Time Travel
And God created Man in His image and in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them. Genesis 1:27
Image – An enormous amount of material has been written about this word,tselem. Most of it attempts to elucidate the attributes of the divine image found in human beings. That approach is a bit too Greek for me. I prefer to deal with the action and relations that are implied in the God who is action and relation. I think that the image of God is more about what we do than it is about what attributes we have. But we won’t cover that ground again (if you want to see where we have been, look here). Today we need to think about something else that is implied in this verse. Adam was not a “primitive.”
Something amazing has happened in the last several hundred years. Men have decided that they are the current top rung of the progressive ascent toward utopia. Our society believes that we are coming closer and closer to the final truths of the universe. We think of ourselves as the ones who are at the leading edge of progress. With a few more discoveries, a few more adjustments and a few more visionary leaders, we will arrive at the pinnacle of rationality. We will become our destiny.
There is a religious parallel to this political, scientific and economic hubris. It is the belief that men have progressed from primitive worship of idols toward higher and higher forms of religious awareness until one day they came upon the idea of a monotheistic God. Men moved from the worship of divinities in thunder and lightning to the worship of multiple gods to the worship of one supreme being. Just like its utopian counterpart, this progression in religion moved up the incline from ignorance to rational supremacy until it reached our lofty consciousness.
What all of this implies is that Adam was an idiot. This utopian view implies that Adam was primitive and therefore, he must have been stupid. He must have been an animist or a polytheist. He certainly could not have been a sophisticated monotheist like us. He is ancient, a synonym for ignorant. What this means is that nothing ancient has much to say to me today. If the truth is in the future, what can I possibly learn from the past except error? I don’t need history. History is a record of man’s mistakes and erroneous beliefs. What I need is a constant view toward what is yet to come. I can turn my back on all that ancient mumbo-jumbo. It is useless.
A society without a past is one step away from collapse. Without a foundation, any structure will fall. The Bible makes a staggering claim. Things in the beginning were better than they are today. In fact, they were better than they will ever be no matter how sophisticated men become. We began perfect. We have been moving toward imperfect ever since. According to the biblical foundation, the future is not our home. We left the home in the Garden. We are now strangers to ourselves and to the world. Without restoration to the original, we are doomed.
The biblical idea of the image of Man stands in utter contradiction to the entire progressive hubris of the world. Any action or endorsement of this utopian progressivism is idolatrous. It will lead nowhere but to destruction. “Return to Me,” isn’t just about moral forgiveness. It is about a restoration of the image of God in the actions of men – and that is Garden talk.
Topical Index: image, tselem, progressive, utopia, Adam, Genesis 1:27
Excellent message, Skip! Thank you!
Helen
You’re welcome. Glad you found it useful.
-And God created Man in His image and in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them. (Genesis 1:27)
“In the beginning G-d.” Elohim started it and He sustains it. This is His show. “This is the LORD’s doings and it is marvelous in our eyes.” “The earth is the LORD’s and the fulness thereof”- “For by Him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for Him.
(“All things”-I don’t think anything was left out here, up to and including- the Jew and the Greek) “Time travel”- good title for today’s word- “image/tselem”. A shadow, a type, a prototype-a representation, – something “new and different”.
The first Adam was a shadow. A type. A story. A parable. A representation. A tselem. Eve also was included in this story. It is important for us to see and to know- “male and female” made He them. G-d (our Creator) has a “female” side to Him as well as a male side. He is,as Brennan Manning writes,-a “tender warrior.” G-d (very much) has a tender, compassionate, comforting side to Him. (And this man is so grateful He does!)
The first Adam represents “humanity”. All of us since “day one.” Go on- “scope it out.” Take a long look- Adam is us.
We are so quick to “blame” the first family for our troubles, but if we were there (in the midst of it all) we would fail also. We are no match for Hasatan, the Twister. “Remember”- Adam and Eve were in a “perfect world” when they fell. (So much for depending on our environment or circumstances).
Now, because we have a written record of our history with G-d, we can “fast forward” a few millenia to the “second Adam”- Christ. (You do know He is called the “second Adam”- right?). Romans 5:12-6:5.
“There is only one perfect man to have ever lived.” (shock of shocks- it is not me). There is none righteous- no, not one. (sorry, in the first Adam and because of the first Adam you’re not perfect either!) Neither is my wife, neither are my children! -There is only one perfect, sinless man who ever lived (and lives today!)- “Jesus Christ- the Righteous (ONE).
