I was
returning to my hotel in New Delhi some years ago from a private
conference with the late Mrs. Indira Gandhi, Prime Minister of
India. Ever since arriving in India I had noticed cows and oxen
wandering through the streets. I had never seen such animals
straying loosely through city streets in any other
country.
"Don't these cattle stray quite a distance from
home?" I asked of the car driver.
"Oh yes," he
answered.
"But when," I asked, "they wander all over the
streets so far away, how do their owners find them, to drive them
back home for the night?"
The car driver smiled. "The owners
don't. But the cattle and oxen know their owners and where they
live. They find their own way home in the
evening."
Immediately I thought of the scripture in the first
chapter of Isaiah, which I had never understood so perfectly before
this living explanation.
"Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O
earth: for the Lord hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up
children, and they have rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his
owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my
people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with
iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they
have forsaken the Lord . . . they are gone away backward" (Isa.
1:2-4).
And this was spoken of ancient Israel, a nation to
which God had revealed himself by many evidences and miracles. How
much less do other nations know about God--about who and what
God is!
Nevertheless, other nations are human beings just
like the nation Israel. It is important at the very outset of this
chapter that you notice God calls these humans his own children.
Many people say, "God just doesn't seem real to me." God is a great
mystery to them. Their own human fathers don't seem like a mystery.
They seem real.
Why Does God Seem
Unreal?
In this chapter I hope we will help make God
as real to you as your own human father. God does reveal himself to
us in the Bible, if we will just understand it, so that he will seem
real to us.
Of the peoples of the Roman Empire, God inspired
the apostle Paul to write:
"For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of men who by
their wickedness suppress the truth. For what can be known
about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. Ever
since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his
eternal power and deity [spiritual], has been clearly perceived in
the things that have been made [physical]. So they are without
excuse; for although they knew [about] God they did not honor him as
God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking
and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they
became fools" (Rom. 1:18-22, Revised Standard Version).
The
billions now living on earth not only are ignorant of the most
important knowledge--who and what God is--they seem not to want to
know! They are willingly in ignorance of this most important
knowledge and relationship possible in human
life!
Astonishing--but true!
And why have humans been
willingly ignorant of man's most important relationship? One
explanation, only, is possible! All nations have been
deceived (Rev. 12:9). And the fact of this universal
deception makes certain the fact of a super deceiver! More of this, later.
God UNREAL to the Ancients
The first
created man Adam, taking to himself from the forbidden tree the
knowledge of good and evil, was at the same time rejecting God as
Creator. It is certain that God had revealed somewhat of himself, a
certain knowledge to Adam.
Nevertheless Adam had cut himself
off from God his Creator. Undoubtedly, some of the knowledge that
God had imparted to Adam was successfully imparted from father to
son for many generations. Jesus had called Abel, Adam's second son,
"righteous Abel." He did the right thing in offering a lamb in
sacrifice. Later, Enoch "walked with God." God spoke to Noah and
gave him instructions for the building of the ark.
After the
Flood certain historic accounts imply that Shem, one of Noah's three
sons, had some knowledge of the true God. But undoubtedly, as
generation succeeded generation of humanity, knowledge of God had
become greatly distorted.
Nimrod, as recorded in chapter 4 of
this book, made a virtual god of himself. Through the succeeding
generations and centuries knowledge of the true God faded almost
completely. The ancient pagan nations made many different idols out
of clay, wood, stone and other materials. Many examples of pagan
idol gods have been dug up by archaeologists and may be seen in
museums today. As the apostle Paul said, they worshipped the
creation rather than the Creator (Rom. 1:25).
First Century A.D. Concept
Coming to the
New Testament, we catch a glimpse of the ignorance of any knowledge
about God. The scholarly of the world in the first century were the
Athenian intellectuals. Some of them encountered the apostle Paul in
Athens.
"Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of
the Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler
say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods:
because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection. And they
took him, and brought him unto Areopagus [atop Mars Hill], saying,
May we know what this new doctrine, whereof thou speakest, is? . .
.
"Then Paul stood in the midst of Mars' hill, and said, Ye
men of Athens, I perceive that in all things ye are too
superstitious. For as I passed by, and beheld your devotions
[objects of worship--Revised Standard Version], I found an altar
with this inscription, To the unknown
God. Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto
you. God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he
is Lord of heaven and earth . . . he giveth to all life, and breath,
and all things; and hath made of one blood all nations of men for to
dwell on . . . the earth . . . for in him we live, and move, and
have our being . . ." (Acts 17:18-19, 22-26, 28).
And now
what of the scholarly of our Western world today? One would
think, the most highly educated ought to know who and what
God is! Suppose you ask at random 100 university deans, "Do you
believe in God?" Perhaps three or four would answer, "Oh, I believe
in the existence of God--as a 'first cause.'" But they cannot tell
you who and what God is! They cannot tell you what God
is like! God is not real to them. In other words, he is a mystery.
Perhaps another six or eight of the hundred will admit they are
agnostics--they do not know "for sure" whether God exists.
I
have said that education has become a matter of memory instillation.
From elementary grades to higher graduate levels of study, our
educational systems inject ready-made concepts, ideologies and a
mixture of facts and fables into the unsuspecting minds of children,
youths and young adults. Students in our school systems are graded
according to how well they accept, memorize and can recite or write
in tests what has been taught--whether true or false.
Modern
education has given universal acceptance to the fable of evolution.
Evolution is the agnostic's or atheist's attempt to explain the
existence of a creation without the preexistence of the Creator. It
removes God from the picture. It blinds itself to the mystery by
attempting to remove God altogether.
Material Creation Seems Real
The
creation is material, visible, and therefore seems real. The system
of modern education has become entirely materialistic. The modern
scientific concept denies the invisible and the spiritual as having
existence. Yet all our seemingly unsolvable problems and the evils
in this world are spiritual in nature.
I quoted above from
the first chapter of the book of Romans. The 28th verse says, ". . .
they did not like to retain God in their knowledge." Little or
nothing is taught about God, but even in the elementary grades the
basic concept--the approach to
knowledge--is evolution.
Is it any wonder, then, that the
scholarly do not know who or what God is? They believe what they have
been taught.
As I write I recently returned from my second
four-day visit in Beijing (Peking), as the first religious leader
from the world of Christianity to be invited by the government to
speak before large groups at the Chinese capital. I have met in
private conference with the vice chairman of the Standing Committee
of the National People's Congress, Tan Zhen-lin, and now, on this
second visit, with Deng Xiaoping, the unquestioned leader of
China.
In speaking with China's leader, I was speaking to the
top official now molding the minds and beliefs of over one billion people--almost a fourth
of all the people on earth. China, in population, is the world's
largest nation. In very ancient times the religion in China was
ancestor worship. Then came Confucianism, rivaled by Taoism. Later
Buddhism was introduced from India, then Christianity. Today the
nation is communist--atheist.
I found China's leaders to be a
very cordial, friendly and courteous people--but knowing who and what
God is most certainly is not what they are now concerned about. I
did not try to tell them who and what God is, but I did tell two large and
important audiences of leaders what God is very soon going to
do--and I announced this forthcoming book, which I am writing
now.
India is the second largest nation. What have they known
about who and what God is? Nothing!
Russia is third largest in
population. They did have Russian Orthodox Christianity, and now
atheism.
I am not condemning or judging these people--and I
presume they are as well-meaning as any people. God is not judging
them now--as I shall explain later.
Neither is he condemning them. He loves them and will call them all
to eternal salvation in his own time. But they do not know who and what
God is.
In ancient Egypt they worshipped the gods Isis and
Osiris. The Greeks and Romans anciently had mythological gods such
as Jupiter, Hermes, Dionysus, Apollo, Diana and many others. But
they did not know, and their peoples do not know today, who and what
God is. But WHY?
Why Willingly
Ignorant?
Already, in the quotation from the first
chapter of Romans, I have given you a reason--they were
willingly ignorant of the things of the true God. But WHY? Why willingly
ignorant? In Romans 8:7 it is stated plainly that the natural mind
of humans is hostile against God. This does not necessarily mean
that all unconverted human minds are actively, intentionally,
maliciously hostile. Most humans are passively hostile against God.
They simply do not normally think about God. If God is mentioned
they become embarrassed and often try to change the subject. They
probably do not realize, in their own minds, that they have a
hostile attitude toward God. Yet that is the very reason,
psychologically, why they want to avoid the subject. In other words,
the average person has an unrealized passive hostility against God.
Without realizing it actively, they want God to "keep his nose out
of their business"--except at a time when they are in deep trouble
and they cry out for God's help.
Spiritual things--invisible
things--are a mystery to them. They do not understand those things,
real though they are, because they cannot see them. They remain a
deep mystery so they deny their existence.
There was a cause
for this willing ignorance. And the Bible clearly tells us that
cause, which is dual: 1) what occurred prehistorically, and 2) what
God himself instituted following the original sin of Adam. All this
(to be explained in the next two chapters), and the cause of all the escalating evils of today's
world, are clearly revealed by God Almighty in his Word the Holy
Bible. This will be made plain as we progress.
But first,
what does the Bible reveal about who
and what is God? It is only in
this inspired book that God reveals himself. But mankind in general
has never believed God--that is, what God says! God spoke
face to face, personally, to Adam and Eve, the first created humans.
Then he allowed Satan to approach them. Satan got to Adam through
his wife. Our original parents believed Satan when he said, "Ye
shall not surely die," after God had said, "Thou shalt surely
die" upon stealing the forbidden fruit.
When Jesus Christ
spoke on earth 4,000 years later, only 120 people believed what he
said (Acts 1:15), though he preached his message from God to
multiple thousands.
No wonder, then, not one of these
religions, sects and denominations, except the small and persecuted
Church founded by Jesus Christ (a.d.
