Issued: 6/25/21 Revised: 11/25/23

PLEASE NOTE:  Because Bible versions sometimes differ from each other in crucial ways, the version quoted here will be the one that best clarifies the point being made.  For a quick comparison between versions, please go to: http://www.biblehub.com.

   All bracketed material may be authorial comments, attempts at proper syntax, or minimal rewordings of Scripture for the sake of clarity and continuity.  These emendations will not be italicized.

   The “/” will be used to signify “and/or.”  The symbol “↔” is used to connect verses corroborating each other and so establishing doctrinal truths (Matthew 18:16↔2Corinthians 13:1).

   In differentiating between Yahweh Son [Jesus] and Yahweh Father [the Most High God], lower case letters have been used when discussing the former; upper case letters are reserved for the Only and Most High God.  Since Jesus was at pains to differentiate himself from Father, we have followed his lead here.

   The term neo-Christians will be used to differentiate between false Christians and Jesus’ true followers.

Last time we discussed the significance of animals created on Sixth Day.   Unlike Third Day plant life symbolizing ancient Israelites ‘rooted’ in Canaan without designs of world conquest, Sixth Day animal species set out to do just that, oftentimes in name of God and Jesus.  From Constantine to the end of the so-called Holy Roman Empire, the blood of saints was spilt to sate the unquenchable thirst of the harlot of Babylon, herself obviously a human institution but lacking armies to do so (Daniel 7:21, 8:23-25; Revelation 13:7, 17:5-6,12-14). In the process ‘pagan’ empires were eradicated; native peoples exploited and dismembered when unproductive [Belgium’s Leopold II’s contribution to Congo’s ‘Christianization’]; and ‘heretics’ [non-conformists] tortured/reduced to ashes. David had been denied building Father‘s Temple because he had shed much blood (1Chronicles 28:3); but neo-Christians set about that task by drenching Christendom’s foundations with the blood of millions.  There is no handier ploy than justifying evildoing by involving Heaven. Even Hitler was championed as “the Strong One from Above”; and in today’s politics, the trend continues in full swing.

   While the mayhem would endure throughout the last two “Days” of the Genesis “Week,” there was a signal event taking place just before the Seventh Day or Millennium of rest:  Man’s and Woman’s creation.  As we saw on First Day, Father created “Light”, Yahweh Son Angel proxy God, in His image (Psalms 2:7↔Colossians 1:15; Revelation 3:14); thereafter entrusting to him the role of creating all heavenly and earthly things (Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2-3).  We must ask ourselves why Man’s and Woman’s creations came last, since human souls are essential to Father‘s plan of redemption.  Why the intervening creations if not to highlight the symbolic message implicit in Genesis 1?  A lot of human history and spiritual battles had to take place before human flesh was transformed to make it compatible with divine realities (1Corinthians 15:50-53).

SIXTH DAY: MAN AND WOMAN

^“Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.’ So God [Yahweh Son proxy Creator] created mankind in his own image, in the image of God [Father] he created them; male and female he created them.”

Genesis 1:26-27

ON MAN’S FORM

   Genesis 1:26-27 present the same problem that John 1:1 does:  Two Gods are alluded to using the same descriptor, God, for both.  The answer in Genesis 1:26-27 lies in the details.  When Yahweh Son proxy Creator said, “Let us make mankind in our image,” he was referring to some other Creator Whose powers Yahweh Son was channeling; and Genesis 1:2 tells us that can only have been Yahweh Father.  Most importantly, the statement to make Man in “our” image tells us that an otherwise Invisible (1Timothy 1:17; Hebrews 11:27) Father, after the fashion of parents resembling their offspring, chose human-like features to depict Himself to human beings.

What the Holy Spirit may look like Scripture does not say; but we know from Daniel that Father has “hair like white snow” (Daniel 7:9); has an appearance “like jasper [Hebrew, “glittering”] and carnelian [orange or orange-red in color (Revelation 4:3)]; has hands (Revelation  5:1); has feet (Isaiah 66:1; Matthew 5:35); has a face (Matthew 18:10; John 5:37); has ears and eyes (Exodus 2:24:25); and some sort of ‘voice,’ which though never heard by men (John 5:37), must have told His Spokesperson, Yahweh Son, what to promise Abraham (Genesis 22:15-17↔Hebrews 6:13). During his earthly ministry, Jesus reaffirmed this synergy by stating that Father had told him what to preach (John 12:49).

