Sermon Tone Analysis

Before you begin your Bible study, as a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, be sure you have named your sins privately to God the Father.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

(Known, Unknown and Forgotten sins) (1Jn 1:9)

 

 

You will then be in fellowship with God, Filled with the Holy Spirit and ready to learn Truth from the Word of God.

 

"God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and Truth," (John 4:24)

 

 

HEATHENISM

 

 

       *THE UNSEEN SOUL*

 

       In remote mountains, jungles, and deserts, peoples of primitive culture have lived for centuries far removed from the mainstream of commerce and civilization.

How can these individuals decide for or against the Lord Jesus Christ?

The skeptics ask, “What about the heathen who have never heard the Gospel?”

Right away, we will correct at least one point in such a question: “What about the heathen who have apparently never heard?”

This is not really a topic of debate.

In this book, we are not primarily concerned with satisfying skeptics, (Although any honest skeptic will find the answers he needs).

The answer to the question about isolated, heathen people sheds light on God’s character, on the all-inclusive extent of His plan, on the alternatives which the free will of man must face.

As a category of basic Truth, this study of heathenism is important to positive believers; it is not merely a reason why there are those who are negative toward the Word of God.

In our approach to the subject of heathenism, we need to understand the soul of man.

In, (Isa 43:7) three Hebrew words connected with the creation of man establish the origin of the soul.

/       Everyone who is called by My name, And whom I have created for My glory, Whom I have formed, even whom I have made./

(Isa 43:7)

 

       First, “created” is the verb /bara:/ “to create something out of nothing.”

The “something” created is not necessarily visible or observed.

(Gen 1:27; Gen 5:1-2; Isa 45:18) Second, “formed” /jatsar:/ “to sculpt, to fashion.”

(Gen 2:7; Isa 45:18) And third, “made” is /asah:/ “to construct out of existing materials.”

(Gen 1:26; Isa 45:18; Isa 57:16) /Bara/ indicates that out of nothing was created an unseen, immaterial part of man.

This inner essence is identified in passages throughout the Bible as the soul.

We must turn back to the Book of Genesis, however, to discover the difference between /bara/ and /asah/ in relation to man’s soul.

/       Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."/

(Gen 1:26)

 

       This statement of the plan of God uses /asah/ to anticipate the creation of man’s personality out of the essence of his soul.

The noun /tselem/ describes the soul of man as a “shadow image” of Divine personality.

Man has personality of soul, just as God has personality; both personalities are real but invisible.

The three Members of the Godhead have identical essence; yet each is a different Person — Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

Similarly, all members of the human race have basically the same essence of soul, but each is a different personality.

Man’s soul contains self-consciousness, mentality, faith, volition, conscience and emotion.

The mentality has two lobes.

The left lobe, called the /nous/ or “mind” in the Greek, initially receives information and temporarily retains what is not transferred to the right lobe; the right lobe, called the /kardia/ or “heart,” contains the frame of reference the memory center, the area for storing vocabulary and categories, the conscience with its norms and standards, and the launching pad for application to experience.

The Trinity designed man “after our pattern,” /demuth,/ stressing that man’s personality stems from man’s soul-essence, /tselem/.

/       God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

/(Gen 1:27)

 

        This refers to man’s soul, body, and spirit.

(God the Father is the soul; God the Son is the body and God the Holy Spirit is the spirit; and they are ONE IN ESSENCE!)

Here are the mechanics for the beginning of the human race.

The souls and spirits of both the man and the woman were created at one time, but only the man’s body was formed, /jatsar,/ on the sixth day of creation.

/       Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

/(Gen 2:7)

 

       “Soul-life,” /ne’shamah,/ or the life of God, is the spark that ignites life --- that actually gives life.

Adam did not become a living being until God breathed into his soul the breath of life.

This pattern continues for all of Adam’s descendants: at the moment of physical birth, God imputes human life to the Divinely prepared format soul, and the fetus becomes a real person.

The first man possessed both the soul and human spirit and was a trichotomous being.

(Body, soul, and human spirit) However, in the Fall, the human spirit was lost, and man became dichotomous.

(Body and soul only) Since that time, the human spirit is activated only at the second birth — regeneration — which occurs at Salvation.

