Life and Spirit

Fred R. Coulter—June 1, 2013

- Video | - PDF | Audio

Track 1: or Download

Greetings, everyone! Welcome to Sabbath services. Today the sermon was delivered by the paperboy. We're going to talk about some things that we will do some thinking on. I thought that before I started I would ring the cowbells [for speculation]:

1. tinkle bell—for being a little off
2. another—for being off a little more
3. standard—used most of the time
4. bull bell—in case I make mistakes
5. a decorative bell—very effective out in the sparsely settled places of Texas

What came in the paper this morning was very interesting, indeed! I think several years ago I made and illusion to some of this. Here it is: Comeback of the Creatures: Breathing Life into Extinct Species. Subtitle: Resurrection Biology—I want you to think about that—Offers Promise, but Critics See Peril in Genetic Engineering.

There are four animals they want to bring back: Tasmanian Devil, passenger pigeon, the woolly mammoth and the saber-toothed tiger. It shows a picture of a frozen baby mammoth that they recovered up in northern, northern Russia. If you look at any globe you will see how much of Russia is above the Artic Circle. These wooly mammoths are very interesting. They found big ones and they found the babies.

What they want to do is experiment so that they can reproduce them. The only problem is, they've got figure out how to give them life. Unfortunately, Frankenstein's old laboratory won't work. Here's what they want to do with it. They want to take the genetics—because the genetics are still there—and they want to analyze them on computers to be sure they have everything. I don't know what they are going to do, or how they are going to do it, but what they need to do is this: With the woolly mammoth, you need to get an elephant as close to the woolly mammoth as possible and then you have to extract from a male frozen woolly mammoth—they say is 42,000 years old, but that's not correct—and a female woolly mammoth, the genes of those and put them into an egg of an elephant and a sperm of an elephant and then do in-vitro fertilization. The life has to come from living animals. Only life can produce life.

They want to do this with the saber-toothed tiger. They want to do it with the passenger pigeon and the Tasmanian Devil.

This presents a lot of difficult things for them to understand, but they know that in the book that comes closest to the conversion of an atheist is called The Biology of Belief by Bruce H. Lipton. When you get into quantum biology, they understand that every cell is a single living organism. Then combined all together you have various animals, various kinds and so forth. But they know they've been able to strip out from inside the single cell all the DNA, and the life seems to remain in the outer part of the cell. So, they can inject into that cell DNA from a similar species.

How this is going to work we don't know. What they will actually do we don't know. But we know that there are two examples that everyone understands. There are limitations as to what can be done. Even if it you do it, will it be fertile? They've tried to cross cows and buffalos so they can have beefalos.

They have tried and tried and they cannot get it to reproduce. If it does it goes toward the beef or toward the buffalo. It purges itself back to what it was. Same way with horses and donkeys producing mules; they cannot re-produce except in very, very rare occurrences, and it will do the same thing, go toward the donkey or toward the horse.

Let's look at a couple of things here that are very interesting. Can they do it? Will they be able to? We already know that they have created in-vitro fertilization of children where they have taken the genes from one woman and the genes from another woman, and united those in the egg, then got the father's sperm and impregnated it. In Britain, they say, they have 30 children they have produce this way.

They may end up with a problem. You've heard of split personalities? What are you going to do with a tri-fold split personality? You don't know what else came along with the transference of those genes.

In the book of Ecclesiastes it talks about some very interesting things. Ecclesiastes 1:8: "All things are full of labor; man cannot utter it; the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing…. [that's absolutely true] …That which has been is that which shall be; and that which has been done is that which shall be done; and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it may be said, 'See, this is new'? It has already been in days of old, which were before us" (vs 8-10).

We also have another statement by Jesus: As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the coming of the Son of man.

Remember, there were the days of Noah before the Flood. We don't know exactly what they were doing there, but whatever they were doing it was so bad that God had to destroy all human life, and all animal and bird life.

• Why did He have to do it?
• Was it because of genetic engineering like we have today? Very possible!

We do not know, but we have a reference to it in Gen. 11. Here is something they are doing right now. You start putting together all the different things that we are doing today, and I think we're going to find that after Christ returns and we understand the true history of everything, and we know what was really going on before the Flood and why God had to destroy everything…

By the way, it said that Noah was pure in his generations. What does that mean? God had to send all the animals and birds to Noah. So, God would be the only one to know which ones were not polluted by genetic tinkering. We don't know! Look at what we have today. Look at the genetic engineering that we have with food. It's going to end up causing a lot of massive plagues when certain things hit. It's even reported that we are reproducing humans that are not truly humans because they are not reproducing in their bodies the correct cells with the correct things from God-given created food.

