In the beginning God said “Let us make man in our image and our likeness”. And God did. But the man was distracted by another. Man was tempted by the fruit of another tree of one who said “For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God”. It was Satan who offered godliness, meaning god-like-ness, in a different way. But godliness is the objective of the gospel and our time sojourning on earth.
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You see it was not a lie “that you would become as Gods” because God had already said “let Us make man in our likeness” and fulfilled when God sent man out of Eden. It was after eating the forbidden fruit that God saidĀ Ā āBehold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live foreverāāĀ 23Ā therefore theĀ LordĀ God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken.Ā The lie and deception was not that they would become as Gods but that to “become as Gods” was offered through another venue. Another source.
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And this is what the 2nd coming message does. It denies godliness through the knowledge of God, to become partakers of the divine nature by faith in the Christ of the cross in the here and now and ascribes the gift of godliness to another. The gift to become Gods children and being transfigured by reformatting their minds through the gospel is circumvented to become godly at a 2nd coming rapture or a futureĀ resurrection, but “flesh and blood does not inherit the Kingdom”. To be transfigured by that event, that is the lie. They ascribe saving power and transforming power for later and miss out on the “transformation from the Glory to the Glory as by the Spirit”.
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That which was from the beginning” as John the apostle referred to and not by an end time thing. You see the garden patterned for us our choices when we read scripture. And the forbidden fruit is godliness from another venue. A different offering for godliness. A physical one.
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Ā It is clear to see that the lie from the beginning is still active. And lucky for us we can choose to eat of the tree of life for theĀ divineĀ gift (Revelation 2.7, Gal 3.3, 1 John 5.4) by eating of the tree of the cross for “cursed is everyoneĀ who hangs from a tree? And Christ did just that for us. The tree of life is to eat of the fruit of the cross and become godly in that way and not another. Both of these messages use scripture. Which one isĀ palatableĀ to you? Are you the elect? Or are you deceived? Ā Flesh and blood or spirit? “For God is spirit and truth and seeketh such”. Ā Such are we.
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The Kingdom of God is at hand. It is working and operative just Ā as designed from the beginning.