The Dominion of
Man
“God said, ‘Let Us make [fashion] man in Our Image, after
Our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every
creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’ So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created
He them” (Gen.1:26, 27).
He created them male and female. Jehovah God took dust of
the ground which He had brought up out of the chaotic waters. He took the
elements for man’s body from the earth He had created and formed a body of
earth, an image of man who is of the earth, earthy image of man, a created body
of mankind. He took life from the body He had formed for man and made a female
body in the same image, mankind. The man and the woman shared the same image of
the earthly body formed by Jehovah God, a male image, a female image of
mankind.
God had made many flesh bodies before He formed man. The
flesh bodies of fish and fowl and beasts of the earth collectively called
cattle and creeping things. God put in seed in the waters and in the earth as
He created the heavens and the earth. When He arranged and ordered that which
He had created the fish and birds and cattle were brought forth, birthed on the
day He had planned from the seed which he had created in the waters and in the
earth.
There in the seed of flesh bodies were all kinds of
different body images, different species of fish and of birds and of cattle.
Each species reproduced after their kind and bore the same image. The species
were identified through their image. Each one shared the likeness of flesh,
each one a flesh creation.
All fish, no matter what species, shared the same likeness
of flesh, fish flesh. The body image was also flesh of fish but the image of
the seen body was different. All species of birds had a recognizable image but
all shared the same likeness of flesh, bird flesh. And so too with all the
cattle, the beasts of the field and the creeping things, many different body
images but each one sharing the likeness of animal flesh.
Each one brought forth in the image and likeness of the life
in the seed which God created. In the seed was the life to reproduce after its
kind. So with human kind, man in the flesh of humanity has a body image. The
body is a visible evidence of the invisible man with the covering or clothing
of a physical body.
Jehovah God formed the male and female. He had two images of
the same likeness, a male and a female image. They were one flesh. They shared
the same likeness, human flesh. And they would reproduce after their kind
bodies of human flesh, flesh of mankind. God would have billions of mankind in
the same likeness of human flesh and just as many images of the body. The
bodies would be male and female and all different sizes and shapes and skin
colors but all the same seed, that of the first man Adam who reproduced of the
seed of his kind of flesh, human, the same kind in his sons for them to
reproduce after their kind and on and on, generation after generation. Many
different body images would be reproduced but each one sharing the same
likeness, flesh of humanity, human kind, each one a human being in the flesh.
The life of the flesh being in the blood the earthly body of
human flesh is a temporary body. It was not designed to last. It is a creation
fashioned for a purpose, one purpose. Each body image of human flesh is brought
forth through birth of a seed to be born again in the image of God, a birthed
son of His likeness, bearing His image, a heavenly image. Each birthed son
shares the likeness of Christ’s flesh and bone, flesh and bone of eternal life.
Sons of God are born from above through receiving the life brought
down to them by God Himself. Jesus the Servant of Jehovah took the likeness of
man. He became the flesh of humanity. Became what He never was. He came into
being in a body of human flesh, a son of man, a body of earth, earthy, the seed
of a woman. The body of Jesus was another body fashioned by God. Prepared and
formed of living flesh of a virgin womb. A body of true human flesh sharing the
same kind of flesh as any person born of the seed of man. Jesus came bearing
the image of the earthly body of man. The virgin’s flesh was of the seed of
David and the seed of Abraham. So the earthly body of Jesus was a son of David
and a son of Abraham. Jesus is Heir to the throne of David. He came born King
of the Jews.
Jesus did this that He might make God known. To be born from
above man in the flesh must come unto God believing that He is and believing
that God is the Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. Jesus came bringing
light and life. The life is the light of man, the light that shines in a dark
place, to make known what can be seen and must be seen for a new birth. But it cannot be seen in the dark.
The light shines in the heart of man who is in the dark
concerning the things of God, shines in to make God known. The light is the
knowledge of the glory of God. Who He is, what His worth is. The knowledge is
communicated through words. Jesus who is the Word of God, the making God known,
became flesh to make God known. Jesus, God, put on flesh to make the invisible
God visible. In the likeness of human flesh, Jesus had an image. The inner
personal Being, God, could be seen and heard through the image of the Son of
man.
The making of man in God’s image would be a long process. It
would take ages. The process was all very carefully planned and laid out in a
Covenant of the Eternal Deity of three personal Beings.
Since Jesus would not be coming in the beginning of the covenant
plan, there must be a means of shining the light of the knowledge of the glory
of God into the hearts of man born in the dark as to the things of God. Man
comes into the world in the dark concerning the things of God.