“My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense–Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.” (1 John 2.1)
Christ is our center, our compass and the circumference. Christ is all, and in you all. The beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega.
We (all) need to be “Christ-centric”. He is the (only) perfect second Adam. Perfect male, perfect female, perfect man and holy G-d, the (only) G-d/man, Jesus Christ, (Yeshau Hamashiach) the Righteous One.
I am now going to share something “shocking!” – You and I are next of kin to Elohim! (Talk about hubris-I hope it elevates your blood pressure to read this!) Before a “come apart” occurs read His words one more time- “Behold (take a good look!) what love the Father has given to us, that we should be called the children of God. For this reason the world knows us not, because it knew him not.” (1 John 3.1)
One more item of business, then I must attend to my “busy-ness..”- “We (you and I, dear family) gain more “in Christ”, than we lost in Adam! -So much more!- (This could be a very long blog!) Think of the treasures we have “in Christ!”
I’m not going to name a single one,- this is on you. (read the Book!) -If you do not know what you have and who you are “in Christ,”- ask Him to reveal this to you. “Fasten your seat belt,” first.
Skip,
I just feel like standing up and yelling, Woo-hoo!!!! Bold, straightforward reminders of truth, combating the constant deception in this world. Refreshing.
Nice to have you back, Betty.
Skip, I found today’s Word to be very helpful. It fits so well my beliefs, yet I have had trouble expressing it to others. The picture of the decline of humanity is vivid. Again, thanks.
Hi Skip,
As we’ve read some of the responses over the last week or so, it has been obvious that a lot of the confusion over what believers should and shouldn’t be doing as regards ‘the Hebrew perspective’ comes about because some of the community are trying (from what we perceive) to have a Hebrew perspective on a western religion. Now that you’ve gone back to the beginning, it would be good if you could remind people that the Jews don’t believe that mankind ‘fell’ as Christianity believes they did. I think if folk were clear that the Torah doesn’t speak about original sin and a ‘fall’ from the perfection you have so clearly identified, and that Jews believe that mankind doesn’t need a saviour in the Christian sense, that ‘all else’ Hebrew would make a lot more sense.
We have found, as we’ve tried to correct our worldview, that the biggest obstacle was our Christian/Greek belief that mankind is inherently sinful and that they can’t do anything to make amends… however that isn’t the Torah’s teaching. I am sure someone will ask us to clarify this post – but I think that it would be better if it came from you… you can explain these things much better than we ever could!
the Torah doesn’t speak about original sin and a ‘fall’ from the perfection”
“Christian/Greek belief that mankind is inherently sinful and that they can’t do anything to make amends”
Hi Ian and Tara Marron,
Seems to me that the Torah speaks about the originl sin as an “act” of rebellion and as the cause of our suffering.
Christianity tends to view original sin as a “state of being.”
But the Torah describes sin as a desire (evil impulse) that needs to be domesticated.
In both the Hebrew and Christian worldviews, mankind needs God/Jesus to be redeemed, and if man does not obey God he is doomed.
The big difference for me is that the Hebrew model (David) is inherently sinful but the Christian model (Jesus) is perfect.
On the cross, Jesus refers to David in Psalm 22, who tells us that whatever God gives us, as emotionally painful as it may be, is perfect as is.
While I think you are closer to the Hebrew model with the idea of the yetzer ha’ra as an act of rebellion, and it is certainly true that Christianity made it into a state of being, I am not so sure your comments about David are correct. You seem to slip back into the “sinful nature” idea there. And Psalm 22 is not about emotional pain as perfect. Check the references to this Psalm in the archives.
John 8:7 When they kept questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “The one of you who is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”
Hi Skip,
I don’t tend to think in terms of “sinful nature,” which to me is another “static” concept, but once we start talking about it, sinful nature seems to apply to almost everybody.
And Paul says sexual infidelity is grounds to be cast out of the community, so wouldn’t the same standard apply to David, before he repaired his relationship to God?
Regarding my comment “emotional pain as perfect” (I’m not a masochist), maybe it would make more sense to say that whatever God gives us, including emotional pain, is a perfect opportunity to connect with him.
The yetzer ha’ra, the “evil inclination” is not necessarily bad in and of itself. It is better described as the drive to provide for one’s own earthly desires which, left unchecked, leads to self-gratification, greed, materialism and ultimately rebellion against the purposes of God. It is balanced by the yetzer ha’tov, the “good inclination”, that inner voice that draws us towards God’s ways (is this not the role of the Holy Spirit/Ruach HaKodesh?).
