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When God created Adam and Eve in the garden He spoke in the first-person plural form saying “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness“. This led to many varied interpretations of the following verse some hypothesizing that God may have been speaking to His Council or to His angels and others suggesting that extraterrestrial entities had created humanity rather than God. For this reason, I wish to share the following point of view which is supported by the Word of God:

Genesis 1:26 – “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”

The Hebrew word used for God in Genesis 1:26 is ‘ĕlōhîm (Elohim) which according to Strong’s concordance H430 means both the plural form of gods and God.

We already know that the Holy Trinity is composed of God the Father, Jesus-Christ the Son and the Holy Spirit. Most people understand God’s Holy Spirit to represent the feminine aspect of the Holy Trinity and that is correct. As the Holy Spirit abides in the Son, the Son also abides in the Father just like the Russian nesting dolls shown above. All three, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit are distinct persons yet all three become “One” in God, the Elohim.

God could have also spoken to His Council of Elders and/or His army of Angels when creating Adam and Eve because Scriptures attest to their respective existence however the Scriptures also make clear that God created human beings in His own image and this image consists of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

John 14:6-10 “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”

Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.”

Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work.“

But pray tell then, where is the female embodiment, the personification of the female aspect of the Holy Trinity you may ask? After all, there is the Father and the Son both indwelled with the Holy Spirit and God did create Eve from the first Adam, a woman in the flesh, so where is God’s daughter in the Holy Trinity? The answer is, she comes to life through all of us, through our SOULS once these are born again.

Adam and Eve being living souls were both indwelled by the Holy Spirit and were therefore two embodiments of the female aspect of the Holy Trinity even if Adam was a man in the flesh. While God created the male and female bodies to allow for reproduction, from the spiritual perspective, the bodies are meant to be dwellings for the souls, and the souls in turn are meant to be dwellings for the Holy Spirit.

Hence, our vessel or our bodies and our gender as man or woman here on earth have nothing to do with the “bride of Christ” who represents all born-again souls. As mentioned, God created the flesh body to allow souls to live physical experiences in this world however the true nature of a human being is a spiritual one embodied by the soul. The soul is called to be born again and become a bride of Christ. In other words, no matter what the container looks like, male or female, in your truest form you are a soul and all souls are meant to be entirely indwelled by the Holy Spirit to become brides of Christ and embody the feminine aspect of God.

It seems that God intended from the very beginning of creation for spiritual brides for His Son to be engendered through the Holy Spirit; the creation of Eve from Adam’s rib foreshadowed this in the flesh. The blood and water pouring out of Jesus’ side when He was pierced on the cross symbolizes the creation of the new Eves to come from the New Adam (read THE NEW ADAM AND THE NEW EVES).

When Adam and Eve sinned, the Holy Spirit in large part left their bodies or vessels and they were forced to moved into a different realm in light of their new condition. Our whole reason for being on earth living this physical experience is to hear the call of the Holy Spirit, repent, accept the sacrifice of Jesus Christ as payment for our sins and be “reborn in the Spirit” in order to return home.

When souls accept the sacrifice of Jesus-Christ on the cross to pay for their sins, this is equivalent to concluding a marriage covenant with Christ – i.e.: drinking from the cup of wine. From that moment on, the souls are engaged to Christ (or betrothed to Christ), they are brides in waiting for the return of their Bridegroom on the wedding day. This view is supported throughout the Word of God.

With respect to the process involving the birth of a bride from the Holy Spirit (a born-again soul in Christ) leading to her union with Christ or her marriage, God’s Word is completely aligned with the Jewish Marriage Customs in biblical times as can be seen in the following text extracted from a document by Dr. Renald Showers to which I have added notes and corresponding biblical verses.

Jewish Marriage Customs

“Those who live in the modern western world do not catch the full significance of Jesus’ promise. This is due to the fact that in His promise Jesus was drawing an analogy from Jewish marriage customs in biblical times. Since this is so, those marriage customs must be examined if one is to grasp the significance of the promise.

The first major step in a Jewish marriage was betrothal.

1 Betrothal involved the establishment of a marriage covenant. By Jesus’ time it was usual for such a covenant to be established as the result of the prospective bridegroom taking the initiative.

Parallel: Jesus came in the world under His and God’s own initiative. He came in order to redeem (or buy back) the captive souls from the world and to conclude a marriage covenant with the saved souls.

1 Corinthians 11:24-25 – “and when he had given thanks, he broke it (bread) and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.”

2 Purchase price for the bride: The prospective bridegroom would travel from his father’s house to the home of the prospective bride. There he would negotiate with the father of the young woman to determine the price (mohar) that he must pay to purchase his bride.

Parallel: Jesus paid with His life the price required in this legal construct to free souls from their captivity to sin, the price being an acceptable blood sacrifice.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 – “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.”

3 Once the bridegroom paid the purchase price, the marriage covenant was thereby established, and the young man and woman were regarded to be husband and wife.

4 From that moment on the bride was declared to be consecrated or sanctified, set apart exclusively for her bridegroom.

5 As a symbol of the covenant relationship that had been established, the groom and bride would drink from a cup of wine over which a betrothal benediction had been pronounced.

