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Apr 20 08 7:03 AM
…and man became a living soul. Genesis 2:7
…for on the day when you take of it, death will certainly come to you. Genesis 2:16-17
And we know Adam was a LIVING soul because he communed with GOD! They saw each other daily, talked often, and were each very significant in the experience of the other. But of course we all know that blissful time was cut tragically short and Adam suddenly found himself out-of-reach from GOD….and subsequently they LOST their shared CONNECTION. No contact = no communication = friendship is severed by circumstance! Adam had his 'first' birth (natural), when GOD formed him from clay; and shortly thereafter had his 'first' death (spiritual). That is only half the cycle: there is a 'second' birth, which instead we call RESURRECTION; and then there is a second death, as well. The RESURRECTION, then, is spiritual and the 'second death' is natural.
Two births: one natural and one spiritual. Two deaths: one natural and one spiritual.
We know this must all balance out in equilibrium; partly because of what Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:
So is it with the coming back from the dead. It is planted in death; it comes again in life: …If there is a natural body, there is equally a body of the spirit.
And so it is said, The first man Adam was a living soul. The last Adam is a life-giving spirit. But that which is natural comes before that which is of the spirit.
The first man is from the earth, and of the earth: the second man is from heaven.
No man is born spiritually alive - not even ADAM! Remember, GOD had to breathe into ADAM to give him TRUE life!Rescue breathing!!! And so 'salvation' comes through ONLY one sequence of life and death/natural and spiritual events and that ONE sequence alone - ever since, and including, ADAM:
Happy and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection; over him the second deathhas no power…Revelation 20:6
Jesus' body did die, there is no question of that. Jesus was no different than Adam when he was born. BUT the difference came in the years between #2 and #4…up until that particular time, without exception, men had been following the proper order but leaving out #3.
#3 happened, for the first time, up on Mt Carmel; as witnessed by the rock and the sons of thunder:
And after six days Jesus takes with him Peter, and James, and John, his brother, and makes them go up with him into a high mountain by themselves. And he was changed in form before them; and his face was shining like the sun, and his clothing became white as light. And Moses and Elias came before their eyes, talking with him. Matthew 17:1-3
Moses and Eli, neither one, left any sort of empirical evidence of their physical deaths. NO ONE ever really could say what had happened to either one of them…the last time they were both seen, they were seen alive going toward a place only known by GOD. I personally don't think either one passed through death but rather just shed their 'robes.' And that is why they came to Jesus before it was time to shed his own. Perhaps they gave him unseen spiritual energy or maybe just good old-fashioned moral support. Either way, GOD put light into Jesus' soul (LIFE) and there were 5 witnesses: three of clay and two of light.
And, because of GOD infusing that life-preserving light BEFORE DEATH, Jesus' spirit was ALIVE when his body DIED…it remained alive during and ever-after! The body he had worn, as a temporary robe, surely did die and return to the dust…but SO WHAT? He didn't need it anymore than we need our own 'robes,' now that we also live. How do we know we live? Because we talk to GOD every day…as it was in the Garden with ADAM, so now it is in each of our lives! WE don't need our robes, for our own purposes; however, we do need them for the work that is ahead.
Remember, Paul felt the same way:
For we are conscious that if this our tent of flesh is taken down, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal, in heaven. For in this we are crying in weariness, greatly desiring to be clothed with our house from heaven: So that our spirits may not be unclothed. For truly, we who are in this tent do give out cries of weariness, for the weight of care which is on us; not because we are desiring to be free from the body, but so that we may have our new body, and death may be overcome by life. Now he who has made us for this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a witness of what is to come. So, then, we are ever without fear, and though conscious that while we are in the body we are away from the Lord, For we are walking by faith, not by seeing, We are without fear, desiring to be free from the body, and to be with the Lord.
Our fear of death has been relieved both through understanding that our soul will not die with our body as well as because of an eagerness toh hang out with GOD around the throne. BUT we are the exception rather than the rule. We cannot eradicate fear in the world if none in the world are aware of our presence!
PERFECT LOVE CASTS OUT FEAR.
That is our job. That is why our resurrection isn't going to take us out of our body or out of the world. Because we care more about those that Jesus died for than we do for ourselves!
The churchians once again have it backwards!
'Personal salvation' is the beginning rather than the end! And no one was ever rescued with empty, repetitive words…only with ACTION is anything ever done. That is, living the word….demonstrating the word…BECOMING the word.
Words are the manifested thoughts of GOD.
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