(NB Headings are not part of original, but are added for clarity)
The World Tomorrow
The Spirit In Man
by Herbert W Armstrong
(PLAY FROM START)
Ladies and gentlemen greetings. Why is it that the human mind is almost unlimited when it comes to dealing with things? The things that we can do are almost - well absolutely fantastic and mind boggling. But the human mind is helpless in solving our human problems and in dealing with people, or with groups of people. Whether individual people or groups of people, we simply can’t solve our problems.
You know we have to go back to find out how man was created to really understand it. If we came from a single celled little spineless amoeba and we just developed and there’s nothing in us but something physical, we could not have the brain that we do or the mind that we do. Now animals have brains the same as we do. An animal brain is just as good as a human brain and some of them are even larger. An elephant or a dolphin is larger and a whale is larger. A chimpanzee is not quite as large, but they’re of virtually the same quality of the human brain and yet the human brain has an output that is millions of times greater. Why? How do you account for that by a process of evolution?
No you have to go back to creation. You have to go back to a Creator who had mind and who had intelligence and who created the mind in man. I used to ask myself, well I can think of things and I can think out ideas. I can think out plans. I can think out things I can make and I can make them out of material substances, things that I can make. But I thought my mind always remains greater than anything I can imagine or think out of it and anything I can make with it.
Well then it just seemed natural that it took a greater mind than my mind to make my mind. Where did my mind come from? Why is it so much greater than the mind of a horse or a dog or a cow or an animal? There certainly is a reason. Now the only way you can understand it is to go back to the very story of creation. Let’s go back to it. Some people don’t believe it. Some people refuse to believe it. Of course if you’re going to refuse to believe it, tune out right now. Because you’re going to hear things you don’t want to believe if that’s the case. If your mind is closed - if you’re satisfied you know it all already and I can’t tell you something you don’t already know you better tune out right now. But if your mind is open, you better stay tuned. You’re going to learn some things maybe you never knew before. And maybe they’re very important to your own happiness and your own enjoyment and your own future and even your own hereafter and there have been a lot so-called foolishness about that. I’m not going to go into that.
Man First Created (PLAY FROM 03:24)
But back in Genesis second chapter and verse seven, you learn about man’s being first created and put on this earth. Here it is Genesis 2:7
"The [Eternal] God formed man of the dust of the ground..." (Genesis 2:7)
Now this says there was an Eternal God, a living God. The word there that I use for Eternal in the King James Translation is the LORD God. But that word LORD is an English word that is translated from a word in the Hebrew. It well, we don’t know how to pronounce it. We actually don’t know how to completely spell it because they only used the consonants they didn’t use the vowels.{1} But it was probably something like 'Yahweh'. That is the Hebrew name, but it means one who is eternally alive, the Ever Living, or the Eternal. And I like the word Eternal, so I use the word the "[Eternal] God formed man of the dust of the ground". In other words God made plain dirt right out of the ground or the earth and formed man in it.
Now you can make a lot of things out of the dust of the ground. You plant a certain seed; take an oak seed and you plant it and in due time an oak tree will grow and oak leaves. And an oak leaf is not like a maple leaf. It’s not like say a birch leaf or some other kind of a tree. It’s altogether different. And it’s a mystery how that little seed can produce that and how it all comes out of the ground and forms.
But God took some of the dust of the ground and formed a man. Now it proceeds to say that He "...formed man out of the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life...[that’s just the air that breathes in and out of his nostrils] and man became [now man made out of the dust of the ground became] a living soul" (Genesis 2:7). So the soul is something that came from the ground. The soul then is made out of matter - the soul is made out of the ground. THE SOUL IS NOT SPIRIT. THE SOUL IS NOT SPIRIT.
But there is a spirit in man, I’m going to come to that in just a minute, but first I’d like to go back now a little bit. God formed man. Let’s go back into the first chapter of Genesis just a moment beginning with the twenty-fourth verse. And God said let us "...bring forth the living creature after his kind" (Genesis 1:24). Now there the word creature is the same Hebrew word which was 'nephesh'. It’s the same word that is translated as soul in the verse I just read to you. "man became a living soul." These creatures were also nephesh - the same thing - or you could say soul.
"And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living [soul] after his, kind, cattle and the creeping thing and the beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so." (Genesis 1:24)
They also were souls made out of the dust of the ground only they used the word creature because the men who translated this book of Genesis into English believed in the immortality of the soul and they were dead wrong. And I’m going to show that to you.
