CONTINUATION - Witchcraft... ON THIS PAGE:

· Animals have souls but lack ‘animal spirits’

· Can animals understand human language?

· What happened in Eden, were animals capable of human speech?

· Balaam’s talking donkey

· To neglect and abuse animals is witchcraft against God

· Did God recreate or Make Changes to His Creation After the fall?

The Innocent Animal is Never at Fault

There is no such thing as an “evil” bird, animal, or anything else, (except fallen humanity,) which God created so “very good!” To demonize animals is totally based on witchcraft and superstition. If animals seem “ugly,” it is because God created them that way for a specific reason, and if they “do wrong,” they were either hunted, hurt, or taught by humans to be that way. If animals clash with human interests, it is always because humans have invaded their territory and they are fighting for survival. It is interesting to note that animals do not naturally attack humans or prey on them. Similarly, animals that were not subject to sexual abuse, isolation, or loneliness, will never try to mate with humans, because God commanded both humans and animals to reproduce according to their own kind. I believe God placed His ‘knowing laws’ into the minds of animals, not to view humans as prey or a way of procreation. Every time an animal attacks or molests a human being, the fault always lies with humanity; either in disrespect for the animal’s life and survival, or because of prior abusive behavior towards it! Each time a wild or domesticated animal retaliates, it happens through human encroachment on their shrinking habitat, human interference with the order of the natural world, and the misunderstanding, neglect, maltreatment, incarceration, cruelty, and the sexual molestation of God’s creation.

Animals Have Souls But Lack ‘Animal’ Spirits, (1 Cor. 15:38-49)

God connects the blood of everything on earth that moves, creeps, flies, and swims to its life force, soul, or mind, where the free will, intellect, and emotions of humans and animals are seated. However, God did not create animals as tri-part beings like humanity, (1 Ths. 5:23; Jn. 4:21-24.) Humans were created “in the image of God” because they have human souls or minds just like the animals have, but humans also possess personal human spirits, (the supernatural part of humanity – where moral conscience, intuition, and worship are seated.) Both the soul and human spirit are contained by the physical, human body, (1 Ths. 5:23; Heb. 4:12.) Thus, the anti-creation lie of evolution is a total abomination.

In contrast, animals are two-part beings; they have souls or minds and physical bodies. Thus, they feel pain and pleasure just as humans do. Yet, animals do not have supernatural, animal spirits, as God, Who Is Spirit, did not create animals in His ‘image’ to worship Him, (1 Cor. 15:38-38; Jn. 4:21-24.) That’s why we never see an animal attempt to worship anything, unless they simply mimic the actions of humans. Soul answers to soul, and spirit always years for spirit, (1 Cor. 2:10-16.) Nor is an animal, (lacking moral conscience that is seated in the human spirit,) capable of immorality, which is sin such as lying, stealing, etcetera. Learned behavior might make this seem otherwise, but animals are completely innocent and do not know anything about sin. Sin is not inherent in animals. Thus, animals can never go to hell, which God made for the devil, demons, and unrepentant humans. Do animals go to heaven? It seems they face annihilation when they die, as the Bible nowhere states anything like that. The references to horses, etcetera, in heaven, are allegories.

Instinctively, even insects such as bees and ants structure their communities in a hierarchical way and it’s members must learn animal protocol to function as part of the whole. Thus, animals, (and here animals transcend insects, 1 Cor. 15:39-49,) can be trained to obey human commands to fit into human society to some degrees, (and we must always remember that it must be done patiently and humanely as they have memories and emotions just as humans do, thus they must also learn acceptable behavior just as humans do,) but they remain innocent before God as they cannot sin.

¨ Genesis 1:30 refers directly to the “souls,” “life,” or conscious minds of animals. “To every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creeps upon the earth, wherein there is a living soul, [I have given] every green herb for food,” (JPS Tanakh, 1917.) As animals have souls just as humans have, they are free-willed beings, and can also make decisions. Although they can never be as clever as humans are, intelligence is part of the living soul, or conscious mind of both humans and animals.

¨ I cannot underline the following clearly enough. Scientific experiments and even close interaction with animals prove undoubtedly that animals have all the soulical emotions, and therefore, also all the emotional needs, which human beings have. Animals too, can be protective, loyal, brave, jealous, compassionate, etcetera. Consequently, animals also feel lonely, fearful, shameful, and rejected. They long for their pack members and humans, yearn for acceptance, love, and comfort when they are afraid, sick, and lonely. Much of what people describe as ‘instinct,’ (such as good parenting,) is in fact the same basic emotional traits humans and animals are born with to care and nurture their own.

