all who love God keep His commandments, not eight or nine
of ten outward expressions of what it means to love God with heart and mind and
to love one’s neighbor as oneself, but all of His commands—you
cannot understand the things of God. And if you do not understand the things of
God, how is it possible for you translate spiritual things and not lose
spiritual understanding? You cannot! And you know you can’t. But you are
willing to muddle through, hoping to correctly convey the sense of what you do
not understand. And then, others come behind you and valiantly attempt to
wrestle meaning from your words that come from your lack of understanding. It
is a wonder that anything comes from studying Scripture—and truly,
without having been born of Spirit as a son of God, nothing spiritual does come
from a person’s daily Bible study. The Psalmist wrote, Understand, O dullest of the people! Fools,
when will you be wise? He who planted the ear, does he not hear? He who formed the eye, does he not see? He who disciplines the nations, does he not rebuke? He who teaches man knowledge— The
Lord [YHWH] knows the thoughts of
man, that
they are but a breath. (94:8–11) The thoughts of a man are but a breath, a vapor or
puff of wind, which in Greek is pneuma
[B<,Ø:"] or in Latin is spiritus. A man knows the things of a man by the breath that is in
man. This is what Paul wrote about who
knows a person’s thought except the spirit of that person (1 Co
2:11). Only the life within the person allows the person to know his or her
thoughts or even to have thoughts. Without life, there would be no thought, for
the dead know nothing (Eccl 9:5). What Paul addresses is the reality that
without life, there is no knowledge; for the thoughts of a man depend upon the
breath of the man, what the Psalmist says. It is only the dullest of people who
will have the dead as shades in Hades coming to the sacrifice of one like
Odysseus (Book 11, Homer’s Odyssey). The spirit of
the person by which a man knows the things of a man is not an immortal
soul, but an attribute of the person that comes with receipt of life. It is
“human nature,” which is a received nature given by God to the
first Adam when God gave life to this man of mud, with this physical life
passed on to his biological descendants. Note: two things are linked together, biological
life and biological nature. A cat gives birth to another cat, which look
somewhat like its parents and has somewhat the same nature. Every cat has the
genetic traits that make the breathing creature [nephesh] a stereotypical cat, including walking on four legs,
having claws, two eyes, two ears, and the proclivity of killing prey and
preferring to eat fresh meat to cereal grains. Every cat has the nature of a
“cat.” In other words, every cat is a biological killing machine.
But the promise of Scripture when the Holy Spirit is poured out on all flesh
(Joel 2:28) is that the nature of cats, of all predators will change (Isa
11:6-9). The promise is not that the biological characteristics that produce a
stereotypical cat will change, but that its nature will change because of the
Messiah’s “recovery of The nature of cats, of human beings, of oxen, of
angels are given to each by God when life is given to each, whether through
being a one-of creation, or whether through a biological process that is
somewhat like a living assembly line. The scientific assumption has been that
there is a hard link between the biological processes through which life comes
and the “natures” of the living creatures. This assumption has even
been taught within the churches of God through preaching that during Christ’s
millennium reign human nature will remain as it presently is. This is not true.
God has the ability to shuffle the natures of living creatures as He wills,
with His power demonstrated when He took from King Nebuchadnezzar his human nature and gave to the king the nature of an ox for seven years (Dan
chap 4). He will take the nature of
an angel from the false prophet, the first beast of Daniel chapter seven, and
give to this demonic king the mind of a man or the nature of a man (Dan 7:4).