The fact that Father is “invisible” (Colossians 1:15; 1Timothy 1:17; Hebrews 11:27) does not necessarily mean He has no form:  He may have chosen not to be seen in order to differentiate Himself from Yahweh Son, who has been seen (Exodus 24:10-11, 33:21-23; Numbers 14:14).  So going back to Genesis 1:26, when Yahweh Son proxy Creator stated his intention of making Man in their image, he was indirectly telling us that he had been made in Father’s image, and that he proposed sharing that image with Man.  It is the very fact that men are made in Father‘s image that cursing them is a grievous sin (James 3:9), because in so doing, Father Himself is being cursed.

   That Revelation’s Son of Man is Jesus is clear from verse 18; but verses 14-15 further tell us that he shares Father’s “white snow” hair and “burnished bronze” complexion—the “carnelian” quality of Revelation 4:3.  This in turn identifies the pre-existent Jesus as the “man” predicting future events to Daniel (Daniel 10:5-21); who not only speaks directly to Daniel but lets us know he is not the Archangel Michael helping him in his battle against Persia (Daniel 10:13)—whose “prince” was the historical army commander while “the King” was his ruler, Satan (Luke 4:6).¹

   It may be that Moses’ shining face after his descent from Sinai may have absorbed that bronze hue while dialoguing with Yahweh Son (Exodus 34:29-30).  We are not suggesting radiation exposure here; rather a Scriptural device highlighting the relationship between shadow [Moses] and substance [Jesus], since Moses embodied most of Jesus’ messianic attributes: Lawgiver, Judge, and sole intermediary between Father and men (John 7:16; John 5:22; Acts 17:31; 1Timothy 2:5).  Hence Moses’ shining face:  As Yahweh Son‘s substitute on earth (Exodus 7:1), Moses was given Yahweh Son‘s facial refulgence to confirm Moses’ unique relationship with him.

   This is why Moses’ brother Aaron, who as high priest regularly entered the Holy of Holies in the desert Tabernacle (Numbers 18:1-3), did not have a shining face.  As head of the priestly class, Aaron got his instructions second-hand from Moses, his earthly role being limited to performing ceremonial rites.  Even this early on we see indications of the role Jesus was to play as sole Teacher (Matthew 23:8↔John 16:13; Luke 16:16) after rendering priestly roles/rituals obsolete with his crucifixion (Galatians 3:13↔Deuteronomy 21:23; Hebrews 9:1-10).  Following Jesus, all spiritual leaders were devoid of purpose (1John 2:27)

   Thus Aaron, unlike Moses, was no symbol for Jesus; and the reason that Moses took a veil to hide his face was because Aaron and the whole of Israel were afraid to look at him (Exodus 34:33-35); which reminds us of the tradition that seeing Yahweh Son‘s face—not the unseen Father’s—entailed immediate death (Genesis 16:13, 32:30; Exodus 33:20; Judges 6:22, 13:22).² Now Paul found hidden meanings in that veil that the Holy Spirit revealed exclusively to him (2Corinthians 3:13-16), but which are not readily traceable through Scripture; and only on account of Paul’s gravitas we must accept his interpretation.  The subsequent argument about Jesus’ flesh substituting for the veil that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies (Hebrews 9:2-3) is easier to understand:  Since Father‘s fullness dwells bodily in Jesus (Colossians 2:9); and Jesus’ mystical body, the Church (Ephesians 5:23), is God’s House (Hebrews 3:6), then those inside Jesus’ ‘flesh’ are technically in the Father‘s presence. Thus in a spiritual sense, those sanctified by Jesus’ blood and part of his body can approach the Heavenly Throne (Hebrews 4:16, 10:20-22).  Under this new system, faithful prayers supersede the incense that once rose from the altar of the Jerusalem Temple (Exodus 30:6-8; Psalm 141:2; Revelation 5:8).

