TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL
Betty Edmondson 02/23/2001
How
far have we wandered from the truth? What will it take to remember what we have
forgotten? If we stand way back from nitpicking and take a good look at the big
picture, maybe we can see the truth emerge-- you know, like one of those funky
pictures you have to stare at for a long time until finally a shape begins to
form before our very eyes.
The
Tree of Life that was in the midst of the paradise of God is still here. The
Tree of the knowledge of good and evil that was in the garden is still here. To
eat of something is to take it in and believe it.
The
Tree of Life was set before the first Adam. Adam was essentially, primarily,
inherently GOOD before he became a living soul. His life was God's life and
breath. He identified his SELF as God's SELF.
The
Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil is a soul state of relativity that the
first Adam began to identify himSELF with as he began to look on the world of
form. He WAS the Prodigal Son who wandered away from his father's house,
farther and farther into the world of form and relativity. As he lost his
identity with the absolute and began to relate to others as separate and apart
in the flesh, he began to think of life as separate and many lives, instead of
the one life of the absolute Father God.
Psalm 40:7 Then said I, Lo, I come: in the
volume of the book it is written of me,
Hebrews 10:7 Then said I, Lo,
I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will, O God.
The
entire book is written about the son of man / Son of God, from the first Adam
to the second Adam. It is written about one man. One man became a living soul
who multiplied upon the earth like a tree with innumerable branches. He was the
son of God and the son of man.
The
farther the first Adam wandered out into the world of forms and began to
identify his life as form, the more his soul was in sin, in error. He had lost
his true identity and began to identify with relationships. Relativity is a
state of soul knowledge that has forgotten the absolute. The soul judges
everything by relating it to something else. The soul judges or makes
assessments by the physical senses, i.e., seeing, hearing, and feeling. The
soul sees black & white, big & little, back & forth, male &
female, up & down, hot & cold, good & evil. Nothing is ever
absolute to the living soul that the first Adam became.
When
Adam was first created, he ate of the Tree of Life, which is the one life of
God that was breathed into him. There was no way he could partake of both trees
and keep his absolute identity of good in God. This was the soul that sinned...
the first Adam. Only the soul can sin, because only the soul judges and makes
decisions.
The
LAW of sin and death was in effect in the Garden of Eden.
Ezekiel 18:20 The soul that
sins, IT shall die.
As
Adam began to identify with the relative world of good and evil, he multiplied
his identity into a formidable tree of good and evil, or relativity. This one
man was a seed that filled the whole earth with his thinking and passed it on
to every generation that came out of his loins. This was the only man that God
ever created, so he was the soul that sinned.
All
the laws that were given to man were children of this essential law: THE SOUL
THAT SINNETH, IT SHALL DIE. Look how many people were contained in this one
soul: The whole earth. In the fullness of time, the tree was ripe. John the
Baptist began to prophecy about one who was to come. He said,
Matthew 3:10-12 And
now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which
brings not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. [11] I indeed
baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier
than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy
Ghost, and with fire: [12] Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly
purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the
chaff with unquenchable fire.
Jesus,
the son of man, was born into that first soul that sinned. That is why he could
fulfill that LAW OF SIN AND DEATH by dying for the entire human race of souls.
By his genealogy of man, he was included in that soul. When he died, the axe
was laid to the root of the tree of good and evil.
When
Jesus died and his soul went to hell, he preached to the captive spirits in
prison all the way back before the great flood. These were the spirits of just
men, who had not been reconciled to God.
When
Jesus went to the grave, he fulfilled the law of sin and death and the ax was
laid to the root of that tree. Now, the Spirit of God that was the true
identity of Jesus anointed him and raised him from the grave. He was a seed
planted in the earth that was to come forth as the Tree of Life. He was the
promised seed to reconcile mankind to God and restore their original identity
in God by baptizing them with the Holy Ghost (one Spirit) that would lead them
into all truth.
There
is only one spirit and only one flesh. It all started with one man as the first
Adam and ended with one man as that son of man died, and the Son of God was
raised back up in newness of life and took his rightful place as the Son of
God. Nobody else could do this except the soul that sinned. The Bible says
Jesus was tempted, but was without sin. Although he did not commit sin and
always maintained the truth about who he was, he was born of the first seed of
Adam and was, therefore, under that curse.
Ephes. 4:3-6 Endeavoring to
keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. [4] There is ONE BODY, and
ONE SPIRIT, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; [5] One Lord,
one faith, one baptism, [6] ONE GOD AND FATHER OF ALL, who is ABOVE ALL, and
THROUGH ALL, and IN YOU ALL.
How
many sons did God create? ONE. From that one man, the whole earth was
multiplied from his flesh. His sin was that he looked outward upon the forms of
others and began to separate from them in his mind. He forgot that the entire
tree that multiplied from seed to root, to trunk, to branches, to more seeds,
to more trees, all still had the same LIFE that was breathed into him in the
beginning.
