@God'sGrace
Yes...I think we are in the same ballpark.
Think about this: Satan (Lucifer) was an Angel created by God. He rebelled and became a disobedient angel. When that happened Satan (Lucifer) still possessed all the powers and gifts that God gave him when he was created. The difference is that he was using those powers for his purposes, in disobedience to God. The product of his disobedience is evil. --Notice that I am being very careful how I say this.--
We, also, are disobedient and the result of that disobedience is evil.
Please be very careful how you say this because you can end up with God creating evil.
Everything God does is Good. Satan, because he cannot create anything, manipulates God's creation. He does this by removing the Good from God's creation. Look carefully at the Genesis account of The Fall. Satan does not add or create, he subtracts. The lies he tells lack total goodness. He says that she won't die if she eats the fruit. In a very tiny sense that is true: the fruit is not poison. But his statement is lacking honesty. She will die spiritually. And, unless she eats from the Tree of Life, she will die physically. What Satan tells her lacks Goodness. Therefore it is evil.
--Note that a lie can be 'true' but because it lacks Goodness it is evil.
Evil is not 'bad' but disobedient. Lemons taste 'bad' to some people, but the lemon is not disobedient to God. However, I may choose to disobey God. When I do, that is evil.
We don't like the concept of disobedience being evil. So we try to avoid thinking about it.
I do not find any comfort in evil, but I find great comfort in this theological idea. First, I know that God does not create evil. Second, I now see repentance and salvation much more clearly.
This is a very tough thing for some to comprehend. Took me a very long time. Pray about it. Read what I am saying very carefully. Evil really is the absence of Good. Once you see that, then so very much of the Bible becomes clear.
Rejoice Always!!!
With most of what you say we can agree with to a point, but one point we cannot agree with at all, and that is the suggestion that either Adam or Eve possessed a spiritual essence. Adam was created a natural being, earthly. There is absolutely no scripture which attest to God implanting into him any spiritual essence. The spiritual and the earthly natures are two distinct natures, and they are not blended.
This is where the fallen spirits went wrong when they took earthly wives for themselves and created the Nephilim an unauthorized race consisting of the blending of the two natures.
Neither Adam nor Eve upon eating the forbidden fruit died spiritually for they never possessed any spiritual essence to begin with, they died physically. “
The soul that sins IT will die”. (
Ezek 18:4)
Adam and Eve were living souls created from the dust of the earth.
“
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath (“
neshamah”)
of life; and man became a living being (soul).”
NKJV Gen 2:7
“The word ‘
soul;’ as found in the Scriptures, signifies a
sentient being; that is a being possessed of
sense-perception. Note closely the sequence of events entailed in the creation of man as stated in the above text.
First the organism or
body was formed from the dust of the earth, and then the
spirit of life, called ‘
breath of life,’ was instilled in the body or organism, which in turn resulted in the creation of a
living soul, or sentient being.
Thus seen a soul is the combination of body and breath; it is a living, thinking creature.
Man does not have a soul. Man IS a soul.
This is very simple, and easily understood. It shows that the body is not the soul, nor is the spirit or breath of life the soul; but that when these two were united by the Lord, the resultant quality or condition was a living man, a living being--a living soul possessed of perceptive powers.
There is nothing mysterious about this nor is there any intimation that a spark of divinity (spirituality) was infused into humanity, any more than into the lower animals.”
Some are of the impression that man is made up of three parts:
1) The body -- made of clay,
2) the animal soul that dies upon our body's death, and
3) the godly spirit that returns to God upon our death.
The Scriptures however recognize man as composed of only
two elements (not three),
body and
spirit. These two produce soul, sentient being, intelligence, the man himself, the being, or soul. The term "
body" applies merely to the physical organism. It neither relates to the life, which animates it, nor to the sentient being which is the result of animation. A body is not a man, although there could be no man without a body. The
spirit of life is
not the man, although there could be no manhood without the spirit of life.
The word "
spirit" is, in the Old Testament Scriptures, from the Hebrew word “
ruach”. Its signification primarily is
breath; and hence we have the expression "
breath of life," or "
spirit of life," because breathing supports the spark of life once started. The words "
spirit of life," however, signify more than merely breath; they relate to the spark of life itself, without which breath would be impossibility.
This is what the scriptures state in regards to the soul,
“
And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”
Gen 2:7
This shows that
there are two elements necessary to the composition of a living soul or sentient being, first
the organism or body, which the Word of the Lord states came from the earth and was composed of the dust of the earth, and secondly
the spirit of life, called "
breath of life," which was communicated to the lifeless organism form God. Once these two elements were joined, and only then did the soul (or individual) come into being.
When we die the “
breath of life” returns to the Father, and the body returns to the dust from whence it came, the “
soul” ceases to be. It is only because God has intended a Resurrection of both the just and the unjust, that man is considered only to be “
sleeping” asleep in death, therefore God has not destroy completely the remembrance of the individual, the soul.
The process of dissolution,
death, is in harmony with these facts. “
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit (“
ruach” Strong’s # 7307, breath of life)
shall return unto God who gave it.” (
Eccl 12:7)
Thus Eve could not die spiritually as she never possessed any spiritual essence.
Now the Church on the other hand, that is those begotten of the spirit do possess a spiritual essence in that they have been begotten to a new nature, a spirit nature. However this new nature at present is only a new mind, they shall don't receive the new spirit body until they have successfully completed their consecration in death.
Now someone might suggest, ‘
Is this not a violation of God’s law concerning the possession of two natures mixed in one being?’ Actually no it is not, why is this? Because upon our Lord’s acceptance of the individual believer the old man or nature was thence forth considered
dead, from this point on God only recognizes the “
new creature”.
