Page 154 - THE REVELATION OF THE THIRD HEAVEN and THE MEAT OF THE WORD

‘dominion’ over the other life-forms on the respective planet of origin (Gen 1:1,
26, 27). It is this ‘dominion’ that represents the ‘image’ of God, as God has
ultimate dominion and Man reflects this attribute (Gen 1:26-7). God’s dominion is
visible and total and expressed via His Creation and thus Man’s (and Caesar’s)
dominion is the reflection of this attribute and hence called an ‘image’ (Gen 1:26-
7, Matt 22:20-21, Mark 12:16-17, Luke 20:24-25, Rom 1:18-20). God being a
Spirit is not normally visible (Col 1:15). Spirit is not visible and cannot therefore
be an image (Luke 24:39). Man is only an image before God due to his
impermanence (Job 14:2, Psalm 73:20) which restricts the dominion (Eccl 3:19).
This will only be initially overcome by Appropriation -see Chapter 2-(Rom 8:19),
followed by the first resurrection (Rev 20:5) and finally by the second Resurrection
(Rev 21:3). Christ, who is God, has the likeness of God by having dominion and is
therefore the image of God (1 Cor 15:25, 27, 2 Cor 4:4, Eph 1:22) whereas Man is
in the image of God (Gen 1:26). In Psalm 8:5-6 transference occurs between Man,
the partial dominator and Christ the complete dominator and this occurs after the
word ‘angels’ in verse 5. This emphasises the link afforded by Christ between
partial and complete appropriation and of the destiny that Man has, with and by
Christ, to be in the full dominion that is covered in verses 7 and 8 of Psalm 8 (Gen
1:26, Psalm 8:7-8, Rom 8:17, Rev 20:6). Only Christ is in dominion over all
things (Psalm 8:6) but even that, by a mystery, he shares with us via the Church
and the status of the Church as His body (Rom 8:17, Eph 1:21-23). There is a
connection between body, form and dominion and hence image (Eph 1:23).

Adam, the parable, was only an image before eating the forbidden fruit as he was
only eternally alive conditionally (Gen 2:17) and was subject to sin, a sinner (Gen
6:5, Romans 1:19-21), and would sin despite an initially blessed environment
protected from the struggle for the survival of the fittest (Gen 1:29), which allowed
Adam/Eve, under no pressure, an especially free choice (Rom 8:20) to obey the
Law presented as easily as possible (Gen 2:17). His basic spirit was a sinner from
the beginning as was the case with the evolved men (Rom 1:20). The Law as the
attempted justification of the flesh by the works of the flesh (Rom 3:20, Heb 7:16)
is the forbidden fruit (Gen 2:17, Rom 7:7) and thereafter the opposite of the
freedom to eat in Genesis 1:29-30, with many restrictions appropriated by Man.

The existence of at least one other form of both Earth and Man, other than our
own, is attested to by reference to heavens plural (1 Chron 16:26, Neh 9:6, Psalm
33:6, 148:4, Jeremiah 4:23) which means that Man looks up to at least 2 heavens
from their respective Earths of which there are at least two (Neh 9:6, John 3:16,
Hebrews 1:2). Earth is a generic category meaning any planet capable of