U might care to add to Ur knowledge Base with what Scripture Teaches on the Subject??? Enjoy! John
DOCTRINE OF THE ORIGIN OF LIFE
ORIGIN OF LIFE
A. The Premise.
1. Introductory Principles of the Premise.
a. Distinction between biological and soul life is necessary to
understand the origin of human life.
b. No human life has ever existed in the womb. In the original
creation of mankind, God created the body, soul, and spirit of Adam, and
then created the woman out of his rib. After the fall of Adam and the
woman, the human race was in spiritual death, which means that Adam and the
woman were now dichotomous, having only a body and a soul.
c. Since human life was to be perpetuated after the fall (Gen
3:16) and since mankind was now dichotomous, the question arises as to how
mankind would be perpetuated in human history. For mankind to be
perpetuated in human history, two kinds of life must have an origin:
biological life, which is the basis for our human body, and soul life, which
is the basis for being a human being. So after the fall, there is no
creation of biological life. Biological life reproduces itself, perpetuates
itself, and becomes the house for the soul. After birth, biological life is
a house which the soul occupies. A house is not human life, only the people
who live in the house are human life. So it is with biological life; it is
simply a house for biological life.
d. Principles.
(1) Only God has the power of creation. He has never
delegated that power. Only God can create human life. Jesus Christ created
mankind.
(2) Man's ability is limited to reproduction and
perpetuation of biological life after the fall.
(3) God delegated the formation of biological life to
genetics in three categories: copulation, conception, and womb
transmission. Biological life perpetuates itself.
(4) Biological life begins with the combination of the sperm
and the ovum to form a zygote. The zygote makes possible the existence of
biological life, but the zygote does not become a human being.
(a) Biological life is not human life in the womb.
Only God can create human life, and He does so after biological life emerges
from the womb. While God delegated the reproduction of biological life to
genetics, He directly creates human life outside of the womb.
(b) At birth, biological life emerges from the womb©©a
body without a soul. At birth, God creates soul life and imputes that soul
life to biological life, thus forming a human being.
(c) There is no such thing as a viable fetus. The
sovereignty of God decides whether the fetus with biological life is going
to be occupied by soul life or not, because God, in His sovereignty, creates
soul life in every case.
(d) The sin nature is also transmitted in biological
life through the twenty©three male chromosomes that fertilize the female
ovum through copulation (or other means). The zygote contains the sin
nature in dormant form.
(5) God directly creates soul life at birth and imputes that
soul life to biological life, resulting in a human being. The direct
creation of soul life at birth and its imputation to biological life is the
origin of a human being after the fall.
e. Conclusion. All human life begins at birth and never before
birth. The life in the womb is not human life but biological life.
Biological life outside the womb plus soul life (created by God) is human
life. Only God can create human life, which He does at birth, and not
before. Many inequalities exist in the genetic formation of biological
life, but there are no inequalities in what God creates in the soul.
2. The Ten Point Premise.
a. The origin of human life is a creative act of God which occurs
at birth.
b. The origin of spiritual death is a judicial act of God which
also occurs at birth.
c. The combination of the creative and judicial acts of God at
birth necessitate the need for being born again.
d. Regeneration is provided for the entire human race through the
salvation work of Jesus Christ on the Cross with emphasis on unlimited
atonement. If God gave life at birth, then God must provide a chance at
salvation for everyone in order to be fair to all, and He is. For every
person that God gives soul life at birth, He must of necessity provide a
solution to their spiritual death. God is not God unless He provides the
opportunity for eternal salvation for everyone to whom He has given life.
Because God is just, He had to provide a solution to the fall of man, i.e.,
to man's spiritual death.
e. The Bible distinguishes between biological and soul life.
Biological life in the womb is always mother dependent, while soul life
outside the womb is always God dependent. The life that came from the
"dust" is biological life and the life that came from the "image of God" is
soul life. God created both of them and put them together before the fall
of man.
f. Biological life reproduces itself in the womb, but human life
is created instantly by God outside the womb.
g. Biological life in the womb is minus soul life. Therefore,
biological life in the womb is not human life. On the other hand,
biological life outside of the womb plus soul life is human life. The body
is the house, the person is the soul. Biological life is an empty house.
The soul is created at birth by God and imputed or entered into the house to
produce human life.
h. The genetically formed sin nature in the womb is dormant in
the womb until it emerges from the womb as a part of biological life. Then,
and only then, God imputes Adam's original sin to the sin nature, resulting
in spiritual death. Spiritual death necessitates regeneration.
i. Just as human life is God dependent at birth, so eternal life
is God dependent at the point of being born again through faith in Jesus
Christ.
j. Biological life is reproduced by homo sapiens; soul life and
human life is created by God. Anything that is reproduced by mankind is
filled with inequalities. These inequalities can only be reversed by what
God has provided.
3. Scriptures which contribute to the Premise. In all of these
passages, we have the Hebrew prepositional phrases MI RECHEM or MI BETEN
which indicate that we were created "outside of, away from, out from,
separated from the womb." The Hebrew preposition MIN can mean one of four
things: separated from; removed from; out from; or away from. In the LXX,
the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, we have the prepositional phrase
EK plus the ablative of separation from KOILIA, meaning the exact same
thing: "out from, separated from, away from, outside of the womb."
a. Job 33:4,"And the breath from God has created me [a human
being], and the breath of life [soul life] from the Almighty gives life
[human life] to me."
(1) The "breath of God" is life, the source of life. The
Hebrew is RUACH EL. The Hebrew word RUACH is equivalent to the Greek word
PNEUMA. It means breath, spirit, life, and lifestyle.
(2) The Hebrew word ASAH means to make, to manufacture
something out of something. After the fall of man, it is used with the
meaning to create, similar to the use of the Hebrew verb BARA, which means
to create something out of nothing.
(3) The Hebrew NESHAMAH means "the spark of life."
(4) This statement by Job is after the fall of man in the
Garden and states the principle of the origin of human life from God. Job
does not say that the copulation of a male and female gave him life. Human
life comes from God. Only God has the power to create human life.
b. Isa 44:2, "Thus says the Lord who created [ASAH] you, who
formed you outside [separated from] the womb."
(1) God formed you or gave you life out from the womb,
separated from the womb, outside the womb, away from the womb.
(2) The Hebrew prepositional phrase is MI BETEN and should
be translated "out from the womb."
c. Eccl 12:7, "Then the dust [biological life] will return to the
earth as it was, and the breath [RUACH, soul life] will return to God who
gave it." The comparison of Job 33:4 with Isa 44:2 and Eccl 12:7 shows that
there are two kinds of life: biological and soul life.
d. Isa 44:24,"Thus says the Lord [JEHOVAH], your redeemer, the
one who formed you outside the womb, `I, the Lord, am the maker of all
things, stretching out the heavens by Myself and spreading out the earth all
alone."
(1) God must provide salvation for everyone to whom He gives
soul life at birth. Therefore, He provides redemption for all.
(2) God didn't need help in providing you a soul out from
the womb. God creates all alone. Jesus Christ is the creator according to
Scripture.
e. Isa 49:5, "And now says the Lord who formed me outside the
womb to be His servant to bring Jacob back to Him, in order that Israel
might be gathered to Him (For I am honored in the sight of the Lord, And
My God is My strength)."
f. Isa 49:1, "Listen to me, O Islands [Greeks], and hear this you
peoples from afar [Gentiles], the Lord called me outside [separated from]
the womb; outside the body of my mother, He named me.
(1) Biological life minus soul life is not human life.
(2) Only God has the power to create human life, a power He
has not delegated.
(3) Man's ability is limited to the formation or creation of
biological life in the womb.
(4) Human life does not exist until God creates soul life
and imputes it to biological life after the fetus has left the womb.
g. Job 1:21, "Then he said, `Naked [biological life] I came
outside of my mother's womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord gave
[soul life at birth], and the Lord has taken away [biological life at
death]; blessed be the name of the Lord.'"
(1) The nakedness here refers to biological life.
(2) The soul life that the Lord gives at birth, He takes at
death, and that life goes on forever. Biological life is only temporary.
Soul life is permanent and enters either heaven or Hades, depending on our
attitude toward Christ.
h. Isa 57:16, "For I will not reprimand you forever [with
Israel], nor will I always be angry. For then the breath [soul life] will
grow faint before Me, and the spark of life [soul life] which I have created
[ASAH]."
(1) We know "life" refers to soul life because it is the
word RUACH, also known as breath, which God breathed into the nostrils of
Adam, and which He imputes to each of us at birth.
(2) RUACH or soul life growing faint is approximating
physical death. But the spark of life goes right on living after the
physical death of the body.
i. Ps 100:3a, "Know that the Lord [Jesus Christ], He is God; He
made us [our soul], and not we along with Him."
(1) "He made us" is a reference to the entire human race
after Adam and the woman. It refers to the origin of human life, the
creation of human life by God at birth. God makes each one of us by
creating soul life and imputing it to biological life at the point of birth.
(2) Jesus Christ is the creator of everything, Jn 1:3; Col
1:18; Heb 1:10.
j. Job 10:18-19, "Why then have you brought me out from the womb?
Would that I had died and no eye had seen me! I should have been as though
I had not been, having been conducted out from the womb to the tomb."
(1) Job is saying that as long as he was in the womb he was
not a human being. Now that he is out of the womb, he is a human being.
Job had no human life until God imputed it to his soul. Job is asking why
God ever let him become a human being.
(2) Verse nineteen explains the last phrase in verse
eighteen. Job describes the limits of life: out from the womb and to the
tomb.
(a) Human life exists out from the womb (birth) to the
tomb. The limits of human life are from birth to death. This is the sphere
in which the angelic conflict is being resolved. There is no resolution to
the angelic conflict inside the womb or inside the tomb. God gives human
life at birth, and takes it away at death. We were given life to resolve
the issue of the angelic conflict. The womb is not a part of the angelic
conflict. The womb does not contain human life.
(b) At birth, God creates soul life and imputes it to
biological life. At death, God removes soul life from biological life, and
for the believer, takes that soul life to heaven.
(c) If God does not give soul life at birth, there is
no soul life, there is no existence. This is why Job says, "As though I had
not existed." Job also recognizes in the last half of verse eighteen that
he would have been automatically saved if he had died as soon as God gave
him soul life.
k. Job 3:11, "Why did I not die at birth, separated from the womb
and then die?" This clearly says that you cannot die as a human being in
the womb, because no one is a human being in the womb. Job could not die
before birth, because he was not a human being prior to birth.
l. Job 1:21, "The Lord gave [soul life at birth], and the Lord
has taken it away [at death]; blessed be the name of the Lord." The life
that the Lord gives at birth, He takes at death, and that life goes on
forever. Biological life is only temporary. Soul life is permanent.
m. Jn 1:3, "All things came into being through Him. And apart
from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being."
4. The Premise Implications.
a. Two things happen at birth: God the Father creates soul life
and imputes the soul life to biological life and a human being is then
formed, and simultaneously the judicial imputation of Adam's original sin to
the old sin nature. These two actions of God demand a spiritual birth or
regeneration.
b. Spiritual death demands a divine solution, since mankind is
condemned in total separation from God and helplessness to do anything about
it. The solution from God is unlimited atonement. The volition of soul
life demands a non-meritorious decision regarding becoming born again. The
solution is faith alone in Christ alone.
c. The pre©salvation grace of God involves three things:
condemnation at birth, common grace, and efficacious grace. Salvation grace
is the work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross, being judged for our
sins. Postsalvation grace includes perception of doctrine, which is the
inculcation of metabolized doctrine. Regeneration is the salvation ministry
of God.
5. The Premise Summary.
a. Only God has the power to create human life, which emphasizes
the soul of mankind.
b. Man's ability is limited to reproduction of biological life.
(1) Biological life resides in the womb under mother
dependence.
(2) Biological life in the womb includes an inactive sin
nature, transmitted through the male sperm in copulation.
(3) Since there is no human life in the womb, the sin nature
is not activated until birth.
c. Two things occur at birth: the creation of human life (which
means God created soul life and imputed it to biological life) and spiritual
death.
(1) Spiritual death is condemnation from God, total
separation from God, and total helplessness to perform any human work by
which we could enter into relationship with God.
(2) The grace policy of God solves the problem of spiritual
death. The doctrine of regeneration dramatizes the salvation work of Christ
on the Cross.
(3) Just as God created soul life and imputed it to
biological life at birth, so God, in His grace, provides His very own
eternal life at the moment of faith in Christ. The Holy Spirit creates a
human spirit and God the Father imputes eternal life to it and the mechanics of
regeneration.
d. Principles.
(1) Soul life or human life is a gift from God at birth.
There is no soul life or human life in the womb. Biological life in the
womb is minus soul life, therefore, not human life.
(2) While biological life begins at conception, soul life
does not begin until after birth. At birth, biological life out from the
womb, and soul life, created by God, merge to form human life.
(3) The conflict between the genetically formed sin nature
and the human soul created by God does not exist until after birth. The
conflict between the sin nature and the soul begins after birth, when the
human beings comes into existence through the imputation of soul life to
biological life.
(4) Biological life minus soul life is not human life.
(5) Biological life begins at conception and human life
begins at birth when God creates it and imputes it to biological life
outside the womb.
(6) Biological life begins with mother dependence in the
womb and soul life begins with God dependence outside the womb.
(7) The sin nature is transmitted through the twenty-three
male chromosomes which fertilize the female ovum.
(8) The two imputations which occur at birth form human life
similar to Adam and the woman after their fall. Spiritual death came
through Adam, as noted by Rom 5:12ff, but Jesus Christ on the Cross provided
the solution to spiritual death. 1 Cor 15:22.
(9) As a result of spiritual death, Adam became dichotomous
(body and soul), so that all unregenerate mankind are described in 1 Cor
2:14 under the phrase "the soulish [PSUCHIKOS] man."
6. A Premise Review.
a. To imply that human life began at conception, not only ignores
the Scripture, but forces the erroneous conclusion that mankind creates life
through copulation.
b. Biological life reproduces itself; only God can create human
life.
c. Until the original sin of mankind, there was no biological
life in the womb. After the fall, biological life is perpetuated through
genetics, which occur in the womb. The uterus was part of original
creation, but there was no ovulation until after the fall.
d. The reproduction of biological life begins in copulation, when
two gametes form a zygote in the uterus, resulting in conception.
e. The zygote in the uterus is not human life, but the beginning
of the formation of biological life in the womb under mother dependence. To
say that there is human life at conception is one of the most ridiculous
things in the world. That would mean that everything in that zygote is
human life, including the placenta. This is ludicrous.
f. God creates human life at birth. God creates soul life and
imputes soul life to biological life outside the womb.
g. Therefore, only God has the power to create human life. God
is the author of human life, not copulation.
h. All human life begins at birth by creation. There is no
created life in the womb.
i. Biological life minus soul life is not human life.
j. Biological life plus soul life is human life.
7. Traditional Views of the Origin of the Soul.
a. There are four human views of the origin of the soul.
(1) Pre-existence of all souls was the view of the church
father Origen, and the Mormons.
(2) Metempsychosis or reincarnation.
(3) Traducianism, the soul is transmitted through biological
life. This view holds that both the body and soul are propagated by human
generation. This is the theory that God creates mediately rather than
immediately; hence, soul and body originate from the parents.
(4) Creationism. This is the view of Pelagius, Jerome, most
Roman Catholics, Charles Hodge, Berkhof, and other Reformed Theologians.
Berkhof and Hodge contend that the soul is immediately created by God.
Creationism regards the soul of each human being as directly created by God
and joined to the body either at conception or at birth.
b. The last two, creationism and traducianism, are the
traditional, theological positions held during the Church Age.
c. Traducianism.
(1) Traducianism is the view that was held by Tertullian, by
the Eastern Orthodox Church or Greek Orthodox Church, by many Lutherans, and
by two modern theologians, Shedd and Strong.
(2) Traducianism denies the creation of the soul by God. It
teaches that both material body and immaterial soul are the products of
natural human generation. This is because traducians cannot distinguish
between the material and immaterial. But anything material and visible is
biological. Soul life is immaterial and invisible.