You eat a tomato and it has a flounder gene in it. I don't know all the things that they have with the genetically modified food, but that's one of the reasons why all the curses are coming upon people.

Genesis 11:1: "And the whole earth was of one language and one speech." We have that again with English and the computer.

Verse 2: "And it came to pass, as they traveled from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar. And they settled there. And they said to one another, 'Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.' And they had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, 'Come, let us build us a city and a tower, with its top reaching into the heavens….'" (vs 2-4).

Think about what we're doing today. Right now while we're sitting here reading the Bible, on the planet Mars are two rovers. They're analyzing everything that they can; they're sending back pictures; they're sending commands from here to them. Quite a thing! We have an international space station. Men have been able to do a certain amount of this—correct?

"'…And let us establish a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered upon the face of the whole earth.' And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men had built. And the LORD said, 'Behold, the people are one and they all have one language. And this is only the beginning of what they will do—now nothing… [we need to understand: when God says something, He means it!] …which they have imagined to do, will be restrained from them'" (vs 4-6).

This is important because this was still during the days of Noah. God was not going to have a repeat of what happened before the Flood, so He confounded the languages so they couldn't communicate to each other.

Now here, at the end-time, it's all coming back together again. Look at the things that we just take for granted; just the simple—what we take as an ordinary thing: the refrigerator, the freezer, the car, phone, cell phone. I was thinking about an advertisement the other day where this super-smart phone is going to run your life. My thoughts came to: the first thing to come along was the telegraph; then they finally had the telephone; that was all over wire.

I remember when we were living on the farm during WWII, we had a telephone and it was a party-line and you had certain rings for certain people. We had a hand-crank phone. What you had to do is hand-crank the phone, operator would come on and you tell her who you wanted to talk to, and she would ring that person. WOW! What a thing it was when we got the dial phones. That was something! All of those operators were put out of business.

Now we don't even need any wires. In the new digital age that is coming, they're going to leapfrog over all the technology that we have gone through and bring them up to the modern age immediately.

Let's see what God tells us. I rang all five cowbells, because we're going to have to do a little imaginative thinking based upon what we know; based upon the Scriptures. Let's understand:

• God is true
• God cannot lie
• Every prophecy He has ever given:
  • has been
  • is being
  • will be

fulfilled exactly the way that He described it would be!

We have to search the Scriptures to understand what these things are. That's why in the latest book we've put out, The Appointed Times of Jesus the Messiah, we get into things that cover the whole world; the return of Christ, things that men are going to do, the armies and all of that. It's going to be fulfilled exactly as God has said.

This is why it's so important that we follow the Word of God. If anyone has any questions about the translation of The Faithful Version, let me put your mind at rest this way: We followed the Word of God from the originals—meaning the best known 'hupographs'—copies. The worst thing that a translator can do is to put his own opinion in a translation. You can't do that. That's what men have done with other translations. The Word of God is Truth, and it must be truthfully dealt with and translated. I won't go into all the false doctrines that are in the other translations, but there are many of them.

Jesus said some things to His disciples that they didn't understand. He said that He was the Bread of Life that came down from heaven. They didn't understand that. He said that 'unless you eat My flesh and drink My blood, you have no life in you.' He talked about raising all of those up that the Father had given Him at the Last Day.

John 6:61: "But Jesus, knowing that His disciples were complaining about this, said to them, 'Does this offend you? What if you shall see the Son of man ascending up where He was before?'" (vs 61-62). What we're going to see is that it also talks about our creation in relationship to God, and God in relationship to us. That's the real key.

Verse 63[transcriber's correction : "It is the Spirit that gives life…'" You've got to have a surrogate egg and a surrogate sperm, because there must be spirit in those. That's why I rang all the bells.

• Is there a spirit of man that God has given to us? Yes!
• Is there the Holy Spirit that He gives to us? Yes!
• Is it within us? Yes!
• Is the father's sperm and the mother's egg living?
• What has God put there so when there is conception everything automatically starts to work?

I'd like to ask those people who believe in abortion:

• Tell me when you never existed?
• Tell me when you were never a person?

You are who you are the instant that you have been begotten. The only thing is you haven't developed.

• You've got to grow!
• You've got to be born!

"'…the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life'" (v 63). That is essential for understanding concerning conversion.

