Excerpt From Adam and Eve...and the present day deception
The Beginning
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
The earth was without form and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
Then God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. Genesis 1:1-3
The above scriptures is one of the most widely known and important in the Bible for it is here at the beginning that God establishes His relationship as creator to everything seen and unseen. If we allow this idea that God is creator to fully form in our minds we will begin to understand God’s nature, purposes and relationship to all of us.
If we think of examples of human creativity like an artist creating a great work of art, a businessman launching a great corporation or a statesman crafting a great society we immediately understand that their relationship to what they have created is not a passive one but is passionate, intimate and protective. It is a fundamental truth that any creator is in relationship with his creation from the very beginning.
God is no less a passionate, personal creator and can be truly understood only through the lens of the relationship that He has with His creation. God is so far beyond our capacity for intellectual comprehension that no amount of study of the nature of God or mental acquiescence to the existence of God will allow us to even begin to understand him. God can only begin to be known through the reality of a relationship and any attempt to understand God outside of relationship is false and empty exercise.
One reason many of us may fail to realize the full nature of this relationship expressed in scripture is that the English word used throughout the translations of the bible to describe this relationship is love. Words represent ideas and the biblical idea represented by the word love in English, and its equivalent in many other languages, has been all but eradicated in the minds of human beings. The idea behind the word love has been so twisted and watered down by inconsistent application and overuse that it is no longer adequate to convey the biblical idea intended. The correct idea represented by the word love is crucial to any understanding of God’s relationship with humanity as well as an understanding of the origin and nature of humanity itself.
Fortunately the bible is saturated with examples and principles that reveal the nature of God’s relationship with us so we will develop our biblical idea of love, not through the reading of a quoted definition of an abstract concept, but instead through our close reading of the creation story and the events and principles that occur there. Here we will see God’s love unfold concretely in creation and not rely on abstract definitions that could differ in shades of meaning from person to person.
Light
It can be difficult for twentieth first century readers to understand the creation story from the perspective given in the Genesis text. When most of us think of the earth we picture a beautiful blue and white orb floating in the dark background of space. This mental picture of the earth is from a completely modern perspective and did not exist throughout the vast majority of human history, and certainly not when Genesis was written. God instead reveals the creation story through humanity’s original perspective of living on the earth and viewing the environment as it unfolds all around us. It is as though these scriptures are being narrated to us by someone with an earthbound front row seat as they witness the preparation of the dwelling place for humanity. If we view the creation story from this perspective then the inspired depictions given to us by Moses becomes much easier to follow.
We are told in Genesis 1:1 that God created the heavens and the earth. The Hebrew word translated created here at the beginning is bara and indicates the creation of a completely new and unique thing and is only used three times in the creation narrative, when God created the heavens and the earth, when God created the sea creatures and when God created man. The other two Hebrew words used in the creation narrative is yatzar, “formed,” and asah, “made” both of these terms imply the forming of something from the pre- existing. The statement in Genesis 1:1 containing the word bara is a declaration that God has created something original and unique and not arising from or contingent upon something that came before.
These original and unique heavens certainly included the creation of physical light because the creation of the heavens included the stars and its other sources of light. This creation of the heavens also included the creation of the earth as part of the expansive universe but because the creation narrative is told from an earthbound perspective the earth is mentioned separately and the rest of the universe is spoken of as the heavenly expanse seen from the earth. Light was present in these heavens separate and distinct from the condition of darkness that would have been experienced on the face of the earth.
In Genesis 1:2 the focus changes exclusively to the earth and we are told that the earth was without form and void and darkness was over the face of the deep and God’s spirit hovered over the face of the waters. In Genesis 1:3 when God says, "Let there be light" He is not inventing physical light because light was created when He created the heavens and the earth in verse one. In verse three God is declaring, from an earthbound perspective, that light shall pierce the darkness that is described above in verse two. Light can now be seen on the once darkened world.
I read your book, "Adam and Eve and the Present Day Deception Part 1" and found much insight and wisdom there that I've never encountered in other teachings or commentaries. I'd be interested to know if and when Parts 2-4 will be forthcomig, and where I might be able to purchase more copies of Part 1. I would also be very interested to hear your comments on why Adam and Eve made the choices they did in the Garden that culminated in the Fall. Thank you!