February 11, 2006 ©Homer Kizer

 

 

Typology: The Basics

The First & the Second Adam

 

The basics of typology and of the wisdom needed to understand the Bible are incorporated in the Genesis creation account, which, despite its apparent myth-like simplicity, remains less understood than the visions of the prophet Daniel. Modern biblical scholarship noticed that two irreconcilable creation accounts are present in Genesis chapters one and two. The first account, the so-called “P” account of chapter one, is, by critics, generally believed to be written by a 6th-Century BCE priestly writer, who depended upon a much older tradition. This account is a tightly structured poem, with a seven-day structure, and in this account, God creates a world order as perceived by human beings. (Throughout this paper, the creation account of Genesis 1:1 through 2:3 will be referred to as the “P” account.)

Critics find a second creation account beginning in Genesis 2:4 and continuing through the end of the chapter. This is the so-called “J” account, which modern scholarship contends is folklore, and is an older account that reflects God in human terms. This “J” account deals primarily with humanity, and seems to end with the institution of marriage, whereas the “P” account ends with the creation of the Sabbath. And herein the scholarship has limited merit, for marriage, in which two human beings become one flesh, and entering into the rest of God, thereby becoming one with the Father and the Son (John 17:21-23), are theologically linked.

But the focus of poetry is “words.” Poetic language always conveys a dual message, the first being that which could be told in any form of mimetic language (i.e., language that seeks to imitate phenomena). The second message concerns the created artifice of the word selection (i.e., the poem itself). Thus, the Genesis creation account found in chapter one, itself, becomes two accounts in one, or better, the poetic abstract for a second creation foreshadowed by an earlier creation that is complete in the first verse. Said another way, the “P” creation account, by its poetic construction, is not a mimetic account of the creation of the natural world, nor purports to be, but is, rather, an account of a creation of the mind. The “P” account is about a mental creation. And the required wisdom to understand Scripture asserts that the earlier creation complete in Genesis 1:1 is partially described in the “J” creation account that begins in Genesis 2:4. In other words, the “J” creation account is fully contained in Genesis 1:1. The remainder of the “P” account is about a spiritual creation foreshadowed by a mostly undescribed (within the “P” account) physical creation.

Although modern scholarship contends that the “J” account seems to end with the institution of marriage, this “J” account actually continues through the end of chapter four…a biblical narrative “unit” (for lack of a better word or concept) extends from one passage of genealogy to the next passage of genealogy. These narrative units, because of their length and subject matter, resist translation errors; thus, when studying Scripture in narrative units, disputes over words and word nuances cease to exist. These narrative units, therefore, are the structural components of typology. And the unit that begins with Genesis 2:4 continues through the temptation account, the Cain/Abel account, and the birth of Seth. This narrative unit is the shadow and copy (Heb 8:5) of the Church era, from the birth of the last Adam through the seven endtime years of tribulation to the beginning of the millennial reign of the Messiah, with the next narrative unit being the story of Noah and of the baptism of the world with water and into death.

But whereas the long-form “J” accounts ends with the life of Seth, the third-born son of the first Adam, the “P” account continues through the coming of the new heavens and new earth. The seven day structure of the “P” account incorporates the latter chapters of Revelation into its last four days. As a result, the seventh day of the “P” account will find glorified sons of God resting in New Jerusalem, where the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple (Rev 21:22). The “P” account, in summarizing the creating of day five and six, reveals some knowledge about what will happen during and immediately after Christ Jesus’ thousand year reign; so the poetic “P” account is prophetic.

 

Two Creations:

“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1:1) — what portion of the earth is not created? This declarative sentence is complete; the creation of the earth is likewise complete. Verses 4 and 5 of chapter two read, “These are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and heavens, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew” (emphasis added). A single day in the beginning, in the darkness of the first day of the “P” account—the generations of the earth, starting with the first Adam, began before either plant or herb were in the field.

·        When Adam was made from red clay, no plant had yet been created.

Skeptical modern critics contend that separate authors (someone other than the Logos inspiring Moses) wrote the differing “P” and “J” creation accounts, the first with plants and seed-bearing trees appearing on the third day with humankind created on the sixth day, and the latter with Adam being created before there was any vegetation on earth. These skeptical critics are not able to reconcile the two accounts, so they label both myths and dismiss both with prejudice, especially in light of God, through Moses, saying (concerning the Sabbath), ‘“It is a sign between me and the children of Israel forever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed (Exod 31:17).

What is ultimately at stake is the credibility of the Bible as the divine word of a creating deity. If two irreconcilable creation accounts occur in the first two chapters of Genesis, then the skepticism of modern scholarship is justified—

·        Either the “J” and “P” creation accounts are reconcilable, or a Christian’s faith has been missplaced in the Bible being the inspired word of a living God.

·        If they are reconcilable [this paper’s argument is that they are], then every exegesis strategy except typology is flawed.

Perhaps the best modern attempt of men to reconcile what have become known as the “P” and “J” creation accounts is through the so-called gap theory, which would have an indeterminable period of time occurring between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. The problem of evolution now neatly fits into this gap, as does the problem of a sudden creation 13.5 or more billion years ago. However, a problem exists with this solution that supports a recreation of the earth surface beginning with Genesis 1:3, and beginning six thousand years ago. There is either one Adam who was created before there was vegetation, and created on the sixth day of this recreation week, or there were many “adams” that survived the destruction that came upon the earth’s surface. The possibility of many adams allows for fossils of great antiquity, and genetic diversity.

One Adam or many? The choice seems simple enough. But the choice creates a logical paradox that will ultimately undo every proponent of the gap theory: Was the Adam created before there was vegetation the Adam about whom the Apostle Paul said was a type of Christ Jesus (Rom 5:14 & 1 Cor 15:45, 47)? Or was the man created on the sixth day of a recreation of the earth the Adam with whom Paul compared Jesus?

Christian racists adopted the gap theory to explain “mud people” (i.e., people of color) as theologically inferior human beings, over whom the “white Aryan” sons of Adam should have perpetual dominance. These racists in both their “civilized” congregations and in their radical, skinhead rallies are modern counterparts to the 1st-Century Circumcision Faction, for their spiritual understanding is confined to the flesh. But then, a somewhat respectable concept within Christian racism manifests itself as Christian sexism: a born-from-above son of God dwells in a tent of flesh, but is no more that tent than an in-the-flesh circumcised Israelite is the house in which he dwells. Christian racists are as wrong as is the gap theory, which, unfortunately, has also been accepted by more honorable disciples of Christ Jesus.

The so-called gap theory does not reconcile the two creation accounts, but requires dismissal of some portion of Genesis chapter one. Therefore, laying skepticism aside, the irreconcilable conflict between the “J” and the “P” creation accounts occurs largely from the poetic naming of “what is,” and of what is created. And here wisdom is required—

·        Poetic conceits do not require a thing (a linguistic object or linguistic signified) to be named with any particular sound or symbol (linguistic icon or signifier).

·        Movement within a poetic conceit can be in any direction or directions;

·        When movement in a conceit is first vertical or heavenward (Gen 1:2), followed by horizontal or additional upward movement, the signifiers [words] used to convey this second tier of movement must be familiar to auditors [the audience];

·        But because the conceit has first movement vertically, the signifiers used to show additional movement cannot have the same signifieds [meanings] within the conceit as would be assigned in the natural world.

·        Therefore, the linguistic trace [or element of thirdness] that connects signifiers with signifieds functions to conceal rather than reveal knowledge, for this trace will cause auditors to, say, think of “trees” as trees, not as some living entities in the heavenly realm.

The relationship between water, plants, fish, fowl, beasts, and finally humankind created in the image and likeness of God conveys a taxonomical hierarchy of signifiers that are imaginable to human beings confined within the dimensions of space-time. These signifiers convey an ordered hierarchy that concludes with the rest of God. But these signifiers do not represent the singifieds that have been historically assigned through the cultural trace that has harnessed the poetic “P’ account to the natural world.

