Gods eternal purpose now triumphing for mans good (1974)
Download: PDF — Gods eternal purpose now triumphing for mans good (1974)
/cover.jpg)
FOR MAN'S GOOD
FOR MAN'S GOOD
An Enlightening Survey of the Special Purpose of Man's Creator, from Its Formation Six Thousand Years Ago to Its God-honoring Accomplishment with Boundless Blessings for All Humanity
To the God who has come to man's rescue by forming his "eternal purpose" in connection with his Messiah, this book is dedicated
COPYRIGHT, 1974
by
WATCH TOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY
OF PENNSYLVANIA
Publishers
WATCHTOWER BIBLE AND TRACT SOCIETY
OF NEW YORK, INC.
INTERNATIONAL BIBLE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION Brooklyn, New York, U.S.A.
FIRST EDITION:
2,500,000 Copies
Made in the United States of America
CONTENTS
CHAPTER TITLE PAGE
We Are Within the Purpose of a Loving Creator . . . 4
The Immortal Possessor of the "Eternal Purpose" . . . 7
When Man Was with God in Paradise . . . 26
God Sets Forth His Purpose for Man and Woman . . . 45
God's "Eternal Purpose" in His Anointed One Is Formed . . . 54
Human Life Outside Paradise Until the Deluge . . . 65
Tracing the Human Line of Descent of the "Seed" . . . 81
The Divine Choosing According to the "Eternal Purpose" . . . 93
A Nation That Entered a Covenant with God . . . 103
A Covenant for a Kingdom Made with David . . . 120
The Messiah of God's "Eternal Purpose" . . . 130
The Glorification of the Messiah . . . 146
Other Mysteries Relative to Messiah Revealed . . . 156
Triumph for the "Eternal Purpose" . . . 169
Making the Seventh Creative "Day" Sacred . . . 187 We Are Within the Purpose of a Loving Creator
LIFE on earth is taking on new interest for increasing numbers of people as our twentieth century nears its end.
2 The dying system of things under which we are finding it more and more difficult to live is not the last thing for us to experience. It is not all there is to it for us. Earth will cease to be a place for continual human suffering. The darkening night that now enshrubs all the earth with a deadly pall is about to be dispelled.
The new day that must surely follow the night is about to WE ARE WITHIN THE PURPOSE OF A LOVING CREATOR 5 break for all the earth to become a place of joyous living for the whole human family.
All of this is not a matter of chance, not a matter of accident, not even a matter of some human scientific breakthrough. Someone higher than man has purposed it.
Yes, increasing numbers of people of all kinds are throbbing with happy excitement as they look forward to life on our same old earth but under a life-giving system of things. Among these the onetime Buddhist who used to fold his hands and pray on bended knee before the gilded image of his meditating god has found new reason for enjoying human life on earth now and forever. The onetime Hindu who used to worship before his triune god Trimurti no longer tries to build up merit for himself under fear of an imagined transmigration of the human soul after death. With a loving interest in all others of mankind he now seeks to share with others the good news that the human family will enter into a better life here on earth. The worshiper who once believed that all his affairs were governed by Qadar ("Fate") now wants to prove worthy of inheriting a paradise here on earth, more beautiful even than ancient Damascus.
4 The onetime Roman Catholic, or Greek Orthodox, or Protestant, who looked forward to becoming an angel in heaven rather than burning forever in a hell of fire and brimstone, now prepares himself for endless life in human perfection on a safe, peaceful earth.
6 GOD'S "ETERNAL PURPOSE" NOW TRIUMPHING
5 Marvelous religious transformations all of those! But such transformations are not confined to sincere religious persons. Even the nonreligious have experienced this change of view of life on earth. The onetime evolutionist, who once exerted tremendous faith to believe that human life began accidentally from a tiny, short-lived cell in a primeval sea and evolved ambitiously upward to present human life, no longer depends upon mutations and modern science as to what he will be in the future. The aforetime "godless" Communist, who believed in absolute materialism and who worked for communizing the whole world under an irreligious political government, now hopes for a universal rulership higher than that of selfish, imperfect, dying creatures of blood and flesh.
aAll these transformed ones, religious and non-religious, confidently look for life on earth to become better within their own generation. They are now patterning their lives with this assured expectation of grander things to come for earth's inhabitants. Their present lives are happier for this, more useful, more beneficial to themselves and others. Unitedly, they all have this common outlook for the coming years. What has brought about this marvelous transformation in their minds and hearts and lives?
It is this: They have all come to an accurate knowledge of God's "eternal purpose" and are shaping their lives in harmony with that divine purpose, rejoicing at heart because it is now triumphing for the everlasting good of all mankind. They are humbly grateful that they, too, THE IMMORTAL POSSESSOR OF THE "ETERNAL PURPOSE" 7 are embraced within the loving purpose of God their Creator.
Living within the range of His purpose makes life worth while for them. Eternal happiness is before them.
CHAPTER 2
The Immortal Possessor of the "Eternal Purpose"
"ETERNAL purpose"! Who could have such a purpose but an everliving God? Evolution, as taught by many modern-day scientists, could have no such purpose, inasmuch as accident or chance, with which the unproved theory of evolution begins, does not occur purposely and is without purpose. In the fifteenth century before our Common Era a world-famed lawgiver and poet, namely, Moses the son of Amram, called attention to such a timeless God, saying:
2 "Before the mountains themselves were born, or you proceeded to bring forth as with labor pains the earth and the productive land, even from time indefinite to time indefinite you are God. . . For a thousand years are in your eyes but as yesterday when it is past, and as a [four-hour-long] watch during the night."—The Bible Book of Psalms, number 90, verses 2-4.
a in the first century of our Common Era a firm believer in the lawgiver Moses called attention to the same God, who is without time limitations
GOD'S "ETERNAL PURPOSE" NOW TRIUMPHING
in the past and in the future, writing: "Now to the King of eternity, incorruptible, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen." (1 Timothy 1:17) Such an Eternal God can stick to his purpose until it is carried out to success, no matter how long it takes, even ages of time.
4 This same writer of our first century C.E. was inspired to write concerning God's "eternal purpose" and to associate it with the long-looked-for Messiah, the "Anointed One" or "Consecrated One," whom the prophet Moses himself foretold. Back there those speaking Syriac in the Middle East called him "Mshi'ihfa"; but the Greekspeaking Jews of Alexandria, Egypt, when making their translation of the inspired Hebrew Scriptures, which has come to be called the Greek Septuagint, used the Greek word Kristós, which, basically, means "Anointed One."—See Daniel 9:25, LXX.
