Chapter 2

The Creation of Man and God’s Dealings with Him

We now come to the moment most of us think of as the Creation. Many people misread the passage and think from this that the earth is only about six thousand years old. It is actually MUCH OLDER THAN THAT, and the Bible has no argument with science when it says that the earth is billions of years old. The account in Genesis is simply the account of the recreation, or restoration of the earth after the cataclysm following Satan’s rebellion.

Let’s notice, now, with the understanding of what has already transpired previous to man’s creation. “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Gen. 1:1) This acknowledges that in the beginning, whenever that was, God created this physical earth. But, in going over this verse, there is one thing that must be noted: the word used for God here is the Hebrew word Elohim. This word is a uniplural noun, meaning that, rather than referring to a SINGLE BEING, it refers to a GROUP OF BEINGS, just like the words church, team, band, club, family, etc. All of these words connote one family or group, but that family or group is composed of MORE THAN ONE INDIVIDUAL! We have already seen in the last chapter how the God Family is presently composed of two beings -- not one, as the Unitarians and Jews believe, and not three, as the trinity doctrine teaches (actually, the trinity doctrine states that they are three in one, but they are unable to define what that means; more modern Trinitarians postulate that God is three hyposteses, or faces of the same being), but only two! We will get into more detail on this subject later.

Let’s continue now in Genesis: “The earth was [the better translation is became] without form, and void [this notes the state of total destruction after Satan’s rebellion, the earth had been created perfectly in the beginning, but was now laid waste]; and darkness was upon the face of the deep [the earth was covered with a worldwide ocean, and the sun couldn’t penetrate the heavy cloud layer]. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

“Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.” [vs. 2-3] God was here dissipating the cloud layer. I am going to skip most of the rest of this story. You can go over it yourself in your own Bible. God was here restoring the earth, healing it from the great cataclysm in preparation for the creation of man.

We skip down now to verse 26. “The God said, ‘Let us [showing that there is more than one member of the God Family] make man in Our image, according to our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Notice now in the second chapter, and verse 7, reading from the King James Version: “And the Lord [the Hebrew word here is equivalent to the English “Eternal,” which signifies the Creator God, or the Spokesman, who later became Jesus Christ; whenever you see in the KJV or NKJV the word “Lord” spelled with all capital letters, this is what it is talking about, to distinguish the Eternal God from the other Being in the God Family -- the Father] God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” The Hebrew word translated “soul” in the KJV is from the Hebrew word “nephesh,” which literally means “creature.” This word is translated “being” in the NKJV and “creature” in the Revised English Bible [referred to as REB hereafter in this work], which is the most recent revision of the New English Bible. This same word “ nephesh” is used in other verses of the Bible for both men and lower life forms, or animals. It simply means “creature,” and a dead body is a DEAD NEPHESH, or SOUL.

Right here, we can understand an important truth, because when you are looking at things from the beginning, you can more easily see the truth of God, because it has not yet been mixed with the error man has later put into it.

Let us, then, come to an understanding of JUST WHAT MAN NOW IS: As was stated earlier, God started out by creating ANGELS and He put one third of these angels under Lucifer on a throne on the earth. Lucifer perverted his mind, becoming Satan the Devil, and his sinning angels that followed him became known as demons. After this experience, God decided that there just simply had to be a better way to develop His Holy Righteous character in other beings. The sin of the angels and Satan had condemned them to an eternity of torture and mental anguish. God is a merciful God, not willing that ANY BEING should suffer torment and torture forever, no matter how twisted they had become. But, because the angels and Satan are composed of IMMORTAL SPIRIT, God has no choice but to put them away in a spiritual prison, referred to in the Book of Revelation as the “bottomless pit.”

As an aside, God’s punishment for criminals throughout the Old Testament is NEVER PRISON! God’s Law either exacts monetary damage, separation in a “City of Refuge” for major sins such as manslaughter that happened ACCIDENTALLY, or death. Never has God condemned human being to being penned up in a prison. This is an idea straight from Satan the Devil BECAUSE THAT IS DESTINED TO BE HIS FATE FOR ALL ETERNITY!

Getting back to our man story thread, God surveyed the tragedy of the sinning angels, and decided that there just had to be a better way to accomplish His goal. This is why He created man as a mortal being, so that, if he sinned, his existence would simply cease, and he would not have to go through an eternity of mental torture.

I realize that the idea of man being a MORTAL SOUL, rather than an IMMORTAL SOUL is new to most of our readers. Traditional Christianity, along with many pagan religions, teach that man has an immortal soul. [For a thorough, in depth, step by step study of this subject, look up the Correspondence Course lesson entitled “What is Man?” for a full Biblical explanation right from the pages of your own Bible. This and other material is found in the Library section of our website. The URL is http://web.superb.net/rcg/]

Traditional Christianity teaches that this immortal soul goes to Heaven when the person dies if he or she is good, and to hell if they are bad [you can find information on both of these topics in depth in our Library as well]. Many eastern religions teach that we have an immortal soul that comes back as another person or animal in another life in an endless daisy chain of mortal existences. Islam teaches a concept similar to Christianity abut going to Heaven or Hell.