31), starting with that 120, believes God, which means these others
do not believe what God says in his Word. God's Word plainly reveals
who and what God is! But there is a reason for their ignorance. This
will be made clear as we proceed.
Just who and what,
then, is God? How does he reveal himself? Already I have quoted the
apostle Paul saying to the Athenian intellectuals that God is the
Creator, who designed, formed, shaped and created man.
The prophet Isaiah quotes God
himself, saying: "To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be
equal? . . . Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created
these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth
them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is
strong in power; not one faileth" (Isa. 40:25-26).
Read this
in the James Moffatt translation in modern English:
"'To whom
will you compare me, then, and equal me?' asks the Majestic One.
Lift high your eyes, look up; who made these stars? he who marshals
them in order, summoning each one by name. For fear of him, so
mighty and so strong, not one fails to appear."
Further, God
himself says to the skeptics: "Now, the Eternal cries, bring your
case forward, now, Jacob's King cries, state your proofs. Let us
hear what happened in the past, that we may ponder it, or show me
what is yet to be, that we may watch how it turns out; yes, let us
hear what is coming, that we may be sure you are gods; come, do
something or other that we may marvel at the sight!--why," taunts
God to the doubter, "you are things of naught, you can do nothing at
all!" (Isa. 41:21-24, Moffatt). These scriptures reveal God's power
but not what God is, in a manner to make him real to the reader.
Other scriptures must do that.
God,
Creator of Universe
God is Creator of all--of everything in the vast universe--the
stars, the galaxies in endless space, this earth, man and everything
in the earth.
That is what God
is--what he does. He creates!
He designs, forms and shapes. He gives life! He is the great giver. And his law--his way of
life--is the way of giving, not
getting, which is the way of this
world.
But what is God like? Who is God? There have been many
conceptions. Some believe God is merely the good or good
intentions, within each human--merely some part of each human
individual. Some have imagined God was some kind of idol composed of
gold or silver, or carved out of wood, stone or other material. The
Israelites thought, while Moses was communing with God on Mount
Sinai, that God was, or looked like, a golden calf.
Many
think God is a single individual supreme Personage. Some thought he
was a spirit.
But the generally accepted teaching of
traditional Christianity is that God is a Trinity--God in three
Persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which they call a "Ghost." The
word trinity is not found in the Bible, nor does the Bible
teach this doctrine. But more about that later.
God in Prehistory
Now let's go back to
the very beginning, in prehistory.
If you were asked where in
the Bible to find the very earliest description of God in point of
the time of his existence, you probably would say, "Why, in the very
first verse in the Bible, Genesis 1:1, of course.''
Right?
Wrong!
In time-order the earliest revelation of
who and what God is is found in the New Testament:
John 1:1.
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with
God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing
made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of
men" (John 1:1-4).
"The Word" in this passage is translated
from the Greek logos, which means "spokesman," "word" or
"revelatory thought." It is the name there used for an individual
Personage. But who or what is this Logos? Notice the explanation in
verse 14:
"And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,
(and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father,) full of grace and truth."
When he was born as Jesus
Christ, he was flesh and blood, materialistic and could be seen,
touched and felt. But what was he? As God--as the Logos? That is
answered in John 4:24, "God is a Spirit," and spirit is invisible.
We know what was his form and shape as the human Jesus. But of what
form and shape was he as the Word? We will explain that
later.
The Word, then, is a Personage who was made
flesh--begotten by God, who through this later begettal became his
Father. Yet at that prehistoric time of the first verse of John 1,
the Word was not (yet) the Son of God. He divested himself of his
glory as a Spirit divinity to be begotten as a human person. He was
made God's Son, through being begotten or sired by God and born of the virgin Mary.
So
here we find revealed originally two Personages. One is God.
And with God in that prehistoric time was another Personage who also
was God--one who later was begotten and born as Jesus Christ. But
these two Personages were spirit, which is invisible to human eyes
unless supernaturally manifested. Yet at the time described in verse
one Jesus was not the Son of God and God was not his
Father.
Who Was
Melchisedec?
We find regarding the beginning of his
existence, something further described in Hebrews chapter 7.
Speaking of Melchisedec, who was king of Jerusalem in the days of
Abraham, it says also that he was the Priest of God Most High. This
Melchisedec had existed from eternity--"without father, without
mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end
of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest
continually" (Heb. 7:3).
Since Melchisedec was
"like unto the Son of God," and abides as High Priest forever
continually, and Jesus Christ is now High Priest, Melchisedec and
Jesus Christ are one and the same Person.
Therefore Christ
was "without father, without mother, without descent [in Abraham's
time], having neither beginning of days, nor end of life." God also
had existed eternally with the Word. Jesus, when he was "the
Word," was an immortal being who had existed always--there never was a time when he did
not exist--without beginning of days. He was, then, "like" the Son
of God--but he was not yet the Son of God. He also was God, along
with God.
These passages show that the Word, in the
beginning--before anything had been
created--was with God, and he, also, was God. Now how could that
be?
There might be a man named John. And John might be with
the man named Smith, and John might also be Smith because John is
the son of Smith, and Smith is the family name. Yet they are two
separate persons.
The only point of difference in that
analogy is that the Word, at the time of John 1:1, was not, yet, the
Son of God. But he was with God, and he also was
God.
They were not yet Father and Son--but they were
the God kingdom!
That family is
composed, now, of God the Father, and Jesus Christ his Son, and many
begotten humans who already, now, are
begotten sons of God (Rom. 8:14, 16; I
John 3:2), forming the Church of God.
That family aspect--the God family--is vitally important, and this
will be thoroughly explained later.
But now, where are
we?
Long before anything else existed, there did exist two
Supreme Beings, immortal, who always
had existed. Your mind can't quite conceive that "always," but
neither can it quite conceive of what is electricity! Yet you
know electricity exists and is real!
How
Christ Was Creator
So back to our question, "Who and what
is God?" Before anything else came into existence there was
God and the Word, composed of spirit, not of matter, but
nevertheless very real. Two Persons--not three. And, verse 3 of John
1, all things (the universe) were made by the Word.
Now
understand this, by adding Ephesians 3:9: ". . . God, who created
all things by Jesus Christ."
Let me explain. In the first
week in January, 1914, I was sent by a national magazine to Detroit,
Michigan, to interview Henry Ford to obtain material for an article
on his sensational new $5-a-day wage policy. I saw Henry Ford in the
administration building, wearing a business suit with white collar
and necktie. Then I looked across the breezeway into the giant
factory (then the Highland Park factory) and I saw perhaps thousands
of men in overalls, working at machines powered with electrical
energy. Mr. Ford was called the maker of the Ford car. But he
made the cars by these workmen, who used the power of
electricity and machines.
In the same manner, God the Father
is Creator. But he "created all things by Jesus Christ." Jesus is
the Word. It is written, "He spake, and it was done" (Ps. 33:9). God
tells Christ what to do (John 8:28-29). Jesus then speaks, as the
workman, and the Holy Spirit is the power that responds and does what Jesus
commands.
Thus, as we read further, in Colossians 1,
beginning verse 12, "Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath . . .
translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son . . . who is the
image of the invisible God [same appearance, form and shape and
character] . . . for by him were all things created, that are in
heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they
be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things
were created by him, and for him: and he is before all things, and
by him all things consist" (verses 12-13, 15-17).
Therefore
God's Word reveals that God and the Word--two supreme
Personages--coexisted always--and
before anything had been
created--including this earth and the entire universe.
In the
quotation above, Christ is in the image--form and shape--of God.
Perhaps it will make God more real to you when you realize he is in
the same form and shape as a human being. More proof of this will be
given later.
There was a time, therefore, when those two
Personages coexisted and nothing else
did.
No third Person is mentioned--no "Ghost.'' Is God, then,
limited to only two Persons? The false Trinity teaching does limit
God to three Persons. But God is not limited. As God repeatedly
reveals, his purpose is to reproduce himself into what well may
become billions of God persons. It is the false Trinity teaching
that limits God, denies God's purpose and has palpably deceived the
whole Christian world. Both God and the Word themselves are spirit, and project their Spirit. Let me
illustrate. By your eyesight you can see something across the room,
or see to the sun or even to stars that are many times the size of
our sun, only much farther distant. But through your eyesight you
cannot act on those objects. In like manner, God can project his
spirit to any place regardless of distance, but through his Spirit
God is able to act on such objects or to change it as he wills.
Thus, God is omnipresent.
How long must they have thought,
and planned, and designed, before even beginning to create anything
whatsoever!
But matter--this earth, the stars, nebulae,
galaxies--was not the first thing they created. They created
angels before the creation of matter.
God speaks of the
creation of the earth in the 38th chapter of Job. He says that, at
the creation of the earth, all the angels shouted for joy (verse 7).
Therefore all the angels already were in existence when the earth
was first created.
In Genesis 1:1 it speaks of God creating
the earth and the heavens. In the Authorized Version the word
heaven--singular--is used. But the original Hebrew as Moses
wrote, and as other translations render it, is in the
plural--heavens--implying that the whole material universe
was created simultaneously with the earth. This is plainly stated in
Genesis 2:4: "These are the generations [beginnings] of the heavens
[plural] and of the earth when they were created, in the day that
the Lord God made the earth and the heavens."
However, the
word day in this context is not necessarily a
twenty-four-hour day, but a general period of time. That might have
been multiple thousands or millions of years ago. Angels were placed
on earth before the creation of man. Since angels are immortal
spirit beings, they might have dwelt here thousands or millions of
years before the creation of man. How many God does not reveal. The
earth, at first, was the abode of angels. But, Jude 6, "And the
angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own
habitation [the earth]. . . ."
What Is
God's Appearance?
Now more detail on who and what
God is.
God is Spirit (John 4:24, Revised Standard Version).
