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CHAPTER ELEVEN
THEOLOGY OF PAUL
FALL OF MAN
Man was created in both
the image and likeness of God. As humans, we are in the image of
God, but that does not necessarily mean that we are exact replicas
of God. Being made in the image of God simply means that we resemble
God and are similar to His image. In His likeness is a comparison to
the likeness of God (moral attributes). Before the fall of man, the
image of God and the likeness were intact and, so to speak, all was
well.
Man certainly stands
singularly above most other sentient beings in the cosmos. The
difference lies in the dimensionality. Early in the Hebrew
mysticism the cosmos was considered as multidimensional. This was
represented by a tree with three main branches growing from the
material realm to beyond the three heavens. It is also represented
as a person within a person at varying levels. God permeates in all
levels. Since there is nothing outside of God, the cosmos with all
its sentient beings are still within the body. In this sense cosmos
is the body of God. Kabbalists therefore like to say, the world
emanated from God. The World is the Word that became Flesh. The
creation itself in all its variations are in that sense part of
God. This concept of New Creation Man as the body of Christ is
emphasized by Paul.
Psalm 8:3-8,
When I look at thy heavens, the
work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou hast
established; what is man that thou
art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him?
Yet thou hast made him little less
than God, and dost crown him with glory and honor.
Thou hast given him dominion over
the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet,
all sheep and oxen, and also the
beasts of the field, the birds of
the air, and the fish of the sea, whatever passes along the paths of
the sea.
Heb.2:5-11,
For
it was not to angels that God subjected the world to come, of which
we are speaking. It has been
testified somewhere, "What is man that thou art mindful of him, or
the son of man, that thou carest for him?
Thou didst make him for a little while lower than the
angels, thou hast crowned him with glory and honor,
putting everything in subjection
under his feet." Now in putting everything in subjection to him, he
left nothing outside his control. As it is, we do not yet see
everything in subjection to him. But
we see Jesus, who for a little while was made lower than the angels,
crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death, so
that by the grace of God he might taste death for every one. For
it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in
bringing many sons to glory, should make the pioneer of their
salvation perfect through suffering. For
he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified have all one origin.
That is why he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
Then
God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let
them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over
the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that
move along the ground." So God created man in his own image, in the
image of God he created him; male and female he created them. - (Gen.
1:26-27 NIV)
Purusha portrays a Lord of the
Universe which is earlier depicted only in the Hebrew theology as
Adam Kadamon – the Primordial Man. In the Genesis creation of Man,
God said, "Let us make man in our own image". The first earthly
man was created on the model of a cosmic Purusha. In the Nag Hammadi
text, the Apocryphon of John, we learn that this anthropos is
the first creation of "knowledge and Perfect Intellect" and the
first luminary of the heavens.
 
The Hebrew letters for YHVH is
shown to form a Person
God made Flesh and Form
Kabbalah. is a presentation of
Jewish mysticism based on the fragmentary
midrashim -
rabbinic writings - of the Talmudic period. It is considered as a
codification of the Oral Traditions starting from Moses. It is
reflected in the prophetic books of the Old Testament. Rabbi Isaac
Luria (1534-72) was one of the early mystic who put them in
writing. Kaballa was the basis of Gnosticm and it is not surprising
that it features heavily in the Hinduism - which is the heretic
outgrowth of Christianity under the influence of Manichaen
infiltration into the Indian Churches.
Adam Kadmon, is the first
being to emerge from the infinite unknowable Godhead, Ein-sof
(which corresponds to the Nirguna Brahman of Hinduism) to become
the knowable God – the Saguna Brahman. The body of this knowable
God (Saguna Brahman) is said to both emanate and constitute the
cosmos.
Man, having been created in God’s
image, is said by the Kabbalists to be comprised of the very same
cosmic elements, the sefirot, which comprise the "body" of
Adam Kadmon. The symbol of Adam Kadmon expresses the
idea that the cosmos itself has both a soul and body. The whole
cosmos with all the infinite beings of consciousness form part of
the the Body of the Purusha. This image is called the Adam
Kadmon, and represents the primordial, pre-created Man, an
image of the Godhead that existed before any other divine emanation.
It is a vertical arrangement of the four letters of the
Tetragrammaton, the four letter name of God YHVH as given to Moses
in the Hebrew Bible. In this shape, they represent Keterim, the
first reflection or image of the Ain Sof.