Although the sentences concluding the previous paragraph might sound like so much linguistic mumbo-jumbo, as has been oft stated, “words” as linguistic icons do not carry their meanings around in little backpacks that can be opened whenever a reader encounters an unfamiliar word. Rather, meaning is always assigned to the icon (i.e., the audible or visual image), this assignment of meaning based upon the reading community in which the reader temporarily finds him or herself. Thus, if the reader expects to find a six-day creation account of the natural world in Genesis one, the reader finds this account, and is not troubled by anomalies that disturb logic. Likewise, the skeptic who perceives both the “J” and “P” creation accounts as myths or folktales finds more than sufficient reasons to dismiss these accounts because of the anomalies. And as the faithful reader produces ready natural explanations for what cannot be “naturally” explained, the skeptic is very seldom able to rise above his or her skepticism to use the tools of modern scholarship to read anew these creation accounts.

If the six days that it takes to create heaven and earth (the Exodus 31 reference) are not the six days of Genesis one, but fully occur in the first verse of Genesis one, then these six days form the natural shadow of a spiritual creation that is six spiritual days in length. Again, poetry used as mimetic language conveys an additional level of meaning or a separate set of signifieds. The rabbinical community has written about multiple accounts of creation being told in Genesis one, with verse one covering the completed creation. What this linguistic (and cultural) community has not understood is that these multiple accounts are of two creations, not one.

The natural or physical creation, which apparently took six days (from Exod 31:17), forms the dark shadow of the spiritual (of spirit; i.e., of heaven) creation that has seed-bearing trees (on the third day) appearing before the greater and lesser lights created to rule day and night (on the fourth day) exist. These trees, now, suggest the vegetation of the natural world, but are symbolic representations of what has been created from the elemental elements of this second, spiritual creation. But these seed-bearing trees are not created in the image and after the likeness of God, but are quite low on a taxonomical hierarchy that ends with the Sabbath. They are the meat or food of humankind, of beasts, and of fowls (Gen 1:29-30). They are also, at the end of the age, upon what the fowls of the air will feast.

·        Any poetic conceit that has a taxonomical hierarchy with human beings created in the image and likeness of God completely incorporated within it must also have bridges between water and plants, between plants and animals, and between man and God.

·        Randomness doesn’t accommodate the taxonomical leaps necessary to significantly increase biological complexity; nor will the mind leap these gaps in a mimetic narrative.

·        But the scholar who cannot accept the “P” account’s narrative leaps will accept these same leaps in a biological theory, whereas the Believer cannot accept these leaps in a biological theory but will accept them in the “P” account. Both have been wrong.

In all of Scripture, the visible things of this natural world reveal the invisible things of the heavenly realm (Rom 1:20). And throughout Scripture, the physical or natural creation foreshadows or anticipates the spiritual creation: as a time-linked shadow falls on the side of an object farthest away from the light source, the lifeless spiritual shadow of heavenly beings falls on the side farthest away from God. Hence, the physical shadow of a heavenly being, whether an angel or a born-of-Spirit son of God, always precedes in space-time the reality casting the shadow. God is no longer at the beginning of the historical record, but awaits the glorification of many sons in humanity’s near future. This glorification of endtime disciples remains ahead of humanity; thus, the shadow of these collective disciples lies lifeless behind the present era.

But the shadow of that which is invisible to the human eye is also invisible to the eye. This shadow falls on the mental topography of humanity, for as the surface of the earth forms the base upon which natural shadows fall, the collective mindscapes of human beings forms the base upon which heavenly shadows fall. So asserting here what will be developed, the spiritually-lifeless, physically circumcised nation of Israel forms the now-observable shadow of the spiritually circumcised Church, composed of all born-from-above sons of God.

Thus, the visible natural world forms a copy and shadow of the spiritual creation of glorified sons of God, these two creations sharing common markers as if one were folded over the other so that the first Adam aligns with the last Adam (1 Cor 15:45). As vegetation, fish and fowl, and the beasts of the field were created—none of which were in the image and likeness of God—before “adam” [lower case “a’] was created, so too were many human beings with base and more noble characters born of women before the Logos was born as the man Jesus of Nazareth, and became the last Adam, a quickening spirit, who brings humanity to glory in a general resurrection from death. But this creation account in Genesis one (the “P” account) isn’t of a natural world that has plants and animals created before humankind is, as if these plants and animals evolved. Rather, from verse two on, this account is of the spiritual creation, which will have an early and a latter harvest of God, foreshadowed by the early barley harvest and the later, maincrop wheat harvest of Judean hillsides. It is the maincrop wheat harvest that becomes, from being the “meat” of the man and the woman [i.e., that which feeds and sustains them], the pinnacle of the taxonomical hierarchy that begins with the dividing of the waters, and is followed by vegetation created on the third day. The man and the woman that Elohim [singular] creates on the sixth day of the “P” account—their creation deemed “very good” (Gen 1:31)—in a spiritual hierarchy is a reference to the great White Throne Judgment, when all of humanity that hasn’t previously been born of Spirit is resurrected and judged. This will be the great harvest of humanity that was foreshadowed by the earlier harvest of firstfruits, gathered into the barns of God when Jesus came as the Messiah.

In the “P” creation account, day and night already existed before the greater and lesser lights are created on the fourth day to rule day and night respectively. If the greater light were the sun as Christian Creationists teach, then what cause existed for the presence of darkness/light cycle prior to the fourth day? The answer usually given is God was the light. And these Creationists run counter to the Apostle Paul, who, inspired by the Holy Spirit and properly understanding the darkness/light metaphor, insists that the natural always precedes the spiritual. The natural is spiritually lifeless, or in spiritual darkness. Light is life. Thus, if God is the light of the darkness/light cycle that precedes the fourth day, then God remains the light throughout the entirety of the “P” creation narrative, and the greater light becomes the glorification of many sons (Rom 8:30), with the lesser light being the reflected glory of these many sons after the Holy Spirit has been poured out on all flesh. Hence, Christ Jesus as head of the Son of Man shall rule as King of kings, and Lord of lords (Rev 19:16).

As the first Adam was created in the earthly image of, and after the likeness of Elohim [singular in usage], the last Adam (1 Cor 15:45-49) came as the spiritual image and likeness of the Most High God (John 14:9) that the world had not known (John17:25). As the first Adam was red mud before being formed into the corpse into whose nostrils Elohim [singular] breathed the breath of life (Gen 2:7), the second Adam was the Logos who was with Theon and was Theos (John 1:1-2) before He descended from heaven to be born of a woman.

Aligning the accounts of the natural and spiritual creations begins by placing John 1:1-34 over Genesis 2:4-7. Matthew 3:16-17 now sits atop the second part of the predicate clause of Genesis 2:7, and inside John 1:32. For the first and last Adams serve as pattern notches/dots [in sewing] or witness marks [when barreling guns] or timing marks [in engine mechanics] that allow Scripture to be properly understood.

The witness mark—a single chisel cut made across machined parts when these parts are properly fitted together (this mark made so that the machined parts can be disassembled, then properly reassembled)—that aligns both creations is the receipt of breath. The receipt of the physical breath of life for the first Adam, and receipt of the Holy Breath [Pneuma ’Agion] of the Father for the last Adam sit one atop the other. This witness mark aligns Genesis 2:7 with Matthew 3:16 with John 1:32. Now when read, a disciple can better understand why Gospel of John starts as it does: again, the passage from John 1, verse 1 through verse 34 aligns the spiritual creation with that portion of the physical creation described in Genesis 2, verse 4 through verse 7.

That which is flesh will die and return to being dust [elemental elements] of the ground (1 Cor 15:50), while that which is spirit will return to the heavenly realm…one prominent religious leader of the 19th-Century [Joseph Smith] took this principle to mean that human beings have little angels inside them. Plato, lacking spiritual understanding, believed human beings have immortal souls. Most of Christianity believes what one or the other of these two men believed. Yet neither understood spiritual birth; neither understood what Jesus told Nicodemus. And Jesus asked how Nicodemus could be a teacher of Israel and not understand an earthly example of heavenly things (John 3:1-15).

