Series 2 - Lesson 3 - Annotation 5
Explain the difference between ideal man and manifest man.
5. "Ideal man" is a spiritual creation of God, the man God created in His own "image" (Gen. 1:27). Since God creates in ideas, ideal man is non-physical, an idea involved or enveloped in God Mind, a pattern, an archetype, a creation coexistent and coterminus with God. "Ideal man" is the Lord God, or the Christ, the I AM.
"Manifest man" is the human being, the physical man, the man evolving, expressing, reproducing, and developing according to his individual understanding the pattern of the ideal man implanted within him.
"Ideal man" dwells eternally in manifest man as the God-created "image" whose "likeness" manifest man is continuously unfolding and evolving. The "ideal man" is an impression of God; "manifest man" is an expression of God at the level of unfoldment of the individual soul. "Ideal man" embraces all the spiritual attributes or ideas; "manifest man" is an expresser of these attributes or ideas. "Ideal man" is the source of God ideas in man; "manifest man" is the user of the ideas. "Ideal man" is eternal, infinite, universal, changeless; "manifest man" is in the process of change, evolving and unfolding his consciousness of his divine nature as a self-conscious entity.
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Preceding Entry: Who or what is Jehovah, the Lord God of the Scriptures?
Following Entry: What is a "thought center"?
