A Bride For Adam

In John’s gospel we read the office of the Holy Spirit being as follows: ‘…the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost…he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance…’(14: 26,17)
Adam didn’t find a partner from the creatures God had made.

In the first chapter of Genesis we read that God commanded, ‘Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind… and God saw that it was good. (Gen1:24-25) Gods creations are good: cattle, fish of the sea and fowl of the air etc.,( ‘What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.’(Ac 11:9) God had made them good and yet Adam didn’t find them fit for his requirement. He wanted a companion to share his idyllic life. Of this we can read in the verse 19 of Genesis chapter 2.
As mentioned in an earlier post this chapter is speaking of the same Creative Chronicle but from another angle. From the standpoint of the Holy Spirit.
God had breathed into man. (vs.7)
As a living soul His spirit dwells in Adam. Holy Spirit is a spirit of Revelation, of Knowledge and as we read in the gospel of John is the Spirit of Truth. What is the office of the Spirit? He brings to remembrance what is the will of God. Then as now. Man was made a contextual substance so he could understand his own position in the Divine Will. Being taught of the Holy Spirit that was in him he could place all the creatures in relation to his own. He didn’t find in them a helpmeet. Rightly so.
It was then the Lord God caused a deep sleep in Adam. He had to have a woman. We are still following the thread of Creation Chronicle from the standpoint of the Holy Spirit. This being the case we are not to take creation of Eve in a literal sense.
In the previous chapter we read that, ’male and female he created them.’(vs.27) With the creation of Eve we see woman who is co-equal with man and having contextual substance. She also serves a special function: she is his spiritual Counsellor and Comforter. Man and woman are as one just as God the Father was with the Holy Spirit.
Woman had become a sign of the Indwelling of Spirit , the raison d’etre for the Church. Adam and Eve is a type of Christ and the Church.
benny

On Darwinism

Natural selection is the way Nature follows the dictates of the Holy Spirit. Think of Nature like a roulette wheel and it is the Holy Spirit that gives it a spin. Of course it is a continuous motion: God has set it in operation and only God can command ‘halt’.
benny

A Matter for Inspiration

Before I go into the second chapter from Genesis let me point out the role of Holy Spirit. In the second verse we read thus: ‘and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. ’In one of my earlier post I had defined the role of Holy Spirit as Inspiration. Under its influence St. Peter could discern Jesus of Nazareth was Christ, the Son of God. What did Jesus say to a revelation that he never did divulge to him? ‘Blessed art thou,…for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.’(St. Mat 16:15—17)
God’s intent is put into operation though the agency of the Holy Spirit. That office was very much evident while God set out to bring order out of chaos. In the first chapter we read God commanded waters under the heavens to come together to form Seas. It was so.(vs.7) The Spirit of God moved through the face of the waters. Of this we read in so many details in the chapter 2. Evolution of the earth from chaos to order meant every atom in our material world was sensitized and had caught the glory of His spirit. Thus if at quantum level fundamental particles should behave in a certain mode and in macrocosmos in another it still follows an order that was received at the Creation Day.
‘There went up a mist from the earth,…’ The waters had seen the glory of God and it made no difference if there were waters separated by the introduction of a firmament. (The earth and the fullness thereof belongs to God.) If matter can thus be inspired to create conditions for life how much more man who is the very image of God?
benny

Man and Nature

'And God saw every thing that He had made, and behold it was very good...' Here we have a verse as to His creative Judgment over His creation. As contextual substance we also should reflect His mind ever so little in our attitude towards Nature. We reflect it in our conservation and care for our cattle, pets and plants. In our appreciation of Nature we are 'yea saying' to His creative wisdom.

If we do catch the shine of our Father in our context with Him we also should see it in nature and if that is missing it is time we asked ourselves:'where did I go wrong?'
benny

Substance/shadow

Contextual substance of Man is the glory of God indwelling as Shekina glory that filled the tabernacle when it was set up in the wilderness. By ourselves what are we? As Pascal would say we are thinking reeds, and as transient as grass. Will not a Christian on seeing a blade of grass with a drop of dew in the morning Sun winking think of God’ promise? The dew has become a symbol.
A symbol works because of contextual substance.
We are the shadow and He is the Substance. Yet because of the fact that we bear the breath of God we ourselves become the substance too. Our validity is confirmed by our context with Him.
Nature declares the glory of God not because it is His mirror image but in that we are created in His image.
benny

Creative Spirit

As soon as God created Day and Night, the host of angels came to God and asked,"O Lord there is division among us. Which of the two, Day or Night is better?" God chose not to reply. The day He separated the Heaven from the Earth the angels came and asked," Which is better, heaven or the earth?"Again God remained silent. He went on creating and after he had created man the angels in so many groups asked," We are going to pieces with contrary opinions. Tell us God, Are we not better than the man you created?"
God fell silent. Archangel prodded," O Lord of hosts! If man were better you would have set him here in heavenly places. Now we see your face all the time and we are definitely superior."
Instead of replying God breathed in to Adam and asked" Which is better- I being among you or my spirit in him? Answer me and I shall answer those questions you asked me earlier."
benny

In His Image

If one reads the first chapter of Genesis carefully one is struck by the fact the Creative Narrative is a series of separations. When God commands ‘Let there be light!’(vs.3) there is light and it is in terms of darkness. Darkness is the absence of light. Corollary of this shows up in Day and Night. Day is in terms of Night. Creation Day is to be set in direct context of Creation Night and the two components are Not to be interpreted either mystically or in spiritual sense. God intended the coupling of both by same standard of His creative judgment.
What about the Sun, you might ask me. The Sun He set in the firmament to give light on the earth. The Moon is introduced in keeping true to His creative judgment as a celestial sign in terms of the Sun. Of this I shall come in a moment.