Adam Kadmon
is the first being to spontaneously emerge in the metaphysical
void. Nicean Creed puts it succiently as:
We believe in one Lord Jesus
Christ,
the only begotten Son of God,
begotten of the Father,
Light of Light,
very God of very God,
begotten, not made,
being of one substance with the Father;
The Sefirot and worlds which
they comprise are, according to Luria and his disciple, Vital,
emanated from the various orifices in Adam Kadmon¹s head:
from the ear, the nose, eyes, and mouth. The highest, most sublime
of these emanations, forms the world of Atziluth, from the
Hebrew "etzel", meaning "near" (to the infinite God). However, even
higher than Atziluth, according to the Lurianists, is the
World of Adam Kadmon itself, often abbreviated as the World
of A¹K, a world so high and sublime as to be virtually
indistinguishable from Ein-sof. From within this realm, so
close to the infinite God, Adam Kadmon directs the subsequent
course of events in the lower worlds. The Primordial Man is
instrumental not only for the world¹s creation, but for its
redemption as well.
It is very probable that Jesus
identified himself with the primordial or Cosmic Person in saying
“... before Abraham was I am” (John 8:58). The primordial man was
before Abraham and before all men, who is prior to all creation.
"He is the image
(Adam Kadmon) of the invisible Elohim (Ayn Sof), the firstborn over
all creation (Son of Yhvh). For through Him all things were created
that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things
were created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things,
and in Him all things consist. And He is the head of the body, the
Assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in
all things He may have the preeminence (Messiah)." Colossians
1:15-18
2. The Concept of God: Jagnath:
Lord of the Universe
This
figure of Jagnath, which is celebrated as the Lord of the Universe,
is really an epitome of the theology, which is essentially the
theology of Eastern Churches and that of the Hebrew Kabala. It
developed in India soon after the advent of Thomas.
The celebrated Temple of
Lord Jagannath
now existent at Puri was constructed by Raja Ananta Varman
Chodaganga Dev in 12th century A.D
The description of the figure can be summarized as follows:
In the beginning, God alone
existed. We cannot attribute any quality to God, because qualities
are relative. Without the existence of another, we cannot define
qualities. This God – the beginning - is referred to as Nirguna
Brahman (God without Qualities). This is represented as the
darkness. God who resides in darkness symbolized the God who cannot
be known. “Jehovah hath
said that he would dwell in the thick darkness” (1
King 8:12)
“Jehovah
spake unto all your assembly in the mount out of the midst of the
fire, of the cloud, and of the thick
darkness, with a great voice”
(Deu. 5:22)
Jagnath
Then the fact remains that we have
a creation and movement. Therefore, this Nirguna Brahman put on a
variation within himself. It is as though he differentiated himself
to parts thus creating a God with Properties and Qualities. This
God is known as Saguna Brahman (God with Properties). God is a
person not a force. This is because creation needs a purposeful
act. The two open eyes represent this waking up process. This God
has expressed himself and hence can be known through creation and in
intimacy.
 Out
of the mouth of this Jagnath proceeds the AUM – the Word.
 The
Aum is a person as its vibrations takes the form of a man - a person
and rises to create. It is this person Om that created the universe
with all its variations – material and immaterial. The whole
creation is in a way Word becoming flesh. The whole cosmos forms
the body of God. “For in him
we live, and move, and have our being”. This concept explains the
immanence and transcendence of God. Church as the body of Christ is
just an extension of this Jagnath concept.
It
is evident that this sophisticated concept of God which did not
exist prior to Christian era appeared in crystallized form in
powerful concrete expression could not have occurred except through
Thomas. This connection of Hebrew mysticism to Indian theology goes
much deeper in all aspects of Hindu worship and daily living.
The first born of all
the creations is the divine essence of the Yhvh himself. He is the
Father's only-begotten Son. As the writer to the Hebrews expressed
it, He is: “the brightness of His glory and the express image of [Yhvh’s]
person (Hebrews 1:3).” He is the “Repairer of the Breach,” even
before there was a “breach.” Blessed is Yhvh our Elohim Who
creates the remedy before the wound. It was from the Adam Kadmon
that tremendous light shown forth and aligned itself into creation.
It was through “the image of the invisible Elohim,” the
Messiah, that Yhvh made all things. The Adam Kadmon is the
expression of Yhvh’s complete Word - the Aum.- the creative energy
of Yhvh himself.
What we have seen is a graphical
representation of who God is and how man is an image and a likeness
of God Himself. Again this is only a graphic symbolic
representational model and is useful only as a model to get some
insight.
Jewish Cosmology
As
represented in the Tree model of Jewish cosmos, we have four
dimensions of existence
1. Atziluth – Divine Realm.
-Archetypal World (World
of Emanations) or Divine World
2. Briah- Spiritual Realsm -
Creative World or World
of Thrones
3. Yetsirah- Mental Realm -
Formative World
4. Assiah- Material Realm --Manifest
World
In each of the realms there are
sentient beings. Some sprawling over several dimensions. But there
is one being who spreads into all the dimensions which is Man – a
little lower than God. That is why Adam is stated as “Adam son of
God” Luk
3:38 Thus if we
place Adam within the above figure it will be above the Cherubim and
Seraphim just below the Trinity.
