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MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD???

According to the bible, Mankind was created in the Image of God. Mankind has written many volumes as to what this means but few have taken the time to research the ancients and their understanding of this concept. Let us not forget that it was the ancients who wrote this phrase in the first place and surely they above all would know what they intended by such a statement. It is we today who have lost our connection with these ancients and their documents which cause us to arrive at alternate meanings for concepts and ideas that they never intended or every taught. Simply said; we often are wrong about much of what we confess and believe.

The very mention of "mankind being made in the image of God" poses a very interesting question as to the descriptive Appearance of God.

• Answer for yourself: If we are, indeed, fashioned in the Image of God, does this mean therefore, that God is Man, or does He (God) have the Appearance of Man?
• Answer for yourself: Now, if we envision God in the Likeness of Man, does this include human frailties?

We, as humans, are Dependent upon the universe for our survival. We can not exist without, Fire, Earth, Air and Water.

• Answer for yourself: Is it possible that the Creator God could be likewise dependent upon the Elements.

In order to get to the bottom of this concept and arrive at it's intended meaning by those who framed it then it becomes necessary to review the bible verses concerning Creation:

• Gen 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
• Gen. 1:27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

These verses are unequivocal and clear. And according to these verses,

We look like God and have the Characteristics of God almighty. We have His Image!

Answer for yourself: But what does the word "image" mean?

image

• 1. A reproduction of the form of a person or an object, especially a sculptured likeness.
• 2. [Physics] An optically formed duplicate, counterpart, or other representative reproduction of an object, especially an optical reproduction of an object formed by a lens or mirror.
• 3. One that closely or exactly resembles another; a double:

And we have His Likeness.

Answer for yourself: But what does the word "likeness" mean?

The American Heritage Dictionary states:

likeness

• 1. The state, quality, or fact of being like; resemblance.
• 2. An imitative appearance; a semblance.
• 3. A pictorial, graphic, or sculptured representation of something; an image.

SYNONYMS: likeness, similarity, similitude, resemblance, analogy, affinity. These nouns denote agreement or conformity, as in character, nature, or appearance between persons or things.

Likeness implies close agreement:

Please understand that it is not my intention to make a play on words. These definitions (from the American Heritage Dictionary) get to the heart of what these verses actually mean, in Genesis. These two words , Image and Likeness, define not only appearance but even the Nature and Quality of the Creation (Image).

• Answer for yourself: Can you imagine the Creator God, being subject to the same needs, weaknesses, and limitations that we endure? I find that rather difficult to comprehend. Some writers say that our likeness to God refers to the spirit and not to flesh. This English word Spirit is derived from the Latin, spiritus, which means breath or to breathe, the act of inhaling and exhaling.
• Answer for yourself: So what are we saying, that God breathes as we do?
• Answer for yourself: Again, are we making God dependent upon a product of His creation, that is to say air, which is the vital constituent of human respiration?

Let us define the word spiritual, which may be more on target to defining the Godly Image which some say we are created after.

spiritual

• 1. [adjective] Of, relating to, consisting of, or having the nature of spirit; not tangible or material. a good synonym would be the word "immaterial."
• 2. Of, concerned with, or affecting the soul.
• 3. Of, from, or relating to God; deific.
• 4. Of or belonging to a church or religion; sacred.
• 5. Relating to or having the nature of spirits or a spirit; supernatural.

This word spiritual seems to indicate that which is unseen and immaterial, unearthly, that which relates to our soul.

Answer for yourself: Now what is a Soul? Again, let me present another definition from the American Heritage Dictionary,

soul

• 1. [noun] The animating and vital principle in human beings, credited with the faculties of thought, action, and emotion and often conceived as an immaterial entity.
• 2. The spiritual nature of human beings, regarded as immortal, separable from the body at death, and susceptible to happiness or misery in a future state.
• 3. The disembodied spirit of a dead human being; a shade.

Take note that the definition of the word, soul, goes to our actions, our thoughts, our emotions .This is very interesting.

• Answer for yourself: Should we conclude that our emotional makeup is an accurate reflection of Gods demeanor?
• Answer for yourself: Could God possibly be subject to the same emotional hangups as we?

Please remember, we are trying to determine through a system of questions and analysis, exactly what it means to be created in the Image of God

If we conclude that we are the spiritual image of God, but not the physical image ,we end up with a real Pandora's Box. Without doubt, the state of today's world reflects spiritual corruption, in every facet of life. The spirit seems to be subject to the same or similar temptations and weaknesses as the flesh.

• Mat 26:4 1 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.
• Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Without doubt, we possess a spirit, which is corruptible.

Answer for yourself: Can this be a true reflection of God's Image?

