Let Us Make Man

Let us make man! Us! God spoke to someone! He was not alone in the creation! Who was he with?

In the Scriptures we find the term “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness”. This was the words of God when everything was created, except man. By this statement made by God, it is obvious that God the Father was not the only one with powers to create: “Let us make man” was words from one creator to another!

So, besides God, was there anyone else around at the time called “the Beginning”? Indeed there was! Listen to the words of John, when he describes the history of Jesus (John uses the phrase “the Word” instead of “Jehovah”, since "Jehovah" was a name forbidden to repeat in the Jewish community, and Jehovah is the name of Jesus in the eternal worlds);

1 IN the beginning was the Word (Jesus), and the Word (Jesus) was with God, and the Word (Jesus) was God.

2 The same was in the beginning with God (John 1:1-2 (parenthesis and italics added)).

So, at a time, long before the earth was created, we find the Father and the Son together. Was it Jehovah (Jesus) whom God talked to when he said: “Let us make man in our image”?

Were there other creatures present with God the Father and Jehovah in “the Beginning”? It is a fair question to ask since Jesus lived on this earth with a body, just like we do. It would make sense if we, just like Jesus, also lived with the Father before the world was, long before we were born. This is a quite radical idea in the Christian world, but it is by no means a new one. Let’s read an interesting question posed by the disciples of Jesus;

1 AND as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.

2 And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind?

3 Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him (John 9:1-3 (Italics and underscore added)).

Man Lived With God and Jehovah (Jesus) in the Beginning. Look at the belief of the disciples! If the man could have sinned and been punished with blindness from birth, he would either have been punished before the fact, or he must have lived before birth! And Jesus did not rebuke them for their doctrine, so we must accept that Jesus taught his disciples that they lived from the beginning. But this is just one passage of scripture. If there were no others it would perhaps not be so weighty. But it is not the only passage of the Bible showing a Pre-Mortal life of man;

28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

30 Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. (Romans 8:29-30)

In this passage Paul teaches that there are some that God Foreknew, in the beginning, to be something extra, and therefore they had special missions, or callings, waiting for them when they were born into this life. And as they fulfilled their callings he blessed them plentifully. In order for God to have a foreknowledge of such an individual, there is one absolute requirement that must be fulfilled; this Individual must have actually existed! He must already have been an individual!

If they did not exist before birth, God could not have had a foreknowledge of them at all! Unless, of course, God made each individual exactly as he wanted them, and that man had no say in the matter. But if that is the case, then God would be responsible for Stalin, Lenin, Mao, Hitler, etc, and man would have no responsibility of their own. Then God would be the evil one, and man would be his living puppets! If so, the Day of Judgment, when rewards and punishments would be passed out, would be a day of arbitrary cruelty on the side of God!

But God is no puppeteer. We even have a special testimony of one of the chosen, foreknown, people, whom the Lord called from before he was born. His testimony harmonizes with that of Paul’s and it proves God to be good, and not that cruel, arbitrary puppeteer;

4 Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

6 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.

7 But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.

8 Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD. (Jeremiah 1:4-8)

Obviously no one can be ordained without existing! No one can be known without being seen. No one can be sanctified without having a saintly existence. What we do know, so far, is that Jesus, and some saints and prophets lived before they were born into this life. Since we know God to be a just God, who is no respecter of persons, we must draw the conclusion that all people who will live on this earth have lived in the presence of God before birth.

That pre-mortal existence was not an existence in a physical body, but an existence as spirits. A spirit is a person with the shape of a body. John the Baptist testified to this when he saw the Holy Ghost, who is just that, a personage of spirit:

22 And the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased. (Luke 3:22)

(Note that it is the descending that is dove-like, not the bodily shape)

So, the entire human family lived together as brothers and sisters, God Almighty was our Father, and Jehovah was our older brother. We are all here because there was a conversation:” Let us make man in out image, after our likeness”.

It is not possible to return to a place where we have not been before!

7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it. (Ecclesiastes 12:7)

This passage mentions that at death our bodies will decay in the grave, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.

It is in the spirit that we find the very eternal identity of man. The body is only an additional gift given to our spirits, to help us become like our Heavenly Father. But the body is not man. It could be said about man as it was said about God; God is Spirit… In the resurrection man will receive an immortal body, just like Jesus did in his resurrection.

The importance of knowing that Jesus, you and I have lived before we were born to this earth, is that God did not create different kinds of people arbitrarily, who had to deal with the hand they were dealt by a God who created man out of nothing. For people who were created evil, or who were placed in a life of suffering, it would have been better never to be born at all! But if we existed from eternity to eternity… that makes God into a merciful God who prepares opportunities for each of us to develop our talent while the master is not in sight, to show him what we were willing to do with the talent that he entrusted into our care. Further, it makes Jesus into our elder brother. We know that we have lived an eternity with him, and we know that he loves us.

Are the Artists correct? I have studied countless paintings of Adam and Eve from as far back as we have art preserved, and I have never seen a painting where Adam and Eve were lacking bellybuttons! If they are indeed right (and artist have often been right), then “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness” takes on an entirely new meaning, but one that certainly make sense.