Now "And God made the beast of the earth after his kind [He is talking about dumb animals now]. The cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth on the earth after its kind" (Genesis 1:25), Dogs after the dog kind, cattle after the cattle kind, elephants after the elephant kind, the elephants have a bigger brain than a human being.
"And God said, Let us make man in our image". "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:" (Genesis 1:26)
In other words let’s make cattle after the cattle kind, and let’s make dogs after the dog kind, and let’s make man after our kind. And why does God say ‘us’? Why does He say ‘our’ and not ‘me’? Let ‘me’ make man after ‘my’ kind? No He doesn’t say that. He says let ‘us’ make man after our kind. Who is speaking here in the very first verse?
It says "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth" (Genesis 1:1). And the word for God was originally written in the Hebrew language and the word for God was Elohim not that word Yahweh that I mentioned a while ago. It was Elohim and Elohim is a uniplural like the word church; like the word team; like the word group; like any group of people. It’s more than one person forming one group, one society, one church, one team, whatever you might have - one family. And God said after our kind and He really meant after our family. That’s what He actually did mean, although it isn’t stated in that word right here. So it’s more than one person to form God.
I am writing a book, it’s almost complete and it’ll be in bookstores sold all over the United States and England at least, and English speaking countries. 'A Voice Cries Out.' I am a voice crying out in the wilderness of confusion in this day with the plain truth of what are we? Why are we? How are we come to be here? Where are we going? What is the ultimate purpose of man? Where are we going and how are we going to get there? What lies on ahead?
And you know that’s a tremendous thing. Man looks at it as a great mystery. What about life after this life? What about life after the death of this life? There is a life after this life. And that can be the greatest of all, but don’t think that you’re going to come out in another life as a mosquito or a bug or maybe an animal of some kind. There are all kinds of ideas and I haven’t time to go into that right now in this particular program. But that also is a thing that is a mystery to people, because they do not understand. I want to give you understanding. It’s a marvelous thing to really understand.
A Spirit In Man (PLAY FROM 10:01)
God formed man after His kind and God put a mind in man. Now He put breath in man and breath is used as the same word as spirit. And there also is a ‘spirit in man.’ And man has a mind that dumb animals simply do not have. There’s a very, very great difference and we need to take care of our minds and what goes into them. We’re usually very careless about what we feed into our minds. And we’re also very careless about what we feed into our stomachs or through our mouths into our stomachs. And we need to be careful about how we take care of ourselves, it’s our own responsibility. And we’re usually a little bit careless even about that. We don’t love ourselves in the right manner as much as we should. And generally we don’t have much love for the other fellow.
I’d like to read something to you over in the book of First Corinthians in the New Testament. I Corinthians 2:11 first:
"For what man knoweth the things of a man..." (I Corinthians 2:11) What man has the kind of human knowledge - the knowledge that humans can have that the dumb brutes can’t have - a cow can’t have, a horse can’t have, and neither can a dog. We can love our dogs and dogs can be man’s best friend but they can’t think - they can’t reason. They can know certain things. They certainly know who their master is and they are very loyal to him and they are very great company, but they can’t think. And they can’t talk and they can’t reason like we can.
"What man knows the things of a man [human knowledge]; save the spirit of man which is in him?" (I Corinthians 2:11)
Now that says that the spirit is not the man. The spirit is something inside of the man - something in the man, something inside of him. "...the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him [or inside of him], even so the things of God knoweth no man [now the things of God are spiritual knowledge and no man can know them] but the Spirit of God" (I Corinthians 2:11). No man can know them but the Spirit of God.
Now I said a while ago we can solve human equations. We can deal with things, we can send men to the moon and back, we can send unmanned spacecraft to land on Mars and send us back photographs right on the very surface of Mars. We can take close-up photographs of Jupiter and Saturn. We can make the marvelous mechanism and machines, like the computer, the printing press. Things like that are marvelous instruments, but we can’t deal with relationships.{2} Man’s mind is helpless when it comes to dealing with people and groups and things.
Nation can’t get along with nation. Husband can’t get along with wife and wife with husband. Children can’t seem to get along with their parents or parents with their children. What is wrong with us? Well right here’s the secret, if you would listen to it, if you would understand.
Now let’s go back a little bit and read into that, beginning with verse nine, it says: "...as it is written [it’s quoting another scripture written earlier] Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man [that is the real inner mind of man] the things that God has prepared for them that love him". (I Corinthians 2:9)
In other words the spiritual things, the things of God, the things that God has prepared. Man does not know them, man cannot know them.
Now our problems are all spiritual in nature and we can’t deal with them. We can’t solve them. The things that we are successful in doing are all mechanical and physical and material. There is a great difference. And the whole key to that difference is the ‘spirit in man.’ This spirit that empowers the physical brain with intellect. An animal doesn’t have that spirit and the animal brain is not empowered with intellect.