And King Nebuchadnezzar served as the shadow and type of Satan, the spiritual
king of Human nature will change in a manner foreshadowed
by the changed natures of the great predators when the Holy Spirit is poured
out on all flesh—human nature is not biologically determined although it
is received when life is received. It comes with the breath [pneuma or spiritus] of life, and it goes when the breath of life is lost. In
an understandable analogy, it is the software operating system [in computer
jargon] that makes a person a person, and a cat a cat. The Apostle Paul could not have imagined a personal
computer, or the Internet, or any of the technical developments of the past
forty years. It would have been difficult for Paul to have imagined the great
mechanical achievements of the last 500 years, but not impossible. However, the
developments of electronic communication would not have been conceivable, so
the use of computer terminology in its metaphoric application to explain the
things of God was truly beyond Paul’s conception. Computers work by the presence or absence of an
electrical flow. Originally vacuum tubes served as open or shut switches that
could be translated into a binary code that would, in a rudimentary
explanation, have current flow and the absence of current equaling a “one”
or a “zero.” But opening and closing a switch takes time, even if
only a micro-second. However, the development of a semi-conductor (the silicon
chip) allowed resistance to be used instead of a switch: the presence or
absence of “resistance” could now be translated into ones and
zeros. But a computer does nothing but sit silently until
there is a current flow—until it is “plugged-in.” Likewise,
the first Adam was a lifeless corpse until Elohim
[singular in usage] breathed the breath of life into the first man’s nostrils
(Gen 2:7). Thus, in an analogy that would have a computer representing a
person, electrical flow equates to physical breath; i.e., the breath of life. In order for the computer to do anything other than
to let current flow through open switches and not flow through closed switches,
an operating system must be written for the computer that a language translator
can convert into binary code that causes switches to open and close in a
none-random pattern. This operating system can be likened to the “nature”
of a living creature, which will be “code” written by God that
causes a person to be a person and a cat to be a cat. When Elohim
breathed into the nostrils of the first Adam, thereby imparting physical life
to what was not before living, there were no animals nor plants on this
“day when the Lord God [YHWH Elohim]
made the earth and the heavens” (Gen 2:4). There were no cats, or oxen,
or even plankton. Genesis chapter one does not chronologically precede Genesis chapter
two. Rather, in Genesis 1:1 is all of the physical creation. What has not been
created in the declarative sentence, “In the beginning, God created
[filled] the heavens and the earth”? Has the sun been created in the
heavens? The sun is part of the heavens (plural) is it not? So the stars, the
sun and the moon are all created in the first verse of Genesis chapter one. And
it is on this day when, according to the account of the creation of Adam, that
the first man received life, not after the type and likeness of God, but as a
breathing creature, knowing the things of man by the breath or spirit of man. If the first Adam had been created in the likeness
of God, he would have been able to understand the things of God. His mind would
have been like God’s. But if a person cannot know the things of God,
cannot comprehend the thoughts of God except by having the Spirit or Breath of
God in the person, then, truly, the first Adam really was not created in the
image of God even though both have arms, a torso, and a head … all of the
great apes also have arms, torso, and a head. Are they created in our image? Or
are they created in the image of God? According to the Genesis chapter two
creation account Adam preceded them in order of creation. Yes, he did! Thus, rather
than the great apes being early relatives of man, they have been formed in the
likeness of man, not by man, but by God to see if any helpmate could be found
among them for Adam. And no helpmate could be found among all of the animals
God created (Gen 2:20), for none were of Adam’s flesh and of his bone. God is not flesh and bone, but a living Spirit,
with Christ Jesus as the last Adam being a life-giving Spirit (1 Co 15:45); so
a Helpmate for the Son of God will also have to be of living Spirit, created
from the same Spirit as is the Son. No helpmate for God was found among the
Sadducees and Pharisees of the temple, with the temple now equating to the An idea is not physical, but comes from the mind of
a man as the fruit of his or her mental landscape. It is the qualities and
capabilities of the human “mind” that have caused a great wealth of
speculation about the difference between human beings and beasts since before
Plato wrestled with this distinction … ancient Greek philosophers could
not accept that at death there was no difference between a man and his hunting
dog, what King Solomon wrote (Eccl 3:18-20). These philosophers made a