ON MAN’S GENDER

   So much for Man’s form; gender is a little more complicated.  In response to questions regarding marriage and sex, Jesus replied that in Father’s Kingdom men and women would be like the angels in Heaven (Matthew 22:30); to wit, sexless,³ since human reproduction yields only animal/terrestrial progeny unfit for Father’s Kingdom (1Corinthians 15:46-50).  The redeemed, on the other hand, are spiritual /heavenly progeny engendered by Jesus’ relationship with the Church, in which sexual intercourse plays no role.

   The insistence on maleness is crucial in other respects.  In modern-day ‘feminine correctness,’ female angels have been posited, an unsupported assumption given that all angels appearing in Scripture were males [Michael, Gabriel, Lucifer, the angels at Jesus’ grave]; created for the express purpose of helping mankind in its quest for salvation (Hebrews 1:14; Revelation 22:9). If female angels are not needed to replenish the angelic host—the exclusive purpose for which copulation on earth was created (Genesis 1:22,28), what need was there for angels of both sexes? From their inception, the angelic population was complete. If anything, their original, countless host will be reduced by those to be burned at Armageddon.⁴

   Hence Jesus’ identifying title, “Son of Man” (Daniel 7:13; Luke 21:27; Revelation 1:13), proclaims Father‘s, not Joseph’s or Mary’s, paternity; and suggests Father‘s ‘gender’—if He has any at all—or at least how He wants to be perceived. It also alerts us to the fact that female divinities do not exist, since there are no gods besides Father‘s ‘male‘ Self (Exodus 20:3; Isaiah 43:10, 45:5).  It warns us as well that Satan will use female ‘vectors’ to separate us from Father; whether Eve (Genesis 3:1-5); Asherah [or the Ashtoreths linked with Baal (Judges 2:13)]; the “queen of heaven” (Jeremiah 7:18, 44:16-25); synagogues/churches (Proverbs 6:24-26, 7:6-27, 23:27; Jeremiah 5:7; Revelation 2:9,13, 20-24, 17:5-6, 18:2,13); and idolatrous capital cities [Nineveh (Nahum 3:4-7), Babylon (Isaiah 47:9,12-13), Jerusalem (2Chronicles 36:14; Jeremiah 2:2-35, 13:27), Rome (1Peter 5:13)].

   It was based on these precedents that Paul, unfairly accused of misogyny, pronounced his controversial—and in our apostate end times de rigueur unheeded—teachings regarding proper female behavior in saintly churches.  Because of Jesus and angels, women should have a sign of authority over their heads—a veil symbolizing spiritual submission to male divinities without abdicating their equality with men (1Corinthians 11:3-11); and be forbidden to be men’s teachers. Besides Paul’s Scriptural interpretation (1Corinthians 14:33-35), there is a pragmatic reason for this:  If men have always bungled preaching the Gospel, why add women’s ‘bungling’ to the mix?  ‘Shrewd’ Satan (Genesis 3:1↔Revelation 20:2) realized early on that Woman, twice removed from the Source of Truth, was the weakest link in the chain of spiritual knowledge.  By relying on religious leaders, female synagogues/churches impede the connection with the all-revealing Holy Spirit Jesus sends (John 16:7,13; 1John 2:27).  These institutions, with their dogmas and spurious Biblical interpretations, are the new ‘Eves’ through which Satan ensnares his victims.

   While female deities prominently feature in most world religions, we must remember that the Bible’s exclusive focus is on the Judeo-Christian branch; thus Israel’s “whorish/adulterous” relationships with female goddesses prefigured Christianity’s future bent.  As Israel worshipped goddesses in high hills and under every tree (2Kings 17:10; Ezekiel 6:13), neo-Christians flock to corresponding high places like Fatima, Lourdes, Medjugorge, or Tepeyac Hill. The human Mary, technically Jesus’ ‘mother,’ ⁵ has been enshrined as the new ‘Queen of Heaven’ in Roman Catholic dogma, as well the usurper of Jesus’ role as sole mediator between Father and men (1Timothy 2:5).  In point of fact, before Europe became evangelized, solar gods and Great Mother cults proliferated everywhere; so that after evangelization, former sites where they had been worshipped were ‘re-invented’ as neo-Christian shrines. Needless to say, the real Mary lies buried somewhere awaiting her resurrection.

