The evolution of Adam - the lesser understood spirit within us all.
The breath of life that was breathed into Adam was his own individualized spirit.
The part of Adam that had existed before he was created and continued to exist after he died.
We each of us have such a spirit that existed before our birth and will continue to exist after our death.
It is this spirit that contains our persona or individuality. It is this spirit that we seek to improve upon and grow and that this mortal phase of our existence is designed to test and try.
It is not mentioned often in the scriptures but it's there. Besides the reference in connection with Adam in Genesis we find it mentioned in more places in both the Old and New Testaments. It is separate from the flesh and is sometimes referred to as the soul; or alternatively the spirit and the flesh combined can be refereed to as the soul.
for example from the Old Testament:
Numbers 16:22 And they fell upon their faces, and said, O God,
the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wroth with all the congregation?
Numbers 27:16 Let the Lord,
the God of the spirits of all flesh, set a man over the congregation,
1 Kings 17:20 And he cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourn, by slaying her son?
21 And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Lord my God, I pray thee,let this child’s soul come into him again.
Job 32:8 But
there is a spirit in man: and the inspiration of the Almighty giveth them understanding.
Ecclesiastes 12:7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and
the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
from the New Testament:
Matthew 26:40 And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, What, could ye not watch with me one hour?
41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation:the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
James 2:26 For as
the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.
Hebrews 12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto
the Father of spirits, and live?
1 Peter 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
19 By which alsohe went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.
It is this spirit within each of us, that was created by God, that makes Him literally our Father in Heaven and each one of us his children.
Deuteronomy 14:1
Ye are the children of the Lord your God: ye shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead.
2 For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God, and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself, above all the nations that are upon the earth.
Job 33:4 The Spirit of God hath made me, and
the breath of the Almighty hath given me life.
Psalms 82:6 I have said,
Ye are gods; and all of you arechildren of the most High.
Isaiah 42:5 Thus saith God the Lord, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it;
he that giveth breath unto the peopleupon it,and spirit to them that walk therein:
Hosea 1:10 Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered; and it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them,
Ye are the sons of the living God.
Zechariah 12:1 The burden of the word of the Lord for Israel, saith the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.
Malachi 2:10
Have we not all one father? hath not one God created us? why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, by profaning the covenant of our fathers?
Acts 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For
we are also his offspring.
29 Forasmuch then aswe are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.
Romans 8:16 The Spirit itself beareth witness
with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
Ephesians 4:5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6 OneGod and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
Hebrews 12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto
the Father of spirits, and live?
One of the clearest verses on our pre-mortal existence as spirits is where the Lord speaks to Jeremiah in this manner.
Jeremiah 1:4 Then the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
5Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.
Paul mentions that many of us were chosen in this spiritual state.
Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:
4 According ashe hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love:
Similarly, Adam had been chosen and ordained to be the first of these spirit children of God to be "breathed into" and inhabit a physical body on this earth.
He too was chosen with his wife eve to open the path that all the other spirit children of God would have the same privilege.
Eden, the two trees and the opportunity to make a choice and exercise free will, were key to this process and opening of the way for all the spirit sons and daughters of God our literal Father in Heaven.
Next time we will look at just why it had to be done this way, using a catch 22 situation.
Previous parts of this Series.
Were the seven days of creation in Genesis seven twenty four hour periods? - Delving a little deeper
Were the seven days of creation in Genesis seven twenty four hour periods? - Into the detail
Were the seven days of creation in Genesis seven twenty four hour periods? - Some conclusions
Were the seven days of creation in Genesis seven twenty four hour periods? - Some more conclusions
Were the seven days of creation in Genesis seven twenty four hour periods? - The implications.
The evolution of Adam - a conundrum
The evolution of Adam - Who is Adam
The evolution of Adam - Two trees and choice
The evolution of Adam - Partaking of the fruit and feeling naked
The evolution of Adam - Was there death before Adam
The evolution of Adam - The biological purpose of death.
The evolution of Adam - The need for a Redeemer
The evolution of Adam - Inheritance and Redemption
The evolution of Adam - The dust of the ground
Not one for religion myself. But i must say that this piece actually made me sit through it while enjoy reading. Furthest i ever got haha :)
you should try some of the others in this series perhaps
I have long thought what you say here but its nice to read your well written, and concise thoughts on the matter.
We have a baby with a very scary illness and when she was in the womb I felt drawn to trust Gods knowledge of her, and in his love, I felt assure he would not assign a burden she was unable to bear.
That he, having known her before she existed, was in a position to declare her as capable of bearing the burdens unique to her little life. That gave me great encouragement.
This was a pivotal encouragement since the devil had me worried about her suffering and nearly convinced me her suffering should be ended...
Thank God he gave my wife and I wisdom to share our hearts and thank God for the prayers and support God gave us through that terrifying time.
Today we have a beautiful baby girl, Lumina, which means: "a portion of light from the source of light".
Psalm 139:16-17
16 Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God!
It says in Genesis that God himself blew man with the רוח, or "the wind". It is said that Man than was filled with נשמה, or "the Spirit that never dies". In some Jewish texts (Not all), this soul is considered nothing less than God himself.
Perhaps one could ask, "how much of the parent is in the child?"
It's a great question. I think that many Jews would say "some of the parent." but the child would largely be unconscious of it unless one begins to work on his sensitivity to the "parent within," if that makes any sense at all.
@gavvet you are right, the bible higlighted in so many places that humans existed also with soul and spirit of which still remains even after the death of man.
Even jesus said his disciples that he the spirit of God will come upon them as the comforter.
Thank you for feeding the mind with these useful food for thoughts thank you.
@josediccus here
The mystery of life is"Birth" and "death"...we all are swimming from one bank of river to other bank... I, e death zone.. still Knowing it, we never leave our hope to live... You have shared a very knowledgeble post... Resteemed
I think it's wonderful that you are doing this series @gavvet. You are shedding light on so many things to so many people. I've been traveling through Thailand full of young western backpackers. So many of them have turned away from god. I see pierced up faces and tattoos of skulls and death on so many youth. Drinking, drugging, whoring, living life without any intent of spiritual growth. Many live wreck less lives and don't believe or pay any attention to anything you write about. There for I think this blog of your is more relevant and important now more than ever. Thank you for getting this info out. Also I just reached 500 followers and did a post about it with a nice mention of you. Thanking you and others for helping make my blog a success with. Hope you are well. -Dan
Also the following sentence refers to the similarity of the spirit and not of the flesh: [1.Mose 1,27-26] So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.
and then the physical is modeled after the spiritual
There is absolutely no proof or basis in fact or science for any of this nonsense
Does life consist only of things that have been proven scientifically?
Life does not only consist of the physical senses and things that can only be discerned by them.
Who is it that knows the things of God? Only God Himself. And when God enters us through the Holy Spirit, He changes us. We become a new creature. We start understanding God’s direction and guidance, and even the Bible itself in a way we never did before. Why is that? It is because God Himself is revealing the truths in the Bible for us to know and live our lives by.
Holy spirit when it goes to people they acquire fear of God, unwillingness to do evil, and willingness to do good.
Spirit of man therefore is different which is only makes them a blank vessel for both good and evil spirits..
Interesting post.