distinction between “mind” and “brain,” a distinction
resurrected in the 20th-Century by the churches of God. And these
philosophers created an afterlife and underworld that was truly bizarre: The blind poet Homer wrote: But I, the sharp sword drawn from beside my hip, sat down on alert there and never let the ghosts of the shambling, shiftless dead come near that
blood till I had questioned Tiresias myself. (Odyssey. 11. 53–56. trans. Robert Fagles) At last he came. The shade of the famous Theben
prophet, holding a golden scepter, knew me at once and
hailed me: ‘Royal son of Laertes, Odysseus, master of
exploits, man of pain, what now, what brings you here, forsaking the light of day to see this joyless kingdom of the dead? Stand back from the trench—put up your sharp
sword so I can drink the blood and tell you all the
truth.’ (11. 100–107) If a sharp sword can dissuade a shade that cannot
be held from drinking the blood of Odysseus’ sacrifice, then the entire
construction of Hades and the underworld where immortal souls go was not well
conceived, but existed in the 8th-century BCE as a storytelling
construct that was accepted by later philosophers as factual. So it isn’t
to those philosophers who accepted the words of a blind poet to whom Christians
should look for spiritual guidance. The adage to beware of
Greeks bearing gifts was ignored by the early But the strangest
occurrence of all is the endtime acceptance of this distorted gospel message by
many who were once part of the Returning to the most important concept for
understanding the things of God: the visible things of this world reveal the
invisible things of God (Rom 1:20). The flesh or muscle structure of a man is different
from the flesh or muscle structure of a bear, or of a chimpanzee. Pound for
pound, a beast is stronger; yet a beast does not live as long when body sizes
are compared. Although the same amount of human muscle mass (by any measure)
should be as strong as the same quantity of muscle mass of a beast, this is not
the case even between humans and chimpanzees, who share approximately 94
percent of the same DNA structure. An adult chimp is five times stronger than a
human male even though the human male will outweigh the chimp by a third more.
Plus, DNA research has shown that within human beings is a genetic redundancy
that is not present in other breathing creatures— The use of terms like inferior or superior
carry with them the implication of a hierarchy existing that places greater
value on one life-form than on another. No discussion of value is here being
made. Rather, what is under discussion is the Genesis two creation account, the
so-called “J” account, which has Adam being the first living creature,
and the beasts of the fields being created after Adam … the co-called
“P” creation of Genesis chapter one has the Breath of God being
visibly seen in verse 2; thus, this account moves at that point to being the
abstract of the spiritual creation, a creation that can only be described
through the linguistic icons [sound or written/inscribed images] used for the
things of this world being applied to the things of God. Hence, cereal grains
and fruit bearing trees bring forth their harvest before the greater light is
created, but these “trees” do not represent the trees of arborists, or grain planted in
any dirt. Rather these cereal grains and fruit-bearing trees are human beings
that will be part of the first harvest of God, gathered to God when Christ
returns. Thus, the creation of the great light is not descriptive of the
creation of the sun, but of the resurrection of firstfruits to be the glorified
Body of the Son of Man. The creation of the lesser light will be the creation
of the returned priesthood of The breath that enlivens human beings uses the same
air as enlivens chimpanzees, but the breath of a human being is not the breath
of a chimpanzee. The thoughts of a human being are not the thoughts of a
chimpanzee even though months have been spent to teach the chimp to use sign
language. Yes, some thoughts are shared. The great apes can laugh, will feel
sadness, and will use tools. But a man would not marry a great ape to bring
forth offspring for himself. Nor could the first Adam find a helpmate for
himself among the great apes, let alone among cattle or cats, also breathing creatures
having life from the same biological processes. As the breath of a human being is not the breath of
a chimpanzee even though the same biological processes deliver the same oxygen
molecules to the cells of both living creatures, the breath of Moses was not
the breath of Aaron, his brother … the analogy becomes more complex: the
same silicon in a central processing chip activated by the same source of
electricity does not make a PC a Mac, or vise versa. The configuration of the
chip and the operating system used to activate the chip causes a Mac not to be
a PC, even though both are computers. In relative terms, the chips are similar
though not identical as a human being’s DNA is similar to a
chimpanzee’s but not identical. Spiritually, an angel is a spirit being
as God is a spirit being, but an angel is not God even though Satan would have