Parallel: As soon as Jesus was crucified on the cross, the marriage covenant was established between Him and all souls who would be born again through their faith in Him and the Holy Spirit. The cup of wine shared with the disciples at the last supper is symbolic of the blood that Christ would shed for us as well as the cup of wine shared by the groom and bride to conclude their marriage covenant.

6 After the marriage covenant had been established, the groom would leave the home of the bride and return to his father’s house. There he would remain separate from his bride for a period of twelve months.

Parallel: Once resurrected, Jesus left this world to return to his Father’s house (Heaven).

7 This period of separation afforded the bride time to gather her trousseau and to prepare for married life.

Parallel: Souls awaiting the return of the Bridegroom to be caught up in the clouds and meet the Lord in the air (the rapture) are called in the meantime to prepare by being purified in the world usually through persecution, so that their “robe” may be cleansed of all impurities; These souls are also called to be separated from any attachment to the world which would be incompatible with the Kingdom of God.

8 The groom occupied himself with the preparation of living accommodations in his father’s house to which he could bring his bride.

At the end of the period of separation the groom would come to take his bride to live with him. The taking of the bride usually took place at night. The groom, best man and other male escorts would leave the groom’s father’s house and conduct a torch light procession to the home of the bride.

Parallel: Jesus went to prepare a dwelling place for born-again souls in His Father’s dwelling place. He will return for the rapture accompanied by his angels with the sound of trumpets.

John 14: 1-3 – “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.”

9 Although the bride was expecting her groom to come for her, she did not know the exact time of his coming.

Matthew 24:36-37 – “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.”

10 As a result the groom’s arrival would be preceded by a shout:

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 – “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.”

11 This shout would forewarn the bride to be prepared for the coming of the groom. After the groom received his bride together with her female attendants, the enlarged wedding party would return from the bride’s home to the groom’s father’s house.

Parallel: At the rapture, born-again souls will be caught up to the Kingdom of God and therefore to the Groom’s Father’s house.

12 Upon arrival there the wedding party would find that the wedding guests had assembled already. Shortly after arrival the bride and groom would be escorted by the other members of the wedding party to the bridal chamber (huppah). Prior to entering the chamber the bride remained veiled so that no one could see her face.

13 While the groomsmen and bridesmaids would wait outside, the bride and groom would enter the bridal chamber alone. There in the privacy of that place they would enter into physical union for the first time, thereby consummating the marriage that had been covenanted earlier.

Parallel: In the Kingdom of God, brides united with Christ and God receive their new body and new name.

14 After the marriage was consummated, the groom would announce the consummation to the other members of the wedding party waiting outside the chamber. These people would pass on the news of the marital union to the wedding guests.

John 3:29 – “The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete.”

15 Upon receiving this good news the wedding guests would feast and make merry for the next seven days.

16 During the seven days of the wedding festivities, which were sometimes called “the seven days of the huppah,” the bride remained hidden in the bridal chamber.

17 At the conclusion of these seven days the groom would bring his bride out of the bridal chamber, now with her veil removed, so that all could see who his bride was.

In Summary: Life is in the breath of God which inhabits the soul and this breath is the Holy Spirit of God which is the feminine and immaterial aspect of the Holy Trinity. The embodiment of the feminine aspect of the Holy Trinity comes alive through all of us, through our SOULS once they are born again. Thus, born-again souls become brides of Christ and are “in” Christ through this union. God’s Daughter, the Bride of Christ, is therefore in the Son, Jesus Christ, who is in the Father – the three being distinct persons, the Father, the Son and the Daughter, but the three becoming “ONE” in God, the Elohim.

Another way to put it is to think of God as the Gardener (or the Vineyard Owner) and Jesus as the Vine on which born-again souls become the branches. The sap that flows through the branches is the Holy Spirit of God which allows them to produce good fruits. Souls, as in the Russian dolls above, are therefore united to God through Jesus. Once we understand this concept, we understand the following words of Jesus: “No one comes to the Father except through me.”

Why then is the concept that born again souls embody the feminine aspect of the Holy Trinity never discussed in this world? Could this be because God threatened Satan in the garden by indicating that the “Woman” and her seed would one day defeat him? The seed of the Woman who is the Bride of Christ are all the born-again souls who eventually become children of God following their marriage to Christ while the seed of Satan are those souls who are not born again and remain in a state of slavery in this world which is under Satan’s dominion.

Genesis 3:14-16– “And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children;”

The above passage refers to the consequences of sin on the flesh but as everywhere else in the Word of God, it also mirrors a spiritual counterpart. The posterity of the woman (the Bride) who is also the true Church consists of all the born-again souls for Christ. With this in mind, she has indeed encountered much difficulty in the world battling the dragon (Revelation 12) and has borne great sorrow in attempting to conceive of born-again souls or believers. However, God’s following promise gives us hope that the Bride will overcome the world and the Adversary to bring about a great posterity, children of God from all tribes and nations:

Isaiah 54 : 13-17

” ‘All your children will be taught by the Lord, and great will be their peace. In righteousness you will be established: Tyranny will be far from you; you will have nothing to fear.
Terror will be far removed; it will not come near you.
If anyone does attack you, it will not be my doing; whoever attacks you will surrender to you.

See, it is I who created the blacksmith who fans the coals into flame
and forges a weapon fit for its work.
And it is I who have created the destroyer to wreak havoc; no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.

This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me,’ declares the Lord.”

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