According to Rabbinic thought, the yetzer ha’ra is born with the person at birth, but the yetzer ha’tov is not “born” until the child reaches the age of accountability (12), at which time the youth begins to learn the process of checking the yetzer ha’ra and bringing into submission to the yetzer ha’tov (the process of maturing). This kind of makes sense when you think about it (think about how young children act and how we strive to teach them to think of others rather than themselves).
The Rabbis also point out, however, that without the yetzer ha’ra, man would not find a job, build a house, take a wife etc. but that this drive is expected to be in submission to the yetzer ha’tov (we would call it living “by the spirit of God”).
I only learnd about this recently while doing a deeper study into Romans 7. Reading it in English (immediately after having listened to Skip’s excellent new series on apologetics) it sounded very much like the Platonic idea of the “flesh” or physical world being basically evil and the “higher, spiritual plane of existence” being that which we should be aspiring to. Knowing that Sha’ul is thoroughly Jewish in his thought patterns and beliefes, however, I figured that that couldn’t have been what he meant – it had to be something essentially Hebraic in concept, not Greek.
With that in mind, go back and read Romans Ch 7 (you know, where Sha’ul says, “That which I want to do, I don’t do, and that which I don’t want to do, that I do” (paraphrased). Sha’ul is being very Jewish, speaking directly of the struggle between the “flesh” and the “Spirit” or the yetzer ha’ra and the yetzer ha’tov.
I think this helps us better understand Havah, in that she desired to be a better ‘ezer kenegdo and sought (with the suggestion from the serpent) to make a way to do that in and of herself, rather than submitting that desire to the will and commandment of God and allowing Him to be the provider of her strength and ability. Her yetzer ha’ra was not in submission to the yetzer ha’tov.
Hmmm. “…the drive to provide for one’s own earthly desires…” – not exactly what I meant (I should not type when I’m also trying to do other things…). A better way to express it would have been “…to provide for one’s own physical needs (and wants)…”.
“A better way to express it would have been “…to provide for one’s own physical needs (and wants)…”.”
Hi Rodney,
I don’t think the yetzer ha’ra just applies to “physical needs.”
It seems to me to be more like what we would call “desire” in our post-Freudian world.
The Talmud notes that without the yetzer ha’ra (the desire to satisfy personal needs), man would not build a house, marry a wife, beget children, or conduct business affairs.
In other words, the yetzer ha’ra is not a bad thing.
It was created by God and all things created by God are good.
But the yetzer ha’ra can lead to wrongdoing when it is not controlled by the yetzer tov.
Judaism 101
http://www.jewfaq.org/index.htm
Agreed, Michael. You’ve pretty much said what I originally said – I just wasn’t entirely happy with the phrase “earthly desires”. Perhaps the “earthly” was the word that wasn’t needed – after all, as you correctly point out, those desires and appetites are given by God for His glory and purposes – it is only when they are misused that they lead to sin.
I think in the apologetics mp3s, Skip explains sin:
Greek: what I do that’s wrong (of course, then there’s the relativistic society that asks, “wrong according to whose rules?” – problematic)
Hebrew: what I don’t do to glorify God – in other words, anything I don’t do for the glory of God
Please correct me, Skip, if I stated that poorly (or am completely off). And, it may have been Skip quoting Abraham Heschel. 🙂
I, too, would love to see more on this topic as it’s one of those areas that is pounded into every good Christian’s head (I should know – I grew up a missionary kid with Campus Crusade). I am SO thankful that God planted a seed of holy discontent that is growing into something extraordinary (okay, for the Jewish person, it’s ordinary, but for me, it’s quite a journey)! 🙂 I love it!
Yes, we will have to do a lot more on this. But you can start my searching “sinful nature” on my web site.
Ian and Tara, the book of Genesis, is the book of beginnings. Do you believe this? Is this an actual event with actual people or just a story to entertain us. Was there a man by the name of Adam and a woman by the name of Eve? (Havah). Was Hasatan present and were the first couple tempted by the Tempter? Was the garden of Eden a paradise and did Adam converse with his Creator in the cool of the evening? Were Adam and Eve both naked, yet felt no shame? Did Adam and Eve attempt to hide themselves from G-d and if so- why? Is there such a thing as sin? Does sin offend G-d?
What about a Biblical worldview? Is this acceptable?- or offensive? Do you believe the Torah is contained within the Bible? What about the Tanakh? What was the tslav and what was the purpose of the tslav? Do you believe in Y’shua Hamashiach? Who is He?
