What are people to do?

[Waterfall]

I think it is very strange that people have to wait forever to be resurrected.

Has this idea not a time limit? 1000 year? 10.000 year? 100.000 year? 1.000.000 year?

If there is no time limit then people could wait forever, right?

Would God not demand a time limit (or date) if someone were to say things like that?

When should people abandon this idea?

Lets say Satan tells Jesus that he will destroy him and Jesus respond by saying...very well...can you give me a date? When will you destroy me? Someday? Thats like forever and never? How long time should I wait for this destruction or should I say...when things do not happen then we know it was not true, so can you give me a date - 2040?

How can we tell truth from lie whitout a date?

Maybe it has nothing to do whit time...but something else.

When this happens, then...

But then we would ask about that...what has to happen? Will it happen when everybody is dead (God will raise mankind from the dead?)? Then there could go a very long time, so...

What are your thoughts about this idea?

[brianbbs67]

I have determined that Adam and Eve were a separate experiment from the rest of creation. There are at least 2 creations of people in Genesis. How did Cain obtain a wife? Or worry that others(mark of Cain) would kill him?

I understand your thinking but that is not how the story goes...there was no people before Adam and Eve. Not according to the story.

The story tells us this:

And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

Adam named his wife Eve [Life] because she became the mother of every living person.

But maybe Eve means women? Or mother? The women became mother...

There are the living and everyone else. So, the A and E may have occurred in a vacuum . And the rest at the same time , in the world. The non canonical Apocalypse of Peter seem to indicate most are filler in this world. Christ started the grafting to the tree of life of the others to replace the chosen who reject the Lord. God foretold it it the Ot.

I don't recall where i read this, but I read about something similar where it was claimed that Adam and Eve were the first to communicate or have a relationship with God. They were the only ones who had access to eternal life. The biblical narratives are concerned only with those in that same line of descent as well as only those who are in the line of ascent back to eternal life.

I'm on the road so no marked Tanakh in front of me. Let me check Gideon's in the room. I believe it's Jeremiah when God talks of a new covenant an different people.

[Waterfall]

I have determined that Adam and Eve were a separate experiment from the rest of creation. There are at least 2 creations of people in Genesis. How did Cain obtain a wife? Or worry that others(mark of Cain) would kill him?

I understand your thinking but that is not how the story goes...there was no people before Adam and Eve. Not according to the story.

The story tells us this:

And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.

Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.

Adam named his wife Eve [Life] because she became the mother of every living person.

But maybe Eve means women? Or mother? The women became mother...

There are the living and everyone else. So, the A and E may have occurred in a vacuum . And the rest at the same time , in the world. The non canonical Apocalypse of Peter seem to indicate most are filler in this world. Christ started the grafting to the tree of life of the others to replace the chosen who reject the Lord. God foretold it it the Ot.

I am not sure what you are saying...are you saying Adam and Eve was a special creation of humans? And that there was another (or many) special creation of humans at the same time? 6000 years ago? What about these people:

https://www.prb.org/howmanypeoplehaveeverlivedonearth/

[brianbbs67]

[Replying to post 82 by Waterfall]

It is only a theory. But, yes, it seems to me , today, that Adam and Eve were created at the same as the general population was. But, they were for a different purpose. What is that? IDK yet. It does not have to be a defined length of time as we know it. 6000 or 6 billion, I do not know. I lean closer to the 6000 but don't hold either as doctrine as the Lord never made this an issue for me.

[Waterfall]

[Replying to post 82 by Waterfall]

It is only a theory. But, yes, it seems to me , today, that Adam and Eve were created at the same as the general population was. But, they were for a different purpose. What is that? IDK yet. It does not have to be a defined length of time as we know it. 6000 or 6 billion, I do not know. I lean closer to the 6000 but don't hold either as doctrine as the Lord never made this an issue for me.

I have started another thread (after reading the story again) because now I cannot understand why people are talking about eating of the tree of life? Should the story not end with Adam and Eve leaving the garden of eden? What more is there to say? Does it matter if it were 6000 or 6 billion years ago? How can we build anything on that story?

