of the first causes of man’s encasement in body in the earth.
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The different natures of Cain and Abel may reflect a change in Adam and Eve concerning the purposes for sexual union. Cain was rebellious, self-indulgent, and unruly. Abel sought the approval of his Creator. Seth, the third son, is the beginning of a nation dedicated to God and to the proper uses of the creative energies which Man had been given.
Train him, train her, train them rather in the sacredness of that which has come to them as a privilege, which has come to them as a heritage, from a falling away, to be sure; but through the purifying of the body in thought, in act, in certainty, it may make for a people, a state, a nation that may indeed herald the coming of the Lord
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The First Adam and the Last Adam
For all that ever was and ever is to be learned is [that] “The Lord thy God is one”—one . . . No matter in what clime, under what name, all must come to that as was from the beginning. For, know that He—who was lifted up on the Cross in Calvary—was . . . also he that first walked among men at the beginning of man’s advent into flesh! For He indeed was and is the first Adam, the last Adam; that is the way, the truth, the light!
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(Q) What was meant by “As in the first Adam, sin entered, so in the last Adam all shall be made alive”?
(A) Adam’s entry into the world in the beginning, then must become the savior of the world, as it was committed to his care. “Be thou fruitful, multiply, and subdue the earth!” Hence . . . Adam, the first Adam, the last Adam, became—then—that that is given the power over the earth, and—as in each soul the first to be conquered is self—then all things, conditions and elements, are subject unto that self!
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The story of the Old Testament is one of evolution—spiritual, mental, and physical. The growth in attitude from the self-centeredness in the first Adam to the spiritual directions of the Last is demonstrated in the following:
Let’s draw comparisons of man made perfect through experience, and man willfully being disobedient.
In the first, we find man listening to those influences which were at variance to God’s way. Then in the temple, even at twelve, we find the perfect man seeking, asking, and answering as to man’s relationship to God . . .
Draw the comparison within thyself as to those experiences indicated in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd of Genesis and those in the 2nd of Luke—where we find our pattern, our lesson . . . one willfully seeking to know the relationship to the Creator, or the answer, “Know ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” How different from that other, “The woman thou gavest me, she persuaded me, and I did eat!”
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The following indicates a similar evolution In Eve, who listened, but did not weigh the words of Satan or their implications.
. . . seek not for knowledge alone. For, look—look—what it brought Eve. Look rather for that wisdom which was eventually founded in she that was addressed as the handmaid of the Lord, and who “pondered those things in her heart,” as to how and why Gabriel would speak with her.
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The life as Jesus completed the cycle and established the pattern for all men. The soul again was purified and spiritualized, yet, by having passed through the earth and overcome it, he had control over all his soul’s forces. Thus, the Savior.
. . . Hence, as Adam given—the Son of God—so he must become that [one who] would be able to take the world, the earth, back to that source from which it came, and all power is given in his keeping in the earth that he has overcome: self, death, hell, and the grave even, became subservient unto Him through the conquering of self in that made flesh; for, as in the Beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God, the same was in the beginning. The Word came and dwelt among men, the offspring of self in a material world, and the Word overcame the world—and hence the world becomes, then, as the servant of that [one who] overcame the world.
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How, why, where was there the need for there to be a resurrection? Why came He into the earth to die, even on the Cross? It has been, then, the fulfillment of promise, the fulfillment of Law, the fulfillment of man’s estate6: else why did He put on flesh and come into the earth in the form of man, but to be One with the Father; to show to man his (man’s) divinity, man’s relationship to the Maker; to show to man that indeed the Father meant it when He said, “If ye call I will hear. Even though ye be covered with sin, if ye be washed in the blood of the Lamb ye may come back.”
Then, though He were the first of man, the first of the sons of God in spirit, in flesh, it became necessary that He fulfill all those associations, those connections that were to wipe away in the experience of man that which separates Him from His Maker.
Though man be far afield, then, though he may have erred, there is established that which makes for a closer walk with Him, through that one who experienced all those turmoils, strifes, desires, urges that may be the lot of man in the earth. Yet He put on flesh, made Himself as naught—even as was promised throughout, to those who walked and talked with God.
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4Although the symbol of the serpent covers all activities which keep souls out of attunement with God, the present interpretation will center on its manifestation as carnal desire. This is not the only interpretation, but one that is practical and applicable. Of course “carnal desire,” as spoken of in the reading, is not limited to sexual lusts, but with all activities that use spiritual energies for gratifying of material urges.
5The Creation Trilogy, A.R.E. Press, Virginia Beach, VA; an extensive and thorough study of Genesis and Creation.
6Genesis 3:15. “That man can completely overcome evil”—he fulfilled the promise and showed the way.
Cain and Abel: Hostile Brothers
The greater significance of Scripture lies not in depicting external history, but in what the outward events represent to the inner man. The rupture between Cain and Abel depicts an ever present condition in man.
It has been understood by most of those who have attained to a consciousness of the various presentations of good and evil in manifested forms, as we have indicated, that the prince of this world, Satan, Lucifer, the Devil—as a soul—made