Spiritual birth occurs when a person receives the Holy Breath [Pneuma ’Agion] of the Father, just as “birth” for the first Adam occurred when Elohim [singular in usage] breathed into the nostrils of the corpse He had formed from red mud. The model for spiritual birth is that of Jesus of Nazareth, who was first made—so that all righteousness could be fulfilled—a spiritual corpse as a living, breathing human being before He became a quickening or life-giving spirit (1 Cor 15:45).

The natural mind of human beings rejects the idea that a living, breathing human being is a spiritual corpse in that same way that a lifeless human body is a physical corpse…the word “corpse” is usually reserved for the body of a person who has died. In the natural world, death does not precede life as it did for the first Adam, who was not born as the infant of a woman, but was created as a lifeless adult human being from red mud. For the first Adam, death both preceded life, and because of his sin, followed life. And all of humanity has since died as the first Adam died.

Humanity, however, is not naturally born as the first Adam was. Yet humanity is spiritually born as the last Adam was, for Jesus established the example that fulfilled all righteousness. Every disciple was a child of disobedience, dead in trespasses and sins, before being quickened by the Holy Breath [Pneuma ’Agion] of God (Eph 2:1-2, 5). So every disciple was a spiritual corpse, with no more life in the heavenly realm than the first Adam had life in the physical realm prior to Elohim [singular] breathing into his nostrils But when born of Spirit, every disciple became a new creature, with life in the heavenly realm that disciples can neither see nor know from where it comes or to where it goes (John 3:8).

The pattern created that fulfilled all righteousness has a physically circumcised Israelite, who lives by faith within the laws of God, being submersed in a watery grave, then raised from this grave to receive life from the Breath of God [Pneuma ’Agion]. And this pattern of death, followed by resurrection and spiritual birth that fulfills righteousness will be the order of events for the vast majority of humanity (the maincrop wheat harvest) resurrected in the great White Throne Judgment. However, when the division of humanity caused by circumcision was abolished (Eph 2:14), this pattern of death/baptism preceding spiritual birth through receipt of the Holy Spirit was modified: a Gentile [a person of the nations] would not leave the world and cease being a son of disobedience unless the Father first drew the person (John 6:44, 65) from the world by giving him or her the earnest of His Breath. This pattern modification begins with Cornelius and his household (Acts 10:44-48). So since Cornelius was empowered by the Holy Spirit prior to his baptism, the pattern that fulfills righteousness has a person made a spiritual Israelite though circumcision of the heart and mind prior to baptism, with baptism now being the inclusionary rite that makes the infant disciple a member of the household of God. Since Cornelius, baptism signifies that a person has taken judgment upon him or herself (1 Pet 4:17). Spiritually, baptism equates to physical circumcision.

Contrary to what was taught for more that a generation in the splintered churches of God, spiritual birth doesn’t occur at glorification. Receipt of an imperishable body—what glorification is—doesn’t denote spiritual birth. Rather, with glorification, the son of God will receive an imperishable body like the body of the glorified Christ Jesus. The maturing of the son of God from infant to adulthood occurs while confined in a fleshly body. So disciples will not be glorified as spiritual babies, but as younger, adult brothers of Jesus (Rom 8:29-30), like Him in every way. For “change” and especially the type of change that comes with maturation is confined to time, and is not possible in the timeless heavenly realm, where what is must co-exist with what was and what will be.

·        Elohim [singular in usage] took red mud and made a physical corpse—

·        The Logos, who was with Theon and was Theos, came as His Son, His only, to be born of a woman, thereby becoming a spiritual corpse—

·        The first Adam was made of red mud, or of red dust and water; was made into a lifeless human corpse to which the breath of life was added, thereby transforming this red dust into a breathing creature, a naphesh—

·        The last Adam was spirit made into a breathing human being, who then received the Holy Breath [Pneuma ’Agion] of the Father, thereby transforming the man Jesus into a life-giving spirit—

·        Prior to receiving the breath of life, the first Adam as a physical corpse was like the red mud from which he was formed, in that he was lifeless—

·        The last Adam as a spiritual corpse was like God, in that He was without sin; there was no lawlessness or death (the wages of sin is death — Rom 6:23) in the man Jesus—

·        Therefore, the interface between God and the elemental elements that the Logos [Theos] created (John 1:3) is breathing human beings. To the living flesh must be added life received from God the Father [Theon] through receipt of the Holy Spirit [Pneuma ’Agion].

A human being is not born from above, or born of Spirit when glorified, but when drawn by the Father. Thus, when this [now] infant son of God is baptized, this [now] disciple of Christ Jesus becomes part of the spiritual nation or household of God.

·        Again, baptism is for Christians what physical circumcision was for the natural nation of Israel.

The world was in darkness until Jesus came as “the light of men” (John 1:4), not as the light of the physical creation but of the spiritual creation…the spiritual creation has humankind as its elemental element[s]. And this is what hasn’t been understood by skeptical critics, or by the greater Christian Church.

·        Red mud is to the physical creation what living human beings are to the spiritual creation.

Typology allows the unseen events of the heavenly realm to become perceivable, if only darkly by way of shadows, through the juxtaposition of earthly geography being a copy and shadow of humanity’s mental topography. Crossing the Jordan and entering Judea equates with mentally entering God’s rest (Ps 95:10-11 & Heb 3:19). The seventh-day Sabbath is the spiritual manifestation of God’s rest on earth. Thus, Judea and the Sabbath are correspondences comparable to the first Adam and the last Adam while Jesus was here on earth. The grain harvests of Judean hillsides, now, equates with disciples who enter into God’s rest on the seventh-day Sabbath, not on some other day.

In moving from physical to spiritual, the physical commandment against murder, written on a stone tablet, moves inwardly to be written on the fleshy tablet of the heart, and to become a spiritual commandment against being angry with a brother (Matt 5:21-22). The physical commandment against adultery, again written on an external stone tablet, moves inwardly to become a spiritual commandment, placed in the tablet of the mind, against lustful thoughts. Disciples are no longer under an external law, inscribed on stone tablets (Rom 6:15). Rather, the new creature, born of Spirit, is governed by the covenant that has been written on the heart and placed in the mind (Heb 8:10; 10:16 & Jer 31:33). And as such, the Sabbath commandment, inscribed on a stone tablet, that commands rest from physical labor on the seventh day moves inwardly to govern what the heart and mind does on the seventh day. And as the heart and mind of the born-again disciple should rule the flesh, on the Sabbath day hands should worship God instead of working to satisfy the belly.

Returning now to Genesis 1:2, the earth being “without form and void” should be read as being in a lawless state, with “darkness over the face of the deep” addressing the earth being spiritually lifeless. Darkness and death are spiritual synonyms. And in this darkness or lifeless state, the Spirit or Breath of God “hovered over the face of the waters”—the Breath of God today hovers over the face of humanity. There is no textual suggestion that the Spirit of God ceases to hover over humanity until at least the fourth day. Therefore, in Genesis 1:3, when God said, Let there be light, the light of humankind that comes is the man Jesus of Nazareth. So the first day of the spiritual creation ends when the light of men is crucified at Calvary. Day one ends when Jesus dies. The dark portion of day two begins about 3:00 pm, the afternoon of the 14th of the first month—begins when the Passover Lamb of God is slain. The light doesn’t return for three days and three nights; doesn’t return until Jesus is resurrected and goes to His Father and our Father, His God and our God (John 20:17).

·        The Son of the Father is Malachi’s Sun of righteousness (Mal 4:2)—

·        He, Jesus of Nazareth, was the spiritual light of the world as the sun is the physical light—

·        And it isn’t the physical light that is worthy of worship, but the spiritual light—

·        Disciples are not to enter the “rest” of the sun, but the rest of God.

