The modern world was inclined toward reduction, efficiency, and things you can count.
I had been a disciple of Jesus Christ for less than a year when I first heard "the gospel question." It was May 1988, and I was spending the summer following my freshmen year of college working as a counselor at a Christian sports camp in the Missouri Ozarks.
Before the campers showed up, we counselors arrived early for a week of preparation and training. After long days of physical labor, we would gather in the evening to worship and listen to teaching designed to prepare us to lead our young charges toward God and athletic excellence. The topics ranged from end-times prophecies to prayer, sex and dating to evangelism and discipleship—all in the context of learning to throw a tight spiral, land a back handspring, or field a grounder.
On one such night the camp director stood before several hundred of us and asked the gospel question. Not the proverbial, "If you were to die tonight, do you know for sure where you would spend eternity?" Instead he said, "If someone were to ask you what the gospel is, what would you say?"
The question took me off-guard. I had no idea. And suddenly I was nervous.
I think I knew that Gospel was what the first four books of the New Testament were called, that it meant "good news," and that the good news was about Jesus Christ. As a new believer, I was smitten by Jesus and especially by his people, the church. I had surrendered my life wholly to Jesus and was seizing every opportunity to grow and be obedient to God.
But that night, for the first time, I was hearing "the gospel" referred to as an entity unto itself, with a definition distinct from the melded concepts of God, Jesus, the church, and everything I thought I understood. Not only did I have to admit that I had no idea what "the gospel" is, I also had to grapple with the fact that I wasn't even sure what I was being asked.
I don't remember what the camp director said next, but over the next few years I came to understand the nature of the question I was asked on that summer night. More than that, I learned what the right answer was supposed to be. At my university I discovered that "gospel" was a word that many Christians used as shorthand for the means by which a person could go to heaven after they died. Over time they had perfected the science of explaining "the gospel" in a simple and efficient way.
The gospel was understood to be a series of propositions meant to "save" someone. When these propositions were followed logically and sequentially, and subsequently accepted as truth in faith, the subject was assured of their eternal destiny—heaven after death.
But as I have continued in my faith and in ministry, I have continued to struggle with "the gospel question"—with what is being asked and how it has been answered. I haven't been alone. Many of us want to be faithful to Jesus, and we are seeking to be faithful to a broader and deeper Christian tradition than the one that evolved in America after World War II.
In many ways this quest comes down to the question I was asked sitting on a gym floor 20 years ago: "What is the gospel?"
Byte sized
Asking "Is our gospel too small?" implies that something is off kilter—that somehow we have gone off course in the way we answer "the gospel question." But it may not be just our gospel that is too small. It may be that we have been living in a world that was too small—the small, reduced world of modernity.
One of the features of the modern world was "reductionism": the belief that complex things can always be reduced to simpler or more fundamental things. To reduce something is to take it out of context and to take it apart. Church leaders have become experts at reductionism. Ministries that are successful in one context are reduced to "models" that we try to duplicate in other contexts. Sometimes such reductionism is effective. But when we use reductionism indiscriminately, we end up in a world so simplified it is barely recognizable.
So in a modern world, we tend to reduce the complexity and diversity of the Scriptures to simple systems, even when our systems flatten the diversity and integrity of the biblical witness. We reduce our sermons to consumer messages that reduce God to a resource that helps the individual secure a reduced version of the "abundant life" Jesus promised (John 10:10).
And the gospel itself gets reduced to a simplified framework of a few easily memorized steps.
As you might have guessed by now, if that's what is meant by gospel, then yes indeed, I believe our gospel is too small.
I don't know how you interpret such statements, but I can tell you what it is like to write them. It's scary. It seems dangerous to say such things these days. Everyone appears to be on their theological guard (which also tells us something about the reduced nature of our gospel). Those of us who raise questions about our gospel being too small find that our questions provoke fear—and when people are frightened, hospitality is often the first casualty.
In the absence of hospitality, we Christians are in danger of balkanizing ourselves. In the power vacuum that resulted in Eastern Europe when the modern empire of the Soviet Union dissolved, previously unified states were the scene of bitter wars fought to stake out homelands of ethnic or religious purity. To balkanize now means to divide (by ever more precise means of differentiation) one place, one thing, one idea, or one group of people from another.