Let's see how we understand the Bible; let's see how we put things together that the Bible tells us. This is why we need to know the Word of God. We need to understand it. The Word of God is put together this way: a little here and a little there; a precept here, a precept there; a line here, a line there! Since the Bible is one whole unit, with various parts, we have to 'rightly divide' it in order to understand the Word of God. It takes the Spirit of God to lead us to understand it, because these things need to be spiritually understood. This will also help us understand the creation of God.

It's entirely possible that they could do some of the things that they have proposed in these articles. What are you going to do when that happens? Did they really create something? or Did they modify something that God has already created?

All evolutionists start with God's dirt and God's big bang! The truth is we don't know where God came from. If someone says that God took some of His DNA and made us, I don't think so. However, how closely is our DNA and RNA needed in God's plan and as spirit beings? I don't know! Let's concentrate on understanding the Bible.

1-Corinthians 2:6: "Now we speak wisdom among the spiritually mature; however, it is not the wisdom of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing. Rather, we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom that God foreordained before the ages unto our glory" (vs 6-7). And He didn't even reveal a lot of it to those who came before us. Think about it!

If you lived back in the days right after John died and here came the book of Revelation and it talks about things on the whole earth—every nation, every language, every tribe—how would you understand that? How could you understand that something's going to happen called the mark of the beast in which no one can buy or sell if you lived back then or you lived 200 years ago? You can't! You have to live in the time when those things are possible. We're living in that time.

Likewise with understanding some of these things about life and about spirit. Now we can understand them considerably more than any other generation up to this time. How much more? We don't know!

Verse 9: "But according as it is written, 'The eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.'"

What is it going to be like to be a spirit being? We can only grasp a few of these things by 'looking through a glass darkly'! It would be like talking to a newborn baby and saying, 'When you grow up!' Whaaaa! That's why there has to be the resurrection of God.

Verse 10: "But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit… [certain things that we know the world does not know] …for the Spirit searches all things—eventhe deep things of God. For who among men understands the things of man except by the spirit of man which is in him?…." (vs 10-11). We're going to see every human being has the spirit of man. Having the spirit of man gives him intelligence and life and understanding, if he uses his brain and his life and applies it.

But there is something missing, because God made us deficient. What is missing is the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God brings us into the potential of being in the spirit Family of God. Also, as we study the Word of God it gives us understanding of His Word IF we rightly divide it and put it together.

"…In the same way also, the things of God no one understands except by the Spirit of God" (v 11). That's the only way we can understand it.

Now let's look a little bit concerning life, a little bit concerning man in relationship to God. Let's come back to 'in the beginning' (Gen.1). I'm going to dwell too much on details of things, but here's the way the first verse should be read:

Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning God…"—full stop, because God had to be there to start it.

"…created the heavens…"—full stop, because He had to create the heavens before He could create the solar system, the earth and the things here.

"…and the earth"—full stop. That tells us that between those full stops there can be any number of years, regardless of how many you may think you can come up with. God is eternal and lives forever. The more we find out about the universe through the things that God has given the technology to us to understand, all of that is to the glory of God!

God created everything except man by command. By His Spirit—which is power—and by His command He made everything except man.

Psalm 148:1: "O praise the LORD! Praise the LORD from the heavens; praise Him in the heights. Praise Him, all His angels… [which He created] …praise Him, all His hosts. Praise Him, sun and moon; praise Him, all you stars of light. Praise Him, you heavens of heavens, and waters that are above the heavens. Let them praise the name of the LORD, for He commanded and they were created. He has also established them forever and ever; He has made a decree which shall not pass away" (vs 1-6). How did God make man?

Genesis 1 is going to connect us with what we're going to talk about: life and spirit. Read everything there. God commanded; they were created. He said, 'Let the waters bring forth; they brought forth. Let the birds of heaven come forth; they came forth. Let all of the livestock and everything in the sea; He commanded and they existed.

I'm sure that all of this was planned out ahead of time. I'm sure that God did not just all of a sudden—without any plan—without something for figuring out how He was going to do it.

The other day I was watching something concerning whales. It was really quite a thing. Here's this big sperm whale coming up from Baja California up into the feeding area up in the Bering Sea. It was a female and she was 120-feet long. Here little calf was probably about 20-feet long and was right along her side.

Well, in order to get to the feeding place they had to go between two islands where the string of islands come down from Alaska across the Bering Sea. It was a very narrow place to go. Here came five killer whales. All the grizzly bears were standing up close to the shore because this is the time of year that they get food, because of this. They were waiting. Here comes the mother and her offspring; they separated the little whale from its mother and the five killer whales all got together and pushed the baby sperm whale down and held it down until it drown. They knew what they were doing! Then they started eating and feasting. After they were done, all of this came up and went on shore and the grizzly bears had a lot to eat.