Why is God not real to so many people? Because God and the Word were
composed of spirit, not matter, not
flesh and blood, like humans. God is invisible to human eyes
(Col. 1:15). He does not seem real. To seem real, the mind naturally
wants to visualize a definite form and shape. But even though God is
composed of spirit and not of visible matter, God nevertheless does
have definite form and shape.
What is God's form and
shape?
In Genesis 1:26, "God said, Let us make man in our
image, after our likeness." We know the form and shape of man. That
is the image, likeness, form and shape of God.
In various
parts of the Bible, it is revealed that God has a face, eyes, a
nose, mouth and ears. He has hair on his head. It is revealed God
has arms and legs. And God has hands and fingers. No animal, fowl,
bird, fish, insect or any other kind of life we know of has hands
like human hands. Even if any other living being of which we know
had a mind to think with, without hands and fingers he could not
design and make things as a man does.
God has feet and toes
and a body. God has a mind. Animals have brains, but no mind power
like man's.
If you know what a man looks like, you know what
is the form and shape of God, for he
made man in his image, after his very likeness!
One of Jesus'
disciples asked him what God the Father looks like. Jesus replied:
"Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me,
Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father . . ." (John
14:9). Jesus looked like the Father. Jesus was, actually, "God with
us" (Matt. 1:23). Jesus was the begotten and born Son of
God.
And what was Jesus' appearance? It was that of a human
man, for he also was the Son of man. He looked so much like other
Jewish men of his day that his enemies bribed Judas to point him out
and identify who, in a crowd at night, was Jesus.
So now we
know God has the same form and shape as a man. We also know he is
composed of spirit, not of matter as is man. Spirit is invisible to
human eyes, unless manifested by some special process.
And
if so manifested we would see both God the Father and Christ
now glorified in heaven with faces, though formed and shaped like
human faces, as bright as the sun full strength! Their eyes flames
of fire, feet like burnished brass and hair white as snow (Rev.
1:14-16).
God's Nature and
Character
Most important of all however is what is
God's nature--his character--like? One
cannot know what God is unless he knows what his character is!
The character of both God the Father and
Christ the Son is that of spiritual holiness, righteousness and
absolute perfection.
That character might be summed up in the
one word love, defined as an
outflowing, loving concern. It is the way of giving, serving,
helping, sharing, not the "get"
way.
It is the way devoid of coveting, lust and greed, vanity
and selfishness, competition, strife, violence and destruction, envy
and jealousy, resentment and bitterness.
God's inherent
nature is the way of peace, of justice, mercy, happiness and joy radiating outward toward those he has
created!
The Word and God lived. What did they do? They created. How
did they live--what was their "life-style"? They lived the way of
their perfect character--the way of outflowing love. When Jesus was baptized, God the
Father said, "You are my beloved Son." God loved the Word. And the Word loved God--obeyed him completely.
Two
can't walk together except they be agreed. They were in total
agreement and cooperation. Also two can't walk together in
continuous peace except one be the head, or leader, in control. God
was leader.
Their way of life produced perfect peace,
cooperation, happiness, accomplishment. This way of life became a law. Law is a code of conduct, or
relationship, between two or more. One might call the rules of a
sports contest the "law" of the game. The presence of law requires a
penalty for infraction. There can be no law without a penalty for
its violation.
God--Author of
Government
The very fact of law presupposes government. Government is the administration
and enforcement of law by one in authority. This necessitates
authoritative leadership--one in command.
When the only
conscious Life-Beings existed, God was leader--in authoritative
command. Thus, even when the only conscious Life-Beings were God and
the Word, there was government, with
God in supreme command. The government of God is of necessity
government from the top down. It cannot be "government by the
consent of the governed." Its laws originate and are handed down
from God--never legislated by the people--never dictated by the
governed how the government over them shall rule them. Since they
created other conscious, thinking life-beings, this very fact of
necessity put the government of God
over all creation, with God supreme Ruler.
Our human
civilization has assumed the prerogative of lawmaking. Human
governments, whether city, county, state or national, have lawmaking
bodies--city councils, state legislatures, national congress,
Parliament, Reichstag, Diet or Knesset. But 6,000 years of human
experience have demonstrated the utter incapability of humans to
decide right from wrong, or to formulate laws for human conduct and
relationships.
Human lawmaking bodies have made so many laws
that the average policeman in a city could not possibly keep in his
mind a fraction of the laws whose violations he is supposed to act
upon. Some may remember a comic strip in American newspapers, "There
ought to be a law." The comic strip was poking fun at the very idea
that human lawmakers have made so many laws, and yet fail to cover
every possible infraction.
God's law is spiritual and can be
summed up in one simple but all-inclusive word--love. His law for
the guidance of human conduct is subdivided into the two great
commandments, love toward God and love toward neighbor. These, in
turn, are subdivided into the 10 Commandments. Jesus magnified this
law by showing how its principle expands to cover virtually every
possible human infraction. The third chapter of II Corinthians shows
that God's law is to be applied in principle. It is summed up in one
single word, love. Nevertheless, it is so perfect that, by applying
its principle, it is a complete law. There is only one perfect
lawmaker, and that is God.
Bear in mind the government of God
is based on the law of God, which is
the way of life of outflowing love,
cooperation, concern for the good of the governed. And this law of
God produces peace, happiness, cooperation through
obedience.
God Is a
Family
Now once again to Genesis 1:1: "In the
beginning God. . . ." This originally was written by Moses as God
inspired him. Moses wrote in Hebrew. The Hebrew word translated
"God" is Elohim--a noun or name, plural in form, but normally
singular in grammatical usage. It is the same sort of word as
family, church, group--one family consisting of
two or more members--one church composed of many members--one group
of several persons.
It is referring to precisely the same
Persons, making up or composing the one God, as we found in John
1:1--the Word and God--and each of those two Persons is God.
In other
words, God is now a family of Persons, composed so far of
only the two--God the Father and
Christ the Son. But if the Holy Spirit
of God dwells in someone, and he is being led by God's Spirit, then
(Rom. 8:14) he is a begotten son of God. But, at the time of
Christ's return to earth in supreme power and glory to set up the
kingdom of God, restoring the government of God abolished by Lucifer, then
all being filled and led by God's Spirit shall become born sons of God. The God Family will then rule all nations with the government of God restored!
The
Trinity doctrine limits God to a supposed three Persons. It
destroys the very gospel of Jesus
Christ! His gospel is the good news of the now soon-coming kingdom of God--the only hope of this world
and its mixed-up mankind!
The Trinity doctrine, by contrast,
is the doctrine of the great false religion called in Revelation
17:5: "Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and
abominations of the earth."
By that doctrine, along with
others, Satan has deceived all
traditional Christianity.
The Trinity
Doctrine
The generally accepted teaching of
traditional Christianity is that God is a Trinity--God in three
Persons--Father, Son and Holy Spirit (which is often called a
"Ghost").
How did this "Trinity" doctrine enter traditional
Christianity?
It most emphatically did not come from the
Bible. I have quoted Revelation 12:9 saying that all nations have
been deceived by Satan the devil. How, then, did the wily Satan
introduce this doctrine into "Christianity"?
The history of
this question is interesting. It seems incredible that a being like
Satan not only could have deceived the whole world, but also
"Christianity"--the very religion bearing Christ's name and supposed
to be his true religion. Yet, paradoxically, Satan did!
He
did it through his great false church, started a.d. 33 by Simon the Sorcerer, described in
the 8th chapter of the book of Acts as the leader of the Babylonian
mystery religion in Samaria. It is recorded in II Kings 17:23-24
that Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, who had invaded and conquered the
northern kingdom--the kingdom of Israel--moved the people out of
their land of Samaria, north of Jerusalem, and moved into that land
people of the Babylonish mystery religion from the provinces of
Babylon. They were, of course, gentiles. They inhabited this area of
northern Palestine in the time of Christ. The Jews of Judea in
Christ's time would have nothing to do with them, calling them
contemptuously "dogs." They still adhered to this pagan Babylonish
mystery religion in the first century.
In a.d. 33, two years after Jesus Christ from
heaven founded the Church of God on that day of Pentecost, the
deacon Philip, who later became an evangelist, went down to Samaria
and preached Christ's gospel. This Simon the Sorcerer came with the
crowd to hear him.
Simon had bewitched the people of that
country, and they followed him as their leader in the Babylonian
mystery religion "from the least to the greatest, saying, This man
is the great power of God" (Acts 8:10).
When the people
believed Philip, preaching the kingdom of God, they were baptized,
and this Simon managed to be baptized with them.
Then Simon
came to the apostles Peter and John, offering money as a bribe,
asking them to give him the power to lay hands on people and have
them receive the Holy Spirit. Peter rebuked him strongly. But Simon
proclaimed himself a Christian apostle, nevertheless, and called the
pagan Babylonian mystery religion "Christianity." He accepted the
doctrine of "grace" for the forgiveness of sin (which the pagan
religions had never had), but turned grace into license to disobey
God (Jude 4). He aspired to turn his pagan religion, under the name
"Christianity," into a universal religion, to gain thereby the
political rule of the world.
Simon, the "Pater" (Peter) of
his counterfeit religion, did not accomplish this in his lifetime.
But succeeding leaders, with the headquarters moved to Rome, did,
later, gain political control over the Roman Empire and its medieval
successor, called "The Holy Roman Empire." This empire is in process
of again being resurrected in Europe now!
Counterfeit Gospel
By the sixth decade
of the first century, much of the Middle East had turned from the
true gospel to a counterfeit (Gal. 1:6-7). As late as the 90s a.d. the apostle John was still living. He
wrote the book of Revelation on the Isle of Patmos.
A little
later the church started by Simon in a.d. 33 was trying to turn the true
Christian Passover (Christ had changed its form from that of
sacrificial lambs to unleavened bread and wine) into Babylonian
ceremony, now called, in English, "Easter"--named after the goddess
Astarte or Ishtar (pronounced "Easter" in some Semitic
dialects).