Following Jesus’ Ascension and return, He breathes on ten of His disciples, and says, Receive the Holy Spirit [Pneuma ’Agion] (John 20:22), and with the receipt of the Holy Breath of God, humanity is divided between those who are born of Spirit or born-from-above, and those who await such birth. And with the separation of the waters of humankind, the second day ends (Gen 1:6-8). With the division of humanity into those who are only born of water [of the womb] and those who are of water and of Spirit (John 3:5)—throughout all of this period, the Spirit of God has been over the face of the waters—the second spiritual day logically follows the first. But this second day doesn’t take thousands of earth years to occur: the heavenly realm is timeless, so spiritual days are not marked by any particular number of earth days.

·        Prior to the coming of the last Adam, humanity was divided by physical circumcision (Eph 2:11)—

·        This man-caused, natural division of humanity was abolished at Calvary (vv. 14-15)—

·        Following Calvary, both the nations [Gentiles] and Israel were alike before God (v. 16)—

·        But following the glorified Jesus breathing on His disciples, humanity was divided between those who received the Holy Spirit and spiritual circumcision, and those who have not.

·        Therefore, physical circumcision is a copy or shadow of the spiritual circumcision that comes through receipt of the Holy Spirit [Pnuema ’Agion], and a physically circumcised Israelite forms the spiritually lifeless shadow of a spiritual Israelite.

Yes, the poetic language of the passage of Genesis 1:6-8) has a mimetic reading, but division of the actual waters of the earth into an upper atmosphere radiation/energy absorbing shield and the oceans below would produce a radically different world than exists now, or even immediately post-Flood. For there is no indication that this atmospheric water shield collapses before the fourth day, when the greater and lesser lights—created in heaven, the gap between the waters of the earth and this upper water division—are made to rule the day and the night.

·        The upper division of the waters is above “heaven”—

·        Heaven is the gap or filament between the division of the waters of the earth (Gen 1:8)—

·        The lights created to divide the day from the night are in heaven (Gen 1:15)—

·        Thus, the upper division of water is beyond the sun, if the sun is the created greater light.

·        The upper division is also beyond the stars, and is no longer in the universe.

But this disappearing [into outer space] division of the waters of the earth, a truly unexplainable phenomenon if Genesis one is about the physical creation, pertains to the spiritual creation, which will see the waters of that portion of humanity not born of Spirit gathered together, with a dry area [Earth — Gen 1:10) bringing forth seed-producing vegetation of all sorts. And in all the earth, only the grain and fruit harvest of Judean hillsides are of God and will be gathered into His barn. Wheat and barley anywhere else are not produced in God’s rest (again, Ps 95:10-11). The same for oil and wine. So on this third day of the seven day creation week, the waters of humanity remain above and below—

Not only does the fabric tabernacle [temporary temple] of God serve as an example and shadow of heavenly things (again, Heb 8:5), but the cold moon reflecting the fiery glory of the sun discloses the relationship between the darkness of the natural world and the light of the heavenly realm. As night [in Hebrew, twisting or turning away from the light] precedes or comes before day [in Hebrew, the hot portion of the 24-hour, even-to-even period], the natural creation precedes the spiritual creation (1 Cor 15:46). And as the Apostle Paul writes to the saints at Corinth, in this same way the first man Adam came before the last Adam, which places the light of God at the end of a time continuum that had a definite beginning and ends with the coming of a new heaven and a new earth (Rev 21:1).

Therefore, the relationship between the natural creation and the spiritual creation is daily seen in the night/day cycle, and the corruption that silently crept into the early Christian Church is observable through the, hopefully, unintentional worship of the sun or sun-god instead of the worship of the Creator. But as a Christian today who kneels before a plaster statue will deny that he or she prays to an idol, but instead prays through the statue to God, using the statue to focus on God, so too would an early Christian have denied that he or she worshiped the sun when kneeling before the rising sun, but would have insisted that the person merely used the rising sun to focus on the resurrected Son of God. However, a disciple of Christ Jesus needs neither the plaster statue nor the rising sun to focus on the Father and the Son—and the type and use of typology found in statuary and in ancient [and modern] sun-worship is not of God, but is of the Adversary. The use of typology that is of God can be seen in further comparison between the first and the last Adams.

 

The First & Last Adams

The first Adam:

·        Elohim [a regular plural in Hebrew that is here singular in usage] creates the man Adam in Eden, but not in the garden of God (Gen 2:7)…there is no other life in Eden when the man Adam is created:

1.      Light and Life are spiritual synonyms;

2.      Vegetation isn’t created until there was a man to till the ground (Gen 2:5);

3.      There is no life in the world until the man Adam is created;

4.      The is no light in the world until God commanded light to shine out of darkness (Gen 1:3);

5.      The light of the world is knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Cor 4:6), the last Adam;

6.      Hence, the portion of the “J” creation account recorded from Genesis 2:4 to 2:7 corresponds in a night/day or darkness/light relationship to the first day of the “P” account, and to verses 1 through 34 of John’s spiritual creation account.

·        After Elohim breathes the breath of life into Adam's nostrils, Adam becomes a living being or in Hebrew, a naphesh, as are the animals that Elohim creates:

1.      There is no life in Adam before Elohim breathes into his nostrils;

2.      Adam never eats of the Tree of Life that is in the center of the garden of God (Gen 3:22-23);

3.      There is no other life in Adam or his descendants than that which comes from natural breath, for God tests human beings concerning what each believes (Eccl 3:18-22);

4.      Prior to when disciples of Jesus received the divine Breath [Pneuma ’Agion] breathed on them by the glorified Jesus (John 20:22), there was no life in Jesus’ disciples but that which came by physical breath [psuche] (Matt 10:28)

5.      Disciples become tri-part [i.e., soma, psuche, pneuma] (1 Thess 5:23) after they have been born of Spirit [Pneuma].

6.      As the first Eve believed the serpent’s lie that she would not die (Gen 3:4), so has the last Eve believed that old serpent Satan the devil’s lie that born-of-Spirit sons of God will not die, but have heaven-bound, immortal souls.

·        Elohim plants a garden in the east of Eden, and places Adam in this garden (Gen 2:8).

1.      The tree of knowledge of good and evil is only found in the garden of God (Gen 2:9);

2.      Likewise, the tree of life is only in the garden of God—these two trees are not found anywhere else in Eden but in this garden that Elohim plants.

3.      Jesus identified Himself as ‘“the way, the truth, and the life”’ (John 14:6);

4.      But the man Jesus of Nazareth was born of the tribe of Judah, about which nothing is said concerning serving God, or serving in the temple (Heb 7:13-14).;

5.      As the Logos, Theos, made flesh, Jesus places Himself in the stone temple in Jerusalem, which precedes disciples being the fleshly temple of God (1 Cor 3:16-17) in the Jerusalem above;

6.      Therefore, Jesus being inside disciples as the spiritual bread of life (John 6:33, 35) equates to the jar of manna inside the wood ark of the covenant, which also housed two stone tablets upon which was written the law of God, as well as Aaron’s budded staff [the promise of resurrection];

7.      The man Jesus entering the stone temple in Jerusalem becomes the bridge between the glorified Jesus in disciples and circumcised Israelites in Judea;

8.      Only by having Jesus living inside the person will anyone have everlasting life.

9.      As the Tree of Life is at the center of the garden of God, so too is the tree of knowledge of good and evil; therefore, the disciple who eats of this latter tree (from which Jesus will not eat) will be driven from the temple in the Jerusalem above before he or she can eat the spiritual bread that came down from heaven;

10. This now creates a separation of born-from-disciples between those inside the Jerusalem above, and those outside because of their determination of good and evil.

·        Elohim commands Adam not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—the man is not to determine or decide what is good or evil, but must obey his creator  as a son his father, or a servant his master (Gen 2:17).

·        Elohim says that it is not good for Adam to be alone, that Adam needs a helpmate (Gen 2:18).

