5. GOD MADE EVERYTHING ACCORDING TO ITS KIND

During Creation Week

Satan has used numerous deceptions in his war against God, but the greatest weapon in his arsenal has been the portrayal of God as someone who has the character traits of his own principle of good and evil. In order to achieve his objectives, he portrays God as using violence, in particular towards reprobates. Thus he represents God as having the dual character traits of love and violent wrath.

Jesus’ life clearly uncovered that lie when He befriended sinners, openly eating and drinking with them. There were no barriers to Jesus’ love; He sought everyone regardless of rank, status, age, gender, or race. He yearned to touch every single person with His love, and hoped, as only agape love hopes, that everyone would come to know the Father as He really is, for in the true knowledge of God is hidden a treasure available to every human being. Jesus Christ alone is the One in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge (Col. 2:3), and in his own words we read:

And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent (John 17:3).

The Bible has given us foundational principles to govern our understanding and save us from the fundamental error of worshiping God as one who on one hand is infinite love, and on the other lashes out in vengeful, destructive wrath. The account we are given of Creation week reveals some of these basic principles regarding the character of God. Failure to understand and accept these cornerstone principles will most certainly cause us to worship a hybrid God.

God Created Everything According To Its Own Kind

The Genesis account of creation states and reiterates ten times within the span of fifteen verses that during creation week God created everything according to its kind. This phrase is used ten times in Genesis chapter one, verses eleven to twenty-five. The Hebrew word for ‘kind’ is min, and it always occurs in the singular form. All that God created according to its kind was a reflection of His identity. By bringing this aspect of creation to the forefront, something of fundamental importance is given to us.

The fact that God created everything according to its kind establishes the important principle that God did not create any part of creation as a hybrid. The Cambridge Dictionary’s definition of hybrid is as follows: ‘a hybrid is a plant or animal that has been produced from two different types of plant or animal, especially to get better characteristics, or anything that is a mixture of two very different things.’ Perhaps ‘different characteristics’ would have been a better choice of words in the above definition, for can anyone improve on God’s perfect Creation?

By creating a hybrid law, Satan supposed that he was improving God’s law, which to all intents and purposes does appear so to the carnal mind. In reality, however, it leads to nothing but death and destruction.

No amalgamation in God’s Creation

God did not mix any two different classifications in His Creation. Any subsequent disruption of this Creation model is an intrusion from Satan’s domain and is a misrepresentation of God. Amalgamation is a foreign entity in God’s perfect work of creating everything according to its kind. The intrusion of amalgamation, the disruption of God’s established order in the earthly sphere, began to take place only after Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden.

God Gave Commands To Keep Creation Pure From Hybrids
The statement that everything during creation week was created according to its kind is reinforced and taught in the Bible by means of various other commands against allowing any mixtures between kinds. These are a reminder that any form of hybridization represents a false view of God’s character, because God does not have a hybrid character: He created everything according to its kind. God’s own character therefore is according to its kind, being light only, having no darkness at all.

The first of these commands, warning against mixing, are found in the book of Leviticus:

You shall not let your livestock breed with another kind. You shall not sow your field with mixed seed. Nor shall a garment of mixed linen and wool come upon you (Leviticus 19:19).

You shall not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed, lest the yield of the seed which you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard be defiled (Deuteronomy 22:9).

You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together (Deuteronomy 22:10).

You shall not wear a garment of different sorts, such as wool and linen mixed together (Deuteronomy 22:11).

What is God really trying to tell us in these verses? The clear and loud practical message given here is that God intended for all things to remain in the same pure state in which He created them. We were not to mix the genetic makeup of seeds, to alter the DNA of plants or animals, for God had already created all things to their maximum perfection, and by mixing it they became defiled. There was no more room for improvement in God’s creation, and altering it in any way carried with it terrible destructive consequences. We may already be experiencing some of those consequences now, but we may never even know the full extent of the harm involved in disrupting the order of God’s perfect creation.

The Spiritual Significance Of God’s Commands

The spiritual importance of these commands is that they reveal a principle which emanates from God’s very essence as the Creator, and which thus reveals to us the inner workings of His mind. These are therefore principles by which God Himself operates. The above verses quoted from Leviticus and Deuteronomy teach us that God is pure, that in Him there is no mixture whatsoever, and when we claim that His character is a mixture of destructive wrath and love, we in essence have defiled Him. The principles laid down in the above texts teach us that there is no duality in God’s character, no mixture of light and darkness. If we worship God thinking that His character is a hybrid, He becomes defiled in our minds. He ceases to be, in our minds, the pure and unadulterated God that He really is.

Do Not Mix Linen With Wool

Let’s take one of the above commands and look at its spiritual implications. What could possibly be wrong with wearing clothing with a mixture of linen and wool? The Bible is very clear on this command, and if taken literally, all Christians should be adhering to this mandate. Yet, except for a few who are governed by orthodoxy, no one pays much attention to this directive, even though the Bible says it must be done. People run into terrible problems and do silly things when the reasons for such statements are not correctly understood.

