Human Clay / God Sculptor
Fate, part 5
We have arrived at the question of God’s role in shaping human spirits before they’re born, and just how clearly the Bible establishes that we are merely clay in God’s hands.
The Formation of Spirit
Every student of the Bible must accept that God created not only the physical universe, but also the spirits of the unseen realm:
(Colossians 1:16) for all things in heaven and on earth were created by him—all things, whether visible or invisible, whether thrones or dominions, whether principalities or powers—all things were created through him and for him.
This is why God is the “Father of spirits”:
(Hebrews 12:9) Furthermore, we have all had earthly fathers who disciplined us, and we respected them. Should we not much more submit to the Father of spirits and live?
Not only does this refer to the elohim, which are spiritual beings with various roles and powers residing in the unseen realm, but also the spirits that get placed into living flesh on earth:
(Zechariah 12:1) This is the word of the Lord concerning Israel. The Lord, who stretches out the heavens, who lays the foundation of the earth, and who forms the human spirit within a person, declares...
And it’s why our spirit returns to God after our flesh dies:
(Ecclesiastes 12:7) And the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
So God not only forms spiritual beings, but designs and allocates our very souls, which are placed into human flesh at the appropriate time. And unlike the false Humanist doctrine known as tabula rasa, which states that every human begins as a blank slate and is purely the product of its environment and physical body, or the evolutionary doctrine that we are a sum of genetic and epigentic code expression, the Bible suggests that humans are formed for a divine purpose before they’re born:
(Romans 9:20) But rather, O man, who are you, answering against God? Shall the thing formed say to the One having formed it, "Why have you made me like this?"
Here, Paul does not intend to dispute that God formed every person individually, or mock the notion that He creates us as we are (ie. “like this”), but rather the impropriety of the mere clay vessel speaking back to its sculptor. He emphasizes that God has full authority to do whatever He wants with humans, including designing them for diverse and contrasting purposes from the beginning:
Or does the potter not have authority over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel meant to be dignified, but another vessel meant to be disgraced?
And this is not a unique concept given by Paul. On the contrary, Paul read the Scriptures and saw it for himself in Genesis:
(Genesis 2:6-7) But springs welled up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.
The very first human was molded out of watered dirt—literal clay—and his soul was breathed into him by God. From beginning to end, the Bible teaches that humanity is like clay, and God is like the sculptor who shapes us.
Worthless vs. Invaluable
Let me ask: what is the value of fresh clay? Does it fetch a high price? I’m not talking about the finished products of pottery, sculptures, or ceramic work, but just the soggy dirt itself. It’s worthless, isn’t it? We scrape it from the soles of our boots on a rainy day, and shovel it out of roadside drains to keep the water flowing. And yet we can compare it to finished works with great significance to historians, like a Chinese Ming Dynasty porcelain cup that was sold at auction for $36,300,000 in 2014. Before that porcelain cup was crafted and fired in a kiln, it was simply worthless wet dirt.
Likewise, we humans have no inherent value, but rather a potential to become invaluable, not according to our own free will choices, but purely according to the craftsmanship of God alone. Just as Adam was a pile of lifeless, meaningless dirt before God breathed life into him and began the human race, but his body returned to forgotten dust after he died, so too the living spirit of man is worthless in the eternal perspective before God imbues it with the Holy Spirit and seals it for immortality.
Expression and purpose
What does the sculptor do with clay, really? They may create something practical, like a bowl to eat out of, or a vase to draw water from, but even this has a wide range of quality and refinement. The reason why “fine China” or porcelain is considered precious compared to regular earthenware is not only because it is made out of a relatively rare clay called kaolin, not found in every region of the world, but because of the techniques used in shaping, firing, and decorating it once it has been sourced and prepared. The artist gives it value.
The sculptor can express themselves through their work, creating unique designs that serve no purpose but to showcase their talent. Some of it may be offensive, designed only to provoke disgust and hatred; others may be beautiful and fascinating; others yet may be virtuous, inspiring, and dependable. The same creator can express an infinite variety of objects from the same ordinary clay, and they will be regarded as good or evil based on the designer’s intention (assuming he achieves his goal).
If we take the biblical principle of humanity being analogous to clay seriously, the diversity of mankind is the result of ongoing demand by God to serve the needs of His grand stage play. But importantly, this script was top-secret from even the angels. Humans assumed that men who were tall, strong, and handsome were the most blessed by God, indicating their value in His eyes. That’s why Israel chose tall Saul as their king, not little David. But as we know, God consistently chose to undermine these assumptions of who would be great in order to showcase His own plan of election (choosing the protagonists), providence (creating the right conditions), and deliverance (helping them prevail). This was His way of expressing Himself.
By natural assumption, even the elohim, seeing the extraordinary beauty of the women of early mankind, felt an irresistible urge to declare them “chosen ones” to begin their mighty, eternal bloodline with. They produced giants and dominated the world, taking control of the narrative on God’s stage. But we know how that ended. God flooded the world, killed their bloodline, and quite literally remixed the earth with water and mud, like a sculptor would if he was unhappy with all the clay objects around him.