(3) This is the theory that God creates both body and soul
mediately rather than immediately. Hence, traducians conclude that both
body and soul are derived from the parents. This is the arrogance that
people can create life.
(4) This theory contends that God created the original soul
of Adam and the woman out of nothing, but there are no fresh acts of
creation after that. Thereafter, God left propagation of the species to
mankind and his natural generation. This view indicates that soul life is
mother dependent.
(5) Hence, traducianism contends that both soul and body of
mankind are created by copulation in the womb. This is the view that there
is human life in the womb.
(a) In effect traducianism causes God to become the
author of the sin nature, saying that the sin nature is propagated when soul
life begins. They contend that soul life is mother dependent, being passed
on by the propagation of the species.
(b) Logically this would make God the author of sin,
since as the creator of soul life in Adam, He would create man with an old
sin nature in the soul. Yet God cannot sin, cannot solicit sin, and cannot
condone sin. This fact eliminates traducianism from any serious
consideration.
(6) Furthermore, traducianism cannot explain how Christ came
into the world as perfect humanity. Jesus Christ was born as Adam was
created, not only trichotomous having a body, soul, and spirit, but perfect
having no sin nature.
(7) Most Evangelicals and Fundamentalists, Lutherans, and
the Greek Orthodox all hold this view.
d. Creationism.
(1) Creationism was the view held by Augustine after he
examined both traditional views carefully. This view was also shared by
Jerome, one of the greatest scholars of the Roman Catholic Church, and by
Pelagius. It was also held by the famous theologian, Dr. Charles Hodge.
Today it is the view held by most reform theologians.
(2) Creationism contends that God creates the soul of every
human being. Hence, parents only propagate biological life or a body, but
God creates the soul in every case. In creationism, the soul is created
immediately by God and joined to the body at one of three possible points:
at conception, between conception and birth, and at birth. All
fundamentalists, evangelicals, reformists, and Catholics hold to the view
that the soul begins at conception, a legalistic or emotional viewpoint.
(3) The theologian Berkhof brings out the significance of
creationism by stating that the soul is created pure and united to a
depraved body. Both Hodge and Berkhof contend that the soul is immediately
created by God.
(4) In creationism, the Scripture distinguishes between the
origin of man's soul and the origin of his body, i.e., between soul life and
biological life. The key to creationism is the impossibility of the human
generation of the soul.
(5) Only creationism has Biblical support. The Bible
distinguishes between the origin of man's soul and the origin of man's body
in a number of Scriptures.
(a) Zech 12:1, "Thus declares the Lord who stretches
out the heavens and lays the foundation of the earth; Who forms the life of
man within him."
(b) Eccl 12:7, "Then the dust [biological life] will
return to the earth as it was, and the breath [soul life] will return to God
who gave it."
(c) Isa 42:5, "Thus says God the Lord who created the
heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and its vegetation,
who gives the spark of life to people on it [earth], and breath to those who
walk on it."
(d) Isa 57:16b, "And the soul life of man, I have
made."
8. The biblical view of the origin of the soul is modified
creationism.
a. The Biblical position regarding the origin of life is a
specific modification of creationism which emphasizes the two categories of
life which we possess.
(1) Biological life originates from our parents at
conception. It is material and visible.
(2) Soul life is created by God at birth and imputed to
biological life. It is immaterial and invisible. Soul life is the "breath
of God."
b. Because Adam and the woman were directly created by God, they
received soul life and biological life simultaneously. Only Adam and the
woman were given biological and soul life simultaneously because neither
were ever in a womb.
c. However, sin, the fall of mankind, and the subsequent
introduction of the sin nature into biological life meant that the two
categories of life could no longer be created simultaneously. Otherwise,
the sin nature would be assigned to the soul, an untenable position
Biblically.
d. Biological life is passed on in conception or female
pregnancy, and continues in two separate stages:
(1) The mother dependent stage occurs in the womb as a
blastocyst, embryo, and fetus.
(2) The stage from physical birth to physical death.
e. Before the second stage can exist, there must be soul life
provided by God at birth. A human being is not a human being until he has
both soul and biological life together. Again, biological life begins at
conception; soul life begins at birth. This is a modification of
creationism.
f. There is no soul life in the blastocyst, the embryo, or the
fetus.
g. Where soul life is provided by God at physical birth,
biological life continues to the point of physical death when soul life and
biological life separate. That is what is meant by the verse that says we
are "absent from the body and face to face with the Lord."
h. Therefore, the two šcategories of life are provided separately.
One is the means of the transmission of the sin nature, i.e., biological
life. The other is the means of transmitting soul life as a permanent
status quo.
i. When soul life departs from the body at physical death, it is
said to be present with the Lord. Soul life never dies at physical death.
j. We do not need biological life in heaven; we do need soul life
in heaven.
(1) As believers, we will have soul life forever, i.e., in
heaven after death, at the Judgment Seat of Christ in resurrection, and in
the eternal state. So we will always have soul life.
(2) When God imputes the spark of life to the format soul at
birth, it means that a fetus becomes a human being and he continues to be a
human being forever, whether he goes to heaven or to hell.
k. Soul life is indestructible. Biological life is always in the
process of deterioration.
l. Biological and soul life are distinguished in the original
creation of homo sapien on planet earth in Gen 2:7, "Jehovah Elohim formed
man out of the dust of the ground [biological life], and He breathed into
his nostrils the spark of life [soul life], and mankind became a soul having
life."
m. Biological and soul life are also distinguished at the point
of physical death in Eccl 12:7, "Then the dust [biological life] will return
to the earth as it was, and the breath [soul life] will return to God who
gave it." God gave you your soul life; it was not genetically štransmitted.
The format soul is genetically transmitted, but not the actual human soul
containing human life. God did not permit the human soul to be genetically
perpetuated.
n. Soul life is defined in Job 33:4, "And the breath of God has
created me [a human being], and the breath of life from the Almighty gives
life [human life] to me." The breath of God is soul life. Soul life is
created by God to produce human life "me."
o. While biological life begins at conception, soul life begins
at birth. Biological life is genetic and originates from copulation.
Hence, biological life begins with mother dependence. However, soul life
cannot exist in the state of mother dependence. This view explains all the
movement in the womb which is not soul life but biological life. It is the
respiration and nerve function of the mother that produces the motility of
the fetus.
p. Soul life cannot exist in a state of mother dependence.
Mother dependence is the status of biological life from conception to the
point of birth. Soul life makes you an individual, a person. There is no
soul life in the womb.
q. Biological life is the basis for the transmission of the sin
nature.
(1) Since the sin nature resides in the cell structure of
the body, it cannot affect the soul until soul life exists. In other words,
the conflict described in Rom 7 does not exist in the womb but outside the
womb.
(2) Hence, the sin nature is transmitted in the human body,
not in the soul. This explains why the sin nature is a part of biological
life, as noted in such passages as Rom 6:6, 7:14; Gal 5:16; Eph 2:3, where
the Greek word SARX or "flesh" is used.
r. So contrary to traducianism, God does not create the sin
nature. Such a thought is blasphemous and unthinkable.
s. We must learn to distinguish between biological life and its
origin, and soul life and its origin. The distinguishing point is birth.
Biological life exists from conception; soul life exists at birth. For the
fetus must graduate from mother dependence.
t. This view regards soul life as existing in two stages.
(1) Time, from birth to death.
(2) Eternity, from heaven after death to resurrection to the
eternal state.
u. Where soul life resides in eternity is determined by one's
attitude toward Jesus Christ, Jn 3:18,36.
v. For those who believe in Jesus Christ, soul life resides in a
resurrection body under the doctrine of eternal life. For those who reject
Jesus Christ as Savior, soul life resides forever in the lake of fire under
the doctrine of the second death, Rev 20:14©15.
w. In conclusion, biological life is temporary and related to
time. Soul life is permanent and indestructible, related to both time and
eternity.
9. The characteristics of the client nation are related to the origin
of the soul.
a. Introduction.
(1) As goes your life as a Christian, so goes your client
nation.
(2) The pivot of mature believers is the key to client
nation prosperity; it is blessing by association.
(3) We call the concept of blessing by association "the
pivot." The pivot is formed from postsalvation epistemological
rehabilitation, which means the inculcation of Bible doctrine. It does not
mean Christian activism, marching in the streets, or using violence against
someone seeking an abortion.
(4) It is the spiritual life, not the carnal life of the
believer in activism, that brings divine blessing by association.
(5) The first great pivot in history occurred in Ephesus and
resulted in the most startling changes that ever occurred in history. The
key is found in spiritual momentum through cognition and inculcation of
Bible doctrine. The result of Bible doctrine circulating in the stream of
consciousness through the filling of the Spirit is threefold.
(a) Spiritual self-esteem, which is cognitive self-confidence from Bible doctrine.
(b) Spiritual autonomy, which is cognitive independence
from Bible doctrine.
(c) Spiritual maturity, which is cognitive
invincibility from Bible doctrine.
(6) The result is both Christian service and the formation
of a pivot, which is the basis for blessing by association. All of this is
accomplished under the principle of separation of church and State or the
separation of religion and State.
(7) There is a premise application from the phrase "the
times of the Gentiles" found in Lk 21:20-24.
(a) The times of the Gentiles began officially with the
administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to the fifth Jewish client
nation, Judea, in August of 70 A.D. Gentile nations have functioned as
client nations to God since 70 A.D.
(b) A client nation to God is not a "Christian nation."
There never has been, nor will there ever be, such a thing as a Christian
nation. However, there is such a thing as Christian influence in a nation.
But Christian influence must line up with the laws of divine establishment
and with the function of the spiritual life and the execution of the protocol
plan of God.
b. The function of the laws of divine establishment with emphasis
on human freedom is the important factor in a client nation. God created
volition to be used under the principle of freedom.
c. Freedom means the right of self-determination plus the
sacredness of property and life. Freedom is the great equalizer in life,
because God created the volition of the soul. God has provided through His
laws the environment for self-determination. The right of self-determination belongs to every member of the human race.
d. However, freedom must have authority. Freedom without
authority is anarchy. Authority without freedom is tyranny. Hence, the
laws of divine establishment provide freedom.
e. There are two categories of freedom.
(1) Civil freedom is for human life and thereafter. Civil
freedom deals with self-determination regarding life in general. Self-etermination is the basis for evangelism. Civil freedom does not extend to
criminals, who are the enemies of freedom.
(2) Spiritual freedom is for residence, momentum, and
function inside your very own palace the operational type divine
dynasphere.
f. There are two enemies of freedom.
(1) Inside the client nation, criminals and traitors are the
enemies of freedom. Law enforcement and juris prudence protects against
domestic enemies.
(2) Outside the client nation, communist and socialist
nations are the enemies of freedom. The military establishment protects
against foreign enemies.
g. What is the role of the Christian in the client nation to God?
(1) Spiritual momentum through perception, metabolization,
and application of Bible doctrine is the first responsibility of the
believer to his country and to himself.
(2) Evangelism, which is the accurate presentation of the
gospel without any form of human coercion, begging, pleading, etc.
(3) Missionary modus operandi, which is the client nation
responsibility to positive volition, generally outside of the client nation.
(4) The function of Christian service, which includes:
(a) Christian service related to your spiritual gift.
(b) Christian service related to your priesthood.
(c) Christian service related to your ambassadorship.
(d) Christian service related to your invisible impact
for Christ.
(5) There are five categories of invisible impact for Christ
which are an application of the origin of life.
(a) Personal impact. This is blessing by association
to others.
(b) Historical impact. This is blessing by association
to the nation.
(c) International impact. This extends blessing by
association to third world countries through legitimate missionary activity.
(d) Angelic impact under the principle that angels are
watching believers in human history, 1 Cor 4:9; Eph 3:10; 1 Tim 5:21; 1 Pet
1:12.
(e) Heritage impact. This is blessing by association
with mature believers after his or her death. This often explains why the
wicked prosper.
h. There is Christian responsibility to the client nation under
two principles.
(1) Civil responsibility. This includes obeying the laws,
voting, military service, paying taxes. Rom 13:1©7.
(2) The execution of the protocol plan of God through
cognition and inculcation of Bible doctrine.
i. Pivotism Versus Activism.
(1) Pivotism is the function of the believer in spiritual
momentum. This includes: consistent perception of doctrine from the
correct and accurate teaching of the spiritual gift of pastor©teacher, the
execution of the protocol plan of God, and, as a result, the function of the
invisible hero.
(2) Activism is the function of Christian moral degeneracy,
trying to whitewash the devil's world.
(3) Activism is the believer functioning in self©righteous
arrogance and legalism, resulting in breaking the law and the practice of
civil disobedience.
(4) The believer is never commanded by Bible doctrine to
become involved in activist rallies, protest marches, violence, destruction
of property, or any form of civil disobedience.
(5) The believer is mandated to be filled with the Holy
Spirit, to learn Bible doctrine, to grow in grace, and to execute the will
and plan of God. None of these things are being fulfilled by Christian
activists.
(6) Christian activism is the quintessence of human
arrogance, dead works, and human good parlayed into evil.
(7) The right of privacy and self-determination belongs to
all persons in a client nation to God except criminals.
(8) Activism is a system of tyranny by the mob and the
rejection of the rights of others. Abortion is a private matter between a
patient and a doctor, not the irrational and emotional tyranny of Christian
legalism.
(9) Pivotism versus activism among believers.
(a) Pivotism is the function of the believer under the
filling of the Holy Spirit learning Bible doctrine in the privacy of his
priesthood.
(b) Activism is the function of the believer in the
practice of civil disobedience under the principle of demon influence.
(c) Pivotism is God giving grace to the humble
believer. Activism is God making war against the arrogant believer. The
arrogant believer is always irritated, and activism is the irritation of the
arrogant believer.
(d) Pivotism is the perception and utilization of the
problem solving devices of the protocol plan of God for the Church.
(e) Activism is the function of the arrogance complex
of sins plus the emotional complex of sins to take from God His divine
prerogative of justice and to remove from the State the protection of
privacy, property, rights, and freedom of self-determination of the
individual citizen.
(f) Pivotism is the application of Bible doctrine to
experience. Activism and civil disobedience is the application of the
doctrine of demons to experience by Christians.
(10) The freedom provided by a client nation to God should be
utilized by believers for the function of their spiritual heritage in the
execution of the protocol plan of God. Jesus Christ controls history and
does not need the help of any Christian. The power is in the word of God
not in the tyranny of the mob.
(11) We as Christians.
(a) We as Christians are individually the products of
our own decisions under the law of volitional responsibility. The increase
of Christian activism means that believers are sowing to the wind and
reaping the whirlwind under the law of volitional responsibility.
(b) We as Christians are members of a client nation to
God, and as such are the products of our own decisions collectively under
the law of volitional responsibility. If enough believers enter into
activism, it means the pivot of mature believers will shrink and the five
cycles of discipline will become operational.
(c) Our responsibility to the will of God does not
include civil disobedience, refusal to pay our income tax, Christian
activism, or joining any emotional and irrational mob to tyrannize those who
do not agree with us.
(d) Our responsibility to the will of God does include
the pivot principle of blessing by association. This requires spiritual
self©esteem, spiritual autonomy, spiritual maturity, blessing by association
as mature believers, and becoming invisible heroes.
(e) Our responsibility is compatible with all the
divine mandates to execute the will, plan, and purpose of God in the
dispensation of the Church. This requires maximum metabolized Bible
doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness through the filling of
the Holy Spirit.
j. There are many applications to the origin of life; arrogance
is one of them.
(1) Isa 2:11, "The proud look of man will be abased, And the
arrogance of man will be humbled, And the Lord alone will be exalted in that
day." The Lord is exalted, when He destroys a client nation, because His
plan goes on with or without the apostate believers in that nation.
(2) Isa 2:12, "For the Lord of the armies will have a day of
reckoning against everyone who is proud and lofty, and against everyone who
is arrogant, that they may be abased." The day of reckoning depends on the
percentage of believers in the pivot versus the number of believers not in
the pivot. The client nation is destroyed because believers fail to execute
the plan of God for those believers.
(3) Isa 2:22, "Stop making a role model out of people, whose
breath of life [NESHAMAH] is in his nostrils. For in what should he be
esteemed?"