I have pointed to this explanation:

Even the ancient myth of Adam and Eve has in it some truth, though couched in purely human form. During an earthly existence, one of the Youngest tried through this myth to convey an explanation of the origin of humanity. Adam and Eve thus symbolize the Elder and his female dual; the serpent symbolizes the alluring, attracting and binding power of Darkness; the apple on the branch of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil symbolizes the life-principle of Darkness, surrounded by and held fast by the Light. The serpent represents Darkness which tempted the woman to sin; the woman tempted the man to eat of the Tree to gain knowledge — to master, that is, the life-principle of Darkness. Removing the apple from the tree symbolizes the separation of Darkness and the Light. By their fall, Adam and Eve (the Eldest) were banished from the Garden of Eden (God’s Kingdom). Cain and Abel symbolize the various types of human beings who owe their existence to God’s fallen children. Cain’s murder of his brother symbolizes how sin and death came into the earthly world through the birth, or creation, of Cain and Abel (humanity).

It will not save the story, but it give the story some meaning.

[Monta]

[Replying to post 84 by Waterfall]


" Should the story not end with Adam and Eve leaving the garden of eden? What more is there to say? Does it matter if it were 6000 or 6 billion years ago? How can we build anything on that story? "

The ancient writings can not be taken literally but written by correspondences and representation.
To my Understanding Swedenborg has given us a key and here is his take on Adam and Eve: http://www.sacred-texts.com/swd/dpr/dpr08.htm (241)

"_The wisest of human beings, Adam and his wife, allowed themselves to be led astray by the serpent, and God in His divine providence did not avert this._ This is because by Adam and his wife the first human beings created in the world are not meant, but the people of the Most Ancient Church, whose new creation or regeneration is described thus: their creation anew or regeneration in Genesis 1 by the creation of heaven and earth; their wisdom and intelligence by the Garden of Eden; and the end of that church by their eating of the tree of knowledge. For the Word in its bosom is spiritual, containing arcana of divine wisdom, and in order to contain them has been composed throughout in correspondences and representations. It is plain then that the men of that church, who at first were the wisest of men but finally became the worst through pride in their own intelligence, were led astray not by a serpent but by self-love, meant in Genesis by "the serpent's head," which the Seed of the woman, namely, the Lord, was to trample."

[brianbbs67]

[Replying to post 82 by Waterfall]

It is only a theory. But, yes, it seems to me , today, that Adam and Eve were created at the same as the general population was. But, they were for a different purpose. What is that? IDK yet. It does not have to be a defined length of time as we know it. 6000 or 6 billion, I do not know. I lean closer to the 6000 but don't hold either as doctrine as the Lord never made this an issue for me.

I have started another thread (after reading the story again) because now I cannot understand why people are talking about eating of the tree of life? Should the story not end with Adam and Eve leaving the garden of eden? What more is there to say? Does it matter if it were 6000 or 6 billion years ago? How can we build anything on that story?

I have pointed to this explanation:

Even the ancient myth of Adam and Eve has in it some truth, though couched in purely human form. During an earthly existence, one of the Youngest tried through this myth to convey an explanation of the origin of humanity. Adam and Eve thus symbolize the Elder and his female dual; the serpent symbolizes the alluring, attracting and binding power of Darkness; the apple on the branch of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil symbolizes the life-principle of Darkness, surrounded by and held fast by the Light. The serpent represents Darkness which tempted the woman to sin; the woman tempted the man to eat of the Tree to gain knowledge — to master, that is, the life-principle of Darkness. Removing the apple from the tree symbolizes the separation of Darkness and the Light. By their fall, Adam and Eve (the Eldest) were banished from the Garden of Eden (God’s Kingdom). Cain and Abel symbolize the various types of human beings who owe their existence to God’s fallen children. Cain’s murder of his brother symbolizes how sin and death came into the earthly world through the birth, or creation, of Cain and Abel (humanity).

It will not save the story, but it give the story some meaning.

The tree of life

Gen. 3:22 And the Lord God said,"Now that man has become like one of us, knowing good and bad, what if he should stretch out his hand and take also from the tree of life and, and live forever!"

Many believe that Christ is the tree of life described there.