However, the modern-day translators of the writings of that first-century writer have created a problem for us. From the sixteenth century onward English Bible translations have spoken of it as the "eternal purpose" of God.* But more recently a number of Bible translators interpret the Greek phrase as "a plan of the ages." Thus God is said to have a "plan" in connection with the Messiah.
a For example, the 1897 (C.E.) translation of the letter to the Ephesians, chapter three, verses nine through eleven, by J.
B. Rotherham, reads: "And to bring to light what is the administration of the sacred secret which had been hidden away from the ages in God, who did all things create: in order that now unto the principalities and the authorities in the heavenlies might be made known, through means of the assembly, the manifold wisdom of God,—according to a plan of the ages which he made in the anointed." Even as far back as 1865 C.E. The Emphatic Diaglott, published by the newspaper editor Benjamin Wilson, contained the reading: "according to a plan of the ages, which he formed." A number of other recent Bible translations could be cited that choose to render the Greek text in this way. 8
7 Based on this different translation of the Greek text in Ephesians 3:11, there was published in the September, 1881, issue of Zion's Watch Tower in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S.A., by the editor and publisher Charles Taze Russell, the article entitled "The Plan of the Ages." This gave the explanation of a full-page diagram called "Chart of the Ages." We are pleased to reproduce herewith this chart for examination by all interested persons. A similar "Chart of the Ages Illustrating the Plan of God" was embodied in the book entitled "The Divine Plan of the Ages," published by C. T. Russell in 1886.
8 Despite the inaccuracies that are discernible "WRITE DOWN THE VISION AND MAKE IT PLAIN UPON TABLES, THAT EVER ONE MAY READ IT FLUently."
MARABUKK 8:2.
CHART OF THE AGS.
ILLUSTRATING THE PLAN OF GOD FOR BRINGING NONE TO GLOY, AND HIS PURPOSE—
"To be accorded to an establishment of the Plane of the governing order of the world under the decree Gave
in it today, this "Chart of the Ages" served to show the line of sincere reasoning that was based upon the thought that the All-Wise, Almighty God has a "plan." Said the opening words of Chapter I of this book:
The title of this series of Studies—"The Divine Plan of the Ages," suggests a progression in the Divine arrangement, foreseeing a future where the Divine revelation can be seen to be both beautiful and harmonious from this standpoint and from no other.
This book attained a circulation of more than six million copies, in a number of languages. Its circulation ceased in the year 1929 C.E. For one thing, it focused the attention of its readers on the Bible and showed that the Living God is progressive. He is getting somewhere with respect to what he has in mind for suffering humankind. We know that a man often forms a plan of action, but that behind such plan of action there is a THE IMMORTAL POSSESSOR OF THE "ETERNAL PURPOSE" 11 purpose to be achieved.
But the point in question is, Did the All-Wise, All-Powerful God have to frame a plan of action, a cut-and-dried course, at the time that he made his decision to accomplish something, thus obliging himself as the unchangeable God to stick to this planned course without deviation? Or, was he able to meet all emergencies and contingencies due to free will and choice on the part of his creatures, instantly and without forethought, and still reach his goal? Did he need a plan? Of course, after he has attained his goal, we can check the record of his movements and plot or map out the course that he has pursued. But was it planned just that way?*
A GOD OF PURPOSE
15 Did the original Greek writer of the words in Ephesians 3:11 desire to bring out that God the Creator has a plan in connection with His Messiah? What did he mean when, in his letter written in first-century Greek, he used the word pro'thesis? It literally means a "setting forth or before," thus a putting of something in view. That is why the Alexandrian Jews, when translating the inspired Hebrew Scriptures in Greek, used this Greek word in connection with the holy bread that was placed upon the golden table in the Holy compartment of the sacred tent of worship erected by the prophet Moses. This bread is ordinarily called the shewbread, but the Greek Septuagint Version speaks of it as the "loaves or cakes of presentation" (prothesis). So these loaves, by being set forth upon the golden table,
GOD'S "ETERNAL PURPOSE" NOW TRIUMPHING
were put on display, a fresh supply thereof on each weekly sabbath day.—2 Chronicles 4:19.
11 The word pro'thesis was also used to mean a "statement," or an "advance payment," and, in grammar, it would mean a "preposition." It was also used to mean a "prefixing," or a "placing first." Because the word was also used to mean an end or objective proposed, or a setting before oneself of something to be accomplished or to be achieved, it was used to mean "purpose." (On this, see A Greek-English Lexicon by Liddell and Scott, Volume II, pages 1480-1481, reprint of 1948, under pro'thesis.) This latter meaning is recognized by the majority of the modern-language Bible translators. So the "pro'thesis" of God is his resolve, his primal decision, his purpose.*
12 In Ephesians 3:11 the word is followed by the expression t\text{ōn} \ a\text{i} o\prime n\text{ōn}, literally meaning "of the ages." So this combination of words is translated by some as "the purpose of the ages"† or "a purpose of the ages"‡ or "age-long purpose"10 or "age-old purpose"11 and by others as "eternal purpose."16
13 God's "purpose of the ages" is His "eternal THE IMMORTAL POSSESSOR OF THE "ETERNAL PURPOSE" 13 purpose."
How is that? Well, here, an age would mean an indefinite but relatively long period of time in human affairs, with more emphasis on the time-length of the age than upon its phenomena or characteristics.
14 Thus God's "purpose of the ages" would not mean a "purpose" that has to do with certain designated periods such as a "patriarchal age," a "Jewish age," a "Gospel age," and a "Millennial age." Rather, the emphasis is upon time, on periods of a long time. For age to follow upon age, each individual age must have a beginning and an end. Yet a succession of ages would stretch out the time. And, since in the expression "purpose of the ages" the number of ages is not specified, the number of ages could be endless. So the expression "purpose of the ages" leaves the total amount of time involved indefinite, and it is a "purpose" to time indefinite, with no limit actually marked. In this way the "purpose" becomes a matter of eternity, and it becomes an "eternal purpose." God's purpose in connection with his Messiah or Anointed One had a beginning, but ages of time are allowed to pass before that purpose is realized. For the "King of eternity" the matter of time is here no problem.