Picture an endless plain, where terracotta soldiers rise up from the mud, wander around, and bash into each other forever, shattering and returning to the mud again. The sculptors who form these legions of clay people can express themselves constantly, but it amounts to nothing. This is more or less the ancient worldview of mankind. No matter how many humans were born, they all die and return to earth, decomposing back into the most basic elements. The great heroes and rulers of mankind were, in the sage’s estimation, like mud soldiers who rose up higher than the rest and commanded them to construct ramparts for and advantage, but still ended up returning to dust in the end. There was a dim hope that, some day, a person could break this cycle of vanity and live forever. That was the dream of every culture, but the more they hoped for it, the more false attempts were made, and the more agonizing the wait became. The Book of Ecclesiastes is essentially a lament of this very cycle.1
Breaking the cycle
God’s prophetic plan frames this seemingly arbitrary cycle in a completely different light. Rather than being a pointless iteration of ancient things, it creates a linear sequence of events that must be fulfilled before the real show can begin. The billions of humans who were born, worked together, and died were not pointless repetitions, but unconsciously working towards a new phase of the drama. They were creating the conditions for the Protagonists (see the previous post if you haven’t:
The Protagonists (called “the elect”) take the stage in unexpected ways. Their job is to fulfill even more controversial prophecies, inspired by the first of the immortal humans, Jesus Christ. They are not immortal themselves, but they live and die in the faith that they will become immortal when Jesus returns to establish the kingdom that mankind (and some elohim) have been failing to establish since before Noah’s Flood.
God perfectly calculated the timing of these events to ensure that His own Protagonists would seem destined to fail. With the fullness of Greek Hellenism culturally, the ascent of the Roman Empire politically, and the peak hypocrisy of the Jewish rulers spiritually, there was no chance of a radical, meek, paradoxical movement of Jewish pacifists emanating from Judea to survive a conspiracy in heaven against them. The world was soon to be gripped by Satan’s onslaught of spiritual ambassadors, falling from heaven with him, infecting the hearts of the ruling authorities to capture, torture, and kill Christians. The “spirit of antichrist” talked about in John’s epistles is not a mere intellectual stance, or a state of ignorance, but a real spiritual bond that turns people against Christianity. In other words, it steers the natural will of a human away from the Light. The Gospels, epistles, and Revelation are all one continuous escalation of this war between the global satanic conspiracy and the Christ’s network of holy servants. Rather than delving into how Satan inverted the Gospel in order to turn the Roman Empire into what I call the “Antichurch,” I’ll direct you to my book on that subject, Maybe Everyone Is Wrong: Revelations, Conspiracy, and the Kingdom of Heaven and my YouTube lectures on the subject:
God divides both the spiritual realm and the earthly realm into those who are His servants, and those who are against Him. He does this by forming their spirits before they even exist, and ensures that by the end of history they will fall into one of the two camps. God does not enjoy neutrality. As the Author of this grand play, He likes boldness, passion, and commitment. He would rather us be hot or cold, but not lukewarm; rather salty than bland. His plan, it turns out, involved giving the entire world over to Satan so that it could be united against His elect, the Protagonists, so that there would be as little middle ground as possible.
Perhaps, in history, He was doing a similar thing all the time. According to Dr. Michael S. Heiser’s excellent research into the “divine council” worldview of the Bible, God divided the nations in between the elohim in order to portion them to unfit governors, while He chose the lowly Hebrews for Himself as a kind of ultimate underdog in the race. This corrupting influence of the other “gods” would have made their cultures unsalvageable, or at least worthy of destruction. This way, although it is unfair to the individual souls who happened to be stuck in those corrupt societies, there is at least a sense of collective guilt once the corrupting process has reached maturity. In the last days of this age, it won’t be so different. Satan will have full control of the world’s leaders, and the conspiracy against Christ will be nearly perfect. This is by God’s own prophetic ordinance, not coincidence or human will.
God not only sculpts individuals for dignified or disgraceful uses, but entire nations.
This is a series on the biblical view on fate:
Part 5: Human Clay / God Sculptor
In the next part, we will discuss the spiritual war described by the Bible, and how both sides influence humans after their particular spirit has been launched on its journey through this world.
The religious deduction that human souls are likewise recycled forever is also not far from what the Bible describes, although we know better.
I don't think all is a total loss for these pagan cultures that God has sculpted for destruction. Revelation 20:5
[5] (The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were finished.) This is the first resurrection.
This could be talking only about the those Christians who don't participate in the first resurrection, or it could be talking about all of the dead of the past, essentially, offering them a "second chance" with a more clear-cut choice to make.
I came across Matthew 12:12 NET
[12] How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! So it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
Is Jesus making an ontological claim here? Because if so, it would suggest that all humans have some sort inherit value. Or is he simply comparing how much more value a human would have over a sheep.
Opposed to God's creation being valuable to his will. What do you think?