After the death of the apostle John, a disciple of
his, Polycarp, waged a controversy over the Passover-Easter question
with the bishop of Rome, by then leader of the church started by
Simon.
Still later, another disciple of Christ's true
Christianity, Polycrates, waged a still hotter controversy over the
same Passover-Easter question with another bishop of Rome. This
theological battle was called the Quartodeciman Controversy.
Polycrates contended, as Jesus and the original apostles taught,
that the Passover should be observed in the new Christian form
introduced by Jesus and by the apostle Paul (I Cor. 11), using
unleavened bread and wine instead of sacrificing a lamb, on the eve
of the 14th Nisan (first month in the sacred calendar, occurring in
the spring). But the Rome church insisted that it be observed on a
Sunday.
About the same time another controversy was raging,
between a Dr. Arius, of Alexandria, a Christian leader who died
a.d. 336, and other bishops, over
calling God a Trinity. Dr. Arius stoutly opposed the Trinity
doctrine, but introduced errors of his own.
In a.d. 325, the Emperor Constantine called the
Nicene Council to settle these controversies. Constantine was not
then yet a "Christian," but as political ruler he assumed control.
The Council approved both the Easter-Sunday doctrine and the
Trinity. Constantine, then civil ruler, made it a law. But he was not able to make it truth!
Satan has deceived the entire
world in regard to the very nature of who and what
God is--as well as of Christ and the Holy Spirit. Also of the government of God, based on the spiritual
law of God. And further, of what and why
man is, what salvation is, how it is received, what is the true
gospel, what and why the church is and what of the
future!
What Is God
Like?
The word trinity is not used anywhere in
the Bible. I am going to make completely clear, as we proceed, God
has not limited himself to a "Trinity." The surprising truth, once
understood, is the most wonderful revelation the human mind could
receive or contain!
The very first idea or teaching about God
being a Trinity began in the latter half of the second century--a
hundred years after most of the New Testament had been written. The
counterfeit Christianity spawned by Simon the Sorcerer was promoting
it vigorously along with the pagan Easter. But the true Church of
God vigorously resisted it. The controversy became so violent it
threatened the peace of the world. The then pagan Emperor
Constantine called this Nicene Council to settle it. The Roman
Emperor's supporters greatly outnumbered the persecuted true Church
of God.
You will find a prophecy of these two churches in the
book of Revelation. In the 12th chapter is the prophecy of the true
Church of God, greatly persecuted. Jesus called it "the
little flock." In the 17th chapter you will find the prophecy
of the counterfeit church--a very great church, named by God
"Mystery, Babylon the great, the mother of harlots" (verse 5). She
lined up with and sat astride the political governments. The whole
world will gasp in wonder (verse 8)
when this religio-political medieval "Holy Roman Empire" is brought
back to life! It is now in the preliminary stages of forming,
starting from the Common Market!
False
Scripture Added
There is only one small passage in the
Authorized Version of the Bible that is generally used by Trinity
adherents to support the Trinity doctrine. This passage is found in
I John 5:7-8, and is bracketed in the following quotation: "For
there are three that bear record [in heaven, the Father, the Word,
and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three
that bear witness in earth], the Spirit, and the water, and the
blood: and these three agree in one." The bracketed words were added
by editors to the Latin Vulgate translation probably in the early
fourth century. They do not appear in any of the older Greek
manuscripts nor in other modern English translations. They were
added to the Latin Vulgate during the heat of the controversy
between Rome and Dr. Arius and God's people.
Bible
commentaries explain that these words were never written in the
apostle John's manuscript or any existing early copies of it. The
apostle John in his three epistles and the Revelation speaks of "the
Father, and . . . Son" (I John 1:3), but never of "the Father and
the Word," except in this uninspired part of I John
5:7-8.
There was a real reason why the archdeceiver Satan
wanted that spurious verse added in the Latin Vulgate from which it
crept into the Authorized Version. The Trinity doctrine completely
does away with the gospel of Jesus Christ. His gospel is the message he brought mankind from God the
Father, the good news of the coming kingdom
of God! That is the one thing
above all Satan wants to defeat. This will become plain as we
proceed.
One world-famous evangelist said: "When I first
began to study the Bible years ago, the doctrine of the Trinity was
one of the most complex problems I had to encounter. I have never
fully resolved it, for it contains an aspect of mystery. Though I do
not totally understand it to this day, I accept it as a revelation
of God. . . . To explain and illustrate the Trinity is one of the
most difficult assignments to a Christian."
Much is also made
of the fact that in a number of places in modern translations the
masculine pronoun he is carelessly used in connection with
the Holy Spirit. But not always--sometimes the Holy Spirit is
referred to as it in these very same translations. For
example, in the passage describing the first coming of the Holy
Spirit for the founding of the Church of God on that memorable day
of Pentecost.
Holy Spirit Poured
Out
The Holy Spirit came from heaven, audibly,
sounding like a mighty wind, "and it [the Holy Spirit] filled
all the house where they were sitting." Next, the Holy Spirit
appeared--was visibly
seen--manifested--"And there appeared unto them cloven
tongues like as a fire, and it [the Holy Spirit in the form
of divided tongues] sat upon each of them" (Acts 2:2-3). In verse
18, Peter is quoting from the prophet Joel: "I will pour out
. . . of my Spirit. . . ." The Holy Spirit, like water or a fluid,
can be "poured out." Can you pour out
a person from one into another--as from God into those assembled
there? John 7:37-39: "In the last day, that great day of the feast,
Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto
me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said,
out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake
he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for
the Holy [Spirit] was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet
glorified.)"
Again in Acts 10:45, ". . . on the Gentiles also
was poured out the gift of the Holy [Spirit]."
Summary
Finally, in briefest summary:
God is a family composed at present of
the two Persons of John 1:1-4, but
with many thousands, already begotten by God's Spirit, in
God's true Church, soon to be born into that divine family at
Christ's return to earth. Jesus Christ, by his resurrection, was
born a divine Son of God (Rom.
1:4)--the first so born into the God family (Rom.
8:29).
Both God and Christ are composed of spirit, formed and
shaped as a human person, but with eyes like flames of fire and
faces bright as the sun full strength!
God is Creator of all
that exists. Both God and the Word (who became Christ) have existed
eternally and before all else. From them emanates the Spirit of God,
by which God is omnipresent and omniscient. God the Father is the
divine Father of the God family, into which truly converted
Christians shall be born.
Chapter 2
Mystery of Angels and Evil
Spirits
Could anything be more mysterious than the
question of the unseen spirit world? Angelic beings have always been
a mystery to people on the earth. Do angels actually exist? Is
there, in fact, a Satan the devil? Is Satan a literal, immortal
being? Did God create a devil?
Some religions worship gods
they believe to be evil spirits. Some of the great cathedrals of the
Christian religion are embellished on their exterior with gargoyles,
ugly and grotesque carved faces, which are supposed to frighten evil
spirits away.
All the evils and troubles in the world are
caused by minds clashing with minds. But what is the real cause of
clashing of minds? Is there any connection between contentious
attitudes and the unseen spirit world? It is a mystery to almost
everybody, but the Bible reveals a very real but invisible
world--another dimension, as some choose to call it--existing along
with our own, absolutely indiscernible to our five senses. It is the
spirit world.
In the first chapter of Hebrews, we read of
angels serving as God's secret messengers, sent forth to minister to
those God has called to salvation and eternal life.
In
Ephesians 6 it is stated that our contentions and strivings are in
fact not with other human people, but against "principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness [evil spirits] in high
places."
How can this be? Why is the world filled with such
clashings and contentions between human minds?
In Ephesians
2:2, humans have been walking "according to the course of this
world, according to the prince of the power of the air [Satan], the
spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience." People
simply do not realize that there is an invisible spirit power
injecting into their minds these hostile attitudes.
Even to
professing Christians, these scriptures have been a mystery.
Why?
This invisible spirit world (Col. 1:15-16) is very real
but because it is invisible it has been a mystery. The fact that
holy angels and evil spirits are invisible does not negate their
existence. In truth the invisible spirit world is more real than the
material and the visible. In fact, most people do not know what
electricity is but are well aware of its reality. The Bible
explains: "If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in
whom the god of this world [Satan] hath blinded the minds of them
which believe not" (II Cor. 4:3-4). Satan is the god of this
world.
The time of UNDERSTANDING has come.
The Supreme Invisible Power
It was made
clear in chapter 1 that God from eternity has been a family,
originally composed of two members, God and the Word who almost
2,000 years ago became Jesus Christ. God is invisible--the supreme
all powerful Spirit Being. We saw that God lives. He acts! What does
he do? He is the creating family. Perhaps few realize, the very
first thing God created was not the earth, suns, other planets--the
universe. Before all these he created the angelic beings--a spirit
world of myriads of angelic beings.
The Great God through the
Word first designed and created these spirit
beings--angels, each individually created--millions or
perhaps even billions of them! Angels are actual personal spirit
beings, each having a mind of greater capacity and ability than
human minds, capable of attitudes, purposes and intentions. It is
stated that even Jesus as a human was made "a little lower than the
angels" (Heb. 2:7). They are composed wholly of spirit. They were
given self-containing life--life inherent--immortality. They have no
blood circulating in veins and do not need the breath of air to
sustain life, but have self-containing inherent life.
Angels
are, because created by God, called sons of God (Job 1:6), but they
were not begotten and born sons of God.
Why the Creation of Angels?
Why were
invisible spirit-composed angels created before all else? Why were
they created even prior to the creation of physical matter and the
physical universe? Why were they created at all?
Jesus Christ
said, "I work and my Father works" (John 5:17). In John 1:1-5 it is
revealed that God and the Word (the God family) live. In the
preceding chapter we noted how they lived--in mutual love, total
agreement and perfect harmony. But if they lived, what did they do?
