1. Jews call the first Book of their Bible BERESHITH because this is the first word of Genesis and means “In beginning.” The meaning is reflected in the New Testament Greek, EN ARCHE, of John 1:1. The absence of the article and language here means that heaven and earth had a beginning – Creatio ex nihilo – created from nothing. Moreover, the use of the conjunction WAW “and” between clauses precludes the introduction of gaps or vast spans of time as demanded by the doctrine of theistic evolution. The first day [Gen. 1:3] there was light, given as OR, and again in Psalms 104:2 where God covers Himself with a garment of OR. However, this word and the related word ORAH, is used as a metaphor for knowledge. Likely, it was this light that shone from Moses face in Genesis 34:29-35. Recall the aura or nimbus seen on the heads of saints in classic paintings e.g. Bartolommeo. Creation of the light bearers, MAOR, the sun, moon, stars, appeared on the fourth day.
2. Genesis 2:7 describes the creation of Adam. The cartoon shows a glade in the Garden of Eden in which God [as the Lion of Judah] has placed a perfect soul invisible to us. He calls the elements from the ground – the carbon, nitrogen atoms – to take their place within this soul to produce Adam. At this point Adam is neither alive nor dead. God sends forth His breath of life [plural NESHAMAH CHAIYIM] that divides at the nostrils to provide life for the body and life for the soul. The famous painting by Michelangelo on the Sistine Chapel ceiling [1512] is a complete misrepresentation used today to teach that God infused a higher ape with a soul to create Man. This is the doctrine of theistic evolution long held to and now promoted by the Vatican.
3. Adam’s Physical appearance. Genesis 1:31 God declared that all He had made was “very good” and reasonably this means perfect. No floods, no diseases, no death [death was introduced by Adam, Romans 5:12-19]. The animals were vegetarian and had no fear of Man until after the Genesis Flood [Gen. 9:2]. Adam was physically perfect: No genetic defects, faultless immune system, 100% efficient digestive system — little food was required and virtually no waste products, perfect eye and hand co-ordination, etc. We have to accept that in that newly created world every living thing had the appearance of age. Adam may well have appeared pre-pubescent, say, about 12 years old – we recall the last Adam was 12 years old when He began to be “about His Father’s business” [Luke 2:42-49]. The Book of Jubilees [not inspired] tells us that Adam walked with God seven years before the Fall – a sufficient time to learn a lot that could not otherwise be known. Adam lived for 930 years [Gen. 5:5] suggesting that the rate of maturing and aging was very much less than it is today. Since each generation is known to lose genetic information Adam would have been a good middle brown with black hair and black eyes. Caucasians have lost the ability to produce very much melanin and have white skin, fair hair and blue eyes.
4. Adam’s mental ability. Jesus said of the man born blind [John 9:3] that “neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him.” Some children today are born with Asperger’s Syndrome [autism] while about 1% have amazing mental abilities e.g. especially superb memories. These handicapped people cannot use these abilities for evil thus the works of God can be revealed in them. Our example is Matt Savage born in 1992 with mild autism, he became a jazz piano prodigy by the age of 12 and appeared on the front cover of Time magazine. The neurosciences do not recognize the existence of the soul and are at a loss to explain these abilities. God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise. [1Corinthians 1:27]. Scripture tells us much about the soul and from these unusual cases we can begin to learn of our origin and our destiny.
5. Adam’s Soul and Spirit. Previously we saw that at the creation of Adam God’s Spirit of life became divided at the nostril: part became the spirit of life for the soul and part the spirit of life for the body. John Calvin [1509-1564] converted from Catholicism at 24 then immediately began to write his Institutes of the Christian Religion. He failed to understand the relationship between soul and spirit and concluded that they were one and the same thing. The notion was adopted by the Anglican Church as the Westminster Confession of 1649 and became the majority Protestant view i.e. that Man is two-part: body and soul/spirit. 1Thessalonians 5:23 tells us that God’s order of priorities is: “spirit, soul and body.” While Christians have reversed this to: “body, soul and spirit,” all acknowledge that God is a trinity and, since we are made in His image, it is reasonable to conclude that we are also a trinity. Knowing this helps us to understand our destiny more clearly.
6. Soul is eternal. Plato believed in reincarnation concluding that the human soul was immortal. Unfortunately, this view has crept into Christian thinking via Augustine, Calvin and the Westminster Confession. God did not create death [1 Corinthians 15:21] thus at creation Adam’s soul and body were either eternal or immortal. However, only heaven can provide immortality, and so far, only God is immortal [1 Timothy 6:16]. Thus, Adam was created with an eternal soul and an eternal body to spend eternity in a perfect environment. Following Adam’s Fall, his body slowly changed from eternal to mortal but his soul remained eternal. Every human soul since is eternal while only existence in heaven can change the soul from eternal to immortal.