human beings worship angels as God (Rev 9:20). Where the complexity becomes difficult to visualize
is where both the body of an angel and its life force are described by the icon
spirit. The spirit that gives life to an angel is the
divine Breath of the Father, but this “Spirit” is not the same
Breath as either “the One who raised Christ from the dead” (Rom
8:11) or Christ has, even though this life
force has come from the Father. Likewise, the divine Breath of the One who
raised Christ from the dead is not the divine Breath of Christ (v. 9) as Moses’ breath was not
Aaron’s breath even though both Moses and Aaron shared having the breath
of life. Everything in the heavenly realm can only be known
through metaphor, or figurative language. One Greek word or linguistic icon—pneuma [B<,Ø:"]—is being used for broader meanings than
really desired, for Moses’ breath is like Aaron’s breath but is not
the same, whereas a difference existed between Nebuchadnezzar’s breath,
which caused Nebuchadnezzar to know the things of a man, and an ox’s
breath even when Nebuchadnezzar had his “nature” changed to that of
an ox for seven years. Nebuchadnezzar was never an ox even though he ceased to
know the things of a man and knew only the things of an ox. But for seven
years, he had the “spirit” of an ox, knowing the things of an ox
even though he fully retained the flesh of a man. How can Nebuchadnezzar not have the breath of an
ox, but have the spirit of an ox when both breath
and spirit are translated from the
Greek icon pneuma? That makes no
sense in human logic. All of the apparent doublespeak exists to make
apparent the invisible things of God, for no one can know the things of God
unless the person has the Spirit of divine Breath of God. In his epistle of the saints at Now we have received not the spirit of the world,
but the Spirit [that] is from God, that we might understand the things freely
given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but
taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. The natural person does not accept the things of
God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because
they are spiritually discerned. (1 Co 2:12–14) Paul compares the “spirit of the world”
to the “spirit of man,” with both giving respectfully, knowledge of
the things of this world and knowledge of the things of man … what is the
difference between knowing the things of this world and knowing the things of
man? Are they not the same? In Paul’s usage of pneuma [B<,Ø:"], the “breath” that activates man is
like the “breath” that activates other breathing creatures [nephesh]. The breath of a person is like
the breath of a chimpanzee. The knowledge a person needs to survive is the same
knowledge that the world needs to survive. Returning now to the computer model: every
Microsoft operating system identified by the name, Windows 98, was like every other operating system of the same name,
but not like the operating system named, Vista,
even though both operating systems make the computer do most of the same
functions. If it can be said that Windows
98 is comparable to the nature of a chimpanzee in relation to Again, metaphors claim one thing is something which
it is not. Computer operating systems are not biological natures, but can visually
model biological natures for discussion purposes. Operating systems allow a computer to do work, and
allow information to be stored on hard drives as memories are stored by both
chimpanzees and human beings. But operating systems do not give “life”
to, or activate lifeless silicon chips. Electricity does this. And though
electricity is present within a person’s mind as well as within a
chimp’s mind, it is the breath of life that activates both. So the
analogy breaks down when analyzed closely. Nevertheless, as computers are
usually purchased with an operating system already installed and a bundled
software package included, living creatures are born with their respective
biological natures. And as one operating system can be updated to another but not
easily, God can change a living creature’s biological nature as happened
to King Nebuchadnezzar. Although Microsoft says it eats its own dog food
[mistakes] whereas Mac eats applesauce, neither asks for its operating system
back when a computer fails after its service life transpires. Likewise, it is
the breath—the life sustaining force—that goes back to God when a
living creature dies, not the biological nature of the living creature. This
“breath” returns to the atmosphere as the electrical charges that
caused the lungs to breath dissipate into the ground. However, because of the
unique characteristic of timeless, God can return to the moment when a person
dies whenever He wishes to take from the person knowledge stored in memory
… heaven is a timeless dimension, for “time” and its passage
can be written as mathematical functions of gravity, thereby making time
dependent upon the existence of mass. And because heaven is timeless, one
moment does not become the next moment. It is the same moment in heaven now as
when the Logos created all that is,
and the same moment now as when saints will be resurrected from death in the
future: in heaven there is no past, present, and future, but only the present.