In verse 6 the separation of waters created Heaven and the waters of the Earth. The latter is gathered to form Seas. If we go back to the verse2 we shall understand that while God separated Day from Night, various other events were also concurrently happening. The Earth that was without form, became organized or to use an expression we are all familiar with, evolving into the form that we know of. The point we need to keep in mind is that Creative process for the heavens was no less different from that existed below on the Earth. God is not the God of Chaos but as St. Paul says is of Order. As with living creatures that came later God’s creative Mind has made His creation to fall into a certain pattern.
Heavens and the Earth
The Sun and the Moon.
Order is in the same sense we may make of a mirror image. The substance and its shadow should not sow chaos over one another but remain beyond shadow of doubt connected to one another. It is in this context we need to understand the creation of man. He created man in His image (vs.27). ‘Male and female he created them’, does not mean any transgender issue but of God being reflected as in a mirror. Man and woman as one. Of equal standing. God has not set man head over the woman but in His image. No more no less.
benny

Bible Study-Genesis

Chapters 1-3
By way of introduction let me say these three are from different points of view and hence emphases also differ. For instance In the Creation Chronicle of the first chapter God says,’Behold,I have given you… every tree …to you it shall be for meat.’(vs29).Whereas in the second chapter verses 9,16-17 give a different accent. ‘Out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree…the tree of life also.’ In the Third chapter we curiously note thistles and thorns are caused as result of man’s disobedience(vs18).
The first chapter is straight out of the mind of God as to how the creation was intended. The second chapter is more of a narrative supplementing God’s intent with topographical lay-out of the garden and the denizens who were to appropriate the bounty of God. It reminds me more of a legal document, setting forth the various obligations of the leaseholder; and extent and the boundaries of the leased property.
Chapter Three is yet again from a different standpoint as though the events leading up to the fall and the manner the First Family has to deal with the question of their disobedience. The view is from the position of Man while the second chapter is from the viewpoint of the Holy Spirit.
In the three chapters we note the triune God working from three standpoints.
In the third chapter the key word is coats of skins and in the second is of helpmeet. The first chapter lays stress on His image of this I shall come back in the next post.
benny

Representational Culpability

Representational Culpability is where one is damned for what one is (as the devil’s advocate appointed by the See is deemed as one till the deliberations are completed) and is freed for one does. Thus in Adam we are under the yoke of sin and in Jesus we are freed from its bondage by an act of faith.
benny

One Man's Sin

‘For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.,’(Ro3:23)
In this context I shall cite another verse again from the epistle to the Romans, ‘wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin..’(5:12-13) St. Paul here is referring to the fall of man. Adam disobeyed a direct commandment of God and with it threw wide open the nature of sin as part and parcel of man’s lot. From the story of Adam’s fall we need to know an axiom: A man’s culpability compromises the entire species. In other words, an individual as representation of the whole. One man’s fall is described in terms of the fall of the whole; one man’s victory opens the way for victory for all. Thu Adam and Jesus are two types each illustrating the above axiom.
Does it not raise many an eyebrow, and through ages we have heard voices refusing the idea of a child being sinful. A baby comes into the world carrying the nature of sin as sure as he is bearing the genetic material of his parents in his person. Here I am not saying a baby would have wilfully sinned but implies he is representative of the entire race and Adam in particular.
How so?
Let me draw your attention to my post of November 18, 2007
A Paradox

Life is indescribable. Having said that in my entry #1 what if I described Life as a matrix? Am I not contradictory?
When I qualify Life as an envelope I am merely using a symbol from direct evidences: nature as a manifestation of Life…
Paradox of Life is like silence, of which we shall have no understanding but for sounds.
From the above our material make up gives Life a discernible form. We are like Adam, a living soul, and yet we bear the material nature of Adam, which makes us share his sin of disobedience as well. We catch the dimensionless Life even though as an aura and we know Him as God. If we call on Him as Father since we have direct experience of an earthly father we are right on and He is indeed ‘Our Father which art in heaven..’
Sin is our patrimony that may be exchanged for another so we are translated from sinful state to that of ‘being set in heavenly places.’(Col 3:1) God’s patrimony is something that we receive by faith. This is where many stumble.
benny

Notice

In the coming posts I shall explain some of the fundamental theological concepts like sin, redemption, resurrection etc., As a Christian my faith has its own reasons, partly inherited and some enlarged upon life experience and its validity is non negotiable or something for laying it in public view. My religion is as Jefferson asserted, solely a matter between my God and myself. Since I believe in the inspiration of Holy Spirit I ascribe my philosophical stand as merely a view of my profession from another vantage point. I never found a cogent reason despite of a secular mantle I had put on to question the wisdom and power of God. For example when I described His godhead as Oneness of Things or Life I held a secular position. In defining His absolute nature as Truth it was as though God the Lord of Hosts in the Scriptures had come into His own as far as I am concerned. By the same token I hold the historical Jesus or his example as Truth expressed in human terms:Love.
If one views the Holy Bible as inerrant every word has its own place and validity. Merely because its veracity in the light of our rational thought or earthly experience cannot be proved, will not mean the book is like curate’s egg good in parts. Here is then another difficulty for those who use the Bible to create or continue divisions in the One and Holy Church or use their religion to score points in the secular world. In short whoever uses the Bible, like with any double-edged sword needs to handle the Word carefully.
benny