MAN AND WOMAN: PROTOTYPES FOR JESUS AND HIS WIFE, THE CHURCH

   Moving on.  Man was created in a state of perfection; Woman was created so that Man would have “a suitable helper” (Genesis 2:18).  There is no need to belabor how that corresponds with the Church’s role in helping Jesus’ complete his mission as men’s Savior:  They are his working crew; they obey his instructions implicitly; the work gets done. In terms of Genesis we will never know, had not Man and Woman sinned, how Creation would have turned out.  But sin they did.  Man became Adam; Woman became Eve; both got evicted from Eden; and in a state of sin, they were slated for damnation (Genesis 3:22-24).  Human history had begun.

   It was Paul who established the connection between Adam and Jesus. Adam “was foreshadowing of the one who would come” (Romans 5:14).  In terms of Creation, the first Man, Adam, became a living creature, animal in nature, of the earth; the last Adam, Jesus, a life-giving spirit, spiritual, the second Man from Heaven (1Corinthians 15:45-47).  Through Adam sin entered the world; and since mankind was potentially present in him, sin spread to everyone (Romans 5:12).  Thus at one end of the spectrum of human history stands Adam, damning of all mankind with his transgression, and at the other end, Jesus remitting everyone’s sins through the shedding of his blood.  “Consequently, just as one offense [Adam’s] resulted in condemnation for everyone, so [Jesus’] act of righteousness [resulted] in justification and life for everyone” (Romans 5:17-18).  In short, Genesis 1:26-27 and 2:18 are shadow to the substance of Jesus’ mission.

   Similarly, Adam and Eve foreshadow Jesus and his Church: The first two became one flesh as would the latter two (Ephesians 5:30-32).  What then is one of the objectives in God’s plan of redemption?  To decontaminate mortal Jesus and mortal Church of sin, thus restoring them to their original sinless state as Man and Woman.  How is this accomplished?  Through the resurrection of the righteous, spearheaded by Jesus (Colossians 1:18); during which all the righteous dead since Abel plus those still living at end times will be made immortal and so ‘Heaven-ready’ (1Corinthians 15:50-53; 1Thessalonians 4:15).  Later, when all evildoers are destroyed at Armageddon and the Kingdom of Heaven is established on the new earth, will the redeemed have access to the Tree of Life barred from Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:22; Revelation 2:7, 22:2).  Simply put, a return to Eden.

   At the ensuing Wedding of the Lamb, Genesis 2:23-24 becomes factually true:  Man and Woman finally are united in marriage. Before, this had been partially true in a spiritual sense: The Church was beholden to Jesus as her husband, but whereas Jesus was immortal flesh, the Church was not. Only after the First Resurrection is immortal flesh shared.  “It is not yet revealed what we will be. But we know that, when he is revealed, we will be like him; for we will see him just as he is” (1John 3:2).  Which had been David’s hope: “I shall behold thy face in righteousness:  I shall be satisfied, when I awake [resurrect], with thy [immortal] likeness” (Psalms 17:15).   Toward that end, Jesus had left his Heavenly Father to unite with his bride (Matthew 9:15; Ephesians 5:22-32).  Throughout eternity, he will continue guiding her as King/High Priest on the new earth, having relinquished his proxy Godship to submit to the One and Only True God of all (1Corinthians 15:24-28; Revelation 3:12).

JESUS AND HIS CHURCH: ARCHITECT AND GOD’S TEMPLE

   Implicit in all of this is the building of Father’s eternal abode.  Since no human being could possibly build it, Father set out to build His own, not in terms of physical edifices but a Temple-less, Heavenly City (Isaiah 66:1↔Acts 7:48, 17:24; Hebrews 11:16↔Revelation 21:2-3,22).  David had wanted to build such a temple, but he had been rejected on account of the blood he had shed (1Chronicles 28:3).  Solomon accomplished the deed, while regarding his Jerusalem Temple as a way station accessing Father in Heaven (1Kings 8:27-53). Still Solomon was shadow to the prophetic son of David chosen to build Father‘s resting place amongst men: Jesus, who would rule forever over Father’s subjects in His Kingdom (1Chronicles 17:11-14).  The twin facts that Solomon apostatized⁶ and that his kingdom did not endure⁷ bear out this assertion.