It is a blatant lie that animals ‘evolved’ extraordinary abilities such as the ability to discern earthquakes and tsunamis in advance, smell out a trapped human, and migrate over great distances without getting lost. God created animals with souls similar to those of humans, but GAVE them extraordinary abilities, which humans do not have. These are amazing animal talents, which God designed specifically to equip them for survival in the wilderness, (Gen. 1:24-25; 30-31.)

Can Animals Understand Human Language?

Animals do not have all the capabilities that humans have; they are a completely different species from us. So, it is simply ridiculous to expect animals to naturally understand human language, culture, and intention, as though they were born learned, disciplined little people. Our dogs and other animals are not born with Grade 12 certificates – and neither are humans! In fact, animals are incapable of such knowledge ‘instinctively.’ Even humans have to learn from birth how to understand human speech, the different nuances of human behavior, and every other facet of human life!

Like neglected children, who were never taught manners and other people skills, animals are simply incapable of sharing our civilized human environment without the necessary training and loving guidance. However, should we be willing to invest time, love, constant interest, and patient teaching in animals, we will reap an abundance of pleasant surprises from these wonderful creatures of God. From experience with animals, I can testify that they are capable of much more than what we give them credit for — but in domestication, it goes according to human care and patience.

What happened in Eden – were Animals Capable of Speech?

According to Scripture, animals and humans could converse with one another in Eden. Before the fall in the garden, an untarnished relationship existed between God and humans, between husband and wife, and between humans and animals. Even before God created Eve as Adam’s best friend, God gave Adam, (as the crown of His creation, whom God placed in a managerial position over His creation,) the privilege to name all the animals. The cattle such as sheep, the birds, the beasts such as lions, and even reptiles such as snakes were Adam’s best friends before Eve was created, (Gen. 2:18-25; 3:1-5.) Moreover, animals, just like Adam and Eve, could see God “walking in the garden in the cool of the day,” and they, too, could “hear His voice in the garden,” (Gen. 3:8-15.) There is nothing to suggest that animals, (like fallen humanity,) lost this ability, although they do not possess ‘animal’ spirits, and God is Spirit, (Jn. 4:21-24.)

Though the snake was exploited by that evil spirit called “Satan,” animals even knew that God commanded Adam and Eve “not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil…” as the snake asked Eve under the guidance of Satan, “Has God indeed said…” Eve did not find it strange to discuss even spiritual matters with the snake. Regardless of Satan’s blatant abuse, God still held the snake responsible for allowing such witchcraft, cursing it “more” than all the other animals, (Gen. 3:13.) So, in Eden, animals were capable of understanding human speech, and even of speaking human language.

All of that changed after the fall, which corrupted every relationship known to man – man’s relationship with God, with his fellow man, and with the animals. The relationship between humans and animals deteriorated further when God gave man permission to have animals for food after Noah left the ark, (Gen. 9.)

Balaam’s Talking Donkey

The Bible’s account of Balaam’s donkey is simply astounding. It happened about 1,400 B.C., when King Balak of the Moabites sent for Balaam the magician to curse the Israelites, who were encroaching on his territory. Balaam was a pagan psychic and prophet, yet he said that God spoke to him. Therefore, it is common for even unbelievers to hear the voice of the Omnipotent God, Who does according to His sovereignty, and stated undeniably, “All souls are Mine… The soul that sins [unrepentantly] will die. But… the just… [who obey Me] will live,” (Ezk. 18:19; Numbers 22.)

God forbade Balaam to go with King Balak's elders to commit witchcraft in his attempt to curse the Israelites. He disobeyed God, so that “the Angel of the Lord stood in his way with His drawn sword in His hand,” ready to strike him down. The donkey, seeing the avenging angel blocking their way, turned aside and waddled into the field. However, Balaam, oblivious to God’s impending judgment, furiously scolded the donkey and assaulted her with his staff to turn her back onto the road. This happened three times until the donkey could go no further. She finally lay down under Balaam’s weight and surrendered to the incredible pain of his rod. She chose to submit to her master’s inhumane rage, rather than to risk the vengeance of God.