GOD'S "ETERNAL PURPOSE" NOW TRIUMPHING NOT A NAMELESS PERSON
15 This King of Eternity is no nameless Person. He has given himself a name and has made his self-designation known to us. What he calls himself bespeaks purpose, his having an objective. How well this fact is brought out on the occasion when God, by means of his angel, encountered Moses, the fugitive from Egypt, at the burning thornbush near the foot of Mount Sinai in Arabia, in the sixteenth century B.C.E.! Moses was instructed to return to Egypt and lead his enslaved people out to freedom. But what if Moses' people should ask for the name of the God who sent him to them as their leader? What should he tell them? Moses wanted to know. His own autobiography tells us: "At this God said to Moses: I SHALL PROVE TO BE WHAT I SHALL PROVE TO BE." And he added: 'This is what you are to say to the sons of Israel, "I SHALL PROVE TO BE has sent me to you."'—Exodus 3:14.
16 God is not here speaking about his existence. A person might think so from the way that some translators render into English the Hebrew expression eh-yeh' asher' eh-yeh' and eh-yeh'. For example, The Jerusalem Bible (English translation), of 1966, reads: "And God said to Moses, 'I Am who I Am. This he added 'is what you must say to the sons of Israel: 'I Am has sent me to you.''" However, God is really talking about being something. This is further borne out by the translation of the Twenty-Four Books of the Holy Scriptures, by Rabbi Isaac Leeser, as follows: "And God said unto Moses, I WILL BE THAT I WILL BE: and he said, Thus shalt thou say THE IMMORTAL POSSESSOR OF THE "ETERNAL PURPOSE" 15 unto the children of Israel, I WILL BE hath sent me unto you."*
17 More pointedly, The Emphasised Bible, by Joseph B. Rotherham, renders Exodus 3:14 as follows: "And God said unto Moses, I Will Become whatsoever I please. And he said—Thus shalt thou say to the sons of Israel, I Will Become hath sent me unto you." The footnote on this verse says, in part: "Hayah [the word rendered above 'become'] does not mean 'to be' essentially or ontologically, but phenomenally. . . . What he will be is left unexpressed—He will be with them, helper, strengthener, deliverer." Thus the reference here is not to God's self-existence but, rather, to what he has in mind to become toward others.
18 Similar to this is when a young person, growing to adulthood, meditates and says to himself: 'What am I going to do with my life? What am I going to make out of myself?' Not otherwise, when the one living and true God was all alone, he had to determine what he would do with his self-existence, what he would make of himself, what he would become. After an eternity of precreation existence in his solitariiness, he willed to become a Creator. He formed a purpose with regard to himself.
10 However, the name by which the one living and true God is known throughout the inspired Holy Scriptures is not Eh-yeh, or, "I Shall Prove to Be."
When, in the year 1513 B.C.E., at Mount Sinai, God miraculously inscribed on stone tablets the Ten Commandments and gave these to the prophet Moses, God himself spelled out his self-chosen name. Writing from right to left, God wrote down the Hebrew letter Yod, then a Heh, next a Waw, and finally another Heh. Doubtless God wrote in the ancient style of Hebrew letters, like this: ἀγαὶ; not in the modern-style Hebrew letters: ἀγαὶ'. The corresponding letters in English, as read from right to left, are HWHY; or, in ancient Latin, HVHJ. All four letters are consonants, with no vowels inserted between these consonants.
20 Exactly how Jehovah pronounced this divine name to Moses is therefore not known today. For centuries it was spelled by Latin writers as Jehova. Many modern Hebrew scholars prefer to pronounce the name as Yahweh, or even Yehwah. Thus, just as a child does not name its father, so the creature did not name its Creator. The Creator named himself.
21 This sacred name is in reality understood to be a verb, the indefinite causative form of the Hebrew verb hawah'. Thus it would mean "He Causes to Become." Now, behind every effect there is a cause; and behind every intelligent cause, or cause, there is a purpose. Naturally, then, the divine name that means "He Causes to Become" embodies purpose in itself. It marks the Bearer of that unique name as the Purposer. Certainly in this capacity he appeared to Moses at the burning bush near Mount Sinai, and what THE IMMORTAL POSSESSOR OF THE "ETERNAL PURPOSE" 17 he had set before himself to do he disclosed to Moses.
Emphasizing the permanence or enduring quality of the divine name, God said further to Moses: "This is what you are to say to the sons of Israel, 'Jehovah the God of your forefathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.' This is my name to time indefinite, and this is the memorial of me to generation after generation." (Exodus 3:15) That memorial name has not ceased to be His today. It is a valid name for us to use today.
A MAKER OF HISTORY FOR MAN'S GOOD
22 In the days of the prophet Moses history was made by the one living and true God, Jehovah, by the way that He dealt with ancient Egypt, the oppressor of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He made a glorious name for himself by delivering his enslaved people from that heavily militarized world power. (Jeremiah 32:20; 2 Samuel 7:23; Isaiah 63:14) This assures us that the mighty militarized world of this twentieth century C.E. is nothing too formidable for him to take on as an opponent in order to liberate mankind. As he let Pharaoh of ancient Egypt come to power and carry on his death-dealing oppressions of Moses' people, so Jehovah has let the wicked oppressors come to power over all the earth with great oppressions resulting to all the people. There was reason for doing so. It is to reserve them, keep them in custody, for his appointed day to destroy them. So, for the comfort of the heavily burdened people, he inspired wise King Solomon of Jerusalem to say: "Roll your works upon Jehovah himself and your plans will be firmly established.
Everything Jehovah has made for his purpose [Hebrew: mə'nehā], yes, even the wicked one for the evil day." — Proverbs 16:3, 4.
28 Since the year 1914 C.E. it has been an "evil day" for the systems of government that have survived two world wars and associated international troubles. For years now, political superpowers have dominated the earth, suspiciously eyeing one another in their contest for world supremacy. The Sovereign Lord Jehovah, who has created everything for his purpose, should reasonably have a purpose concerning these aspirants for world domination. It is on record that he formed a purpose concerning the "wicked" world powers of ancient Bible times. As assurance of what we may expect for our time, all that he purposed respecting those former world powers he executed.
24 For instance, the Assyrian Empire succeeded ancient Egypt in political, military importance and became the second world power of Bible history. But even in the heyday of its power over mankind, never was it able to boast of capturing or destroying Jerusalem, the capital city of the Kingdom of Judah. Instead, Jerusalem witnessed the destruction of Nineveh, Assyria's capital. Why was this so? Because the Assyrian World Power was wicked. Almighty God, Jehovah, had permitted it to attain to world domination and to act wickedly, especially toward His chosen people. But he had purposed to reserve that wicked world power for an "evil day" at His own chosen time. So about the year 632 before THE IMMORTAL POSSESSOR OF THE "ETERNAL PURPOSE" 19 our Common Era Assyria's capital Nineveh fell to the allied Medes and Chaldeans and was destroyed.