As modernity's hold on us weakens, life is being balkanized. Whether it is actual physical territory, the battle-torn terrain of the culture wars, or the polarized environment of political rhetoric, we have never been so aware of our differences. Often in the church, our theological discourse and territorial disputes are no different. The impulse to create sovereign mini-states cleansed of perceived cultural and theological enemies often seems unavoidable.
A gospel you can live with
However, we are not the first followers of Christ to struggle with our understanding of the scope and scale of the good news. Indeed, we believe that "the Word became flesh": God revealed himself in a specific time, in a specific place, among a specific people. Jesus joined a story in progress. God entered and engaged. And this is the calling of the church as well—to join in and participate in God's story at work in the world—in our time and in our space(s).
The gospel must become incarnate. It's something that must be lived. We cannot approach God or the gospel a-contextually.
In the book of Acts, we witness the early church in a very similar situation—a colony of the kingdom of God contending for their new faith and struggling profoundly to understand the implications of the birth, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Talk about having to reorient your theological imagination!
Circumcision or no circumcision? Meat sacrificed to idols or no meat sacrificed to idols? Sabbath observance or no Sabbath observance? Gentiles or no Gentiles? The church constantly had to reframe its theology in response to the reality of Jesus and his Spirit being alive in the world. The church was constantly contending for the faith—and not just with their adversaries, but with one another. So one consistent theme in all Paul's letters is the necessity of unity. Yet as they contend and struggle along, they do so in a locally responsive way that generates life and engagement with the issues of their time, culture, and geography.
It is no less critical for us than it was for them. Just as the early, largely Jewish church was forced to reckon with the Gentiles' response to their witness, so the emerging world is forcing the church to reckon with the gospel in ways that it hasn't had to in a long time. Recent books like Robert Wuthnow's After the Baby-Boomers and David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyon's unChristian are helping us discover that we live amid postmodern people who embrace mystery, diversity, and complexity. Yet often our "evangelism" instinctively aims to convert them first to a modern worldview, then to Jesus.
Rich, robust revolution
Are there signs of life emerging that point towards a more holistic and robust answer to the gospel question than we were given? Where might the Holy Spirit be forcing his people to reckon with the scope of God's work in the world, to once again consider the nature and scope of the gospel?
As I listen to the "gentiles" who are coming to faith in my own setting, I am discovering that the version of "the gospel" I was given as a college-age counselor was largely missing the earthly, communal, and social nature of what God has been about since the beginning of salvation history. First with Israel, then with the church, God has animated a people to enact his saving way of life as a prophetic witness against, and a hopeful alternative to, the destructive narratives of the surrounding world.
In God's alternative reality, there is no aspect of our lives outside the scope of God's salvation and purposes. Salvation is not just then and there, it is also here and now. Furthermore, churches are not just collections of individuals who will one day be reunited as souls in God's presence. God's life starts and is available to people in the present—and heaven is understood to be that place where God's rule and reign are active among his people.
Jesus says, "Wake up! The kingdom of God is at hand" (Mark. 1:15). Have we likewise spoken with such confidence and hope in our proclamation? Has our articulation, and more importantly, our embodiment of the gospel invited people to become a part of an alternative reality, a community of salvation for this world and the world that is yet to come?
And here is the encouraging news: when Christians proclaim this richer gospel, the "gentiles" around us are intrigued.
A socially progressive journalist named Zack Exley has been documenting a massive cultural shift that is happening among young, theologically conservative evangelicals. Writing for the left-leaning, semi-socialist magazine In These Times, Exley has chronicled his journey into the surprising world of socially conscious, justice-oriented evangelicals who are living out their faith in increasingly radical and sacrificial ways. In his article "Preaching Revolution" (complete with a Che Guevara-ized portrait of Jesus on the red magazine cover), Exley wrote:
"Recently, I blogged a series of essays titled 'The Revolution Misses You' in which I called for progressives to revive the forgotten dream of practical yet radical change. Friends and colleagues immediately scolded me for using 'extreme' terms such as 'revolution' and 'radical.' 'You'll only alienate people,' they said. 'This will come back to haunt you.' At first I was surprised by what felt like a dramatic overreaction. But I soon realized why I had fallen out of sync with the progressive mainstream on the use of the R-words: I had been spending time listening to and reading evangelical Christians who are preaching revolution."