Then God opened the mouth of the abused donkey and she asked, ‘What have I done to you, that you have struck me these three times?’”

Without getting the fright of his life, Balaam answered furiously, “Because you have [made a fool of] me [in front of King Balak’s men.] I wish there were a sword in my hand, for then I would kill you!”

Why wasn’t Balaam stunned speechless when the donkey spoke to him? Maybe he was too angry to be shocked, or being a magician, he was familiar with ‘magic tricks,’ and thought his tricks boomeranged on him. He could also have been familiar with the account of the talking snake of Eden, and knew that an animal would be able to talk if God so chooses.

Undeterred by his unreasonable anger, the donkey confronted Balaam’s violent attacks on her. She asked, “Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden ever since I became yours, to this day? Was I ever inclined to do this to you?”

The donkey’s clever reasoning put Balaam to shame and he had to admit, “No…”

Then the Lord opened Balaam’s eyes, “[And when] he saw the Angel of the Lord standing in the way with His drawn sword in His hand, he bowed his head and fell flat on his face.”

“Why have you struck your donkey these three times?” God demanded an explanation for his assault on the innocent animal, “Behold, I have come out to stand against you, because your way is perverse before Me… The donkey saw Me and turned aside… these three times. If she had not turned aside from Me, surely I would also have killed you by now, and let her live.” I believe Balaam hung his head in shame, and muttered, “[Forgive me for] I have sinned…” Numbers 22:22-33.

To Abuse Animals is Witchcraft against the Highest God

The accounts of animals behaving in ways like Balaam’s donkey did to save human lives, (actual talking excluded of course,) are legion. Yet, we cannot expect animals to understand and reason the way we do, as animals were created a step down from humans on the creation-scale of God, as explained in Hebrews 2:6-9; 1 Cor. 15:38-49.) Still, we know from Scripture and from experience with animals that they can and do interpret, remember, and, (in surprisingly intelligent ways,) react to past and present experiences. As seen with Balaam’s donkey, animals can resent and remember the abuse of humans, which prove the soulical or mind capabilities that animals possess. Animals do not have supernatural animal spirits, because only humans were created in the image of God and possess human spirits, but we also know that animals can ‘see’ or experience God and the spirit-world more readily than most humans can, (1 Ths. 5:23.)

Countless people have testified how God used their pets and even wild animals to discern dangers and protect them from intruders, etcetera. Recently, I read of a horse that fended off the attack of a rapist, most probably saving the life of it’s female rider! Once, a woman asked me for help, as her home was overran with demons, which she could “feel” but which her dog could see, because the staring animal barked furiously at an unseen foe to warn her each time a demon manifested itself. Since the fall, all of humanity, infected by the hatred of Satan for God and His creation, has been in enmity with God, with one another, and with the wonderful creatures of God. Knowing how wonderfully God had created humans as well as animals, it is really hard to understand how even born again believers in Christ can discard, neglect, abuse, and torture animals without any remorse. It is time that human beings wake up to a few sobering thoughts concerning the needs and abilities of animals.

God will certainly, as with the abusive Balaam, demand an account from all cruel masters, who should have considered animals as the loving companions and loyal friends that God created them to be, (Numbers 22:22-33; Gen. 2:19-20; Rom. 8:20-22.) Still, our pets are not little humans. They do not have the capability to instinctively know right from wrong. Unless we spend the time to lovingly teach our pets, they will know nothing about the ways of humans. Yet, when we adopt a pet, we adopt a family member, which we must take care of for the rest of it’s life! The pet has no one else to provide love, care, and protection for it; its “human” is the whole world of that animal! Hopefully, we would not leave a child out in the cold; hungry, thirsty, chained, or locked up in a garage or a back yard – so why do people torture the special friends, which God had entrusted to them, in such inhumane ways? People with human hearts would not cruelly beat their innocent children, make them fight to the death for sport, and devise satanic forms of torture to sacrifice them to Satan – so why do people do such things to defenseless, speechless animals? Our pets cannot sin. If anyone has a problem pet, it is because the person does not care to understand, and provide for it’s needs. If people confess Jesus, or even if they just consider themselves to be human, let them honor God by taking care of His vulnerable creation!

DID GOD ‘RE-CREATE’ OR MAKE ‘CHANGES’ TO HIS CREATION AFTER THE FALL?