(Nahum, chapters 1-3) Thus no failure can be listed against Jehovah's purpose as expressed more than a century beforehand by His prophet Isaiah in the following words:
"Jehovah of armies has sworn, saying: 'Surely just as I have figured, so it must occur; and just as I have counseled, that is what will come true, in order to break the Assyrian in my land and that I may tread him down on my own mountains; and that his yoke may actually depart from upon them and that he will not be able to walk on the other side.' This is the counsel that is counseled against all the earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out against all the nations. For Jehovah of armies himself has counseled, and who can break it up? And his hand is one stretched out, and who can turn it back?'—Isaiah 14:24-27.
25 The Almighty, All-Wise God did not take counsel with anybody in heaven in order to guide Himself in his course of action. "Who as his man of counsel can make him know anything?" is the fitting question that is raised in the prophecy of Isaiah 40:13. (Also, Job 21:22; 36:22; Romans 11:34) His "counsel" is His own, not dependent upon a body of advisory counselors for assistance in right judgment and determination. Hence, his "counsel" here takes on more than the sense of advice; it stands for his express determination, his decree. Regarding the Scriptural use of the word "counsel," M'Clintock and Strong's CyclopEDIA, Volume II, page 539, says: "Beside the common signification of this word, as denoting the consultations of men, it is used in Scripture for the decrees of God, the orders of his providence."
26 The "counsel" that the Almighty, All-Wise God, of his own self, counsels cannot be broken up either by men or by devils. This was true of His counsel against the Assyrian World Power.
GOD'S "ETERNAL PURPOSE" NOW TRIUMPHING
It also proved to be true of the next succeeding world power, the new Babylonian World Power, the third world power in Bible history. This was the world power that destroyed Jerusalem, for the first time, in the year 607 B.C.E. In doing so, this world power showed itself to be "wicked." So Jehovah reserved it also for an "evil day" at his own decreed time. Before He permitted Babylon to destroy Jerusalem and thereby take on special wickedness before Him, God inspired his prophet Jeremiah to say: "Therefore hear, O men, the counsel of Jehovah that he has formulated against Babylon and his thoughts that he has thought out against the land of the Chaldeans."—Jeremiah 50:1, 45.
27 This prophet Jeremiah lived on under God's protection through the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple by the armies of Babylon in the year 607 B.C.E. But he did not live long enough to see his prophecies against "wicked" Babylon confirmed. However, secular history as well as Bible history record the overthrow of the Babylonian World Power, which occurred in the year 539 B.C.E., in the days of the prophet Daniel. (Daniel, chapter 5) This also confirmed the prophecies of the much earlier prophet, Isaiah, who, not only pointed forward to the downfall of the Babylonian World Power, but also foretold the name of the Persian conqueror whom God would use to accomplish Babylon's downfall. When, in their personal Bible study, the prophets Jeremiah and Daniel took up the recorded prophecy of Isaiah of the eighth century B.C.E., they found written these words of their God, Jehovah: I delight in he will completely carry out"; even in my saying of Jerusalem, "She will be rebuilt," and of the temple, "You will have your foundation laid."
This is what Jehovah has said to his anointed one, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have taken hold of, to subdue before him nations, so that I may give him the sights of life, so that he leaves doors, so that even the gates will not be shut: Before you I myself shall go . . . in order that you may know that I am Jehovah, the One calling you by your name, the God of Israel. For the sake of my servant Jacob and of Israel my chosen one, I even proceeded to call you by your name; I proceeded to give you a name of honor, although you did not know me to am Jehovah, and there is no one else with the name of Jehovah, except you. Although you have not known me, in order that people may know from the rising of the sun and from its setting that there is none besides me. I am Jehovah, and there is no one else."
28 Those marvelous words can today be seen in the Dead Sea Scroll of Isaiah as found in the year 1947 and dating back to the second century B.C.E. The words are found at what is commonly marked in Isaiah as from chapter forty-four, verse twenty-eight, through chapter forty-five, verse six. In the next chapter thereafter, God speaks of Cyrus as "the man to execute my counsel," in the midst of the verses now quoted:
"Remember this, that you people must muster up courage. Lay it to heart, you transgressors. Remember the first things you must do. You must not transgress the other God, nor anyone like me; The one telling from the beginning the finale, and from long ago the things that have not been done; the One saying, 'My own counsel will stand, and I will be mute.' The One saying, 'I will be mute.' The o
29 The Persian Cyrus the Great did come from the sunrising like a "bird of prey," from Persia to the east of Babylon and from a land that was distant from Isaiah's country, the land of Israel.
50 Quite appropriately, the ensign of Cyrus the Great was a golden eagle, a "bird of prey," and
GOD'S "ETERNAL PURPOSE" NOW TRIUMPHING
Jehovah uses it as a symbol of Cyrus himself. Although expressed in these words almost two centuries in advance, the purpose of the Divine One did not fall. His "counsel" stood, by His use of Cyrus to execute His counsel against wicked Babylon. Jehovah had spoken it, even having it recorded for future reference; and at his due time he did what he had said. He had formed his purpose with respect to Cyrus and had declared it through his prophet, and at his precise time he brought what he had purposed into marvelous reality. These historical accomplishments of the God of prophecy strengthen our confidence in the certainty of all other prophecies in which Jehovah has set forth what he has determined to do according to his own "counsel."
41 This holds true with reference to a prophecy that history shows has as yet gone unfulfilled, but the time for which fulfillment is evidently getting closer, to occur in our generation. This is a prophecy given through Ezekiel, who was a contemporary of the prophet Jeremiah. It is found in the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth chapters of Ezekiel. It has to do with the attack to be made by the mysterious "Gog of the land of Magog." This Gog will bring all the nations of this world into this attack. The worldwide attack will be made upon the remnant of worshipers of the one living and true God. Freed from the modern-day Babylon the Great and restored to God's favor, this faithful remnant are living in a spiritual Paradise in the midst of the world's polluted, corrupt condition. What is the reason for the Almighty God to let such an attack be carried out upon His own worshipers? He tells us.
