Theology in its current state is accurately defined. That does not mean that the apostate churches accept it; nor that society in general approves. However, in spite of the confusion in our seminaries, great men throughout the ages have persisted in the study of the scripture and left a legacy of accurate instruction on the subject of the relationship between God and mankind. Today, there is no excuse for anyone who wants to have a mature relationship with God not being able to do so. Bible Doctrine is available for those who seriously want it.
Theology in terms of definition of the relationship between God and mankind has been extensively studied and explained. However, the Bible also contains instruction about the relationships of mankind. Whereas, relationship with God has to be number one, relationship with all mankind is number two. Thus, the Lord Jesus Christ explained the two great commandments:
When Marriage is taken as the basic building block of human relationship, a new theological model is required. Man can no longer be viewed as an independent entity with a volition and related to God. That's how Adam began in the Garden, but as soon as the woman, Hebrew hv*a! ('Ishah), was added, the model had to change. The basic building block for society was a team of two - not a single human being. Today's divorce culture has taught us that man's biggest problem is his marriage counterpart. A new theological model for mankind based upon Marriage as the initial unit is needed.
Marriage Grace is the study of God's Plan and purpose for the Divine Institution of Marriage. God invented marriage. He established it as the second most important relationship in life. No other relationship with another human being carries such significance. Although marriage in no way compares with relationship with God as the model of human behavior, it does demonstrate the grace of God as no other relationship in this life. Marriage Grace integrates relationship with God into the primary relationship with mankind, i.e. marriage.
The Doctrine of Marriage Grace will reveal a new model of human behavior. It will revolutionize and revitalize study of the Christian way of life, which is also known as Experiential Sanctification, Spiritual Dynamics, the Spiritual Life, and application of Bible Doctrine to experience. It will explain God's grace in relationship to mankind in a new and more meaningful way. It will explain love in marriage (a new romance), human anatomy (DNA links), human behavior (basic drives and motivations), reversionism, divine discipline, blessing and cursing in society, culture, and medical and mental health.
The new Doctrine of Marriage Grace is a paradigm shift in teaching of the Christian way of life. By taking the Marriage kernel as the basic atomic structure, the panorama of human relationships changes. The individual is no longer the quintessential determiner of his destiny, but his other half (Right Man or Right Woman) must enter the picture. Only when the Marriage kernel is viewed as a whole can destiny be determined. In other words, the Marriage has a destiny - not the individuals independently. Marriage is a unit, or atom, of society.
CULTURE: The atomic building block of society is marriage. The divine institution of marriage affects every aspect of society from the family unit to the rise and fall of nations.
BUSINESS: Marriage is the atomic building block of the Business Establishment. The leading economic indicator is marriage. The marital relationships of management and employees are the keys to the grace blessing or cursing for the business. Businesses rise or fall by the grace of God, but employees who orient to God's grace decide for or against grace blessing. All employees are bound by Right Man - Right Woman relationships whether married or not.
GOVERNMENT: Marriage is the key to good government. It is the basis for stability and prosperity in society. The Four Generation Curse is based upon marriage. Each generation is composed of married people. A content people are easily governed. Embittered people are malcontent and impossible to control. Good marriages provide contentment; whereas, breakdown of marriage leaves the open wounds of bitterness. Rising crime and rebellion are caused by marriage failure.
EDUCATION: Academic discipline begins with marital stability. Children are affected by the stability of the family unit, but teachers and administrators are only effective when they have stability in their own marriages. Without the anchor of the soul from marriage, education will take the nearest exit, reject true authority, and enter anarchy and confusion. The sloppy thinking today in our educational system is clearly the result of poor marital relationships. Learning requires humility. Marriage failure occurs due to arrogance. Arrogant people do not learn truth.
MEDICINE: Marital problems are the leading cause of medical problems. AIDS is a good example; but so are a multitude of other physical ailments. Health in the human body is a delicate function. Anything that upsets the balance of the body can eventuate in medical problems. Marital problems reach our most sensitive parts. If they are allowed to persist, unchecked, the frustration and stress will eventually cause physical symptoms.
PSYCHIATRY: Mental illness is caused from a person's thinking in relation to the justice of God. The love relationship of Right Man - Right Woman is a powerful motivation for the thought process that cannot be escaped. Rejection of Right Man or Right Woman cripples the soul and leads to emotional reaction which will cause loss of soul stability. If the condition continues, unchecked, mental illness will result.
