Thanks again to Bud Hancock for another thought provoking article. Bud has had a wealth of life experiences as a perusal of his biography at the end of his article indicates, What is normal for a Chimpanzee is certainly not normal for humans made in the image of God.

Gibber! Gibber!

Chugley

Whatever Happened to “Normal”?
By Bud Hancock

Since the first days of the recent COVID “pandemic”, when seemingly the entire World was turned upside down, the hue and cry has been heard: “Nothing is the same as it was before Covid; what happened to normal”? That was understandable due to the way the “pandemic” changed the lives of almost everyone on the planet.

With the overwhelming fear brought on by the fearful announcement of the arrival of a microscopic being supposedly capable of destroying all humanity (if you believe the fearmongers), that fear instituted lockdowns causing millions of people being forbidden from going to their churches, to their favorite restaurants, to their kids school play, in fact from congregating anywhere a certain size group of people would normally be expected to gather. The growing fear even convinced people that going outside in the fresh air and bright sunshine would endanger their health. Then when they dared to go out and be near other people, the fear caused them to accept the absurd need to cover their faces with a useless mask. Even when wearing the useless mask, the demand for “social distancing”, maintaining a six foot gap between themselves and other people produced scenes reminiscent of a bad sci-fi movie.
Perhaps the most damaging, financially and socially, was the idea that working from home instead of allowing people to be in their normal workplaces where they need to be in order to successfully accomplish their duties, would stop the “killer virus”. With all these departures from normalcy, and the other changes brought about due, not to the “pandemic”, but to the FEAR of the pandemic, it seemed that normal had become nothing more than a distant memory.

And where in the world did the term “social distancing” even come from? For most of my life, I thought that was what happened when a person forgot to use deodorant and his or her body odor caused other people to keep their distance. Apparently, that is NOT what the term now means.
Then I heard it said that the lockdowns, the masking, working from home and yes, even social distancing, were all part of the “new normal”. Those insidious statements, and the implied threat behind them, made me start thinking: “What is ‘normal’”?

Let’s see what the dictionary has to say about it:

normal /nôr′məl/
adjective
Conforming with, adhering to, or constituting a norm, standard, pattern, level, or type; typical. “normal room temperature; one’s normal weight; normal diplomatic relations.”

Functioning or occurring in a natural way; lacking observable abnormalities or deficiencies.
Relating to or designating the normality of a solution.

Millions of people are extremely upset that what they had considered normal for most of their lives was now gone. They had gotten used to a comfortable routine in their lives that seemed to have disappeared. For the most part, people like things to “run on an even keel”, no rocking of the boat, just keep things the way they are and always have been; that seems to be (fallen) human nature, and therein lies the rub. How many people even have a minimal grasp of “normal” and what it is supposed to be? Most people will be surprised to learn that the human race has not experienced true “normal” for thousands of years.
Let’s go way back in time to determine what normal truly is, and should be even now.
Genesis 1:1 – 2:25 describes the creation of the heaven and the earth. He accomplished this monumental task in six days, with certain creations occurring on certain days. After each day of His work, he looked out upon His handiwork and saw that “it was good”. The word translated as “good” into English from the original Hebrew is “towb” (Strong’s 2895, pronounced “tobe”). It means so many things, mostly adjectives describing something being good, pleasant, beautiful, best, better, bountiful, and cheerful among others. It is obvious from reading the many uses of that word that God saw that His creation was GOOD. If God says something is good, then no BAD could possibly be associated with it. God established “nature”, a perfect environment, without any abnormalities, deficiencies or flaws and everything in His creation was “normal”.

God established the “normalcy” of His creation, or in other words, He established a “norm”: a standard, a pattern, level or type. The end result of the miraculous deeds He had just done was what would, from that day on, be called “good”, possibly even “very good”, and certainly, natural, or “normal”.

