Chapter 8
A History of Man’s Relationship to God According to the Bible

Understanding Guidelines and Structure

In order to understand the framework of society today, the Bible must be considered. Regardless of your belief or lack therof in the stories contained there in, it is vital to understand that the ideas of today, and in fact how people live their lives and relate to each other and with their creator, has been more influenced by this book than any other. We would like to draw your attention in this chapter to a handful of transitions that can serve as a helpful outline to show God’s changing relationship with man. The Bible itself plainly lays out these transitions but because it is so vast few read it in its entirety and understand its structure. It becomes difficult for many to recognize and understand these transitions, especially since so many religious and secular leaders with particular points of view utilize the writings of the Bible to serve their own perspectives and agendas. Instead people should be individually looking to the Bible to serve as the ultimate collective perspective which can serve man best as he shapes his world and resides in it.

This brief summation of the history of man’s relationship with God will serve to illustrate these crucial transitions and illustrate their importance in applying the teachings of the Bible in today’s era. The failure to understand the various transitions presented in the Bible and God’s changing relationship with man results in the consequential election and misdirection by many to utilize improper supporting verses in inappropriately-related sections of the Bible in order to formulate and support particular beliefs.

History of the world before the first transition

The Bible states that in the beginning the relationship of man and God was divinely created to be intertwined and separated only by the physical property of man. Man was on Earth and God was with him. Man was in a physical form and God was in a spirtitual form. Man's inherent human lacks and limited perspectives at some point proved an undersirable hindrance to him. This ultimately allowed him to justify to himself that God may not be present at all times as man could not see all things all the time, so perhaps neither could God. Man’s lack of perspective, the deception of the snake, which may have been symbolic, and the desire to be more than we were created to be allowed man and woman to go against what their creator wanted. They then found themselves separated from God through the knowledge of good and evil. Even before their action, they realized there were limits they were bound to by their physical form and hoped that by disregarding God’s instructions they could bypass the physical limitations and become like God. Man’s failure was to not realize his limitations and be happy with how God created him. Symbolically, we would like to suggest that this innate nature of man was a choice that once acted upon actually changed the world through the action itself by altering man’s perspective and the way he relates to his surroundings. As we look at Genesis poetically and symbolically, it could be suggested that God did not place them out of the garden but altered the garden around them.  

The first transition – man no longer has access to choosing direct contact with God

The Bible says that after man was banished from the garden, God then altered the world and the people in the world to reflect the new relationship between man and God. God found that many people would also follow the example of Adam and Eve and the failure to be and do what God desired from his creation, but a small few would resist evil and continue to love their God and live holy righteous lives. To make an example of man’s ability to do this, God exterminated all those who were still making the wrong choices. The story of the flood, whether believed literally or symbolically, shows us an example of God’s new relationship with man after the first transition. Man can live as God has instructed and God can approach him but man does not have the ability to approach God.

During the periods of time that the populace was separated from God, man’s only hope was to have God reach out to them because of their obedience to God’s way. God had more plans for helping man gain the tools for re-establishing a new, more personal relationship once again with his creator. So God approached and utilized select individuals, such as Noah, who had shown that even in the absence of direct contact with God, that they still had the ability to maintain the integrity of the instructions that God had left them with and adhere to them.

Eventually Abraham came along and was a good man who was righteous in the sight of God. God wanted to test him even further, perhaps as an example for His people, to see if he would make the same mistakes as those that had come before. Because of his perseverence in God’s test of him, he was allowed to regain for himself and his people a higher level relationship once again with God. He and his people were allowed to have God’s way known to them and the type of separation that existed after the exodus from the garden was lifted for them to yet the next level in this major transition. In a sense, they were once again given a new scenario similar to that of Adam and Eve. God made a covenant with Abraham that would eventually lead his people to the ability to once again to be with God's presence among them similar to the way it was originally designed by God for the garden of Eden. In the garden, there was one law given to man and he failed to follow that. In this new covenant, there were many arrangements made between God and his people that caused the scales to shift both favorably and non-favorably in their quality of life based on how they served in their relationship with their creator. The scales tilted to a non-favorable relationship and they fell into slavery but God did not give up on them yet.  

Moses eventually came along through that line of people to guide them out of Egypt away from the bondage and suffering they had fallen into. They found themselves having to be rescued by the predicament they were in because of their failures once again demonstrated by not living according to God’s way as described in the covenant. When they were free and walking through the wilderness they were still exhibiting signs of not abiding by what God wanted and realizing what God had done for them and still has in store for them. Without visually perceiving God, as Adam, these people found it difficult at times to place their faith in God via the guidance of Moses alone. During this period many had shortness of faith, so God did many things for these people to show them all at the same time as well as individually that he was with them. For many this limited relationship was still not enough.

The second transition – man can interact with God through the priests of the temple

Once the temple was established and then the promised land gained, the new relationship that God had planned was given to man. God relates to the priests at the altar inside the temple through his spirit which is present there. Man relates through the priests by presenting offerings and atonements to the temple.

God gave the ten commandments which were designed to guide them to govern themselves, keep God’s way and continue to develop the relationship with their creator. God gave the law to man as part of the relationship. All one had to do was follow it and he would be justified in the eyes of God and the good relationship would be maintained. With all this in place, man still failed and distorted the original intent and design of the law to fit their own ways and desires apart from God's will. This once again brought forth a downshift in the quality of the relationship that God had with his people at this time.

The third transition – Man has direct access to God through his son

God changed the relationship with man once again. This relationship through his son, Jesus Christ, brought forth the most open and versatile freedoms and abilities of man to relate directly with his creator in the flesh and by direct word since the initial days residing in the garden before the fall.

The fourth transition – Man has direct access to God through the Holy Spirit

Jesus was killed as a sacrifice for all and not just the chosen ones that he made his original covenant with.
When he died, the veil of the curtain of the temple separating the people from the section where the spirit of God resided, called the Holiest of Holies, where only the priests could go was said to be literally torn into two. One can see that this change was not only literal but symbolic as well. By the opening of this curtain, man now has a direct path to the spirit of God. This path was given in the form of the Holy Spirit that was sent by God to his followers when Jesus rose from the dead and returned to Heaven.

These are the transitions describing God’s relationship with man in the Bible. It is important for the world today to understand where we have been and where we are today in order to find a productive means of relation to one another that will help shape our world. What’s more, individuals will come to see their own self-importance on the level as high as any in regards to their ability to obtain direct access to what the creator’s will for man is.  This will save them from having to rely on others, whether it be institutions, churches, governmental leaders...and by each man and woman on Earth having this power, the ultimate collective productivity of man’s combined efforts can be best utilized to serve the health of this planet and all the inhabitants of it.