Church of God Message
Call Us: 8133745451
WHY GOD CREATED MANKIND
Chapter 3
Creation of Mankind
God and the Word Survey the Scene of Destruction
The result of Satan’s rebellion on the earth is described in Genesis 1:2-3: “And the earth was [better translation is ‘became’] without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. 3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”
The words ‘without form and void’ can also be better translated as ‘the earth became chaotic and in confusion.’
Thus, as a result of Satan’s rebellion and what he and the demons did to the earth, and our solar system, the earth became chaotic and in confusion, covered with water. And the earth’s surface was covered in darkness because sunlight did not penetrate through its atmosphere as it was filled with toxic gases, ash and other particles. This must have been a very sobering experience for Satan and the demons as they now had to dwell in darkness on the earth. They would have begun to realize their limitations. They could not create light or cause it to envelop the earth. They could have spent thousands, or even millions of years in darkness on earth till God set the next creation event in motion as described in Genesis 1:3, “3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.”
Till Satan’s rebellion, God’s plan of creation had been highly successful. Satan’s rebellion had somewhat thwarted that plan. But it was not completely unsuccessful. Two-thirds of the angels in heaven did not rebel against God. They remained loyal to Him through the rebellion and fought Satan and the demons. However, using the earth as a testing ground for the angels had yielded results, though not what God had hoped for.
God’s Plan for Man’s Creation
When God saw the debacle caused by Satan’s rebellion, He realized that the angels could not be relied upon to always obey His laws and live according to His way of LOVE under all circumstances. A super being, created by Him, had rebelled against Him, transgressed His laws and sinned, for ‘sin is the transgression of the law’ (I John 3:4.) That left only God the Father Himself, and the Word (who also was God, as a second member of the God family) who would not and cannot sin. Only they could be absolutely relied upon to never sin. So, the only way God could fulfill His purpose for the entire universe was to REPRODUCE HIMSELF. God and the Word had already devised a plan to do exactly that. It’s possible the 24 elders have also reached that stage of becoming incapable of sinning as they have qualified to wear crowns, but we do not know for sure.
What Satan and the demons demonstrated by their rebellion is that they had not learnt the lesson that only God’s way of LOVE works for the welfare of every creature, and it requires godly character to live that way of LOVE. God and the Word saw that Satan and the demons lacked godly righteous character.
In their next phase of creation, God and the Word’s plan would include the development of godly character like their own in the intelligent creatures they would create. Godly character would ensure that these intelligent creatures would obey Their laws, and live Their way of life of LOVE for God and love and outgoing concern for their fellow intelligent beings, and would never rebel against His rule. Their new creatures needed to learn some vital lessons. They devised a plan to teach them those lessons.
The first lesson God wanted His new creatures to learn was that they would always be totally dependent upon Him. Jesus Christ is the only Being who is self-existent, that is with life-inherent in Himself (John 5:26). And that gift was granted to Him after practically a past eternity of developing total and complete faith and trust in God the Father. The new creatures (or man) needed to learn that God gives them everything that sustains their lives. Lucifer and the angels with him had not learnt that lesson. They did not need any kind of food for their existence. So, they thought they could live independently of God. The way God planned to impart this lesson to humans was to create them as vulnerable physical beings rather than spirit beings. They would be dependent on food, water and air to sustain them. Human beings develop pride in their strength, wisdom, talents and capabilities when they grow up. They can allow vanity to seize them. But they would experience old age, know they will die and then realize how vulnerable and totally dependent they really are on God.
The second lesson God wanted His new creatures to learn was that rebellion against Him would always be futile, and end in utter and total defeat. That lesson will be brought home to man by extinguishing the lives of the rebellious [including Satan and the demons, though I believe the fate of demons has not yet been decided. Only Satan’s fate has been decided. The fate of demons will be decided by humans made immortal (I Corinthians 6:3)] forever in the lake of fire, if they refuse to repent. That way the living will learn the lesson for eternity that God is Almighty and can always solve the problem of rebellion by extinguishing the lives of the rebellious forever.
Thirdly, God wanted to develop godly, holy and righteous character in man. God saw that all the angels that followed Satan in the rebellion lacked godly character as did Lucifer.
Before Satan’s rebellion, the entire universe was governed according to God’s way of love, cooperation and concern for the welfare of others. In such a perfect environment, there was no opportunity to test the character of the 24 elders or individual angels to resist sin against pressure, threat to life or pain and suffering through torture for an indefinite period of time.
