Thus the heavens and
the earth,
and all the hosts of
them, were finished.
And on the seventh
day God ended
His work that He had
done,
And rested on the
seventh day
from all His work
which God had
created and made.
Genesis 2:1–3
Two days a
week I spend two hours each day studying and assisting students in the Koine
Greek language that the Bible was written and the common language the
Israelites would know, and the lands which Alexander the Great, his generals
who followed him being precepts over sections of the Near Asian, Egyptian, and
much of Europe, Turkey, and Greece, would teach children and be used for
commerce and as the general language spoken. The one thing that is most
important in the study of the Bible is to allow the Bible to speak for itself
and not allow presuppositions to be proved by the Bible. Allow the Bible to
determine your presuppositions. We must allow the language of the Bible, even
when hard to understand, or interpret in our language to speak for itself, the
grammar, and the syntax. Unless you are of the belief that only man wrote the
Bible and only parts of it are words of God, those parts that someone has
decided based on their presuppositions, or theories, or ideologies, and do not
believe that God would preserve His word, then none of what I just wrote will
be of any importance to you. But….. if you are truly seeking the truth and
believe that God spoke inspirationally to certain men, in certain times, and
all that He spoke and had written was for us even today and not just for the
times men spoke or wrote, then continue to learn and allow God’s truth to build
and fortify your faith. If you are one that is confused about the subject of
the origin of the soul, and how man has original sin, and have followed a
belief that the soul is derived from parents as do the Traducianists but are
willing to allow God’s word to speak then read God’s word in prayer and allow
the Holy Spirit to enlighten you as you study His word. For instance, the
Traducianist believe that it is inconsistent with God for Him to continue
creation and use the opening verse as saying that God was done with creation
and rested from all which He had created and made (vs. 3). In other words, God
produces after the original creation mediately, that is through the operation
of second causes. This then makes God to work intermediately and not directly
in the affairs of this world even though some Traducianists believe that they
is a superintendence of Providence but as to divine efficiency, this they deny.
The opening
verses do state that God rested on the Seventh day from all that which He had
created and made, but, and this is important, it does not say that God, as a
Deist would admit, sat back and only through some Providence guided this world
without His divine efficiency. God rested from all that He had made and those
verses say nothing about future events. Those verses cannot be used to support
Traducianism. God is God: He is not controlled by the use of means, for He is
the author of means and allows means to exist and then in accordance with His
will to fulfill His purpose for creation, Providentially guides those means,
those second causes to work within His will. God does not make us one of His
robots, we are the authors of second causes, and we produce that which is done
in this world, whether good or bad. We are the recipients of the consequences
of our authorship in causing second causes. This does not mean that God sits
back and does nothing, rather it is by God who allows those second causes to be
formed and then by His guiding hand works those second causes for the good of
His children. But, we have yet one question that must be answered: Life! Where
does life originate? Is it by second causes? Man may produce progeny and by
that production there is life but that does not answer the question: From where
does life come? How is life produced?
Is it simply chemical reactions that make life? If so then we still have not
answered the question for all we did was to put life as a result of chemicals
and their association with each other but the question remains: How did life
begin? In other words the answer is more than simplicity for the physical world
can do certain things, but it cannot produce life for life is more than a
combination of chemicals. Life is immaterial! Where did the power for life
come? The only answer that has merit is that life comes directly from God. This
then is exactly what the Scriptures teach thereby God then has not rested from
producing life, rather God has rested from producing physical elements. God is
continually creating therefore there must be a plan, a fixed plan whereby God
by the use of His creative energy creates life with all its attributes and this
by His purpose and then under His operation of Providential care is guided by His
Providence. Man can produce progeny by physical means; God produces life and
there is in this no derogatory element in regards to His divine character. God
producing life continually creating life, then God is the creator of the soul
and God is the originator of the soul, therefore the soul is not numerically
divided, and as the Traducianist teaches that parents are the producers of the
soul. I one is a Traducianist then he has banished God from this world and then
this makes cause that God causes miracles, or that by such a theory God
sanctions every act with which his creative power is said to be connected, this
is not even plausible for God is Holy and is not the author of sin.
I will
continue this conclusion as to the origin of the soul and then continue to
address the doctrine of original sin. What we must do is to pray, read, think,
and use what God has given us, our brain, that is, to use those faculties which
is God given and this is to mean this: Allow Scripture to interpret Scripture,
and use your brain to see what the Scriptures are saying and not what you may
want them to say. You will be blessed, and your faith in God, His Son, and the
power of the Holy Spirit that is given to all of His children will not only be
realized, but you will be used to further the gospel.
The LORD is in His holy temple,
The LORD’s
throne is in heaven;
His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men,
The LORD
tests the righteous,
But the wicked and the one who loves violence
His soul
hates.
Psalm
11:4–5
Put your trust in God
Richard L. Crumb
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