All could be foretold. The Covenant, being a Covenant of the
three Persons of Deity, is eternal therefore it is done. Since the Covenant is
done, then the Lamb is slain before the foundation of the world. Therefore He
can be set forth as the Propitiation in whom is the redemption of the mortal
body through the new birth. The Anointed Son can be offered to mankind in the
flesh as a Gift of life and light. The glory of God will be seen in the revelation
of the Son of the Eternal Covenant, the Son who is coming with life and light
for His creation of man in the flesh. The Revelation of the Son of the Eternal
Covenant must be put where it can be seen and give light. The heavens stretched
around the earth, is a perfect place to put the revelation. Since the earth
continually rotates, any place on earth where man is born in the flesh the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God as seen in “The Heavenly Revelation
of the Son of the Eternal Covenant” can be known. Any of mankind who sees and
believes will come to God believing that He is and God will reward each one who
comes with righteousness and eternal life for the body.
God made man in the likeness of human flesh, of the seed of
the first man. He formed the earthly image, formed a body of the dust of the
ground of earth. Male and female bodies He made and breathed into the nostrils
the breath of life and each one became a soul of life, life of the breath of
God, spirit being. Each one came into being a personal being, a thinking,
feeling, person with a will, a soul. The life of the soul, the very being of
man is spirit and of God, God breathed His life, eternal life. Man, a being of
eternal life, is housed in a tent of human flesh, the personal being in a
visible image, a body of mankind, human flesh. Neither likeness or image has to
do with the personal being. Through words and action the personal being in the
body makes himself known.
When the first man and woman had been given full knowledge
of the Son of the Eternal Covenant they had not received the light of the glory
into their understanding. They had taken it into the mind, but not into the
very being of their person. They had not made it personal to their need of
eternal life, life for the mortal body to be born again.
They had not understood the created life in the blood was a
temporary life for a temporary body in the image of the earthy. They did not
see the earthly body was the only means to God’s end of a body in His image, an
eternal body, ever living, a body of flesh and bone of eternal life.
When “the heart” of personal beings who were breathed into a
temporary body of flesh in the image of the earthly was proved to the first man
and woman, the light penetrated the understanding and they knew, full knowledge
with understanding the body is dead because of sin. No eternal life had been
put in the body image in the likeness of sinful flesh. Eternal life for the
body is a Gift of God. It is put in the Son of God and He must be received. “He
that has the Son has life: and he
that has not the Son of God has not life (1 Jn.5:12).
Each one, the man and the woman, had a change of mind and
each one made the choice to receive the Son set forth as the Propitiation. Each
one was born from above. Each one having heard the words of the Anointed Son
and believing God who sent Him passed from death , absence of eternal life, to
having eternal life through receiving the Gift of the Son . Each one was born
from above. The mortal body of neither one had been born again in the sense of
having been again made alive after being raised up out from the dead, raised up
a body of eternal flesh and bone in the likeness of the flesh and bone of God’s
Son begotten out from the dead. Neither one yet was bearing the image of the
begotten Son, yet each one was absolutely assured of the body being again made
alive.
Each one having become the righteousness of God through
faith in the Anointed Son of the Covenant had a new way of thinking. Each one
could make known the righteousness of God and the way to become the
righteousness of God through faith in the Anointed Son of the Covenant, whose
glory was declared and could be seen in the heavens. Each one had understanding
of the figures of the true, the figures which spoke of the Word, who is God,
becoming in the likeness of sinful flesh, sin apart.
Through faith, the understanding of the righteousness of God
could be shared with the children they would conceive and bear in the image of
the earthy bodies of flesh of humanity, mankind. The first pair had “The
Heavenly Revelation of the Son of the Eternal Covenant” as declared in the
heavens for their witness. The figures of the true Son spoke of Him to make Him
known.
In the middle of the garden God had planted and named two
special trees, the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Here were two trees figuring two things, life and the knowledge of good and
evil. Trees in Scripture are figurative of man. Men are compared to trees. Through
the witness of the righteousness of God and through faith in His Anointed Son,
God purposed to have mankind as trees of righteousness, His planting, that He
might be glorified. In His second coming Christ will have His planting called
trees of righteousness in His sons of Israel (see Is.61:1-11).
In the two trees in the garden Adam and Eve would have
another figure of the way of the eternal life in the Righteous Son of God. What
is needed for a tree? A seed with life and earth in which to plant the seed and
water to germinate the seed and light to draw the life of the seed to reach
forth through the earth to the light.
God prepared seed for sons of righteousness in eternity
past. The Seed is the Propitiation set forth. In the Propitiation is righteousness
for the soul and the redemption of the earthly bodies of sons of man in the covenant.