   We see then that Jesus, both as Author and Perfecter of faith (Hebrews 12:2) and ‘crew leader,’ was the son of David (Revelation 22:16) prophesied to build Father’s house.  This was no ordinary building:  It was made of human beings doubling as “stones,” of which Jesus himself was the foundation’s cornerstone (Acts 4:11; Ephesians 2:20; Hebrews 3:6; 1Peter 2:5)—hence too Simon’s name-change to Cephas/Peter (John 1:42↔Matthew 16:18). In a mystical sense, this edifice is Jesus’ body, the Church (Ephesians 5:23); and since Father‘s fullness dwells in Jesus (Colossians 2:9), so in a sense Father dwells in every faithful, though not personally but through His Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9-10). Father‘s actual presence inside the redeemed can only take place after mortal flesh becomes immortal and thus suitable to commune with the Divine (1Corinthians 15:50).  And this will fully happen in Father’s Kingdom, the fulfillment of 1Chronicles 17:13-14.

    As stated before, given that Father will inhabit the hearts of the redeemed, the Heavenly Jerusalem have no Temple (Revelation 21:22); consequently,  Ezekiel’s Temple (Chapters 40 through 46) is not a reference to a “third” Temple⁸ zealous Zionists believe will be built on earth prior to the Messiah’s coming.  Earth is contaminated by evil; Judaism had its opportunity to make good and blew it; Father declared man-made sanctuaries unfit to contain Him (2Chronicles 6:18; Isaiah 66:1); and the Messiah will reign in the Heavenly but not the earthly Jerusalem (Ezekiel 10:19, 11:23, 43:1, 44:2). More to the point, in order to build such a Temple, Islam’s Al-Aqsa Mosque would have to be demolished, which would plunge the entire region into war. Since both Isaiah 54:12 and Ezekiel 48:30-35 describe aspects of the Heavenly City (Revelation 21:12-21) interspersed with Temple rules and regulations, it is possible that those prophecies concerning worship and rituals have nothing to do with the Heavenly Jerusalem [substance], but instead were meant for its earthly counterpart [shadow] and the Temple to be rebuilt and re-consecrated there under Ezra and Nehemiah.

   For one thing, Ezekiel’s Mosaic-like rituals  were rendered obsolete by Jesus’ crucifixion (Ezekiel 43:18-27, 44:15-31, 45:15-17; Hebrews 9:9-10); since by remitting sins for all time through the shedding of his blood the faithful were no longer “unclean” (↔John 15:3) and in need of constant re-purification (Hebrews 10:1-14).  For another, the preeminent priestly role of teaching God’s laws to congregations (Malachi 2:7), will no longer be needed:  “I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from following them, to do them good; and I will put My fear in their hearts, that they may not depart from Me…This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel after that time” declares Yahweh. “I will put My law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. “No longer will a person teach his neighbor or his relative: ‘Know Yahweh.’ Instead, they’ll all know Me, from the least to the greatest of them,” declares Yahweh. ‘Indeed, I’ll forgive their iniquity, and I’ll remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 32:40, 31:33-34).

   When and where will sins not be remembered anymore?  In God’s Kingdom on a new earth, where even Father Himself has promised to forget “first things” (Isaiah 65:16-17; Revelation 21:1-4); thus what need would there be to expiate for anything Father is no longer concerned with?  What need to sacrifice animals whose blood cannot make perfect?  What need to atone for imperfection where everything and everyone has been already perfected by grace?  And where to offer such sacrifices in the Heavenly City where there is no Temple for that purpose?

THE GENESIS CONNECTION

   All of this had been intimated in Genesis 1:26-27 and 2:21-24.  That Man and Woman were originality created in God’s likeness [shadow] becomes incontrovertibly true the moment Jesus and Church share Father’s immortality and holiness (Hebrews 12:10; 1Peter 2:9; Revelation 5:9-10).  As it was necessary for Man to fall asleep in order that Woman be fashioned out of his body, so did Jesus died/slept,⁹ so that by remitting sins through the shedding his blood, his Church could rise from death into eternal life (Isaiah 53:5; Matthew 26:54; John 18:11; Hebrews 9:14-22,26, 12:24; 1Peter 2:24). As a rib was taken from Man to fashion Woman, so was Jesus’ side speared to highlight the two elements contributing to the Church’s begetting:  His blood and living waters providing spiritual sustenance (Isaiah 44:3, 58:11; John 4:10,14).  As Man declared Woman “bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh,” so did Paul argue with respect to Jesus and the Church, husband and wife (Ephesians 5:25-32). 