After Satan’s rebellion two-thirds of the angels still serving God in heaven have been tried and tested in a limited way because they have to face Satan’s accusations against them before God as indicated in Revelation 12:7-10, 12. [7 And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, 8 but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. 9 So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. 10 Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, "Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down…12 Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time."]
God’s angels are assigned specific duties on earth, functioning as God’s messengers. In these assignments they often have to battle Satan and his powerful demons, who have been appointed as princes over kingdoms of the earth by Satan as described in Daniel 10:12-13, 20-21. These battles are trials for God’s angels and tests of their character. So, God’s angels are being tested to prove their love and desire for God’s work on the earth, for this is the battleground.
However, to develop godly, holy and righteous character in human beings, God’s plan included leaving Satan and his demons on earth as rulers. God would create man but allow him to be influenced by Satan and his demons. He would also teach them His way. Then human beings could decide for themselves whether they would obey God’s laws and live according to His ways or choose to live in ways of their own devising as influenced by Satan. They would experience the results of Satan’s ways in the first 6,000 years of man’s history, and then experience the fruits of God’s Kingdom in the 1,000 years following. Humanity would then be able to compare and contrast the two ways.
God knew that Satan and his demons would persecute human beings loyal to Him. He also knew that Satan would threaten His people to forsake His ways, and persecute them by inflicting pain and suffering and even painful death. But that would be a supreme test of character for God’s people to determine if they will always remain faithful to His way despite all that Satan and his demons can throw at them. God promises to help His people as He chooses, but they must have faith in Him and rely on Him completely. They would have to be willing to sacrifice their physical lives, if necessary, to never compromise with God’s laws and His ways. Some will violently lose their physical lives, but they will attain immortal life and a glorious eternal future. The tests, trials and persecutions inflicted on them by Satan and his human agents will develop godly, holy and righteous character in His people. God devised this perfect plan to test man like no other intelligent creature God created has ever been tested to develop His holy, righteous character in him.
After holy and righteous character is developed in humans, God will then give them spirit bodies with power and abilities multiplied billions or trillions of times, making them perfect and incapable of sinning, like Himself and the Word. That is what human beings are called to as stated in Matthew 5:48: “Be you therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.”
Fourth lesson God wants to impart to man is to learn how to love God and each other. Not all angels had been able to learn that vital lesson. We can visualize the feelings of angels for God by imagining the feelings of children. They are born into the world and are totally dependent on their parents in childhood and youth. As they grow up they long to be independent of their parents’ control. They cannot fully realize how deeply their parents love them until they have children of their own. They know how precious their children are to them, and how deeply they love them. Then they realize how much their own parents loved them and did everything that was only in their best interests. In the same way the angels perhaps could not perceive how deeply God the Father and the Word loved them, because they had not experienced similar love for ‘children’ of their own or their own creation.
Humans have been deceived into believing that God hates His creation and is ready to pounce on humans and blot out their existence at the slightest sin. So, far more important than humans learning to love God and fellow man is to learn how deeply God loves them. The best way for them to learn that lesson would be for them to reproduce and experience love for their own offspring. In addition to parent-child relationships, God also planned to create other relationships for experiencing love. He created the marriage relationship for them to experience the love the Word has for them. As a result of family, humans would also experience brother and sister relationships. Thus, God wanted His new creatures to experience love in many possible ways. Their physical bodies would also enable them to experience love in close bonds through loving physical contact. God also planned to create all humanity from one man. From that man He would create the woman. Then through that one man and one woman, all of humanity would spring forth. Hence all of humanity would be related. This way God would knit His entire creation closely together. The angels would also learn by observing and caring for humanity how God the Father and the Word love them.
It is clear from Job 38:7 that the angels had the concept of fathers and sons. They knew that they were sons of God by creation. But the depth of closeness that the father-son bond should have produced in them for God the Father and the Word was not present because they had not experienced the same closeness from the point of view of parents.
Reproduction in the dinosaur world before man’s creation was through laying of eggs and hatching them. But in the mammalian world the method of reproduction was changed to producing young from their own bodies. This develops a closer bond between parent and offspring.
