Some Questions Concerning the Eden Texts, etc.

That is like my understanding. They were created with an everlasting life that God could maintain forever. I see no other warning that something would bring death.Therefore if they had an everlasting life yet were placed before a tree of life, eternal life, this tree must represent something more than just an everlasting and good human life. God Himself is the Uncreated Life. For He preceeded the creation of all things.The tree of life represents the Uncreated Life of God Himself. This tree of life means God's plan to dispense Himself into man so that man and God could be mingled to be one entity. God has certain attributes which are not communicable. But on the other hand He has as life which He can impart into man that God and man may unite.This union looks like Jesus Christ Who is God and Man united. The tree of life was the means of God mass producing sons of God who live in God and God lives in them. The tree of life signifies God's desire to live in organic union with man.Mary E. McDonough writes: Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.

I think "the problem" is that after I have read the Bible, have I touched God.If I have not come away with having touched God, it doesn't matter that much how I have interpreted things. If you have touched God's presence by counting that there was no actual talking serpent, I am certainly glad about that.I would prefer that to you understanding a talking serpent and come away from your reading not having tasted the Spirit of God deep in your heart.I am for feeding on God's presence in the Word. I am not for talking snakes just for the sake of talking snakes.Every word of the Bible should bring us into the presence of God nourishing and feeding a spiritual hunger in our hearts.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.

tbEdited by jaywill, : No reason given.

The revelation of the difference between spirit and soul is progressive in the Bible. We should not expect it to be as clear in the book of Genesis as it is in the books of the New Testament.This is because the revelation of the economy and plan of God is also progressive. And the distinction between the human soul and the human spirit advances roughly along the same pace as the unvieling of God's purpose to dispense Himself into man.Now, I would advize you to think of three realms along with three parts of man:The spiritual realm (God) - needs the exercise of the human spirit.The psychological realm (other minds, other souls) - needs the exercise of the human soul.The physical realm (the physical world) - needs the exercise of the human physical body.Therefore spirit, soul, and body are three facilities of man related to three realms of existence - the realm of God and the spiritual, the realm of the psychological, and the realm of the physical.These can be thought of as three dimensions. To repeat, this kind of distinction is progressively disclosed in the Bible. But lets take Genesis 2:7 as a proto revelation of this matter - a little preliminary window given."Jehovah God formed man with the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul."1.) The physical body of the man came from the dust of the ground.
2.) The innermost spirit of man came from God. This kind of very profound matter is spoken somewhat poetically perhaps because of the limitation of human language - God breathed into his nostrils the spirit of life, the breath of life.
3.) The result of the union of the spirit breathed out from God and the physical body made of dust CAUSED man to become a living soul.The joining of the spirit "breathed" out from God and the physical body formed of the dust caused something to emerge into existence. The man became a living soul.The spirit breathed out from God and into the nostrils of man is something very close to God Himself. Yet it is not God. But it gives the man an "organ" to contact God.The spirit breathed out by the Creator into the dusty man anchors the created man with the way to contact the Uncreated and Divine Person of God. The spirit breathed into man became man's human spirit. And this human spirit links man to the realm of the Uncreated and Divine Source of everything - God.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.

Someone might object that the animals have a spirit also so that means there is nothing special about the spirit of man. I concede that in the Old Testament they may have some ground for that objection.But there is not enough ground to undue the other parts of the Bible which progressively show that the spirit of man connects allows man to connect to God in a way that the animals do not do so.Now I am not going to give chapter and verse now because I am not with my study Bible. However I would submit two passages:"There is a spirit in man, and the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding""The spirit of man is the lamp of Jehovah, illuminating the all the parts of the inner being."I will provide locations to these two Old Testament passages latter. One is from the book of Job and the other is in the book of Proverbs.Anyway, there is a spirit in man should mean that man is more than a spirit. Within the man there IS a spirit. There is a spirit IN man. This human spirit is the breath of the Almighty which gives him understanding.I don't believe that this means that the spirit of man is man's mind. I believe that it means that the spirit of man supplies man's mind with understanding. Man's mind must interpret the things which are in man's spirit. There is a spirit in man which is the breath of the Almighty and gives the man understanding.This understanding, I believe, is not of common matters. It is understanding of divine realities. This is an understanding supplied to the human mind which trancends what the other creatures on earth have. That is my opinion about this passage.The other passage says that the spirit of man is the lamp of God. This lamp of Jehovah installed in man illuminates to God and man all the inward parts of the inner being.This to me means there are the inner parts of the inner being of man. And distinct from them is the spirit of man which shine light upon these other inward parts of man. I take this to mean that man's human spirit is deeper than his mind, emotion, and will. It is the deepest part of man that illuminates to God and man the inner motives, intentions, thoughts of man to himself and to God.In addition to these verses there is Zechariah 12:1 which says that God stretched forth the heavens, laid the foundation of the earth and formed the spirit of man within him. Again, the spirit of man is within him. He is more than just spirit. He has within him a spirit.This passage also illustrates the importance of this human spirit of man. It ranks in importance to two other matters - the heavens and the foundation of the earth.In short the passage means to me that the heavens are for the earth and the earth is for man and man has a human spirit to contact God the Creator. The Lord stetched forth the universe for the earth. Then God formed the earth's foundation for mankind. Then God formed the spirit of man within man that man may have communion, fellowship, and intimate enjoyment of the Uncreated Divine Life which is God.

Sorry for any confusion.One thing is for certain. When we die we will turn into dust. It seems reasonable that dust is what we were made of.And the dust came out of the stars. I think everything physical can be traced back to what was in the enterior of stars.But to know that we were made of dust is good enough for the purposes of the Bible.It seems that God is so aware as to be able to trace every molecule of our bodies to know where each came from. According to Psalm 139 he observed David while he was being formed in the depths of the earth even before he was knit together in his mother's womb: The extent of both His ownership of us as His creations and His love for us is far beyond what we can imagine. Edited by jaywill, : No reason given.