Bible Studies

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The Doctrine of Stewardship - Part 5
Our Stewardship of The Physical Body 

As long as we  indwell  our natural bodies there is no  getting away from the realities of the impact that our physical bodies have on our experience here on Earth. Since virtually every good deed or sin involves one part of another of our physical body, our stewardship of the body is a fundamental part of discipleship.

We can choose to listen to the voice of the fallen nature within us that is inherently hostile towards God and the things of God. We can choose to listen to what Man-made religion has to say. We can chose to listen to what human viewpoint has to say. We can listen to what the ever-changing body of secular science has to say. Or, we can choose to listen and apply what God's 0wner’s Manuel (The Bible) has to say about the physical body that He chose to place us in at birth.

Our biological parents may or may not have had a baby in mind when what would become our body was conceived. But God, being the One that creates the soul and places it in the body of His choosing at birth. God does so with full knowledge of the impact that that the specific body will have on the individual's experience here on Earth.
 
Such things as the race, gender, familial, period of history, geographic location, political environment, socio-economic factors, and physical assets and handicaps, are all a part of the plan that God has in mind for individual. Any changes, if any, will be made by God through the means that He will provide.

Prior to the Fall of Man, the human bodies of Adam and the woman, later named Eve, had the potential of living on indefinitely with the help of the fruit of the tree of life (Gen. 3: 22). It might appear to some that Man being denied access (Gen 3: 24) to this tree of life was an act of punishment, when in fact it was an act of mercy. Allowing access to continue would indefinitely bind the members of the human race to life here in what, once again, had become the devil’s kingdom (Luke 4: 6).

With  few exceptions (e.g. 1Thess. 4: 17) physical death is the means through which we all pass into Eternity. This is why the moment (not the process) of physical death for a born again is precious in the eyes of the Lord (Psalms 116: 15). 

The type of death that the Lord Jesus Christ released  believers from was spiritual death. Just think of how much time and effort many of us put into trying to stay or at least look young. In truth we are always younger that we are going to tomorrow and older than we were yesterday. As long as we think we can maintain our health and wealth, we can easily brush aside thoughts of growing old and our inevitable departure (Rev. 3: 17). The truth is that our departure can take at ANY time along the road to what we think of as life expectancy.

Our departure may have nothing to do with our general health at the time. Being denied access to the tree (source) of never-ending physical life, God made it clear to Adam and the woman (and us) that our individual days here on Earth are numbered (Psalms 90: 12), regardless of how relatively long or brief our individual experience may turn out to be. It is the inevitability of our departure with the judgement (Rev. 20: 15) of unbelievers and the evaluation (1Cor. 3: 12-15) of believers that keeps the wise (Psalms 14: 1) among us focused on eternity.

As of the Fall, each individual soul has an appointed (Hebrews 9: 27) time (Psalms 31: 15) to depart the body and enter into eternity future.

In the meantime, the physical body is the dwelling place of the soul throughout the appointed period of time that each individual soul has been given to participate in the human experience here on planet Earth, according to plan that God has in mind.

With that being said, let's begin this part of our study of stewardship by taking a look at what the Bible has to say concerning the timing and physical origins of the natural body of human beings.

The two human bodies were NOT born, but both would later die. Adam's male body was created by God from the dust of the Earth. Eve's female body was created from Adam's rib. The human bodies of all the generations of Man are reproduced through the means that God provided for that purpose. This follows the same pattern that God established when He created Man.

First God produced the body and THEN the body received it’s first breath of natural life and became (received) a soul. The one exception, being the body of the Lord Jesus Christ. What would become His body was conceived by Mary through supernatural means. This was necessary in order to circumvent the passing down of the sin nature had Joseph been involved. This would have failed to produce the spotless Lamb of God in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

How so?

The sin nature is passed down through the male (1Cor. 15: 22) partner at conception (Psalms 51: 5). After the birth of Christ, Joseph and Mary later had four sons and at least two daughters (Mark 6: 3), all of whom, like their parents (Mary and Joseph) had the sin nature passed down to them via their biological fathers at conception.

Mary, herself had a sin nature passed down to her humanity her biological father. She referred to God  as her personal (my) SAVIOR (Luke 1: 47). The sin nature is not passed down via the mother.

Jesus' humanity (body) wasdwas in the usual fashion. The angel Gabriel announced that God the Son (the Lord Jesus Christ) came into the world when Mary gave birth to in Bethlehem; not 9 month earlier when she conceived in Nazareth.

The physical body is the dwelling place of the soul that God creates during each individual's appointed time, here on Earth. The physical body is biologically reproduced by humans (John 3: 6a) by the means that God provides. At birth, the body that comes forth to become the dwelling place of the soul that God creates (John 3: 6b) and places in the body of His choosing.
 
After the Gen. 3: 24 incident, human bodies were destined to die and to return to dust. The soul, created in God's likeness, is destined to continue to live on throughout all of eternity. The question is not if, but where and how each soul will experience eternity after departing the body at the moment of physical death. 
 
Heaven will not be same experience for everyone (1Cor. 3: 15)! Not everyone (Matt. 7: 13, 14/Rev. 20: 15) is going to be there! Such things are determined by the choices (John 3: 18/Matt. 16: 24)we make while here in our physical bodies during our time here on Earth.

