True Christianity#34
34. In people, the Infinite Divine is present the way something is present in an image of itself. The Word shows this, when we read the following:
Finally God said, "Let us make human beings in our image, according to our likeness. " Therefore God created human beings in his own image; in the image of God he created them. (Genesis 1:26-27)
From this statement it follows that human beings are organisms that are open to God, and organisms whose quality depends on their response.
[2] The human mind - the source and determiner of our humanness - has been formed into three areas to match three levels. On the first level the human mind is heavenly; angels of the highest heaven are on that level. On the second level it is spiritual; angels of the middle heaven are on that level. On the third level it is earthly; angels of the lowest heaven are on that level.
Organized as it is to accommodate these three levels, the human mind is a vessel for receiving divine inflow. Yet what is divine does not flow in beyond our smoothing of the way [Isaiah 40:4] or our opening of the door [Revelation 3:20]. If we smooth the way and open the door all the way to the highest level, the heavenly one, then we truly become an image of God. After death we will become an angel of the highest heaven. If we smooth the way or open the door only to the middle or spiritual level, then we still become an image of God, but one that is not as complete. After death we will become angels of the middle heaven. But if we smooth the way or open the door only to the lowest or earthly level, then we become an image of God at the lowest level, provided we acknowledge God and worship him with acts of devotion. After death we will become angels of the lowest heaven.
If we do not acknowledge God and do not worship him with acts of devotion, we divest ourselves of the image of God and become like one type of animal or another, except for the fact that we still enjoy the ability to understand and therefore to speak. If under those circumstances we close our highest earthly level, which corresponds to the highest heavenly level, we become like farm animals in what we love. If we close our middle earthly level, which corresponds to the middle spiritual level, we become like foxes in what we love, and like birds that come out in the evening, as far as our intellectual discernment goes. If we close even our lowest earthly level to its spiritual counterpart, we become like wild animals in what we love and like fish in our understanding of truth.
[3] Divine life flows in from the sun of the angelic heaven and energizes us much the way light from our sun flows into a transparent object. Our highest level receives life the way light flows into a diamond; our second level receives life the way light flows into a crystal; our lowest level receives life the way light flows into translucent glass or parchment.
If the lowest degree is totally closed spiritually, as happens when we deny the existence of God and worship Satan, life flows into us from God much the way light flows into opaque things on earth: rotten wood, swamp sod, dung, and so on. At that stage we become spiritual cadavers.
Genesis第9章
1
And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.
2
And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, upon all that moveth upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea; into your hand are they delivered.
3
Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things.
4
But flesh with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat.
5
And surely your blood of your lives will I require; at the hand of every beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man.
6
Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he man.
7
And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein.
8
And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
9
And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;
10
And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.
11
And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.
12
And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
13
I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.
14
And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:
15
And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
16
And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
17
And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.
18
And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan.
19
These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.
20
And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:
21
And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.
22
And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.
23
And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.
24
And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.
25
And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
26
And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
27
God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
28
And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years.
29
And all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years: and he died.