I want you to stop and think a moment about this. If God learned from His experience with the angels that sinned, why would He go right back and crate man with an immortal soul, so that sinning humans would have to go through the same torment forever along with the demons? A merciful God SIMPLY WOULD NOT DO THIS, LOGICALLY. God is a logical, loving, and righteous God. He wasn’t to REPRODUCE HIMSELF through man, but, not at the expense of the wicked, incorrigible sinners living forever in torment.

Rather than teaching the traditional “Christian” teaching about a heaven and a hell as the reward of man, the truth from your Bible is much better! The Bible teaches us that there will be a resurrection of the dead -- but not just one resurrection. The Bible teaches three resurrections, believe it or not! We will get into this in greater detail later on in this book as we study the plan of God. Suffice it to say at this point that the first resurrection occurs at the time of Christ’s return, the second resurrection occurs after the Millennium at the Great White Throne Judgment, and the third resurrection occurs when the old heaven and the old earth are destroyed by FIRE to make way for the new heaven and the new earth. At this time, the incorrigibly wicked will be BURNED UP, becoming ashes under the feet of the saints! Rather than writhing in torment forever in an ever burning hell, they will be burned up and cease to exist at the end of time for this earth.

Back to this ideas of an immortal soul, let’s look now at some more of the Bible before we go on, so that we can understand this subject better. In the first sermon given the New Testament Church, Peter spoke about King David. This is the same David who is going to be ruling over all Israel after the return of Christ. This is the same David who is “a man after God’s own heart.” If anyone is in heaven right now, surely he is! This, then, at the foundation of the New Testament Church was a perfect opportunity to talk about how the patriarchs, including David, where in heaven -- but that’s not what God inspired Peter to say. Peter said, “Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day.... For David DID NOT ASCEND INTO THE HEAVENS.....” [Acts 2:29; 34a]

These verses PLAINLY SAY that David did not ascend into heaven. There are other verses that plainly say our reward is not heaven. Let’s examine just two more of them.

Christ Himself said that “No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven [some manuscripts omit the “who is in heaven” part, which makes this passage clearer]” [Jn. 3:13] Here, we have Jesus Christ Himself saying that no one has gone to heaven, except He, Himself, who came from heaven!

There are other references in the Bible telling us that the hope of the saints is a RESURRECTION FROM THE DEAD, not going to heaven, but I will list only one more here for the sake of brevity. I am quoting this passage from the KJV, because it keeps closer to the original meaning of this passage than most modern translations This statement was made by Job in the midst of his trials. He finally said, “O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave, that thou wouldst keep me secret, until they wrath be past that thou wouldest appoint me a set time, and remember me. If a man die, shall he live again? All the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. Thou wilt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.” [Job 14:13-15] What could be PLAINER? At death, the spirit in man goes back to God who gave it [Eccl. 12:7], awaiting the resurrection, when the spirit shall be put into the new body. Those whose human spirit has combined with God’s Holy Spirit to create the new creature in Christ that Paul talks abut, will be united with a new spirit body at the resurrection -- a body like the body of Jesus Christ -- the body of a God Being, a very son of the living God! Those who have not been called and converted in their human life will have their spirit reunited with a physical body in the Great White Throne Judgment, where God will reveal His way to them, and give them their one and only chance at salvation.

God does not play favorites. He is only calling a VERY FEW TODAY for the work of warning this world about what is soon coming, and to proclaim the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, preparing the way for the second coming of Christ. The vast majority of everyone who ever lived will be called much later, at the end of God’s plan. We will discuss these ideas in more depth later.

Now that we understand what man is, we can continue with our story once more in time sequence.

Returning, then, to Genesis 2:7, we see that God created man differently from all the animals; he was created in the image of God because that is what his destiny is to become. He is to someday join the God Family. Also in this same verse we see that man is given dominion over the earth and every creature on it. This is the dominion that was first given to Satan and his demons. So, God was now proposing to make a change. Where the world had been subject to the angels, it was now to be subject to man. But, Satan had not been removed from the earth; he was still around. He still would have a chance to take back his throne as we shall soon see.

Before we leave this section of scripture, though, I would like to note one thing before we get into the “fall of man.” In chapter 2, verses 2-3, we find that, as God’s final act, He rested from His work of creation by resting on the seventh day, blessing it as His Sabbath. That Day was set apart at the reformation of the earth so that we would have a weekly reminder of the creation. God rested in that day, giving us an example to follow. Thus, the Sabbath was established WAY BEFORE THE TEN COMMANDMENTS WERE GIVEN TO MOSES! As such, the Sabbath has been an established memorial of creation since the beginning so that we can remember God. It is Holy because His presence was put in it at creation; no other day has that distinction.

In addition, the week of creation shows the time allotted for the fulfillment of God’s Plan with mankind. God had a very good idea that Adam would sin. As such, He had allowed one thousand years for each day of creation in His Plan. The first six thousand years were given to man, the day of man. The seventh thousand years, paralleled by the Sabbath, were to be a Millennium of rest from the ravages of Satan for God to show man how to live. I don’t have space here to go over the entire plan of God. That will be saved for later in this book, when we go over God’s Plan in detail.

Getting back to our story flow, now, in the Book of Genesis, the man was created first, and then the woman. We don’t know how long God instructed them, but, at some point they were informed that there was a Tree of Life and a Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God was offering this man and woman a chance to make a choice, just as He did the angels. They would have to eventually choose which way they would go, and that choice would affect the children that were born to them in later generations.

