The Pre-Carnality of the Spiritual Self
The Pre-Existent World:
There is nothing in the world of changes, which does not come from the World that does not change. Whatever lives in the world of changes, receives Life from the World that does not change. The world of changes, before it was, was not; and after it will be, it won’t be. But the World that does not change always was, is, and will be. It is. It is First. It is Last.
That World is God. We can truly say that Man’s native country is the Mind of God, where the Image of God was first conceived. The Son is Truth (Jn. 14:6); The Son is the begotten generation of the Father (Jn. 3:16); thus the Father is that which begets or generates Truth. A perfectly self-conceiving mind does just that: it produces an idea of itself which is so perfectly perfect, that it does not merely resemble itself, it really is itself. The Word was with God, and was God (Jn. 1:1).
John 14:6 ESV
Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
John 3:16 KJV
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
John 1:1-2 ESV
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. [2] He was in the beginning with God.
Philippians 3:20 ESV
But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,
Isaiah 46:3-4 ESV
“Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; [4] even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.
Romans 4:16 ESV
That is why it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his offspring— not only to the adherent of the law but also to the one who shares the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all,
Those who believe God as Abraham believed God are counted as children of Abraham, and thus prophecies about Israel concern the believer.
A Christian is one who has been borne (carried) by God from before his or her birth.
Ephesians 1:3-4 ESV
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, [4] even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love
A Christian is one who has been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
In the Son, the Christian is also chosen before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4). Before Abraham was, before “The beginning” of Genesis 1:1, the Unchangeable Mind of God conceived a name for us, and wrote it in His Book of Life (Lk. 10:20).
Luke 10:20 ESV
Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
John 17:23 ESV
I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.
A Christian is one who is loved even as the Father loves the Son.
John 17:24 ESV
Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
The Father loved the Son before the foundation of the world.
A Christian is one who is loved by the Father before the foundation of the world.
The Pre-Carnal Self
The pre-existent self is changeable, yet unchanging in himself. His home is in the Unchangeable, and the unchangingness of his identity is received from his Surrounding.
The idea of “pre-existence” amounts to the claim that this name, written in the Book of Life, is the true self, and that Christians should develop a conviction that their true selves are in Eternal God. The words “I” and “me” refer primarily to an idea (spirit) in the Divine Mind. The bodily life is a secondary referent of “I” and “me,” because it is the peculiar effect of that spirit-whether we think of that spirit as a principle of that effect, or as an instrument of a more primary principle. The body is not the thing. The spirit is the thing, and it is embodying. The body is more of an action, rather than a substance in its own right (as it is held in hylemorphic terms).
Romans 8:14 ESV
For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.
Hebrews 12:9 ESV
Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?
To be unchanging is not the same as to be inactive. God’s Word will never pass away (Mat. 24:35). Christ is God’s Word (Jn. 1:1), and Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Heb. 13:8). And, God’s Word is living and active (Heb. 4:12). Thus, God’s Word is both unchanging and active.
God’s Word is unchanging, because it is unchangeable. The spiritual Man-the consummated image of God-is unchanging, despite being changeable. His unchangingness comes, not from his own nature, but is derived from God’s original unchangingness (which is grounded in His unchangeableness).
By giving His Only Begotten Son, God proved that He holds nothing back in His love for us (Rom. 8:32). Whatever can be given, God gives freely to His children. That is how God loves, apparently.
Original unchangeableness is not something that can be given. There can only be One God (Deu. 6:4), One Principle (Eph. 4:6), One original (1 Co. 14:36). But a derived unchangingness can be given, and Christ comes to reveal that this has, in fact, been given to us. Our true name is written on the inside of a white stone (Rev. 2:17). Stones represent permanence.
Deuteronomy 6:4 ESV
“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.
Ephesians 4:4-6 ESV
There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— [5] one Lord, one faith, one baptism, [6] one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.
1 Corinthians 14:36 ESV
Or was it from you that the word of God came? Or are you the only ones it has reached?
Revelation 2:17 ESV
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’
Romans 8:32 ESV
He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
1 Corinthians 15:49 ESV
Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven.
Matthew 24:35 ESV
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
Hebrews 13:8 ESV
Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Hebrews 4:12 ESV
For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Jeremiah 1:4-5 ESV
Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying, [5] “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations.”
Before Jeremiah was formed in the womb, God knew him. Of course, this must be true of anyone who has been borne by God, and chosen in Christ before they came to exist in the world of changes. Being known is a predication of being chosen. Thus, this premise which is directly affirmed of Jeremiah, is indirectly affirmed of Christians.
A Christian is one who was known by God before the foundation of the world.
To be consecrated means to be set apart for God’s purposes. Everything God does is an act of love, and is for the purpose of glorifying Himself (Isa. 43:18-21, Rom. 8:28-29), since His Glory is Life Everlasting (Jn. 17:3). This is the crown of glory, with which we are crowned (Psa. 8:5): we were conceived in the Eternal Mind as a divine expression of who He Is and what He is like. The true vision of God’s children is one in which the seer finds a reason to have a good opinion of God. In other words,
Isaiah 43:18-21 ESV
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. [19] Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. [20] The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, [21] the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.
Romans 8:28-29 ESV
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. [29] For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.
John 17:3 ESV
And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
Psalm 8:4-5 ESV
what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? [5] Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings and crowned him with glory and honor.
A Christian is one who was consecrated (set apart by God for the purpose of glorifying Himself) before the world was made.
Jeremiah was directly told that he was appointed as a prophet to the nations. The Christian must dig into the Word in order to discover this truth about himself. The Christian must take to heart the premise (from Rev. 19:10) that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.” If our pre-election is to the reception of the testimony of Jesus, then our pre-election is also to the reception of the spirit of prophecy. Like Jeremiah,
Revelation 19:10 ESV
Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
A Christian is one who was appointed as a prophet to the nations before the foundation of the world.