Topical Studies
God as Family
(From Forerunner Commentary)
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Genesis 1:26-27 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
In God's pattern for all life, like reproduces like. And just as each created form of plant or animal reproduces after its own kind, so man reproduces man. But unlike any of the animals created by God, man was created in God's likeness. These scriptures refute the theory that man is merely the "highest" of the animals, having "evolved" from lower mammals. They clearly state that God created man after His own "image" and "likeness"! God made man like Himself—same form and shape. And He is now creating men after His kind! Only a very few have really grasped the tremendous significance of this astounding truth, but this is what salvation is all about. This revelation affirms that God is reproducing Himself. Our destiny is to become the literal "children" of God—members of His own divine Family! There is a vast difference between spirit and dust. Although man was created in the very shape and likeness of God, he was not created out of the same material (Genesis 2:7; John 4:24) but of the dust of the earth, subject to decay. But God's purpose is to eventually create him out of spirit! In I Corinthians 15:46 we read: "Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man [Adam] is of the earth, earthy: the second man [Christ] is the Lord from heaven. . . . And as we [speaking of converted Christians] have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" (verses 46-49). Clearly, man is much more than any animal. Man has the potential to become divine spirit—just as GOD is spirit!
What It Means to Be Born Again
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Exodus 20:12 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
God wants us to honor our parents because the family is the basic building block of His Kingdom. God describes the Kingdom in family terms. He is the Father, Jesus is the Son, and the church is the Son's bride. We are called sons, daughters, and children of the Kingdom. We are created and being created as sons in His image. God also uses terms like "beget," "born," and "grow up." Immediately after creating Adam and Eve and announcing He was creating them in His image (Genesis 1:26), God established the first institution: the family through marriage. The conclusion is inescapable. The family would play a major role in creating man in God's image. Regarding marriage, family, and divorce, Malachi 2:15 says: But did He not make them one, having a remnant of the Spirit? And why one? He seeks godly offspring! Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously with the wife of his youth. The godly principles learned and the character built within the human family are, upon conversion, transferable into the spiritual family relationship in the Kingdom of God. Parents are His representatives, and we honor and revere the creative majesty and power of God when we keep this commandment. God expects whatever we learned from honoring our parents to transfer into our relationship with Him.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The First Commandment (1997)
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Matthew 1:18-21 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
"Ghost" in this passage, as elsewhere, is an unfortunate translation in the King James Version. It should rather be rendered "Spirit," as it is in most other translations of the Bible. Before Christ (the Logos) was conceived in Mary, He was not the "Son of God." He was one of the two original members of the God Kingdom. He, like the one who became the "Father," had existed eternally. But He is nowhere in God's Word referred to as a Son of God prior to His conception in Mary. His human birth was His first birth. He gave up the glory He had shared with the other divine Being, who became His "Father," in order to be born into the world as a human being, live a perfect life, and then give His life to pay the penalty of all the sins of mankind. Thus, Jesus was begotten within His human mother Mary. But unlike all other men, He was miraculously begotten by the One who became the Father, through the agency and power of the Spirit of God (Matthew 1:20; John 1:14—here is further proof the Spirit of God is not another person). Christ thus became the "Son" of God, and He called the other person of the God Kingdom His "Father." And so began the "Father-Son" relationship, which is a family relationship!
What It Means to Be Born Again
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John 3:5-6 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
The Kingdom of God is something that can be entered into. But only those who are "born again" can enter into it. We who are born of the flesh are flesh—just mortal flesh and blood. We were born that way. But it is possible for us to be born again—this time not as a mortal, flesh-and-blood baby, but born of the very Spirit of God. Then we shall be spirit—wholly composed of spirit as God is (John 4:24)! God is not a single Personage. The Hebrew word for God, elohim, denotes more than one person. It shows God is a single Family, or "Kingdom," but composed of more than one person. We have the mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom, and the animal kingdom. The Bible reveals an angel kingdom, created by God and composed of spirit. And then, high above all is the very creating kingdom—the God Kingdom. In other words, the "Kingdom of God"! God the Father and Christ the Son presently compose the Kingdom or Family of God. The astounding truth of the Bible is that God is reproducing Himself! God created mortal man in God's own image so that we may become impregnated—begotten—by the Spirit of God. Then, by a resurrection (I Corinthians 15:50), we may be born of God—"born again"—as immortal, spirit-composed persons in the Kingdom or Family of God!