(a) The literal Hebrew begins, "Cease you from man,"
which is an idiom. This idiom must be correctly translated, "Stop making a
role model out of people." In making a role model out of people, we assign
to them unrealistic things. This parallels the false doctrine of assigning
human life to the fetus. When you make a role model out of someone or
something, it is arrogance.
(b) God breathed the breath of [soul] life into the
nostrils of Adam. Mankind is always God dependent from birth.
(c) There is nothing in man that we should esteem.
People are not beautiful, strong, handsome, or healthy because they have
done anything. But arrogance thinks the person is responsible for their
genetic makeup. Genetics produces inequality; God creates equality.
10. The Biblical Emphasis on Birth.
a. While there can be no birth without conception (or its
equivalent©©artificial insemination), the Bible does mention conception, but
usually in a negative sense. Conception is never mentioned in connection
with life. It is always birth that gets the emphasis.
b. The Bible emphasizes the birth of mankind because the
experience of human life cannot exist until that human life is formed by God
at birth. In pregnancy there is only one human life©©the human life of the
mother.
c. There is neither soul function nor human experience inside the
womb of biological life. The mother has experiences, and often her
experiences like the quickening of her pulse as it passing through the
placenta causes reflex motility.
d. It is not surprising that the Bible emphasizes human
experience as existing between birth and death, not conception and death.
For example, if a person is born a bastard, the Bible does not make an issue
out of his conception.
(1) Job 5:7, "For a man is born for trouble, as sparks fly
upward." The man is not conceived but born for trouble.
(2) Job 38:21, "You know, for you were born then, And the
number of your days is great!"
(3) Ps 58:3, "The wicked are estranged outside the womb [ME
RECHEM]; Those who speak lies go astray outside the womb [MI BETEN]." There
is no wickedness inside the womb. Notice that this verse indicates that
birth is the activation of the sin nature. You cannot be wicked or sin
(speak lies) until you are born. Hence, a human being does not become a
human being until after birth.
(4) Eccl 3:2, "There is a time to be born, and a time to
die; A time to plant, and a time to uproot what is planted." Notice, it
does not say there is a time to be conceived.
(5) Isa 9:6, "For a child will be born to us, a son will be
given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name
will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of
Peace." The emphasis is on the birth of the humanity of Christ. The
hypostatic union began at birth, not at conception.
(6) Job 14:1, "Mankind, who is born from woman, is few of
days and full of trouble."
(7) Job 15:14, "What is man, that he could be pure, Or one
born of woman, that he could be righteous?"
(8) Matt 11:11, "Truly, I say to you, among those born of
women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who
is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he."
11. The Problem of Trichotomy and Dichotomy.
a. Dichotomy indicates that soul life has only two factors: a
body and a soul, and is therefore capable of being related to biological
life and to soul life.
b. While the transmission of the sin nature occurs through
biological life, the imputation of soul life at birth has three results.
(1) Physical life is subject to spiritual death.
(2) Spiritual death is subject to the second death. That
means total depravity, separation from God, and total helplessness to
establish a relationship with God.
(3) Homo sapien becomes dichotomous.
c. When God the Father actually creates the spark of life and
imputes it to the format soul, that's when human life begins. Biological
life is then combined with soul life and the three results above apply.
d. 1 Cor 2:14 introduces the subject of soul life in the state of
dichotomy. The Greek word PSUCHIKOS means the soulish or psychological man.
It refers to human life in the state of dichotomy. It is a reference to the
unbeliever who is dichotomous, having a body and a soul. "The soulish
person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God. For they are
foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are examined
[discerned] by the Spirit."
(1) The dichotomous status of mankind from birth is real
spiritual death. It is caused by the imputation of Adam's original sin to
the genetically-formed old sin nature. Therefore, the unbeliever has soul
life, but he does not have spiritual life.
(2) Without a human spirit, the PNEUMA, the unbeliever
cannot understand spiritual phenomena, which is Bible doctrine.
(3) Because the unbeliever has soul life only, he cannot
understand spiritual things. It takes spiritual life to understand
spiritual phenomena. Rom 8:16, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our
[human] spirit that we are the children of God."
e. The dichotomous unbeliever is subject to the following
categories of death: spiritual death at birth, physical death, cosmic death
(life in the cosmic system), and the second death (which is eternity is the
Lake of Fire).
f. Jude 19 describes the unbeliever in terms of his dichotomous
status quo. "These [dichotomous unbelievers] are the ones who cause
divisions; they are soulish, having no human spirit."
g. Once we believe in Christ we have a third life added, which is
spiritual life. When the dichotomous unbeliever believes in Christ, he
becomes trichotomous, having a body, soul and spirit. Tit 3:5, "He saved
us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but
according to His mercy [grace policy] by means of the cleansing of
regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit."
(1) "Cleansing" or LUTRON refers to the removal of past sins
at the moment we believe in Christ. Whatever failures we had before
accepting Christ as Savior, they are completely and totally blotted out at
salvation.
(2) The "renewing of the Holy Spirit" means the Holy Spirit
creates a human spirit, which makes the believer trichotomous. Added to his
body (biological life) and his soul (soul life) is now a human spirit for
spiritual life.
(3) Eternal life is imputed to that human spirit as a part
of regeneration at salvation.
(4) Just as soul life was imputed to the soul at physical
birth, eternal life is imputed to the human spirit at the moment we believe
in Jesus Christ.
h. Now the believer has three categories of life.
(1) Biological life is related to the body.
(2) Soul life is related to the soul.
(3) Spiritual life is related to the human spirit.
(a) 1 Pet 1:23, "For you have been born again, not from
the seed which is perishable [biological life], but imperishable [soul life
and eternal life] through the living and abiding Word of God."
(b) 1 Thes 5:23, "Now may the God of peace Himself
sanctify you entirely. And may your spirit, soul, and body be preserved
blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
(c) Philemon 25, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be
with your human spirit."
i. The trichotomous believer is also subject to certain
categories of death.
(1) Physical death.
(2) Positional death. The moment we believe in Christ we
are entered into union with Christ. Positional death means we are
identified with Christ in His death and burial.
(3) Cosmic death. We enter into the cosmic system when we
sin. We get out of the cosmic system and back into the divine dynasphere
when we rebound.
(4) Production death is the production of dead works, all of
which is human good and will be burned at the Judgment Seat of Christ, Heb
6:1; 1 Cor 3:12.
B. The Original Creation of Mankind.
1. In the original creation, God created two categories of life.
a. He created biological life once out of the dust of the ground.
God created biological life one time and put into biological life a system
for reproduction and perpetuation of itself. He did this because He knew
man would sin and that the sinfulness of man must be related to biological
life.
b. He created soul life and human life in the case of every
individual person. There are two Hebrew phrases or words for the soul life
which God creates: RUACH EL, the breath of God; and NESHAMAH, the breath of
life.
2. In the original creation, God created biological life and inserted
into biological life its own system of reproduction.
a. The system of reproduction in biological life begins at
conception with two gametes, each having twenty-three chromosomes. When the
two are combined, you have a zygote.
b. God created biological life first in order to prepare a house
for the soul. Then God created soul life and imputed it to biological life.
The order of creation is the same before and after the fall of mankind.
After the fall, biological life is perpetuated and prepared during nine
months before birth, at which time God creates soul life and imputes it to
biological life, producing human life.
3. While biological life reproduces itself through conception and is
perpetuated through genetics in the womb, soul life is created in every case
by God at birth.
a. God did not insert any system of reproduction or perpetuation
for soul life. In the case of every human being in history, God actually
creates human life by creating soul life and then imputing it to biological
life. Simultaneously, God judicially imputes Adam's original sin to the old
sin nature.
b. The existence of every human being in history is a matter of
the sovereignty of God in the creation of soul life and in the giving (or
breathing) of soul life into biological life, which is the formation of
human life.
c. In the original creation of Adam, God did not create soul life
and impute it to biological life until the body was completed to the point
of being able to function independently on the earth. Body and soul are
joined by God at birth; body and soul are separated by God at physical
death.
d. After the fall, the reproduction of biological life becomes
very important because God is not the author of sin. God did not make the
decision for Adam to sin. Therefore, God put into biological life its own
reproductive system. Man has the responsibility for the formation of the
sin nature.
4. Original Creation as Found in the Old Testament.
a. Gen 1:26©27 is simply a general statement of the creation of
the man and the woman; it is not the mechanics. It is the principle. In
Gen 2:7, we have the mechanics of the creation of the man and the woman.
The passage says, "Then God said, `Let Us create [ASAH] mankind in Our
shadow image, according to Our pattern; and let them rule over the fish of
the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the
earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.' So God
created [BARA] mankind in His own image, in the image of God He created
[BARA] him; male [ZAKAR] and female [NEQABAH] He created them."
(1) There are four words used for creation in the original
creation: ASAH, BARA, JATSAR (used in Jer 1:5 for the creation of Adam's
body), and BANAH (used for the creation of the woman's body).
(a) BARA connotes initiation of creation and carries
the implication that the creation of mankind occurred at a time when no
previous homo sapiens existed. It is an act of creation in terms of
instantaneous new species creation. It means to create something out of
nothing.
(b) ASAH means to accomplish. As a creative word, it
connotes the act of creation in terms of the creative process. Hence, it is
used to describe various creative actions of God. For example, it is used
for the creation of the body, soul, and spirit.
(2) The Hebrew prepositional phrase BE TSELEM means "in our
own shadow image." It means an invisible image. It does not mean an exact
image, that is arrogance. Our soul, volition, thought is invisible but very
real. This phrase refers to the creation of our soul life. Then we have
another prepositional phrase KA DEMUTH, which means "according to Our
pattern."
(a) TSELEM refers to self-consciousness, virtue
reasoning power, and self-determination. I am; I ought; I will.
(b) DEMUTH refers to the self-consciousness, the
mentality, the emotion, the volition, and the conscience in the stream of
consciousness of the soul.
(3) In Gen 1:26, the plan is stated. The plan is to create
man in order to resolve the angelic conflict. In Gen 1:27, the principle of
the plan is stated. This is the pre-fall statement of the plan.
(4) In Gen 1:27 the verb for creation is BARA creation out
of nothing. Both male and female are mentioned because male and female have
to do with biological life. We have one creation of biological life out of
the chemicals (dust) of the ground. From then on, biological life is
reproduced and perpetuated in the womb.
(5) Principles.
(a) Only God can create life. God created biological
life once. God creates soul life and human life in the case of every human
being.
(b) The Bible distinguishes between biological life and
soul life in the original creation, but in that distinction, God created
both.
(c) After the fall, the woman ovulated and this was the
beginning of biological life reproducing itself.
(d) God created the reproductive and genetic system for
the perpetuation of biological life in the womb. In original creation, no
womb was involved.
b. There is a post-fall statement in Isa 43:7, "Everyone who is
called in My name, even for My glory I have created [BARA] him; I have
molded [JATSAR] him, besides that I have created [ASAH] him."
(1) "I have created [BARA]" refers to original creation of
the body and soul before the all.
(2) "I have molded him [JATSAR]" refers to biological life.
This refers to the original creation of biological life only.
(3) "Besides that I have created [ASAH] him" refers to
original creation of the soul life before the fall.
c. The mechanics of the original creation are stated in Gen 2:7,
"Then the Lord God formed [JATSAR] mankind of dust out from the ground, and
He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living
soul [human being]." There are three stages of the original creation of
man: the creation of biological life, the creation of soul life, and the
creation of human life. All three were created before the fall of man.
(1) The creation of biological life.
(a) Jesus Christ is the creator of all things,
including mankind. The Hebrew verb JATSAR is used for the one time creation
of biological life. God created man out of the chemicals of the dust of the
ground. This occurred before the fall of man. Compare Eccl 12:7, where
dust refers to biological life after the fall of man. "Then the dust
[biological life] will return to the earth as it was, and the breath [soul
life] will return to God who gave it."
(b) God created biological life only once in human
history and inserted into biological life its own system of reproduction and
perpetuation. God did not create and impute soul life to Adam until Adam's
body was completed first and able to function independently on the earth.
Why did God create biological life only once?
i. God knew that Adam and the woman would sin in
the Garden. He knew that the sin nature would then be perpetuated in
biological life through the twenty©three male chromosomes. God created
biological life with the ability to reproduce and perpetuate itself in the
womb.
ii. By creating biological life once, when man was
perfect, God is not the author of sin. Biological life is not related to
the womb in original creation. It is not related to the womb until after
the fall. Original sin is the reason why biological life is created only
once before the fall.
(c) God is perfect. Perfect God can only create
perfect human beings, and the original human beings were perfect the
biological life was perfect, the soul life was perfect. Man was not created
innocent but perfect. God cannot create a sin nature. Adam's original sin
is the source of the sin nature, spiritual death, and condemnation. It is
impossible for God to create anything that is sinful.
(d) Therefore, God creates a perfect biological life
which is self-perpetuating and becomes sinful apart from God. After the
fall, biological life with its accompanying old sin nature perpetuates
itself in the womb through copulation and conception. The fall of Adam
resulted in the sin nature being transmitted through biological life in the
twenty-three chromosomes of Adam. Both man and woman have a sin nature, but
it is transmitted through the male because Adam was not deceived in his sin.
(2) Then we have the creation of soul life in the second
phrase, "He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life." What does God
breathe into the nostrils of man? The Hebrew noun is NESHAMAH in the
construct form, followed by the plural word CHAJIM, meaning "the breath of
lives."
(a) There are two theological views of the meaning of
CHAJIM and both are correct.
i. Recent Hebrew scholars have discovered that the
plural is regarded as an abstract idea of life, meaning the state of being
alive. Under this concept, we would translate "endless life" in the
singular, and the meaning of the plural here refers to the fact that the
soul is perpetual life; it never dies. The soul life that God creates is
endless life and never dies. Biological life dies and goes back into the
chemicals of the dust. The soul is endless life and goes on forever either
in heaven for believers or in Torments in Hades under the earth until the
Great White Throne judgment and then in the Lake of Fire for unbelievers.
ii. The other concept of CHAJIM is that God
breathed into the nostrils of man both the soul and the human spiritual,
since before the fall, man was trichotomous. After the fall, we are born
dichotomous. Jude 19 describes the dichotomous man, "These are the ones who
cause divisions, soulish [PSUCHIKOS], not having a human spirit."
(b) While there is only one creative act of biological
life, there are an infinite number of creative acts of soul life and one
creative act for every person who is born. The soul was the basis for
Adam's relationship with the woman and with everything he ruled in the
animal creation.
(c) God does not create soul life and impute it to
biological life until the body is capable of independent function. Its
capability of function is its emergence from the womb. Before the fall, God
created two full grown perfect adult bodies capable of independent function.
(3) Finally, we have the creation of human life by God
imputing soul life to human life, "and the man became a living soul (human
being)." This is the same pattern after the fall of mankind. Biological
life must precede the creation and imputation of soul life, and the creation
and imputation of soul life must precede the creation of human life. At the
point of human birth, the sin nature, which was dormant in the womb, now
becomes active. Man became NEPHESH a living soul or a human being.
(4) Before the fall, God created biological life, soul life,
and human life, mankind was perfect, mankind was trichotomous, and there was
no soul life or human life in the womb. After the fall, God creates soul
life and human life, mankind is spiritually dead, mankind is dichotomous,
and there is was no soul life or human life in the womb.
d. Gen 2:22, "Then the Lord God built [BANAH] the rib [TSELAH]
which He had taken outside of the man into a woman [ISHAH], and brought her
to the man." God used the Hebrew word NEQABAH (female) in Gen 1:27 for the
creation of the woman's biological life, but in Gen 2:22, He uses ISHAH for
the creation of her human life. The man's biological life is called ZAKAR
(male) while his human life is called ADAM (mankind).
5. The Origin of Human Life as Found in the New Testament.
a. Lk 1:13-15, "But the angel said to him, "Do not be afraid,
Zacharias, because your petition has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth
will bear you a son, and you will call his name John. And He will be to you
joy and gladness, and many will rejoice over him at his birth. For he will
be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will not ever drink wine or
liquor; furthermore, he will be filled with the Holy Spirit, yet in the
future outside the womb."