Man was given a beautiful woman as a mate. They had the perfect marriage with a perpetual honeymoon. They didn't have to work but could enjoy the stimulation of learning from their perfect environment. They could study animals, plants, art, and astronomy. Of course, there was no business, no newspapers or books, no machinery, no Internet; yet, man was totally happy in his state of sinless perfection. There was no fear or worry. There were no neighbors or children; yet, man and woman were totally happy with just the two people in marriage.
When God does something, it is perfect; and the Garden of Eden was no exception. The Garden was a mini model of perfection. The Garden was a simple model of God's plan for mankind. It was complete and lacked nothing. Marriage was part of that model for mankind. The first marriage was perfect, complete, and lacked nothing. It met the needs of mankind. There were no relatives, no crying children, no barking dogs, and no city noise. There was no labor, to stress and strain, no trials and tribulation, no bad weather, no bad news - just beautiful days of relaxation, love and happiness. All that anyone could ever need was provided in the Garden.
So the Garden was a model. And, like all of God's creation, it had a simple plan. It contained only the necessary - nothing superfluous. God provided everything for man in grace. Animal and plant life abounded; Bible Class was taught every day; and great opportunity for learning was all around. There was only one thing that was prohibited: eating the forbidden fruit from the tree in the middle of the Garden. But while they were taking the tree test, the divine institution of marriage provided all the man and his beautiful wife needed for a truly happy life. Their love was perfect, their sexual pleasure was perfect, their bonding was perfect, their union was complete and lacked nothing. Marriage was wonderful.
The marriage between Adam and his Right Woman, Hebrew hv*a! ('Ishah), in the Garden was a model of perfection and was, very definitely, a key part of the overall Garden model for humanity that was divinely inspired. The importance of marriage in life cannot be underestimated, since it was the focal activity of the Garden. It met man's needs in terms of human relationship. The perfect love and happiness were absolutely fulfilling. Adam ruled the world and enjoyed a relationship with God. His primary human activity was responding to the Grace Covenant with God which included: (1) Divine Institution #1 - Volition - the tree test and (2) Divine Institution #2 - Marriage.
After
man sinned both divine institutions survived. They were applied to
the entire human race - not just to perfect people. Marriage survived
the Fall to remain one of the key institutions for the human race.
After the Fall the kernel of marriage in the human race remained intact.
The first marriage in the Garden set the precedent, and marriages throughout
history followed the original type. The original marriage should,
therefore, be carefully examined in its pristine setting to fully understand
the implications for future generations.
God built
the woman from the bone (rib) of Adam - the bone structure and DNA matched.
The
illustration shows the Grace Support System in the Garden before the fall.
Perfect man (Adam) and perfect 'Ishah (woman) are shown in the perfect
environment of the Garden. The man and woman are on the stage of
life for all the angels to observe. The Tree of the Knowledge of
Good and Evil was the volition test to demonstrate the Righteousness and
Justice of God in condemning Satan to the Lake of Fire. The Plan
of God was operational in perfect environment so long as the man and the
woman obeyed the mandate of God regarding the forbidden fruit. So
long as they obeyed the divine mandate, they were the recipients of grace
blessing from God: Perfect love and perfect happiness.
God the Father was the author of the Plan of God; the Lord (Jehovah-Elohim of the Old Covenant, Jesus Christ of the Church) was the chief executor. The Lord was the highest authority over all creation. Adam was the ruler of the world. The justice of God protected the man and the woman from the Cosmic System of Satan. Satan was lurking in the Garden to counterattack the perfect couple in perfect marriage. Satan and his system of evil with one-third of the angels following him was in place to launch the subtle counterattack as soon as there was the slightest sign of weakness on the part of the man or the woman.
She was guilty of adding to the Word. With a clear
mind, genius mentality (probably photographic memory), there was no excuse
for this behavior of adding to the Word. However, Adam may also have
become lax because he was not with his Right Woman. When the believer
is distracted from Bible Doctrine, the woman tends to become reactionary,
combative, and high strung whereas the man tends in opposite direction:
He becomes lazy, apathetic, and obsequious. Regardless of the reasons,
the woman wandered off by herself into the powerful delusion of Satan.
The woman turneds from the Plan of God and listened to Satan.
Principle: Distraction from or rejection of Bible Doctrine is the hallmark of the loser.
