“1Co 2:12 But *we* have received, not the spirit of the
world, but the Spirit which is
of God, that we may know the things which have been freely given to us of God: 1Co 2:13 which
also we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom,
but in those taught by the
Spirit, communicating spiritual things by spiritual means . 1Co 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of
God, for they are folly to him; and he cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned;
1Co 2:15
but the spiritual discerns all things, and *he* is discerned of no one.”
For pedagogical reasons I had
to use a human language and use a rather scientific concept of Homo sapiens in
my previous epistle. We needed to start with
the language of men to climb higher into the biblical or divine language. And
so, as I stated in the epistle, here we just read that there is an animal life
and a spiritual life, human wisdom and spiritual wisdom, animal things and
spiritual things, etc., and whatever is human or animal, the antipode of the
spiritual, is characteristic of the "animal man". This
biblical concept should cause anyone to reflect! And next to this "natural
man" the Bible then presents another, the "spiritual man,"
so that we no longer need to use the concept of "Homo sapiens" and "man
in the image of God.”
Now we realize that in many
places in the Bible the word "man" is used without being followed by
one of these epithets "animal" or "spiritual." As in each
case either man is concerned, one of those epithets must always be understood
even though it is not specifically mentioned. The information contained in this
passage and others will permit to detect the epithet implied that accompanies
the concept "man" wherever it is used in Scripture: the animal man has
the spirit of the world, the spiritual man has the spirit of God; the natural
man speaks the words taught by man's wisdom (the primate brain), the spiritual
man speaks the words taught by the Spirit communicating spiritual things by
spiritual means; the natural man does not receive spiritual things (the true
word of God), and he cannot know them because they are spiritually (not
rationally) discerned, the spiritual man penetrates everything, even the depth
of God (1 Cor 2: 10); the animal man does not know the voice of the Good
Shepherd, the spiritual man knows it (Jn 10: 27)); the natural man does not
listen to the words of God, the spiritual man listens to them in delight (Jn 8:
474; 119: 70); etc.
With this quite clear biblical
parallelism, we can address some examples of biblical use of the concept
"man." For example, the Spirit of God came to Pontius Pilate
presenting Jesus to the world, saying: “Joh 19:5
… Behold the man!” it is the spiritual man, the one through whom
God was to beget many other spiritual men. By cons we read elsewhere that “Num 23:19 *God is not a man, that he should lie;
neither a son of man, that he should repent.” it is the
animal man born according to the animal reproduction system. We read further
that “Psa
39:5 verily, every man, even the high placed, is
altogether vanity. Selah.” The animal man or the supreme primate, whatever his
degree of perfection, wisdom and beauty is fleeting. And when we read “Gen 1:27 And God created Man in his image, in the
image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” God is not natural, he is spirit; and man in
the image of God cannot be animal but spiritual.
Again we read in Ezekiel “Eze 28:2 …and thou art a man, and not *God…” “Eze 28:9 … but thou shalt be a man, and not *God, in
the hand of him that pierceth thee.” Here again it is the animal man, the supreme
primate or Homo sapiens. And this chapter shows us that this man was in the
Garden of Eden with Adam - which we will examine later.
Thus we find out that in
biblical language, the concept "man" is both spiritual and animal.
Spiritually it refers to the most precious spiritual creature in God's eternal
vision, a creature made in the image of God and his perfect likeness. God
established this creature on the earth, having formed his earthly body pulled
from the dust, and in this body he fell and failed to reflect the image of God
in the face of the earth. Through this fall, man was reduced to the level of
animals on earth leading a purely animal life (if not worse), and needed a
redeemer. The Redeemer came in the same form with a similar body but not pulled
from dust. All that formed the body of Christ was heavenly; the Word made flesh,
the accomplished vision of God of man in his image and actual likeness.
From the animal point of view,
this concept "man" refers to the supreme primate zoologically
classified as "Homo sapiens", namely a plantigrade animal, biped,
standing to 180 degrees, with an articulated language, an animal with a high
sense of humor, an awareness of good and evil, an animal that knows he will
die, and that raises questions about himself; short, an animal with a unique
social, economic, political and religious culture. "Man" is also the
unique animal whose external appearance of the body is structured with
extraordinary aesthetics, when compared to all other mammals. The hair on his
body are spread deliberately both to draw beauty and perform a function;
otherwise the body is generally smooth in comparison with other primates and
mammals in general.
If it is biblically established
that the concept "man" may, in one context or another, denote a
spiritual being in the image of God or an animal, we will discover also some
biblical passages where the animal man is outright called animal, beast, serpent,
etc. The kings of the nations and world powers they lead are usually
represented as beasts in the Bible. This is the type that we read in Daniel 7
and 8, Revelation 13 and many other passages. The Bible can mention lamb, fox,
lion, serpent or dragon, etc., without literally referring to animals but to
men. Examples:
“Joh 1:29 On the morrow he sees Jesus coming to him,
and says, Behold the Lamb of God,
who takes away the sin of the world.” Here John the Baptist did not show a ruminant,
but a man, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. “Luk 13:32
And he said to them, Go, tell
that fox, Behold, I cast out demons and accomplish cures to-day and
to-morrow, and the third day
I am perfected;” Here Jesus is not talking about the carnivore of
the dog family, but of a man, Herod, governor of Galilee. “Luk 3:7 He said therefore to the crowds which went
out to be baptised by him, Offspring
of vipers, who has forewarned you to flee from the coming wrath?” “Mat 23:33
Serpents, offspring of vipers,
how should ye escape the judgment of hell?” in both cases still, neither
John the Baptist nor Jesus addressed the reptiles of the order of Squamata, but
men, incredulous crowds, Pharisees full of mischief.
If that is the language of God,
then it is up to us to get familiar therewith, at least if we received his
grace, rather than being offended. In this case, God speaks to the king of Tyre
in Ezekiel and insists: thou art a man. And he says that this man was in the
Garden of Eden - a man other than Adam who was also in the Garden of Eden. But
when God speaks to Moses about the same player he calls him "serpent"
to focus on the mischievous character of this man, but also using his post-curse
zoological reference. Indeed, the biblical narrative itself does not allow a
sensible man to think that this "serpent" was a legless reptile with
a body covered with scales, because in the first verse of Chapter 3 he is reported
to be on top of the animal hierarchy; and in verse fourteen God lowers him to
the class of reptiles, the order of Squamata, the suborder of Serpentes. It is
therefore the curse and the divine punishment that precipitated him from the
VIP position he occupied in the animal realm to the lower order of the class of
reptiles.
Also we realize that the word
"serpent" is a post-curse concept. It is clear that before this
event, the order of Squamata included only lizards that crawl on the ground using
their limbs. The curse caused the existence of a suborder of Serpentes, namely
reptiles which crawl on their belly through contractions without the aid of any
limb; in other words, God has brought this supreme primate, crown of all
mammals and all animals to a rank even lower than lizards.
Thus we understand that within
the very humanity the natural man and the spiritual man have existed since Eden.
For centuries the enemy has desperately fought the revelation of this mystery
that unveils him. But God has reserved it for us who are living in the last
hour so that our knowledge of Christ is accomplished in order to overcome the
last enemy’s offensive. Every human being who has not in him the spirit of God,
i.e. Christ, is a plantigrade and bipedal beast, a great-grand-son of the
serpent of Eden. His civilization, modernity, education, spiritual or religious
activities shall provide nothing more; he is and still remains an animal.
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