Before God created the human race, He created what we now know as the physical universe. Of all the places within the physical universe, planet Earth was destined to become the location where much of the conflict between the spiritual forces of good and evil would be resolved.
 
Contrary to what many have been misled to believe, it did NOT take God six days to “create” the Earth spoken of in Gen. 1: 1. Planet Earth, in its c-r-e-a-t-e-d form, was produced i-n-s-t-a-n-t-a-n-e-o-u-s-l-y by the spoken word of God (Psalms 33:90/Gen. 1: 1).

At some point in eternity past, before the Creation of Man (Jer. 4:23), the Earth referenced in Genesis 1:1 that was created by God became inhabited by fallen angelic beings who at that time were engaged in a rebellion in an attempt to establish a kingdom independent of God. This angelic rebellion was led by Satan (Isa. 13: 14). God put an end to this rebellion. As a result, the surface of the Earth, it’s land based natural creatures living at the time, and the angelic cities that were on it, were destroyed by God (Jer. 4:26).

This resulted in the atmosphere around earth to become dark and its surface void of any type of structure. It is interesting to note that fossil evidence and scientific theory relating to the environment at the onset of what secular science refers to as the Ice Age support the Biblical account of this detestation.

Scripture does not reveal how much time passed from the instant that God created the Earth to the devastation of its surface. Secular science has come up with numerous and conflicting theories on what God, at least so far, has chosen not to be revealed or discovered by Man.
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ARE secrets (Duet. 29: 29) that God chooses to withhold from Man in order to require and generate an act of faith (Heb. 11: 6). It is by divine design that the existence of God will never be proved or disproved by secular science. Many notable scientists who have tried to disprove the existence of God have become persons of faith in the process. Others, while not conceding the existence of God, have acknowledged what they refer to as a great organized power and intelligence behind the creation and sustaining of the established order of the physical universe.

The usual response that the scientific community offers when they ARE proven wrong is that they justified their (ever changing) positions on the known facts at the time. Unlike most religious authority, at least secular scientist are willing to concede their error and make the necessary changes. 

The six  “day” period of time referenced in Gen. 1: 2-31), followed by a “day” of rest (Gen. 2: 2), does NOT refer to the “c-r-e-a-t-i-o-n” of the earth, but to its “r-e-s-t-o-r-a-t-i-o-n,” setting the stage for the next phase of the conflict and the next participant (the human race).

The human soul, the first of which that was about to be created (Gen. 2: 7), has everlasting life, as do the angels that preceded them in God's timeline of created beings. Everlasting life is NOT the same as eternal life. Everlasting life is a characteristic of Man that was created in God’s likeness. Every soul has everlasting (never-ending) life, but only the souls that have been born again have received eternal life. One must have eternal life to live with God.

Many angels throughout the course of angelic history have been incarcerated in one of several compartments in Hades until their appointed time of judgement (e.g. Jude 1: 6) takes place. Departed human souls that chose to reject God’s one and only means of salvation (John 14: 6) are in another compartment (Torments) of Hades, where they will remain until the Rev. 20: 13, 15 takes place. Contrary to what some “religions” would have us believe, departed souls of unbelievers can not be prayed out of or otherwise released from the Torments section of Hades, circumventing the Rev. 20: 13, 15 event.

The devil, some of the fallen angels, and evil spiritual beings (Eph. 6: 12) were/are allowed (by God) to continue to engage in spiritual warfare AFTER the new participant (Man) in the ongoing conflict was created.

God sets the limits as to how far these forces of evil can go (Job 1: 12/Job 2: 6 ). In some cases divine discipline (1Cor. 11: 30/Acts 5) and diabolical power (Luke 13: 16) can impact the physical body. God (Judges 16: 28) and evil beings (Mark 5: 4) can provide super-human strength to be manifested through a human body. To the extent that God allows (e.g. Job 1/Job 2), the devil and his Eph. 6: 12 forces of evil are permitted to engage in spiritual combat with the members of the human race. In most cases, it does not involve the type of drama in some of the Biblical accounts, or in the activity displayed in horror films.

Most of spiritual combat initiates between the eyes of the human body and carried out by the eyes, ears, tongue, hands and feet and sexual organs. God, and the plan of God has a divine purpose for each one of these bodily parts. And so does the devil. The devil and/or his spokespersons accomplish their objectives by attacking some and by offering earthly prosperity to others (at a price). He promoted the production of human good, so long as God is left out of the picture.

ThiscThis an ongoing environment in which Man has REAL choices to make, with inevitable blessings or consequences hanging in the balance. The free will given to Man gives us the freedom of WHAT to choose, but not the freedom from having to make choices! 

These daily choices include what we are going to let into our souls by what our eyes will see; what our ears will hear; what our tongues will say; what our hands will touch; and where our feet will go.

In doing so, we promote the plan of God or the plan of others. These “others” can be ourselves, other people, other things, or the devil. The throne (ultimate authority) of God is not a two-seater. We can not serve two masters in body, soul, or mind.

To be continued…

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