God also wanted man to learn to love all living things. Satan and the demons created the dinosaur world. After their thinking became perverted, they had no love for those creatures, because they thought absolutely nothing of destroying them in their rebellion. To teach man to love all creatures, God created cattle and other animals on which man would be dependent in many ways. He would be dependent on them for food, clothing and to bear his burdens. The animals would represent wealth for him. Even his practice of sustained agriculture would depend on animals [manure] to maintain the fertility of the soil. In short, man’s well-being would depend a great deal on taking care of animals. Indeed, his long-term survival would depend on them. He would have to kill them for food, clothing and other needs, but that does not have to be done with torture, pain and suffering. They could be killed humanely. Man would learn the need to preserve the animals because each plays an important part in the ecological system. This way he would learn to love all of God’s creation.
Fifth, God wanted to demonstrate to His creation how He loves them with the kind of love that surpasses human understanding. At the same time, He wanted to demonstrate to them that He is always just and fair, because Satan and his demons accuse Him of being unfair. God and the Word chose to demonstrate their love by the Word agreeing to empty Himself of all His divinity and power, coming to the earth as a human being, living a sinless life and dying for the sins of humanity. God the Father was also willing to sacrifice His Begotten Son in an excruciatingly painful death. With His sacrifice, the Word would redeem His creation from death, by paying the death penalty on its behalf.
God would also prove His fairness by demonstrating that He and the Word are very strict about their law of love. Unfairness violates that law of love. The penalty for violating that law is death. All human beings have earned the death penalty by sinning. That penalty had to be paid. There was no compromise with that. That is how strict is God about keeping His Law. Jesus Christ paid that death penalty on our behalf. God the Father and Jesus Christ never compromise with their law, and never sin themselves. They are very strict about keeping their law. Therefore, there is no question of their being unfair and unjust.
Sixth, God wanted to demonstrate to His new creatures that He always knows and does what is best for them in the long-run. They must, therefore, learn to trust Him completely. He knows every creature that has ever been created and is intimately familiar with all the details of their life experiences and all their thoughts. He has all the power, and He sees things that the creature itself cannot see or perceive. And He has the benefit of knowing the experiences of all creatures that have ever lived. Therefore, He is in the best position to judge what is in the best interest of every creature, even far more than the creature itself knows. And He has all the power to affect the outcomes of all actions. Therefore, He wanted His new creatures to learn to put their complete faith and trust in Him. The way God would choose to instill that lesson in men would be to require them to praise and worship Him. By praising and worshipping Him, they would never lose sight of His awesome power and greatness, the wonders and miracles He has performed for those who love Him, and always keep in mind how weak and totally dependent they are in comparison.
Seventh, God wanted to drive pride and vanity out of man forever. One way He would drive vanity out of the angels would be to set man in authority over them. That would also be a warning to man for all eternity. If they ever became vain and arrogant against God, He could always create new creatures and set them over man. God never wants pride and vanity to be the cause of rebellion against Him, or of oppression of fellow beings as happened in the case of Satan.
Eighth important lesson God wanted His creation to learn is that it is His prerogative to create a being as He chooses. The angels were created with different looks, talents and rank. Satan may have used these created differences to sow discontent, dissatisfaction, a false sense of discrimination and unfairness, resentment, bitterness and hatred among the angels towards God. God must have thought through all these ideas in the minds of the angels but concluded that there was no alternative to creating variety, and creatures with different talents and abilities for the good of society. God thought through the future of man for eternity ahead and concluded that there was no alternative to creating a hierarchical structure. Possible reason is that billions of beings created equal in rank would lead to anarchy. Therefore, some would have higher authority than others. God created humans with different looks and talents. But He would demonstrate that He is capable of providing for all so that they all can live happy, abundant, productive and joyful lives.
But also remember that human beings will be rewarded according to how they use their talents and abilities as the parable of the talents in Matthew 25 shows. God is always fair.
The ninth vital lesson God wanted man to learn is that violation of His laws, which is sin, always produces pain, suffering and anguish in the long run. He wanted to demonstrate to man that His laws are living laws which always exact a penalty when transgressed. Man would be created as a weak creature. As a result, all would sin and suffer the consequences in pain and suffering. They would therefore, learn to avoid sin as a result of these experiences. When they are resurrected as immortal spirit beings with powers multiplied billions or trillions of times, they will become perfect and incapable of sinning. They will become literal sons of God.
It is very important to understand why Jesus Christ had to die for humanity’s sins, and why God wants humans to ultimately become sinless. Muslims argue that God can simply forgive sins. Therefore, there was no need for Jesus Christ to die. But if God simply forgave every sin, humans will keep sinning. And sin always produces pain and suffering. So, pain and suffering would never cease. God has prophesied the kind of world He will bring about in Revelation 21:3-4, “3 And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, "Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. God Himself will be with them and be their God. 4 And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away." We will never see that kind of world until humans become immortal and incapable of sinning.