The location of Eden and the Garden “Eastward In Eden”

The garden “eastward in Eden” was a physical place, (Gen. 2:8.) It is impossible to spiritualize this garden as some people do, by changing it into “heaven” or pagan “paradise,” which was supposedly “lost.” The garden was not heaven, and neither of them were “lost.” It was fallen humanity who “lost” their spiritual relationship with God and with one another. They died spiritually and was corrupted mentally or on a soulical level.

To support the theory that the physical garden in Eden was ‘spiritually moved’ to ‘heaven’ after Jesus’ resurrection, some Bible teachers lean on Genesis 3:18, “God drove out man from the garden, and placed cherubim at the east of the Garden to guard the way to the tree of life…” However, this verse describes the great spiritual and emotional fall of humanity, who lived in the sinless environment of the garden eastward in Eden in the presence of the Tree of Life. Through their disobedience, they forfeited God’s holy presence here on earth, not eternal life in heaven. We must remember that God is omnipresent. Where ever Jesus is, there the “Tree of Life” is, (Gen. 2:9.) Revelation 22:2 (KJV) is an allegory of God’s presence in heaven. Life in the garden in Eden represented the Scripturally born again body of Christ, living here on earth and also eternally in heaven, in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. The entire New Testament is clear on the matter that sincerely born again believers go to heaven when they die. They are not going to live in the so-called ‘restored,’ physical garden eastward in the ‘restored’ Eden one day, as Jehovah’s Witnesses and others believe.

God declared in His Word, “The Day of the Lord will come… in which the heavens [the different layers of the physical atmosphere, the troposphere, stratosphere, etcetera, around the earth,] will pass away… both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up… Nevertheless we… look for [completely] new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells…” (2 Pt. 3:10-13; Rev. 21:1.)

God made planet earth in the shape of a ball for a good reason. Since the day when God divided the light from the darkness, calling the light Day and the darkness Night, effectively creating the first evening and morning, (the very first 24-hour day on earth, Genesis 1:5,) our round earth is still spinning like a gigantic orb on its own axis.

On that first day, God Himself also ‘divided’ our circular earth into east, west, north, and south to establish the continuous eastward rotation of the globe that completes one full rotation on its axis every 24 hours, which is one full day 12-day and one 12-hour night. The 24-hour rotation of our circular planet is the basis of all life on earth. Hence, the sun, moon, and stars all seem to rise (or come from) in the east and set in the west, as viewed from the north pole star Polaris.

¨ On the sixth day of creation God “formed [or sculpted] a man from the dust of the ground,” and then He “formed [or sculpted] a woman from the rib of the man. Next, God planted a garden eastward “in” Eden, and there He placed [humankind] whom He had made… to tend and keep it – [or to take care of it and protect it.]” (Gen. 1:26-28; 2:21-24; 2:7-15.) Although no human knows the exact location of “Eden,” or “the Garden eastward in [not of] Eden,” it remains a hotly debated subject. Creation Scientists believe “Eden” was a particular place and not planet earth itself.

¨ But logically and literally, earth itself was first called “Eden,” and “eastward in Eden” was to the east of the earth. Many years after that first day in Genesis, navigators and mariners also divided our round earth into four imaginary quarters for the sake of exploring and travelling the vast expanses of the earth. To divide the earth into four parts, navigators drew an imaginary vertical line called the Prime Meridian, at zero degrees longitude from the top of the North Pole down to the South Pole, cutting the earth in half from top to bottom to divide it into the Western Hemisphere and the Eastern Hemisphere. (I.e., half of Antarctica, all of Asia and Australia, and most of Africa fall into the Eastern Hemisphere.) They then drew the equator, the line that runs from side to side at zero degrees latitude, to divide the earth into the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere. (I.e., the bottom half of Africa, South America, Antarctica, and Australia are situated south of the equator in the Southern Hemisphere. North of the equator in the Eastern Hemisphere lies the region of India, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Israel, Ethiopia, etcetera.)