If they chose of the Tree of Life, God’s Holy Spirit would beget them with the very life of God. It is just like what happens on the human plane when the human sperm penetrates the egg. There is a spirit in man [not an immortal soul] that raises his mind above that of an animal. The human brain does the processing, like the CPU of the computer, but the MEMORY is recorded in the spirit in man. This spirit records every experience, every thought that you have ever had. This spirit is probably what psychology calls the subconscious mind. It is the REAL POWERHOUSE of the human mind.

But, when God created man with this human spirit, it was a physical creation, and human spirit allows the human mind to comprehend PHYSICAL KNOWLEDGE -- NOT SPIRITUAL! A human mind cannot come into spiritual knowledge without the Spirit of God.

Now, the Spirit of God can work WITH an unconverted person to reveal certain points of spiritual knowledge, but this is on a limited basis. There is no spiritual growth possible until conversion. At conversion, when the Holy Spirit begets the human as a son or daughter of God, his mind is finally opened to spiritual knowledge. This is exactly the relationship God was offering Adam and Eve.

God spent His time in the Garden teaching the first man and woman what He wanted them to learn -- but they had not yet decided which way they would go. Adam and Eve knew that going God’s way meant making a commitment from which there was no turning back. They were inclined to do it, but they just waited for a while thinking about it, like perhaps many of you reading these lines might be. The Bible says that the carnal mind is enmity with God [Rom. 8:7]. Mankind, throughout history, has always tried to get as far away from God as possible so that he could “do his own thing.”

After God was finished with the instruction He wanted to impart to His creations, He allowed Satan to test them, to see which way they would go. Satan knew that this was his big chance. Man through Adam had been given dominion over the earth, the same dominion Satan had long enjoyed. The very throne over the earth was at stake. If Satan could overcome Adam, then he could continue to rule the earth until the end of the first six thousand years. It he lost this battle, he would be finished now.

Satan knew that if he approached the man directly, his chances wouldn’t be as good as they would if he could first get to Eve, and then use her to pressure the man. After all, if Eve turned him down, he would still have another chance at Adam directly. So, to maximize his chances of success, Satan went after the woman first.

Satan entered the body of a snake. Through the snake he said to Eve: “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” [Gen. 3:1b]

Satan is always subtle and cunning. He wanted the woman to repeat her understanding of God’s common, looking for any opening. Eve then replies in the next verse that she could eat of every tree except the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but she added something God had not said by saying that not only could she not eat it, she couldn’t touch it either.

Now that Satan had established rapport with the woman, he was ready to launch the attack. He said, “You will not surely die [this is the beginning of the immortality of the soul lie, telling man that he has immortal life already, and is not mortal, having only a physical chemical existence]. For God Knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will b opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” [vs.4-5] I would like to note here that in one sense, Adam and Eve DIDN’T die in the 24 hour day that they ate of that fruit, unless one considers what happened to be spiritual death, which is possible. However, the Bible says that to God a thousand years is as one day, and one day stands for a thousand years in God’s Master Plan of Salvation, as we shall see later. Adam died before the first thousand years were up, so to God, he indeed did die that same day! And Adam died. He did not have an immortal soul. He is dead to this day, awaiting a resurrection.

Satan was telling Eve the “big lie.” He tried to discredit God because he called Him a liar. He said that they would not die. Then, he went on to claim that not only would they not die, but that was actually being unfair and holding back from them something that should rightfully be theirs.

Satan was here using his classic vanity and pride attack. He wanted the woman to become seized with intellectual vanity, imagining that she was soon to be on the same level as God. While this is God’s plan and purpose for man, He does not permit man to “jump the gun” and have it now, with a carnal mind.

This is the same tactic Satan used on the third of the angels he perverted. Satan works very subtly, not telling a big lie at first, but rather appealing to vanity or pride or some other wrong approach to life. Using this and half truths, he eventually swoops down with the “big lie.” The unsuspecting person, having already been conditioned by a series of small lies, readily accepts the big lie without hardly thinking about it.

To recap, then, Satan made God out to be a liar, and told the woman that, not only would she not die, but that she would also become like God RIGHT THEN [it reminds one of the Protestant hymn “Just as I Am.” He urged her on, appealing to vanity and pride, making it appear that God was somehow unfair, and that the Tree of Life was somehow NOT GOOD ENOUGH!

Think now, for a moment, about those two trees. One tree would open up the way of salvation to man, begetting man with the very Holy Spirit of God. When this Holy Spirit united with human spirit, it would have meant that man would have had the very POWER OF GOD TO OVERCOME SIN. Spiritual vision would have been clear. The choices of life would have been plain, and man would have followed the very way of life that produces happiness and harmony. It would have meant that right there, from creation, man would have enjoyed a millennial situation. Man would have worked with his God from the beginning to produce Holy Righteous character. Satan would have been immediately bound along with is demons, never allowed to touch mankind again, because Adam would have qualified to sit on the very throne of this earth upon his death and resurrection, replacing Satan in that office. The government and family of God would have been on the earth from the start.

just imagine. This would have been a world without murder, rape, lies, stealing, depression, heartache and sorrow. It would have been God’s world from the very start. The bad things that we all experience because of SIN would have never had a chance to grow and develop.