4 And the serpent said to the woman, “Not-dying you will die! 5 “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3:4-5, NAS)
In Genesis 3:6, the woman saw three things about the forbidden fruit: (1) It "was good for food," (2) "it was a delight to the eyes," and (3) it "was desirable to make one wise." This is the judgment by the Holy Spirit, her sentry of protection. The parallel passage is:
| Number | Genesis 3:6 | 1 John 2:16 | World Counterattack |
| 1 | Good for food | Lust of the flesh | Ecumenical Babylon |
| 2 | Delight to the eyes | Lust of the eyes | Political Babylon |
| 3 | Desirable for wisdom | Arrogant Lifestyle | Cosmic Babylon |
Here is clear evidence that Satan cannot bring the Cosmos (the world) into God's Grace Support System, which protects the believer by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit judges everything that approaches. The judgment of the Holy Spirit breaks the worldly counterattack down into its three elements: Ecumenical, Political, and Cosmic Babylon. When the believer in the Church Age is operating in the Filling of the Holy Spirit, he cannot be overpowered by the world. He can only sin by using his volition from a position of strength. He must choose to sin in the face of the same evidence that the woman had in the Garden.
Now, the woman saw all this and relied on Satan's lie instead. She still used her volition to sin, even though she was in a state of deception. Satan cast a pall of darkness around her with his lies, but in spite of this the evidence of the Justice of God in breaking apart Ecumenical, Political, and Cosmic Babylon were there. Nevertheless, the woman violated the commandment of God and ate of the forbidden fruit. She immediately died spiritually as God had said. Now she received the knowledge of good and evil, i.e. a conscience, as the devil had explained in his half-truth. However, she did not become like God. Her lights went out. In a state of darkness and sin, she lost her human spirit, lost her fellowship with God via the Grace Support System, and came under the power of Satan.
When
the woman sinned, she did not fall down and die physically. She didn't
even stop to repent. She proceeded full speed in her arrogance to
do the Devil's bidding. She took the forbidden fruit to Adam and
offered it to him as a Cosmic evangelist. She had sinned, knew the
error of her way, but wanted to take her husband down with her. She
was fully empowered by the Cosmic System of Satan and proceeded to evangelize
her husband for Satan. She probably used all her charm to persuade
Adam.
However, Adam saw the woman in spiritual death and knew what had happened. He was not deceived. He recognized the signs that the woman had ignored. He further understood that she was in spiritual death. However, Adam was under powerful pressure. His life (that is, his pattern of life, or lifestyle) had just ended. The woman was the love of his life. She had rejected God, lost her fellowship with God, and lost her fellowship with him. Their marriage, the perfect love relationship, was now totally dysfunctional. Now Adam faced the possibility of living without his other half. Who would want to live without love? A life without love would not be worth living. And Adam's love had just ended.
Adam's pressure was far beyond anything we could imagine. The ruler of the world had just lost the world he ruled. The only love in life had just ended. The woman had just entered Satan's camp. She was on Satan's side against Adam, but she was presenting Adam with an option. Adam could eat the forbidden fruit and join her in sin. Adam must decide whether to obey the command of God on the basis of principle or succumb to all the pressure and join the woman in sin.
Adam saw all the signs: (1) Ecumenical Babylon - the fruit that the woman offered him, (2) Political Babylon - the woman turned cosmic evangelist, (3) Cosmic Babylon - the woman's offer was an arrogant rejection of the authority of God. Adam was not deceived by any of this. He understood the volitional issue. It boiled down to whether to obey or disobey the authority of God. He had no love. His wife was spiritually dead. His world, as he knew it, had ended. His marriage (the only lifestyle that he knew) was dysfunctional. Adam undoubtedly thought that, for all practical purposes, he was dead already. He could cling to the command of God and keep his spiritual life, but there was nothing to go with it. God was silent (due to this being the test). If he obeyed God, he would be left with nothing except an empty playing field. His world was destroyed.
When
the woman sinned, Adam entered extreme suffering. The closest thing
in this life is when the woman who is the love of your life demands a divorce.
But that pales in comparison to Adam's problem. When the woman sinned,
Adam's right lobe which was occupied with the Right Woman was vacated.
The empty hole in the right lobe brought a flood of emotion that quickly
ricocheted into the left lobe and filled him with nothing, Hebrew lb#h#
(hebel), emptiness, darkness. The closest thing to this condition
was when Jesus Christ died on the cross. The next closest thing is
an eclipse of the Sun. Just as there is only a thin ring of light
around a solar eclipse, so there was only one ray of light in Adam's life:
That was the recognition of God's authority in not eating of the forbidden
fruit.