We're going to see not only is there a spirit of man there's also a spirit of animals. They can think to a certain degree in order to survive, in order to do what they are doing.

Verse 26: "And God said, 'Let Us… [the only way to answer the Us is to go to John 17—that refers to the Father and the Son.] …make man in Our image, after Our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of heaven and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that crawls upon the earth.' And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him. He created them male and female" (vs 26-27).

What does this tell us? We are made in the image of God and the likeness of God. For what purpose? That's the whole question of the Bible!

We know in Genesis 2:7 mankind is the personal work of God: "Then 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 being." We know from the rest of the creation that God formed Eve. God put into their minds a working language. He could talk with them, communicate with them, etc.

Whatever time they had in the Garden of Eden, whatever length of time it was, it was enough to know what they should do and how to do it. But He also gave free moral agency, because His creation is so great—with mankind, because He's personally involved with him—that He didn't just command that we come into being and we operate by instinct or a relatively low level of intelligence.

The scientists like to say that all of the chimpanzees have the equivalent of 95% of human genes; therefore, humans must have evolved from them. It's like saying that I have this wonderful car out here, the latest thing, just look at everything that can be done, but I don't have any gasoline.

Even if there may be 5% lacking and the 95% is similar, that makes them different! They know that they can only train chimpanzees and gorillas to a certain degree. People are all amazed at what they do. They don't stop and look at what men can do, and what God can do.

When God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, that also put into him a spirit—the spirit of man—which must come from God! This is what separates us from the animals.

Job 32—Elihu was beginning to correct Job, after he said he really didn't want to speak, but after listening to all of you converse back and forth for all this time, you didn't really answer Job. I was forced to speak.

Job 32:7: "I said, 'The aged should speak… [that was Job and his three friends] …and the multitude of years should teach wisdom.' But there is a spirit in man and the inspiration of the Almighty gives them understanding" (vs 7-8).

Job 33:4: "The Spirit of God has made me… [that's in the womb (Psa. 139)] …and the breath of the Almighty gives me life." Everything that God has created lives and moves because of God. Human beings have their life and their being—everything about them—whether they're called of God or whether they are on their own in the world, God gives them air, food, breath, life; He hasn't taken it from them. It all comes from God!

Job 34:12 shows what God has done: "Yea, surely God will not do wickedly, neither will the Almighty pervert judgment. Who has given Him charge over the earth?…. [He created it; He owns it] …Or who has appointed Him over the whole world? If He sets His heart on man, if He gathers to Himself his spirit and his breath, all flesh shall perish together, and man shall return again to the dust" (vs 12-15).

It is the spirit of man that gives life. James 2:26: "For as the body without the spirit is dead…" Everybody has the spirit in man and that gives life; it also causes the soul—the physical functioning of the body and part of the brain, but it has to have the spirit of man to give it the power and energy to work—to keep you breathing, give you all the motions that you have and everything like that; all the digestive things that are going on.

We're sitting here and I'm speaking, you're listening, and your heart is beating and your stomach is working, your intestines are grinding away. All of those things are happening—right? Yes! That is the automatic thing of life that God has given.

Let's put this all together. Here's why man is able to do so many things and God says, 'Anything that man imagines to do he will do.' That tells you the power of the human mind and spirit.

After looking at the heavens—and it's always really humbling when you can see the heavens clear—David said, Psalm 8:4: "What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You care for him? For You have made him a little lower than God and have crowned him with glory and honor" (vs 4-5).

What do we have concerning man from the Scriptures so far?

1. God created us Himself, by hand

Take away all the years that a person has lived and reduce it down from the time that there is conception; that it goes on for however many years and there's another conception. The family grows and the nations increase. But if you would take all the instances of conception of every human being that has ever lived and put that split second of conception together, how much time would you really have? Probably very little!

2. We're created a little lower than God—His image, His likeness—but lower than God.

Track 2: or Download

Let's see what else we can learn from the Word of God. Take note of this: Luke 8:55[transcriber's correction]. When Jesus healed this girl, it says her spirit came back into her: "And her spirit returned…" Without the spirit, the body is dead, so she was dead. Her spirit came back into her.

Ecclesiastes 3:18: "I said in my heart, 'Concerning the matter of the sons of men, may God reveal to them, that they might see, that they themselves are but beasts.'" That is true without the knowledge and Spirit of God.