Therefore, all that has life in heaven must function as one entity in the way
cells in the human body function together to form one entity, with a genetic
redundancy suggestive of the duality of Father and Son. There is no need for a memory bank to exist in
heaven where human memories are stored while the person awaits resurrection,
for no time is lost until after the great White Throne Judgment when the tzimtzum closes as the fissure in the
earth’s crust closed on Korah and his rebellious friends (Num chap 16).
Until then, God can “retrieve” from within time whatever He desires
whenever He desires: He can, because in the great White Throne Judgment a
person will be born a second time (that is, born of Spirit),
“transport” a person from whenever the person dies toward (by
figuratively stepping outside of time then back in) to when the person is
resurrected a millennium or more in the future. The above introduces a new problem for those who
have for decades been part of the churches of God: as mentioned earlier, human
beings are not born with immortal souls, as ancient Greeks reasoned when they
were trying to explain the apparent differing ability of human
“minds” and animal “brains.” Human beings will not go
instantly to heaven or hell when they die. But as time passes without a
sleeping person being aware of its passage even though the person remains very
much alive, time passes for a person who has died without the person being
aware of its passage—Jesus referred to the person’s physical death
as sleeping (Matt 9:24; John 11:11–15), for from the perspective of the
heavenly realm, physical death is as sleep for the “spirit” or
breath of the person can be returned at any time since every moment in the
heavenly realm is the same moment. The person without the Spirit of God will not understand
the above: imagine heaven as a dimensionless point on a two-dimensional plane.
The point is completely surrounded by the plane. Time and its passage is now a
circle closely inscribed around the point—from the point, every place in
time is an equal distance away. From this point, a living entity not confined
to the two-dimensions of the plane can interact with the circle, then return to
the point, then interact at some other portion of the circle, then return to
the point at will. And because heaven is timeless, it can be likened to a
dimensionless point. God and angelic beings can step into and out of time as
they see fit; thus, God knows the beginning from the end, for He simultaneously
sees both from heaven, as the entire arc of the circle would be observable from
the dimensionless point. If a person died in 1540 CE, the date of, say,
Andreas Fischer’s death, and if a person died in 1986 CE, the date of
Herbert Armstrong’s death, both will be resurrected when Christ returns,
for both received God’s Spirit and a second life while they lived
physically. And the amount of “time” both spend in the grave will
differ by four plus centuries, but will seem to be of equal length: for both,
no time will have seemed to have passed. The problem now is, what happens to the second life
both Fischer and Armstrong received while physically living. Does it sleep
under the altar as suggested by the fifth seal (Rev 6:9-11)? Because Herbert Armstrong could not answer this
question without resorting to the false teaching of human beings receiving from
birth immortal souls, he ducked it for years before finally determining there
was a spirit of man that returned to God when human beings died …
Armstrong tiptoed along the falsity of men being born with immortal souls without
going there because he did not know how to explain a person being remembered
from the beginning of time to the end of the world unless God kept some sort of
a memory bank where the essence of the person was stored until the appropriate
resurrection occurred. But he never understood heaven as a timeless dimension
where all that is must co-exist with all that will be for the moment never
changes. Since the presence of life and the absence of life cannot co-exist in
the same moment, all that has life has everlasting life for the moment is
everlasting. Since a person is born of Spirit through receiving the divine
Breath of God, the person has everlasting life in the heavenly realm: the
person has passed from death to life without coming under judgment (John 5:24)
if the person hears the Son and believes the One who sent Him; who raised Him
from the dead. This “life” or “spirit” still needs a
spiritual body, which this spirit or breath will receive from the Son, who
causes the mortal flesh to put on imperishability or become spirit. Pneuma now represents the invisible body of a spirit
being, and the equally invisible life force that empowers or enlivens this
invisible body of the spirit being—and if this isn’t enough to
twist a mind into convulsions, then perhaps there is hope for the person. So what happens between from the person dies and
the mortal flesh put on immortality? In the heavenly realm, the moment is the
same—in the same moment that the person dies the person is resurrected
from death, even though inside of time decades or centuries or even millennia
pass. And this is a great mystery of God that cannot be understood by those who
are physically minded; for those whose thoughts and logic remain confined to
this world cannot even mentally enter a timeless dimension. If a person dies at, say, 270 degrees into the
circle of time, and if another person dies at 355 degrees into the circle of
time, and if the spirit or breath of both goes back to God in the dimensionless
point representing heaven, which takes longer to get to heaven? Both get there
at exactly the same moment, correct? And this moment is when the resurrection
occurs—disciples know this by where the shadow cast by heavenly events
lays. Of course, if a person pays no attention to the interplay of shadows that
reveal the things of God to Jesus’ disciples, then the person has no idea
where the Father and Son stand. Because the invisible attributes of God are
revealed by the visible things of this world, light equates to life and to God.