Only prescribing the death penalty for sin and paying it can impress on the minds of all human beings that God will not tolerate an iota of sin, because He wants to eradicate all pain and suffering forever. The only way to indelibly write the Law, the Law itself and the penalty for its violation, on human minds is to let them know that violation of God’s Law will without fail exact the death penalty. Since all have sinned and earned the death penalty, Jesus paid the death penalty on behalf of all of us. But if any one willfully sins again, the death penalty will be applied to that individual, and his or her life extinguished forever. God simply does not want anyone in His kingdom who will continue to be a source of pain and suffering for others and himself.
The tenth consideration for God in creating man was that He did not want them to suffer forever. He planned to give man temporary physical existence. To those that developed holy, righteous character such that God could depend on them to be completely faithful to Him and His way of life forever under all circumstances, He would give eternal life. Those who failed to repent and did not develop godly character would have their lives extinguished forever in a lake of fire. This would forever stop the pain and suffering they were causing themselves and others because of their sins. There is no ever burning hell in which the souls of the sinners are tortured forever by Satan and the demons.
The eleventh element of God’s plan for man would be to give eternal life only to those who really want it. When God opens the understanding of an individual to what He has planned for humanity, the individual may be really excited about his potential and work passionately to learn and live according to God’s laws and way of life. He may diligently apply himself to root sin out of his life, and exercise love towards God and fellow man. Such a person will be granted eternal life as God’s literal son and will rule with Jesus Christ in His kingdom. On the other hand, another individual called into God’s Church may understand the incredible potential God is offering him, but may be lazy, lukewarm and not be passionate about overcoming sin and growing in knowledge and love of God. Such a person, who does not bear sufficient fruit to perfection, will lose his life in the lake of fire. He will have demonstrated in his physical life that he is not really excited and passionate about living for eternity. This is indicated by the parable of the talents in Matthew 25:14-30, and the parable of the pounds in Luke 19:12-26.
The twelfth element of God’s plan for creation of man was to make him joint heir of all things with Jesus Christ, if he developed holy and righteous character. According to God’s plan, no intelligent being created by God would be tested quite like man, and the firstfruits among men more so. The firstfruits, those called into God’s Church during the first 6,000 years of man’s history, would be required to be willing to die to keep God’s laws and commandments to prove their total commitment to God’s way of life with Satan and the demons around to influence them and put them through tests and trials. As a reward God planned to make them heirs of all things, as indicated in Hebrews 2:8. “All things” means the entire universe. Romans 8:16-17 declares that we shall be joint-heirs with Jesus Christ.
By analyzing man’s attributes and physical environment, one can understand some of God’s other purposes for creating man the way He has. Herbert W. Armstrong in his book “Mystery of the Ages” describes some of his experiences with demons: “I have had a number of personal experiences with demons through a few demon-possessed people. I have cast out demons through the name of Christ and power of the Holy Spirit. Some demons are silly, like spoiled children. Some are crafty, sharp, shrewd, subtile. Some are belligerent, some are sassy, some are sullen and morose. But all are perverted, warped, twisted” (p. 93).
From Mr. Armstrong’s description, it seems some demons are not as passionate about work. To inculcate the habit of work, and to derive joy and satisfaction from a sense of accomplishment through hard work, God made man dependent on food to sustain his life. To procure food, man must work. This would build the habit of work in man. The angels on the other hand are not dependent on food to live.
Lucifer may have had to contend with this attitude among some of the demons who were merely existing and not working diligently. As a reaction he probably developed the philosophy of ‘success through competition’ rather than through cooperation. He has imparted that same philosophy, attitude and mind-set to humanity, and even the animals.
God also wants man to maintain His creation well, and to finish its beautification. For this purpose, man has to learn to be clean and maintain things in order. Apparently, some of the angels before they rebelled did not have enthusiasm in maintaining the earth in a state of cleanliness, beauty and order. To teach man that lesson, God decided to tie length of man’s life to keeping clean. He created germs that would thrive in unclean environments, and cause disease in humans. If man persisted in keeping his environment dirty, it could literally kill him prematurely with disease.