   It is then that Genesis 1:32 becomes factually and literally true.  Heavens and earth are created brand new; evil has been exterminated, death made non-existent; an immortal holy nation has been born; peace has been made eternally enduring; no more suffering or sickness (Jeremiah 33:6-9; Ezekiel 28:26 34:24-281Peter 2:9-Revelation 4:5-10, 21:1-4)—everything indeed “very good!”

   But these things will fully come to pass after the Seventh Day of Genesis 2:3, shadow to the Millennium of Revelation 20, throughout which the redeemed will reign with Jesus in Heaven (Revelation 20:5-6).  All the while Satan will be chained alive on a dead earth, his angelic host presumably still confined in prisons of darkness (2Peter 2:4) awaiting collective execution with all the resurrected unrighteous since Cain at Armageddon (Revelation 20:7-10,14-15).

Armageddon thus marks the sunset of the first “Day” of a new Creation “Week” when time morphs into the timelessness of eternity.  Correspondingly, Jesus ‘rested in death’ on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath and resurrected on Sunday morning, the first day (John 20:19) of an enduring ministry; building foundations for immortal things to be possible while spelling the beginning of the end of Satan’s reign on earth.

¹ The same synergy between Satan, King of Tyre, and his priestly “prince” in Ezekiel 28:2-19 (↔Acts 23:5). Connect the dots amongst 2Thessalonians 2:4,8-10↔Revelation 13:8; Ezekiel 28:3-5↔Daniel 8:23-35. Also note that Satan rules from a church (Revelation 2:13, 18:2) in Babylon Rome (Revelation 17:9); plus the connection between the “waters” upon which the Great Harlot sits and the “midst of the seas” in Ezekiel 28:2, both symbols for the nations of the world over which the Harlot exerts control (Revelation 17:15).

² Which will be possible in the Kingdom of God (1John 3:2; Revelation 22:4).

³ Which contradicts the assumption that Genesis 6:2 refers to angels copulating with women. In this context “sons of God” refers to Adam’s male descendants; whereas “daughters of men” refers to females born of them.

⁴ Perhaps in the order of one-third their original count; since soul losses are often expressed in ‘thirds’ (Ezekiel 5:12; Zechariah 13:9; Revelation 12:4)?

⁵ Mary did not contribute a single nucleotide of her genome to the embryo implanted in her uterus (Luke 1:34-35); so Jesus was Father‘s Son for a second time. To say that Mary is the mother of God is a blasphemy of the first order; for she was neither Father‘s mother nor the parent of the Creator Son who set in motion the means of conception by which Mary was born centuries after Creation. This blasphemous notion has its origin in Trinitarian dogma, where Father and Son are posited to be the same Deity.

⁶ For love of David, Father may have forgiven Solomon.  At any rate Solomon was not cast out like Saul was (2Samuel 7:14-15).

⁷ 1Kings 11:1-13.

⁸ The first being Solomon’s Temple, destroyed by the Babylonians; the second, rebuilt under Ezra and Nehemiah and still standing during Jesus’ lifetime, was upgraded by Herod.  As is frequently the case in politics, Herod bargained on a religious stunt to gain brownie points with pious Jews who hated him. It is impossible to conceive, given the precedent of David’s unsuitability to build Father’s Temple, that Jews of Herod’s time would believe their moral proxy God would consent to inhabit the work of such a thoroughly godless, corrupted man. Unbeknown to them, since only Yahweh Son could have inhabited the desert Tabernacle and Solomon’s Temple, the Holy of Holies in Herod’s Temple had become vacant: Yahweh Son, then incarnate as Jesus, would begin his ministry outside of it.

⁹ In Scripture, death is equated with sleep (1Kings 2:10: Daniel 12:2; Luke 8:52; Acts 7:60; 1Thessalonians 4:13,15).