Shadows occur when something blocks or interrupts the passage of light. So the
presence or absence of light—in a manner similar to the presence or
absence of resistance in a computer’s central processor—reveals
knowledge of God that cannot be otherwise ascertained, but to secure this
knowledge, a person needs a second life, along with a second operating system:
the person needs to be born of Spirit, and to have the mind of Christ (1 Co
2:16). A person can be born of Spirit and have a second
life, but never activate the operating system that comes with this second life.
And this has been the historical tradition of the churches of God that have
vigorously denied that disciples are born of Spirit, insisting instead that
disciples are merely begotten by the Holy Spirit—and the amount of
spiritual knowledge that these disciples have is comparable to the physical
stature of Moses when he was adrift in the Nile. As an example of the above, in his gospel Matthew
showed that the man Jesus did spiritually what Moses did physically. To
spiritually understand the necessity of the infant Jesus going to Egypt with
His human father who served as an adopted parent, a disciple must understand
that Moses also went to Egypt even
though he was born as a slave in the nation: Moses went to Egypt when he ceased being raised as a Hebrew slave and was
raised as the daughter of Pharaoh. Moses went nowhere geographically as an
infant, but culturally, he journeyed far. So when he returned to his Hebrew
roots, he slew an Egyptian. Jesus returned with His parents to A man knows the things of a man because he (or she)
lives physically here on this earth. A disciple knows the things of God because
the new creature born of Spirit that dwells in the tent of flesh of the old man
lives spiritually in the heavenly realm. This new creature has real life in the
heavenly realm, but can lose this life because he [it] remains domiciled in a
tent of flesh confined within time, where what has life can lose that life as
one moment becomes the next moment. Likewise, when Satan is cast into time (Rev
12:7–10), after the thousand years, he will lose his life by fire coming
out from his belly (Ezek 28:18-19). He cannot lose his life while he remains in
heaven, but once cast into time, death is inescapable. And the same applies to
rebelling angels who have been cast into time, described by Peter as outer
darkness, the outer most sphere of Hades. Unless a rebelling angel is allowed
back into heaven, the angel/demon will perish because of its lawlessness. When Paul wrote of the spirit of a man, he was not referencing a memory chip being
given to the human being that produces greater intellect than apparently
possessed by beasts or that returns to God to “store” in heaven the
essence of the person. Rather, he was establishing the comparison that a person
only has physical life coming from the person’s physical breath until the
person is born of Spirit. As long as the person only has physical life, the
person cannot know the things of God. Before the person can know the things of
God, the person must be born of Spirit and have a different mind and nature
given to the person. Because the Greek linguistic icon pneuma is used for everything that is
not readily visible in this world, it (like “law”) lends itself to
misunderstanding and misinterpretation. It truly takes spiritual understanding
to sort through the many meanings assigned to the icon. And no one who is still
an infant in the faith can do this. Unfortunately, many spiritual infants have
ventured forth to teach the * "Scripture
quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright ©
2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by
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