What Is the True Gospel?
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John 5:19-23 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Jesus would have had to have been with the Father to see the Father do these things. He even asserts Himself as having the powers that go with the Godhead: to raise the dead. In verses 22-23, Christ is clearly asserting and affirming to those people that He is one of the Godhead. One is called the Father. The other is called the Son. The plural Elohim is simple to understand within this instance.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Nature of God: Elohim
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John 14:23 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Here Jesus shows the relationship of the Father and the Son with one who loves Them and is obedient to Them. They are all part of the same home! They have a warm and loving family relationship.
John W. Ritenbaugh
All in All
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1 Corinthians 15:49 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Are we sons of Adam? Why do we have this image? Why are we like him? Because we are his offspring! We have been born into this earth, the offspring of Adam, as Acts 17 clearly proves;. One day, we will be born again—this time as a born son of God—and we will bear the image of our Father. We will be just like Him (I John 3:2), even as we are now just like Adam was. We will be God! Incidentally, the word image means "that which corresponds to and reproduces the original." No image—whether it is a reproduction in a flat mirror, a three-dimensional hologram, or a living child of a parent—is an exact replica or image, because each person has his own peculiarities. That is so evident and logical that everybody should be able to understand that nobody can be God exactly as God is God, because each person is an individual personality. We will be a reproduction of Him, but we will be unique—because we are who we are, and He is who He is. He has His life and His history, and we have ours. However, we will still be God. We will be just as much "God" as a baby in the human family is a "human" like its parents.
John W. Ritenbaugh
The Covenants, Grace and Law (Part 1)
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Ephesians 3:14-15 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Already a Family exists in heaven—not the angelic family but the Family in which we are sons and daughters. We are the part of that heavenly Family but still on the earth.
John W. Ritenbaugh
God Is . . . What?
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Colossians 1:15 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
Some have said that firstborn here means "preeminent." Undoubtedly it can be used as such, but its more natural meaning is "the first to open the womb." Creation (ktisis) "denotes a particular created thing" (Spiros Zodhiates, The Complete Word Study Dictionary New Testament, p. 897), meaning in this case, "humans" or "humanity." This phrase, then, could be translated: "the first born of humanity." But was not Adam (or more technically, Cain) the firstborn of humanity? This does not seem to fit Jesus Christ. He was the firstborn of Mary, but He came four thousand years after Adam and Cain! What does Paul mean here? He is not discussing preeminence, especially when he links it to "the image of the invisible God." Man was created in the image of God (Genesis 1:26). Paul is writing about humanity being born into the Family of God! Jesus Christ is indeed first! He is the first of all humanity to be born as God. Three verses later he writes, "He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead" (Colossians 1:18). It is so obvious! He is writing about a resurrection, a birth from physical to spiritual, from humanity to God!
John W. Ritenbaugh
You Must Be Born Again!
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Hebrews 2:10 (Go to this verse :: Verse pop-up)
God plainly shows it is His purpose to increase His divine Family by bringing many sons into it. Jesus Christ is actually the "firstborn" of many sons of God (Romans 8:29; Colossians 1:18). The gospel Jesus brought to mankind is simply the "good news" of the Kingdom of God—and that Kingdom is dual. It is not only the ruling government which Christ will establish on the earth when He returns, but it is also the Family of God—the God Kingdom composed of the spirit members of the God Family. And, incredible as it may sound, Jesus taught that humans can be "born" into the Family, or Kingdom, of God. There are only two members in the God Family or Kingdom at the present time—God the Father and Jesus Christ the Son. But God is increasing His Family, and you can be "born" into it!
What It Means to Be Born Again
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