Unless we grasp the spiritual significance for such directives, we will miss its divine implications. While it is true that mixing different species would bring terrible devastation to the earth, mixing linen with wool in our apparel has no genetic implications. But it was banned so that we will understand and remember the spiritual significance involved in this command. God’s character must not be desecrated with a mixture of two radically different character traits; if we do, in our minds, God Himself will not be according to His own kind, which is agape love. agape love can never be mixed with anything else. If an attempt is made to mingle agape love with even an infinitesimal amount of anything else, it will cease to be agape love. The principle of agape love is in harmony with the principle of everything according to its kind.

The Tree Of Good And Evil Was A Symbol Of Just Such A Hybrid

As we have seen, everything God had created in the Garden of Eden was perfect and according to its kind when it was given to Adam and Eve. If everything given to them was perfect, what about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Was that tree created according to its kind? In a creation in which cows beget only cows, in which apple trees produce only apples, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil stood out as an anomaly, as a foreign entity, and these red flags should immediately alert us that something is not quite right. Did God create a hybrid tree, an amalgamation which produced two types of fruit, one good and the other evil? Furthermore, did God give something evil to Adam and Eve in the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Had God done that He would have been the Creator of evil and sin. But if we allow ourselves to be guided by the principles revealed to us in the Bible, we will not be easily led astray:

Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning (James 1: 16,17).

Both Trees Were Part Of God’s Perfect Creation, But One Represented Satan’s Hybrid System Of Good And Evil

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is clearly a representation, a symbol, of Satan’s mixed principle. It is the embodiment of all that is promoted, propagated, and reflected from the domain of the adversary. The physical tree itself was part of God’s perfect creation, and therefore it served only as a symbol of Satan’s principle. Would God have created a contaminated tree in His pristine creation? Both trees were brought forth perfectly from the ground, for this truth is confirmed by the following statements which affirm that verything God created according to its kind was good:

And out of the ground the Lord God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food (Genesis 2: 9).

Every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food (Genesis 1: 29).

Then God saw everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good (Genesis 1:31).

It is obvious that if mixed seed or different kinds of seed are sown together, the fruit of this mixture will not be according to its kind and will be defiled:

You shall not sow your field with mixed seed (Leviticus 19:19).

You shall not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed, lest the yield of the seed which you have sown and the fruit of the vineyard be defiled (Deuteronomy 22:9).

We have done exactly that to God’s character, promoting a God with this mixed duality; by doing so, we have maligned and defiled His character.

If, from a biblical point of view, we believe that God’s character is comprised of a mixture of destructive wrath and love, and that he arbitrarily rewards and arbitrarily punishes, then for us, not only God’s character has become defiled, but our own minds have become defiled. Consequently, our action and lives will also become defiled by this erroneous view of God. When this happens, we, God and the earth is robbed of a perfect, loving relationship with God and each other.

A God With A Hybrid Character Operates By Good And Evil

Most Christians believe in the God of violence and also claim that the God they worship does not have a dual personality. But if God utilizes violence as a punishment mechanism, then He defaults into having a hybrid character. Those who believe that God does punish cannot understand the paradoxical and contradictory duality in mixing love and wrath. They propose that God’s use of violence to punish sinners is justified because in love He has to deal with evil in that way.

But the death of Jesus Christ on the cross negates this thinking by this one supreme truth: that God in His agape love died for the sins of the world and is not imputing our sins to us. What Jesus Christ demonstrated on the cross refutes that God needs to punish sinners. Jesus

Christ paid the total penalty for the sins of the world on the cross; therefore He does not still need to punish sinners. The idea of punishment originated with Satan’s law, and it is he who makes God appear as the One who punishes.

In God There Is No Mixture Of agape And Good And Evil 

All the references below exhibit the principle that there is no mixture in God’s character:

How long will you falter between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow Him; but if Baal, follow him (1 Kings 18: 21).

Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad; for a tree is known by its fruit (Matthew 12:33).

A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things (Matthew 12:35).

Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing, My brethren these things ought not to be so. With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh (James 3: 10, 9, 11, 12).

I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot.

I could wish you were cold or hot. So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold or hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth (Revelation 3: 15, 16).

An Evil And Adulterous Generation Refers To Those Who Perceive God’s Character To Be A Mixture

An evil and adulterous generation seeks after assign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here (Matthew 12:39-42).

Jesus’ utterance, an evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it, has a universal spiritual application. Jesus did not mean that every human being on planet earth was literally committing adultery. Of course not! The spiritual application of the word adulterous refers to a mixture of principles, an adulteration that is not in harmony with God and His rule of law. It means that humanity lives by a principle that is an adulteration of God’s agape love, that humanity lives by Satan’s principle represented by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and as such see God in the same light.

