In the Beginning…
Where will I start? Why not at the beginning! After God created the earth and the animals, He created Adam, the first man, and Eve, to be his wife. He created them "in His image," and "after His likeness," with great authority. He created them as a spirit being that would live forever! He gave them a soul, which is their mind, will, emotions and affections, and he tied this soul very tightly with their spirit. God created a flesh and blood body for the spirit to exist in. So man is a spirit being, possessing a soul, and living in a flesh and blood body. God clothed Adam and Eve with His glory, bright as the sun!
When the human body dies, the spirit & soul slip right out and continues to exist, to think and reason and remember just as while in the body! This is the way God created man. When God created man (Adam and Eve) in the garden, they were clothed with the glory of God. There was a "heavenly connection" between each of them and God. They were part of God’s family on earth. They were given total authority over this planet. Then came the fall.Adam disobeyed God, and ate the forbidden fruit. Because of sin, they were stripped of that "heavenly connection” and they lost the authority over this planet. Actually, Satan, the deceiver, tricked them out of it, and he took over the authority of this planet.
Death came because of sin. God said, "on the day that you eat of it, you will die die." Why two (2) dies? Because the moment that they sinned, they died spiritually. That doesn’t mean they "ceased to exist", it means they ceased to be connected to the Father – no spiritual connection with heaven; no longer clothed with glory. Then later, they died physically because they had died spiritually.
Read how the Apostle Paul describes this:
Romans 5:
12 Wherefore, as by one man [Adam] sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:
13 (For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law.)
14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude [in the same way] of Adam’s transgression...
What is this saying? It is saying that every human inherited Adam’s sin. Why? Because they inherited his blood! The blood is always passed from the father to the children. Every human on this planet now has the same problem – we are all descendants of Adam, we all have our father’s blood, and we all still die. This one fact disqualifies any human being from living in heaven. Sin cannot enter heaven. Let me say that again, to be sure you understand: not one human is fit for heaven, for we are all descendants of Adam! Therefore, no one could be "good enough" to get into heaven by their life or living: NO ONE!! But God had a plan….
Notice that I said Satan took over the authority of this planet? Read 2 Corinthians 4:
3 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
4 In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
This verse is about how Satan tempted Jesus.
Luke 4:
5 And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of the inhabited earth in a moment of time.
6 And the devil said to Him, To You I will give all this authority and their glory, because to me it has been delivered, and to whomever I want I give it.
7 If You therefore worship before me, it shall all be Yours.
You see, if Satan didn’t have all these kingdoms to give, this wouldn’t be a real temptation! But notice that Satan said, "to me it has been delivered." Many people, when they see so much horror in this world, begin to reason that there can be no God, or He would stop it. But they don’t realize that God gave the authority of this planet to Adam, and Adam gave it over to the devil. It is the devil that brings starvation, wars, and other horrors.
From that time on, every human born on planet earth was born with an mark of sin from Adam, so much so that God says "conceived in sin." However, God does not hold babies responsible. They are innocent until they reach a certain age.
As soon as every human reached the age of accountability, sin comes to tempt. Since we all inherit Adams sin nature, we all sin when temptation comes, so the person’s spirit is cut off from God. Every spirit of every human that died on planet earth from Adam to Jesus was taken to hell.
What and where is hell? The Hebrew bible calls it "the place of departed spirits." It is in the center of the earth. Hell was divided into two areas. Paradise, for those that God chose to eventually go to heaven, and hell for all others. This was a terrible plight for humans who were created to live forever. Would all human spirits be condemned to the center of the earth forever?
Note to the reader: I know a man well that has been to hell three times. He died three times when he was 15, and went in his spirit all the way down to hell. But God in His great mercy pulled him back three times. On the third time he started screaming out repentance, and immediately went back up to his body! Here is some of his testimony:
"…the inner man rushed out of my body,
and left my body lying dead, eyes set
and flesh cold.
I went down, down, down until the lights
of the earth faded away. I don’t mean I
fainted – I don’t mean I was unconscious
– I have proof that I was actually dead.
My eyes were set, my heart had stopped
beating, and my pulse had ceased….
The farther down I went, the blacker it
became, until it was all blackness –
I could not have seen my hand if it had
been one inch in front of my eyes. And
the farther down I went, the hotter and
more stifling it became. Finally, far
below me, I could see the lights
flickering on the walls of the caverns
of the damned. The lights were caused
by the fires of hell. The giant,
white-crested orb of flame pulled me,
drawing me as a magnet draws metal to
itself. I did not want to go, but just
as metal jumps to the magnet, my spirit
was drawn to that place. I could not
take my eyes off of it. The heat beat
me in the face….
Jesus spoke of hell more than He spoke of heaven! It is a very real place!