I think we could go on for hundreds of pages, trying to explain with accuracy, in what manner mankind, was created in the image of God, and not come to a definitive solution; That is, if we try to make our conclusion agree with traditional Western religious precepts. This is where we have failed; trying to understand Eastern ideas with a Western mindset!

GETTING TO THE HEART OF THE ISSUE

As, with many of our commonly accepted religious concepts., our traditional beliefs and understandings of being created in the Image of God are in Error. I have gone through this brief litany of the most commonly held interpretations, concerning the image and likeness, in which we were created, for the purpose of exposing the artificiality of our most popular concepts on this matter. Being created in the Image of God does not mean, what most of us have believed throughout our lives. When the Ancients wrote that we were created in God's Image, they were propounding a hypotheses based on human correlations to the Cosmos. Correlations that are Exact to the smallest detail as you will begin to see as you continue your reading and study with Bet Emet Ministries.

THE ANCIENTS KNEW THAT MANKIND WAS BIOLOGICALLY CORRELATED TO THE COSMOS...IT WE WHO HAVE FORGOTTEN THIS TODAY

Many thousands of years ago, at the dawn of history, if there is really such a time as a dawn to history, the Ancients discovered undeniable correlations between the biology of the human species and the movements of celestial bodies within the stellar and solar universe. Correlations proportionately related in Time (duration) and Chronology (sequence) of Time. These correlations exist between the human species and the total universe, inclusive of the solar system, and of the Solar system to the expanded universe (infinity).

Now read the next sentence slowly with much deep thought. The Ancients saw the universe and their immediate environment as well as the capacities embodied within their own intellect as the most trustworthy representations of the Creator God. The Universe (terrestrial and celestial) appeared to our ancestors as the only authentic image of the Father.

Ps 19:1-2 1 The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. 2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. (KJV)

The Cosmos was undoubtedly His Handiwork, and we, the Human creation was likewise the Handiwork of the Almighty.

In consequence , when our fathers discovered that they were indeed biologically and chronologically correlated to the Cosmos, they transcribed this knowledge to the written word and language as, We (humanity) are created in the Image and the Likeness of God.

LET US EXAMINE SOME OF THESE CORRELATIONS

One of the most noticeable correlations involves the life and light cycles of the female species of mankind to the moon. They discovered by critical examination of the cosmos the correlation between the life (menstrual) cycle of the woman that ran 28 days in correspondence with the light (phase) cycle of the moon, which also runs at 28 day intervals. [Remember this number "28" as we will find it again interpolated into the Osiris myth later in a subsequent article].

They noticed likewise that the phases of the woman's' cycle and the moon's cycle were relational. The New moon begins in darkness and waxes to it's fullness at 14 days (midway through the cycle of light).. When the moon reaches it's fullness, after 14 days of growth (waxing), it then commences to discharge it's light so that by the end of the 28 day period all light has been shed (flushed) from it's celestial body. [Remember this number "14" as we will find it again interpolated into the Osiris myth later in a subsequent article].

The life (menses) cycle of the woman likewise begins in darkness (undeveloped). At the beginning of the cycle (out of darkness, i.e. undeveloped) the egg begins to grow within the ovary until it reaches maturity (fullness) at 14 days, at which point it (the egg) is released and flows toward the uterus from whence it shall be discharged (shed) from the body. If the egg is fertilized, it shall be discharged after an appointed time (280 days, the natural period of human gestation) as a new individual. If the egg is not fertilized, it shall be discharged in one tenth of the appointed time (28 days, the natural period of human menstruation) as the dead remains of a once fertile germ of life (light).

The ancients also observed that the human body did not reach fullness in physical and intellectual potential till approximately eighteen years after birth. They reasoned that eighteen years seemed to represent a complete cycle of life, from birth to Adulthood. Likewise the moon, which they associated with the 28 day life cycle took a little over eighteen years to complete the cycle of it's Nodes. The Node represents the point of intersection of the Moon with the ecliptic (the apparent path of the sun around the earth), both north (Caput Draconis) and south (Cauda Draconis). It takes the Moon a little more than eighteen and a half years to complete this cycle (revolution), and restart anew, from it's original point of commencement. To complete a cycle is the same as reaching maturity. Both terms indicate a coming into fulfillment. [So again see the correlation of the 18 years of the moon's cycle of it's nodes related to the cycle of mankinds growth from birth to adulthood].

The Ancients studied even further into the relational parallels between the human species and the solar system. Within the chronology of the Solar System, they found analogies, that can only be described as astounding and categorically conclusive in proving the correlative link between humanity (the microcosm) and the universe (the macrocosm). The ancients understood this as Mankind being created in the image and nature of the Creator whose revealed Himself to them in the created Cosmos.

At this point, we shall explore the Osiris myth and the Osiris pattern and then examine similar correlations as they relate to the astrological (astronomical) foundations of the Christ Myth which is written into our New Testaments!