God also wanted man to learn self-control and temperance. It is one of the fruits of God’s holy spirit (Galatians 5:23). Apparently, some of the angels with Lucifer did not exhibit this character trait. To teach man this lesson, God created human bodies in such a way that if abused through lack of moderation in food and drink, man would get sick. The more he abused his body, the greater pain he would suffer, and the earlier he would die. Man would also develop a higher level of self-control by having to change his eating and drinking habits as he grew older.
Apparently, all angels did not learn to fully cooperate with one another. Man would learn that lesson by being created weak, not possessing all talents and thus never completely self-reliant. Every human depends on services from other human beings for living. He cannot himself produce all he needs. Then in old age he often cannot take care of even his basic needs and needs the services of others. This way man learns the lesson of interdependence, and the need to cooperate with others.
In addition, different nations would live in different geographic areas. But all geographic areas would not have all the resources that mankind would need. Therefore, to improve their quality of life, they would be forced to trade with each other. That would also teach mankind the need to cooperate and work with others.
Some of the angels with Lucifer must also have wondered why God created so many hundreds of millions or even billions of them. However, God would create billions of human beings to demonstrate to the angels that numbers are no constraint for Him. He has created many more planets in the universe than there will ever be human beings born. He can always create more. He can provide for all His creation with sustenance and fulfilling work and activities for all eternity.
With these goals in mind, God and the Word went ahead with the next phase of their creation: mankind.
Hard to Believe Man’s Incredible Potential
God created mankind male and female for an awesome purpose and hinted at man’s incredible potential at the time of his creation.
God said in Genesis 1:24-28, “24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. 25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creeps upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good. 26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”
Before creating man, God created the animals and all other living creatures after their own kind. But He created man in His own image, meaning after His kind, or the God kind. This creation account hints that man was created with the ultimate incredible potential of being born after His kind, as a part of His family. Thus God’s purpose in creating mankind was to reproduce Himself.
It is extremely difficult for humans to believe that their ultimate potential is literally to become immortal Gods, as Sons of God. Jesus Christ is God’s literal begotten Son. He was begotten as a human being first. But then at His resurrection He became a literal spirit born Son, a God Being like God the Father.
This was made absolutely clear by John in 1 John 3:1-2, “1 Behold, what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore, the world knows us not, because it knew him not. 2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.”
John leaves no doubt that we shall have a spirit body like Jesus Christ. Just as He is a literal spirit born Son of God, we too shall be literal spirit born sons of God the Father.
Despite such scriptures reassuring us, we still cannot comprehend that we shall become gods like Jesus Christ, literal immortal children of God the Father. Our argument against this belief is that Jesus Christ was a God Being before He became a human, but we were created mere flesh and blood. If God wanted to create us as His literal sons and daughters, He could have simply created us like Jesus Christ. Because we are created as flesh and blood beings like animals, we cannot therefore ever become equal to Jesus Christ as God’s literal sons and daughters.
But we forget that God did in fact create sons composed of spirit before humanity was created. Those spirit beings are the 24 elders and the angelic world. A part of those sons created with spirit bodies rebelled against God. God could not create His holy righteous character in them by fiat because they were created with free will and it requires their exercise of that free will in acquiescing to allow God to create His holy righteous character in them. God has created humans so that they can first allow Him to develop His holy righteous character in them before He will give them eternal life.
To prove to humans that He will convert them to spirit beings God the Father resurrected Jesus Christ from the dead. He will resurrect us in exactly the same way as spirit beings, to become His immortal sons and daughters.
The reality of the resurrection energized Jesus’ disciples so much that they were willing to die for their belief. They knew that their potential was to become God’s literal sons and daughters like Jesus Christ. That’s why John the apostle wrote about it.
We may still think that we cannot be equal to God because God had no direct hand in creating us. We were born as a result of our parents’ actions, and not directly created like Jesus Christ was created by God the Father. So, we think we cannot be equal with Jesus Christ. But we are forgetting that we would not have fully experienced the love of a parent for a child if God had a direct hand in our being born. We also do not realize that the chance of a human sperm fertilizing a human egg by mere chance is almost negligible. And at conception God instills a human spirit [as already explained] in the human embryo for it to be born as a human baby. This means that God has a direct hand in the conception of a human being, making the near impossible possible. But when a human child is born, its parents know that the child has come entirely from their own bodies. So, they deeply love that child. If God had a direct hand in creating flesh and blood human children without human reproduction, we would not have experienced the same level of love for our children. God has allowed us to reproduce without His seeming direct hand in it so that we can feel and experience love for our own children and thus learn how deeply God loves us. There was no better way to create humans to teach them the eternal lessons God wants them to learn.