They created. One might say that by profession they were in the
creating business. To aid them in the work of creating, governing
and managing what was to be created, they first of all created other
spirit beings on a lower plane than the God family. Angels were
created to be ministers, agents, helpers in God's creation. They
were created as servants of the living God.
From eternity God
was supreme, which to our human minds means God sat on the throne of
all that existed or was to exist. In the 25th chapter of Exodus, we
find an earthly description of the very throne of God in heaven, in
the description of the ark built by Moses under God's instruction.
On either side of God's throne was a super archangel, a cherub,
whose wings stretched out covering the very throne of God. This
signifies that these superior angels were involved in the very
administration of the government of God over all of God's creation.
They were aides, ministers, servants, assisting God.
We read
about angels in the first chapter of Hebrews. This chapter first
speaks of Jesus. "He, . . . stamped with God's own character,
sustains the universe with his word of power . . . and thus he is
superior to the angels, as he has inherited a Name superior to
theirs. For to what angel did God ever say, 'Thou art my son, to-day
have I become thy father'? Or again, 'I will be a father to him, and
he shall be a son to me'? And further, when introducing the
First-born into the world, he says, 'Let all God's angels worship
him.' While he says of angels, 'Who turns his angels into winds
[spirits], his servants into flames of fire,' he says of the Son,
'God is thy throne for ever and ever, thy royal sceptre is the
sceptre of equity: thou hast loved justice and hated lawlessness,
therefore God, thy God, has consecrated thee with the oil of
rejoicing beyond thy comrades'--and, 'Thou didst found the earth at
the beginning . . . .'
"To what angel did he ever say, 'Sit
at my right hand, till I make your enemies a foot-stool for your
feet'? Are not all angels merely spirits in the divine service,
commissioned for the benefit of those who are to inherit salvation?"
(verses 3-10, 13-14, Moffatt translation).
Humans are created
a little lower than angels, though we have the awesome potential of
becoming far greater. This fact is expressed in the second chapter
of Hebrews and will be treated in chapter 7 of this work.
And
in chapter 3 we will show humans may be actually begotten as sons of
God, as yet unborn.
It will come as news to most readers that
angels were created before the earth and the physical universe were
brought into existence. Job 38:1-7 shows the angels shouted for joy
when God first created the earth. It is stated in both Genesis 1 and
2 that the earth was created at the same time as the entire physical
universe.
Angels are invisible, immortal spirit beings with
power and knowledge superior to humans (II Pet. 2:11). They have
seen all the activities of mankind on the earth and therefore know
more about the human mind, psychology, sociology, science and all
the arts than any living man.
Angels serve a great function
in carrying out God's purpose for humanity. They are his invisible
agents often ministering in ways few understand to us poor humans
who are heirs of salvation.
Personal
Experiences
My wife and I have both experienced this
in personal incidents.
When our elder daughter was a baby,
Mrs. Armstrong was sleeping with the child beside her on the inside
of the bed against a bedroom wall. She heard a voice calling out,
"Move Beverly." She thought it was a dream and without waking
continued in sleep. She then heard the same voice again, a little
louder. She half awakened, saw nothing, again thought it was a
dream, turned over and was once again going to sleep, when the voice
a third time was heard, this time loud and emphatic: "MOVE BEVERLY."
Bewildered, she moved the child to the other side of her, and a
second or two later, a heavy framed picture that hung on the wall
immediately over where the child had been lying crashed down on the
bed. It might have crushed the child's head or severely injured her.
The only explanation was that God sent an angel to save Beverly's
life.
In the early days of my ministry, about 1934, I was
driving a car one very stormy night in a downpour of rain on a
highway south of Eugene, Oregon. I was driving about 40 miles an
hour on a very winding road. As I approached a sharp curve in the
road, the steering wheel of my car suddenly turned sharply to the
left, as if wrenched out of my hand by some invisible force.
Directly ahead of me was a wrecked truck. I just missed it, passing
on its left. It was dark, and a wrecked car was standing just ahead
of me. The steering wheel of the car was suddenly wrenched out of my
hands, and the car turned sharply toward the right. My car passed
between the northbound car and the southbound truck back onto the
right lane, with not more than a single inch to spare between the
wrecked car and truck. I had never experienced anything like it. The
steering wheel of my car was turned by some force out of my control
and against my hand holding it straight forward.
A previous
time, late in 1927, within the first year of my conversion, I
encountered a similar experience.
Experience of the Crooked Spine
After my
wife and I had made some little progress in gaining biblical
understanding on the subject of healing, Aimee Semple McPherson came
to Portland.
She held an evangelistic campaign in the
Portland Auditorium. My wife and I attended once, and then I went
alone another time. We were "checking up" on many religious
teachings and groups. Unable to gain entrance, because of packed
attendance, I was told by an usher that I might be able to slip in
at the rear stage door if I would hurry around. Walking, or running,
around the block to the rear, I came upon a sorry
spectacle.
A woman and child were trying to get a terribly
crippled elderly man out of a car near the stage entrance. I went
over to help them. The man had a badly twisted spine--whether from
arthritis, or deformity from birth, or other disease I do not now
remember. He was utterly helpless and a pitiful sight to look
upon.
We managed to get him to the stage door. Actually, I
should never have been admitted, had I not been helping to carry
this cripple in. He had come to be healed by the famous lady
evangelist.
We were unable to gain contact with Mrs.
McPherson before the service. And we were equally unable, after the
service. I helped get the disappointed cripple back into their
car.
"If you really want to be healed," I said before they
drove off, "I would be glad to come to your home and pray for you.
Mrs. McPherson has no power within herself to heal anybody. I have
none. Only God can heal. But I do know what he has promised to do,
and I believe God will hear me just as willingly as he will Mrs.
McPherson--if only you will believe in
what God has promised, and put your
faith in him and not in the person who
prays for you."
They gave me their address, just south of
Foster Road. The next day I borrowed my brother Russell's car and
drove out.
I had learned, in studying the Bible on the
subject of healing, that there are two conditions that God imposes:
1) we must keep his commandments and do those things that are
pleasing in his sight (I John 3:22); and 2) we must really believe (Matt. 9:29).
Of course I
realized that many people might not have come into the understanding
about keeping all of God's Commandments--he does look on the
heart. It is the spirit, and willingness to
obey. And therefore some who really believe are healed, even though they are not
strictly "commandment keepers." But once the knowledge of the
truth comes, they must obey. In
this case I felt sure that God wanted me to open the minds of these
people about his Commandments, and that sin is the transgression of God's
law.
Consequently, I first read
the two scriptures quoted above, and then explained what I had been
six months learning about God's law--and particularly about God's
Sabbath. I wanted to know whether this cripple and his wife had a
spirit of willingness to obey
God.
They did not. I found they were "Pentecostal." They
attended church for the "good time" they had there. They talked a
good deal about the "good time" they enjoyed at church. They scoffed
and sneered about having to obey God. I told them that, since they
were unwilling to obey God and comply with God's written conditions
for healing, I could not pray for him.
Was This an Angel?
This case had weighed
heavily on my mind. I had been touched with deep compassion for this
poor fellow. Yet his mind was not impaired, and I knew that God does
not compromise with sin.
Some
weeks later I had borrowed my brother's car again, and happened to
be driving out Foster Road. Actually at the time my mind was filled
with another mission, and this deformed cripple was not on my mind
at all. I was deep in thought about another matter.
Coming to
the intersection of the street on which the cripple lived, however,
I was reminded of him. Instantly the thought came as to whether I
ought to pay them one more call--but at the same instant reason
ruled it out. They had made light of, and actually ridiculed the
idea of surrendering to obey God. Immediately I put them out
of mind, and again was deep in thought about the present mission I
was on.
Then a strange thing happened.
At the next
intersection, the steering wheel of the car automatically turned to
the right. I felt the wheel turning. I resisted it. It kept turning
right. Instantly I applied all my strength to counteract it, and
keep steering straight ahead. My strength was of no avail. Some
unseen force was turning that steering wheel against all my
strength. The car had turned to the right into the street one block
east of the home of the cripple.
I was frightened. Never
before had I experienced anything like this. I stopped the car by
the curb. I didn't know what to make of it.
It was too late
to back into traffic-heavy Foster Road.
"Well," I thought,
"I'll drive to the end of this block and turn left, and then back
onto Foster Road."
But, a long block south on this street, it
turned right only. There was no street turning east. In
getting back onto Foster Road I was now compelled to drive past the
home of the cripple.
"Could it possibly be that an angel
forced the steering wheel to turn me in here?" I wondered,
somewhat shaken by the experience. I decided I had better stop in at
the cripple's home a moment, to be sure.
I found him stricken
with blood poisoning. The red line was nearing his heart.
I
told them what had happened.
"I know, now," I said, "that God
sent an angel to turn me in here. I believe that God wants me to
pray for you--that he will heal you of this blood poisoning to show
you his power, and then give you one more chance to repent and be
willing to obey him. And if you will do that, then he will
straighten out your twisted spine and heal you
completely.
"So now, if you want me to do so, I will pray for
you and ask God to heal you of this blood poisoning. But I will
not ask God to heal your spine unless and until you repent
and show willingness to obey whatever you yourself see God
commands."
They were now desperate. He probably had about 12
hours to live. They were not joking and jesting lightly about the
"good times" at "Pentecostal meetin'." They wanted me to
pray.
I was not an ordained minister, so I did not anoint
with oil. I had never yet in my life prayed aloud before others. I
explained this to them, and said I would simply lay hands on the man
and pray silently, as I did not want any self-consciousness of
praying aloud for the first time to interfere with real earnestness
and faith. I did have absolute faith he would be healed of the blood
poisoning.