Exley's blog, "Revolution in Jesusland," has followed his pilgrimage across America to communities that embody this spirit of demonstrating the kingdom of God—not just for themselves in the transcendent then and there, but also for others in the immanent here and now. He is one of many people who would otherwise have written off Christianity who are ready to give the gospel another hearing (or perhaps better, viewing). They are realizing that salvation is more than what had previously been advertised.
Not redeemer only
My quest to understand the gospel led me to the source of the gospel himself: Jesus Christ, the gospel incarnate. I began to realize that every articulation of the gospel I had heard focused exclusively on Jesus Christ and his role as redeemer. It is obviously true and good news that Jesus and his life and work function redemptively. But when we reduce Jesus to redeemer only, we miss another essential element of our faith: that Jesus is also creator.
The Gospel of John begins, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." Likewise, in the hymn of Colossians 1:15-20, Paul affirms Jesus as both creator and redeemer. While verses 18-20 describe Jesus as redeemer, verses 15 and 16 confess him as creator: "The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him."
I am discovering that our postmodern world is consumed with questions of creation—even if they are not framed that way explicitly. We can hear these questions whenever our contemporaries ask, "What does it mean to be human, especially as more and more of life is influenced by and even dependent on technology?" "How do we understand gender and sexuality and how both are expressed?" "How do we live in an ecologically responsible way?" "How might a just economy function sustainably?" Have you had these conversations? Have you talked to the teenagers among you who are verbalizing these concerns? These are the questions our culture is wrestling with.
A reduced version of the gospel will have little to say to such questions. No wonder so many have determined that the church and "the gospel" have very little to contribute to the world. The idea that the gospel has something to say about the eternal destinies of people has been drummed into them for a long time. But they don't see that we are equally concerned about what Jesus taught us to pray: "May your kingdom come, and your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven."
People are not asking the traditional gospel question much anymore. Asking, "If I died tomorrow, where would I end up?" does not generate much life. But asking people, "If you had just a few years left, what kind of life would you want to live?" generates enormous energy. It is a question of hope, something our balkanized world sorely needs.
And perhaps not surprisingly, Jesus has a response to those who are asking such a question and on just such a quest. To them he says, "Wake up." "The kingdom of God is at hand." "Come, follow me."
Tim Keel is pastor of Jacob's Well in Kansas City, Missouri.
| Posted on February 27, 2008 | TrackBack
The Gospel is nothing less than the personal experience by which all people can know God firsthand as promised (Jer. 31: 31-34) and sealed by the death of Jesus Christ on the cross (Matt. 26: 26-29). There is infinitely more to the death of Jesus than presently acknowledged! By the standards of Jesus' teaching, one can still know the mystery and power of the resurrection of Jesus (and ours) and also find the exceedingly powerful evidence of the living God, not out of the tomb of the dead, but right there where Jesus died on the cross. This is the Gospel. The sooner you verify it and forget the other the better!
Posted by: Ephrem Hagos | March 16, 2008
Hey Tim,
Whether the second question generates more energy or not is irrelevant in one aspect. Man's greatest need is still salvation in Christ, not just to live a better life on this side of eternity. The man who doesn't understand his major problem is spiritual and not just socio-economic has not understood the need for the gospel. Unfortunately, you seem to be heading toward a common mistake which does indeed destroy the true message of the gospel - confusing or mixing the implications of gospel preaching and the gospel message with the actual gospel. This past week at Together for the Gospel, Mark Dever from Capitol Hill Baptist did a talk on this very subject for pastors that I invite you to take a listen at:
http://t4g.org/2008/media - it's session #4.
Grace and Peace
BC
Posted by: BlackCalvinist | April 22, 2008
From my book, "Perpare Before All Hell Breaks Loose!"