God’s Name: Elohim
Name used for God in Genesis 1 is the Hebrew word Elohim. It is a uniplural noun like the word family or nation. The family is one unit but has many members. Similarly a nation is one unit with many citizens. Thus the name God is a family name. That’s why John the apostle wrote in John 1:1, 14: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.”
After Jesus was begotten by God the Father, He became God’s Son. This is how we can now understand the name God. Jesus is God’s Son, and is also God. Think of the name God as the sir name of the God family. At present it has only two members, God the Father, and Jesus Christ as the Son. We could call their names as Father God, Jesus Christ God. Since Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, Sarah, Deborah have all qualified for God’s kingdom, their names in God’s kingdom could be Abraham God, Isaac God, Jacob God, David God, Sarah God, Deborah God and so on. As mentioned earlier, potential of human beings is to become Sons of God like Jesus Christ with a spirit body like His (I John 3:1-2). Thus the God family is destined to expand with the addition of ultimately billions of humans made immortal Sons and grandsons of God, hence Gods.
God’s Church is called the bride of Christ. When Jesus Christ returns to earth, He will marry His bride as stated in Revelation 19:7-8, “7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.”
These are the saints that God called during the first 6,000 years of man’s history who qualified to receive eternal life. Collectively, God’s Church marries Jesus Christ and becomes His wife.
Thus human marriage is patterned after the divine marriage of Jesus Christ with His Church. Paul the apostle also described it in Ephesians 5:31-32, “31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. 32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”
This marriage of Jesus Christ to His loyal Church will then produce billions of sons and daughters, which will be the rest of humanity when they are given their chance for salvation and eternal life and qualify to receive it, thus becoming grandsons and granddaughters of God the Father.
With this understanding we can now better understand why God created humans male and female.
Human Birth Type of Being Born into the God Family
Human birth is patterned after the process of humans being born into the God family. Before we discuss the parallels between being born as a human baby and being born as a Son of God, we need to understand what a human being is, and how he differs from animals.
Though humans have an animal like flesh and blood bodies, human beings are far superior to animals in their abilities. Humans have a mind and intellect which gives them the power to think, the ‘mind power’ that animals don’t possess. Animal and human brains are quite similar, and the human brain is not the biggest in the animal world. As already mentioned, the Bible reveals why there is such a vast difference between animal brain and human mind. There is a spirit in man which animals don’t possess. The Bible also shows that there is a ‘human spirit’ and a ‘holy spirit.’
The best passage that explains what the ‘human spirit’ is as contrasted with God’s holy spirit is 1 Corinthians 2:9-12: “But as it is written, Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has prepared for them that love Him. But God has revealed them unto us by his [Holy] Spirit: for the [Holy] Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man, save the [human] spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knows no man, but the [Holy] Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the [human] spirit of the world, but the [holy] spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.”
In the above verses, the words “Holy” where Paul is talking about God’s holy spirit, and the word “human” where he is discussing the human spirit have been added. Paul here explains that the ‘human spirit’ in man helps us understand the things of man, a much higher level of understanding than that of animals. This includes our ability to think, reason, plan, build complex things, communicate in complex human languages, appreciate art and music etc. But the spiritual things of God can be understood only if we possess God’s holy spirit. The human spirit alone cannot help us understand spiritual things such as the significance of God’s holy days and His plan for salvation of mankind.
Humans also need to acknowledge another lie, told by Satan to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He told Eve that her soul was immortal and man cannot die. Here is how Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong describes it in his book “Mystery of the Ages”, p 103-104:
“And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath [air] of life; and man became a living soul” (Genesis 2:7). Man, formed from material dust of the ground, upon breathing air, became a living soul. It does not say man is, or has, an immortal soul. What was formed from material ground became a soul.
“The word “soul” is translated from the Hebrew in which Moses wrote, from the word nephesh. The Hebrew nephesh merely means a breathing animal. Three times in the first chapter of Genesis animals are called nephesh: Genesis 1:20, “moving creature” (Hebrew nephesh); Genesis 1:21, “great whales, and every living creature” (Hebrew nephesh); Genesis 1:24, “living creature” (Hebrew nephesh). The translators in translating into the English language used the English word “creature,” but in Genesis 2:7 they translated the same nephesh into the English word “soul” - man became a “living soul” (nephesh).
“Therefore, the SOUL is physical, composed of matter, and can die.”
