Chapter II: Manifest Man

Chapter II: Manifest Man

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What is your conception of Elohim God? Explain the relationship between Jehovah God and Elohim God.

THE BOOK OF GENESIS gives two accounts of the creation of man, the first that of the creation by Elohim and the second that of the creation by Jehovah. A right understanding of the processes the mind uses in bringing forth its children (ideas) enables us to perfect harmony between these apparently conflicting accounts. The first act of mind is the formation of the idea, and the second is the expression of that idea. Elohim or God-Mind creates a spiritual man, in whom are conceived to be present all the attributes of his source. Next this spiritual man, Jehovah God, God-Mind indentified as I AM, forms man in spiritual substance, in the "dust of the ground."

The unfolding man is God's man, or the divine idea of man in process of construction. The various ideas are being "clothed upon," that is, made manifest. The manifest man is an idea until the Elohim mind in its I AM or Jehovah form begins its process of expression. Then Jehovah God begins to form or clothe the idea man in substance, which process, described symbolically in these Scriptures, has been going on all down the ages.

The manifest man is the man we see, the man we behold with our senses. Manifest man evolves or makes manifest the ideas that exist eternally in Being. The spiritual man is the man we behold in our ideals.

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What is meant by "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one"?

"Ye are a temple of God." Eventually the manifest man and the ideal man merge into one, as Jesus said: "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one."

What is the true body of Christ? How is the temple or body of Spirit formed?

Many have caught sight of the fact that the true body of Christ is a state of consciousness in man, but few have gone so far as to realize that this body is a temple in which the Christ holds religious services at all times. "Know ye not that ye are a temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you." Under the direction of the Christ, a new body is constructed by the thinking faculty in man; the materials entering into this superior structure are spiritual substances, and the new creation is the temple or body of Spirit. It breathes an atmosphere and is thrilled with a life energy more real than that of the manifest man. When a person has come into the realization of his true Christ body, he feels the stirring within him of this body of the indwelling Spirit or Christ. He knows what Paul meant when he said: "There is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body." "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new."

Jehovah I AM breathes the breath of life into Adam, who names the animals (the elemental life forms in which he exists) and becomes cocreator with Jehovah God in bringing forth his own perfection.

The image-and-likeness man is God's idea of man, a man spirtually conceived, in whom are implanted the dominion and power necessary to bring forth the perfection of his Father, God-Mind. "Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect," said Jesus.