7. Difference between Soul and Spirit. Soul is translated from the Hebrew NEPHESH or from the Greek PSUCHE or PSYCHE. Both soul and spirit have been mistranslated [99 times in the KJV as “life”]. God sees us as an eternal soul temporally clothed in a mortal body in order to function in a material world. The soul is our consciousness and occupies the whole body, it is not accessible to science, is the domain of our intellect, personality and memory and is therefore the actual and eternal person. The spirit is translated from the Hebrew RUACH and the Greek PNEUMA; both words mean wind or breath. It is God’s spirit that gives life to our mortal body and is on loan to us; upon death it returns to God [Ecclesiastes 12:7]. God’s spirit also gives life to our eternal soul and this remains even after death of the body. This explains why God is not the God of the dead but the living [Matthew 22:23-32]. For eternal punishment those souls must remain eternal.
8. Effect of Adam’s Fall. The non-canonical Book of Jubilees tells us Adam and Eve were in the Garden for seven years before the Fall and there were no children; in fact, Jubilees tells us that Adam and Eve had their first child at the age of fifty. Recall Noah cursed Ham’s son, Canaan, rather than bear the stigma of being perceived to be a poor father by cursing his own son, Ham, [Gen. 9:22-27]. Similarly, God did not curse Adam but cursed the ground from which grew every food for Man. By consuming the cursed food Adam and Eve’s bodies gradually changed, cell by living cell, from eternal to mortal i.e. subject to death. Jesus blessed the loaves and fishes presumably to remove the effect of the curse [Matthew 14:19]. In contrast, the soul does not consume food and has remained perfect and eternal. However, our part in salvation is to love God but for that love to be genuine we must have free-will, i.e. we can choose to be obedient or not. For this reason, Adam’s sin caused God to veil the human soul to limit its capability e. g. poor memory, and only permit Man to communicate with God via the Holy Spirit.
9. The Veil. Exodus 26:31-36 describes the tabernacle veil that separated Man from God. The veil was colored purple and red, the same colors as the Great Harlot [Revelation 17:4] indicating its connection with sin. Catholic Marian images use the same colors. The temple veil was torn when Jesus died [Matthew 27:51] while 2 Corinthians 3:13-16 states that Jesus came to remove the veil between Man and God. In custom, the Jewish bride wears her veil at the marriage ceremony; it covers her face [Song of Solomon 4:1-3; 6:7]; the groom is allowed to remove the veil only after the consummation [Gen.29:10-25] and then they go to the marriage supper. It is proposed that Jesus partially removes the soul-veil when we accept Him and removes it completely in heaven before the marriage supper of the Lamb [Revelation 19:7-9]. The veil tends to isolate the soul from God while the purpose is to limit the potential of the human soul — God veiled it for our own good.
10. God’s Use of the Veil. There are seven spirits of God and His Spirit of life – not the Holy Spirit – is in every living thing. With this understanding it becomes easier to see how flocks of birds and schools of fish can behave as a single organism. In the same way, the autonomic nervous system in animals and humans can be better understood when seen to be under the control of God’s Spirit of life. For example: prayer for healing. This same Spirit can call to mind distant memories, juxtapose two memories or ideas to produce a third, or give a warning when in danger. The Holy Spirit can do these same things but also teach us from the Scriptures. In short, these Spirits of God can easily access the resources of the perfect soul through the veil in every human for His good purposes. Further, we are also given an insight from the first two chapters of Job and 1 Corinthians 5:5 to see that sometimes Satan works under God’s instruction but God is sovereign. There are several well- known examples from history where non-Christians e.g. Descartes, have reported a moment of vivid inspiration that has later changed Man’s belief system. At the same time, God can inspire others to produce good inventions such as the printing press or medicines to help mankind. In retrospect then, it can be appreciated that God has a plan for history and through the unwitting souls of men ensures that the plan unfolds precisely on time.
11. Some Extraordinary Minds.
W. A. Mozart [1756-1791]. At age 14 Mozart memorized words and music at one hearing of Allegri’s Miserere sung in Latin; it lasts 13 minutes.
William Sidis [1898-1944]. Could read the New York Times at 18 months, Latin at 2 years, and, as an adult, could speak over forty languages.
George Koltanowsky [1903-2000]. Played against 56 world chess experts simultaneously and won 50 games. He was blindfolded throughout!
Alexander C. Aitken [1895-1977]. A lightning calculator, at 77 he mentally multiplied 123456789 by 987654321and gave the correct result in 30 secs!
12. Conclusion. It has long been argued — and Dale Carnegie capitalized upon it — that Man uses only 10% of his brain capacity. The evolutionist objects to this argument since it implies that evolution is driven by more than blind chance suggesting intelligent guidance [teleology]. The other horn to this evolutionist’s dilemma is that early man had full use of his brain and has not progressed as commonly taught, but has regressed or Fallen as the Bible teaches. We conclude: Adam was initially a superman in every respect. The veil over the soul is a clever device for Mankind’s own good: Imagine a world where Man lived for 1000 years and everyone was an evil genius! God has inspired some to introduce good inventions or medicines and instructed Satan to inspire others for evil so that history will unfold as planned.