The Son of the Covenant will take the likeness of man, human
flesh, as a seed coat for an ever living body of flesh and bone. During the
earthy life of the Son of the Covenant, God’s Anointed Son will share the
likeness of His creation of man. He would live in a mortal body of human flesh
and bear the image of man, a human being. He would deliver up that body to be
crucified and buried. On the third day He would be raised up in a body of
eternal flesh and bone, a Son of God begotten out from the dead, alive forevermore.
The righteous Son of man bearing man’s image become the righteous begotten Son
of God bearing God’s image. God has His Seed of righteousness and eternal life.
God only needs one Seed. All bodies raised up out from the dead
are of eternal flesh and bone, ever living bodies. Like reproduces like. Each
one raised up out from the dead shares the likeness of the heavenly Lord from
heaven and bears His image, the image of God, who put Himself in a body of the
earth to share righteousness and eternal life with whosoever will hear His
words and believe God to be born again in the likeness of His flesh body, flesh
and bone of eternal life, and bear His image, the image of God, when raised up
out from the dead.
God will have all His trees of righteousness through the
Seed of the one Man who is like a tree planted by the waters who will bring
forth His fruit in His season. Here is the one Man who did not walk in the
counsel of the ungodly, nor did He stand in the way of sinners, or sit in the
seat of the scornful. He delighted in the law of Jehovah and in His law did He
meditate day and night (see Ps.1).
By one man the
sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men,
for that all have sinned (Rom.5:12). Sin and death had defiled God’s creation
of mankind. Man would defile the garden sanctuary. He must be cast out. After
sin and death had come into the world proving the heart of man in the flesh of
humanity, God said, “Behold, man has become as one of Us, to know good and
evil; and now lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the Tree of Life,
and eat and live forever!” (Gen.3:22).
What then if he did? God leaves the sentence unfinished.
Why? It is a rhetorical statement, a statement made only for effect not for
information. The statement is made for display, for the display of man’s heart.
Is there any eternal life in the Tree of Life planted in the garden? No, note
“lest” he also take and eat.
The heart of mankind in the flesh has been proved to be self
willed and self motivated. The woman did take of the Tree of the Knowledge of
Good and Evil and did eat. What motivated her? In the imagination of her heart
she saw the tree as desired to make one wise, as God knowing good and evil. Was
that true? No. Does man yet think that he can know for himself what is good for
man and what is bad for him? Knowledge puffs up, makes you think you are
somebody that you are not. That’s the heart of man. It has been exposed. Would
there be some who would imagine that the Tree of Life held the secret of
eternal youth?
Outside the garden in the real world, outside the sacred,
man could learn differently. There is no literal tree with the secret of living
forever. Living forever is through the Seed of Man who is like a tree planted
in the waters.
The time had come for God to begin building His kingdom of sons of God, through sons of man who would hear the words of Christ and believe God and pass from death in trespasses and sins to eternal life. The time had come for the multiplying of Eve’s conception.
Adam and Eve having become the righteousness of God in His
Anointed Son, the coming Son of the Covenant, will share the righteousness of
God through faith in the Anointed Son of the Covenant with their children and
grandchildren generation after generation for almost a thousand years. Adam and
Eve have the Holy Spirit who will continue to lead them and to guide them into
all truth and who will bear witness to their testimony.
Adam and Eve have the Heavenly Revelation of the glory of
the coming Son in the witness of the constellations. There God made His covenant
know to make Himself known. They also had their personal testimony as a witness
and the personal word of God concerning the figures of the true. They had the
truth concerning the creation of God, and they had the figures of the two trees
in the middle of the garden. They were prepared as the first prophets of
Jehovah God to share God’s word, each one a true prophet who would speak forth
the truth of God’s words to make Him known in His ways.
God had everything ready to bring forth sons of
righteousness, sons of God, to share the likeness of flesh and bone of eternal
life and bear His image in the Resurrection of Life, when dead bodies will be
raised up to live again.
Most important was to have understanding of God’s covenant
which made it all possible.
In the heavens stretched around the earth God had His
covenant figured in constellations called signs. He had twelve constellation
signs and each sign had three decans of constellations with their message
relating to the sign. God divided time into twelve months to make one year, twelve
months of approximately thirty days each, actually twenty-nine days and a
fraction.
God had made the sun as a greater light to give light in the
day and divide the day from night and light from darkness. The sun would serve
as a figure of the light of the knowledge of the glory of God. The glory is the
outshining of the person of God, to make known Himself, His person, and His
worth. The true light of understanding, the person of the Covenant Son, is in
the Son of the Covenant in the sharing of Himself and it is made known in the word
of God. The word of God and the Heavenly Revelation agree.