1.      Only vegetation co-existed with Adam when Elohim determined to make a helpmate for the man;

2.      All of the animals are formed (and named) by Adam—they are created after Adam is created;

3.      Therefore, vegetation in the “J” creation account spiritually foreshadows the nations [i.e., Gentiles], not the vegetation of the “P” account;

4.      Animals in the “J” account spiritually foreshadow circumcised Israel.

·        Adam names the animals from which no helpmate for him is found among every beast of the field and fowl of the air (Gen 2:19-20).

1.      If a person attempts to reconcile the “J” and “P” creation accounts as two versions of the same physical creation, these animals Adam names must, necessarily, be of a separate creation from the animals of fifth and sixth days of the “P” account;

2.      But if they were a separate creation, then the “J” account errs…they cannot be a separate and not mentioned [in the “J” account] creation;

3.      Therefore, the “beasts” in the “P” account are high taxonomical creations that have human beings as their elemental elements, instead of the dust of the earth. These beasts are philosophical and theological creations of a higher order than the previously created vegetation. They are of born-of-Spirit human beings, and are not of the spiritually lifeless natural nation of Israel;

4.      The names Jesus as the last Adam calls the scribes and Pharisees form the reality foreshadowed by the first Adam in the “J” account (Gen 2:19-20), not of the animals of the “P” account.

·        Elohim caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and from a wound in Adam's side, Elohim takes a rib and creates the woman (Gen 2:21).

1.      The woman is created inside the garden of God, not outside as Adam was;

2.      Only through uncovered sin will the woman leave the garden of God, analogous to the Jerusalem above;

3.      Eve is of Adam, flesh of his flesh, so her covering for sin was her husband;

4.      Adam was of lifeless red dust, and had no progenitor but God. His covering for sin was his obedience to God.

5.      Eve’s sin is not reckoned against her, for sin entered the world by one man (Rom 5:12), not by a woman and a man;

6.      After Adam’s disobedience, both the man and the woman, naked before, now knew they were naked (Gen 3:10);

7.      But the last Adam was obedient to God, so His righteousness covers the last Eve until the Son of Man is revealed, or disrobed (Luke 17:26-30).

The last Adam:

·        Jesus of Nazareth was born as a human being, with the same physical breath as animals and other human beings have, but to fulfill all righteousness, He is baptized by John (Matt 3:15). Immediately, as a visible dove, the Holy Breath [Pneuma 'Agion] of the Father descends and remains on Jesus (v. 16). Then God the Father declares from heaven that Jesus is His beloved Son (v. 17).

1.      An argument about whether Jesus previously had the Holy Spirit is pointless, for He was baptized and received the Spirit as a dove to fulfill all righteousness, thereby establishing a pathway for salvation;

·        After receiving the dove, Jesus fasts, then overcomes Satan, and goes up to Jerusalem, where He casts the moneychangers out of the temple. He physically takes over the temple, saying, Make not my Father's house a house of merchandise (John 2:16). So as Elohim [singular in usage] placed the first Adam in His garden, the Logos made flesh places Himself in the temple at Jerusalem.

·        Entering the temple at Jerusalem three years later, Jesus names the theological animals that have descended from the patriarch Israel, and from which no helpmate for Him can be found: hypocrites (Matt 23:13), hypocrites (v. 14), hypocrites (v.15), blind guides (v. 16), fools (v.17), fools (v. 19), hypocrites (v. 23), blind guides (v. 24), hypocrites (vv. 25, 27, 29), serpents, generation of vipers (v. 33). Not a very complimentary naming! But the religious leaders of the natural nation in the 1st-Century CE had as much mental resemblance to the image of God as a cow or a beaver had to the first Adam, created in the image and after the likeness of God (Gen 5:1-2).

·        When no helpmate for the last Adam could be found among the scribes and Pharisees, Jesus was sacrificed on Calvary as the paschal Lamb of God, and after spending three days and three nights in the grave (the equivalent of a deep sleep), Jesus was resurrected, ascended to His Father and our Father (John 20:17). Then the same day at even [before the dark portion of the second day of the week began], Jesus appeared in the midst of the ten disciples who were assembled together (Thomas wasn't there, and no replacement had been named for Judas Iscariot). He then breathed on the ten and said, Receive the Holy Spirit [Pneuma 'Agion] (John 20:22). And with Him breathing on the ten, Jesus created the last Eve—the Church begins the evening of the same day that Jesus ascended to the Father, not on Pentecost, seven weeks later. For without the Holy Spirit and birth from above, Jesus' disciples would not have understood the spiritual things that Jesus taught His disciples the forty days He was with them (Acts1:3 coupled with Rom 8:5-7).

·        The second day of the “P” account, the dark and the light portion, occurs in the three days Jesus was in the grave [the night portion] and the day of His Ascension as the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering through the forty days the glorified Jesus was with His disciples [the day portion]. Thus, the separation of the waters occurs from the Passover till ten days after the second Passover.

Again, after Elohim presents Eve to Adam, and after Adam declares that she is of his flesh and the two are one flesh, the serpent approaches the woman, who was with her husband (Gen 3:6), and the serpent asked if she could eat of every tree in the garden. Eve answered, yes, but not of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden (Gen 3:3). The serpent tells the woman that she shall not die (Gen 3:4). And the early Church, the last Eve born from above when Jesus breathed on His disciples, in trying to understand birth-from-above accepted the Hellenistic [Greek] concept of human beings having immortal souls, thus never really dying. The Church believed Plato rather than Jesus:

·        Augustine, in On Christine Doctrine (ca 396 AD), wrote, "This faith maintains, and it must be believed: neither the soul nor the human body may suffer complete annihilation, but the impious shall rise again into everlasting punishment and the just into life everlasting" (Bk I, sec XXI , D.W. Robertson trans.).

The early Church was wrong: Adam and Eve were driven from the garden of God before either ate of the Tree of Life (Gen 3:22-24). Adam and Eve had no life but that which came from their physical breath. Neither had life originating in the heavenly realm, so original sin and the fall of man are flawed concepts, for both teachings are dependant upon human beings having immortal souls, a dogma alien to Scripture.

The plan that Elohim [plural] initiated with the construction of the foundations of the universe did not merely allow for Adam through Eve succumbing to the serpent's temptations, but actually planned for the event. In the construction of the night/day cycle, in place before Adam was created, Adam would be driven from the garden Elohim [singular] planted, for the first Adam was not to become the last Adam. And the Logos as Theos (again, John 1:1-2) coming to complete the physical creation through entering as His [Theos'] son, His only (John 3:16-17), was planned from the foundation of the world.

·        Adam never gets to enter God's rest because of his sin (eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil).

1.      Humankind has no immortal soul that must be regenerated;

2.      A human being has no life but that which comes by his or her breath until the person is born of Spirit as a son of God;

3.      This "son" is neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, free nor bond (Gal 3:28);

4.      This son of God is not the tent of flesh in which he dwells, so this son is not black or white, red or yellow—these are the colors of the tents in which sons of God might dwell.

5.      The tent of flesh will utterly die and decompose into the basic elements of dust.

Again, the last Adam, Jesus of Nazareth, overcame the Old Serpent, Satan the devil, before He died at Calvary. He was made a quickening spirit (1 Cor 15:45) before the last Eve was created. He is, therefore, the covering for the last Eve so that the Church will not appear naked before the Father.

With pedagogical redundancy, the last Eve is of the last Adam as the first Eve was of the first Adam. Thus, the first Adam was the covering for the first Eve, why the husband is not to "cover" his head (1 Cor 11:3-10). The first Adam covered Eve's nakedness, caused by her disobedience, with his obedience to God until he, too, ate the forbidden fruit. Then-—after he ate—the two of them realized they were naked. Hence, sin entered the world through one man's disobedience. Adam had no covering for his naked but his obedience, so Elohim had to kill animals and clothe the two of them with animal skins before driving them out of His garden. And physical circumcision makes an Israelite naked before God: his “natural” skin covering has been removed, what the Circumcision Faction never understood.