(1) The Greek preposition EPI plus the locative of time from
GENESIS means "at his birth." The future passive indicative of the verb
PIMPLEMI means "to be filled." Next, we have the adverb of future time ETI,
meaning "yet, in the future." Then we have the preposition EK plus the
ablative of separation from the noun KOILIA, meaning "outside the womb,
separated from the womb, away from the womb."
(2) The whole point of the last phrase of Lk 1:15 is that
John the Baptist would be filled with the Holy Spirit outside of the womb,
after birth, and after John believed in Christ as savior. No biological
life in the womb is ever filled with the Spirit. John the Baptist received
the judicial imputation of Adam's original sin to the sin nature at birth,
just like everyone else (except our Lord); therefore, there was no filling
of the Spirit in the womb©©no unbeliever is ever filled with the Spirit. He
did not receive the filling of the Spirit until after he believed in Christ
for salvation.
b. Lk 1:26-44, "Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent
from God to a city in Galilee, called Nazareth, to a virgin engaged to a man
whose name was Joseph, from the dynasty of David; and the virgin's name was
Mary. And so having entered face to face with her, he said, `Greetings,
object of maximum grace blessing! The Lord is with you.' But she was
disturbed by this statement, and kept pondering as to what kind of
salutation this might be. And the angel said to her, `Do not fear, Mary;
for you have found grace with the Lord. Behold, you will receive conception
in your womb, and you will give birth to a son, and you shall name Him
Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and
the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; and He will reign
over the house of Jacob forever; and His kingdom will have no end.' Then
Mary said to the angel, `How shall this happen, since I am a virgin?' And
the angel answered and said to her, `The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and
the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for this reason the
person who has been born holy shall be called the Son of God. And behold,
even your relative Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age; and
this is the sixth month of pregnancy to her who was called barren. Because
nothing will be impossible with God.' Then Mary said, `Behold, the servant
of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word.' Then the angel
departed from her. Now at this time Mary rose up and went with haste to the
hill country, to a city of Judah, and entered the house of Zacharias and
greeted Elizabeth. And it came about in this way that when Elizabeth heard
Mary's greeting, the fetus moved in her womb; and Elizabeth was filled with
the Holy Spirit." Lk 1:44, "For behold, when the sound of your greeting
reached my ears, the fetus moved in my womb because of my extreme
happiness."
(1) Our Lord is not to receive His name Jesus as a human
being until He has emerged from the womb. Our Lord is not called the Son of
God until after He has been born holy free from the sin nature and
imputation of Adam's original sin. Yet He carried our sins in His own body
on the Cross.
(2) In Lk 1:41, we have a subject made up of two words: the
nominative neuter singular from the genetic definite article and the Greek
noun BREPHOS. This word is used primarily for the embryo or fetus in the
womb. Occasionally, it is used for the baby feeding on the mother's breast.
Then we have the aorist active indicative of the verb SKIRTAO, which was
used in classical Greek for cattle moving around in a restless manner; it
means to move. It is used here for movement of biological life in the womb.
The prepositional phrase is the Greek preposition EN plus the locative of
place from the noun KOILIA plus the possessive genitive pronoun AUTOS means
"in her womb." The aorist passive indicative from PLETHO means to be
filled. Elizabeth received the filling of the Spirit; she did nothing for
it.
(a) Apparently Mary surprised Elizabeth and Elizabeth
was very happy to see her. Both of these events were cause for emotional
excitement in Elizabeth and the quickening of her pulse rate.
(b) The filling of the Holy Spirit followed in sequence
and did not necessarily in any way contribute to the quickening of
Elizabeth's pulse and the rapid circulation of her blood.
(c) The quickening of the pulse and the rapid
circulation of blood caused reflex motility in the fetus in Elizabeth's
womb.
(d) The function or movement of biological life
includes three states of activity which are often mistaken for human life.
i. Bodily motility. This is muscular contraction
caused by mechanical, electrical, and chemical stimuli.
ii. Neurogenic function. This is when the nerve
cells begin to function, resulting in muscular response to nerve
stimulation.
iii. Reflex motility. This is the functional state
of the sensory nerves and their endings plus the function of intermediary
and motor nerve cells. Reflect motility is a part of biological life in the
womb.
(3) In Lk 1:44, Elizabeth explains why the fetus moved in
her womb. The Greek prepositional phrase is EN plus the instrumental
singular of cause from AGALLIASIS, and means "because of my extreme
happiness." The movement of the fetus had nothing to do with the filling of
the Spirit. The filling of the Spirit was necessary for Elizabeth's speech
in Lk 1:42-43.
(4) Mother Dependence in the Womb.
(a) The placenta is a vascular structure by which the
fetus is nourished in the womb. The mother's blood contains both oxygen and
nutritional chemical substances, such as carbohydrates, nitrogenous foods,
and mineral salts. These are passed through capillaries known as villi or
placenta roots.
(b) The mother's blood must pass nourishment to the
embryo/fetus and carry off waste products through the villi of the placenta.
Hormones produced by emotional excitement are also passed through the
placenta to the embryo/fetus. This explains how, if she becomes excited,
the fetus will respond with reflex motility. The mother becomes excited,
blood flow increases, and the fetus moves as a part of reflex motility.
(c) The placenta is a major factor in mother dependence
of biological life in three categories. The placenta is the organ of
nutrition, respiration, and excretion. The fetus is depending upon the
mother for its nutrition and respiration. There is no independent
respiration.
(d) Until God provides soul life at birth, the fetus
resides in the womb under mother dependence as biological life. Biological
life in the womb operates through neuromuscular mechanisms, the source of
reflex motility. Biological life is mother dependent. Soul life is God
dependent.
6. Summary.
a. There are three categories of life related to mankind:
biological life, soul life, and human life.
(1) Biological life by itself is not human life.
(2) Soul life by itself at birth is not human life, though
once it is imputed it becomes human life forever. Biological life ends at
death. Soul life lasts forever.
(3) Soul life must be combined with biological life to
become human life. Soul life is a gift from God. The combining of these
two lives is an act of creation.
(4) God breathed soul life into biological life to create
the human being. Soul life is often portrayed by personal pronouns. God
creates soul life at birth and brings it together with biological life to
produce human life. Biological life was created only once in history by
God. It was created with a reproductive and self-perpetuating system.
(5) God gave soul life to biological life to create a human
being. There is no human life until birth. There is no human life in the
womb. Until God merges soul life with biological life, there is no human
being. The human being results from the imputation of soul life to
biological life outside the womb. The merging of the invisible but right
soul life with biological life outside of the womb is a creative act of God.
b. Before the fall, there are three acts of creation related to
mankind and two acts of creation after the fall of man. The imputation of
soul life to biological life to create a human being requires the immanence,
omnipotence, and omnipresence of God. All of us are the objects of divine
creation.
c. The Bible distinguishes between biological life and soul life.
(1) This is true from the standpoint of the Hebrew
vocabulary.
(2) This is true from direct statements in Gen 2:7; Job
33:4.
d. The Hebrew proper names ADAM and ISHAH are used to indicate
two people with human life. Human life is also described in terms of
personal pronouns in the Hebrew and the Greek, Isa 49:1. You are not a
human being without a name, Mt 1:21.
e. Inferences From the Conclusion.
(1) To imply that human life begins at conception is to
imply that mankind creates human life through copulation. The implication
is that copulation creates human life.
(2) The idea that sexual intercourse can create human life
is the quintessence of human arrogance and emotional irrationality.
(3) Human beings inherit genes from biological life but
mankind does not create human life through copulation.
(4) The only life inherited from our parents is biological.
(5) The sin nature is also inherited from our human father.
(6) We do not inherit human life through sexual intercourse.
God is the author of human life, not mankind.
(7) There has never been a time in all of human history when
human life existed in the womb. At birth, the omnipotence of God creates
soul life and imputes that soul life to biological life; and secondly, the
justice of God imputes Adam's original sin to the genetically formed sin
nature, which is the origin of spiritual death in the human race and the
necessity for the salvation work of Christ on the Cross. Spiritual death at
physical birth necessitates a spiritual birth at the point of faith in Jesus
Christ.
f. The omnipotence of God is the power to create; the omniscience
of God is the wisdom to create; and the omnipresence of God is the
availability to create soul life and human life outside the womb on the
occasion of every birth in the human race. You are the beneficiary of two
creative acts of God: the creation of soul life and the imputation of that
soul life to biological life. This is a creative act because it is the work
of the omnipotence, omniscience, and the omnipresence of God.
(1) God is eternal and omnipresent; therefore, God's life is
from within Himself, having neither beginning or end.
(2) God is present at all times and in all spaces creating
and sustaining both time and space.
(3) God created space; therefore, space is subject to God.
(4) If space and time are defined in terms of boundaries,
God would exceed all of them to the point of infinity.
(5) All of this adds up to the fact of creation after the
fall of mankind.
(6) An unknown number of births occur every second, every
minute, every hour, etc. In every case of birth, God as omnipresent,
immanent, and transcendent, is present to perform two creative acts.
C. The Origin of Life After the Original Sin of Adam and the Woman.
1. Hebrew Vocabulary.
a. BARA is the Hebrew verb emphasizing the newness of the object
created by God; it emphasizes that no previous creation or existence in that
category was operational; it means creation by divine act, creation out of
nothing.
b. ASAH is the Hebrew verb used for the process of creation or a
creative process. Sometimes the creative process follows original creation.
When God is the subject, it is usually translated in the English "made," but
should be translated "created." When God is the subject, this verb
emphasizes His sovereignty, omnipresence, immanence, and transcendence.
Furthermore, ASAH has a creative connotation related to human history.
(1) Under the doctrine of omnipresence, both immanence and
transcendence, God fills space and time with creative acts.
(2) Immanence means that God indwells all of space and the
whole of God is in every place.
(3) Transcendence means that God is prior to and exalted
above the universe and all that is in it. Transcendence emphasizes that the
creator is infinitely superior to the creature. The omniscience of God in
divine fiat plus the omnipresence of God (present at all times in all
places) plus the omnipotence of God creates and sustains time and space, and
created you at birth.
c. BARA and ASAH are used interchangeably for creative acts of
God with a slightly different emphasis.
d. JATSAR has the connotation of creation but seems to be related
to the shape of things, people, animals, earth, mountains, idols by analogy.
Hence, this verb is used in the creative function of God in relationship to
biological life where mankind is concerned. It is the verb for creation in
relation to visible things and how they are shaped. The word means to
fashion, to form. When God is the subject, it refers to divine creative
activity. This word talks about how creation appears.
(1) God is the potter who forms both man and animals from
the dust of the ground, Gen 2:7,19.
(2) In Isa 64:8, mankind is said to be the work of His
hands, "But now, O Lord, You are our Father, We are the clay, and You are
the potter; And all of us are the work of Your hands." JATSAR is not an
exact synonym of BARA and ASAH; for it generally refers to the formation of
biological life or the mode of creation.
(3) It is used for the creation of the eye, Ps 94:9.
(4) It is used for the creation and shape of the universe.
(a) Isa 45:18, "For thus says the Lord, who created
[BARA] the heavens (He is the God who formed [JATSAR] the earth and made
[ASAH] it, He established it and did not create it in vain, but formed it to
be inhabited, `I am the Lord, and there is no one else.'"
(b) Jer 33:2, "Thus says the Lord who created [ASAH]
it, the Lord who formed [JATSAR] it to establish it, the Lord is His name."
(c) Amos 4:13, "For behold, He who forms [JATSAR] the
mountains, even He who creates [BARA] the wind, also declares to man what
are His thoughts. He who makes [ASAH] dawn into darkness and treads on the
high places of the earth, the Lord God of the armies is His name."
(5) It is used for the creation of Israel as the new racial
species and the first client nation to God.
(a) Isa 44:2,"Thus says the Lord who created [ASAH]
you and formed [JATSAR] you outside the womb [MI BETEN], who will help you,
`Do not fear, O Jacob My servant; And you Jeshurun whom I have chosen.'"
This is an analogy between the formation of Israel and the creation of
mankind.
(b) Isa 44:24, "Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and
the one who formed [JATSAR] you outside the womb, `I, the Lord, am the
creator of all things, stretching out the heavens by Myself, and spreading
out the earth all alone.'"
(6) It is used for the condemnation of idolatry in Jer
10:15-16, "They are worthless, a work of mockery; In the time of their
punishment they [the idols] will perish. The portion of Jacob is not like
these; For the Creator [qal active participle of JATSAR] of all is He, And
Israel is the tribe of His inheritance; The Lord of the armies is His name."
e. BANAH is the word found in Gen 2:22 for the creation of the
woman's biological life.
2. The Format Soul.
a. The format soul is that part of biological life which provides
the sphere and function of soul life once it is imputed at birth. Along
with this biological life in the uterus is the development of a format soul.
b. While size, sex, and other physical characteristics are
developed in biological life, so brain cells are being developed in the
format soul. This distinction between the format soul and the soul with
human life is the answer to traducianism. There are brain cells in the
format soul, but there is no thought until soul life is created by God and
imputed to biological life at birth. Even then, it takes awhile for thought
to develop.
c. While the fetus with biological life is moving toward
neuromuscular function, a brain and the format soul is formed in the cranium
area.
d. The format soul develops along with other parts of the fetus
and possesses the inherent factor of mentality derived from the genes of
both parents. Remember that a gene is that part of the chromosome concerned
with the transmission and development of heredity. Mentality genes in both
parents are numerous with X-number of dominant and recessive genes which
contribute to the mentality of the format soul.
e. Soul life and the format soul are two entirely different
things. One belongs to biological life and the format soul, and one belongs to
human life and soul life. The format soul does not imply the presence of soul
life or human life in the womb. Therefore, the format soul as a part of
biological life must be distinguished from soul life and from human life.
f. Biological life develops a brain but never a thought; for all
thinking accompanies human life, which after birth becomes synonymous with
soul life.
g. The format soul is a part of biological life and not human
life until after human life is created at birth. Since the format soul
belongs to biological life in the womb, it is formed where the brain is
formed.
h. Like everything else in biological life, the format soul is
developed from one cell the zygote, and therefore, the format soul is a
part of biological life and must be distinguished from soul life, which is
created by God at birth and imputed to the fetus outside the womb to form a
human being. The function of the soul does not begin until God imputes the
spark of life to the format soul. At the point of the emergence of the
fetus from the uterus and the creation of soul life by God, the immaterial
part of mankind begins to function.
i. The format soul includes mentality genes, brain cells,
neurons, brain hemispheres, and precortal frontal lobes.
(1) The adult brain weighs three pounds, yet handles the
information of a thousand super computers.
(2) The fundamental unit in the brain is the neuron or nerve
cell. The brain contains about ten billion neurons. Neurons form in the
womb at the rate of about twenty-five thousand per minute. Neurons are
connected by branching processes called dendrites. Each neuron is in a
dendrite contact with about ten thousand other neurons. The total number of
neurological interconnections are roughly one©hundred trillion.
(3) When the format soul is activated by the imputation of
soul life to biological life, the format brain is superior to any computer
that will ever be produced.
j. There is no thinking in the format soul because there is no
soul life or human life in the womb. Thinking is a part of human life and
there is no thinking in the womb. The brain does not become active until
soul life is imputed to it outside the womb. There is no self-determination, volition, decision making, emotion, or self-consciousness in
the womb. There are no sins of arrogance or emotion in the womb. The sin
nature is dormant. There can be no temptation, lust, or solicitation until
the sin nature is activated at birth.
k. Illustration: The Transmission of Genius.
(1) People often wonder if genius is inherited. Once out of
a thousand times or more, mentality genes combine to form a genius.
Therefore, genius is inherited.
(2) Genius is transmitted through biological life in the
format soul. This means that genius cannot be cultivated. Genius results
from recessive genes occasionally brought together under accidental
conditions.
(3) I.Q. can be improved up to twenty percent, but genius is
inherited as part of the format soul. In relationship to biological life,
human I.Q. is transmitted in the format soul, and begins to function the
imputation of human life.
(4) The odds of a genius being formed is equivalent to the
odds of flipping ten coins, all of which read "heads." This only occurs
once out of every thousand times or more.
(5) Of course, human I.Q. is not a factor in learning Bible
doctrine. Spiritual I.Q. is the only issue.