God was not worried! He knew this would all happen before the earth was even created. He spoke the curse of sin into existence, so it would be up to Him to pay that penalty for sin. "He sent Himself" to die on the cross and shed His holy blood for our sins. He could be the perfect sacrifice because He was not a descendant of Adam! (He was born of a virgin – so God was His father!!!)
He was the first and only man born on the earth without Adam’s blood. How? His father was God! The Holy Spirit created the male part of the conception. That is how the virgin was pregnant. So he was man: he had a physical body and soul like every other human being, but he was also God! The spirit inside the body was not a human spirit – it was God! When He rose from the dead, He took all those in Paradise to heaven with Him. So the 4000-year curse of being trapped in the center of the earth was finally broken. You see, all humans alive on this planet right now can be and are divided into two groups: those that are born again (God’s kids) and those that are not born again (the devil’s kids).
Now let’s get back to the spiritual connection. Jesus came to undo everything that the devil had caused when Adam sinned. He restored the heavenly connection. From the moment that He rose to heaven, that heavenly connection was made available to every human on earth. Now, the moment a human believes in Jesus, and confesses Him as Lord, his dead spirit (no heavenly connection) is recreated into a totally new being connected to God and heaven.
In fact, the Holy Spirit lives in the human spirit as an "earnest" (down payment of something coming later). This is what we Christians call being "born again." All humans get onto earth by being born on it. All humans get to heaven by being "born again." Please keep in mind that I didn’t say this. Jesus, the only one to ever raise from the dead in 6000 years of earth’s history, said it.
John 3
3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
Now let’s talk a little more about authority. Satan took the authority for this planet away from Adam by deceit. He has run this planet for 6000 years. And there has been wars going on somewhere almost all of that time. But there is also a spiritual war going on. Satan wants to take as many humans to hell as he can, so that they can’t spend eternity in heaven with God. Hell is forever: there is no way out. That is Satan’s plan. How well is he doing with this plan? Literally billions of people have never even heard the name of Jesus. So he has done very well.
When Jesus rose from the dead, Satan no longer "held the keys" to the grave. He could no longer take the spirits of God’s kids to hell (that means born again people). Now, when one of God’s kids die, their spirit goes immediately to heaven! Where do other spirits go? Unfortunately, they still go to hell.
But God still owns this planet and everything in it. And He will regain total control and authority very soon. He gave Christians authority over their house, to defeat every attack of Satan that comes against them, plus great authority to pray for changes in the world. Christians broke down the iron curtain with prayer, and now Russia is open to the gospel. Very soon, most of the world will be open.
Very soon, the end of all things will come. It has been 6000 years (approximately) since Adam. God has promised that the next thousand years (the seventh thousand) will be with Jesus back on planet earth! His kingdom will be set up in Jerusalem. How soon wills this happen? All I can say is – very soon. I am sure it will be in your lifetime. Probably it will happen in the next 20 years. What happens to all the people on the earth when Jesus sets up His kingdom? That will be for another lesson. All I will say now, is that before Jesus comes, there will be a time (7 years) that God calls "great tribulation." It will be a time of literal hell on earth. If we think things are bad now, it will get far worse! You can escape this terrible time.
I suspect that this is different than anything you have ever been taught. Please keep in mind that what I have told you is what Jesus taught while on earth. He said He was God, He performed many miracles to prove He was God, then He rose from the dead. The people that lived and started (or caused to start) every other religion on earth died. They did not rise from the dead. Their bones are still in the grave, or dissolved by now. They are returning to dust. Jesus is alive and reigning in heaven! Remember, Jesus said "to enter into the kingdom of heaven, "you must be born again."
God said "I set before you life or death. Therefore, choose life!" God has set up this short lifespan that we live on this earth as a test for eternity. It is like a "true/false" exam; only two answers to pick from. But God in His great mercy tells us the correct answer: life! He has given every human a free will to choose: life or death; heaven of hell; God or Satan.
So how does one get born again? The apostle Paul tells us clearly:
Romans 10
9 That if you shalt confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart that God hath raised Jesus from the dead, you shall be saved.
10:10 For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
II Corinthians 5: 17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Please, Say this prayer, and mean it from your heart:
Heaven Father,
I see and believe Your Word that says that if I believe and confess, I will be saved. Father, I believe in my heart that You raised Jesus from the dead. I believe that Jesus is in heaven now! So now I confess that Jesus is my Lord. "Jesus, you are my Lord! I believe you rose from the dead!"
You said that if I do this, I would be saved, so I am now saved! I ask you now to forgive me all my sins, and create a new spirit inside me!
Thank you, Father, for saving me! Your spirit now lives within me! I am now a new creature in Christ! I now have the righteousness of Jesus!
Added 12/15/08
Why "Born again?" What does this mean? It means that God reaches down into our spirit, and recreates it into a totaly new species of man: NOT related to Adam and His sin! If we are born again, we are children of God, not of Adam! : -))
Your friend,
Lyle
Windows Live space 