Contrast this with the fruits of man choosing to go the way he did. It was his choice to make, just as it had been the choice of Lucifer and his angels. God forces us to eventually choose, He just won’t force us to choose the right way over the wrong. Sadly, though, as Lucifer demonstrated, it is all too easy for one to make the wrong choice. But God’s Plan of Salvation with man had safeguards in it that allowed for man to make the wrong choice in the beginning, yet still come out fine in the end. Such was not the case with Lucifer and the fallen angels -- they had only the one chance.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was not all bad. Satan’s deceptions never are all bad or all good, otherwise nobody would be attracted to them. There is enough good to make things look appealing, but the bad is hidden underneath, like a trap ready to spring on the unsuspecting person going the way of sin.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil is subtle. After all, the author, Satan, is subtle. Just enough truth is mixed in to make it look right, but underneath there is always an underlying fault that spoils the whole thing.

The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil implied that man, like Satan before him, was taking to himself the reduction of the knowledge of what is right and what is wrong! Neither man, nor Satan, nor the angels are able to produce with absolute certainty the knowledge needed to go the right way of life -- only God is capable of that. He must trust Him to show us what is right and what is wrong. The human mind just cannot always see the flaw in its own reasoning. Neither can Satan. But God can, and does, and requires that we choose.

This was really a test, then, of whether carnal, unconverted man wanted a relationship with God. It showed where his true intentions were. This incident proved what it says in Romans that “the carnal mind is at enmity with God.” The carnal, human mind, like Satan’s before him, simply wants to decide for itself what is right and wrong according to its own reasoning.

So, when Adam and Eve ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, and rejected divine revelation about the Tree of Life, they said to God in effect: “Keep your nose out of our business. We want to decide FOR OURSELVES what kind of life we will have, and how we will live. You can, of course, advise us, but we reserve the right to make the determination for ourselves of what is best for us.”

After the man and the woman ate of the wrong tree, the first thing they noticed was that they were naked, and they were ASHAMED. God had created sex as a good thing, something to be enjoyed between a man and his wife. It also gave man some of the power of reproduction, which is what God is doing Himself through man. This matter of reproduction made Satan insanely jealous, because, as a specially created being, he had and has no power of reproduction. This is something that God has, and that He has shard with man. Therefore, it makes sense that Satan would attack sex first, since it was the thing about man about which he had the most jealousy.

Sex was created as a good, pure thing. There was nothing to be ashamed about in the bodies that God created. But this evil Satan immediately launched a mental attack upon the first man and woman the moment they ate of the forbidden fruit. Eating that fruit attuned them to Satan’s wavelength, rather than God’s It also gave Satan, by default, the right to remain on the throne of this earth as its ruler for the entire six thousand years of man!

At the moment they ate the fruit, then, they came under Satan’s power and influence, rather than God’s. The first thing Satan attacked was sex. The second thing he attached was man’s relationship with God.

Prior to this incident, God walked in the Garden of Eden every night, fellowshipping with His new creations, teaching them His ways. It must have been a truly wonderful thing, to walk and talk with God each evening before going to bed, sharing with Him the day’s victories and defeats, and asking God personally for the solution to whatever problems might have arisen. It was something great indeed, and God wanted that close relationship to last for eternity. But He had forced man to make a choice, and man had made the wrong choice. Man was now under Satan’s power and jurisdiction, and the attack severed this close relationship with God right away!

To recapitulate, the first thing Satan attacked when he had man under his power was sex and it’s right, beautiful, God ordained purpose and use. The second thing Satan attacked was man’s relationship to God! Satan inspired the man and the woman to hide in the bushes when God came for His usual walk that evening. They hid because they were embarrassed of their nakedness, which in God’s plan was nothing to be embarrassed about. Their minds, though, had been subtly altered and twisted right away by Satan’s influence. This first twist inspired them to hide from their Creator. Things only got worse from there.

God, of course, was aware of everything that had been going on, but Adam and Eve didn’t know it. God fished them out of the bushes and clothed them, and then he “called them on the carpet.” This, I am sure, they were also afraid of, because mankind has been afraid and ashamed t face God throughout history.

In the following verses, God first questions the man about his part in the crime. The man blamed the woman, even though, as leader, he bore the responsibility. This didn’t stop him from trying to “pass the blame down,” as is all to common in human nature. In fact, a great fad of modern psychology says that we really aren’t to blame for anything we do. It was our parent’s fault, or wife’s, or our kid’s -- our problems are everyone’s fault but OURS. Thus, we are not responsible for our own actions.

Anyway, Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent, and, as the joke goes, “the serpent didn’t have a leg to stand on.” It is true that each one shared in the blame, and s each got the consequences they deserved from God. The upshot of this is that from the foundation of this world, man has been cut off from God and the Tree of Life!

Remember, though, that it was MAN, not GOD who cut himself off. God said, in effect, that since man had chosen to follow Satan’s way, he was now free to form his own governments, develop his own way of living, philosophy, and religion. God would not interfere in human affairs, save only to further His Plan of Salvation. Man was sentenced to write in the bloody pages of history the BITTER LESSON of a life separated from God and the knowledge of His way of life. Man had wanted to be on his own, so he was, except that Satan was to be his guide and ruler.