32 In telling us, God uses in a symbolic way the ancient land of Israel and its inhabitants who were rescued from Babylon to picture the spiritual Paradise of His restored remnant of worshipers of today. Then, in addressing the Wicked Leader of this international attack upon the faithful remnant in their spiritual Paradise, Almighty God made clear his purpose in allowing this vicious attack by saying:
35 "You will be bound to come up against my people Israel, like clouds to cover the land. In the final part of the days it will occur, and I shall certainly bring you against my land, for the purpose [Hebrew: ma'an] that the nations may know me when I sanctify myself in you before their eyes, O Gog."—Ezekiel 38:15, 16.
Nothing could be more plainly stated. The purpose of Jehovah is to sanctify himself before the eyes of all the nations. In accord with all his past performances, He will carry out this unchangeable purpose in the near future, within our generation. After telling how he will use the wondrous means at his disposal to fight a winning battle against Gog and all his international army on earth, the God of unfalling purpose says:
55 "And I shall certainly magnify myself and sanctify myself and make myself known before the eyes of many nations; and they will have to know that I am Jehovah."—Ezekiel 38:23.
WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO ABOUT IT? 38 Making the worldly nations know who He is
GOD'S "ETERNAL PURPOSE" NOW TRIUMPHING
will not signify making them his worshipers to be rewarded with everlasting life. To the contrary of this, it will mean the eternal destruction of those God-defying nations! That is a disastrous way of learning to experience the true God is. He will show the nations just who he is. It has become necessary for Him to do so. Hence, the big question is, Do we personally want to be among those nations that will be drawn into the attack shortly to be made by the Great Adversary of God, namely, "Gog of the land of Magog"?
37 In all their plans for saving the world situation, the nations are not taking into account the one living and true God, according to His purpose as made plain in his written Word, the Holy Bible. Do their plans sound good to us? Are we going to let ourselves be persuaded by their plans and join in supporting these, thus trusting in human self-salvation? In determining for ourselves what to do, we shall be wise to consider and take to heart what the inspired wise man of old says, in Proverbs 19:20, 21: "Listen to counsel and accept discipline, in order that you may become wise in your future. Many are the plans [Hebrew: mahhasha bhoth] in the heart of a man, but the counsel of Jehovah is what will stand." Far should it be from our hearts to pit the plans of men and nations against the counsel of Jehovah.
58 Why should we suffer disappointment with the nations to our never-ending hurt? Let us trust wholeheartedly in Jehovah. "For he himself said, and it came to be; he himself commanded, and it proceeded to stand so. Jehovah himself has broken up the counsel of the nations; he has thwarted THE IMMORTAL POSSESSOR OF THE "ETERNAL PURPOSE" 25 the thoughts of the peoples.
To time indefinite the very counsel of Jehovah will stand; the thoughts of his heart are to one generation after another generation. Happy is the nation whose God is Jehovah, the people whom he has chosen as his inheritance." (Psalm 33:9-12) Time and again it has proved to be true in the past, and it will prove to be true without fail in the near future, that "There is no wisdom, nor any discernment, nor any counsel in opposition to Jehovah. The horse is something prepared for the day of battle, but salvation belongs to Jehovah."—Proverbs 21:30, 31.
38 An honest look at the condition of the world of mankind convinces us that we all need salvation. What we as right-minded people want is salvation! This can never come from man himself. We must agree that "salvation belongs to Jehovah." Since "the LORD has made everything for his own ends, even the wicked for the evil day," what must the purpose of the Lord God be for those who are not wicked, those who seek His righteousness? Doubtless a loving purpose! (Proverbs 16:4, The New American Bible) Mankind is indeed embraced within the good purpose of a loving Creator.
40 The Creator is not an aimless God. We his creatures should not be aimless either! At what, then, should we aim? This: To bring our lives into harmony with the good purpose of Jehovah God. There can be nothing higher than this at which to aim. By doing this, we shall really be getting somewhere—toward our enjoyment of everlasting life. In this way our present lives will be no failure, for God's purpose will never fail.
With this in view, we now take pleasure in examining into God's "eternal purpose" that He formed in connection with his Anointed One, the Messiah.
CHAPTER 3
When Man Was with God in Paradise
HAVE we ever thought about what is implied by the expressions "the Creator of the heavens," also, "God, who created all things"? Those expressions imply that there was a time when God was all alone. (Isaiah 42:5; Ephesians 3:9) No creation existed. So for an eternal past this God was all by himself and he had not yet become a Creator. That is why the prophet Moses said in prayer to God: "Before mountains were born or earth and universe came to the pangs of birth, and from eternity to eternity, you are Deity." (Psalm 90:2, Byington's translation) During all that eternal past before creation God was able to enjoy Himself.
2 The time came when God purposed to become a Father. This did not mean to become the Creator of lifeless things, unintelligent things. It meant to give existence to living intelligences, to sons with some likeness to him their Father. Thus he purposed to take upon Himself the responsibility of a family of children. What kind of sons did He purpose to produce first? Not human sons, for in that case he would have had to produce first an earthly globe upon which they could live.
Reasonably, God would produce sons who, like Himself, are heavenly, being spirit just as He is spirit. Thus they would be spirit sons, who could see him and have direct access into His presence and with whom he could communicate directly.
The existence of such spirit sons of God is no mere religious imagination. The writer of the Bible book of Job, likely the prophet Moses, speaks of these in the opening chapter of the book, saying: "Now it came to be the day when the sons of the true God entered to take their station before Jehovah." (Job 1:6) A second meeting of those heavenly sons of the true God is called to our notice in Job 2:1. The fact that these spirit sons of God existed in the invisible heavens before the creation of our earth is emphasized when God speaks to the man Job out of the invisible and asks him: "Where did you happen to be when I founded the earth? . . . when the morning stars joyfully cried out together, and all the sons of God began shouting in applause?" Evidently those sons of God, brilliantly shining like morning stars in the heavens, were interested in God's purpose in creating our earth and admired the way in which he created the earth, "stretching out the north over the empty place, hanging the earth upon nothing" in space.—Job 38:4; 26:7.
4 Who was the first spirit son of God whom He created? This one, by reason of his priority,
GOD'S "ETERNAL PURPOSE" NOW TRIUMPHING
would rightly be called the beginning of the creation by God. This one being the first member of God's heavenly family, he could also be called the firstborn of all creation. Our thinking about this here reminds us of what is said in the eighth chapter of the book of Proverbs, where divine wisdom is pictured as a person who talks about himself. Of course, in the original Hebrew text of Proverbs, the word "wisdom" (hhakh-mah') is in the feminine and speaks of itself as a female person. (Proverbs 8:1-4) Of course, divine wisdom does not have any separate existence apart from God. Wisdom always existed in Him and so was not created. For this reason it is interesting to hear how wisdom speaks of herself as a feminine person, especially when she goes on to say:
Jewish leaders are concerned about the application that may be made of the above Bible verses. In the Soncino Press edition of Proverbs, of 1945, we read in the footnote on this section: "For the Jewish reader this interpretation is of much importance in view of the Christological use made of this section by the early Church Fathers."* At any rate, Proverbs 8:22 speaks of something as being created as the beginning of the way of Jehovah God, as "the first of his works from the commencement."