After the creation was completed, “normal human life” on the newly recreated planet was initiated for God’s new creature, man. In this normal environment, man had all that he needed for a “normal life”, with all his food ready to pick from trees, all of it containing the perfect nutrition that would sustain human life with no death occurring as a result of eating bad food. The man, Adam, and his mate, Eve, walked freely through the garden that God had planted for them, totally naked and unashamed (Genesis 1:25), unaware that they were naked, not needing clothing to hide their nakedness. Of course we know that they were, indeed, naked because, after their treason against God had occurred, and God came down to commune with them, they hid from Him because they were naked (Genesis 2:10-11). Question: How did they NOT know they were naked until after they had sinned against God? The answer can be found in Psalm 8. There, the psalmist says:

“O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:”

Interestingly, the word “angels” in Psalm 8:4 is the Hebrew word, “elohiym” (Strong’s 430, pronounced el-o-heem’). It is the plural of the word “elowahh”, (Strong’s 433, pronounced el-o’-ah). Elowahh is the Hebrew singular word for deity or God. The King James Bible translators were obviously timid about saying that man was created just a little lower than God Himself, but regardless, that is the true meaning of the verse. God created man in His own image, and after His own likeness; since God (Elohim) is a triune being, made up of God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit, man is also a triune being, made up of a human spirit, a soul and a flesh and blood body. In this likeness and image, man was given dominion over the works of God’s hands, and this was never said of angels. This indicates that the word angels used by the translator in verse four was a definite error since angels are “ministering spirits” (Hebrews 1:14) who have never been given dominion over God’s Earthly creatures.

Of greater importance, especially in understanding that Adam and Eve were unaware of their nakedness is the word translated “glory”, the attribute that man was crowned with at their creation. That word is the Hebrew word “kabowd” (Strong’s 3519, pronounced kaw-bode’). It literally means “heaviness, weight, splendor and honor”. It is the same word used by Moses when he implored God to “show me thy glory” (Exodus 33:18). The same glory that covered the very presence of God is the same (slightly lower) glory with which Adam and Eve were “crowned”. The word crowned in verse four is the Hebrew word, “atar” (Strong’s 5849, pronounced aw-tar’ and its very meaning provides the answer to my question concerning the nakedness of Adam and Eve. It means ”to encircle” (for attack or protection); it also means “to encompass” or “to form a circle about” much like an enclosure. If, as I believe, this heaviness, this glory, this enclosure, prevented Adam and eve seeing their own nakedness, it establishes that, when they were created and “crowned with the Glory of God”, and God having declared that it was ”very good”, then that was their “normal state” until they sinned and lost that glory, leaving them to comprehend their nakedness, and the loss of protection it provided against their enemies.

Had humanity not sinned, and kept that “glory” surrounding them, there would never have been a disease or sickness that could have brought harm to them. The glory, the presence of God, would have destroyed it before it had any impact on the lives of God’s children. Free of sickness, free of shame, free of all evil, was the truly “normal” state that God intended for every human to experience.

Since that day, no man, other than Jesus Christ, has experienced the normal state in which man was meant to live. When He (the Logos, the Word of God, the preincarnate Jesus) “emptied Himself” of His heavenly privilege, that of having His own throne in heaven and, still being the express image of the Father, Jesus “veiled His glory”, keeping it from being visible to men except when He was transfigured before Peter, James and John. At his trial, torture and crucifixion, He voluntarily took on the sin of humanity which then separated Him from God; He stepped out of His Glorious state to become sin for us.
The lives of Adam and Eve, existing being covered by, surrounded by, God’s own glory is what God intended for all humanity to experience, and was the TRUE normal state that we have all lost, so we truly do not fully understand just what normal is or was meant to be. But there is some good news:
When Jesus comes in the clouds to take home His Church, we will have an eternity to finally know and experience NORMAL, and it will make what we considered normal before the Covid “pandemic” seem almost like torture. We will once again live surrounded by, encompassed about, and CROWNED with, God’s glory! HALLELUJAH!!
Maranatha and Blessings!

Bud Hancock

Born and raised in a small textile town in North Carolina, Bud’s family moved to Michigan in the hope of finding better employment with General Motors.  After graduating from high school, Bud began an apprenticeship with General Motors to become a Metal Modelmaker.  Retiring after a 30 year career, which included an eight year stint as a Metrologist (Science of high precision measurement), he and his wife moved back to North Carolina to be near his elderly parents.  Shortly thereafter, with both of his parents having passed, he began a new career in the bank security/ATM business, advancing from an entry level technician to one of two North Carolina customer service managers for his employer.  Retiring again after 13 years, he and his wife of 51 years relocated to Tennessee where Bud began writing articles emphasizing Biblical teaching and geopolitical issues.  At age 75, he and his wife relocated to South Carolina with their Miniature Schnauzer, Baxter.  Bud continues to study God’s word and write articles on Christian living and geopolitical issues from the Biblical end times  perspective.