This is why God is not trying to save this world now. This is Satan’s world because Adam forfeited the right to rule over the world by losing the battle for control to Satan. By submitting t Satan’s way, he submitted to Satan’s rule and guidance. Man had sold himself into the power of his worst enemy -- one who hates man more than any other thing in the universe save God! It is only because God restrains Satan’s hand that we are alive at all.

This, then, is the reason we have such a messed up world today. This is the reason for the strife, the wars, and the famines, the disease epidemics -- all of the bad results that come from living the wrong way of life separated from God. God’s intent had been for man to live in peace and harmony, but man chose the wrong way. Only after the six thousand years are over will Christ intervene in world affairs to take back the throne of the earth from Satan, and then begin to work DIRECTLY WITH MAN, showing him what kind of world can be built when we follow God’s way of life.

After man was kicked out of the Garden of Eden, his access to God and eternal life, symbolized by the Tree of Life, was shut off. Man immediately went from bad to worse. Of the first two brothers born in history, one murdered the other. This caused more separation from God. Man only got further and further from his Creator as time went on.

By and large, then, God had virtually nothing to do with humanity for many, many years. Between Adam and the Flood, the only righteous men were Enoch, Abel, and Noah. By the time of Noah, man had totally perverted his ways. I will not go into the pre-Flood world now, but the end of the age is prophesied to be equally evil. Mankind will have only gotten that wicked twice in history for the most part, with the exceptions of Sodom and Gomorra.

After the Flood, man could have had a fresh start with God with Noah as his guide. Only one of Noah’s three sons, Shem, is reported to have followed God. The other two, even after having their lives miraculously saved, turned to their own ways very quickly, forgetting the One who had saved them from death.

As part of God’s sentence on man, man’s lifespan was shortened after the Flood. where man had lived almost a thousand years before the Flood, the lifespan was shortened to about 70 years soon after the Flood. Man had demonstrated that a long life did not suffice to wake mankind up -- in fact, the Bible indicates that prolonged physical life only served to solidify the sinful ways of man.

It didn’t take long for a leader of wickedness to arise among the people and lead them away from God. This man was Nimrod, and he was directly opposed to the righteous Shem. I am now going to show you the roots of our modern civilization separated from God, by quoting at length from the suppressed book, Mystery of the Ages, by Herbert W. Armstrong. This section illustrates how this present evil world got its start at the Tower of Babel.

Origin of Cities

It was only the second generation after the Flood until a man named Nimrod organized people into cities. First was the tower of Babel and the city of Babylon. Then Nineveh and other cities, which became city-states.

God had set the bounds of the nations, intending geographical segregation of the races.

At this point I quote from Satan's Great Deception, a thesis by C. Paul Meredith (pages 14-16):

Everyone on earth after the Flood knew of God and why he had drowned the wicked. They feared to do evil--at first....Men lived...without cities and without laws, and all speaking one language....

This group, composed of the only people on the earth (for the others had all been destroyed by the great Flood) began migrating from the mountains of Ararat (Gen. 8:4) where the ark had landed: "And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there" (Gen. 11:1-2). These people, now known as Sumerians (Miller's Ancient History in Bible Light, page 51), pushing through the mountains of the east, came upon a prodigiously fertile plain built up by the deposits of the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers. This land of Shinar is now known as ancient Babylonia (J.H. Breasted"s Ancient Times, page 107). Here was a land that would produce all they desired in abundance....

These people, like Adam and Eve, disobeyed God and brought trouble upon themselves. The land was productive, but the wild animals were multiplying faster than the people due to the destruction of the former civilization by the great Flood. Because of their primitive weapons, there was a great danger to life and possessions (Ex. 23:28-29). What could be done about it?

Nimrod, the son of Cush, was a large, powerfully built black who developed into a great hunter. It was he who gathered the people together and organized them to fight the wild ferocious beasts. "He was a mighty hunter before the Lord" (Gen. 10:8-9). In other words, the name of Nimrod was known everywhere for his might. He emancipated the people of the earth after the Flood from their fear of the wild animals. His prestige grew. He became the leader in worldly affairs. He was ambitious.

First City--Babylon

There was a better way to protect the people from the wild animals that roamed the earth than by constantly fighting them. Nimrod built a city of houses and surrounded this city with a high wall and gathered the people therein. Thus the people were protected and Nimrod was able to rule over them. This arrangement was agreeable to the people for "They said...let us build us a city and...make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad" (Gen. 11:4).

The people not only protected themselves from the wild animals by building a walled city but also established authority of their own--"let us make us a name." This was to be a central place of mankind's authority--the necessity of their obedience to God was not going to be recognized! Nimrod was their leader. Also they built a tower whose top was to "reach unto heaven." With a tower this high they could do as they wished- -disobey God and still be safe from his punishment which had drowned the inhabitants of the earth before. This was mankind's first act of open rebellion against God after the Flood--they thought they had placed themselves out of God's reach if they wished to disobey him. They, like Satan, thought that if they could "ascend above the heights of the clouds," they could "be like the most High" (Isa. 14:14). Cush, Nimrod's father, also had much to do with the building of this tower and city (The Two Babylon’s, by Alexander Hislop, page 26).