·        Although it was sin or lawlessness (1 John 3:4) that caused God to expel natural Israel from His geographical rest, it was King Solomon's foreign wives and his tolerance of their gods that caused the division of the natural nation into a northern and a southern house (1 Kings 11:, 2, 6, 9-13). It was, likewise, the alien [pagan] theology of Hellenistic Asia Minor entering Christianity that divided the Church into a northern [Ephesus] and a southern [Alexandria] school…foreign wives and their gods form the lifeless, visible shadows of equally lifeless, but invisible pagan ideologies that early Church fathers married as if these concepts were women.

·        The vast majority of the modern Christian Church remains faithful to the ideology Augustine said must be believed.

·        The division of the early Church into two schools, foreshadowed by the division of the natural nation of Israel into a northern and a southern kingdom, resulted in an ideological war over the nature of the godhead: Christology. The school of Alexandria determined that God was three entities of the same substance; hence, the Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). The school of Ephesus determined that God was one, that Jesus was created in the womb of Mary, that Jesus was a created being; hence, Arian Christianity, named for Bishop Arius. And the war these two schools fought wasn't for control of geographical Judea, but for the hearts and minds of disciples. Plus, these two schools fought ideological wars against other pagan theologies as Samaria and Judah fought against Assyria and Babylon.

·        Both schools of Christianity were exiled from the Jerusalem above. The weekly Sabbath is the diminutive form of God's rest (Heb 4:9), and as such, both schools' exile can be determined by when both schools quit observing the weekly Sabbath.

·        God gave rest to the children of the nation that left Egypt when these now-grown children crossed the Jordan. God again gave rest to the natural nation of Israel under the judges when this natural nation returned to keeping God's Sabbaths and walking in His laws, statutes, and commandments. God gave rest to Solomon and to Israel under Solomon because of His promise to David.

·        From the 4th-Century through 16th-Century, the Christian Church, with only an exceptional individual here and there hiding his or her beliefs and practices, did not keep the weekly Sabbath, but lived in spiritual Babylon as the natural nation lived in physical Babylon, where it was to seek the peace of the city, praying for it, for in its peace shall the nation of Israel have peace (Jer 29:7).

·        The natural nation of Israel was not given "rest" by God when in Babylon, but received the "peace" of Babylon. Likewise, the Church in spiritual Babylon did not enter into God's rest, but worshiped [and the vast majority of the Church still worships] God through the peace of spiritual Babylon, this peace causing the Church to worship the Father and the Son on the day of the sun.

·        In the 16th-Century (ca 1525-27), a remnant of the Church left spiritual Babylon and returned to keeping the laws of God, including the weekly Sabbath. This remnant's journey has been theological rather than geographical, and when this remnant crossed the spiritual river Jordan is discerned by when this remnant from Babylon returns to keeping the weekly Sabbath as the diminutive form of God's rest.

The remnant of the spiritual nation that left Babylon is now at work rebuilding the house of God. Shortly after this house of God is rebuilt and dedicated, this present era will end as the year ended in physical Jerusalem (Ezra 6:15). But before this age ends, the last Eve will give birth to a firstborn son, a spiritual Cain (Isa 66:7-8), who will, when the Son of Man is revealed (Luke 17:26-30), kill his righteous brother.

1.      The geography of Judea formed the original borders of the nation of Israel;

2.      This single nation divided into two houses following the forty years of peace given to King Solomon (1 Chron 22:9);

3.      King Solomon was charged with building the house of God, a stone [and wood] temple to replace the fabric tent or tabernacle (1 Chron 22:19), but when the single nation of Israel divided, so did the place of sacrifice (1 Kings 12:26-33);

4.      Because of its sin, God sent the northern house of Israel into exile (Ezek 23:9 — read all of the chapter);

5.      The geographical boundaries of the nation of Israel shrank when the house of Israel went into captivity. These boundaries shrank further when the house of Judah was also sent into captivity. The nation of Israel became no larger than the city of Jerusalem (Ezek 12:9-10), and when this city-state rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, the city was sacked and the temple burned. Jerusalem [and by extension, Israel] was without inhabitants for seventy (70) years. Even the poorest remnant of the nation of Israel that had been left in the rural areas abandoned Judea and went south to Egypt (Jer 43:2-7 & 44:11-14). So all of Judea had no natural Israelites dwelling in the land for the seventy years.

6.      After seventy years, by order of Cyrus, the Persian king of Babylon, a remnant of the natural nation of Israel left Babylon to rebuild the house of God in Jerusalem. But Judea remained part of the Babylonian Empire. Not until the physical sons of light (the Maccabees) defeated Antiochus Epiphanes IV was Judea again governed by natural Israelites. But it was only over the temple that natural Israelites had limited rule when Jesus of Nazareth was born of Mary. Thus, geographically, the nation of Israel which represented the "rest of God" and the garden planted by God shrank—because of sin—in size until it was no larger than the temple mount by the time of Jesus' birth.

7.      Following Jesus' glorification, disciples became the temple of God (1 Cor 3:16-17), constructed in the Jerusalem above (Gal 4:25-26). A disciple is a spiritual Israelite, a spiritual Levite, who controls only the spiritual temple mount that is his or her physical body.

8.      The bridge between the temple in the Jerusalem below [the physical city of Jerusalem] and the temple in the Jerusalem above [the heavenly city that will come after the thousand years] comes from the man Jesus and the glorified Jesus entering both.

 

Two Covenants Given to Two Natural Nations:

When his brothers sold Joseph into slavery, Ishmaelites (or Midanites) from where the patriarch Abraham’s firstborn natural son was exiled to the wilderness of Paran (Gen 21:21) did the actual selling of Joseph to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh (Gen 37:25, 27-28, 36). Joseph is never again a truly free man, even though he becomes second only to Pharaoh in Egypt—Joseph was taken from the dungeon, where he had lain for years as the falsely imprisoned slave of Potiphar. He was shaved and dressed and presented, while still the slave of Potiphar, to the Pharaoh. Joseph interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams, and was made the administrator of preparations for the seven years of famine (Gen 41:40). But he wasn’t given his freedom. He was not returned to his father, but rather, he was under obligation to Pharaoh. Thus, when Jacob as part of the seventy (Gen 46:27) goes down to Egypt for relief from the famine, his descendants enter into servitude to Pharaoh on the same terms that Joseph was then serving Pharaoh. This servitude was initially a light yoke, an easy hand to bear, but the yoke became a good deal heavier when a Pharaoh that didn’t know Joseph came to the throne (Exod 1:8).

Egypt serves as the geographical representation of sin, or lawlessness, which in human beings begins as a mindset from which law-breaking extends as the manifestation of thought. When Abram goes down to Egypt, he tells a half-truth: “She is my sister” (Gen 12:19). So Pharaoh, acting on this half-truth, takes Sarai as his wife, and Pharaoh entreats Abram well, giving him sheep, oxen, asses, camels, servants (v. 16). But God is not pleased: great plagues come on Pharaoh’s house because of Sarai. And when Pharaoh discovers that Sarai is the cause of the plagues, that Sarai is Abram’s wife, Pharaoh expels Abram from Egypt, commanding his men to send Abram and Sarai away with all they have…Abram is greatly enriched by his half-truth.

A half-truth is a lie—

·          The geography of Egypt is to the topography of the earth what a mindset of lawlessness is to humanity’s mental topography.

·          As “The Land Beyond the River” [i.e., Judea] is that portion of the earth’s topography that represents God’s rest (Ps 95:10-11 & Heb 3:19), Egypt represents sin—and to marry an Egyptian is to marry sin.

Once Abram returns to Judea, unto the place where he had made an altar at first, he calls upon the Lord, who promises Abram all the land that he can see, and promises to make Abram’s seed as the dust of the earth (Gen 13:16). This promise concerns the number of descendants that Abram will have, but the Apostle Paul says that this number is singular (Gal 3:16).