(a) Spiritual I.Q. is the teaching ministry of God the
Holy Spirit to the believer. A believer could be a genius but a loser
because he does not use spiritual I.Q. Everything he comprehends quickly as
a genius never goes beyond gnosis, and so is of no spiritual benefit to him
whatsoever.
(b) Under postsalvation epistemological rehabilitation,
spiritual I.Q. functions rather than human I.Q. Therefore, a believer who
is a genius has no advantage over the person with average or low
intelligence. A genius does not learn any more than a person with normal or
subnormal intelligence.
(c) Therefore, intelligence inherited in biological
life has no significance in the perception of Bible doctrine. Bible
doctrine is only perceived through spiritual I.Q., a grace I.Q., dependent
upon your residence, function, and momentum inside the divine dynasphere.
(d) Grace I.Q. is formed for the perception,
metabolization, and application of doctrine.
(e) Therefore, in relationship to soul life, our
spiritual I.Q. is transmitted through the ministry of God the Holy Spirit as
we are consistent in our positive volition toward doctrine.
(f) Spiritual I.Q. does not exist until regeneration.
That does not occur until the moment we personally believe in Jesus Christ.
(6) Mentality genes in biological life can combine to form
other things, such as the mental deficiency of phenylketonuria. People are
born with phenylketone in the urea, which infects their blood, which in
turns infects their brain cells. They do not have a normal mentality.
3. The History of The Endless Soul of The Believer.
a. The description of soul life at original creation is given in
Gen 2:7.
b. 2 Cor 5:6-8, "Therefore, we are always confident, and knowing
that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord for we
walk by faith, not by sight and being confident, we also prefer rather to
be absent from the body and to be at home face-to-face with the Lord."
(1) We moved into the body at birth, when soul life was
imputed to biological life. The result of this imputation of soul life is
that we are at home in the body. The fact we are at home in the body means
that we are absent from the Lord.
(2) "We walk by faith, not by sight" means, if you do not
have maximum doctrine circulating in your stream of consciousness, then what
you see is evaluated on human viewpoint and garbage in your subconscious.
These are mutually exclusive prepositional phrases. If Bible doctrine is
not your number one priority, then you will walk by sight. The difference
between faith and sight is whether or not you are metabolizing doctrine.
(3) The Greek word THARREO means a confidence which results
in a courage from Bible doctrine; it means to have confidence from maximum
metabolized doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness, a
confidence which produces courage. Doctrinal courage is the greatest
courage in the human race.
(4) There are two infinitives, each of which represent a
status of soul life.
(a) The Greek infinitive EKDEMEO means to be absent.
The constative aorist tense gathers up into one entirety however long it
takes for the soul to leave the body in physical death. To be absent from
the body is the real you, the soul, leaving the body.
i. Everyone is hanging on to life for dear life,
as if somehow, life on this earth was the ultimate, when it is not. But it
is a wonderful experience, if you have Bible doctrine resident in your soul.
The real you is your soul, not your body.
ii. You do not neglect your body, nor should you
get carried away with taking care of your body. How you think is much more
important than anything else in life. Do not let your body run your soul;
your soul should run your body, that is a part of Christian life.
iii. A person who is more concerned about their
physical life than their spiritual life is always concerned about where they
body goes after death, when it does not matter.
(b) The Greek infinitive ENDEMEO used with the Greek
prepositional phrase PROS plus the accusative of relationship from the noun
KURIOS means to be present face to face with the Lord. After death, we are
said to be "face to face with the Lord. Apparently, the soul also has a
face as well as the body and we have an interim body while waiting for our
resurrection body. Therefore, we know from this verse that the soul has an
identification mark. The soul in the body is invisible but real, but the
soul in eternity is visible and real.
(5) At physical death, soul life plus the human spirit leave
the body and enter into the presence of the Lord. The decision as to when
this happens is a matter of the sovereignty of God. The same is true when
God decides to give soul life to the human body to produce human life.
Biological life disintegrates at physical life and soul life goes on
forever. What God creates in soul life at birth makes up for the
inequalities produced by biological life.
c. Eccl 12:7, "Then the dust [biological life] will return to the
earth as it was, and the breath [soul life] will return to God who gave it."
(1) God gives soul life to biological life at birth to
produce human life. God takes soul life from biological life at death. The
endless life of the soul goes on in the eternal state in a resurrection
body. For the unbeliever, soul life goes on forever in Hades and the Lake
of Fire.
(2) At regeneration, God the Father creates a human spirit
and gives His very own eternal life to that human spirit. This life also
goes on forever.
d. Heb 10:4-10 is the unique life of our Lord Jesus Christ. God
the Father imputed soul life to perfect biological life, uncontaminated by
the twenty-three male chromosomes containing the sin nature. Jesus Christ
was born as Adam was created without a sin nature. "For it is impossible
for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when He
comes into the world, He says, `You do not desire sacrifice and offering,
but You have prepared for Me a body; You have not been propitiated by burnt
offerings and animal sacrifices for sin.' So at that time I said, `Behold,
I have arrived (In a scroll of a book it stands written of Me) to accomplish
Your will, O God.' After saying the above, I said, `Sacrifices and
offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not
desired, nor have You been propitiated by them' (which sacrifices are
offered on the basis of the Law), then He said, `Behold, I have arrived to
execute Your will.' He takes away the first [Mosaic Law] in order to
establish the second [the New Covenant to Israel]. By which will we have
been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for
all."
(1) Our Lord is called the last Adam, 1 Cor 15:45, "So it
also stands written, `The first man, Adam, became a living soul.' The last
Adam became a life©giving spirit."
(2) 1 Cor 15:22, "For just as in Adam all die, even so in
Christ shall all be made alive."
e. Job 3:11, "Why did I not die outside the womb, Go outside the
womb and die?"
(1) Soul life is never destroyed after it is created by God.
(2) The Hebrew prepositional phrase is ME RECHEM and should
be translated "outside the womb." The second prepositional phrase is MI
BETEN and should be translated "outside the womb." The word GAWA is the
poetic word for death. Note that both human life at birth and human life at
death are said to be outside the womb. This means there is no human life
inside the womb.
(a) Job has converted the outside pressure of adversity
into the inside pressure of stress in the soul. It is impossible to
entertain stress in the soul without becoming involved in the sins of the
arrogance and emotional complex. Under stress in the soul, metabolized
doctrine in Job's stream of consciousness is suppressed, and some of it is
already forgotten.
(b) Job is full of arrogance and that arrogance is
manifest in self-pity. In expressing his self-pity, he is still doctrinally
oriented to the origin of life outside the womb. Both prepositional
phrases say the same thing. While Job could not use the problem solving
devices under stress in the soul, he could make a self-pity complaint
accurately using two points of doctrine. Job knew from doctrine that human
life begins outside the womb. Job is saying, "Why could I not just go
outside the womb, be born, then die, skip all these problems in life, and go
directly to heaven?"
(c) The ensoulment of biological life at birth is the
origin of human life. Once the soul is imputed to biological life, soul
life and human life are now synonymous. The false doctrine is the
ensoulment of the zygote in the womb.
(3) The last phrase is very significant. You have to be a
human being to die, and you have to go outside the womb to become a human
being. The human being does not exist until outside the womb; Job is very
emphatic about this point. At birth, God creates the soul and imputes that
soul to biological life outside the womb, so that human life comes into
existence. The ensoulment of biological life at birth is the origin of the
human being. There is life in the womb biological life, but not human
life. Human life can only exist outside the womb. There is no human life
or physical death in the womb. Miscarriage and abortion is not human death.
f. The boundaries of human life are given in two similar
passages, Job 10:18-19, "Why then have You caused me to go outside the womb?
Would that I had died and no eye had seen me! I should have been as though
I had not been, transported from womb to tomb."
(1) This is the inconsistency and irrationality of
converting adversity into stress in the soul (failure to use the problem
solving devices). In this verse, Job blames God for creating him. When the
believer converts arrogant self-pity and emotional irrationality to stress
in the soul, he has failed to use the problem solving devices. Therefore,
the believer blames God for giving him life at birth.
(2) The hiphil stem of the Hebrew verb JATSA means to be
caused to go out. The biological life is caused to leave the womb when it
is ready to receive soul life.
(3) In his stress of soul and arrogant self-pity, Job still
remembers the doctrine of the origin of life and the boundaries of life on
earth birth to death. Job is inconsistent; he is divorced from reality on
the one hand, and on the other hand, he is applying certain doctrines
accurately. Failure means residual arrogance, self-pity, irrationality from
emotional revolt of the soul.
(4) Self-centered arrogance and extreme self-pity express
the desire to die. In suicide, arrogance and emotion superimpose human
volition over divine sovereignty. The sovereignty of God made the decision
to create the soul and impute it to biological life emerging from the womb.
Furthermore, the sovereignty of God decides the time, place, and manner of
our death. Arrogance is critical of the sovereignty of God.
(5) The boundaries of human life on earth are separated from
the womb until we enter the tomb©©from birth to death.
(a) Biological life is shaped in the womb before the
soul is created at birth. Therefore, biological life in the womb is not
human life. The ensoulment of biological life at birth is the origin of the
human being.
(b) At birth, God created a soul in each case and
imputed that soul to biological life, which is the origin of human life.
After the human being is created by God at birth, soul life and human life
become synonymous terms under the concept of the immortality of the human
soul.
(c) The soul, as the real but invisible creation of God
at birth, is immortal, while biological life as corporeal matter undergoes
change, declines, and disintegrates at physical death.
(6) The zygote principle.
(a) The zygote cannot determine that a human being will
come into existence; for the zygote in the womb is not a union of immortal
soul and corporeal matter.
(b) The theory of ensoulment of the zygote at
conception contradicts the teaching of the Word of God.
(c) Zygotic molecules in the womb are not human life;
therefore, the zygote by itself is not a human being.
(d) Whether the zygote eventuates in a human being or
not is determined by forces outside the zygote and its informational
capacity, and these forces include: the sovereignty of God, the omniscience
of God, the omnipotence of God, and the omnipresence of God.
(7) The rejected theory of life in the womb.
(a) This theory is rejected because it is the
empirical assumption that genetic information found in the zygote will
convert biological life into human life. The Bible does not teach this.
(b) This theory ignores the biblical statements
regarding the creative action of God at birth. In fact, it also ignores the
doctrine that biological life has no soul function in the womb, such as
making decisions, thinking, self©consciousness, or emotional function, or
the fact that the sin nature is transmitted genetically in a dormant state
in the womb.
(c) The zygote's informational capacity is not
sufficient to create or develop a soul. Therefore, a zygote is not a human
being or a developing human being. The zygote cannot exceed the boundaries
related to the development of biological life in the womb. Therefore, there
is no human generation in the womb.
g. Isaiah directly states in two passages that God created him
outside of his mother's womb.
(1) Isa 49:1, "Listen to Me, O islands, And pay attention,
you peoples from afar. The Lord called Me outside the womb; Separated from
the body of My mother He made mention of My name." Isaiah makes a very
strong statement that he was not created by God ("made mention of My name is
another way of saying God created Isaiah's human life) until Isaiah was
outside of his mother's womb.
(2) Isa 49:5, "And now the Lord, who formed Me outside the
womb [MI BETEN] to be His servant, says to bring Jacob back to Him, in order
that Israel might be gathered to Him (For I am honored in the sight of the
Lord, And My God is My strength)."
h. Job 1:21, "And he said, `Naked [biological life] I came
separated from my mother's womb, and naked I shall return there. The Lord
gave [human life] and the Lord has taken away [human life from biological
life]. Blessed be the name of the Lord.'"
i. Job 33:4, "The breath of God has created me, and the breath of
life from the Almighty gives life to me." Soul life is created by God at
birth outside the womb and imputed to biological life to produce human life.
j. Jn 3:1©7, "Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named
Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Him by night, and said to
Him, `Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher who has come from God; for no
one can do these miracles that You do unless God is with him.' Jesus
answered and said to him, `Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.' Nicodemus said to Him, `How can a
man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's
womb and be born, can he?' Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you,
unless one is born out from water [physical birth] and from the Spirit
[spiritual birth], he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is
born from the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is
[human] spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, "You must be born
again."'"
(1) Nicodemus wrongly assumes that miracles are the sign of
a great spiritual person. Miracles were designed only to establish the
importance of the teaching of the Word of God, and in the case of Jesus
Christ as the Messiah, to establish His Messiahship to the unbeliever.
Nicodemus was an unbeliever who was not impressed with the doctrine already
taught by our Lord but was impressed by His miracles.
(2) Our Lord gets right to the issue when He states that
physical birth is not the basis for eternal salvation. Jesus points out
that you must be born again. Being born again means the unbeliever has
faith alone in Christ alone for salvation. Then God the Holy Spirit takes
that faith and makes it effective for salvation, and at the same time, God
the Holy Spirit creates a human spirit and God the Father imputes His very
own eternal life to that human spirit.
(3) Nicodemus' two questions indicate that he was an
unbeliever. At birth, the sovereignty of God makes the decision to create
soul life and impute that soul life to biological life to produce human
life. At salvation, the sovereignty of God again makes the decision to
create the human spirit and impute His eternal life to that human spirit.
We make no decision regarding the time of our birth or death, but we do
decide to believe or not believe in Christ.
(4) Mk 8:36-37, "For what does it profit a person to gain
the whole world, and to be punished in his soul life? For what shall a man
give in exchange for his soul?" The constative aorist passive infinitive of
ZEMIOO means to be punished. The unbeliever receives punishment at the last
judgment. The infinitive of conceived result assumes this is a consequence
of rejecting Christ as savior.
(5) The Greek prepositional phrase in Jn 3:5 indicates that
we are born "out from water." Water represents physical birth. Water
represents the breaking of the membranes that surround the fetus in the
uterus, thus releasing amniotic fluid. (It has nothing to do with baptism.)
The reference to the spiritual birth is the second birth. In order to be
saved, a person must be born physically and then born spiritually.
Condemnation must precede salvation. The first birth brings condemnation;
the second birth brings salvation. You have to be born before you can
become a human being. You have to be born again before you can have eternal
life.
(6) Until God creates soul life at birth with its volition
and imputes it to biological life, there is no self©determination. Physical
birth results in soul life and spiritual death. Regeneration results in
eternal life and no condemnation or judgment. Jesus did not say, "You must
be conceived again."
(7) The phrase "That which is born from the flesh is flesh"
refers to the merging of soul life with biological life which has emerged
from the womb. "That which is born from the Spirit is spirit" refers to God
the Holy Spirit creating the human spirit for the imputation of eternal life
by God the Father.
(8) The Greek particle DEI is translated "must" and is
derived from the verb DEO in the present active imperative. It is a
particle of binding responsibility. It denotes compulsion caused by the
necessity of something (here, to believe in Christ). The aorist passive
infinitive of GENNAO means to be born. Birth, not conception, is
emphasized. The adverb of manner from ANOTHEN means "again." If it were
the adverb of place it would mean "from above."
(a) Compare Paul's use in Tit 3:5 of the word
PALIGEENESIA, which means to be born again. "He saved us, not on the basis
of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but on the basis of His mercy,
by the bath that brings about regeneration, even the renewal from the Holy
Spirit." This bath that brings about regeneration is explained in 1 Pet
1:23 as the "living and abiding word of God."
(b) Peter confirms the true meaning of ANOTHEN in a
verb in 1 Pet 1:3, 23, when he uses ANAGENNAO, which means to be born again.
"Blessed be the God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who on the
basis of His great mercy has regenerated us to a living hope through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead....for you have been born again
not from a seed which is perishable [biological life] but the imperishable,
through the living and abiding word of God." When we are born, we become
human beings by imputation. When we are born again, we have eternal life by
imputation the imputation of God's eternal life to the human spirit.
(9) In physical birth, the human race is condemned. In
spiritual birth, the human race is given eternal life. Hence, the
importance of being born again.
(10) There is a new creation at the point of physical birth
and a new creation at the point of the spiritual birth. "Therefore, if
anyone is in Christ his is a new creation." The new creation is the
creation of the human spirit by the Holy Spirit. The human spirit is the
basis for our compatibility with God and the basis for understanding
spiritual phenomena.