These people were not only of one language, they were of three races or families--white, yellow and black. Just as God created varieties in many species of flowers and of animals--for example, many varieties and colors of roses-- for greater beauty, so God created the three races and colors of human skin. God intended to prevent racial intermarriages. But man has always wanted to violate God's laws, intentions and ways. They wanted to become one race or family through intermarriage of races. As mentioned before, God had set the bounds of the races, providing for geographical segregation, in peace and harmony but without discrimination. But the people wanted to be of one amalgamated people. One purpose for the tower of Babel was to unite them, and to prevent them from being scattered in racial geographical segregation.

They built the tower, "lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth" in geographical segregation (Gen. 11:4). But God looked upon their building of the tower and said, "Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do" (Gen. 11:6).

What has mankind "imagined to do"? By this twentieth century man has gone into outer space, flown to the moon and back, invented and produced the most intricate machines, computerized instruments, transplanted hearts, and even attempted to produce life from dead matter. The human mind's capacity for material accomplishment seems unlimited. But his problems are not material, but spiritual. And before them he is still helpless without God.

So God confounded their languages and "scattered them abroad...upon the face of all the earth" (Gen. 11:8).

Continuing from C. Paul Meredith's thesis, now out of print (pages 16-17, 25-29):

Then it was that Nimrod "began to be a mighty one" and a "mighty hunter before the Lord" [Gen. 10:8-9] in a ruling sense (the Hebrew word for "mighty" is gibbor, which means "tyrant," Strong's Concordance of the Bible). Nimrod became a tyrant over the people. He made the laws. Not only that but he was "mighty...before" the Eternal. (The Hebrew word paniym translated "before" here, should be translated "against"--Strong's Concordance of the Bible.) The Bible says Nimrod was against God!...

Nimrod kept growing in power but the inborn desire of the people to worship must be satisfied. Nimrod and his followers had turned against the true God. They wanted to glorify God in their own way! They "changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like...creeping things" (Romans 1:23)--the snake, and other things God had created. (They should have worshipped God in spirit and in truth and not through idols--John 4:24 and Ex. 20:4-5,) With the civil power he wielded, Nimrod set himself up as the priest of the things worshipped by the people, to obtain a still stronger hold on them and gradually put himself in place of the true God....

[But] Noah, the preacher of righteousness (II Pet. 2:5) did stand fast and gained a staunch supporter in his son Shem. While Nimrod was expanding his kingdom so rapidly there was opposition to Shem, the representative of Noah....Nimrod became the representative for the forces of evil in opposing Shem....

Shem, a very eloquent person, is said to have obtained the aid of a group of Egyptians who overcame Nimrod.

The death of Nimrod seemingly halted the counterfeit pagan worship which he started.

Semiramis...

[If] Nimrod had been a man of unbounded ambition, the ambition of ...Semiramis--the future "Queen of Heaven" (Jer. 7:18)--exceeded even his. Nimrod...had become the greatest and most powerful figure in the world. He was dead. She clearly saw that if she were to...have the great position and power...of the most powerful man on earth, something must be done to assure...her power.

Nimrod's kingdom, which consisted of most of the populated world of that time, had fallen to her. Much of Nimrod's power had come from his setting himself up as the human representative of the Sun-God. She must retain this world rule by any and all means. The religious control which had given so much power to [Nimrod] must be used by her also if she were to retain the maximum hold on her subjects....In life [Nimrod] had been honored as a hero; in death she will have him worshipped as a god....

Semiramis was actually the founder of much of the world's pagan religions, worshipping false gods. Even such so-called Christian observances as Christmas, New Year's and Easter emerged from the false religious system she developed. For details of this the reader is referred to The Two Babylons, by Alexander Hislop.

Today, the English language is fast becoming the chief international language. Men are entering mixed marriages, and starting to get back to one worldwide language.

Present Evil World Develops

The only survivors of the great Flood on earth composed the one family, that of Noah. It consisted of Noah, his wife, their three sons Shem, Ham and Japheth and their wives. The whole human population came from that one family.

The Bible speaks of three worlds--the world that then was being overflowed with water, this present evil world, and the world to come.

As the flood waters evaporated the whole earth consisted of the one family of Noah. But Shem, who was white and married to a white woman, started his own family. Ham, married to a black woman, had black children and began his own family. Japheth, married to a yellow woman, started his own family, which were of yellow extraction. The early history recorded in the Bible speaks of "families," rather than "races."

At the incident of the tower of Babel, God divided the speech of the people so that they were able to communicate each one only in his new and different language.

And so as time passed, the families grew, each family speaking its own language. God had intended geographical segregation, not integration of races.

Nimrod built a number of cities--Babylon, Erech, Accad, Calneh, Nineveh, etc. There developed city-states, each with its own local government. As time passed, nations arose with national governments. Among these were Babylon (which became known as Chaldea), Egypt, Assyria. The religion started by Semiramis was carried into the different nations in the language of each. Semiramis and Nimrod were also identified with the names Isis and Osiris in Egypt. Each nation had its own names for its gods. But the whole labyrinth of pagan religions developed from that which originated with Semiramis.

As the generations of humanity continued, this world's civilization developed. It started with a government system started by Nimrod, through a religious system that stemmed from Nimrod and Semiramis. The modern system of academic educations was started by Plato, taught by Socrates. Systems of commerce, industry, finance and banking developed--but none of these Satan- influenced and humanly devised systems originated with God. All laws were made by humans--either decrees by kings and despots, or human lawmaking groups, such as city councils, state legislatures, national congresses, parliaments, diets, or whatever. Social customs developed and all facets of civilization up to the chaotic present.