He was.
I returned the next day. The blood
poisoning had left him immediately when I prayed. But, to my very
great sorrow and disappointment, they were once again filled with
levity, and sarcasm about God's law. Again they were jestingly
talking about having a "good time" at "Pentecostal"
meetings.
There was no more I could do. It was one of the
great disappointments of my life. I never saw or heard from any of
them again.
God's Invisible
Agents
God has had angels specifically assigned to
supervise and protect his Church throughout all of its history (Rev.
1:4, 16, 20; 2:1, 8, 12, 18; 3:1, 7, 14). He has angels who
continually walk through the earth to observe and report back to him
the overall conditions on earth (Rev. 5:6; Zech. 4:10; II Chron.
16:9).
And God has angels specifically assigned to look after
his begotten human children (Acts 12:15; Matt. 18:10). God promises:
"For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all
thy ways" (Ps. 91:11).
Twelve of God's angels will be the
gatekeepers in the new city of Jerusalem (Rev. 21:12), one for each
tribe of Israel. These 12 may be assisting the archangel Michael
now.
Angels are messengers. They appeared to Abraham, Lot,
Hagar, Moses, Manoah, Gideon, Elijah and many of the prophets and
apostles.
When these angels manifest themselves to human
beings, they generally do so in the form of men.
The Bible
mentions three angels of high rank: Lucifer (Isa. 14:12), now Satan
the devil; Gabriel, who appeared to Daniel on two occasions (Dan.
8:16; 9:21), to Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist (Luke
1:19), and later Mary, the mother of Jesus (Luke 1:26); and third,
Michael, called one of the chief princes (Dan. 10:13), and
whom Jude identifies as an archangel (Jude 9). Michael is the
archangel specifically assigned to protect and minister to the 12
tribes of Israel (Dan. 12:1; 10:2-13, 21) and to the true Church of
God today (Rev. 12:7).
The Supreme
Creative Accomplishment
God assigns angels
responsibilities, but God created within them minds--with power to
think, to reason, to make choices and decisions!
But
there was one super-important quality that even God's creative
powers could not create instantly by fiat--the same perfect, holy,
righteous character inherent in both
God and the Word!
This kind of character must be developed, by the choice and the intent of the one in whom it comes to
exist.
So mark well this super-vital truism--that perfect,
holy and righteous character is the supreme feat of
accomplishment possible for Almighty God the Creator--it is also the
means to his ultimate supreme purpose!
His final objective!
But how?
I repeat, such perfect character
must be developed. It requires the free choice and decision
of the separate entity in whom it is to be created. But, further,
even then it must be instilled by and from the Holy God who, only,
has such righteous character to endow.
But what do we mean by
righteous character?
Perfect, holy and righteous character is
the ability in such separate entity to come to discern the true and
right way from the false, to make voluntarily a full and
unconditional surrender to God and his perfect way--to yield to be
conquered by God--to determine even against temptation or
self-desire, to live and to do the right. And even
then such holy character is the gift of God. It comes by yielding to
God to instill his law (God's right
way of life) within the entity who so decides and
wills.
Actually, this perfect character comes only from God,
as instilled within the entity of his creation, upon voluntary
acquiescence, even after severe trial and test.
I have
devoted a few paragraphs to this point because it is the supreme
pinnacle means in God's overall purpose!
Now as to the prehistoric
angels: God 1) created them with minds capable of thinking,
reasoning, making choices and decisions with self-will; and 2)
revealed plainly to them his true and
righteous way. But God of necessity allowed them free moral
agency in accepting God's right way, or turning to contrary ways of
their own devising.
What was God's ultimate objective for the angels? Beyond
question it is that which, now, because of angelic rebellion, has
become the transcendent potential of humans!
As the testing
ground, and opportunity for positive and active creative
accomplishment, God created--brought into existence--the entire vast
material universe.
First of all, God had created angels.
After that, and for angels and for humans who were to be created
later, God formed and brought into existence the earth and the
entire universe.
God now created not only matter, but with
and in it energy and such laws as man has discovered in the fields
of physics and chemistry. God formed matter to be present in both
the organic and the inorganic states.
And so we come now to
that which is revealed in Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning [of the
physical universe] God created the heavens and the earth." These are
material and physical.
As previously stated, in the
Authorized Version will be found the word heaven in the
singular. But this originally was written by Moses in Hebrew. And in
the Hebrew the word is in the plural--heavens--thus including
not only our earth, but the entire material universe.
It is therefore indicated
that at that time--after the creation of angels--the entire
universe was brought into existence at the same time as the creation
of our earth. I find strong indication of this in other biblical
internal evidence, and also it is definitely stated in Genesis
2:4.
The Perfect
Creation
The original Hebrew words (the words written
by Moses) imply a perfect creation. God reveals himself as Creator
of perfection, light and beauty. Every reference in the Bible
describes the condition of any completed phase of God's creation as
"very good"--perfect.
This first verse of the Bible actually
speaks of the original physical
creation in its entirety--the universe--including the earth,
perhaps millions of years ago--as a perfect creation, beautiful and
perfect as far as its creation was a finished, completed work. God
is a perfectionist!
In Job 38:4, 7, God is speaking
specifically of the creation of this earth. He said all the angels
(created "sons of God") shouted for joy at the creation of the
earth. This reveals that angels were created before the creation
of the earth--and probably before the material universe.
The suns, planets and astral bodies are material substance. Angels
are individually created spirit beings, composed solely of
spirit.
It will come as a surprise to many to learn that
angels inhabited this earth before the
creation of man. This passage from Job implies it.
Angels on Earth Sinned
Other passages
place angels on earth prior to man.
Notice II Peter 2:4-6.
First in time order "angels that sinned." Next in time sequence, the
antediluvian world beginning with Adam, carrying through to the
Flood. After that, Sodom and Gomorrah.
This book of books,
containing the revealed knowledge of the Creator God, tells us that
God created angels as composed of spirit. But can you imagine angels
becoming sinning angels? Angels were created with power of
thought, of decision and of choice, else they have no individuality
of character. Since sin is the transgression of God's law,
these angels rebelled against God's law, the basis of God's
government.
But how and when did the angels
sin?
Notice carefully what is revealed in II Peter 2:4-5:
"For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to
hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved
unto judgment; and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the
eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood
upon the world of the ungodly." The words "cast . . . down to hell"
in the above verse is an English expression translated from the
Greek tartaroo, from tartaros, found in no other Bible
passage. Tartaros means a place or condition of
restraint.
These verses show that universal sin brings
universal destruction of the physical earth. The antediluvian sin,
culminating with the Flood, was worldwide, universal sin. Notice: ".
. . the earth was filled with violence . . . for all
flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth . . . for the
earth is filled with violence . . ." (Gen. 6:11-13). "But
Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord . . . . Noah was a just man
and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God" (verses
8-9). All flesh had sinned--over the whole earth. But only
Noah "walked with God." So, the Flood destroyed the whole
earth--all but Noah and his family.
The homosexual and
other sins of Sodom and Gomorrah spread over the territory of those
two cities. And physical destruction came to their entire area. The
sin of the angels was worldwide; the destruction of the physical was
worldwide. (And there is reason to believe, as will be explained in
chapter 7, universe wide.)
The verses quoted above place the
sinning of the angels prior to the antediluvian sins that
started with Adam, prior to the creation of man. And
that should be a surprise revealing of one phase of the
mystery! Angels inhabited this earth before the creation of
man.
It is revealed in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28, that God
placed the archangel Lucifer, a cherub, on a throne on the earth. He
was placed there as a ruler over the entire earth. God intended him
to rule the earth by administering the government of God over the
earth. And the government of God was administered on earth until the
rebellion of the sinning angels.
How long these angels
inhabited the earth before the creation of man is not revealed. It
might have been millions--or even billions--of years. More on that
later. But these angels sinned. Sin is the transgression of God's
law (I John 3:4). And God's law is the basis of God's government. So
we know these angels, apparently a third of all the angels (Rev.
12:4), sinned--rebelled against the government of God. And sin
carries penalties. The penalty for the sin of the angels is not
death, as it is for man. Angels are immortal spirit beings
and cannot die. These spirit beings had been given dominion
over the physical earth as a
possession and an abode.
The universal, worldwide sin of the
angels resulted in the physical destruction of the face of the
earth.
God Rules His
Creation
God is Creator. God is also Ruler over his
creation. He preserves what he creates by his government. What God
creates, he has created for a purpose--to be used, improved,
developed, preserved and maintained. And this use is regulated by
God's government. When the angels rebelled against God's government,
the development and improvement of the earth--"putting the icing on
the cake"--ceased. The preservation and development of the physical
earth and all its original beauty and glory ceased--and physical
destruction to the surface of the earth resulted!
By this
angelic sin, Lucifer became Satan the devil and his angels became
demons.
God is Creator, Preserver and Ruler.
Satan is
destroyer!
So, now we read in Jude 6-7: "And the angels which
kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath
reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of
the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them
in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going
after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the
vengeance of eternal fire."
Now back to Genesis 1:1-2. Verse
1, as stated above, implies a perfect creation. God is the author of
life, of beauty, of perfection. Satan has brought only darkness,
ugliness, imperfection, violence. Verse 1 shows the creation of a
perfect, if unfinished earth, glorious and beautiful. Verse 2
reveals the result of the sin of the angels.
"And the earth
was [became] without form, and void." The words "without form, and
void" are translated from the Hebrew tohu and bohu. A
better translation is "waste and empty" or "chaotic, in confusion
and in a state of decay." The word was is elsewhere in
Genesis also translated became, as in Genesis 19:26. In other
words, the earth, originally created perfect and beautiful, had now
become chaotic, waste and empty, like our moon, except earth's
surface was covered with water.
David was inspired to reveal
how God renewed the face of the earth: "Thou sendest forth thy
spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth"
(Ps. 104:30).