Hi Carl,
Sorry for the delay – we’ve been away from the site for a day or two. Let’s see if we can help with your questions. Genesis – no… from the Hebrew we understand that Genesis is A book of beginnings, not THE book of beginnings. This is because there were other records of ‘beginnings’ – for instance, the Epic of Gilgamesh, which relates how the serpent mentioned in Genesis ‘knows’ that you don’t die if you eat from the tree.
As for your other questions about the early days of mankind, I think Skip has adequately covered these better than we could in his seminar teachings (and will probably do an even better job of the same in his book about the ‘ezer). We would refer you to those.
Your next few questions are a little confusing. The Jews see the Torah as the first five books of the Bible… and it is the entire Hebrew Bible (The Tanakh)… and it is the Law… so, when you ask if it is ‘contained within’, I’m not really sure how to give you a more specific answer.
‘Tslav’ is a word that came into being in the 2nd century AD – it’s purpose was to describe a vaguely cross-shaped instrument of torture/execution that was widely in use by then. However, (and some people have been confused by this) it was not the same word that was used in the early first century for the instrument of execution that Y’shua was lifted up on… he died on an ‘ets – a ‘tree’.
You end by asking who Y’shua is – this is a difficult question to answer in an open forum. We do not know, really, what you believe… nor do we know what your place of worship teaches – so rather than raise the possibility of disrespecting you or your teacher/minister (assuming you have one) we will respectfully stay quiet on that one… we wouldn’t want to offend you by speaking as though we had the 100% right answer to such a tricky question. But to tease you into doing a little study we would risk saying that he was a ‘tsaddik’ who died for the sin of the world.
Skip,
Wonderful insight on this one, I loved it. It really brings the point home.
Thanks again,
Manny
I believe that our natures, because of the fall, are 180 degrees reversed from the way we were created. Why is everything that feels good, tastes good, looks good, bad for me? Because in our fallen state we actually crave our own destruction. We are irresistibly drawn to that which erodes our being. Consider what we crave as entertainment; the challenge of getting as close to death as possible without going over the edge. Things as simple as roller coasters, with their rush of adrenaline that comes from defying death in our “faith” that the track will hold; or the vicarious fascination with video games that more and more graphically intensify the realism of dying and human destruction.
This happens on deeper psychological levels as well. When we are lonely, we reject each other, drawing deeper and deeper into self-destructive behaviors such as over-eating and chemical numbing of the pain. The smoker knows the damage done by every inhalation, but frantically trades his future health for the immediacy of that temporal comfort. We write songs about how much “Love Hurts,” and determine that “I am a rock, I am an island,” when it is not “Love” that hurts, but the lack of it. We reject the very things of God that will heal us and use the excuse that, “I’ve tried that and it’s not for me.”
We are fascinated by our own destruction because we are NOT in His image anymore. But He has left within in us a yearning for that image again. The shadow of His image remains and cries out for restoration. We hurt because we mistake our “yearning for goodness” as goodness itself, our longing for relationship as “love” itself. That yearning leads us to stuff ourselves with anything that we believe will mitigate the pain, even if we know intellectually that it will hurt us more later on. But He offers to recreate His image in us, and our only hope of healing is to “put off” the obsession with self and self-destruction, and “put on” the new self with the image of God restored through Christ.
The idea of a “nature” that yearns for destruction is an importation from another philosophical view. Biblical man is both good and evil. He can do righteous acts and yet be rebellious. The battlefield is the will, not the DNA.
I am just beginning my exploration of your site and it seems to be just what I’ve been looking for in terms of learning more about the Hebrew worldview. So many questions arise in my reading of the Old Testament that aren’t satisfactorily dealt with in most commentaries. On the other hand I am not prepared to abandon the idea of God outside of time in the light of statements such as “Before Abraham was I AM,” and “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” So I am looking forward to ferreting out your answers to these and many others as I peruse your writings and recordings.
I am completely open to revising my understandings of the ontology of God, but am not entirely convinced that the Greeks had it all wrong any more than I am certain that Hebrew culture and understanding is inerrant. I am at once eager and skeptical.
This whole thing is so important to me that I want to be absolutely open with you in the hope of continuing dialogue. There are some minor things that give me hesitancy, one being the condescending stance of some of your commentors here toward Christians and Christian theology (I find airs of superiority repugnant), and another the apotheosis (although that is a stronger a word than I want) of your point of view as the end-all. It seems a bit cultic at first glance. I don’t see you as claiming this for yourself in any way, but it is peripherally implied in some of the comments of others.