·        Christ Jesus is the single seed promised to the patriarch Abraham;

·        But this seed is like the dust of the earth, in that it is the foundational element from which the spiritual creation is built;

·        So in refining the typological comparison of living human beings to the elemental elements from which all life on earth is composed, these breathing human beings must receive the Breath of God [Pneuma ’Agion] before they can be used to bring forth the vegetation or animals in the “P” creation account.

The circumcised descendants of Jacob in Egypt lived under a natural form of grace, in that no sin was reckoned or imputed to them (Rom 5:13). Thus, while these circumcised Israelites lived in bondage to Pharaoh, the nation was a spiritually lifeless type or shadow of the Church under Grace, with the law of sin and death dwelling in the flesh of members (Rom 7:25).

Sin was not yet imputed to the circumcised nation when the death angel passed over all of Egypt, slaying firstborns not covered by the blood of the lamb (Exod 12:29-30). Sin was not imputed when Pharaoh called Moses by night and commanded Israel to leave as Abram left Egypt. Sin was not imputed when the nation crossed the Sea of Reeds in which Pharaoh’s army drowned. Nor was sin imputed when Israel first complained about no meat. But following the giving of the Law from atop Mount Sinai, sin brought death when Aaron cast the golden calf: the sons of Levi went in and out from gate to gate, and slew every man his brother, his companion, and his neighbor. There fell that day about three thousand Israelites (Exod 32:27-28). And God said to Moses, “Whosoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book” (v. 33). Sin now carried both a physical death penalty, and God blotting out the person’s name.

·        Jesus’ death at Calvary paid the price required for all sin in the natural realm;

·        But Satan’s sin didn’t occur in the natural world of “things,” but in the heavenly realm (Ezek 28:14-15);

·        So sin or lawlessness can also occur in the heavenly realm, where a death penalty paid in the physical creation has no effect (Matt 10:28 & Rev 20:14);

·        Therefore a covering for sin in the heavenly realm is also needed for every living being with life in this realm;

·        A born-from-above disciple has life in this realm;

·        Angels cover their spiritual nakedness with obedience in the same way that the first Adam didn’t, and last Adam did cover theirs—disobedience caused a third of the angels to be cast into outer darkness (2 Pet 2:4 coupled with Dan 8:12 & Rev 12:4);

·        Grace, now, in the heavenly realm becomes the reality foreshadowed by no sin being imputed to human beings not under the law (again, Rom 5:13);

·        Grace will have a son of God daily putting on the garment (Gal 3:27) of Christ’s righteousness—as the reality of the Azazel goat, Jesus today bears in the heavenly realm the sins of disciples committed in that realm (Lev 16:21-22). He will not die again, so when the judgments of disciples are revealed (1 Cor 4:5), Jesus will either return these unpaid-for sins to the resurrected disciple, or will give these sins to Satan, their rightful owner. And Satan will, after the thousand years, pay with his life (Ezek 28:18-19) for these sins;

·        The disciple whose righteousness does not exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, who were hypocrites, will not enter the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:20), but will have his or her sins returned. For the person was not deceived by Satan, but was spiritually as the first Adam was physically;

·        Hypocrisy, now, becomes the ultimate killer.

In the second year, shortly after the second Passover, the circumcised nation of Israel journeyed out of the wilderness of Sinai—the law has now been given—and to the wilderness of Paran (Num 10:12), the land of Ishmael. On their way there, Israel complained, and the fire of the Lord burned among the outer parts of the nation (Num 11:1). The nation and the mixed multitude that left Egypt complained about only having manna to eat—and they died with the meat of quail still between their teeth (v. 33). Miram and Aaron spoke against Moses, for he brought the Ethiopian woman he had previously married out of Egypt, and Miram became leprous…now even speaking against Moses was enough to get a person put outside the camp of Israel. So with the giving of the law, the dynamics concerning sin greatly changed. With the giving of the law, the circumcised nation was made naked before God. The nation’s only covering for sin was its obedience to God. Natural grace had ended.

·        When natural grace ends, any lawlessness resulted in exclusion from the natural nation of Israel, either through death or by exile.

Because of Moses’ intervention, Miram was returned to the camp after seven days. Israel remained where it was until Miram returned, and where it geographically remained was in the margins between the Wilderness of Sin and the Wilderness of Paran, Ishmael’s homeland. Israel had geographically left both Egypt and the Wilderness of Sin [for disciples, the former preceding baptism, the later following baptism], and the nation was ready to enter Judea. But the Lord told Moses to send out spies, who said that, yes, the land was as God had said, but that there were giants in the land, giants too large for Israel to overcome (Num chap 13). Ten of the twelve spies brought back an evil report—and the nation believed the ten, rather than the two witnesses.

·        When the nation that left Egypt rebelled against God in the wilderness of Paran, the nation made itself a son of Hagar (Gal 4:24-25)

·        This rebellion in the wilderness of Paran foreshadows the great falling away when the lawless one is revealed (2 Thess 2:3); foreshadows when the spiritually circumcised nation of Israel divides into the first and second sons of the last Eve.

A second witness mark aligns the latter portion of the “J” creation account with still-unfulfilled prophecies about the great falling away, the visions of the prophet Daniel, and Lamb of God removing the seals from the scroll (Rev chap 6). All of the above occur on the third day of the “P” creation account; all occur before saints are glorified.

·        Instead of physical sons of Anak that the physical nation feared, the spiritual giant that the spiritual nation fears is obedience to the laws of God.

The timeline that began when Joseph was carried captive by Ishmaelites and sold into Egyptian slavery extends through the birth of Moses, and continues on through the plagues, through the roasting and eating of the Passover lamb, through the death angel passing over Egypt, through Pharaoh expelling Israel, through crossing the Red Sea, through the giving of manna, through the giving of the law from atop Sinai, and to Israel’s rebellion against God. The timeline of the spiritual creation picks up with the selection [on the 10th day of the first month] and slaying [on the 14th day] of the Passover Lamb of God, followed by disciples roasting the Lamb through Jesus bearing their sins, then eating the flesh of the Lamb when the sacraments are taken on the night Jesus was betrayed. What hasn’t happened yet is the passing over of death angels, followed by baptism [and empowerment] by the Holy Spirit of the spiritual nation.

·        Being filled with, or empowered by the Holy Spirit [Pneuma ’Agion] isn’t a matter of speaking in tongues, or having a “force” come over a disciple. Rather, empowerment is the liberation of the disciple from the law of sin and death that presently dwells in the flesh of every disciple.

·        When empowered by the Holy Spirit, the disciple is “revealed,” or naked before God—the garment of Grace has been removed, for it is no longer needed. Sin no longer dwells in the disciple’s flesh.

·        Empowerment by the Holy Spirit makes a disciple like the first Adam was in the garden, and like the last Adam was before John baptized Him. And every empowered disciple will be like one or the other Adams.

·        Therefore, when sin no longer dwells in the flesh of disciples because of empowerment by the Holy Spirit, if a disciple sins the disciple has committed blasphemy against the Holy Spirit—and this blasphemy will not be forgiven.

As the physical nation of Israel rebelled in the wilderness of Paran, so too will the spiritual nation rebel—when the spiritual nation rebels [the great falling away], God will send a great delusion over the rebels because these rebels didn’t love the truth (2 Thess 2:11-12). The truth now spiritually equates with the Promised Land, and with God’s rest…“the truth” becomes a spiritual synonym for the Sabbath.

·        The circumcised nation didn’t believe the two spies, but rather, believed the ten who brought an evil report (Num 14:1-5);

·        This circumcised nation will not enter Judea on the day when commanded, but because of unbelief, sought to return to Egypt;

·        God condemns the nation’s unbelief, and sentences the adult nation to slow death (v. 29);

·        The nation repents, acknowledges its sin, and attempts to enter Judea on the following day (vv. 40-41);

·        In attempting to enter God’s rest (from Ps 95:10-11 & Heb 3:19) on the following day, the circumcised nation sins—the nation is already under an irrevocable death sentence, so the nation had no protection from the Amalekites.