THERE
IS ONLY ONE LIFE IN EXISTENCE. THAT LIFE IS GOD'S LIFE. YOUR LIFE AND MY LIFE
ARE GOD'S LIFE, AND THEY ARE ONE LIFE. I AND MY FATHER ARE ONE. JESUS AND MY
FATHER ARE ONE. YOU AND MY FATHER ARE ONE; THEREFORE, YOU AND I ARE ONE AND WE
CAN KEEP THAT UNITY OF THE FAITH.
When
Jesus died,
Matthew 27:50-53 Jesus, when he
had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. [51] And, behold, the
veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth
did quake, and the rocks rent; [52] And the graves were opened; and many bodies
of the saints which slept arose, [53] And came out of the graves after his
resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.
This
was the first resurrection, folks. Those souls under the altar resurrected in
order to receive the promised seed and be reconciled to God. When Jesus
returned to earth on the Day of Pentecost and came rushing through that upper
room as a mighty wind, there were tongues of fire on people's heads and they
were FILLED with the ONE SPIRIT, the HOLY GHOST, GOD'S SPIRIT, and they were
out-of-this-world deliriously HAPPY as they were caught up in the
reconciliation with God and began to witness in tongues and dance around with
pure joy. They had a reunion with God that day, folks, and the Kingdom of God
was restored to this earth.
Jesus,
the anointed ONE, the Son of God, was the FIRST FRUIT of that new tree that
sprang up on the Day of Pentecost. He said,
John 15:3-5 Now ye are clean through the word which I
have spoken unto you. [4] Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear
fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide
in me. [5] I AM THE VINE, YE ARE THE BRANCHES: He that abides in me, and I in
him, the same brings forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
From
which tree are we eating? Do we identify with the dead son of man who went to
the grave, or do we identify with the living SON OF GOD whom God raised from
the dead and lives forever to intercede for us? Do we identify with sin, or
with life? Out of our own mouths we are blessed or cursed. From our own
identification, we live or die. Oh yes. People can walk around flatfooted dead,
ever identifying their SELF as a sinner, as an individual cut off from God and
from one another, as a piece of flesh that has a name.
Jesus
said,
John 3:3-8 Jesus
answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man is born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. [4] Nicodemus
said unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb, and be born? [5] Jesus
answered, Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, except a man is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter
into the kingdom of God. [6] That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that
which is born of the Spirit is spirit. [7] Marvel not that I said unto thee, YE
MUST BE BORN AGAIN. [8] The wind blows where it listeth, and thou hearest the
sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and wherever it goes: SO IS
EVERY ONE THAT IS BORN OF THE SPIRIT.
I
just want to speak this truth in love: If you think you have to physically die
to see the kingdom of God, think again. If you want to find the kingdom of God,
search within. If you cannot SEE the kingdom of heaven, it's time to draw nigh
unto God and ask him to rebirth your BEING, your SELF, your IDENTITY.
Every
accusation that can be made against the soul is true. Everything we call each
other in the flesh is true ... IN THIS DIMENSION OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND
EVIL. But if we are judging one another by the seeing of the eyes and the
hearing of the ears, we are inaccurate. We are not judging righteous judgment.
When you are born again, it rebirths your world and reconciles you to God. One
more time, hear this:
Romans 5:10 For if when we
were enemies, we were RECONCILED to God by the DEATH of his Son, much more,
being reconciled, we shall be SAVED by HIS LIFE. We are
saved by HIS LIFE because it is OUR NEW LIFE. When we are BORN AGAIN, we
remember our identity at last. We have returned home.
As
we walk in NEWNESS OF LIFE and acknowledge that we are ONE with God, we grow up
IN HIM.
As
we take in the lessons from the Holy Spirit, those words of life displace the
old fruit we used to eat and are life to us. We appropriate those promises from
Revelations because we are overcomers, and we begin to EAT from the Tree
of Life that is in the midst of the Garden of God. We get up every morning and
put on the white robe of God's righteousness. We eat manna from heaven as we
hear that still small voice teaching us daily. We draw Christ out of one
another instead of pointing to the old man of sin.
As
children of God, we are citizens of a new kingdom on this earth right now.
GOD TABERNACLES WITH MAN
Hebrews 12:22-23 But YE ARE come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, [23] To the
general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and
to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,
Matthew 7:19-27 Every tree that
brings not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. [20]
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. [21] Not every one that says unto
me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the
will of my Father, which is in heaven. [22] Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out
devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? [23] And then will I profess
unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity. [24]
Therefore whosoever hears these sayings of mine, and DOETH them, I will
liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: [25] And the rain
descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house;
and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. [26] And every one that hears
these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man,
which built his house upon the sand: [27] And the rain descended, and the
floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and
great was the fall of it.