Ezekiel the prophet confirmed this in Ezekiel 18:4, 20: “The soul that sins, it shall die.”
The spirit in man is not matter. It is spirit essence. Man is matter. Human spirit in man is the means God has made a personal relationship between human man and divine God possible. The human spirit does not impart life to humans. It comes from circulation of blood, breath of air and fueled by food, just like all animals.
God imparts the human spirit to the human embryo at conception. When mortal man dies, the body turns to dust, but the spirit in man returns to God. Solomon write in Ecclesiastes 12:7 about what happens after death: “7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.”
Mr. Armstrong continues on p. 110: “The departed human spirit at death is in fact a spiritual mold, of itself unconscious, yet in the resurrection bringing into the resurrected body all the memory, knowledge and character as well as form and shape of the person before death. The human spirit of itself cannot hear, think or know…The value of a human life lies in the human spirit and its potential of being united with God’s Spirit - which is God-mind and God-life.”
Here then are the parallels between human birth and being born into the God family as the Son of God.
A human being is conceived when an egg from the mother unites with the sperm from the father. Then the embryo and later fetus grows in the mother’s womb for approximately nine months. Then the human baby is born. In the spiritual parallel, an adult hears God’s word and is convicted by it and decides to become baptized into God’s Church. God’s Church is the mother (Galatians 4:26, “26 But Jerusalem which is above is free [the New covenant Church], which is the mother of us all; and In Revelation 19:7, the Church is called the wife of Jesus Christ). On baptism into the Church, a person receives the free gift from God’s holy spirit. The holy spirit unites with the human spirit, thus conceiving a spirit embryo. Thus spirit life is conceived. Then the baptized person grows in grace, knowledge and character of Jesus Christ (2 Peter 3:18, “18 But grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ) in God’s Church, just as the human embryo grows in the mother’s womb. Just like the human baby being fully formed, ready to be born, the baptized Christian grows in spiritual maturity until Christ is formed in him (Galatians 4:19, “19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.”)
Then as the human baby is born, the mature Christian in whom the character of Jesus Christ has been fully formed is born as an immortal Son of God at the resurrection as described by Paul in I Corinthians 15:50-54, “50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither does corruption inherit incorruption. 51 Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.”
With this background, we can better understand why God created mankind male and female.
Why God Created Humans Male and Female in a Family
God created mankind male and female to create families through marriage. Marriage and family is the institution God has designed for mankind to learn all the vital lessons necessary for qualifying to receive eternal life, including how to live under authority. Human family is patterned after the God family, with God the Father, Jesus Christ as the Son and God’s Church at present Jesus Christ’s bride to marry Him as His wife when He returns to earth. Therefore God’s purposes in creating mankind male and female are:
1) Ability to reproduce and have a family.
2) Teach mankind how to love each other as themselves. If the entire world were either male or female, they would not automatically learn to love the other person as themselves. Loving others as ourselves does not come naturally. God created the angels as one kind of beings. They could learn to be friends with each other, but somehow not loving the others as themselves.
We can see the example of hermaphrodites in nature, which are creatures that have both male and female parts. They reproduce sexually which is a pleasurable activity. But after that they go their own way. There is nothing to bind them together.
In a family the husband and wife are to be bound together in love. Here is how God described the first human marriage in Genesis 2:24, “24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” That’s the true purpose of human marriage: to bind two people together as one, or one unit. Husband and wife are to cling or cleave together in love. Sexual union is part of that cleaving process. It creates commitment to one another in the unit.
In a marriage and family unit a man and woman can learn to love each other as themselves much better than men can love other men and women can love other women as themselves. Marriage and the family unit make two human beings work towards the same goal. Looking after each other or loving each other as themselves enhances the accomplishment of the common goals. The family unit leads to greater success, and much faster than doing it alone. And the experience is much more enjoyable and less burdensome as responsibilities and duties towards achieving the common goals can be shared.
Since the purpose of human life is to give mankind an eternal perspective, husband and wife should be working towards creating an eternal bond? They should view their marriage as binding the two of them together for eternity. They should be asking themselves the questions: Are we working together to build a loving and productive relationship such that we will be thrilled to live and work with each other for eternity as one well-knit unit? Are we building a family that will enjoy living and working together for eternity? A happy family with children, then grandchildren, then great grandchildren all knit together in love is or should be the dream of every human being. It is God’s dream. He is trying to expand His family through human beings. Are we demonstrating in our marriages that that is our dream as well and are we working diligently to realize that dream?