Verse 19: "For that which happens to the sons of men also happens to beasts—even one thing happens to them. As the one dies, so dies the other; yea, they all have one breath…" They all died, quit breathing. We breathe the same air as all the rest of them.

"…so that a man has no advantage over a beast; for all is vanity. All go to one place; all are of the dust, and all return to dust again. Who knows the spirit of man… [they understood there was a spirit in man] …whether it goes upward… [which we will see that it does] …and the spirit of the beast whether it goes downward to the earth?" (vs 19-21). All living things have some kind of spirit in them. Otherwise they wouldn't live. There's

• a spirit of man
• a spirit of a cow
• a spirit of an ape
• a spirit of a horse

I don't know what things fish have in them, but we do know there's intelligence in whales, dolphins and things like that.

What happens when they die? The best I can explain it—remember I've rung five cowbells for speculation—is that spirit has got to be also equated with energy. If the animal died and the spirit goes down into the earth, is it absorbed as energy in the earth? I don't know! But there is energy in the earth—is that not correct?

Heb. 11:3[transcriber's correction] says that we understand that the things that were made by that which is not seen. Even the hard things—like this table—has atoms, protons, electrons; but they're all confined in the wood. Same way with rocks and soil. They all have energy in them. If you take this piece of wood and you put it to fire, it releases heat. All the energy is used up and it goes back to dust.

With man, what happens to his spirit? We can find from what Jesus said when He was on the cross! We'll do this with two Scriptures. Of course, we'll put this together with something else in Ecc. 12:7, which says that when man dies, he returns to the dust and his spirit returns to God.

John 19:30: "And so, when Jesus had received the vinegar, He said, 'It is finished.' And bowing His head, He yielded up His Spirit."

Luke 23:46—the parallel account: "And after crying out with a loud voice, Jesus said, 'Father, into Your hands I commit My spirit.'…." He yielded up the spirit and He died. Without the spirit the body is dead. Jesus was dead. It went to God.

Hebrews 12 tells us about the spirit of men. We know that when we pray, we pray to God. God hears our prayers; He answers our prayers.

• What happens when you die?
• What happens when you die in the faith?

Obviously Jesus died in the faith, without a question about that at all. His spirit went back to God. Heb. 12 gives us a little more understanding about that.

Hebrews 12:22: "But you have come to Mount Sion, and to the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem; and to an innumerable company of angels; to the joyous festival gathering; and to the Church of the Firstborn, registered in the book of Life in heaven; and to God, the Judge of all; and to the spirits of the just who have been perfected" (vs 22-23).

Just like I've got in this recording machine a little recording chip. When that comes out of there, everything is recorded on it. Everything I don't want recorded on it, I put it on pause and don't let it record. Let's liken the spirit of man and also the Holy Spirit, because when we receive the Holy Spirit we have been begotten again and the Holy Spirit is added and connected to and joins with the spirit of man.

When we die, this goes back to God. It's like Jesus said, 'Into Your hands I commit My Spirit.' Just like this chip, when it's taken out of the machine to either record or play, it can't function. The spirit of man is very much like that. Everything that you are as a human being; everything that you have thought and said is on there.

Conversion cleans away all of that nonsense! As we grow and develop in character, now we're developing the character of God through His Spirit, through His Word, and when we die and have been perfected in the flesh, it goes to God and it is stored for the resurrection. It has to be stored for the resurrection. "…to the spirits of the just who have been perfected."

Verse 24: "And to Jesus, the Mediator of the New Covenant; and to sprinkling of the blood of ratification, proclaiming superior things than that of Abel." So, it goes back to God. God holds it right there.

What they have discovered scientifically, and it's interesting what they call it: the resurrection of biology. They are also working on cloning human beings. It will be interesting. How are they going to do that? That tells us the same process on how God does the resurrection!

We are resurrected. I don't know what happens to people. Look at all of the bodies that have been eaten by sharks, all that have been completely burned up and destroyed and blown apart. The spirit of man goes back to God.

Let's see something else so we can understand those who have been perfected and are awaiting the resurrection. Just how God is going to do that, I can't tell you. But it's going to come from the earth upward, even though our spirits are stored there. How God is going to do this, I don't know. But we know with the resurrection of Jesus Christ that it can be done. We also know that after He was resurrected, Jesus appeared to the disciples and He said, 'A spirit—a demon apparition—does not have flesh and bone like you see Me have'; so He could appear as flesh and bone.