Paul refers to the
three heavens in 2Co 12:2
The part of the likeness of man is
his freedom of will. Every sentient being is given this freedom.
Otherwise man will be another robot, preprogrammed and
predestined. There are other beings in the cosmos which has this
freedom as well. We are told of the fall the angelic hosts led by
Lucifer himself who was close to God himself. Certainly Lucifer and
these angels had the freedom of choice. Otherwise they would not be
responsible for their actions. It is quite possible that there may
be creations that do not have this free will but are robots meant
for specific purposes.
Creation of beings is dialectical.
The beings are independent free will individuals and at the same
time part of cosmic creation with responsibility to the whole.
There is a definite conflict built in within the individuals between
self and the rest of cosmos. Thus one of the essential features
contained in the freewill of the created beings is the ability to
discord, breakaway and be selfish. This exactly was the fall of
Lucifer. Lucifer was thus given a place from the Divine realm to
the Angelic realm and is hence forth referred to as the Prince of
the Power of Air.
In the case of Man, due to the
selfish ambitions of Eve and Adam ignited by the Satanic prompts,
Man lost his position as “little lower than the gods” and was placed
under the tutelage of the unfallen angels.
Fall of Adam and Eve was not
because of Satan since they had their free will and had their
choice. So blaming Satan for the fall as Eve did does not justify
the choice.
In
Adam all die
Heb
2:5-9 For it was not to angels that God subjected the world to
come, of which we are speaking. It has been testified somewhere,
"What is man that thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that
thou carest for him?
Thou didst make
him for a little while lower than the angels,
thou hast crowned him with glory and honor, putting everything in
subjection under his feet." Now in putting everything in subjection
to him, he left nothing outside his control. As it is, we do not yet
see everything in subjection to him
After
the fall a Cherubim protected the tree of life until Man was ready
to enter and partake of it.
Gen 3:24 He drove out the man; and
at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a
flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree
of life.
Gal 3:23 Now before faith came, we
were confined under the law, kept under restraint until faith should
be revealed.
Gal
4:1-3 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no better
than a slave, though he is the owner of all the estate; but he is
under guardians and trustees until the date set by the father. So
with us; when we were children, we were slaves to the elemental
spirits of the universe.
Gen 4:4 But when the
time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born
under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we
might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has
sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"
So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son
then an heir.
Once again Man will regain his
unfallen glory with angels as their ministering spirits.
Heb 1:14 But …
angel …. Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to serve,
for the sake of those who are to obtain salvation?
1Co 6:3
Do you not know that we are to judge angels?
As a result of the fall, the
creation was subjected to decay and death in order to limit the
length of human life. Thus the law of nature was changed so that
everything will go from order to disorder and eventually human body
will die. This was in fact a blessing that the selfish mankind may
not suffer too long. Imagine living in a selfish society eternally
– ages after ages without end - each person trying to exploit the
other and lording over the others. Thus Man was barred from getting
the fruit of the Tree of Life. But God did not do this without a
plan to redeem all creation. His plan was to redeem mankind and
once this redemption was achieved the whole creation will be
released from its law of order to disorder and the law will be
reversed to grow from glory unto glory. This is the reversal of the
principle of Second Law of Thermodynamics. Every Physicist knows
that there is no a priori reason for the current state of order to
disorder law.
The Plan was that this will be
reversed when mankind is redeemed to their rightful state of Sons of
God. It was this reversal process that was started by Jesus at the
instant of resurrection. The body of Jesus which was destined to
decay in the cave was instantly reversed from decay to fullness of
life. It is this resurrection power that will transform every man
when they put their trust in Jesus.
1Co 15:21-22 For as
by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the
dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made
alive.
Rom 8:19-24
“For the
creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the sons of
God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will
but by the will of him who subjected it in hope; because the
creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and
obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God.
We know that the
whole creation has been groaning in travail together until now; and
not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits
of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait for adoption as sons, the
redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. “
The redemption is not a one time
event. This is because of the few choice given to free willed
created beings. That is why resurrection occurs in order.
Co 15:22-24 For as
in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each
in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those
who belong to Christ. Then comes the end.
Any resolution should
take into consideration this ever
present factor if the created being has to have the status of the
Son. This process of going back to the position of Sonship is a
long process which we will discuss in the section of the theory of
ages. The redemption of man and participation of mankind on the
divinity is known in the Eastern Churches as Theosis
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