A "created" wisdom!
CHERUBS, ANGELS, SERAPHS
The Holy Scriptures divide up these heavenly "sons of God" into at least three classes. The first of these classes to be mentioned is that of the "cherubs." Genesis 3:24 describes a number of cherubs as being posted by God at the east of the earthly Paradise to "guard the way to the tree of life." With regard to the nearness of the cherubs to the seat of authority occupied by God and their loyal support of it, the psalmist Asaph speaks, saying: "O you who are sitting upon the cherubs, do beam forth." (Psalm 80:1 and superscription) Psalm 99:1 calls attention to the same thing, saying: "Jehovah himself has become king. Let the peoples be agitated. He is sitting upon the cherubs. Let the earth quiver."
' Also, King Hezekiah, who represented the Most High God on the visible throne in Jerusalem, associated the cherubs with the heavenly throne of the Sovereign of the universe, when he prayed: "O Jehovah of armies, the God of Israel, sitting upon the cherubs, you alone are the true God of all the kingdoms of the earth. You yourself have made the heavens and the earth." (Isaiah 37:16) Thus, repeatedly, the great Creator, the Universal Sovereign, is shown to throne above
GOD'S "ETERNAL PURPOSE" NOW TRIUMPHING
the heavenly "sons of God" known as cherubs.
the heavenly "sons of God" known as cherubs. 8 Besides such cherubic "sons of God," there is a general class of angels. There is no historical reason to doubt the existence of these invisible spirit creatures, for they have made many authenticated appearances to men. About the year 1919 B.C.E. three angelic representatives of Jehovah God materialized in flesh and appeared to the patriarch Abraham as he was sitting under some big trees at Mamre in the Palestinian land of Canaan. Shortly afterward, two of these materialized angels visited Abraham's nephew Lot at the city of Sodom by the Dead Sea, the day before this wicked city was destroyed by fire and sulphur that were propelled through the air upon the city. (Genesis 18:1 through 19:29) More than a century later Abraham's grandson Jacob was returning south to where his grandfather used to camp, and he had the experience related in Genesis 32:1, 2: "And as for Jacob, he got on his way, and the angels of God now met up with him. Immediately Jacob said, when he saw them: 'The camp of God this is!' Hence he called the name of that place Mahanaim [meaning 'Two Camps']."
9 The Bible word for angel means also "messenger," as in Malachi 3:1, where we read: "Look! I am sending my messenger [or, angel], and he must clear up a way before me." On many occasions the heavenly angels have been sent on missions to deliver a message or with a commission to do a special work. Men cannot block their performing of their commission from God, for they are possessed of power and might superior to the power and might of men.
The psalmist recognized this fact, and said: "Jehovah himself has firmly established his throne in the very heavens; and over everything his own kingship has held domination. Bless Jehovah, O you angels of his, mighty in power, carrying out his word, by listening to the voice of his word. Bless Jehovah, all you armies of his, you ministers of his, doing his will."—Psalm 103:19-21.
10 Still another classification of the heavenly "sons of God" is that of the seraphs. These spirit creatures are very reverential toward the person of God. This is borne out by the miraculous vision that was given to the prophet Isaiah. Let us note his description: "In the year that King Uzziah died [778/777 B.C.E.] I, however, got to see Jehovah, sitting on a throne lofty and lifted up, and his skirts were filling the temple. Seraphs were standing above him. Each one had six wings. With two he kept his face covered, and with two he kept his feet covered, and with two he would fly about. And this one called to that one and said: 'Holy, holy, holy is Jehovah of armies. The fullness of all the earth is his glory.'" The prophet Isaiah felt obliged to cry out in a fear of death because of his unclean condition. "At that," Isaiah tells us, "one of the seraphs flew to me, and in his hand there was a glowing coal that he had taken with tongs off the altar. And he proceeded to touch my mouth and to say: 'Look! This has touched your lips, and your error has departed and your sin itself is atoned for.'" (Isaiah 6:1-7) In this we see demonstrated the interest of the seraphs in helping us to be holy as God is holy.
GOD'S "ETERNAL PURPOSE" NOW TRIUMPHING
11 The number of all these heavenly "sons of God," the cherubs, the seraphs and the angels, runs into the millions. The prophet Daniel in Babylon was inspired to write concerning the vision that he had of a heavenly court scene: "I kept on beholding until there were thrones placed and the Ancient of Days sat down. . . . There were a thousand thousands that kept ministering to him, and ten thousand times ten thousand = 100,000,000 that kept standing right before him. The Court took its seat, and there were books that were opened." (Daniel 7:9, 10) Such a tremendous number of celestial "sons of God" displays the great creative productivity on the part of the heavenly Father, Jehovah God the Almighty. He has a marvelous family of obedient sons in the heavens. These are not creatures of blood and flesh, for they were created before our earth was created upon which we creatures of blood and flesh now live. So those heavenly "sons of God" are spirit, as God himself is, and they are absolutely distinct in nature from us earthly human creatures.
12 Showing the sharp distinction between God and men (like the ancient Egyptians) and between spirit and flesh, the prophecy of Isaiah 31:3 discouraged the Israelites from looking to the militarized Egyptians for help, saying: "The Egyptians, though, are earthling men, and not God; and their horses are flesh, and not spirit." Also, in a direct statement that the heavenly "sons of God" are of a nature distinct from that of man, Psalm 104:1-4 says: "Bless Jehovah, O my soul. O Jehovah my God, you have proved very great.
With dignity and splendor you have clothed yourself, enwrapping yourself with light as with a garment, stretching out the heavens like a tent cloth, the One . . . making his angels spirits, his ministers a devouring fire." Definitely the Sacred Scriptures rule out the religious idea that the heavenly angels include human souls that have been transplanted from earth to the invisible spirit heavens. The spirit "sons of God" were all brothers, all of them being sons of the same heavenly Father.