Interesting, He did not say, 'flesh and blood.' Was He a spirit being appearing as flesh and bone? Yes! How did He get in the room where they were assembled? He walked right through the wall or door! So, those are some things we don't know! But whatever it's going to be, we know that when we are resurrected we are going to be like Him.

He uses what He created in Adam and Eve. All of our genes and chromosomes come directly from that. That's why if you kaleidoscope it into how much time really there is of all human beings when you only count the instant of conception, that's really not much time at all.

I'm not going to go into a sermon on the Last Great Day, but what do we have concerning the Last Great Day? We have that God is going to resurrect people to a second physical life! People not converted:

• Does God remember what they have done?
• Has God been judging them in their lives?

Romans 2:13: "Because the hearers of the law are not just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." When you are being called of God and you see things that you have been doing that are not right and are sin, and you stop doing those things and start obeying God, this is leading up to baptism! Baptism is what justifies you.

Continual justification is repentance everyday, yielding to God to cleanse the mind, cleanse the heart, cleanse your actions and everything like that.

Verse 14: "For when the Gentiles, which do not have the law, practice by nature the things contained in the law, these who do not have the law are a law unto themselves." In other words, the Law of God—not completely known, but those who believe in marriage, no murder, no stealing, no lying—God takes note of that.

Verse 15: "Who show the work of the law written in their own hearts, their consciences bearing witness, and their reasonings also, as they accuse or defend one another; in a day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my Gospel" (vs 15-16). That has to refer to the Last Great Day.

What then does this tell us? Since the spirit of every man, the spirit of man that came from God, which then activated all the processes of genes and chromosomes to create you in the womb, being born, we live our lives. When the Gentiles that have nothing to do with the true Church of God or anything like that, live decent lives and have not committed a sin unto death, when they die their spirit goes back to God, too. This tells us that those spirits have not been perfected. But they have not committed the unpardonable sin.

Therefore, they become part of the great number of people who have been blinded. For the first resurrection you must be called. You answer the call and you are chosen, and you live your life faithfully until death or the return of Christ.

Those who did not have the opportunity, those who were blinded, those that God never called, those that suffered all the accidents and everything—which we cover on the Last Great Day—that spirit, when they die, goes back to God! But it is saved for the second resurrection. Because it says, "In a day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ…"

Let's go one step further. We find that at Mt. Sion, in heaven above, there is the place where all the spirits of the just have been perfected are being stored. But they have to have a mind and a body to be complete.

Just like this little chip that is in the machine, as long as it's only the chip you don't know what's on it, you don't know what's been recorded, because you haven't played it. So, you could keep that almost indefinitely and then put it in and play it, then you have the machine, the spirit and the electricity so you can listen to it; same way with men. When they're resurrected in the second resurrection, 'the rest of the dead stood before the throne' (Rev. 20).

So, there has to be a place where God stores that spirit of man concerning those individuals who did not commit the unpardonable sin. That tells us what, by deduction? Those who have committed the unpardonable sin have been stored in another place! They have to be resurrected to a life of flesh and die the second death. The spirit of man is that which accomplishes all of these things.

Now let's talk a little bit more concerning spirit. We know that God is spirit and those who worship Him must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth. We also know that we are made in the image and likeness of God. So, we look like God. When we're resurrected, we will be like Him, for we will see Him as He is. Let's understand something by parallel:

Everything on the earth comes from the dust of the earth: man, animals, things that we build with—all dust of the earth. Human beings are dust of the earth, but in a different form. Let's use that to compare with spirit.

God is spirit! What did God tell Moses when Moses said, 'Show me Your glory'? He said, 'No man can see My face and live!' Why? Because a physical human being cannot exist in the presence and power of God!

• That's why, when God deals with men, He gives dreams, visions.
• That's why Christ came in the flesh, so He could walk among men and talk to them.
• When God appeared to Adam and Eve, He appeared as a man, not in His glory.

They couldn't look upon His face and live. Likewise, when God came down upon Mt. Sinai, what happened? His power was burning up part of the mountain!

When we read Rev. 4 & 5 we find some very interesting things. Everything that is composed of spirit is not necessarily a spirit being. Let's think on that as we read:

Revelation 4:1: "After these things I looked, and behold, a door opened in heaven; and the first voice that I heard was as if a trumpet were speaking with me, saying, 'Come up here, and I will show you the things that must take place after these things.' And immediately I was in the Spirit… [this was in vision] …and behold, a throne was set in heaven, and One was sitting on the throne" (vs 1-2).

