Sermon Tone Analysis

As in Heaven, So on Earth

this is familiar for Christians, it’s part of the Lord’s Prayer

the kingdom of God is the rule of God.

God desires to rule over ALL he has created: the invisible spiritual realm and the visible earthly realm.

He will have his way in both domains.

In the following discussion we will examine how the ancient biblical writers originally conceived of this kingship from the beginning of creation.

What we will discover amounts to one of the missed focuses of the Bible — this is a theological center that has been ignored.

One of the stories of the Bible is about God’s will for, and rule of, the realms he has created, human and nonhuman.

The divine agenda is played out in both realms, in deliberate tandem.

The part of the story we are most familiar with, we live in.

This one gets most of the attention.

The invisible realm is regularly overlooked, or talked about only in relation to God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

The two realms are not mutually exclusive or peripheral to each other; they are integrally connected - by design.

That point is clearly telegraphed early in the Biblical story.

Creator or creators?

Just to be clear .. one creator!

The “As in heaven, so on Earth” idea is much older than the Lord’s prayer.

It begins in Genesis.

The first chapter of Genesis is easily misinterpreted by one not yet acquainted with the divine council and the watchers let’s say.

Carefully and listen to the text:

Many Bible readers note the plural pronouns (us, our) with curiosity.

They might suggests that the plurals refer to the Trinity, but technical research in Hebrew grammar and exegesis has shown that the Trinity is not a coherent explanation (1).

The solution is must more straightforward, one that an ancient Israelite would have readily discerned.

What we have is a singular addressed a group (sons of God in Job) let’s eat, let’s create.

Humanity was created by GOD - according to

they were there but was does the “image” language mean?

Image or Imager?

Identifying the nature of the divine image is a study that has gone on for a long time.

You may have heard a sermon or two on it.

I am willing to bet that what you’ve heard (I have) is that the image of God is something in this list:

Intelligence, reasoning ability, emotions, able to commune with God, self-awareness, language, the presence of a soul or spirit (or both), the conscience, free will....

these are all possibilities, but that is all they are not it.

The image of God means none of those things.If it did, then Bible-believers have an issue with life in the womb.

For those elements are not there....

What is the divine Image?

image bearing...

both men and women

distinct from animals, not necessarily from sons of God

something in the image makes us like God

and it IS

most use properties or abilities and that is a problem.

Defining it by these things is that some nonhuman have some of these,

some artificial things are approaching some of these

defining image bearing as any ability is a flawed and dangerous approach.

It can pull apart the prolife movement, which I support, and it is used to challenge it … bad theology gives bad results.

Potential personhood is not actual.

Soul or spirit doesn’t hold since soul is NEPHESH - a living creature and is in animals…and the OLD Testament does not distinguish between soul and spirit (2)....all of these qualities associated with spirit require cognitive function...

So how do we figure this out…and not stumble over issues that are clear when we slow down?

GRAMMER.

in image ?

In can be many things in teh sink, broke mirror in pieces, work in education....uhmm

what if this “in” is read (in English) as AS…created as God’s Image.

Imaging as a verb or function.

Not an ability but a status.

We are God’s representatives on Earth.

To BE human is to image God.

We are to represent him on earth!

God’s Two Family Household Councils

us the other elohim, they are like God they image him in the supernatural… carry out his will there.

We share imaging status.

As heaven so earth.

Once we connect this so many texts begin to make sense… the logic of idolatry takes on a new irony …images of God, make models and call spirits of corrupted images of god to worship… but we are imagers of God to reign and rule with Him.

After the fall that plan was not altered.

Eventually God would tabernacle within humans - through His Spirit.

Language as sons and daughters, adopted into family, is neither accidental nor pragmatic.

IT REFLECTS THE ORIGINAL VISION OF GENESIS.

And once we are glorified, the two council-families will be one… in a new Eden.

This is what Eden was about as in heaven,so on earth.

The original intent is clearer as we know more of Eden.

Gardens and Mountains

usually think of Eden this way a garden in the East and there he put the man he had formed.... we tend to think of it as home to humankind …but then we miss the real point.

Eden was God’s home on earth.

His resisdence, and where the King live so lives his council.

Ancients would not have missed this.

the ancient context

Think about where middle eastern civilization began … near rivers (Nile, Tigris, Euphrates) in an arid area … … the gods lived where it was best… no lack of anything Paradise

Mtn peaks were the domain of gods because no human lived there.

Ancient times were not like ours, nobody climbed mtns for fun… they also had no equipment.. Mtns were remote and forbidding… the perfect places for gods to get away from pesky humans.

Mtn peaks touched the heavens, the domain of the gods.

This is why Egypts temples are carved and painted with imagery of luscious gardens, or why pyramids and ziggurats were built.

These structures were mtns made by human hands and served as gateways to the spiritual realm… were gods lived, in life or in death .. these were metaphors in stone.

Ancient Ugarit

For our purposes the ancient civilization that informs us is a city-state in ancient Syria, just to the north of Isreal.

(1)

The site of Ugarit was found in 1928 and decades were taken to excavate it.

They found a library with thousands of clay tablets.

1400 in an alphabetic language that was closer to ancient Hebrew than any other ancient language.

The vocabulary and grammar virtually identical in many instances.

We have learned a lot from this library.

about both Ugarit and the content of the Old Testament.

Similar titles for the heavenly beings … EL, sons of El… (of course there was Baal, and that stays around) There was a council, etc.. Three levels.. EL, sons of El, and angels.... they met in a lush garden on a mtn. a source of water (two rivers) and the council met in the heights of the north.

The meetings were held in “tents of El” or the tent shrine.

The palace had paved bricks, with the clearness of lapis lazuli.

(which is first - GOD) (this is important… God and his structure is first other copy it and Him)

YHWH’s Abode

All of this will sound familiar to someone who has read the Old Testament closely.

The Hebrew Bible uses the same descriptions for the abode and throne room of YHWH.

And where YHWH is, he is surrounded by his heavenly assembly, ready to conduct business.

The OT has a three-tiered council structure like that at Ugarit.

YHWH is at the top (2).

His family-household (“sons of God’) are next in the hierarchy.