¨ Most Bible scholars believe that the location of the garden, which God planted eastward in Eden or somewhere in the east of the earth, was in the Eastern Hemisphere of the earth, in the region of Syria/Iraq, in ancient Mesopotamia. The four rivers that set the boundaries of the garden in Eden are the well known Tigris and Euphrates, (which now borders the region of ancient Mesopotamia,) and the unknown “lost” rivers, the Pishon and the Gihon. It is possible that some or even all of these rivers altered their courses during the ages. Satellite images clearly show the course of an ancient river, allegedly the ancient Pishon, which disappeared deep underneath, of what some people believe, were ‘sand banks.’ Today, the Gihon River might be identified as the Blue Nile, which runs through Ethiopia – although other sources question this view. However, neither of these two rivers merges with the Tigris and the Euphrates to complete the borders of the ancient garden, confusing and obscuring the original boundaries of the garden in Eden.

When we consider ancient geography, it is important to keep in mind that Israel, the “holy land” of the Old Testament, was the physical land that God had promised to the Old Hebrews - His physical, Old Testament nation, from which the Lord Jesus Christ was born. Israel is also the location where much of the historical events of the Bible played out. It is therefore logic to assume that the position of the Garden eastward in Eden was (or is) close to (or even in) the land of the Old Hebrews. Some people think the existing Gihon Spring in Israel could once have been the river Gihon, which “goes around the whole land of Cush.” Independent studies on its geography lean on Ezekiel 29:8-10 and other Old Testament verses, where God declares that He will destroy the land of Egypt by destroying “The River,” laying waste the land of Egypt “from Migdol to Syene, as far as the border of Ethiopia.” Wikipedia wrote, “The Gihon Spring was the main source of water for the ancient City of David, the original site of Jerusalem… a reliable water source that made human settlement possible in ancient Jerusalem… [It supplied] drinking water, but also water for irrigation of gardens in the adjacent Kidron Valley, which provided food for the ancient settlement. The spring… [also] required the excavation of the Pool of Siloam, which stored the large amount of water needed for the town…”

Did God ‘change’ “Eden,” or the whole earth because of the fall in the garden?

The entire evolution theory of a steamy dinosaur “Eden” and it’s cataclysmic ‘climate change’ rests on the impossible and completely unscientific assumption that the whole planet was originally encapsulated with “a layer of ice” ‘in the heavens,’ with “another layer of ice underneath the earth,” which supposedly “created a tropical greenhouse effect” on the entire earth. Christian Creation Science and their false teacher, Kent Hovind, spread the same lies.

However, Genesis 1:1 tells us, “In the beginning, God created the heavens [plural,] and the earth,” and the Bible also explains step by step how God did it!

The ‘heavens,’ or earth’s atmosphere, surrounds the earth like a balloon. Our atmosphere consists of five principal layers. The Troposphere spans from the earth’s surface to about 9 km. upwards. From there, the Stratosphere reaches some 51 km. up. The Mesosphere follows, and expands for another 85 km. into the Thermosphere, which reaches about 380 km. up into the Exosphere or outer space. In the beginning, God created our atmosphere just right. It has always been this atmosphere, as we know it, which has sustained all life on earth. The so-called ‘layer of ice’ around the earth that supposedly created a tropical ‘greenhouse effect’ in Eden is evolution gibberish, which would have made life on earth impossible. Just think of a cloudy day, when rain and ‘ice’ cloud the sun. Now multiply that by a thousand. Under such a ‘layer of ice’ earth would have been a dark, inhabitable place, not a “greenhouse!”

Evolutionists always depict their so-called “early, flat” earth as a planet devoid of mountains, [Creation Science/Kent Hovind/Answers in Genesis as well,] teeming with living dinosaurs feeding in misty, fern-filled swamps, with no other ‘modern-day’ creatures such as elephants and giraffes in sight. Other paintings of this kind show the same tranquil scene, but add the ‘meteor storm,’ which allegedly darkened the whole earth and caused the so-called ‘radical climate change’ that ‘exterminated’ the dinosaurs and ‘nearly all life on earth,’ causing a major ‘evolutionary revolution’ on earth.

Yet, unbelievably, while all other life forms on earth theoretically evolved from this catastrophic climate change, ferns, other fernlike plants and trees, and even creatures such as crocodiles ‘survived unchanged’ to this day! How could all the dinosaurs have died, while these species survived and thrived?

Evolutionists and Creation Science compensate for this silly allegation by calling these so-called ‘dinosaurs’ “survivors of climate change” or “living fossils!” It remains absolute fact that God created everything perfect or “very good.”

To this day, God’s creation remains spotless - unless human interference, or human destruction and encroachment taint and destroy God’s natural world, which He created exactly as He explained in the contextual truth of the Book of Genesis.

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