This is God the Father. He is a spirit being. He is full of glory and power. He was sitting on the throne. This throne could not have been made of physical things, otherwise it wouldn't be there, it couldn't exist. This throne had to be made from spirit substance. Just exactly like we have everything in this room came from the dust of the earth. They are not people. Does that make sense?

Verse 3 shows how He looked: "And He Who was sitting was in appearance like a jasper stone and a sardius stone; and a rainbow was around the throne, like an emerald in its appearance. And around the throne were twenty-four thrones; and on the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting…" (vs 3-4). These are spirit beings. So, we have spirit things and we have spirit beings. We also have angels and spiritual creatures.

"…clothed in white garments; and they had on their heads golden crowns. And proceeding from the thronewere lightnings and thunders and voices; and seven lamps of fire, which are the seven Spirits of God, were burning before the throne. And before the throne was a sea of glass, like crystal…." (vs 4-6).

You have all of these spirit things that are not spirit beings. What we have on the earth is the physical. What God has in heaven is the spiritual. You take the new heavens and new earth; it talks about New Jerusalem. That's going to be some thing! That's where all those in the first resurrection are going to live. Jesus said, 'If I go, I will come again, and I will prepare a place for you.' That place has to be made out of spirit; it's not a spirit being.

Let's look at some of the other spirit creatures: "…And around the throne and over the throne were four living creatures, full of eyes before and behind" (v 6). I can't imagine what that looked like. I have no idea! I don't even think I could begin to conceptually draw it.

Verse 7: "And the first living creature was like a lion… [some of the spirit beings are like animals that God has created] …and the second living creature was like a bull, and the third living creature had the face of a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. And each of the four living creatures had six wings respectively; and around and within they were full of eyes; and day and night they cease not saying, 'Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, Who was, and Who is, and Who is to come.'" (vs 7-8).

[speculation]: I don't think they say that continuously every minute, but they continue to say it periodically. Kind of like a clock. The clock sounds whenever it reaches a certain hour, quarter hour, half-hour and so forth. That's what I suspect it is. Otherwise, how could God say and do anything and get anything done if all this was going on all the time.

Verse 9: "And when the living creatures give glory and honor and thanksgiving to Him Who sits on the throne, Who lives into the ages of eternity, the twenty-four elders fall down before Him Who sits on the throne; and they worship Him Who lives into the ages of eternity, and cast their crowns before the throne…" (vs 9-10).

If they were saying this continually, every second all the time, then the 24 elders would never be sitting on their thrones—correct? Does that make sense? Have to! This would have to happen periodically.

There are spirit things; spirit beings need spirit things. Human beings and animals, birds, etc., need physical things. I don't know what it's going to be like. It says of manna that manna is angels' food.

• How much do angels eat? I don't know!

Now you know why I rang all five bells to begin with.

• Are we going to eat and drink in the Kingdom of God with Jesus Christ? Yes!
• Is there going to be a marriage supper of the Lamb? Yes!
• What are we going to eat? I don't know, but it's going to be good!
• Is it going to be spirit? Undoubtedly!

We have been made in the image and likeness of God, to be after His kind. When the resurrection takes place; Philipp. 3 talks about waiting for Christ to return; this has to be at the resurrection:

Philippians 3:21: "Who will transform our vile bodies, that they may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the inner working of His own power, wherebyHe is able to subdue all things to Himself."

• Daniel where it says that the 'righteous shall shine like the stars.'
• Matthew 13—Jesus said that the 'children of the resurrection shall shine as the sun.'

We're going to be like God! We will be the children of God because of God's Spirit! When this transformation comes, it is going to be a change.

Let's also bring up another situation that we can't completely answer, but we do know it talks about the resurrection:

1-Thessalonians 4:15: "For this we say to you by the Word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall in no wise precede those who have fallen asleep." So, the dead in Christ shall rise first.

Verse 16: "Because the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first." Exactly how God is going to do that—take that which has been stored of the perfected spirits? How is He going to do that using the earth and then make it a spirit being? I don't know, but that's what He's going to do.

Verse 17: "Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds for the meeting with the Lord in the air; and so shall we always be with the Lord." What's going to happen to those who are alive?

1-Corinthians 15:50: "Now, this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God… [You have to be a spirit being; God has to make you that.] …nor does corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery…" (vs 50-51). We don't understand it, but we know it's going to happen.

Just like electricity, we don't know what electricity is, but they use it. No one knows why seeds grow when you put them in the ground and put a little water, but they grow! Likewise, when this takes place, we're going to be changed.