To figure the reality, each one of the twelve signs would be
a tabernacle, a dwelling place. As the earth rotated on its axis the tabernacle
of the sun would change month by month. The sun coming up in the east and going
down in the west would remain stationary, but with the earth rotating around
it, the sun would be in a sign for almost thirty days, then the rotation of the
earth would move the sun into the next sign or tabernacle as that tabernacle
sign came around above the earth where it had been placed by God.
From the earth it could be seen how the sun made a circuit
through each tabernacle sign as the earth brought the tabernacle around. The
sun would dwell in the tabernacle for a month. During that time the sun would
be giving light to certain constellations figuring the coming Son of the
Covenant and His work of righteousness for the salvation and redemption of His
creation.
The first understanding needed for salvation is the meeting
place with God, where man can come to God. Here is the Propitiation set forth,
the gospel, the good news of the two bodies of the Son of the Covenant. He will
come in the likeness of the flesh of man, bearing the image of the earthly
creation of man, that God might have a seed coat for a Seed of eternal life.
The life in the seed coat of mortal human flesh is the Covenant Son Himself who
is eternal God. This is the gospel of the Covenant Son to be shared that if one
hears this word and believes the One who sent the Son, the one believing will
pass from death to life. That one has the Son; he has the eternal life of the
Seed planted in his heart, to bring forth a body of eternal life out of the
lifeless mortal body of flesh of humanity.
This is the gospel Adam and Eve preached; a personal
salvation, also prophesied in “The Heavenly Revelation” in the constellations
in the Kingdom of Sons of God, an everlasting Kingdom of sons of God. In the
figure of the sun tabernacling in each sign the prophecy of the kingdom is seen
as done in God’s Eternal Covenant.
There was work to be done before the Son of the Covenant
would actually become flesh born of the seed of the woman. The earth would make
many rotations down through the generations. The sun would tabernacle in each
sign thousands of thousands of times before the covenant was actually ratified
in the blood of the Covenant Son as seen in the cross of the sign of
Libra, (“the Propitiation”). Down through those ages the prophecy of
the Atonement of the price which covers was good and the atonement covered the
sins of those who believed in the righteousness of God and received the Son,
even before He came.
In the fullness of time God sent His Son, become of a woman,
become under the law and the figures of the second sign, the sign of Virgo
were carried out on the earth, as prophesied in the first two signs, Libra
with the promise and Virgo with the Son of the Covenant
coming in the likeness of sinful flesh, sin apart.
In the intervening ages between Adam and Eve beginning a
family and the coming of the Son of the Covenant, much work had been done
concerning the Kingdom. The firstborn son, Cain, had built a city in rebellion
to Jehovah God. This ended in the earth being corrupted and filled with
violence. Mankind having corrupted himself must be destroyed and a new
beginning made. In the new beginning, nations were begun. One man Abraham was
called and Jehovah established His covenant in this one man so He could bring
to pass His covenant to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Of Abraham Jehovah
built a nation of the family of Abraham’s seed, that the coming Son of the
Covenant would have a family tree.
The nation would be built into a kingdom for the head nation
to hold dominion in the coming kingdom covenanted in the Son. The kingdom of
Israel was built of the twelve sons of Jacob, the son of Isaac, the son of
Abraham. The sceptre, the royal branch, was given to the tribe of Judah, the
royal tribe, the coming King Messiah of the Covenant would come through Judah’s
line.
The shepherd’s rod, the sceptre of
the kingdom came forth out of the stem a man of Judah’s tribe named Jesse. His
name was David. He was a king after God’s own heart and Jehovah established the
Kingdom of the Son of the Covenant in David (see 2 Sam.7). The Branch of Virgo
was prophesied to grow out of David’s roots (Is.11:1-10; Jer.23:5, 6).
And so He did. The virgin from whose womb living flesh was
taken to prepare the seed coat body for the Son of the Covenant was of the seed
of Abraham through the seed of David. Mary was of the seed of her father Heli, a
descendant of King David.
The Covenant Son came to His own people, a Jew, of the tribe
of Judah. Mary called His name Jesus, “Jehovah saves”. Jesus came to His own
people born King of the Jews.
Jesus took the likeness of man. He came down to earth from
heaven sent by the Father. The Word who is God became flesh to tabernacle among
His own people and make His Father known. The Father had given, all things
concerning the Father that Jesus was to make known, into the hands of Jesus.