(a) 1 Thes 5:23, "Now may the God of peace Himself
sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved
complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." "Sanctify
you entirely" means compatibility. God makes you completely compatible with
Himself so that you are qualified to live with Him forever.
(b) Phile 25, "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be
with your human spirit."
(c) Job 32:8, "But it is a spirit of man, and the
Spirit of the Almighty that gives perception."
(d) Rom 8:16, "The Spirit Himself bears witness with
our spirit that we are children of God."
(e) 1 Cor 2:7-16.
5. The History of the Endless Soul Life of the Unbeliever.
a. The unbeliever has a soul all during life. At death, his soul
goes to Hades and after the last judgment to the Lake of Fire. Soul life is
endless life but not eternal life.
b. In time, we have no control over our birth and death, but we
have every kind of control over our life as human beings reaching adulthood.
We have the option of being born again through faith in Jesus Christ. The
worst decision that any person can make upon reaching accountability is to
reject Christ as savior.
c. Mk 8:36-37, "For what does it profit a person to gain the
whole world, and to be punished in his soul life? For what shall a man give
in exchange for his soul?" The soul life of the person who rejects Jesus
Christ will be punished. "Being punished in his soul life" is a reference
to the Last Judgment. Compare Rev 20:11-15.
(1) The spiritually dead unbeliever can understand the
gospel only as academic information. God the Holy Spirit makes the gospel
understandable as spiritual phenomena. Now the unbeliever must change his
mind about Christ (repentance) and believe that spiritual phenomena (faith
in Christ). This is the Holy Spirit's ministry of common grace. We are
still spiritually dead when we believe in Christ. So now God the Holy
Spirit must take that faith alone in Christ alone and make it effective for
salvation. This is the Holy Spirit's ministry of efficacious grace.
(2) Once we believe in Christ, "There is now therefore no
condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus."
d. Heb 9:2-28, "And just as it is destined for mankind
[unbeliever] to die once but after this comes judgment, so Christ also,
having been sacrificed once for the purpose of taking away the sins of the
many, shall be seen a second time [Rapture and Second Advent] by those who
eagerly wait for Him, not to bear sin but for the purpose of deliverance."
The endless life of the human soul will be judged unless that soul life
believes in Christ for salvation. Endless soul life must be joined by
eternal life to live with God forever.
e. The Last Judgment issue is related to the non©meritorious
function of human volition related to faith in Christ, Jn 3:18, 38; 1 Jn
5:11-13,"And this is the deposition, that God has given to us eternal life,
and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does
not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written
to you who believe in the person of the Son of God, in order that you may
know that you have eternal life."
(1) As God, Jesus Christ is eternal life; as true humanity,
God the Father gave Him eternal life.
(2) He who does not have the Son does not have eternal life
but only endless soul life. The unbeliever has endless soul life in the
Lake of Fire forever. Birth, death, and resurrection all tie in together.
f. Jn 5:22-29, "For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has
delegated all judgment to the Son, in order that all may honor the Son, even
as they [Jews] honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not
honor the Father who sent Him. Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My
doctrine, and believes Him [the Father] who sent Me, has eternal life, and
does not come into judgment, because he has passed from [spiritual] death to
[eternal] life. Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming and now is,
when the [spiritually] dead shall hear the voice [gospel] of the Son of God;
and they [spiritually dead] who hear [faith in Christ] shall live [eternal
life]. For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the
Son [true humanity] also to have [eternal] life in Himself and He has given
Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man [perfect
humanity]. Stop being amazed at this; for the hour is coming, in which all
who are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come out; those who
have done the good [faith in Christ] to a resurrection of life, those who
practice evil [unbelief in Christ] to a resurrection of judgment."
(1) The immortal soul of the unbeliever in an interim body
will be resurrected at the end of time and stand before God in the Last
Judgment. The judge will be the Son of God, Jesus Christ.
(2) The Son is coequal and coeternal with God the Father.
The Son is honored by faith in Christ after the pattern of Abraham for the
Jews. Faith in Christ for the Jews to whom John was speaking includes the
recognition of Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the Son of David, the true ruler
of Israel, the One who would fulfill the Davidic covenant. Coequality in
the Trinity demands coequality in honor and worship in each person in the
Trinity.
(3) Fellowship with the Father and Holy Spirit comes through
the Son. Jn 5:25 is not saying that we must believe in the Father for
eternal life. This verse is talking about a believer, someone who keeps on
hearing doctrine. You hear some doctrine and keep on believing the Father.
Believing doctrine is having fellowship with the Father. This person
already has eternal life and does not come into judgment. Once you believe
in Christ, you can never come before the Last Judgment.
(4) Unbelievers are raised to a resurrection of judgment.
Jn 3:18-19, "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe
has been judged already, because he has not believed in the person of the
uniquely born Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come
into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light; because their
deeds were evil." The practice of evil is lack of faith in Christ.
(a) Evil is the merging of the sins of arrogance with
the function of human good.
(b) Arrogance plus other sins equals human good.
(c) Arrogance plus salvation by works equals evil.
g. The unbeliever with scar tissue of the soul is unable to
believe in Christ.
(1) Rom 2:5-6, "But on the basis of your scar tissue and
beyond any change of mind heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the
day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will
render judgment to each one on the basis of his works."
(a) The Greek word SKLEROTES, translated hardness,
means to say "No!" so many times to the gospel that you build scar tissue of
the soul covering the stream of consciousness. The next word is AMETANOETOS
means: exposed to no change of mind, beyond any change of mind. You come to
the place where the scar tissue is so great in the stream of consciousness
that truth can no longer circulate. Truth is rejected to the point of being
completely forgotten, so that the unbeliever can no longer believe in
Christ. It is impossible for them to reverse their continuous negative
decisions.
(b) The revelation of the righteous judgment of God
refers to the Great White Throne judgment, when Jesus Christ judges all the
human good and righteous deeds produced by the unbeliever during their life
on earth. Sin was judged at the Cross, 2 Cor 5:14-15,19; 1 Tim 2:6, 4:10;
Tit 2:11; Heb 2:9; 2 Pet 2:1; 1 Jn 2:2; human good and evil will be judged
at the Last Judgment.
(2) The illustration is found in Heb 12:17, "For you know
that even afterwards, when he [Esau] desired to inherit the blessing, he was
rejected, for he found no place for a change of mind, though he sought for
it with tears." He sought to be saved with tears and emotion, but the only
way of salvation is faith alone in Christ alone.
h. The unbeliever's soul is judged at the Last Judgment before
the Great White Throne, Rev 20:11-14, " And I saw a great white throne and
Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no
place was found for them. And I saw the dead [unbelievers], the great and
the small, standing before the throne, and the books [book of works] were
opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; then the
dead were judged from the things which had been written in the books, on the
basis of their works. And the sea [gates of Tartarus] gave up the dead
which were in it, also death and Hades gave up the dead [unbelievers] which
were in them; and they were judged, each one of them on the basis of their
deeds [good works]. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire.
This is the second death, the lake of fire."
(1) The book of life contained the names of all human beings
ever born. If you fail to believe in Christ during your life on earth, then
at death your name is removed from the book of life.
(2) The books (plural) are the heavenly records of all good
deeds performed by every human being who ever lived. These good deeds will
not add up to the perfect work of Christ on the Cross. The unbeliever is
judged based on the good deeds written in the books, and these good deeds do
not equal the perfect righteousness of God.
(a) Every believer, at the moment of salvation,
receives the righteousness of God, Gen 15:6; Rom 4:1-5; Rom 3:22; 2 Cor
5:21; Rev 7:14.
(b) The unbeliever does not possess the righteousness
of God; therefore, he is indicted on the basis of his deeds which have no
merit with God. The unbeliever has chosen his own good deeds over the
perfect righteousness of God. Human good has no spiritual value; for human
good is the natural result of being spiritually dead. Spiritual death
produces dead works. Human good has no spiritual value because it does not
comply with divine standards.
(3) The Lake of Fire is the eternal prison of the immortal
soul of all unbelievers. The first death is the unbeliever's physical
death. The second death is the unbeliever spending eternity in the Lake of
Fire. Unbelievers share the Lake of Fire with the Devil and his angels, Mt
25:41.
(4) The emphasis for the believer is a second birth (being
born again). The emphasis for the unbeliever is on a second death.
(5) Since dead works and human good is the basis for the
indictment of the unbeliever at the Last Judgment, the Bible warns the
believer to change his mind about producing dead works. Heb 6:1-9,
"Therefore graduating from the elementary teaching about the Christ, let us
advance to maturity, not laying again the foundation of a change of mind
about dead works and of faith [the faith-rest drill] toward God, of the
doctrine of baptisms, and laying on of hands [ordination], and the
resurrection from the dead, and eternal judgment. Furthermore, assuming
that God allows it, we will begin to do this [learn advanced doctrines].
For in the case of those who were once enlightened [common grace] and have
tasted of the heavenly gift [efficacious grace] and have become partners
with the Holy Spirit, and have tasted of the good word of God and the powers
of the coming age [millennium], and then afterward they go astray, it is
impossible to renew them again to a change of mind [about dead works], while
they again crucify to themselves the Son of God, and expose Him to public
defamation. Because the ground [positive believer] that drinks in the rain
[Bible doctrine] which so often falls upon it and produces a crop useful to
those for whose sake it was farmed, receives blessing from God; and when it
yields thorns and thistles [human good], it is worthless and near to being
cursed, and it ends up being burned [at the Judgment Seat of Christ]. But,
beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you, and things that
accompany salvation, though we are speaking in this way."
(a) The first thing you learn from Bible doctrine is a
change of mind about producing human good dead works. This is the whole
realm of legalism.
(b) Jewish believers, living in Jerusalem, avoided
persecution by entering the Temple and offered animal sacrifices. By so
doing they defamed the work of the Lord.
E. The Omniscience of God and Human Life, Jer 1:5.
1. Jer 1:5, "I knew you before I formed [JATSAR] you by means of the
womb, and I consecrated you before you went outside the womb; I have
appointed you a prophet to the nations."
2. God knew Jeremiah in eternity past before he existed as a human
being. This is a reference to Jeremiah's PROM chip in the computer of
divine decrees. The omniscience of God knew everything about Jeremiah in
eternity past and programmed all the actual thoughts, decisions, and actions
concerning Jeremiah into the divine decrees.
a. Principles.
(1) God is eternal; therefore, His knowledge is eternal.
(2) God is infinite; therefore, His knowledge is without
boundary or limitation.
(3) God is sovereign; therefore, His knowledge is in control
at all times. The key to control of your life is having a maximum amount of
God's knowledge (Bible doctrine) circulating in your stream of
consciousness. The right kind of knowledge in the stream of consciousness
of your soul puts you in control of your life.
(4) Time has nothing to do with the knowledge of God; the
future is as perspicuous as the past.
(5) All of God's knowledge is simultaneous. There never was
a time when God did not know all the knowable about every creature and every
thing.
(6) God's knowledge is never irrational, irrelevant,
speculative, theoretical, forgotten, or unknown.
b. Principles.
(1) God is eternally Himself in three coequal, coeternal,
coinfinite persons. Therefore, each person of the Trinity knows Himself to
be beyond comparison in His eternal and absolute knowledge about all things.
This is spiritual self-esteem. Spiritual self-esteem is maximum metabolized
doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness under the filling of the
Spirit and the confidence that comes from that doctrine related to the
problem solving devices.
(2) God's knowledge is never complicated by ignorance,
absurdities, or emotional reactions.
(3) God cannot be inaccurate in His knowledge; in fact,
God's knowledge cannot be more or less than it is. This is the eternal
status of God's knowledge.
(4) Therefore, under the omniscience of God, all decrees
were simultaneously known by God and simultaneously decreed by God in
eternity past.
(5) There never was a time when God did not know all the
knowable simultaneously.
(6) Omniscience means that God knows perfectly, eternally,
and simultaneously all the knowable both actual and possible.
(7) Actual divine knowledge about mankind was programmed
into the divine decrees in eternity past, while the probable or the possible
(the alternatives to reality) was also known to God but not programmed into
the computer of divine decrees.
c. The sovereignty of God and the free will of man coexist by
divine decrees in human history to resolve the angelic conflict. The soul
that God creates has volition which is totally free to decide for or against
God.
3. Jeremiah's biological life in the womb was known to God in eternity
past. The prepositional phrase BE BETEN is instrumental and means "by means
of the womb." Biological life is formed by means of the womb. God created
biological life once and inserted into it the system by which Jeremiah's
biological life was reproduced at conception and perpetuated in his mother's
womb. Biological life is reproduced at conception and perpetuated in the
womb. Biological life is self-perpetuating after the fall and follows the
same order of creation: biological life, a soul, the imputation of the soul
to biological life forming human life. The womb is the means of
reproduction and perpetuation of biological life. The decision to create
the soul and impute it to biological life belongs strictly to the
sovereignty of God.
4. The Hebrew verb QADASH in the hiphil stem means to set apart, to
consecrate, to sanctify. Jeremiah was set apart by God before he went
outside the womb, i.e., in eternity past. God knew that Jeremiah would
believe in Christ and have a marvelous spiritual life; therefore, God set
him apart in eternity past. This all happened before Jeremiah was born (the
qal imperfect of JATSA meaning to go outside and the prepositional phrase ME
RECHEM meaning outside the womb.
5. God appointed Jeremiah in eternity past as a prophet. A prophet
was a teacher of Bible doctrine in Old Testament times. He had a ministry
to many Gentile nations: Egypt, Chaldeans, Persians, and Medes.
6. This is not a verse that proves that there is life in the womb. On
the contrary, this verse emphasizes the omniscience of God related to the
ministry of Jeremiah. While this verse declares that Jeremiah was formed at
birth, it emphasizes the fact that God knew Jeremiah in eternity past as
biological life in the womb, as soul life which He would create outside of
the womb, and as a human being after the imputation of soul life to
biological life outside of the womb. The message of Jeremiah is the message
of the divine decrees, not life in the womb.
F. The History of the Origin of the Sin Nature.
1. Rom 5:12, "Therefore, just as through one man [Adam], the sin
[nature] entered into the world and [spiritual] death through the sin
[nature], and in this manner [spiritual] death was transmitted to all
mankind, because of which [sin nature] all have sinned [when Adam sinned]."
a. Exegesis.
(1) The sin nature plus the function of human volition is
the source of personal sins. The plural use of the Greek word HARMATIA
generally refers to personal sins, the singular refers to the sin nature.
(2) The Greek word THANATOS refers to spiritual death as one
of seven deaths described in the Bible. Adam and the woman died
spiritually, not physically, when they sinned.
(3) The Greek preposition DIA plus the ablative of means
from HARMATIA should be translated "through the sin nature."
(4) The aorist active indicative of the verb DIERCHOMAI
means to go through. Spiritual death went through the womb, was transmitted
through the womb. The transmission of the sin nature is the transmission of
spiritual death. The activation of the sin nature at birth means the
activation of spiritual death in the newly created human being. Therefore,
we are spiritually dead before we sin and because we have a sin nature
activated at birth. Only with Adam and the woman did personal sin come
before the sin nature.
(5) The Greek preposition EPI plus the instrumental neuter
of cause from the relative pronoun HOS means "because of which." The neuter
gender of HOS is under the influence of an abstract idea which applies to
the entire statement. The word HOS is not translated anywhere in English
translations, yet it is crucial to the understanding of the verse. The
antecedent for HOS is the old sin nature. In other words, "because of which
transmission of the sin nature all have sinned."
(6) The aorist active indicative from the verb HAMARTANO is
translated, "all have sinned."
(a) The constative aorist tense views the action in its
entirety at the moment Adam sinned, the entire human race sinned with Adam.
The culminative aorist tense views Adam's original sin in its entirety, but
regards it from the viewpoint of existing results, i.e., the transmission of
the sin nature through biological life which eventuates in our committing
personal sins. However, we are not condemned on the basis of our personal
sins, but on the basis of the imputation of Adam's sin. This could also be
regarded as a gnomic aorist for a universal point of doctrine.
(b) The active voice refers back to the nominative
plural from the adjective PAS, translated "all," referring to the entire
human race with the exception of the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ.