MAN'S CREATION
18 A true father produces a family because he loves children. He has no desire to make fiends or devils out of them or to get any satisfaction out of torturing and tormenting them. He has their highest interests at heart. He wants to find pleasure in them because they reflect his image and are a credit to him and give him due respect and obedience. Long ago, under divine inspiration, a king who was himself a father of many children said: "A wise son is the one that makes a father rejoice." "The father of a righteous one will without fail be joyful; the one becoming father to a wise one will also rejoice in him."—Proverbs 10:1; 23:24.
14 As regards the attitude of the heavenly Father toward his intelligent creatures, the psalmist David said: "As a father shows mercy to his sons, Jehovah has shown mercy to those fearing him. For he himself well knows the formation of us, remembering that we are dust." (Psalm 103: 13, 14) What Jehovah expects of his sons, he indicates, saying: "A son, for his part, honors a father; and a servant, his grand master.
So if I am a father, where is the honor to me? And if I am a grand master, where is the fear of me?" (Malachi 1:6) Jehovah the heavenly Father is not inferior to an earthly father in showing the right qualities toward His creatures, for He says: "And I will show compassion upon them, just as a man shows compassion upon his son who is serving him."—Malachi 3:17.
15 With nothing short of a loving motive, Jehovah God purposed to become father to children of a new nature. This signified that they would not be of the spirit nature, not of the heavenly nature. Theirs would be a nature less refined than that of the spirit nature and hence subjecting them to limitations and restrictions such as the heavenly "sons of God" do not have. However, this would work no hardship for them and would be perfectly enjoyable. Their nature was to be that of flesh and blood, or human nature. The creating of children of this lower nature was not because the heavenly Father had become dissatisfied with his vast family of spirit sons or needed something new and additional with which to provide new entertainment for himself. It was, rather, to display still further the greatly diversified wisdom of God as a Creator, and also to expand his love to still other creatures.
18 First, however, He must provide the materials with which to create this family of the human nature and also a suitable place for this human family to live and occupy. With this in view, He created the earth, a planet belonging to the solar system that is a part of the great galaxy of stars now known as The Milky Way.
At this point the Holy Bible opens up its marvelous story, saying: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." (Genesis 1:1) With loving care he prepared the conditions and environment on the cooled, hardened surface of the earth for its human inhabitants. His purpose for this earth he speaks of, saying:
"This is what Jebovah has said, the Creator of the heavens,
He the true God, the Former of the earth and the Maker of it,
One who firmly established it, who did not create it
simply by thinking, who formed it even to be innailed."
15:418 Isaiah 11:18
17 His human family would have bodies that needed to breathe in order to sustain life, and so He provided an atmosphere about the earth. They would need water to drink, and so he provided plenty of that. They needed plant life and vegetation as food, and this He provided for them. They needed sunlight for health and for vision, and he removed any cosmic dust cloud that kept the sun's rays from reaching the earth and later clarified the atmosphere to let the sunlight, moonlight and starlight penetrate to the earth's surface. The human family needed regular periods of rest and sleep, and the great Designer of the earth caused it to revolve so that day alternated with night. He caused the waters to swarm with fish and other marine life, flying creatures to take winged flight through the air, and land animals in great variety, all to play their parts in the economy of earthly life. All of this the wise and loving Creator did during the course of six creative periods of time, which he himself called days.—Genesis 1:1-25.
How did the Creator foresee the needs of his human family, and how did he provide for such needs?
GOD'S "ETERNAL PURPOSE" NOW TRIUMPHING
18 Toward the end of the sixth creative time period things had been prepared on and about the earth for the heavenly Father to proceed with starting the human family. Then it was that he announced what was to be the climax of his earthly creative work, as we read in Genesis 1:26: "And God went on to say: 'Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness, and let them have in subjection the fish of the sea and the flying creatures of the heavens and the domestic animals and all the earth and every moving animal that is moving upon the earth.'"
19 In the Hebrew text of this creation account the word for "God" is elo-him', which is the plural form of elo'ah, the plural form being used here in Genesis to denote excellence and grandeur, and not a number of gods, two, three or more. That is why the verbs that here go with E-lo-him' are in the singular number. And so when we read, "And God [E-lo-him'] went on to say; 'Let us,'" it does not mean that God was talking to himself. He is not a trinity, a triune god, a god in three persons, so that one person of him was saying to the other two persons of him, "Let us." In Genesis 2:4 this Creator is called Jehovah God, and later the writer, the prophet Moses, said: "Listen, O Israel: Jehovah our God is one Jehovah." There are not two or three Jehovahs, only one! A so-called triune god or trinity is a pagan invention. It is a blasphemous falsehood. —Deuteronomy 6:4.
20 Consequently, when God (Elohim') said, "Let us," he was speaking to at least someone else apart from himself in the invisible spirit heavens.
It is hardly likely that Jehovah God would be here speaking to the 100,000,000 or more angels who minister to him and asking their cooperation with him in the creation of man. It is most reasonable that he would be speaking to his firstborn heavenly Son, the firstborn of all creation, the beginning of the creation by God. This one, as the firstborn of God's heavenly family, would be the one to be given the preeminence and honor of being invited to work together with his heavenly Father in the creation of man on earth. This would simplify matters. Since this firstborn heavenly son bore the "image" of his heavenly Father and was according to His "likeness." God could properly say to him, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness." One's being in the image of God and according to his likeness would never mean that one was the equal of Jehovah God. An "image" is not the real thing!
THE FIRST MAN IN PARADISE
21 Genesis, chapter two, goes into detail on man's creation. Descriptively, Genesis 2:7, 8 tells us: "And Jehovah God proceeded to form the man out of dust from the ground and to blow into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man came to be a living soul. Further, Jehovah God planted a garden in Eden, toward the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed." In the ancient Syriac Version of the Bible the word Paradise is used to stand for "garden"; the Douay Version of the Bible also uses the word Paradise and says: "And the Lord God had planted a paradise of pleasure from the beginning: wherein he placed man whom he had formed."—Genesis 2:8, Dy.
22 Let us note once again what Genesis 2:7 states about the creation of man. Does it say that Jehovah God put in man a soul separate and distinct from his body? That is what many religious people want to read into the text. In fact, the Spanish Bible translation by F. Torres Amat-S. L. Copello, of 1942 C.E., reads, when translated into English: "Then the Lord God formed the man of the slime of the earth, and breathed in his face a breath or spirit of life, and the man remained made living with a rational soul." This is very different from the Roman Catholic Douay Version, which says: "And man became a living soul." Also, the version published by The Jewish Publication Society of America reads: "And man became a living soul." In order that our readers may see the literal word-for-word reading (from right to left) of the Hebrew text we present below a phototatic copy of this part of Genesis 2:7 in The Interlinear Literal Translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, by G. R. Berry, copyright 1896-1897:
the Loun God
formed man of
the dust of the
earth breathed into his
nostrils
t the breath of life;
and man be-
tained, 8 And
seed, 8 And
the Loun God
planted agarden
האיבר המצביע לה 22 Since God's inspired Word plainly says, "Man became a living soul," man is a soul.