Jesus could not have made the Father known so perfectly had He not also been
God. Jesus and His Father are one God. To see Jesus is to see the Father. To
know Jesus is to know the Father. Jesus came with the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God that in the light men might see and apprehend the outshining
of who God is and lay hold of His worth as righteousness and salvation. One
need not comprehend to apprehend. One apprehends that for which he is apprehended
by God, to become a son of God. One apprehends the truth, one lays hold of it,
gets a grasp on it by believing it to be true, believing the God who cannot
lie.
Jesus was sent to make the Father known and to put away the
sin of the world. Jesus was introduced by John the Baptist as the Lamb of God
who takes away the sins of the world.
Jesus spoke the words of His Father and did the works of His
Father. He brought life and light to His own people. But the world of Judaism
in collusion with the evil one did not thank Jesus for coming. They were seeing
the kingdom for their own. The world of Judaism hated Jesus and His Father.
They did not want the life and light Jesus came to bring to them. They plotted
against Him and delivered Him up to be crucified.
Jesus went willingly in obedience to the death of the cross.
He had come to lay down His life and to take it up again. In that death was the
victory promised in the second decan of Virgo, Centaurus. Jesus was the
victum, Lupes, of the second decan of Libra. By the one
offering of Himself in sacrifice Jesus put away sin once for all and overcame
death with eternal life. Jesus finished the work the Father had given Him to
do.
The known world was at that time under Gentile dominion with
Rome in power. The Sanhedrin, the ruling power of the Jews, delivered Jesus up
to Pilate who represented the jurisdiction of the Roman world power. Having
been rejected by both, Jesus must leave the world He had redeemed in the
ratifying of the covenant in His blood.
The world had dishonored the Son of the Covenant, God’s
Anointed Son. In their rejection and their casting Jesus out of their world the
world had proved, fully proved, there is no place in this world for Jesus and
His Father. The world proved themselves unworthy of the Son. Now judgment must
come. The world must be left to their own until once again they have destroyed
themselves. Again a new beginning must be made.
All was not for nothing. The earth and the inhabitants and
all things in it are secured in the Eternal Covenant ratified in the blood of
Jesus.
We do not know how many righteous sons of God were born from
above in those ages. All were, everyone of them, secured to the Father in the
atonement of the Propitiation and having received the seed of eternal life
planted in the heart of the body of the earth, each one will be raised up in
the Resurrection of Life. This will take place at the beginning of the Kingdom
Age of the last one thousand years of time, after the Great Tribulation of the
coming Judge. Those righteous sons of God will be raised freed from sin and
death to delight to do the will of God. They will be given dominion over the
earth around the world. There will be no plea bargains. Righteous judgment will
be passed. Justice will be done on earth.
In the meantime Christ has been building His royal
priesthood, His own household for almost two thousand years. The house of David
must be left desolate for a time, while the Kingdom of heaven is built.
While Christ Jesus was in the world He called twelve men out
of the world of Judaism. One, Judas Iscariot, was a devil, but he was replaced
by Matthias who took Judas Iscariot’s bishofrick.
Jesus came down from heaven into the world alone, a Son of Man
in the likeness of flesh. He returned to heaven the only Son of God begotten
out from the dead to be crowned with glory and honor. He came into the world
alone and He left with sons of glory which He left on earth to continue the
ministry of reconciliation. He began with eleven and added Matthias. On the day
of Pentecost He had one hundred and twenty to speak forth the wonderful works
of God. That day He added about three thousand, then five thousand and daily
has added continually through the church age.
The members of His true church, the Body, over which He is
the Head was left in the world which would hate and persecute them for His
sake. The members of the Body of Christ would preach that the world God so
loved as having been tried and proved and found worthy of judgment. Judgment
has been passed and a fiery trial is coming to try the whole world. Mankind
must be told of the judgment coming and exhorted to come out of the world and
be separate. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, made safe
from condemnation. Mankind must be told how to make their exodus out of a
creation of flesh. Each one hearing the words of Christ and believing God is
born from above a new member of the household of Christ Jesus, of His Seed in a
body of eternal life, flesh and bone, an ever living body.
When the last member of the Body of Christ has been added to
the household each one is one with Him and united, become the wife of the Lamb.
Jesus will come for His own and gather them out of the world and take them home
to that great city the New Jerusalem above where they will forever be with
their Lord. There they will rule and reign with Christ for the thousand year
Kingdom Age.
In time now in our day only the first two signs of the “Heavenly
Revelation of the Son of the Covenant” have been carried out. The third decan
of the sign of Virgo is Bootes (“the coming of the Shepherd
King”).
We are coming close to that prophesied of the Leo
(“the Lion King”) that will take place on earth as it is done in the Eternal
Covenant. The rest of the signs of the circuit seen in the heavens will be
fulfilled in the Kingdom Age.
This concludes our lesson.