Now verse ten says God has revealed these things of God - all the spiritual knowledge God has revealed them unto us - unto humans by His spirit. If you have the spirit of God they can be revealed to you. "...for the spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God." (I Corinthians 2:10)
Then it continues "For what man can know the things of a man except that he has this spirit that is in man" (I Corinthians 2:11 paraphrased) and that is a portion, a particle of spirit essence that is in every person. It is not the man - it is not an immortal soul. Man himself is not a spirit. Man is made of the dust of the ground. Oh, if we could just believe that and understand it, but it is so hard to believe what is contrary to what we’ve been taught, isn’t it? And we’ve been taught something altogether different.
Now notice verse fourteen: "But the natural man [just the natural normal man in his mind with that one spirit, he can know all of these mechanical and material things that an animal can’t know, but the natural man] receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him:" (I Corinthians 2:14)
Absolute foolishness! And so the truth of God, the things of the Bible seem to be foolish and so much foolishness to even the greatest minds in this world. And the greatest minds, listen my friends, listen to this; the greatest minds in this world are the most ignorant - because they do not know the spiritual things. They don’t have spiritual knowledge. They can’t deal with spiritual problems. They can’t solve their spiritual problems. That’s where we are helpless. And God helping us, we need another spirit which man simply does not have.
Back to Genesis (PLAY FROM 16:20)
Now I’d like to go back to Genesis again just a moment if you will, and in Genesis two again and beginning with verse eight. I read verse seven just a while ago - now verse eight. Way back at the time of the creation of man, "The [Eternal] God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed [and He put his wife Eve along with him whom He had formed]. And out of the ground made the [Eternal] God to grow every tree that was pleasant to the sight, and good for food;" (Genesis 2:8-9)
Now He mentions two of them here, one the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
Now there are two trees that were there. You might quibble around about whether there were really two trees there or not. Well I think there probably were, but that’s insignificant - the thing is they’re symbolic trees. And what they symbolize - what they mean - that is the important thing. That is the thing that really counts.
Now the one was the tree of life and that was a symbol of this other spirit that we need. Now man has a spirit, as I just showed you, but he needs another spirit and that spirit is the Spirit of God and man cannot know the things of the spiritual knowledge - he cannot know how to solve his problems his troubles, his evils until he has that spirit, which is the Holy Spirit of God. Man was made to need another spirit. In other words man is not all there. We talk about a man not being all there as if he just doesn’t got any brains. As if he is sort of crazy or a little off – he’s not all there. Well actually we’re not all there without the Spirit of God! We were made to need the Spirit of God and man without it is only half there. He can know physical material things. There is no limit to what he can do. It's mind boggling the things that man can do in the materialistic realm. But he can’t solve the problems of man.
We’re helpless. We’re in trouble on this earth. This earth is in great trouble and people don’t know it. Religion hasn’t told you the difference. They haven’t shown you because they ignore everything in the Bible except just to preach the name of Jesus Christ. THEY PREACH ABOUT THE PERSON, BUT THEY DON’T PREACH TO YOU THE MESSAGE THAT CHRIST PREACHED! That’s the gospel of Jesus Christ and that is the gospel that is not being preached today. The message that He preached that is His gospel. And that gospel was not preached for about 1900 years, nineteen centuries. I say shame on us that we have rejected it, but man has rejected it because the things of God seem to be foolishness to a man that has that one spirit and doesn’t have the other spirit. He’s only half there and so the greatest brains on earth that can do all these marvelous things materialistically are still the most ignorant, because they don’t know how solve the problems that are spiritual in nature. And that’s where our great problems are. That’s why the world is in the condition that it is in at this time.
Now then verse seventeen: "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it:" (Genesis 2:17)
Now the knowledge of good and evil, Adam and Eve did take of it and God said they were going to die if they took of it - they would surely die! You’re not an immortal soul, you’re mortal. YOU WILL DIE AND GOD SAID YOU WILL SURELY DIE, it was Satan that came along and said, you won’t surely die, you’re an immortal soul.
What have you been believing, you been believing God? Adam and Eve didn’t. Satan said you won’t surely die, you’re an immortal soul, do you believe that? Well if you want to believe Satan maybe you can go along with Satan, but he’s not going where I’m going. And I don’t mean I’m going to heaven either, but I well – I won’t say what I’m going to do or where I’m going to be or anything about it.