The Bible tells the truth! It is the authority on what the human soul is. The pagan philosophers of ancient time, who did not have God's written Word, are the ones who say that man has inside him an invisible spiritual soul that departs into the spirit realm at the death of the human body. In the Hebrew text the word for "soul" is neph'esh; in the Greek Septuagint Version of the Hebrew Scriptures it is psy-khe'. Hence, what happens to man's body happens to the human soul. It is not just the human body that dies, but, as Jehovah God says in Ezekiel 18:4: "Look! All the souls—to me they belong. . . . The soul that is sinning—it itself will die." (Also, verse 20)
24 Man is not of the spirit, spiritual. Man is of the earth, earthy: "Jehovah God proceeded to form the man out of dust from the ground." (Genesis 2:7) The body that God created for man was made up of the elements taken from the earth and the atmosphere. It was not a spiritual body, and it cannot be spiritualized so as to become invisible and able to inhabit the spirit realm. It was a physical body, separate and distinct from a spiritual body such as the heavenly "sons of God" possess. Just as a Bible commentator of the first century C.E. said: "If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual one." The two kinds of bodies must not be confused, and the Bible does not confuse them—1 Corinthians 15:44.
55 The naked human body that God formed out of dust from the ground there in the Paradise of Pleasure was perfect, none of its necessary
GOD'S "ETERNAL PURPOSE" NOW TRIUMPHING
parts or members missing. "Perfect is his activity, for all his ways are justice." (Deuteronomy 32:4) "See! This only I have found," said wise King Solomon, "that the true God made mankind upright." (Ecclesiastes 7:29) To make that first human body alive and functioning perfectly, God did not take from heaven a bodyless "soul" (psykhe')* that, according to the pagan Greek idea, was flitting around like a butterfly, and breathe or insert it into the lifeless body. God breathed into the body not a mere current of air to expand the body's lungs. It was nothing like mouth-to-mouth reviving as in the case of a drowned person. What God breathed into the nostrils of the body is called "the breath of life," which not only filled the lungs with air but also imparted to the body the life-force that is sustained by breathing. In this way "the man came to be a living soul."
28 Jehovah God became the Father, the Life-Giver, of this first human soul. Materials for forming the human body were taken from the ground, which, in Hebrew, is called a.da'mah', and so this living soul was appropriately named Adam. (Genesis 5:1, 2) The heavenly Father had a purpose in putting his earthly son in the Paradise of Eden, and He put purpose into the life of Adam. To this effect we read, in Genesis 2:15: "And Jehovah God proceeded to take the man and settle him in the garden of Eden to cultivate it and to take care of it." God assigned to Adam his work as that of a Paradise-keeper, a gardener.
To give us some idea of what grew in that earthly Paradise, we are told: "Jehovah God planted a garden in Eden, toward the east, . . . Thus Jehovah God made to grow out of the ground [a damah] every tree desirable to one's sight and good for food and also the tree of life in the middle of the garden and the tree of the knowledge of good and bad." (Genesis 2:8, 9) Containing "every tree desirable to one's sight," the garden of Eden must have been a beautiful place. Among its trees "good for food" was the fig tree.
27 Only a God of love could have given his earthly son the Paradise of Pleasure as his home, the very best that earth had to provide. Being perfect, Adam could have a perfect appreciation of this garden and of its beauty. He was not alone there. There were fish of various kinds in the river that issued out of the garden and that branched out to the regions beyond the boundary of the garden. (Genesis 2:10-14) There was also a varied birdlife, also land animals, domestic and wild. God saw to it that Adam got acquainted with these earthly creatures of a lower nature.
28 As the wild animals were introduced to Adam, a long-armed hairy creature appeared. Adam named it qoph, which means "ape" to us today. (1 Kings 10:22; 2 Chronicles 9:21) When
GOD'S "ETERNAL PURPOSE" NOW TRIUMPHING
Adam saw this ape, he did not feel any kinship to it. He did not believe that he was a blood descendant of it. He did not cry out with pleasure: "This is at last bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh." The information that Adam received from God was that qoph (the ape) had been created earlier on the sixth creative "day," and that he, Adam, was created separately by God with no flesh connection with the ape or any other of the lower earthly creatures. Adam knew that there are four kinds of flesh. As it was stated nineteen centuries ago, in harmony with the latest findings of science: "Not all flesh is the same flesh, but there is one of mankind, and there is another flesh of cattle, and another flesh of birds, and another of fish." (1 Corinthians 15:39) No, even though God's Word spoke of the qoph (ape) as a "living soul," the ape was not found to be a "complement" of Adam and suitable as a companion of him.—Genesis 2:20.
29 As Adam observed all the wild beasts of the field, there on the ground or on a tree a long scaly animal glided along, without limbs. Adam called it na-hhash', which to us means "serpent" or "snake." It it did not strike up a conversation with Adam, and he, for his part, did not talk with it. It was a speechless creature, making only a hissing sound. Adam had no fear of it or of other wild animals. He did not worship any of them as sacred, not even the cow. His God had put them in subjection to him, for he was an earthly son of God, made in God's image and according to God's likeness. So he worshiped only his heavenly Father, "the true God," Jehovah.
50 How long was Adam meant to live, and where? It was not God's thought that Adam should die and leave the Paradise of Eden neglected. The earth was not to be left uninhabited by humankind. God set before Adam the opportunity for eternal life on earth in the Paradise of Eden. This, however, was dependent upon Adam's eternal obedience to his Creator and God. God put no disobedient leanings, no sinful tendencies, in Adam. God endowed his earthly son with the godlike qualities of justice, wisdom, power and love, with a perfect moral sense. However, in recognition of His own sovereignty over all the universe, it was proper for God, without any suspicions toward Adam, to test this earthly son of His. The test that he put upon Adam was a very small limitation of his freedom. We read:
s1 "And Jehovah God also laid this command upon the man: 'From every tree of the garden you may eat to satisfaction. But as for the tree of the knowledge of good and bad you must not eat from it, for in the day you eat from it you will positively die.'" —Genesis 2:16, 17.
…