Marriage thus teaches human beings a much closer level of love. We would then be able to extend that kind of deeper love for other fellow eternal Sons and Daughters of God for eternity.
3) Teach mankind that God the Father and Jesus Christ love them. Humans learn that by having their own offspring and caring for them.
The human reproductive process has been designed to deepen the love of a parent for a child. The human baby forms in the body of its mother over a 9-month gestation period and then separates as a new human being. This experience creates a much deeper bond than that created by animals and birds that reproduce their offspring by laying eggs and hatching them (process is called oviparity).
By learning to love their children, humans learn the vital lesson that God and Jesus Christ love them with even greater godly love that surpasses human understanding. God and Jesus further demonstrated their love for their creation by Jesus Christ emptying Himself of His divinity and coming as a human being to pay the death penalty for every human and intelligent creature created by Jesus Christ. The death penalty was necessary to impress upon human beings the need to become perfect, or sinless.
It is extremely important for us to have instilled in our minds that God loves us because that is the only way we can develop complete trust and faith in Him. Satan and the demons had not developed that trust in God. Without complete trust in the authority above us, it is impossible to have peace of mind. Without peace of mind we simply will not be happy.
4) Teach mankind to accept God’s method of government of one person in charge, for a unit or organization to function smoothly. When two or more come together, for things to work smoothly, one person must be in charge. It is not always easy for two almost equal beings to accept that. God has designed the human family unit to learn that lesson and accept God’s method of government with one person in charge easily with minimum conflict.
How does each of us convince God that we will never rebel against Him if He grants us eternal life? The only way to do that is to demonstrate to God that we are willing to live under authority now and treat authority with respect and honor.
If in any part of our life we demonstrate to God that we cannot live and function harmoniously and productively under authority, then we are demonstrating to Him that we might possibly rebel against Him or against those He has put in positions of authority. He will not grant such a person eternal life.
God designed mankind male and female. He put man as the head of the family and the woman to support him. Children are to be ruled by their parents. This creates a hierarchical structure in the family. By living in a family unit, human beings learn God’s method of government and accept it much easier than if they were either only male or only female.
Do you think a woman who wants to rule her husband will be demonstrating to God that she has learnt to live under authority? Or do you think that children who are rebellious against either of their parents have demonstrated to God that they would be willing to live under His authority and will never rebel against Him? Of course, a man as head of the household has the responsibility to provide for and support his family and love them and give himself for them as Jesus loved and gave Himself for the Church. Jesus never bossed around His disciples. That’s how He expects men to treat their wives. [For more details, please read my book “God’s Purpose for Marriage” available free on my web site]. A man who fails to do so will not have learnt to assume responsibility. And ruling means assuming responsibility. Humans are designed to rule God’s creation, and later their own creation. Those who have not learnt to do so will not be happy for eternity. God will not grant such people eternal life.
Man has to support his family for which he must work. And in a work situation he will be under authority. So, man learns to live under authority through his work while the wife and children learn to live under authority in the home.
5) God wants mankind to learn to work and cooperate with one another.
One way they would learn that lesson is when they recognize that they are ultimately related to each other. God directly created only one flesh and blood being: Adam. God did not create Eve as a separate flesh and blood being out of the dust of the ground. He made Eve out of Adam by taking his rib. So Eve was created out of man. Then every human being ever born has sprung from Adam and Eve. So, each and every human being ever born is related to each another. That realization should make all humans love each other.
In contrast, all angels are individually created.
To help humans to learn to work with and cooperate with one another, it was also necessary to create differences in humanity itself and in its environment as it was necessary to create differences in the angelic world. The first difference created was to make them male and female. Males and females are created different in more ways than just with physical bodies. But their differences in strength, talents and abilities are complementary. When their complementary strengths are pooled together they are greater than the sum of their individual strengths.
Then males and females differ in their physical and mental strengths, talents and abilities as compared to other males and females. So, males must learn to cooperate with other males and females must learn to cooperate with other females to improve their collective standard of living and quality of life. This leads to trade which improves the collective quality of life. Then nations differ in their resources and national talents and capabilities. Cooperation between nations should lead to beneficial trade which should collectively improve the standard and quality of life for all of humanity.
Humans are designed to learn to love one another if they want greater success in life. That’s why humans having sex and families out of marriage are defeating God’s very purpose for creating humanity. If unrepented of, it will lead to loss of eternal life.
Copyright © Church of God Message. All rights reserved.