Perfecting Man

     God, Jehovah created man, "And Jehovah God created man out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Genesis 2:7), in the likeness of Himself and in the likeness of His only-begotten Son, but man wasn't yet complete or perfected at his conception, one more trait needed to be implemented for the human race to be complete in order for man to be in the presence of the Almighty God. Man's character needed to be refined, settled and needed to decide on loving God. Adam didn't yet understand purity while in the Garden of Eden, even though he experienced God's purity. The final perfected status that the human race was destined to possess was yet to come, and is still yet to be achieved for each human. Man needed to be tested and tried, "And I will bring the third part through the fire, and I will refine them as silver is refined. And I will try them as gold is tried. And they shall call on My name and I will answer them. I will say, It is My people, and they shall say, Jehovah is my God." (Zechariah 13:9). Foremost, to complete man entrance into Jehovah's kingdom, man needs to understand love, and in order for love to exist, a personal decision needs to be made from each human, therefore Jehovah put in the midst of Adam's perfect environment, one tree that was off limits to the man and his wife. They were told not to eat of this one particular tree that was set in man's environment, a special tree with a particular name, "The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil" which indicates to me that Jehovah designed man to pass through this period of refinement, a needed step in preparation for man to exist with Him in the kingdom of God. Jehovah knew that every human must, not only make a decision to love, but after the garden, humanity was to make many daily decisions in order to cleanse one selves from all impurities, for the purpose of spending eternity with God Jehovah in His coming pure kingdom. The Garden was a pure place, but it wasn't the final home that God envisioned for man, the garden was a preview of God's final world of perfection, designed for man's future, which Jehovah will soon create for those selected to spend eternity in His new earth, "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and the sea no longer is" (Revelation 21:1). John was shown a vision of the coming new world, which is to be created after the one thousand years of rest of our current world before it is redesigned and recreated.

      In God's wisdom, unlike all His other creations, He created man with the ability to reason, for the purpose and the responsibility for choosing to love and to develop the understanding and desire to be obedient to God's perfect laws, in his seeking to know God's way, or to choose contrary. With this one special tree "The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil" in Adam's midst, God knew at some point man would make the choice to go against His command, and this did happened, and in doing so, Adam's choice initiated a change in everything for mankind, including his environment. The question that is addressed and answered in this search of God's word is: Was Adam's decision to eat from the forbidden tree according to Almighty God's perfect far-reaching plan? Was this an expected, even necessary part of God's vision for humanity? God needs each one of us to go through this trial period in order for mankind to experience, learn and understand God's perfect system of government, which is pure and will be the standard in Jehovah's kingdom. We have been in this period of perfecting our character ever since Adam was cast out of the garden, "And He drove the man out. And He caused to dwell the cherubs at the east of the Garden of Eden, and the flaming sward whirling around to guard the way of the tree of Life." (Genesis 3:24), and each individual has the responsibility to make their decision for or against God Jehovah and His perfect and just government, before each individual's personal first death. This may seem simple to one who already knows of Jehovah's character and His plan for mankind, but man has been proving that it is not an easy decision, and I believe the primary reason is that most haven't set their efforts in seeking God, "Seek Jehovah, all the meek of the earth who have done His justice; seek righteousness; seek meekness. It may be you shall be hidden in the day of the anger of Jehovah." (Zephaniah 2:3) by every word out of the mouth of God. And the day of God's anger will be soon, after all humans have been resurrected to either future, for eternal death or eternal life.

     Most humans lack the proper amount of correct information, by their own decisions, avoiding the pursuit of all of God's words, or the information that one chooses to believe is incomplete for making a wise decision. Man's choices are to be made daily, and the wisdom needed for making the multitude of decisions is found only in Jehovah's word. The purest way to receive the information needed for correct understanding is available within the pages of our Father's words, by reading all His perfect words for oneself and allowing correct understanding to be delivered by the spirit of God or the spirit of His Son. Christ, being the example for us, who calls us to follow Him, "Then Jesus spoke to them, saying, I am the light of the world; he following Me in no way will walk in darkness, but will be the light of life." (John 8:12), Christ not only gave us His Father's instruction, but He walked a perfect human thirty-three and a half years during His first advent in the presence of men, Himself, as a man, "but we do see Jesus crowned with glory and honor, who on account of suffering of death was made a little less then the angels, so that by the grace of God He might taste of death for every son." (Hebrews 2:9). To qualify Himself to become the "Lamb of God", He needed to walk perfectly in His Father laws, and He became an example for us to do likewise, for us to also walk righteously as He did. This needs to be our choice and our effort, but success can only be achieved with Christ's help. To follow someone else, a pastor, a speaker or a writer is not following Christ, although others "can" be helpful to us in guiding us in choosing the correct direction. Throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament, we are called to seek our Almighty God Jehovah, "Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap as mercy. Break up your plowed ground. For it is time to seek Jehovah, until He comes and "rains" righteousness on you." (Hosea 10:12). "rains" Strong's #3384 "rains" is not listed, but teach, inform and other similar terms are listed. We are to seek God Jehovah, our Father, for our final destination is to be in God's kingdom and the only sure way to the Father is through the guidance of His only-begotten Son, Jesus, who is the "Way" to the Father, "Jesus said unto him, I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me." (John 14:6), who gave to us His Father's words, "I have many things to say and to judge concerning you, but the One sending Me is true, and what I heard from Him, these thing I say to the world." (John 8:26).