(c) The declarative indicative is used for a dogmatic
statement of doctrine. The entire human race sinned when Adam sinned.
b. Man isn't spiritually dead because he has an old sin nature;
he is spiritually dead because Adam's original sin was imputed to the
genetically-formed old sin nature. Because we have a sin nature, we also
sin personally.
c. Real spiritual death begins at birth, but sin continues
throughout one's lifetime. All personal sins are gathered for one
imputation to Christ on the cross for their judgment. There are two
imputations at the point of birth.
(1) The soul life or NESHAMAH, created by God, is imputed by
God to biological life (the format soul), creating human life. As with
Adam, we become a "soul having life." This soul life is indestructible and
continues forever.
(2) God imputes Adam's original sin to the geneticallyªformed old sin nature. This results in real spiritual death.
d. Real spiritual death includes two concepts.
(1) It includes total depravity, which means total
helplessness to enter into a relationship with God through anything we can
do, e.g., good works, commitment, inviting Christ into your heart, or making
Christ Lord of all.
(a) Because we are incapable of entering into a
relationship with God, Eph 2:8-9 says, "For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not from yourselves; it is a gift from God, not of works,
lest any man should boast." Faith is the only thing we have that is non-meritorious.
(b) There is no way you can gain the approbation of God
by anything you can do. Faith is not something you do; it is belief in an
object, Christ, who did it all on the cross.
(2) Real spiritual death also includes the complete and
total inability to do anything about the sin nature. Because every sin
nature has an area of weakness, an area of strength, and trends toward
lasciviousness or toward legalism.
(3) So total depravity means total helplessness to have a
relationship with God through any human function, through any function of
biological life, like asceticism, or through any function of soul life. And
because of the old sin nature, we will always sin as long as we live on the
earth in this body. God designed the laws of divine establishment to
protect us from sin nature activity.
(4) The imputation of Adam's original sin to the old sin
nature is classified as a real spiritual death, in order to contrast it with
our Lord's substitutionary spiritual death on the cross. Note that both
imputations at birth are classified as real imputations. A real imputation
is where the justice of God imputes something where antecedence exists.
There is antecedence and affinity between the spark of life and the format
soul; there is antecedence and affinity between Adam's original sin and the
genetically-formed sin nature. There are two factors in any real
imputation: what is imputed from the justice of God, and the home or target
for the imputation. There is antecedence and affinity between both factors.
2. The sin nature originates at conception, in that it is transmitted
by the twenty-three male chromosomes which fertilize the female ovum. The
sin nature is transmitted in the womb as a part of biological life, but it
is transmitted in a dormant state. The sin nature does not become active
until there is human life at birth. The reason for this is stated in Gen
3:13, "Then the Lord God said to the woman, `What is this you have done?'
And the woman replied, `The serpent deceived me, and I ate.'" Compare 1 Tim
2:14, "Now it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived,
was in the transgression." She was just as much involved in the fall of
mankind as Adam was. The original sin of Adam is the source of the sin
nature. After the fall, the woman began to ovulate, which led to pregnancy.
a. Adam's original sin was a sin of cognizance; the woman's
original sin was a sin of ignorance. Therefore, the sin nature is passed
down through the man.
b. The woman said in Gen 3:13, "I was deceived." In 1 Tim 2:13ª14, she is said to have been deceived. She was in the fall, but because of
the nature of her sin, the woman could not be the source for the
transmission of the old sin nature.
c. Only with Adam and the woman in the Garden did personal sin
precede spiritual death. Since that time, spiritual death begins at birth
and personal sin follows.
3. The original spiritual death is described in Gen 2:17, "But from
the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you will not eat, for in the day
you eat from it dying you will die."
a. "Dying you will die" is the qal infinitive absolute and the
qal imperfect of the verb MUTH meaning to die. The doubling of the verb
normally indicates intensity in the Hebrew. Recently, the Hebrew scholar
Rudolph Meyer has seen the infinitive absolute "as a verbal, nominal,
apposition, which stands in the isolated nominative; hence, the infinitive
would be translated like an English gerund (a word having characteristics of
both a verb and a noun)dying you will die."
b. "Dying" means spiritual death; "die" means physical death.
Physical death is the result of spiritual death.
4. God is not the author of sin. God is never the source of the sin
nature. The sin nature was created when Adam and the woman sinned. Mankind
is the author of sin and perpetuates sin through biological life. After the
fall, the woman began to ovulate resulting in pregnancy. Pregnancy means
two things in the womb: biological life and the dormant sin nature.
5. The two divine mandates given to Adam and the woman prior to their
fall where not executed until after the fall.
a. Gen 1:28, "And God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be
fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the
fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing
that moves on the earth." This could not be done until after the fall.
b. Gen 2:24, "For this cause a man shall leave his father and his
mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh."
Adam and the woman had no father and mother. This command could also not be
executed until after the fall.
6. The principle of why the woman became the child bearer is stated in
Gen 3:16, "To the woman He said, `Multiplying I will multiply your pain in
pregnancy, In pain you will give birth to children; Yet your desire shall be
for your husband, And he shall rule over you.'"
7. Ps 139:13 describes what happens after the fall, "You have created
my inner most being [soul life]; You weaved me in the womb of my mother."
a. The first half of the verse refers to the imputation of soul
life at birth. The Hebrew word KILJAH is frequently translated kidneys and
refers to that part of the soul called emotions. It can also be translated
in a general sense for the soul.
b. The last half of the verse refers to conception, the
protection and incubator for the blastocyst, embryo, and fetus. The qal
imperfect of the verb SAKAK means to knit together, to interweave, to weave.
This is a reference to the combining of the genes, the weaving together of
the genes of the parents. Everything is interwoven genetically.
8. The activation of the sin nature at birth is described in Ps 51:5,
"Behold, I was born sinful, And in sin my mother conceived me."
a. The first line of the verse refers to the fact we are born
physically alive and spiritually dead. Adam's original sin is imputed to
the old sin nature at the same time that God imputes soul life to biological
life. This occurs when we emerge from the womb and results in spiritual
death. The Hebrew word AWON is a reference to the sin nature at birth and
could be translated "guilty."
b. The second line of the verse refers to the origin of the sin
nature at conception. The Hebrew word CHATA refers to the origin of the sin
nature and the twenty-three male chromosomes. The sin nature originates at
conception when the twenty-three male chromosomes fertilize the female ovum.
Therefore, David was born guilty because the sin nature became active at
birth.
9. Principles.
a. Biological life begins at conception. Soul life begins at
birth.
b. Biological life begins with mother dependence. Soul life
begins with God dependence.
c. The genetically formed sin nature is transmitted through
biological life; hence, the sin nature is transmitted through the body, not
the soul.
d. In human life after birth, the sin nature gains control of the
soul through human volition, human self©determination succumbing to the
temptation, lust pattern, area of strength, or trends of the sin nature.
e. Biological life comes from copulation. Soul life comes from
the creative hand of God.
f. Biological life is temporary, related only to time. Soul life
is permanent, related to time and eternity.
g. While God creates soul life, He does not create the sin
nature, which is genetically formed in biological life; hence, the sin
nature control of the soul is the result of human volition, not divine
sovereignty.
G. The Origin of Life Related to Accountability.
1. Introduction.
a. Since there is no human volition in the womb, accountability
does not begin until birth, where soul life including volition is imputed to
biological life.
(1) The format soul is activated shortly after birth with
thought.
(2) Biological life has no volition; therefore, biological
life in the womb is not an issue in the angelic conflict.
(3) Mankind was created to resolve the angelic conflict,
which means that the volition of Adam and the woman was a major issue in the
perfect environment of the Garden of Eden. Human volition is a part of
resolving the prehistoric angelic conflict.
(4) Angelic volition in prehistoric times resulted in two
categories of angelic creatures: elect angels related to positive volition
and fallen angels related to negative volition.
(5) Human volition in history results in two categories of
human beings: believers in Jesus Christ related to positive volition and
rejecters of Jesus Christ related to negative volition.
b. The historical extension of the angelic conflict does not
begin until there is soul life imputed to biological life at birth. The
historical extension of the angelic conflict does not begin in the womb.
After birth, God creates soul life and imputed it to biological life outside
the womb, so that a human being now exists on earth with a mission to
resolve the angelic conflict.
c. Accountability begins after birth at two key points where
human volition is involved.
(1) God consciousness. Where positive volition is expressed
in a desire to know God and negative volition is not interested.
(2) Gospel hearing. Where positive volition is expressed by
faith in Jesus Christ and negative volition is rejection of Christ as
savior.
d. Accountability comes into sharp focus with cognition of the
gospel from the ministry of God the Holy Spirit in common grace. The
greatest decision in life to believe in Christ is backed up by the power
of God the Holy Spirit in efficacious grace. The faith of a spiritually
dead person has no power. So God the Holy Spirit takes that faith and makes
it effective for salvation. Accountability exists totally apart from
biological life in the womb or mother dependence or any conceivable function
of the blastocyst, embryo, and fetus.
e. Spiritual death also occurs at birth with the divine
imputation of Adam's original sin to the genetically formed sin nature.
Under the divine wisdom and the function of the justice of God condemnation
must precede salvation.
2. The Doctrine of Accountability.
a. Principles.
(1) No member of the human race is condemned at conception
or at any time when biological life occupies the womb.
(2) No one can be condemned until they become a human being.
(3) The origin of human life is at birth; therefore, there
is no condemnation of blastocyst, embryo, or fetus in the womb.
(4) Babies, children, and adolescents who die before
reaching accountability are automatically saved under the principle that
condemnation must precede salvation. Jesus Christ was judged on the Cross
for every sin of every person who does not reach accountability.
(5) Some human beings never reach accountability. Brain
damaged children, idiots, morons, imbeciles, and mongoloids are
automatically saved at death because they never reached accountability.
(6) Any human being who is incapable of cognition of the
gospel or making a faith decision to believe in Christ is included in the
non-accountability category and is automatically saved.
(7) All normal human beings reach the age of accountability
at some time after birth. This age varies with cultures and environment.
(8) At the point of accountability for normal persons, the
issue is faith in Christ.
H. The legal problem of life in the womb is illustrated by the Mosaic Law,
Ex 21:22-23.
1. In Ex 21:22, there is a fight between two men. "Now if men who are
fighting hit a pregnant woman so that her children go outside [the womb a
miscarriage], yet there is no further injury to her, he will surely be fined
as the husband may demand of him, therefore he shall pay damages as the
judge decides."
a. The Hebrew word JELED is plural and means children. The
pregnant woman had two or more fetus' in her womb. Moses was demonstrating
where the law applies. The law does not apply to the fetus but to human
beings. Miscarriage caused by a fight is not murder. This fight would be
tantamount to an abortion.
b. If there is human life in the womb, then the two fighting men
could be charged with murder of two or more fetus'. If there is no life in
the womb, then the legal issue is damage to the mother only and no charge of
murder. The punishment is merely the payment for damages because only
biological life has been destroyed. If soul life were in the womb, the
punishment would have been for homicide.
c. Biological life not yet come to term is not an issue before
the law. The content of the womb is not human life; for biological life
minus soul life is not human life. Biological life resides in the womb, not
human life. Human law always deals with human life. Human law never deals
with biological life in the womb unless the nation is confused and
irrational. No human government can regulate or enact laws dealing with the
content of the womb, since the content of the womb is not human life and not
subject to law. When they do, they are violating a Biblical principle, as
stated in these verses. Governments are designed to administer law to the
living, but governments have no jurisprudence over the content of the womb.
2. Ex 21:23, "If there is any further injury to the wife beyond her
miscarriage, then you shall appoint as the penalty life for life [capital
punishment], . . ." The verse continues and lists possible punishments
dependent upon what happened to the mother, but the punishments have nothing
to do with the abortion of the fetus.
a. Since there is no soul life in the womb, there could be no
death penalty for miscarriage or forced abortion of a fetus. However, if
during the struggle the woman is killed, the death penalty applies. Or if
her eye or teeth are injured, the eye or teeth of the guilty one are
demanded, "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." Compare Ex 21:12," "He
who strikes a person and kills him will definitely be put to death."
b. In this legal case, miscarriage or forced abortion from
violence is not construed as murder. Only human beings can be murdered. A
fetus is not a human being. A miscarriage involves biological life, and
therefore, only the payment of damages are required. Only if the mother is
killed does the death penalty apply.
3. The mother's life is infinitely more important than the fetus. If
the mother can be saved, she should be saved first. This is rejected by a
number of religious groups. No one should ever make a decision to preserve
what is in the womb at the expense of the death of the mother.
4. There is no human life in the womb, only biological life. There
cannot be soul life and therefore human life until the fetus emerges from
the womb in one of several ways.
5. Biological life is passed on in the womb at conception. Soul life
begins at the point of physical birth. Only with Adam and the woman did
biological and soul life begin simultaneously because they were never in a
womb.
I. The Importance of the Virgin Pregnancy and Virgin Birth.
1. The Background Psalm 22.
a. Ps 22:1, "My God, My God, why have You forsaken me? Far from
My deliverance are the words of My groaning."
(1) The doubling of the vocative "My God" indicates the
intensity of the situation while our Lord was bearing our sins. "God" is a
reference to God the Father only. The doubling also indicates the high
quality of the perfection of the Person, i.e., the perfection of God the
Father's essence.
(2) "My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?" is the only
phrase that occurs in all three original languages of Scripture: Ps 22:1 is
the Hebrew, Mt 27:46 is the Aramaic and Greek. It was the phrase uttered by
our Lord while He was bearing our sins. Aramaic was the official language
of the Persian empire and came back with the Jews after the Babylonian
captivity. The subject of the verb "forsaken" is in the singular and refers
to God the Father only.
b. Ps 22:3, "But You are holy, You who are enthroned upon the
praises of Israel." This is the answer to the question asked in verse one,
"why have You forsaken Me?"
(1) God the Father abandoned or forsook Christ because the
Father is holy perfect eternal righteousness and justice. Because the
justice of God is judging the humanity of Christ bearing our sins, He has to
abandon the humanity of Christ.
(2) When God the Father imputed all personal sins of history
to the impeccable person of Christ, His righteousness condemned and rejected
these sins. Then the justice of God judged those sins.
c. Ps 22:6, "But I am a worm, and not a man, a reproach of men,
and despised by the people." This is the rest of the explanation given in
verse three.
(1) The Hebrew word for worm is TOLAH and refers to the worm
crushed to make the special crimson dye used to make royal robes in the
ancient world.
(2) Christ was crushed by our sins so that we, as believers,
can wear the royal robes of divine righteousness. 2 Cor 5:21, "He made Him
who knew no sin to be made sin as a substitute for us, that we might become
the righteousness of God by means of Him."
d. Ps 22:9-10, "For You are He who brought Me outside the womb;
You caused Me to trust upon My mother's breasts. I was cast upon You
outside the womb; separated from my mother's womb, You have been My God."
(1) Jesus Christ did not become a human being until He was
separated from the womb. God the Father was not the God of the humanity of
Christ until our Lord was outside the womb.
(2) Therefore, at the birth of Christ, God the Father
created soul life and imputed it to biological life. He also imputed spirit
life since our Lord had no old sin nature, and therefore, no imputation of
Adam's sin. Jesus Christ lived thirty-three years without ever committing a
personal sin. Therefore, He was qualified to receive the judgment of our
sins and be our savior.
(3) One of the greatest decisions of all time was the
Father's decision to create soul life and give it to the biological life of
the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. This decision meant that the Father
would have to judge His Son on the cross. What motivated the Father to do
this? Divine self-esteem and divine impersonal love for sinful humanity.
2. The first time Mary became pregnant, she became pregnant as a
virgin. Joseph, her husband, did not provide the twenty-three male
chromosomes, but instead they were provided by God the Holy Spirit.
a. Mt 1:18, "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When
His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they had sex, she was
found to be with child from the Holy Spirit."
(1) The Greek preposition EK plus the ablative singular of
source from two words, HAGIOS and PNEUMA, means "from the Holy Spirit." He
was the source of twenty-three perfect male chromosomes.
