God is one: the plurality of His Spirit. There are different means through which He has chosen to manifest Himself to the world. When God created man from the earth, he breathed his spirit into his nostrils, and man became a living soul. And God called his name Adam and placed him in the garden he had prepared for him to dress and maintain. And God created a helpmate for Adam, whom he named Eve, meaning “the mother of all living.”

The one commandment given to the man and his wife—not to take the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil—was broken. When they broke the commandment, Adam and his wife did not need to be told they were naked; they realized it and became afraid. Therefore, they hid themselves among trees in the garden.

Likewise, when Cain slew Abel, his brother, he knew he had done evil. When the Lord inquired about his brother’s whereabouts, he replied, “I know not. Am I my brother’s keeper?” Cain did not need to be told he had transgressed; he knew, and therefore, he lied, attempting to hide his sin. This was before the law was given.

When God breathed the breath of life into the man he made, he placed in him a part of himself—a conscience, which became awakened to the knowledge of good and evil through sin. Man only became conscious of sin after transgression. It was then that their eyes were opened to their guilt—the transgression of the law written in the conscience. There was no written law after the entrance of sin, and mankind was subject to his conscience until the law was given to Moses.

As the hearts of men became harder by habitual sin, the spirit of man prevailed over the conscience, killing it. Becoming increasingly detached from God, mankind eventually reached the point of being irredeemable. Therefore, God determined that he would destroy all of humanity from off the face of the earth. However, Noah found grace and was spared along with his other seven family members.

After the flood, men began again to multiply and repopulate the earth. United as one people with one mind, they cast off God and determined to establish an earthly kingdom. In His anger, the Lord confounded their language and scattered them around the world. Humanity was divided and became many nations, languages, and kindreds—they made their own gods and walked in their own ways.

Like Noah, Avram also found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and God separated him from his people to be His and fulfill His purpose. Because Abvram believed God—even to the point that he was willing to sacrifice his own son Isaac—an everlasting covenant was given to him, and he was called the friend of God. He was given the promise of becoming a father of many nations and to bring forth a holy people unto God.

God changed his name from Avram (exalted father) to Abraham (father of a multitude), placing a part of His name, Yah (Hebrew: יָהּ, Yāh), in Avram’s name.

Thus, Abraham became the father of the covenant of faith and was given circumcision as a seal. This began a new age—the first age being two millennial days (2000 years), beginning with Adam—during which a man was subject to his conscience.

Abraham began the second age 2000 years from Adam—righteousness was imputed by faith unto obedience to the Lord. The period from Abraham until Messiah lasted about 2000 years at the close of the fourth millennial day (4000 years). There remained two millennia to fulfill the six days of work (6000 years) foreshadowed in Genesis, after which the millennial Sabbath begins.

There is a pattern whereby sin enters the world through disbelief and judgment, but there is also a path to redemption through sacrifice. The Lord made the first sacrifice when he shed the blood of animals to clothe Adam; He would also make the last sacrifice with his own body and blood.

When the path of redemption is no longer obeyed, judgment is imposed—in some cases it is without remedy—for the spirit of the Lord will not always strive with man.

After Jacob went into Egypt, there the children of Israel strayed from the Lord and began worshiping the Egyptian gods. They were placed under bondage for their sins.

Four hundred years later, God raised Moses and delivered them out of Egypt, and the written law was given to Israel in the wilderness. Conscience alone had proven too weak to produce obedience and was ineffective in achieving righteousness. Nevertheless, the grace of God did not fail; he implemented a stronger means to free humanity from the yoke of sin by reinforcing the conscience with the written law. 

Moses was chosen as an intermediary to receive the law directly from God to strengthen the conscience and make it stronger. And he commanded the Children of Israel to write down laws, keep them always before their eyes, and teach them to their children.

Thus, by writing down the law along with its penalties, sin became even more pronounced, aiming to have a greater effect on the hardness of men’s hearts and to awaken their conscience. In time, the written law was habitually broken, and sacrifices became merely routine, leading to hearts becoming hardened to it as well. After being miraculously delivered out of Egypt, given the law in writing, and placed in their own land, the people of Israel again forsook the Lord and turned to the idols of the other nations around them that they had failed to drive out.

Conscience alone failed to bring about righteousness, and the written law, which followed afterward to convict the conscience, also failed to bring forth obedience.

Humanity again faced judgment, and in his wrath, God destroyed many great kings and nations. Eventually, God destroyed even his own people, carried them captive out of their land, and scattered them among the nations.

By the foreknowledge of God, He made provision for salvation beyond the conscience and the law, and having found David a man after his own heart, He promised him that through his seed He would send a Savior who would dwell within his people and deliver them from their sins. He shall reign in righteousness forever and ever.

Continued: Part 2: