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NOTE: This article or series has not been updated recently. As such, it may possibly contain some outdated information, and/or ideas and beliefs which I no longer embrace, or which have changed to some degree.



One interesting theory which has been proposed, which I
personally believe has some merit, is that in addition to
the reasons we have already discussed here, some sicknesses
may be a direct result of genetic deterioration in the human
gene pool, which itself may very well be a direct by-product
of the sin which has ruled upon the Earth for the past six
thousand years. One popular verse which immediately comes to
mind is the following:

"For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Romans 6:23, KJV

While we can argue that Paul was referring to Eternal Death,
which will result from God's Judgments at the time of the
Great White Throne Judgment, as opposed to Everlasting Life
which will be granted to those who accept Jesus Christ, it
may also be that Paul was referring to something much more
mundane; that is, our passing away at the end of this life.
Let me remind you that in the opening chapters of the Book
of Genesis, the Lord said to Adam and Eve:

"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou
shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof
thou shalt surely die." Genesis 2:17, KJV

A number of different interpretations have been applied to
the previous verse. Some people reason that because Adam and
Eve did not physically die the very same day that they ate
of the Forbidden Tree, that therefore, God must have been
speaking in a spiritual sense. In other words, they died
spiritually. This would seem to be true; because as far as
we know, (and there is nothing in the Scriptures to suggest
otherwise), before that time, Adam and Eve could have lived
forever in an Eternal Paradise on Earth. Another idea which
has been proposed, is that they died spiritually, in the
sense that their fellowship with the Lord had been broken,
as a result of their sin. Again, this idea also has merit.
However, if we continue reading the Genesis account, we soon
discover that at the time that the Lord passed judgment on
Adam and Eve and the serpent, He specifically said to Adam:

"And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the
voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I
commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is
the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all
the days of thy life; Thorns also and thistles shall it
bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the
field; In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till
thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken:
for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return."
Genesis 3:17-19, KJV

So God cursed the ground; and He told Adam that he and his
descendants would return to it. They would no longer live
forever in an Eternal Paradise on Earth. They would die. He
warned them before they sinned that if they disobeyed Him,
they would die; and in the previous verses He is meting out
the punishment exactly as He said He would do.

As I have mentioned before, sometimes when we read the
Bible, because it is an instantaneous affair, we slip into
this frame of mind where we tend to forget that there are
time intervals between certain things that are said, and
certain things that are done. We acquire this expectation
that if something is said, it will be carried out in the
very next sentence. Thus, because Adam and Eve did not die
physically on the very same day that they ate of the Tree,
we assume that the Lord must have meant something else.

In this case, God warned them what would happen if they
disobeyed. After they disobeyed, after they had broken His
Laws, just like a worldly judge would do, God passed the
sentence. However, just as a lot of people sit on Death Row
for years before they are finally executed, so too, Adam and
Eve would continue living for many years, before the actual
sentence of death would be carried out in their bodies; but
it was indeed carried out. To this day, the earth, that is,
the ground, has indeed been cursed, in the sense that it has
become the receptacle of men, our common grave, as a result
of sin. As the Apostle Paul tells us, sin and death were
passed on to all men:

"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and
death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all
have sinned: (For until the law sin was in the world: but
sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death
reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not
sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is
the figure of him that was to come. But not as the offence,
so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one
many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by
grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto
many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift:
for the judgment was by one to condemnation, but the free
gift is of many offences unto justification. For if by one
man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which
receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.) Therefore as by
the offence of one judgment came upon all men to
condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free
gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by
one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the
obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover the
law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin
abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath
reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through
righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord."
Romans 5:12-21, KJV

So, no matter how we choose to interpret the story, God did
in fact fulfill His word to them in every regard. Adam and
Eve eventually died in a physical sense; and they also died
in the sense that the sweet fellowship they had known with
the Lord was broken. And of course, they apparently began to
lose whatever supernatural qualities their bodies may have
possessed before their fall. However, I am not so sure that
this was an immediate process, and I will tell you why.

As I have mentioned before, and as it is made rather clear
in the Bible, following the Fall of Adam and Eve, men still
lived for literally hundreds of years. In fact, Methuselah
out-lived Adam by thirty-nine years, and Noah lived longer
than Adam by twenty years. It wasn't until hundreds of years
after the Flood had occurred, that the human life span was
dramatically shortened. If you study my article "The Earth
Is Under 7,000 Years Old", you will discover that some 2,500
years after the Genesis account, or about four hundred years
after the Flood had occurred, some men were still able to
live to be about 120 years of age. What made this possible?
Was it that the initial spark of life given to Adam and Eve
was still having a powerful effect on human longevity? Was
it something in their perfect gene pool which continued to
be passed on for a number of generations?

As I noted earlier, I tend to think that perhaps it took
time for the effects of sin to corrupt and deteriorate the
human gene pool, to a point where the balance was broken,
and the forces of death which work against men's bodies,
where stronger than the force of life within men's bodies.
The aging process was thus accelerated, and the effects of
disease and sickness began to more heavily take their toll.

Some people have also proposed that the post-Flood Earth,
and more specifically, the post-Flood atmosphere, may not
have been the same as it had been before the Flood. It has
been suggested by some people, that prior to the Flood, the
Earth was enshrouded by more than just a thick cloud layer.
Please consider the words of Moses:

"And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the
waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And
God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were
under the firmament from the waters which were above the
firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament
Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second
day." Genesis 1:6-8, KJV

Allow me to bring something interesting to your attention.
In the previous verses, the Hebrew word translated there as
"waters" is "mayim". It is the same exact word which is used
only a few verses later when Moses describes how God
gathered the waters together in order to form the seas. It
is also the same word which is used when the Lord creates
sea life. In short, "mayim" very clearly means water, just
as you and I know it today; good old H2O. Now, on the other
hand, when clouds are discussed in the Old Testament, we
find different words being used, such as "anan", "shachaq"
and "ab". These words are not used in the Creation Account.
Now, if Moses really meant clouds when he wrote "waters
which were above the firmament", why didn't he use one of
these three words? Why did he use the Hebrew word "mayim"
instead? Could it be because that is literally what he
meant, and what he wanted us to understand?

So based on Genesis 1:6-8, there is a belief that there was
an actual belt of water suspended above what in Hebrew is
called the "raqiya"; that is, the open expanse of the sky,
or firmament. This layer of water later poured down on the
Earth during the Flood. In other words, in the beginning of
Creation, before God made the dry land to appear, the Earth
was covered by a huge global ocean, and hung in the darkness
of space. Above that ocean, and surrounding the Earth, was
the empty sky, or firmament. Above the firmament was a belt,
or band, whatever you wish to call it, of water. Once you
understand the Hebrew words used in the Book of Genesis, it
is very easy to form this picture in your mind. It seems
very plausible to me, and seems to be more in accordance
with the original Hebrew words used in the text.

Concerning the Flood, even logic dictates that such a great
volume of water, so great that it covered the highest point
of land by some fifteen feet, had to come from somewhere. As
I have pointed out before, we honestly don't know what was
the highest point of land at that time, being as the Bible
does tell us that God broke up the Earth, caused the oceans
to swell past their appointed shores, and divided the land
into different continents. Would forty days of constant rain
have been enough to accomplish such a massive feat as Noah's
Flood? Perhaps; but then again, perhaps not. Maybe something
more drastic was needed. Taking this thought a step further,
could it even be that God placed that layer of water there,
in a sense reserving it there, knowing full well for what
purpose He intended to use it over 1,500 years later? After
all, His Word does in fact tell us that He knows the outcome
of the full story, even before it has happened. Consider the
following verses:

"Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there
is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring
the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the
things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall
stand, and I will do all my pleasure:" Isaiah 46:9-10, KJV

If the idea of reserving the flood waters in the heavens
beforehand seems a bit foreign to you, consider the fact
that the Apostle Peter also tells us that God has reserved
both the heavens and the Earth for yet another terrible
judgment which will happen sometime in the future. In fact,
in speaking of this future event, Peter refers first to the
Flood in order to make a comparison, as we read here:

"For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word
of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out
of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then
was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens
and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in
store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and
perdition of ungodly men...But the day of the Lord will come
as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass
away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with
fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein
shall be burned up." 2 Peter 3:5-7, 10, KJV

Directly related to this idea of a belt of water surrounding
the pre-diluvian Earth, is the belief that it was this very
layer of water, which helped to filter out the harmful UV,
or ultraviolet rays of the sun, which, as science informs
us, contributes to skin cancer, aging, and other negative
affects on the human body. Again, this idea has some merit,
because as we have already seen, by four hundred years after
the Flood, people's lives had been reduced from living over
nine hundred years, to barely living one hundred years, with
a few scattered exceptions, such as Moses, Aaron, Joshua,
etc. By King David's time, even seventy years was viewed as
being an old age. Thus, King David, who in fact died at the
age of seventy, wrote:

"The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if
by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their
strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we
fly away." Psalm 90:10, KJV

In the Book of Genesis, there is a verse which suggests that
men's lives would be reduced to a maximum of 120 years as a
result of the Flood. As we have seen, with the belt of water
gone, the UV rays were no longer filtered out as they had
been beforehand, and this is precisely what happened. In
chapter six, just prior to the Flood account, we find the
following nebulous verse:

"And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with
man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an
hundred and twenty years." Genesis 6:3, KJV

The reason why I view this verse as being a bit nebulous, is
because it has been interpreted in two different ways. One
school of thought suggests that it means that God is saying
that He was going to send the Flood in 120 years in order to
destroy man, and remove him from the face of the Earth. This
idea seems to be supported by verses six and seven which say:

"And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth,
and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will
destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth;
both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls
of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them."
Genesis 6:6-7, KJV

The second school of thought views Genesis 6:3 as meaning
that God is saying that He will reduce man's life span to a
maximum of 120 years following the Flood, which did in fact
occur some four hundred years later. It was a slow, gradual
process. It didn't just happen all at once. The problem that
I personally have with the first view, is that according to
my calculations, from the time that verse was spoken, there
were only eighty to one hundred years until the time of the
Flood arrived. Of course, I do not dismiss the possibility
that there might be errors in my calculations.

But, whether we attribute it to that original spark of life,
which God gave to man during the Creation, waning weaker and
weaker as we grew further away from Adam and Eve, or to a
corrupted and deteriorated gene pool, or to an unrelenting
onslaught of ultraviolet rays since the time of the Flood,
the end result has been that disease, sickness and death, at
an earlier and earlier age, have been visited upon humanity.
Perhaps our sad state has been a result of a combination of
all of the aforementioned factors; but even if that is the
case, they still point to one common source; and that is the
sin which was introduced by the Original Pair, which has now
infected us all with a sinful nature, being as we are their
descendants. Surely, we have all felt the wages of sin; and
should the Lord for some reason delay His coming, we will
also experience the sting of death. As Paul also wrote:

"And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this
the judgment:" Hebrews 9:27, KJV

Modern man, however, is not happy with such a fate. In his
pride, he has convinced himself, that through his science,
if he works hard enough, and long enough, he will find a way
to defeat God's Edict; that is, His pronouncement of death
upon all men because of sin. Modern man thinks that he can
reverse the curse of aging; and eventually, even the curse
of death, if he can just unlock the final mysteries which
still challenge him. Rather than humbly accept what God has
ordained for humanity, and choose the way which God has set
before him in order to obtain Eternal Life, (that of course
being through Jesus), modern man wants to cheat. He wants to
do it his own way, and get there some other way, by becoming
his own little "creator god"; and he will attempt to do it
without forsaking his sins. But what did Jesus have to say
regarding those who attempt to enter by some other way? He
made it very clear when He said:

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the
door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the
same is a thief and a robber." John 10:1, KJV

Try as he might though, I don't believe that God will allow
man to overcome death through his science. As Jesus said so
long ago regarding the unbelieving Jews, unless man accepts
Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, he will die in his sins:

"Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye shall
seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot
come...I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your
sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in
your sins." John 8:21, 24, KJV

However, as I point out in such articles as "Death, Final
Battle, Final Victory", for we Christians, death is by no
means the end, but only the beginning of a new and better
life; in fact, an Eternal Life; for as it is clearly
written:

"Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but
we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the
dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be
changed." 1 Corinthians 15:51-52, KJV

"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a
shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump
of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we
which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so
shall we ever be with the Lord."
1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, KJV

"For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look
for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our
vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious
body, according to the working whereby he is able even to
subdue all things unto himself." Philippians 3:20-21, KJV

In the meantime, however, we must continue to deal with the
many afflictions which torment and attack our vessels of
flesh and blood. Returning to the original situation which
prompted this series, in her email message to me, the woman
referred to the affliction the other family member suffered
from, as a form of schizophrenia. Being as I do not possess
a formal background in any scientific or medical field, and
due to my limited understanding of this affliction, perhaps
like some of you, I was under the mistaken impression that
schizophrenia was primarily characterized by an individual
possessing multiple personalities; however, it appears that
this is not exactly an accurate description of the malady.
According to Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, it seems that
this form of the disease is rare. It states as follows:

----- Begin Quotes -----

Schizophrenia - Also called dementia praecox. A severe
mental disorder characterized by some, but not necessarily
all, of the following features: emotional blunting,
intellectual deterioration, social isolation, disorganized
speech and behavior, delusions, and hallucinations. A state
characterized by the coexistence of contradictory or
incompatible elements.

Multiple Personality - A rare disorder in which an
individual displays several functionally disassociated
personalities, each of a complexity comparable to that of a
normal individual. Also called split personality.

Schizotypal Personality - A personality disorder
characterized by a group of symptoms similar to but less
severe than schizophrenia, as odd behavior, peculiar
thinking, and social isolation.

----- End Quotes -----

As you can see, there appear to be some common symptoms
between these various mental disorders. From reading these
definitions, my new expanded understanding is that multiple
personality disorder is a rare, more severe form of the more
common schizophrenia, which itself is a more severe form of
schizotypal personality; but again, this is not a qualified
opinion.

Whatever the case may be, based upon what this woman has
written to me, and given what we find in the pages of the
Bible, as I mentioned earlier, I advised her that there is a
possibility that her children could be in serious danger due
to the other family member's affliction. Whether or not the
person in question suffers from a full-blown case of multiple
personality disorder, or a less severe form of the disease,
I do tend to agree with the woman, when she states that the
problem appears to be spiritual in nature. I rest my belief
upon the fact that what is described in the dictionary bears
striking similarities to multiple demonic possession. In the
following story, please notice that when the Lord directly
confronts the man, or better said, the evil spiritual forces
within him, they plainly state "My name is Legion: for we
are many". This multiple possession is confirmed by the fact
that upon being commanded to leave the man's body, the horde
of demons entered into a herd of swine, which suddenly went
berserk, and ran over the cliff, and drowned in the sea:

"And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met
him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, Who had
his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no,
not with chains: Because that he had been often bound with
fetters and chains, and the chains had been plucked asunder
by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any
man tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the
mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself
with stones. But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and
worshipped him, And cried with a loud voice, and said, What
have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high
God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. For he
said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. And
he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My
name is Legion: for we are many. And he besought him much
that he would not send them away out of the country. Now
there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of
swine feeding. And all the devils besought him, saying, Send
us into the swine, that we may enter into them. And
forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits
went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran
violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about
two thousand;) and were choked in the sea. And they that fed
the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country.
And they went out to see what it was that was done. And they
come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the
devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his
right mind: and they were afraid." Mark 5:2-15, KJV

In part two, we briefly discussed the possibility of "demon
transferral". In this incident from the Gospel of Mark, we
find another possible clue that "demon transferral" may be
possible. While this is again personal speculation on my
part, please consider the following:

In this story, we are told that upon realizing their fate,
that is, that they were about to be cast out of the man, the
demons known as "Legion" requested that Jesus cast them into
the herd of swine. Have you ever stopped to consider why they
may have done this? If you have ever read my article "Hell
And The Lake Of Fire", then you will already know that there
appears to be some evidence in the Bible, which suggests that
the deepest parts of the Earth, and the oceans, may possibly
serve as holding places for demons. If this is correct, then
my guess is that these demons knew that this is where Jesus
intended to send them. Thus, in order to escape such a fate,
they asked him to send them into the herd of swine instead.
Of course, the pigs ended up jumping into the sea anyway, so
the demons were defeated.

The point I wish to emphasize, however, is that this was in
fact a transferral, even if it was by the Lord's order. In
other words, the demons were transferred from a human to a
group of animals. In part one, I shared something with you
which may tie in directly with this story of "Legion". You
will recall that Jesus said:

"When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh
through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he
saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out;
and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and
garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven
other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in
and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse
than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked
generation." Matthew 12:43-45, KJV

There is something in those verses which caught my attention.
I am referring to the fact that in talking about the demon,
Jesus says "he walketh through dry places, seeking rest". It
was that cryptic phrase "dry places" which got my attention,
because I wasn't exactly sure what Jesus meant by that. So,
as is my custom, I looked up the original Greek words in my
Greek lexicon, in order to determine if perhaps it might
offer a clue which would expand my understanding. Well, it
did, but not in the way I had anticipated. There wasn't any
startling revelation. The actual Greek used in the phrase is
"anudros topos". The word "anudros" means "without water",
and the word "topos" means "place". So, the way that the KJV
Bible translates it is rather accurate; a place without
water, or a dry place.

That may not seem like much help at first, until you realize
that the way to understand what Jesus is saying, is simply
by comparing the places where the demon had wandered, to the
place where it had previously, and happily, been. Where was
that? In its human host, that's where! Now, have you ever
wondered what percentage of the human body is composed of
water? I found an answer to this question, in a post made by
Jeffrey Utz, M.D., Neuroscience, pediatrics, of Allegheny
University, who answered in the following manner:

----- Begin Quote -----

Different people have different percentages of their bodies
made up of water. Babies have the most, being born at about
78%. By one year of age, that amount drops to about 65%. In
adult men, about 60% of their bodies are water. However, fat
tissue does not have as much water as lean tissue. In adult
women, fat makes up more of the body than men, so they have
about 55% of their bodies made of water. Fat men also have
less water (as a percentage) than thin men.

----- End Quote -----

An article I found in The Boston Globe also provides similar
information. It states in part:

----- Begin Quote -----

An average adult body is 50 to 65 percent water -- that's
roughly 45 quarts. Men are more watery than women. A man's
body is 60 to 65 percent water, compared to 50 to 60 percent
for a woman. In infants, the figure is a whopping 70 percent
according to statistics compiled by the International
Bottled Water Association.

"'That's mostly for cushioning,'" says Felicia Busch, a
spokesperson for the American Dietetic Association and
specialist on the nutritional effects of water. "'Because of
the birth process, they need a lot of cushioning.'"

Water content differs throughout the body. Blood is made up
of 83 percent water, bones are 22 percent water, and muscle
is 75 percent water.

Men have more water in their bodies because they generally
have more muscle mass than women, says Busch. There is no
water in fat, she says, and women generally have a higher
percentage of body fat than men.

----- End Quote -----

In short, we flesh and blood humans are far from being "dry
places". In fact, we are rather "wet"; and it seems that,
according to Jesus' own words, this is where demons feel
most comfortable, or apparently at rest. You will notice
that in the previous verses, the demon did not just return
alone. He realized that he had it so good in the body that
he had possessed, that he took along an additional seven
demons. You might say that those seven demons "transferred"
from elsewhere. So is this yet another example of so-called
"demon transferral" perhaps?

As we conclude this series in part four, we'll continue our
discussion on "demon transferral", as well as take a look at
such issues as Satan's prime objective, modern scourges, the
spirit of fear, controlling our thoughts and spirits, the
exorcism of demons, the danger to others, God's desire for
our deliverance, the story of the lunatic son, prayer and
fasting as tools for deliverance, God's Power revealed in
our weaknesses, trusting fully in God's love, putting on the
whole armour of God, resisting the Devil, and submitting
ourselves to God's Will. I trust that you will join me.

⇒ Go To The Next Part . . .

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