A Surprising
Truth
Now another surprise for most readers. Here is
another bit of the missing dimension in knowledge, actually revealed
in the Bible, but unrecognized by religion, by science and by higher
education.
From verse 2 of Genesis 1 on, the remainder of
this first chapter of the Bible is not describing the
original creation of the earth. But it is describing a
renewing of the face of the earth, after it had become waste and
empty as a result of the sin of the angels.
What is described
from verse 2 on, in the supposed creation chapter of the Bible, did
occur, according to the Bible, approximately 6,000 years ago. But
that could have been millions or trillions of years after the actual
creation of the earth described in verse 1!
I will comment
later on the length of time it might have taken before all earth's
angels turned to rebellion.
The earth had become waste
and empty. God did not create it waste and empty, or in a state of
decay. God is not the author of confusion (I Cor. 14:33). This same
Hebrew word--tohu--meaning waste and empty, was inspired in
Isaiah 45:18, where it is translated "in vain." Using the original
Hebrew word, as originally inspired, it reads: "For thus said the
Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and
made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain [tohu],
he formed it to be inhabited."
Continue now with the
remainder of verse 2 of Genesis 1 (the earth had become chaotic,
waste and empty): "And darkness was upon the face of the deep [the
ocean or fluid surface of the earth]. And the Spirit of God moved
upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and
there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God
divided the light from the darkness" (verses 2-4).
Satan is
the author of darkness. The rebellion of the angels had caused the
darkness. God is the author of light and truth. Light displays and
enhances beauty, and also exposes evil. Darkness hides
both.
The verses that follow in this first chapter of the
Bible describe the renewing of the face of the earth, yielding
beautiful lawns, trees, shrubs, flowers, vegetation--then the
creation of fish and fowl, animal life, and finally
man.
The Great Lucifer
But
first, before coming to man, we need to fill in the prehistory
portion.
How did this sin of the angels come to take place?
How did it start?
Remember, God the Creator preserves,
improves and enhances what he creates by his government. What he
creates is created to be used. This earth was to be inhabited and
used by angels, originally.
When God placed
angels--apparently a third of all (Rev. 12:4)--on the newly created,
perfect, beautiful and glorious earth, he set over them, on a
throne, to administer the government of God, an archangel--the great
cherub Lucifer. There were only two other beings of this extremely
high rank of cherub, Michael and Gabriel.
So far as is
revealed, these are the supreme pinnacle of spirit-composed beings
within God's power to create. This Lucifer was a super being of
awesome, majestic beauty, dazzling brightness, supreme knowledge,
wisdom and power--perfect as God created him! (Ezek. 28:15). But
remember, there is one thing God cannot create automatically and
instantly by fiat, and that is perfect righteous character. So God
of necessity created in him the power of choice and decision, or he
could not have been a being of individuality and
character.
At this juncture a truth must be explained almost
never understood. God creates in a principle of duality. I have
compared it to a woman baking a cake. When she takes the cake out of
the oven, it is not yet a finished production until she puts the
icing on the cake. When God created the earth and other planets this
system of duality was involved.
What had been created was
perfect as far as it existed up to that point. But it was not yet a
finished or completed creation. God intended the angels to add their
own workmanship to the earth's surface. He intended them to work
over the surface of the earth, to improve it, to embellish it,
beautify it--in other words "put the icing on the cake."
The
same principle of duality applies to the creation of the angels.
Perfect righteous character cannot be automatically created by fiat.
The angels themselves, of necessity, were required to have their
part in the development of character, and their creation could not
be actually finished until this character had been
perfected.
Lucifer, Later
Satan
I want you to grasp fully the supreme
magnificence of this zenith of God's created beings. Two different
biblical passages tell us of his original created
state.
First, notice what is revealed in Isaiah 14. (This
famous chapter begins with the time, shortly ahead of us now, when
the Eternal God shall have intervened in this world's affairs. The
people of Israel--not necessarily or exclusively the Israelis or
Judah--shall have been taken as captive slaves, and God shall
intervene and bring them back to the original promised homeland.)
"And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee
rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage
wherein thou wast made to serve, that thou shalt take up this
proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor
ceased! the golden city ceased! The Lord hath broken the staff of
the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers. He who smote the people
in wrath . . . he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted,
and none hindereth" (verses 3-6).
This is not speaking of the king of ancient Babylon,
Nebuchadnezzar. The time is yet ahead of us--but shortly ahead. It
is speaking of the modern successor of that ancient Nebuchadnezzar.
It is speaking of the one who will be ruler of the soon-coming resurrected "Holy
Roman Empire"--a sort of soon-coming "United States of Europe"--a
union of 10 nations to rise up out of or following the Common Market
of today (Rev. 17). Britain will not
be in that empire soon to come.
This united Europe will
conquer the House of Israel--if you know who Israel is today,
and I do not mean Judah, known as the Israelis today. All
that involves a number of other prophecies, which there is not room
here to explain. (This is explained in our free book The United
States and Britain in Prophecy.)
But this "king of
Babylon" shall at the time of this prophecy have been utterly
defeated by the intervention of the living Christ in his power and
glory. Continue on:
"The whole earth is at rest, and is
quiet: they break forth into singing. Yea, the fir trees rejoice . .
. and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no
feller is come up against us" (verses 7-8).
(I want to
interpose an interesting bit of information right here. The cedars
of Lebanon, biblically famous, are almost totally cut down. Only one
small clump of these trees remains, high in the mountains. I have
seen and photographed them. However, perhaps the finest specimen of
the cedars of Lebanon surviving on earth is on what was previously
our Ambassador College campus in England. We prized it highly. It is
interesting to see that this prophecy, written some 700 years b.c., should record the fact that these
beautiful and stately trees would become so largely
felled.)
This passage in Isaiah 14 speaks of the doom of this
coming human king at the hands of the glorified, all-powerful
Christ. It refers to him as Satan's chief political ruler and
military destroyer, to be totally deceived by Satan in the years
very shortly ahead of us.
Satan's Earthly
Throne
Then, coming to verse 12, this human earthly
type of Satan the devil suddenly transposes to Satan himself--the
former archangel, Lucifer:
"How art thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground,
which didst weaken the nations!" A better translation here is: "How
art thou, who didst weaken the nations, cut down to the ground." The
RSV translates it: "How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid
the nations low!" This the former Lucifer did through the human
political-military leader in his power--spoken of in the first 11
verses.
The name Lucifer means "Shining star of the dawn," or
"Bringer of light," as God first created him. Now continue: "For
thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will
exalt my throne above the stars [angels] of God."
Notice,
Lucifer had a throne; he was a ruler. His throne was on earth, for
he was going to ascend into heaven. Continue: "I will sit also upon
the mount of the congregation [God's heavenly throne], in the sides
of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will
be like the most High" (verses 13-14). Actually, it is plain that
Lucifer had nothing less in mind than knocking the Creator God off
his throne and becoming supreme God himself.
Apparently he
planned to put himself in place of God, over the
universe!
But finally, as the context returns again to the
human type: "Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell [Heb.
sheol], to the sides of the pit" (verse 15).
From that
point, the thought returns to the human king. Lucifer was the
supreme masterpiece of God's creative power, as an individually
created being, threatening, as a Frankenstein monster, to destroy
his own maker--and assume all his powers to rule the whole
universe.
Literally this prophecy is speaking of a war in
heaven to occur in our present time described in Revelation 12:7-9:
"And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against
the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not;
neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great
dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan,
which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and
his angels were cast out with him." And also Daniel 12:1-2: "And at
that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth
for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of
trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that
same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one
that shall be found written in the book. And many of them that sleep
in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and
some to shame and everlasting contempt."
Satan's rebel rule
was not a government based upon the
principle of love--of giving, of outgoing concern for the good of
others, but based on self-centeredness, on vanity, lust and
greed, on envy, jealousy, the spirit of competition, hatred,
violence and destruction, on darkness and error, instead of light
and truth, on ugliness instead of beauty.
Notice here, once
again, the principle of duality. Isaiah 14:12-14 applies to a time
prior to the creation of the first human, Adam. But in Revelation
12:7 and in Daniel 12:1 Satan at the end of the 6,000 years allotted
to his rule on earth's throne, tries once again to seize God's
throne in heaven.
Lucifer a Created
Being
Look now at the other biblical passage
describing this supreme angelic creation of God, in Ezekiel
28.
Actually, the entire concept in Ezekiel 26 speaks of the
ancient great commercial city of Tyre. It was the commercial
metropolis of the ancient world, even as Babylon was the political
capital. Tyre was the New York, the London, the Tokyo, or the Paris
of the ancient world. The ancient Tyre, port of the world's shippers
and merchants, gloried herself in her beauty, even as Paris
in our time.
Chapter 27 carries on with comparisons to
passages in the 18th chapter of the book of Revelation referring to
a politico-religious leader to come (verses 9-19).
But coming
to chapter 28, the theme comes more completely to the time just now
ahead of us, the same time depicted in Isaiah 14. Ezekiel 28 speaks
of the prince of Tyre, an earthly ruler, of whom the ancient king of
Tyre was a type. God says to the prophet Ezekiel: "Son of man, say
unto the prince of Tyrus [actually referring to a powerful religious
leader to arise soon, in our time],
Thus saith the Lord God; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou
hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the
seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart
as the heart of God: Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no
secret that they can hide from thee: with thy wisdom and with thine
understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and
silver into thy treasures [or "treasuries"--RSV] . . . and thine
heart is lifted up because of thy riches: therefore thus saith the
Lord God; Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God;
behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of
the nations . . . they shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou
shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the
seas" (Ezek. 28:2-8). (Compare with II Thessalonians 2:3-4, speaking
of "that man of sin . . . who opposeth and exalteth himself above
all that is called God . . . so that he as God sitteth in the
temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.")