Verse 51: "Behold, I show you a mystery: we shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed, in an instant, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed" (vs 51-52)—instantly!

How do our genes and chromosomes interplay in that? I do not know! The only thing we can say is, after Jesus was resurrected and the disciples saw Him, they recognized that it was Him. He said, 'Look at My hands, look at My feet, and in My side.' However, remember when He talked to the two going to Emmaus, He was able to change Himself so they didn't recognize Him.

How do all of these things work together? I do not know, butI don't think that the genes and chromosomes are those things created in vain. There has to be some relationship to our physical inheritance being changed to a spiritual inheritance. That's why it's a mystery! We can bring it up and talk about it, but we don't know exactly how it's going to happen.

We also know that when Jesus divested Himself of His glory—which He had to do to become a human being and be impregnated into the womb of the virgin Mary—there has to be some connection between the unique genes and chromosomes that we all have and God's final creation of us as spirit beings.

That's why I rang the five bells!

Verse 53: "For this corruptible must put on incorruptibility…" What does that mean? Does that mean that our genes and chromosomes are going to be also transformed spiritually? I do not know! I hope that I lose all this extra weight at that point!

"…and this mortal must put on immortality" (v 53). How's that going to be? It has to be with the Spirit of God!

In this article that came in the paper this morning got me to thinking about all of these things.

• What are these men going to do?
• How are they going to be able to do it?
• What is going to be the result of that?
• How are they going to get life for the spirit in that regenerated animal?

They have to use the egg and sperm from live animals today, because there is no life in the bones and the frozen parts of the woolly mammoth, etc. It's going to be a crossbreed. They cannot bring it back totally. God could!

Now nothing they have imagined to do will be restrained from them! Amazing—isn't it? This brings up other questions:

What is going back to God when we die is the spirit, and that spirit is necessary to be given a spirit body so that we become spirit beings with the energy of a spirit being. Just like today we are physical beings and we have physical strength according to our physical being.

What about all these GMO foods? That deteriorates the body! That corrupts the body! A good parallel is this: God created all the things so that it would energize the body. There's an energy transfer from our food to our physical being. Likewise, spiritually; when we receive the Spirit of God, there is the transfer of Spirit from God to us with the begettal in our heart and mind. We must:

• love God
• serve God
• obey God
• believe God
• follow all the spiritual things that God has said, the way that they should be done

Anything short of that is varying degrees of sin. Varying degrees of sin bring correction from God so we can change—correct?

To be perfected means that all these imperfections will be dropped. But only the things that we have developed in the character of God is going to go forward from this life to the next life.

All the physical food that are eating today, you can liken to those things which have been corrupted and genetically engineered.

There's a spiritual parallel. Whenever you corrupt the Word of God and you start feeding people a different Gospel, a different Christ, it is not going to produce a spirit being.

Does that make sense in parallel?

We've stretched our brains today! This is what human beings are going to do. All of this they can do without a clue concerning what God is doing. They reject God, but they say, 'We're going to make ourselves God!' When Christ returns, He's going to put a fast end to that!

All the questions you may ask me, I may have to tell you I don't know! Every once in a while we need a Sabbath like this so we can put on our thinking caps and we can look forward to the Kingdom of God with a little different perspective!

Scriptural References:

• Ecclesiastes 1:8-10
• Genesis 11:1-6
• John 6:61-63
• 1 Corinthians 2:6-7, 9-11
• Genesis 1:1-6
• Psalm 148:1-6
• Genesis 1:26-27
• Genesis 2:7
• Job 32:7-8
• Job 33:4
• Job 34:12-15
• James 2:26
• Psalm 8:4-5
• Luke 8:55
• Ecclesiastes 3:18-21
• John 19:30
• Luke 23:46
• Hebrews 12:22-24
• Romans 2:13-16
• Revelation 4:1-10
• Philippians 3:21
• 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17
• 1 Corinthians 15:50-53

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• John 17
• Psalm 139
• Hebrews 11:3
• Ecclesiastes 12:7
• Revelation 20
• Matthew 13

Also referenced: Books:

• The Biology of Belief by Bruce H. Lipton
• The Appointed Times of Jesus the Messiah by Fred R. Coulter

FRC:bo
Transcribed: 6-16-13

Copyright 2013—All rights reserved. Except for brief excerpts for review purposes, no part of this publication may be reproduced or used in any form or by any means without the written permission of the copyright owner. This includes electronic and mechanical photocopying or recording, as well as the use of information storage and retrieval systems.