In such a world God called out a special nation of his own, not a favorite nation for special favors, but a nation chosen for a special purpose that nation failed to perform.

After the Flood profane history implies that Shem continued more or less in the knowledge and way of God. But no man really walked with God until Abraham. To Abraham, God made all the promises on which ultimate human salvation depends, as well as the material and economic prosperity that has come to the United States and the British.

Summation of Human Civilization

Humanity was created on earth for a glorious and wonderful purpose. God was reproducing himself. Stated another way, God's purpose was to create humanity to become supremely happy and joyful in peace and perfect comfort, to become productive, creative, joyfully successful with eternal life.

This meant the supreme perfect spiritual character of God-- perfect utopia. This purpose shall be accomplished.

But to accomplish it, humanity must make its own decision. The former cherub Lucifer had chosen a course of action and being that led in the diametrically opposite direction. The first man had to choose either to accept and live the way of God's purpose, or Satan's way of self-reliance in the opposite direction. The first man Adam chose to take to himself the knowledge of good and evil. He started his human family relying on self for good on the human level, mixed with evil, and relying on human self not only for knowledge of the way, but for the solution of all problems that might arise. He rejected spiritual knowledge from God and reliance on God for power to live the way of utopia.

Man built his world on self-sufficiency without God.

God set in motion a master plan for accomplishment of his purpose, consisting of a duration of seven thousand years. Satan was allowed to remain on earth's throne for the first six thousand years. God purposed that man must lean his lesson, and come voluntarily to accept God's way and character.

For nearly six thousand years mankind has been writing that lesson. But even at this late hour he has not yet learned it. He has not yet given up on his own self-centered way and come to accept God's way to his ultimate happiness. God is letting the law of cause and effect take full toll. Man's society, deceived and misled by Satan, has not even yet brought man to admit failure of his course of self- sufficiency.

Today man's world is reeling on its last legs. Wars, violence, destruction, terrorism engulf the entire world. Half the world exists in ignorance, illiteracy, poverty, living in filth and squalor. The developed half is sick with ill health, disease, mental stress, fear, frustration, wracked with crime, alcoholism, drug abuse, perverted and misused sex, broken homes, hopelessness in frustration.

Mankind is nearing the end of his rope. But even now, God will not intervene to save this defiant humanity from itself until man is finally brought to the point where if God delayed longer in intervention, man would annihilate himself. God will not intervene and usher in the next world under the kingdom of God until the remnant of mankind has been brought to fully realize human inability to solve problems or bring worldwide peace in happiness and joy. Man must be brought to realize his helplessness and futility without God.

At last the weapons of mass destruction have been invented and produced that can erase all life from this planet earth. In these last days of mankind's last gasping of breath, Jesus foretold how it would all end. After Jesus' gospel had been suppressed, replaced with a false gospel of men about a different Jesus, he said, "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end [of this world] come."

This gospel now has been preached into every nation. During its 50 years of proclamation, nuclear energy has developed with capacity for the first time in history to destroy every human alive on earth. Next, Jesus foretold the great tribulation--a time of trouble so great that, unless God does intervene, no human being would be saved alive. But, for the sake of his Church, God will intervene supernaturally before total destruction of humanity. Mankind will be brought to acknowledge human insufficiency without God. Immediately after, Christ will come in the clouds in supreme power and glory to unseat Satan, and start God's own new civilization toward utopia (Matt. 24:14, 31-41).

These are the very last days of Satan's evil world. God's utopian civilization will be started with the present generation.

[pp. 149-158]

As we have seen, as sin increased, so did the curses that came upon man. The earth is now groaning under the sins of its inhabitants, waiting for the return of Christ to free it from its chains of bondage.

But, after a long history of being separated totally from God, it was God’s time to begin His Master Plan of Salvation. He decided to start this Plan with one man, Abraham.

Abraham was called by God out of his world, and was told to go westward to a land that God would show him, which was to become the inheritance of his future generations. He left his home and family and livelihood on faith, believing that God would see to the needs of him and his family. God throughout history has often given His servants a similar test, seeing whether they loved God, or man and the world better.

The Bible simply states that when God called, Abraham left. Abraham was tested in many ways. Finally, he was asked to sacrifice his only son Isaac to see where his loyalty and heart really lay. After Abraham went through all the motions of the sacrifice, and was ready to plunge the knife into his only son’s heart, God stopped him, saying that now God knew where his heart was.

Even though the Plan was started, it was in its infancy. There were many more problems yet to be faced. Isaac faced them, and his son Jacob faced them. After Jacob strove all night wrestling with the eternal, God changed his name to Israel, the name God’s chosen nation was to bear. Israel was a physical nation given physical promises. God was about to prove through them that even a chosen people, specially and personally trained by God Himself, could not overcome sin without His Holy Spirit.

Israel had twelve sons, each of whom was a patriarch over one of the tribes of Israel. However, one of the tribes, Levi, was selected as a priestly tribe with special duties, so the Bible later shows that the land of Israel was still split twelve ways, except that the tribe of Joseph was split into Ephraim and Manassah.