     Sin first entered God's pure environment by the His highly exalted angel, Lucifer, who became dissatisfied with his position in Heaven and looked to raise himself equal or above Jehovah God. Satan then introduced sin into existence, challenging God's angels, who also didn't know of sin. Heaven was pure and a perfect place before Lucifer's departure from righteousness. Once Satan introduced sin, he and the angels that were fooled by Satan, were cast out of Heaven because sin is not allowed in God's pure environment, "And the great dragon was cast out - the old serpent being called Devil and Satan, he deceived the whole habitable world - was cast out into the earth and his angels were cast out with him." (Revelation 12:9). God gave Satan to reign over earth, to challenge and test mankind; to introduce us to the opposite side of righteousness, this was for us to see the beauty of God's perfect system. However, Satan has only a limited period of time and limited in his powers, only according to God's plans. Lucifer (Satan), in his first earthly deception, disguised himself as a serpent and influenced Eve to transgress God's one command in the Garden of Eden, but Adam was the one who made a decision to sin, in following Eve, "And He said to the man, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the tree about which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it, the ground shall be cursed because of you; you shall eat of it in sorrow all the days of your life." (Genesis 3:17). Humanity continues to endure the influences of Satan today and he has gotten better at his many deceptions. As a result of Adam's transgression of God's one law, both humans were cast out of the Garden and were given a new agenda: a degraded new environment and a new life objective, to avoid sin and discard their transgressions of God's commands, this is in preparation for man to choose his final home, the kingdom of God or the Lake of Fire. Man's environment changed to a sinful environment, where everything would decays, all having a death sentence, including man, and the earth itself. Not only was man given a time limit, man also lost audio and direct visual communication with their God Jehovah and throughout the Old Testament angels and prophets were used, with only a few men who spoke Jehovah God directly.         

     After the worldwide flood, God developed a special nation, the Israelites, to present to the other nations an example of Jehovah's blessings and His rejections. He set them apart when He brought this special nation out of Egypt, by powerful works of His hand, then later in the wilderness He gave them His commands, His laws and His precepts, for them to show by example to the other nations, what life would be like for those who learned of God's character and obeyed His commands, displaying that His way is perfect and beneficial to all those who do them. He gave His special people communication through His prophets and this continued until He sent His only-begotten Son, the Messiah to shepherd His people to the kingdom of God. The Christ of God accomplished this by the many messages Jesus gave to us, to educate His chosen apostles and the selected writers of the New Testament, for them to continue this task of sharing the gospel message to the entire world.  Before God's salvation could be realizes by anyone, events were needed for our education and was necessary to occur, plus the price for man's transgression of God's unchangeable perfect laws needed a blood payment, in order for man to benefit from the repentance of his sins. This was according to God's plan, and the Son of God was also sent to earth to sacrifice His own life for our life, and Jesus accomplished this by first, living a perfect human life and then, surrendering Himself to a death at Calvary, to become the sacrificial "Lamb of God", "On the morrow, John sees Jesus coming toward him and said, Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." (John 1:29). Christ's ultimate act of love, displayed at Calvary was for all those who have repented of their sins in their preparation to live in the presence of God Almighty, in His holy kingdom, which at that future time will encompass everywhere, after all evil and death are destroyed at the end of the one thousand years of earth's rest, (read Revelation 20:1-3). These are the souls that are written in the "Book of Life", allowing them to avoid the second death in the "Lake of Fire", "And if anyone was not found having been written in the Scroll of Life, he was thrown into the Lake of Fire." (Revelation 20:15). Satan, his angels, the false prophets and those not listed in the "Book of Life" are destined for an eternal death, "For the wages of sin is death; but the free gift of God is everlasting life in Christ Jesus our Lord." (Romans 6:23).

     The writings, which Christ inspired, are an essential part in this process of cleansing ones self, because Jehovah's kingdom is pure and nothing impure will be allowed to enter, just as Satan was cast out of God's kingdom, we will also be excluded, if not cleansed and purified from our sins, in accordance with God's eyes. Christ assembled into a book, now called "The Bible", the instructions His Father gave Him to give to us. We are to consume this Book, allowing Christ's spirit to bless us with valuable and correct understanding of God's word, “For I know that this will result in salvation to me through your petition, and supply the Spirit of Jesus Christ.” (Philippians 1:19). We have but one main decision to make, and many smaller daily decisions in our preparation to experience what God has designed for all who consider His word as pure and necessary, and who choose to prepare ones self for Jehovah's eternal kingdom. God's plans for our eternity with Him are beyond our human imaginations, but they are the reason Jehovah created mankind, even before man's first breath.       The education we need for making these decisions for our salvation are all around us, in God's creations and within the Book Christ gave us, just for this purpose. The entire Bible informs us of the system of God, by His commands and precepts, plus the history of His actions and reaction. The information that we may gather outside God's word, may direct us to results outside of the system that God has established for our coexistence and our happiness, first with Him and secondly, with the people that will also be chosen. The surest and purest information lies within God's word, and the closest to the original has a greater cleansing impact. This eara of decision was needed to educate and direct us to seek purification, to sanctify and transform our hearts to be in conformity with His Godly environment, present in the next age, in our God's personal presence. Christ's death at Calvary is a symbol of our death to self, and to take in our mind and our heart the character of God Jehovah and His only-begotten Son, Jesus, for the purpose of existing with Them and the other Heavenly host. Let's make it our desire to share our destination with others, by informing them of their responsibility to themselves in cleansing their heart for an eternal blessing, which God made available to all, if we learn to walk with God during our present age. Experiencing eternity will be engaging all the unimaginable gifts and activities of a new life that God Jehovah has planned for those that have committed to learning how to live according to Jehovah's perfect way, and to love according to the way He loves us, without any variation, in our focus in serving our fellow cohabitants and an endless love for all.