Nevertheless, I’d like to turn over a page here now and notice this when Adam did disobey God. He could have taken the Holy Spirit, but he didn’t. He was like a lot of people today, it seemed like a lot of foolishness to him, as I just read to you. And so he turned it down. He said "I will decide for myself what is right and wrong." He took to himself, - along with his wife Eve, she took it and gave to him and he took it along and ate with her - the knowledge of what is good and what is evil.
In other words, to produce the knowledge, to manufacture the knowledge in your own mind of what is good and what is evil. That’s what human beings have been doing for six thousand years on this earth and we don’t know what is evil. We’ve been doing evil things without understanding it and without knowledge.
So finally: "The [Eternal] God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat and live forever [lest he do that now gain immortal life]: Therefore the [Eternal] God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken." (Genesis 3:22-23)
God sent him forth out of there so that he couldn’t get to that tree of life and shut off the Holy Spirit of God that would open his mind to spiritual things so he could solve his real problems in life.
"So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life." (Genesis 3:24)
Lest other people go back and receive the Holy Spirit and gain immortal life while they were still living a life of evil that is only bringing punishment and heartaches and human suffering on people. That’s the way we are now doing.
Adam Had a Choice (PLAY FROM 22:50)
Now Adam was given a choice between those two trees. One the tree of life - the other of going his own way and not the way of God. And the way of God is merely the way of give. I’ve been explaining that in recent programs. I explained it a great deal; I’ve been explaining it in full pages in the Wall Street Journal. And in many other ways, I explain it to kings and presidents and prime ministers of nations all around the world. And you know, strangely it begins to make sense to a lot of them and I hope it will make sense to you.
But God shut up the way of the tree of life lest man gain immortal life while he still was living the way that was going to bring unhappiness and pain and sorrow and suffering and anguish upon him. Everything but death. Now God was merciful in making death the penalty for going the wrong way. If you will not live a way that will make you happy, that will give you abundance and let you live abundantly and joyfully and happily, God isn’t going to let you continue to live very long. So we live about seventy years. I’ve lived a little longer than that now and hope God will continue to give me longer life. That’s one of the very great blessings of God is long life so that I can still talk to you as I am doing.
But He shut that off from humanity lest others go back and get that tree and live forever. Now Adam made that choice, my friends, not only for himself, but for his family. The human family and that human family has all come from Adam. That is today’s world, it has gone through the years and years up to today and today it is the world that has come through Adam and Eve. If you know your ancestors, I can tell you how far back your ancestry goes, it goes back to Adam and Eve every one of you. I know my ancestry and you can know yours to that extent.
Now Adam made the decision, God didn’t. Man had to make it and Adam made it for you and for me. And God simply made it binding for 6,000 years. Adam had a chance to restore the government of God on this earth. To restore the government of God, but he did not do it.
Now in the New Testament over here in John the sixth chapter and the forty-fourth verse. I want to show you what Jesus Christ said about 4,000 years later. Jesus said: "No man can come to me…" Now we find in the Bible and as those who preach about Christ will tell you that there is no way to God Almighty except through Christ. But Jesus said:
"No man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him; and I will raise him up at the last day." (John 6:44)
No man can come to Christ except God draw him. And so mankind has been cut off from the Holy Spirit of God until the Judgment Day. Now everyone is going to be held accountable for what he does, don’t misunderstand me. Everyone will be held accountable, but they are not being judged now. They’re not being saved now either. That means also they are not absolutely finally being lost now either. But they are going to be held accountable for what they do now when the Judgment Day comes and that’s something I’ll have to speak on in another program a little later.
I’m going to have to bring this to a close now. I see my time is about up. Oh I’d like to go on, I want to show you why Christ came. Things that you don’t ordinarily hear preached at all. I’ll have to do that at another time. That’ll be about a week from today on this same program, maybe on some stations it will be more often, but I want to leave something with you.
You were born for a purpose and most people don’t know that and they don’t know what that purpose is. They don’t know where they are going - they don’t know what is the real human potential. I have a wonderful book – a little booklet - let’s see it’s about, I forget just how many pages here. It’s thirty or forty pages; anyhow you can read it in one sitting. ‘Why Were You Born’? Why were you born - for what purpose? Where are you going and what is the way? Other booklets can follow, if you wish to ask for them. There’s no charge, I’ll send it to you gratis. We believe in the way of give not the way of get. I want to give it to you and there’s no follow up and we never ask the public for money. We’re not out to get - we're out to give.
‘Why Were You Born’? You need to know that. That’s knowledge you won’t get from any other source let me tell you, no other church no other source will give you that knowledge So until next time, good-bye friends.