The story of what happened is long and complicated, but suffice it to say that the tribe of Judah received the promise that of that tribe would arise the Messiah, and the tribe of Joseph was given the material promise by God of national greatness. [Please see the booklet, The United States and Britain in Prophecy, available in the Library section of our website, for the full explanation of this and other issues.] The younger son, Ephraim, was given the greater blessing (he was to be a “company of nations,” while his older brother, who should have had the greater blessing, was given the lessor and was promised to become a great single nation). Further, they were told that their descendants would be given the gates of their enemies, so that they would have the advantage and preeminence. Gen 48 explains this. The other tribes of Israel, including Judah, received their blessing in chapter 49.

By examining the details of these prophecies, along with others, and combining them with the facts of recent history, it is easy to see that the tribe of Ephraim is the great “company of nations” Israel spoke of and that Manassah became the single great nation. They could have received this blessing in ancient times, and they did to a certain extent, but the FULL BLESSING was withheld until modern history because of the national sins of Israel. Finally, at the end time, God was bound to fulfill this UNCONDITIONAL PROMISE to Abraham.

Israel went into captivity in the land of Egypt after a Pharaoh came to power who did not remember Joseph. The Egyptians enslaved the Israelites. They were put to harsh labor. finally, after four centuries of slavery, they cried to God, and He called His servant Moses to lead them out of bondage.

But they did not leave Egypt easily. The Egyptian economy had become so dependent on their slave labor, that Pharaoh felt compelled to keep them at any cost. God had to perform a series of astounding miracles to get His people out of Egypt.

In God’s plan, Egypt became a type of sin. Pharaoh became a type of Satan. God showed through this example just what a grip sin has on each of our lives. The last plague to fall on Egypt was when the death angel came to kill the firstborn of Egypt. The Israelites could escape this fate only by killing a lamb and putting the blood on the doorpost, staying in the house until sunrise.

This event occurred on Nisan 14, in the night part. The lamb was sacrificed right after sunset and the blood was put on the doorpost. This became the observance of the first Passover. The lamb symbolized the later sacrifice of Christ, who shed His blood for us so that our sins could be forgiven. If our sins were not forgiven, we would be in the power of sin, which would ultimately bring death, as symbolized by the death angel.

The next day, the Israelites spoiled the Egyptians. They then left that evening. There was no time to put leavening in the bread before they left, so it was flat. The leavening in the bread symbolized the puffing up that sin does to our lives. Thus, when Israel left Egypt, the type of sin, they became unleavened. Thus began the first Days of Unleavened Bread, which come each year to show us the part putting sin out of our lives means to the Christian. After we accept the sacrifice of Christ for our sins, symbolized by the lamb’s blood, we must then come out of sin, like the Israelites came out of Egypt, as symbolized by the Days of Unleavened Bread. These Days were kept by Christ and the early Christians because they point to this part of God’s plan of salvation, as each of the Holy Days points t a specific part of God’s plan of salvation.

the night the Israelites came out of Egypt was the beginning of that first Holy Day, and is called “The Night to Be Much Observed,” because it commemorates the coming out of Egypt.

The Israelites traveled to the Red Sea. But, like sin so often is in our lives, Pharaoh and his armies pursued the Israelites, thinking to drag them back to slavery, just as Satan tries to reenslave converted Christians into a sinful life.

By a miraculous miracle, God opened a way of escape through the Red Sea. This commemorated the consummation of coming out of sin, so it no doubt occurred on the Last Day of Unleavened Bread, now an annual Holy Day. The dramatic events of that day were marvelous indeed. As Pharaoh and his army, symbolizing Satan and his demons, bore down on the Israelites, Everything looked hopeless. The people were very much afraid. But then, miraculously, a path was opened for them as the Red Sea parted, and they walked through that sea. In I Cor. 10:1-2 it refers to the Israelites’ passing through the sea as a type of baptism. This shows that the Christian life starts at baptism, when we are released from slavery to sin. As long as Israel was on the Egyptian side of the sea, they were in the domain of sin. After seven day’s journey, symbolizing the putting of sin out of their lives, they then passed through the sea, symbolizing the cleansing waters of baptism (baptism is also a symbol of the grave; if the waters had fallen on the Israelites, they would have been killed, just as the Egyptians who followed them were). Once cleansed, they got out on the other shore of their new life. However, sin is not easily deterred. It wants to maintain its grip on our lives, no matter what. Sin tried to pursue them to the other side, symbolizing the start of the Christian life, but it could not. It was destroyed in the watery grave.

This is not to say that Christians do not sin, but sin has ceased to become a way of life, and the cleansing blood of Christ has removed the death penalty. We have become a new creature in Christ. The new life is as far removed from the old as one shore of the Red Sea was from the other once the waters had come crashing back down. It is an unbidgeable chasm.

The Israelites traveled to Mt. Sinai. They got there at the latest by the Day of Pentecost, or, as known in the Old Testament, the Feast of First Fruits. It was on this day that God came down the mountain to make His covenant with His chosen people. The Ten Commandments were given on that day to show men once more how to live God’s way of life after so many thousands of years of being separated from Him. This was the only nation on earth that He was dealing with at this time. It was to be an example of mankind throughout time of what human nature does to man, and how man, apart from God’s Spirit, can’t truly have a relationship of any depth or permanence with God, even when given His Law.

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