When
the woman sinned, Adam suffered a fissure in the Right Lobe due to the
loss. She could no longer occupy the place of love in his heart (Right
Lobe) as before. Darkness filled Adam's soul due to the hole left
by the loss of Right Woman from the heart. The woman was in a state
like a Lunar Eclipse. She was in darkness. Her sin turned Adam's
lights out just as in a solar eclipse. The difference between the
two eclipses is that a ring
of light is left in the solar eclipse; whereas, the lunar eclipse leaves
all dark.
This is the best description of Adam's suffering. He had enough light to still have a covenant (ring of light). He had not lost his spiritual life yet, but he was hanging by a thin life line of Volition so he could take the Tree Test under suffering. Adam's suffering was beyond anything that anyone in this life could suffer apart from the Lord Jesus Christ in His substitutionary spiritual death on the cross. The woman who rejects her Right Man is capable of bringing unbearable suffering on him.
The
delicate balance between Right Man and Right Woman, who are inseparably
bound as a unit, can be illustrated by the teeter totter. As long
as the woman kept from sinning, the delicate balance of the teeter totter
was maintained. The two are halves of the same whole inseparably
bound. What one does affects the other. Although the woman
is the reflected glory of the man and gets her light from him, she also
affects the man by the justice of God. This doctrine is taught in
the 1 Corinthians 11:11 and will be covered in detail later. When
the woman sinned, the effect on Adam was like having his soul ripped apart.
He suffered the repercussions via the Justice of God.
The woman who reacts to her Right Man can cause him tremendous suffering. She can turn his lights out just as the man can turn her lights out. When the man walks in darkness, the woman, who gets her light from the man, is obviously delivered into darkness. Similarly, the woman who reacts to her right man and rejects him, inflicts upon him the loss of his love. His right lobe splits, and he is also delivered into darkness. The man cannot stand the loss of his Right Woman without tremendous suffering. Similarly, the woman who loses the light from her Right Man suffers greatly.
The
pressure the woman brought to bear on Adam when she sinned is illustrated
by the teeter totter with the man down and the woman up. The woman
was allowed to exercise her power from Satan to cause Adam to be put down.
He was in tremendous suffering. Before she sinned, Adam had power
over the woman. She was under his control. Now she was not
under his power. He had lost control of her. But she was inseparably
united to him. Adam was stuck in terrible suffering and anguish of
soul.
When the woman stepped out into the Cosmic System, the domain of Satan, she upset the balance of the marriage relationship, which is illustrated by the teeter totter. Adam was no longer in control of his wife. She was reacting to him. She had spun out of control. Under the guise of offering him something good to eat, she was the siren of destruction. She was luring him to his death. The illustration of the woman being up in the air on the teeter totter symbolizes her condition of being empowered by Satan contrary to the command of God. In that state she was guilty and subject to the judgment of God.
This condition in which the woman is allowed to exercise power over the man will be termed, female dominance. This will be explained in more detail later. When the female is up on the teeter totter and the male is down, the condition is female dominance. When the opposite is true, the condition is male dominance. The only way this female dominance could occur in the Garden was for it to be part of the Justice of God. Had Adam been up and the woman down when she brought him the fruit, he may have simply brushed her aside and waited for the Lord to work a miracle, give him a new Right Woman, or something similar. The only way Adam could have been delivered into this condition was by the Justice of God. Male and Female Dominance are two opposite types of suffering which occur under the Justice of God in the Right Man - Right Woman relationship.
Here the overriding Grace of God is seen. The Lord Jesus Christ controls history in order to implement His predetermined Plan. God in His foreknowledge knew that Adam and 'Ishah would eventually lose their momentum and fail. He knew if He allowed Satan access to the woman that she would be overcome by the deception of evil. He had undoubtedly been keeping Satan away from her before the time of the Fall. He knew that Adam would fall under eclipse suffering. Yet, at the appropriate time in human history, the Lord ordered up this scene from the Plan of God and poured it into human history. From the perspective of the Grace of God, all went according to Plan. Without compromising man's volition, God's perfect Plan was rolling. It was a cataclysmic shock, and all of nature reeled under the blow; but it was not a surprise to God. He is never surprised. He knew about all this in eternity past. This was only the first chapter of human history.
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