(2) This meant that the blastocyst, embryo, and fetus came
into being without the transmission of the old sin nature. This is how
Jesus Christ came into the world as a perfect human being as the last Adam,
for He was born as Adam was created.
b. Mt 1:20, "But when he [Joseph] had considered this [divorce],
behold, an angel appeared in a dream to him [Joseph] saying, `Joseph, son of
David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife; for that which has been
conceived in her is from the source of the Holy Spirit." The virgin
pregnancy Mary excluded the transmission of the sin nature, so that the
biological life of Jesus Christ in the womb did not possess the usual
dormant sin nature. Therefore, our Lord is the only member of the human
race ever born trichotomous. Adam was created trichotomous. This is why
our Lord is called in the Greek MONOGENES, which means uniquely©born, Jn
3:16. 1 Jn 5:18 says very clearly that Jesus was "the One born from God."
God the Holy Spirit is the source of the perfection of Christ's biological
life at conception. God the Father is the source of the perfection of
Christ's soul and spirit at physical birth.
(1) All the cells of the human race are contaminated with
the sin nature with one exception. Through meiosis and the function of
polar body, twenty©three uncontaminated chromosomes remain in the female
ovum prior to conception or fertilization. These twenty©three chromosomes
in the ovum are completely free from the old sin nature.
(2) This phenomenon in the female is based on the fact that
the woman was deceived in the original sin, whereas Adam was guilty of a sin
of cognizance. While ignorance was no excuse for the woman's sin, it did
make a difference in determining which person, Adam or the woman, would
possess the womb and carry the blastocyst, embryo, and fetus.
(3) When the woman said to the Lord in the garden, "I was
deceived by the serpent," the Lord replied in Gen 3:16, "I will greatly
multiply your pain in pregnancy. In pain, you shall give birth to children.
Your desire shall be toward your husband, and he shall rule over you." So
because she was deceived in the original sin, the woman is the one who
carries the womb.
(4) 1 Tim 2:14, "For it was not Adam who was deceived, but
the woman, being quite deceived, fell into the transgression."
(5) Both the man and the woman are carriers of the sin
nature, but only the man can transmit the sin nature through twenty-three
male chromosomes which fertilize the female ovum in copulation.
c. Therefore, this was a virgin pregnancy followed by a virgin
birth. Later, when Joseph and Mary were married, they had at least six more
children. They included four men, James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas, and at
least two sisters. In every case, these six children carried the old sin
nature. Therefore, the birth of our Lord was unique. So the first time
Mary became pregnant, she was a virgin. Joseph, her husband, did not
provide the twenty-three male chromosomes.
d. This was the only possible way Jesus Christ could come into
the world as a perfect person. He had to be perfect in order to go to the
cross and be judged for our sins. He could not take our place and become
our substitute unless He remained perfect humanity.
e. So God the Holy Spirit created the twenty©three perfect male
chromosomes and artificially inseminated the ovum of the virgin Mary which
had twenty©three female chromosomes not contaminated with the sin nature
cells.
f. Hence, through meiosis and polar body, the virgin Mary
contributed twenty-three uncontaminated chromosomes while the Holy Spirit
created twenty-three perfect chromosomes, resulting in a virgin pregnancy.
Our Lord's humanity had biological life as of that moment.
g. Because of the virgin pregnancy, there was no transmission of
the old sin nature. Therefore, at the point of the virgin birth, when God
the Father made the decision to impute the spark of life, NESHAMAH, to the
format soul, He did so knowing that thirty-three years later He would have
to impute to that same person, Jesus Christ, all the sins of the human race
and judge every one of them. He would have to judge His uniquely born Son.
So this was a tremendous decision from the sovereignty of God the Father.
h. Our Lord was born as perfect humanity. For when God the
Father imputed to Him the spark of life, He became a human being, born as
perfect humanity.
i. Not only was He born trichotomous having body, soul, and human
spirit; but at the same time our Lord was born into the prototype divine
dynasphere, enabling Him to remain impeccable in His humanity. Therefore,
our Lord was qualified to be our substitute, taking our sins and being
judged for them, because of the virgin pregnancy and virgin birth, and
because He remained inside the prototype divine dynasphere.
j. Furthermore, our Lord was tested during His lifetime beyond
anything anyone else has ever endured, and yet He remained impeccable. His
deity was not able to sin; His humanity was able not to sin because He
resided throughout His lifetime in the prototype divine dynasphere, under
the filling of the Spirit, and resisted all temptation to sin.
3. The virgin birth fulfilled the prophecy of Isa 7:14, "Therefore,
the Lord Himself will give you a sign: behold, a virgin shall become
pregnant and will give birth to a Son, and she will call His name Immanuel,
(meaning, `God with us')." and Isa 9:6, "For a child will be born to us, a
son will be given to us; and the government will be on His shoulders; and
His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father,
Prince of Peace."
a. When that prophecy was fulfilled at the virgin birth, Jesus
Christ became undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever.
b. He had to become true humanity to go to the cross. For as
God, Jesus Christ could not die for the sins of the world. He had to become
true humanity, and those sins had to be imputed to perfect humanity,
depicted by the "lamb without spot and without blemish."
(1) Jesus Christ had to become true humanity to be our high
priest. For a priest is a human being representing himself before God.
(2) Jesus Christ is a mediator between God and man because
He is equal with both parties in the mediation. As God, Jesus Christ is
coequal and coeternal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. As true
humanity, Jesus Christ is equal with humanity. Therefore, only He is
qualified to be the mediator between God and man.
(3) Furthermore, God had promised David that he would have a
Son who would rule forever. The only way that unconditional Davidic
Covenant could be kept was through the virgin birth whereby our Lord Jesus
Christ was born as the Son of David. Beginning with the Second Advent, He
will rule forever: throughout the 1000 years of the Millennium and on into
eternity.
4. The fulfillment of the virgin birth prophecy is found in:
a. Mt 1:21. "And she shall give birth to a Son, and you will
call His name Jesus [IESOUS], for it is He who will save His people from
their sins."
b. Jn 1:14, "And the Word became flesh, and He tabernacled among
us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the uniquely-born One from the
source of the Father, full of grace and truth."
c. Jn 1:18, "No one has seen God at any time; the uniquely©born
God, who rests in the bosom of the Father [a sign of highest honor], He has
explained Him."
d. Jn 3:16, "For God loved the world so much , that He gave His
Son, the uniquely©born One, that whosoever believes in Him should not
perish, but have eternal life."
e. Jn 3:18, "He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does
not believe is judged already, because he has not believed in the person of
the uniquely-born Son of God."
f. 1 Jn 4:9-10, "By this the love of God was manifested among us,
because God sent His uniquely-born Son into the world in order that we might
live through Him. By this [impersonal] love exists, not because we have
loved God, but because He loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation for
our sins."
5. The virgin pregnancy resulted in the virgin birth. As a result of
the virgin birth, our Lord Jesus Christ received from the justice of God the
Father the imputation of our sins. Two imputations are important.
a. God the Father created the spark of life and imputed it to the
format soul of our Lord, at which point our Lord became a human being. This
was a real imputation, for there was affinity between the spark of life and
the format soul. He could not impute Adam's original sin because there was
no genetically-formed old sin nature.
b. Later on, the one prom chip in the computer of divine decrees,
containing all the personal sins in human history, was imputed to Jesus
Christ on the cross, judging every one of those sins. This was a judicial
imputation because there was no affinity nor antecedence between the perfect
humanity of our Lord and all the personal sins of human history.
c. This is the basis for our so great salvation. Because the
virgin pregnancy was followed by the virgin birth, there is no transmission
of the old sin nature. No old sin nature means no imputation of Adam's
original sin. And our Lord lived thirty-three years without committing a
personal sin. Therefore, He arrived at the cross perfect as a "lamb without
spot and without blemish," and became "the lamb of God who takes away the
sins of the world."
6. Summary.
a. The humanity of Christ was uniquely born because of the virgin
pregnancy followed by the virgin birth. In the virgin pregnancy, Jesus
Christ was not a true human being; He had only biological life. At the
virgin birth, Jesus Christ had soul life merging with biological life, at
which point He became true humanity and perfect humanity.
b. He was perfect humanity because the transmission of the sin
nature did not occur. The transmission of the sin nature can only occur
through twenty©three male chromosomes which fertilize the female ovum at
conception. Those twenty-three male chromosomes were not there since it was
a virgin pregnancy.
c. The female ovum was also free from the old sin nature. The
process of meiosis had shed three polar bodies, through which the old sin
nature had been discarded, leaving twenty-three uncontaminated chromosomes
in the female ovum. The female ovum is the only cell not contaminated with
the old sin nature.
d. In the virgin pregnancy, God the Holy Spirit produced the
twenty-three perfect male chromosomes which were used to fertilize the ovum
in the virgin pregnancy. With these perfect chromosomes, God the Holy
Spirit artificially inseminated the ovum of the virgin Mary.
e. So at the point of conception, Jesus Christ had biological
life. As a blastocyst, embryo, and fetus in mother dependence, there was no
human life which means no soul life.
f. Not until the birth of our Lord when God the Father imputed
the spark of life to the format soul did there exist the true humanity of
Jesus Christ. God the Father gave this humanity; this is the dramatic point
in Jn 3:16. "For God the loved the world so much that He gave His Son, the
uniquely-born one." He gave His Son, which refers to the deity of Christ.
But He was uniquely born, referring to the humanity of Christ. This was the
beginning of the Hypostatic Union in which undiminished deity and true
humanity are combined in one person forever.
g. When soul life was added to biological life at the point of
the virgin birth, the gift of God the Father (Jn 3:16), our Lord was born
perfect.
h. Therefore, the virgin pregnancy excludes the genetic
transmission of the sin nature. Therefore, there was no imputation of
Adam's original sin because there was no target and no affinity.
i. In the virgin pregnancy of our Lord, there was biological life
without the sin nature. In the virgin birth of our Lord, there was soul
life added to biological life so that our Lord became a perfect human being,
born as Adam was created.
j. Through the virgin pregnancy and virgin birth, God the Father
prepared the "lamb without spot and without blemish." Through the
maintenance of impeccability throughout the First Advent and incarnation,
our Lord was qualified to be the "lamb of God who takes away the sin of the
world."
J. The Case of the Arrogant Woman, Lk 11:27-28.
1. The background is Lk 11:14-20.
a. Jesus was casting out demons as a sign of His Messiahship, but
He was definitely not practicing exorcism. Jesus implies that exorcism has
no spiritual connotation. This is in answer to the blasphemy of unbelievers
who allege that Jesus casts out demons in the power of Satan. It was a well
known fact in the ancient world that exorcism was practiced by agents of
Satan. The Pharisees knew this and accuse Jesus of being a part of the
Satanic worshipers who practiced exorcism. Lk 11:20, "But if I cast out
demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you." As
Messiah, Jesus Christ in hypostatic union has authority over both man and
angels. In Lk 11:21-23, Jesus illustrates the point.
Finally, in Lk 11:24-26, He condemns exorcism as having no spiritual connotation; for the person
who was the object of exorcism did not become a believer.
b. Exorcism is the function of unbelievers. Our Lord cast out
demons in the use of His authority, not in exorcism, and He gave this power
to his disciples and later to the apostles. In many cases, the exorcist is
the agent of Satan, being used by Satan to give credit to his false
doctrine. Our Lord did not practice exorcism. He cast out demons to
present Himself as the God-man and the unique person of the universe the
Messiah of Israel and the Savior of the world.
c. Lk 11:26, "Then it goes and takes along seven other spirits
more evil than itself, and they go in and live there; and the last state of
that man becomes worse than the first." This person does not become a
believer, but simply cleans up his or her body. The fact that demons come
back is indicative of the fact that the person was not a believer. Jesus
made an important point: the practice of exorcism does not result in
salvation unless the delivered person believes in Christ. If the person
does not believe in Christ, then a strong, arrogant self©righteousness
develops, which paves the way for multiple demon possession. Through
religion, an unbeliever often enters into demon possession.
d. At this point, our Lord is interrupted by a rude woman who was
seeking attention from the crowd and is very upset by what Jesus had said.
The woman is going to switch the issue from exorcism to the womb. She may
have practiced exorcism and wanted to stop what our Lord was saying. Our
Lord was involved in a tremendous dissertation that should not have been
interrupted. Nevertheless, it was interrupted. This woman was arrogant,
ill©mannered, rude, and trying to advance herself by putting down our Lord.
This woman was not interested in learning, for she interrupted the teaching
of our Lord with a loud voice. This woman feels threatened, which is why
she is so rude.
2. Lk 11:27, "Now it came to pass while He was teaching these things,
a certain woman from the crowd shouted at Him with a loud voice [interrupted
Him] `Blessed is the woman whose womb carried You, and whose breasts You
have sucked.'"
a. Her interruption was designed to protect her exorcism business
by neutralizing what our Lord has said. She does this by asserting female
superiority, which would nullify our Lord's sign of messiahship through
casting out demons.
(1) She makes an issue out of the womb by seeking to
subordinate our Lord's humanity to a false doctrine, which is human life in
the womb. She implies that there is life in the womb. She is asserting
that Jesus Christ is a human being, and that as a human being, He was
subordinate in the womb to the woman, and that the woman is the superior
creature in the human race.
(2) The woman uses the womb to imply female superiority and
to protect her own status as an exorcist and religious teacher.
(3) Without realizing it, she made a distinction between the
sustaining of biological life in the womb and human life outside of the womb
nourished at the breast. Our Lord did not argue with her, debate with her,
or put her down; He simply substitutes the truth.
b. This woman was talking when she should have been listening.
1 Cor 14:33-34, "Everything must be done in order in the local church. "Let
the women keep silent in churches, for they are not permitted to speak."
1 Tim 2:11©12, "Women, be learning in silence with complete šsubordination
[to your right pastor]. In fact, I do not permit a woman to teach or to
exercise authority over a man, but to learn in silence."
c. "Blessed is the woman whose womb carried You" implied that
there is life in the womb. This woman suggests that soul life is in the
womb. Then she goes even further to make sure everyone understands how
mother dependent our Lord was outside of the womb when she adds "and whose
breasts you have sucked." She implies that motherhood is superior to the
genius and virtue of the impeccable humanity of Christ. Obviously, this
woman failed to understand the curse stated in Gen 3:16. This woman also
failed to understand the true principle of happiness, that parents do not
depend on their children for happiness.
3. Lk 11:28, "But He replied to her, `On the contrary! Happiness
belongs to those who keep on hearing and retaining the Word of God.'"
a. Our Lord's first word to this woman was the classical Greek
particle MENOUN, which was used to correct her statement. MENOUN was a one
word particle which the Greeks used to indicate that they disagreed entirely
with what someone said. The particle MENOUN is used here to substitute a
new statement for a wrong statement. When a person used this particle, it
meant that all that you just heard was wrong, and that you were going to
correct some part of the statement and emphasize the truth. So our Lord
addressed only the issue of happiness.
b. The true issue is spiritual feeding on Bible doctrine, not the
baby feeding at the breast. Bible doctrine clarifies the issue of life in
the womb to those believers who are consistent and persistent in the
metabolization of doctrine. Unbelievers cannot understand the doctrine of
the origin of human life outside of the womb by the direct creative act of
God. There are some questions and problems in life that can only be
answered by persistent and diligent perception and metabolization of Bible
doctrine.
c. Everything this woman said could have been corrected had she
learned Bible doctrine. Therefore, this stresses the importance of
reception, retention, and recall of doctrine. This principle applies to our
study of the origin of life. We must understand and accept what the Bible
says regardless of our personal feelings or emotional involvement with the
subject.
d. This woman is trying to assert the superiority of the woman.
This is a feminist cult that has existed throughout history. She sought to
use Jesus as a political pawn to make her speech about the superiority of
the woman because the woman carries biological life in the womb.
M. Summary Principles of Application.
1. Human law must always deal with human life and never with
biological life in the womb as such.
2. No human government in history can govern or enact or regulate laws
dealing with the content of the womb. That is a false issue and totally
outside the prerogative of government.
3. The exception the United States of America is the only known
government in human history which makes an issue out of the womb rather than
a private matter between a doctor and a patient.
4. The tragedy of this exception is the fact that there is no human
life in the womb, only biological life.
5. Government administers law to the living. Governments have no
jurisdiction over the content of the womb and neither does any church.