What a Super Being!
But at this point,
as in Isaiah 14, the lesser human antitype lifts to a greater spirit
being. Instead of the prince of Tyre--a human man--it now speaks of
the king of Tyre. This is the same
Lucifer.
Ezekiel the prophet continues:
"Moreover the
word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, take up a
lamentation upon the king of Tyrus,
and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum,
full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty" (verses 11-12).
Please
read that again! God would never say anything like that of a human
man. This superb spirit being filled up the sum total of wisdom,
perfection and beauty. He was the supreme pinnacle, the masterpiece,
of God's creation, as an individually created being, the greatest
one in the almighty power of God to create! The tragic thing is that
he rebelled against his Maker!
"Thou hast been in Eden the
garden of God" (verse 13). He had inhabited this earth. His throne
was here. "Every precious stone was thy covering . . . the
workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in
the day that thou wast created" (verse 13). He was a created
being--not born human. He was a spirit being--not human
flesh. Great genius and skill in music was created in him. Now that
he has become perverted in all thinking, acting and being, he is the
real author of modern perverted music and the modern rock beat--of
discordant moans, squawks, shrieks, wails--physically and
emotionally excitable beats--unhappy, discouraged moods. Think of
all the supreme talent, ability and potential in a being created
with such capacities. And all perverted! All gone sour--all
dissipated, turned to hatred, destruction, hopelessness!
Yet,
take courage. The awesome human potential, if we care enough about
it to resist Satan's wiles and evils and discouragements and
to persevere in God's way, is infinitely superior and higher
than Lucifer's--even as created, before he turned to
rebellion and iniquity!
But continuing the particular
revelation of this crucially important missing dimension in
knowledge: "Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have
set thee so," says God of this Lucifer. This takes us back to the
25th chapter of Exodus, where God gave Moses the pattern for the ark
of the covenant. The description begins with verse 10, and verses
18-20 show, in the material pattern, the two cherubs who were
stationed at each end of the very throne of God in heaven--the
throne of the government of God over the entire universe. The wings
of the two cherubs covered the throne of God.
Trained at Universe Headquarters
This
Lucifer, then, had been stationed at the very throne of God. He was
trained and experienced in the administration of the government of
God. God chose such a being, well-experienced and trained, to be the
king ruling the government of God over the angels who inhabited the
whole earth.
Continue: ". . . thou wast upon the holy
mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the
stones of fire." This is not talking about any human being. But
continue: "Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that
thou wast created, till iniquity [lawlessness] was found in thee"
(Ezek. 28:15). He had complete knowledge, understanding and wisdom.
But he also was given full powers of reasoning, thinking, making
decisions, making his choice. And, with all this foreknowledge--even
of results and consequences--this superb being, the highest that
even God could create by fiat, turned to rebellion against his
Maker--against the way that produces every good. He turned to
lawlessness. He had been trained in the administration of perfect
law and order. As long as Lucifer continued in this perfect way,
there was happiness and joy unspeakable over the whole earth. There
was glorious peace--beautiful harmony, perfect love, cooperation.
The government of God produced a wonderfully happy state--as long as
Lucifer was loyal in the conduct of God's government.
What Caused the Angels' Sin?
What caused
the angels on earth to sin, to turn to lawlessness? Certainly the
ordinary angels did not persuade this great superbeing to turn
traitor. No, it was in him that iniquity was found. But, after how
long? We don't know. God does not reveal that! It could have been
any number of years from one or less to millions times
millions.
And then, even after Lucifer himself made the
decision to rebel and try to invade God's heaven to take over the
universe, it is not revealed how long it took him to persuade all of
the angels under him to turn traitor and follow him.
I know
well the method he used. He uses the same method still today in
leading deceived humans into disloyalty, rebellion, and
self-centered opposition against God's government. First, he turns
one or two to envy, jealousy and resentment over an imagined
injustice--then into disloyalty. Then he uses that one or two, like
a rotten apple in a crate, to stir up resentment, feelings of
self-pity, disloyalty and rebellion in others next to them. And, as
each rotten apple rots those next to it until the whole crate is
rotten, so Satan proceeds.
If, in the government of God on
earth today, the "rotten apples" are not thrown out early enough,
they would destroy the whole government. But, once thrown out of the
crate, they cannot do any more damage to those in the
crate.
But think how long it must have taken the
soured and embittered Lucifer to turn millions of holy angels into
resentment, bitterness, disloyalty, and finally open and vicious
rebellion. It could have taken hundreds, thousands or millions of
years. This was all before the first human was created.
All
this happened after the original creation of the earth, described in
verse 1 of Genesis 1. Verse 2 of this creation chapter describes a
condition resulting from this sin of the angels. The events
described in verse 2, therefore, may have occurred millions of years
after the original creation of the earth.
The earth,
therefore, may have been created millions of years ago. But continue
this passage in Ezekiel 28: "By the multitude of thy merchandise
they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast
sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of
God: and I will destroy [remove] thee, O covering cherub, from the
midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of
thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy
brightness: I will cast thee to the ground . . ." (verses 16-17). At
this point the context returns to the soon-to-appear, human,
religious-political ruler--of whom the prince of ancient Tyre was a
forerunner.
Earlier in this chapter, I showed you how
physical destruction, ugliness and darkness had covered the
face of the earth, as the result of the sin of Lucifer (who
is now the devil) and these "angels that sinned" (now demons), and
how in six days God had renewed the face of the earth (Gen.
1:2-25).
Why the Creation of
MAN?
But why did God create man on the earth (Gen.
1:26)?
Look at this situation as God does. God has given us
humans minds, like the mind of God, only inferior and limited. God
made us in his image, after his likeness (form and shape), only
composed of matter instead of spirit. But God says, "Let this mind
be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5). We can, to
some degree, think even as God thinks. How must God have looked at
the situation, as he started renewing the face of the earth--after
the colossal debacle of the angels!
He had created a
beautiful, perfect creation in the earth. He populated it with holy
angels--probably millions of them. He put over them, as king, on an
earthly throne, the archangel--the cherub Lucifer. Lucifer was the
supreme masterpiece of God's creative power as a single separately
created spirit being. He was the most perfect in beauty, power,
mind, knowledge, intellect, wisdom, within the almighty power of God
to create. God can create nothing higher or more perfect, by
instantaneous fiat.
Yet this great being, knowledgeable,
trained and experienced at God's own throne in heaven over the
universe and the administration of the government of God, had
rejected that government, corrupted his way, rebelled against
administering or even obeying it. He had led all his angels astray
and into the sin of rebellion.
Now consider further.
Apparently the entire universe had been created also at the time of
the earth's creation. There is no evidence either in God's revealed
Word, nor in science, that any of the planets in endless outer space
had been inhabited with any form of life. But God does nothing in
vain. He always has a purpose.
Apparently all such planets in
the entire universe now are waste and
empty--decayed (tohu and bohu)--like the earth was, as
described in Genesis 1:2. But God did not create them in such
conditions of decay--like our moon. Decay is not an original
created condition--it is a condition resulting from a process
of deterioration. Evidently if the now fallen angels had maintained
the earth in its original beautiful condition, improved it, carried
out God's instructions, and obeyed his government, they would have
been offered the awesome potential of populating and carrying out a
tremendous creative program throughout the entire universe. When
they turned traitor on earth, their sin must have also brought
simultaneously physical destruction to the other planets throughout
the universe, which were potentially and conditionally put in
subjection to them.
Earth to Become
Universe Headquarters
It will be explained in chapter
7 of this work that God's purpose is to make this earth, ultimately,
the headquarters of the entire universe.
Remember, this
earth, originally, was intended to be the abode of a third of all
the angels. The angels, beholding the earth at its creation, found
it so beautiful and perfect they shouted spontaneously for joy (Job 38:4-7). It was to provide a
glorious opportunity for them. They were to work it, produce from
it, and preserve and increase its beauty.
And at this point,
it is well to understand the nature of God's original creation: It
is like the unfinished furniture available in some stores. This
furniture is "in the raw"--it is finished all but for the final
varnish, polish or paint. Some can save money by doing this
finishing themselves--provided they have the skill to do so.
This furniture may be of fine and superb quality--yet lacking the
final beautifying completion.
So it is with God's
creation. It is perfect, but subject to a beautifying finish
that God intended angels to accomplish. The original "unfinished"
creation was produced by God alone. But he intended angels,
prehistorically, and man, now, to
utilize creative power--to finish this part in God's creation--of
adding the final beautifying and utilitarian phases of what shall be
the final completed
creation!
And whether or not it had been revealed to
the angels, it was a supreme trial and
test. It was to be the proving
ground of obedience to God's
government and their fitness to develop into final finished
creation the millions of other planets in the vast universe. For
what is revealed in God's Word indicates that God had created the
entire physical universe at the same
time he created the earth. The seventh word in Genesis 1:1 should be
translated "heavens." This word includes the vast universe, not just
this earth's atmosphere.
Radioactive elements and the law of
radioactivity prove that there was a time when matter did not exist. God is a spirit. God
is composed of spirit. God was before all
else--the Creator of all.
Angels were created prior to the earth. What God reveals strongly
implies that matter had never existed before the original creation
of the earth--that the entire physical universe was brought
into being at that time.
God's Purpose
for Angels
So the angel potential was to take over the
entire universe--to improve and finish the billions of physical
planets surrounding the uncountable stars, many of which are suns. The sun in our solar system is merely
an average-size sun. Some that we see as stars are actually many,
many times larger than our sun. Our solar system, vast beyond the
imagination of most minds, is only a part of our galaxy, and
there are many galaxies! In other words, the physical universe that the mighty God created is
vast beyond imagination! How great is the great
God!
He intended angels to have a vital part in the
final creatio