The man of perdition will be revealed after the spiritual nation of Israel is empowered by the Holy Spirit, and when he is revealed, the vast majority of this spiritual nation will rebel against God through attempting to enter God’s rest on the following day, the 8th day instead of the 7th day. When these empowered Christians make this attempt, a great delusion will come over them, thereby keeping them from ever repenting of their lawlessness. They will be physically and spiritually alive, but as the circumcised nation was under an irrevocable death sentence, so too will the rebelling spiritual nation be under an irrevocable sentence to a second death (i.e., being cast into the lake of fire).

·        Empowerment by the Holy Spirit means liberation from the law of sin and death—both sin and death will be outside of the disciple. The disciple will not die from so-called “natural” causes, but through an outside cause, the foremost of which will be martyrdom.

·        Once empowered by the Holy Spirit, a disciple has no covering for sin but his or her obedience to God. But the disciple will have no internal reason to sin.

·        So if a disciple values physical life or anything else more than obedience to God, the disciple will lose both physical and spiritual life (Matt 10:28, 37-39).

After the physically circumcised nation rebelled against God, all adult members of that nation, except for Joshua and Caleb, died without entering God’s rest. Their children became a new, physically uncircumcised nation of Israel—this nation was not circumcised until it crossed the Jordan (Jos 5:2-7) and actually entered God’s rest on the 10th day of the first month (Jos 4:19).

When all but Moses, Joshua, and Caleb of the nation that rebelled in the wilderness of Paran had died, the Lord commanded Moses to make a second covenant with the children of Israel (Deu 29:1). This covenant is made in addition to, not in place of the covenant made at Sinai [or Horeb]. This covenant is made on the plains of Moab, which is radically different geography than the mountains of Sinai, and it is made with an uncircumcised nation. So with the first covenant still in place, a second covenant is added atop the first. And this second covenant makes spiritual circumcision available to Israel, but with the qualifier that by faith an Israelite must first return to keeping the laws and commandments of God (Deu 30:1-6). The Holy Spirit is offered following demonstrated obedience, the reality for Abram as opposed to Sarai.

·        The patriarch received the Holy Spirit [Pneuma ’Agion] when Abram is changed to Abraham through the insertion of the voiced /ah/ radical…the /ah/ radical doesn’t primarily reference being made the father of many nations, but receiving the Holy Spirit following long-time demonstrated obedience.

·        However, Sarai’s covering for sin was her husband’s obedience, so when he receives the Holy Breath of God, she does also (but at the end of her name instead of in the middle). Sarah now foreshadows the Christian Church, the Bride of Christ, made righteous because of her husband’s obedience.

With the exception of Joshua and Caleb, only the children of the nation that left Egypt enters God’s rest…with the exception of the remnant that keep the commandments of God and have the spirit of prophecy (Rev 12:17 with Rev 19:10), only the spiritual children [uncircumcised in that they have not previously been part of the spiritual nation] of the Christian Church will enter into God’s rest. Thus, the destruction of the Church caused by the great falling away will exceed anything now imaginable.

The spiritual children of the Church are the third part of humanity the prophet Zechariah references (Zech 13:7-9); this third part is the spiritual Seth born to the last Eve after Cain kills Abel, and is marked for his lawlessness.

·        The so-called “J” creation account doesn’t truly conclude with Seth, but with Enos, his son. It was with Enos’ birth that men began to call upon the Lord (Gen 4:26).

·        It will be with the sons and daughters of the spiritual Seth that humanity repopulates the earth during Christ Jesus’ 1000 year long reign as King of kings, and Lord of lords. And these sons and daughters will not have sin and death dwelling inside them. Some will live as long as, or longer than Methuselah.

In the “P” account, predestined sons of God, called and justified before the 4th day begins, are of the waters above the expanse created on the 2nd day. The defining trait, from a human perspective, of the heavenly realm is timelessness—and within the possibilities timelessness allows lies knowing the end of a matter from its beginning. God foreknew those human beings He glorified (past tense) before those human beings realized that God was calling them. How can that be? Predestination has historically been a poorly handled concept, for the inherent premise in the concept is that salvation is not within any person’s control. On its surface, predestination seems to negate free will. For this reason, modern Christianity seldom addresses the subject.

The difficulties of imagining the nuances of timelessness exceed even the difficulty of imagining the devastation caused by the great falling away. (A disciple can begin to imagine how many empowered Christians will rebel against God by observing how many are today in rebellion against His laws, especially the Sabbath commandment.) And every conceivable example is inherently flawed through the inadvertent inclusion of time into the example.

But words can exist without creating mental images: from the perspective of the heavenly realm, God can—in the same moment (there is no other moment)—see how a matter begins and how it ends minutes or millennia in the future. Thus, in God’s moment of observation, the phenomenon’s beginning and end occurs simultaneously. A foreknown disciple’s birth, physical infancy, adulthood, death, resurrection, and glorification occur simultaneously, and in this same moment become a thing of the past. Therefore, being foreknown from the perspective of the heavenly realm acquires an unexpected (from a human perspective) signified, and one which has no appropriately understood signifier. It is enough for the present to say that free will does not separate the hypocrite who will never enter the kingdom of heaven from the glorified saint. Both have free will. Both could have been either hypocrite or a glorified son of God. The difference comes from being foreknown, which is no more explainable than why does God call one person in this era, and not another.

·        Many are called, but few are chosen (Matt 22:14);

·        Are those called disciples who are not chosen inherently defective?

·        If they somehow were, why were they called?

·        If not, then within those disciples who are chosen lays a developed quality that remained undeveloped in those not chosen.

·        This developed quality accounts for being foreknown, which suggests that Father and Son and Bride have already entered His rest on the seventh day of the “P” creation account, the reason why shadows precede their realities in time.

Again, the glorification of those disciples foreknown, predestined, and justified creates, in the “P” account, the greater light that will rule the day. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit (Joel 2:28) upon all flesh will, in human beings, create the lesser light that will rule the darkness of the otherwise spiritually lifeless earth. So the dark portion of the fourth day occurs when the judgments of saints are revealed, some of these saints resurrected unto life, some to condemnation (John 5:29 & Dan 12:2). The light portion is now the marriage supper.

From what’s presently known about what will happen during and following the thousand years of the Millennium, the only dark period occurs when Satan is loosed for a short while [three and a half years] between the thousand years and the great White Throne Judgment. One spiritual night occurs there, probably the night of the sixth day. But there are prophetic passages that are not today fully understood, and some of these passages suggest that how the Millennium will actually begin isn’t well understood. In all likeliness, the night portion of the fifth day follows the marriage supper and probably appears like Ezekiel’s measuring of the temple—this will not be the measuring of the temple that precedes the ministry of the two witnesses (Rev chap 11). That measuring probably foreshadows a latter measuring (Ezek chaps 40-42). The thousand years probably begin with “the glory of the God of Israel [coming] from the way of the east” (Ezek 43:2)

The “P” creation account is too brief to do more than suggest the course of affairs that has occurred and will occur in the heavenly realm to fulfill the plan of God. The “P” account, however, discloses that a complete plan has been in place from the beginning, and the “P” account provides a unifying outline for when phenomena in the heavenly realm will occur.

Numerous historical referents (such as Troy, and King Cyrus) have been verified by modern scholarship as the past is uncovered, one shovelful at a time. Next to be verified will, mostly likely, be the now-too-often dismissed “P” and “J” creation narratives, which have long suffered the bad scholarship of faithless professors and professing fanatics. The correspondences between the visible physical creation and the invisible spiritual creation are too many and too frequent to be coincidental.

The only reading strategy that adequately accounts for the inclusion and exclusion of Israel’s historical record in Scripture is typological exegesis—and through typology, even seemingly mythic creation accounts reveal themselves as integral parts of Scripture.

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Scripture citations are from the King James Version.

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