(Tit 3:5) The human spirit enables the individual to have fellowship with God and to understand Spiritual phenomena.

Notice the reason given in, (Isa 43:7) for the creation of man’s soul: “For I have created him for my glory.”

When human freewill responds to grace in a non-meritorious way, God is free to bless man without compromising His own character.

Divine blessings to undeserving man manifests the grace solution to the angelic conflict and glorifies God.

Therefore, it is essential that we examine briefly this ancient conflict, for it has a definite bearing on our subject.

*THE ANGELIC CONFLICT*

 

       Not only was man created to glorify God, but he was placed on the earth to resolve the controversy between God and fallen angels.

How long the conflict has been raging is unknown.

We do know that prior to the creation of man, angels were originally in a state of perfection, just as man was.

But when Lucifer, the highest angel, revolted against God, one-third of the angels chose to defect with him.

(Rev 12:4) From this time on, there were two categories of angels, elect and fallen.

(1Ti 5:21; Isa 14:12-14) Isaiah recounts the five arrogant “I wills” of that super-creature as he “walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire, “the throne room of God.

(Eze 28:12-16)

 

/       "But you said in your heart, 'I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God, And I will sit on the mount of assembly In the recesses of the north.

'I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.' /(Isa 14:13-14)

 

       From this passage, it is clear that the angelic creation possessed volition and thus could act independently of God’s will.

The first sin committed by any creature was one of negative volition.

Satan and the angels who followed him refused the plan of God.

Therefore, some time in eternity past, a trial was held in which Satan and the fallen angels were sentenced to the Lake of Fire.

(Matt 25:41; Rev 20:10) From the fact that the sentence was pronounced before man’s existence but not executed until after mankind’s time on earth, we can draw two conclusions.

First, Satan objected to his sentence as unfair; thus he impugned the character of God and appealed the case.

The titles ascribed to the super-angel after his fall lead us to this first conclusion.

“Satan” and “the devil” mean “adversary, accuser, attorney” one who goes to court and appeals.

His obvious objection: “How can a loving God cast His creatures, (Fallen angels, in this instance) into the Lake of Fire?”

This complaint has been disseminated in the human race; it overlooks the fact that God loves His righteousness and justice!

Second, man was created to demonstrate to Satan that God’s character is consistent, that His decisions are always perfectly just.

(Psa 8:3-5; Heb 2:7) To prove to Satan that God’s judgment was fair and compatible with His Divine character, God brought upon the scene a new type of creature, lower than the angels, whom He called Adam or “man.”

Man’s body and the angels’ bodies were fashioned differently, but inside resided the same tremendous free will.

As with angelic free will, man’s volition has two poles, positive and negative.

God placed man in perfect environment on the earth and provided for his every need.

But there had to be a test in order that his volition might function.

Therefore, two trees were planted in the center of the Garden.

The first tree, the tree of life, (Or literally, lives) from which man was allowed to eat, represented positive volition toward the plan of God.

To partake of this tree meant continued response to God, appreciation and orientation to His plan.

The second tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which was forbidden, related to negative volition.

(Gen 2:17)

       The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was prohibited in order to give man a choice: to obey or to disobey God.

This tree represented the plan and policy of Satan.

Evil is the thinking of Satan expressed in moral and immoral degeneracy; which hinders man’s relationship with God.

Under Spiritual death and or carnality; man lacks a blessing relationship with God and is oriented instead to systems of evil and human false reality.

These systems embody Satan’s plan; and are the sum total of his genius.

Moral degeneracy is Satan’s modus operandi.

(An unvarying or habitual method or procedure) Immoral degeneracy, his modus vivendi.

(A manner of living that reflects the person's values and attitudes) (2Co 11:13-15; (2Ti 3:5; Rev 2:14-16)

       The tree of the knowledge of good and evil become the focus of the angelic conflict: The prohibition was a warning against Satan’s policy as well as a test of man’s volition.

Since God created free will.

He could not and would not coerce man’s decision.

Human volition would eventually demonstrate the solution to the angelic conflict!

Man, who was created perfect and without sin, was capable of only one sin in the perfect environment of the Garden, and that was to act independently of God — to elect to take of the forbidden fruit.