The evil and adulterous generation looked for a sign of worldly power and might, of supremacy over the enemies, of force and violence; in other words, a sign from the principle of good and evil. Up until the Babylonian captivity, Israel had constantly committed adultery against God by following false gods. After the captivity they never again overtly worshipped pagan gods, but they now ascribed the character of those pagan gods to the Creator God. So in essence they were still worshiping a pagan god. But Jesus, who was the one greater than Solomon, did not show by His words and actions that God is a God of force and violence. Jesus mentioned, as the paramount sign about God, His lying in the tomb for three days after His crucifixion, thus graphically demonstrating a God of non-violence and agape love.

Jesus is pointing us to his upcoming death at the cross as the most revealing demonstration of who God really is. The demonstration could be given only from the principle of agape love: God giving His life for the world, and then God, the God of life only, resurrecting from death. Jesus’ resurrection proved that agape love annihilated the principle of death, for death could not hold Him in the grave.

God Is Light With No Mixture Of Darkness

Ultimately, the greatest and easiest symbol God has given us in the attempt to teach us that there is no mixture at all in His character, is the symbol of light versus darkness.

The Bible says that God is light. In the Bible, the word light is symbolically used in reference to the nature and very essence of God. Darkness is the ultimate antithetical symbol to light, and this darkness is a symbol of the nature of Satan. The two can never be fused or mixed into one entity. Jesus made this claim Himself when He said that one cannot serve two masters:

No one can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise the other (Matthew 6:24).

If there was an existing harmony between the two masters, light and darkness, we would be able to serve both together, but there is no harmony between them because they are irreconcilable. Any attempt to mix the two, even if an angel from heaven said so, cannot be done. Satan and his minions are the only beings who communicate that it is possible for such a mixture to take place, but this is an absolute lie, and it is given for the sole purpose of deceiving the human race.

The moral perfection of the nature of God’s character is demonstrated in how He dealt with the sin problem by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. The so-called justice, or punishment, that the law of good and evil demanded for sin was paid by Jesus on the cross.

Instead of letting sinners receive the punishment Satan’s law demanded, the Son of God took all the punishment for sins upon Himself when He died on the cross, and by doing so he lived out the principle of self-sacrificing agape love.

A careful examination of the following verses will reveal to whom the price of redemption was paid in the salvation of mankind:

The Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh [SATAN] king of Egypt (Deuteronomy 7:8c; emphasis added).

The Lord of hosts has sworn, saying, ‘Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass, and as I have purposed, so it shall stand: That I will break the Assyrian [SATAN] in My land, and on My mountains tread him underfoot. Then his yoke shall be removed from them, and his burden removed from their shoulders. This is the purpose that is purposed against the whole earth, and this is the hand that is stretched out over all the nations. For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand is stretched out, and who will turn it back (Isaiah 14:24-27)?, emphasis added.

In these passages God is shown as redeeming us from the house of bondage and the hand of Pharaoh. Pharaoh is a symbol of Satan, and certainly not of God. Jesus removed the heavy yoke of Satan’s rule of law from our shoulders, and gave us His yoke, which is easy and light:

Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light (Matthew 11:29-30).

The World Believes God Is Punishing Us

Tragically the overwhelming majority of Christians believe that some of the most evil occurrences of destruction and death in the Bible, and even those occurring now, are acts of God. This depraved belief about God is what John the Apostle categorically refuted because he heard otherwise from Jesus Christ. This is the message John the apostle boldly declared that he heard from Him, Jesus Christ: God is light and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5).

The majority of the world erroneously believes that the tragedies which continuously befall humanity are an arbitrary punishment by God because of human sin. The cross absolutely denies this horrid depiction of God. The ultimate flawlessness of His nature means there is no impurity or mixture from the domain of darkness in His character. His nature is not such, and He could never be governed by the principle represented by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

Second Corinthians chapter six, verse fourteen, clearly shows us that light and darkness have nothing in common and therefore have no relationship with each other: Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?

Primarily, this verse is showing us a principle, commanding us not to mix two antithetical principles because in reality they can never be combined to become one. The fundamental application for this verse relates to God’s and Satan’s characters as being unmixable; it refers to the unbridgeable gap that exists between God’s principle represented by the tree of life and Satan’s principle represented by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is speaking about the vast chasm that lies between God’s rule of law of agape love and Satan’s rule of law of good and evil, and ultimately it refers to the impossibility of mixing God, the Creator of a perfect Creation, and Satan, the destroyer of that perfect Creation.

The secondary application here given applies to human relationships, and is given as advice especially to those who are contemplating marriage. This principle discourages the union in marriage of someone who believes and lives by God’s principle to one who is in opposition to such a belief, for such union may bring more pain than joy in the marriage relationship. Thus it establishes the fact that light and darkness have no communion in the human level. If light and darkness have no communion on the human level, would they possibly coexist in God Himself