[continued from previous message]   
      
   preached with great fervor everywhere on Earth. This is our one and   
   only chance to be able to dwell with God forever. We pass this way but   
   once and each spirit bearing soul gets only one chance. There is no   
   reincarnation. We must not rob ourselves or future generations of this   
   sole opportunity for salvation. Once Adam failed, only the new Adam   
   (Jesus Christ) could salvage the situation for us. He is the Way, the   
   Truth and the Life. He who has Christ has eternal life and this life is   
   in God's only begotten Son.   
   I have presented this theory, not as an absolute truth, but as an   
   attempt to bridge the difference between fact and faith. Many people   
   choose to ignore the physical facts around us or to twist them to agree   
   with their particular interpretation of God's Word. Likewise too many   
   people ignore the Scriptures in a vain attempt to arrive at the facts.   
   God does not lie nor do the facts lie, and ultimately they are saying   
   the same thing. (So why are you folks grabbing me, not the stake. Oh   
   well, let the flames begin. (Arrrgh!!!)   
      
      
   Thoughtfully yours in Christ Jesus,   
   Dick Franing   
      
      
      
      
      
      
   A SHORT TREATISE ON ORIGINAL SIN   
      
      
   The Lord God took man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it   
   and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "You may   
   freely eat of every tree of the garden; but of the tree of the   
   knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you   
   eat of it you shall die."   
   But the serpent said to the woman, "You will not die. For God knows   
   that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like   
   God, knowing good and evil."  .....she took of its fruit and ate; and   
   she also gave some to her husband, and he ate. Then the eyes of both   
   were opened, and they knew that they were naked. .....   
   Then the Lord God said, "Behold the man has become like one of us,   
   knowing good and evil; and now lest he put forth his hand and take also   
   of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever"---therefore the Lord   
   God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from   
   which he was taken. He drove out the man: and at the east of the garden   
   of Eden he placed the cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every   
   way, to guard the way to the tree of life.   
   (excerpts from the Book of Genesis, Chapters 2 and 3)   
      
      
   How often has man pondered these words throughout the ensuing   
   centuries and speculated as to their exact meaning. Some say that it   
   was an actual fruit such as an apple, some look at it as being an   
   abstract historical event, some think of it as a crisis of the spirit   
   that man experienced, while others think that these verses represent a   
   supernatural experience that Adam and Eve had. Some people think that   
   it represents some form or type of superior knowledge. Still others   
   think of it as a mythical story told to explain how sin began. None of   
   these concepts are comprehensive enough to adequately explain the true   
   nature of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.   
   I fear that I now know the meaning of these verses. The tree of this   
   knowledge lies deep within the soul of man. It is what the Christian   
   teacher Watchman Nee refers to as "the latent power of the soul". So   
   what is this latent power that lies hidden deep within the inner   
   recesses of man's soul? I believe that it is a type of angelic power,   
   which might be better thought of as Adamic power.   
   Man is a sub-angelic being who is endowed with a certain degree of   
   latent angelic capability. Man is not an angel, but man may be   
   distantly related to the angels in some manner. Under certain   
   circumstances, the latent angelic capability of a relatively few number   
   of people can become momentarily activated for short periods of time.   
   Probably at least 99% of the human race never experiences any of this   
   activation and thus are totally oblivious to the existence of the   
   latent angelic capability within themselves.   
   Activation of this capability primarily occurs during spiritual   
   dreams while asleep. The person begins a troubled dream while in a deep   
   sleep, then slips into a state of spiritual dreaming through which the   
   person can temporarily enter into the angelic mode. While in this   
   temporary angelic mode, the person is able to direct the course of   
   future events, depending what the subject of spiritual dream is. If the   
   person exercises his angelic powers in concert with the direction of   
   the Holy Spirit of God, the results will be good and beneficial. If the   
   person exercises his angelic powers in a unilateral manner, then the   
   results will inevitably be evil. The person acting in a unilateral way   
   is trying to play God by usurping God's authority in total disregard to   
   God's will. This is the reason why Adam and Eve fell in the garden. As   
   a result, they were stripped of their innocence and left naked before   
   the Lord. It appears that the ability to be activated runs in certain   
   families. It may also be that this ability may skip generations within   
   a family, as well as individuals within an active generation. My   
   father's mother was an angelically active person, but my father never   
   experienced activation as I have.   
   In honesty, I must admit that I have exercised this angelic power   
   both ways in the past, for the good of mankind when exercised in   
   concert with the Holy Spirit and to the detriment of man when I   
   exercised it unilaterally. This was largely done in ignorance before I   
   realized what the exact nature of this power was and how capricious   
   this Adamic power can be. It has a Jekyll and Hyde quality about it and   
   must be exercised with extreme caution and then only under the guidance   
   of the Holy Spirit. Adam was warned about this danger, but he chose to   
   disregard God's warning. When God told Adam not to eat of that tree, He   
   was telling him not to exercise his angelic capability because it would   
   cause him fail the test and all future mankind with him. After man's   
   fall in the Garden, this capability became latent. Because Adam sinned,   
   he was not permitted to eat of the tree of life. The way of the tree of   
   life would have to be personified in the Way, the Truth and the Life in   
   order for man to have that opportunity again to gain eternal life and   
   that life is in God's only begotten son, our Lord and Savior Jesus   
   Christ.   
   My experience with this phenomenon is that it begins in earnest   
   during the early teen years, reaches its peak about 30-35 years of age   
   and then slowly declines until it reaches a point of near cessation   
   during one's lower fifties. The time of greatest power during a   
   person's early thirties is also the time of greatest danger because it   
   when the greatest extremes of good and evil are possible. Momentary   
   angelity can a potent stealth weapon if used unwisely. Following   
   one's spiritual instincts can indeed be dangerous, thus the person   
   must stay close to God and be clothed in His righteousness. The old   
   testament and book of Acts states that the young men shall see visions   
   and the old men shall dream dreams. In those days, an old man could be   
   any man past the age of thirty because life expectancy was not very   
   long in those days. I have experienced these visions and dreams in the   
   past. The visions are basically learning experiences while the dreams   
   are basically doing experiences.   
   Adam lost any chance to gain access to the tree of life in the garden   
   when he disobeyed God, thereby losing the opportunity for eternal life   
   with God in heaven. As children of Adam, we also share that lost   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)