However, I am brand new here and have only begun in my Hebraic infancy. The whole thing is fascinating to me and I am looking forward to this new aspect of study. Thank you for this site and community!
Thanks for the cautions. A good reminder. I know that I have miles to go before I sleep and I am but a babe in these woods. But pursuit of truth will carry us through it all, with no pretensions that we will find what is comfortable. I doubt the prophets worried too much about making the people feel good about their current beliefs. So, welcome aboard. All questions are good questions. All thoughts are useful.
Welcome! I’m relatively new to this, too… and it’s quite a shift in thinking, isn’t it! I think I ask more questions than I offer clarity, for sure, so feel free to ask away if you get confuse or overwhelmed (this happens to me a lot). I’ve found that this community has been kind and gracious in walking this path with me (even when I say ridiculous things because it’s too early to think straight), and patient in answering the questions of us newbies. 🙂 Anyway, it’s great to have you and I hope you continue to feel able to be open (sometimes I struggle with this because I feel rather inadequate in my understanding and fear being perceived as “stupid” – but that’s my own issue, not something that’s been perpetuated here).
–Amanda
Hi L Brown
“eager and skeptical” is a great place to be before G_d, isn’t it? Do enjoy the site and the community… and do allow Adonai to reveal more of Himself to you through Skip’s ministry and the comments of others here. I really just wanted to make the comment that (for us) Skip is not a guru, and Tara and I do not take one thing that he says at face value! We use Skip’s teaching as the launch pad for our own studies and deliberations. But, we do recognise that he has training that we haven’t had, has studied topics at levels that we haven’t, has discussed with people that we haven’t and has been gifted with the privilege of this forum – for all of which we thank G_d. When we said (above) that “…I think that it would be better if it came from you… you can explain these things much better than we ever could” we were taking all the above into consideration – but, moreso, we were recognising that Skip has a better appreciation of people visiting this site than we do, and we were trying to minimise the offence. We do not worship Skip, but we honour him for his faithfulness!
Boy am I glad to hear that no one worships me! 🙂 In fact, I am just a traveler too. Struggling with the depth of all this. Not really any better equipped than anyone else, but just the guy behind the website. Thanks for being faithful readers and writers. We are all learning together.
Thank you for your kind consideration! I don’t want to imply “suspicion” on my part, just “wariness” from having been burned in the past. I want to be absolutely transparent with this because I just think it makes for a better relationship. I can tell already that Skip completely understands this and I do feel confident that I’m in the right place for what I’m trying to learn.
Your response reinforces this for me and I appreciate it. I hope I haven’t offended anyone here. May God richly bless the light that shines forth from this place!!
http://il.youtube.com/watch?v=ow_aWVqy3_k&feature=related
1 minute video, a spoken song by Brian Doerksen, “Return to Me.”
The book, “Genetic Entropy” written by a Cornell Physicist makes this case very convincingly. We are devolving not evolving. Each successive generation of man introduces more and more genetic mutation that virtually 100% are all NEGATIVE. They delete or damage information in our DNA. They never add information. Adam and early generations of man were far more advanced than we. Just look at the Wonders of the World like the pyramids. While man has postulated how they may have been built, the technology does NOT exist today to build anything like it. There are many such examples. Looking to the past is far more instructive than looking to the current or to the future.
I agree with this Patrick.. we are in a state of “devolution” not evolution. “Evil men and impostors shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived.” (2 Timothy 3.13). We also have the 2nd law of thermodynamics at work here as well. We (all), including creation, is getting older and more wore out! It is getting “gloriously dark!” No worries here- Y’shua said it would be so, but He is (ever) a very present help in time of need! We (more than ever) stand in need of a Savior! No worries here either- grace (always) meets need!
Bibical man is both good and evil. He can do righteous acts and yet be rebellious. There is Only One who can change our hearts! Yahweh through the Messiah by the power of the Ruach Hakodesh!
amen Brian!- amen!
Nunca me había imaginado un concepto tan especial de Adan como el expuesto aquí. Maravillosa lección, Dr Moen. Y estoy de acuerdo con usted. El hombre no va hacia arriba sino hacia abajo, buscando su propia destrucción, a menos que regrese al Dios que lo hizo, lo creó y lo formó. ¿Qué le parece estos tres pasos? Están en génesis uno y dos. Bendiciones.