When witnessing the gospel, most Christians approach 21st century man with the same message their forefathers spoke.” You’re a sinner and need to be saved, through faith, accept Christ's blood as payment for your sins, trust Him as Savior and you'll go to heaven." While this is true, 21st century man doesn't understand that message, it's all Greek to him. He simply can't comprehend it because in the last twenty years there has been a bedrock shift in man's worldview. He has grown up in a world void of moral absolutes, replaced by relativistic morals, situational ethics, of atheistic evolution, of humanism, a world where hideous sin is commonplace, as men's hearts wax cold. This generation's definition of "God" can mean any one of a hundred things, or it can mean nothing at all. Humanism has removed God as man's reference point for all of life and has replaced Him with himself. Modern man becomes his own god and therefore words like "sin" and "evil" and "goodness," can have almost opposite meanings, whatever man chooses as the truth in his own head. In man's descent, he has perverted God's moral absolutes; his worldview/God view reflects the magnitude of man's descent. This has never been truer than in this generation, the last generation.
Christianity is usually portrayed by Christians as a simple message, easy to understand, where a pastor can stand in the pulpit and in a mere three minutes give the salvation message. But Christianity is not simple, it is complex. God is complex and man is complex, and mankind's history is complex. 21st century man has walked so far down the road of destruction that the light in his hindsight is gravely dim, he can't even be certain of what light is anymore.
With few exceptions, we can no longer speak to 21st century man as we once did 20 years ago. In the past twenty years mankind has had a bedrock shift in thinking. Before this time Americans embraced a Judeo-Christian worldview. Even though perhaps some may not have accepted Christ as Savior, most unbelieving Americans would certainly have understood this worldview and lived within its framework. This is no longer the case. America is now a humanist nation. God knowledge has been exiled from our public schools, our universities and our courts, and relegated into extinction.
Man has moved from critical care, to the intensive care unit and is now under hospice care. Now near death, he can hardly even make out what you are saying.
A perfect solution is meaningless and impotent to an invisible problem.
Modern man has a desperate need for complete "God knowledge," to answer the big questions all men need answered. In order to obtain this knowledge man must go back to the beginning, to Genesis, to fully understand the how and the why of God's plan of salvation. There are nine essentials man must understand, for without complete knowledge a perfect solution is meaningless and impotent to an invisible problem.
1. The creation of Lucifer.
1. Lucifer’s narcissistic pride.
2. Lucifer’s deceives the angels.
3. The war in heaven.
4. Man made in God's image
5. The necessity of man's choice for love to exist.
6. The tree of free will
7. Lucifer and Eve in the garden
8. The fall of man, man's moral guilt and man's spiritual death
One afternoon a waiter frantically approached a restaurant patron and told her that she was deathly ill, and must go directly to the emergency room and get a blood transfusion ASAP or she would die, but that's all he told her. The woman said she felt just fine, but the waiter continued to insist she go to the ER.. The patron looked around and saw that everyone around her was fine, eating and drinking, and no one appeared sick. So she asks the waiter several questions, but the waiter only repeated the same story, adding, "Don't you get it?" But she doesn't get it. This doesn't make sense to her, although she clearly understands his solution, she is blind to the problem, and so in her limited knowledge she ignores the waiters pleas, discounts him as a bit flakey and goes on as before. She wasn't given all the information that she needed to make an informed decision. She wasn't given the past history that before she entered the restaurant every person who ate the apple pie, which she had just eaten, was poisoned and rushed to the hospital. The poisoned apple pie was the culprit and the lab results had just been given to the restaurant. The limited knowledge, though true knowledge as it was, wasn't sufficient knowledge to make the right decision, to convince her of the gravity of her situation, and could not save her. Her decision had been a deadly one, and now without a blood transfusion she would surely die.
The scriptures say, "My people perish for lack of knowledge." Knowledge concerning God's plan of salvation must start at the point of the beginning of what we know. For what we know by the scriptures, He deemed necessary that we should know. Not a word of scripture lacks value and every word has infinite purpose. Before modern man is asked to believe by faith, he must be able to understand why it is God requires him to have faith. This is not a cheap blind faith we're talking about, easy believism or religionosity. God's knowledge, given in the Holy Scriptures answers all of man's" big questions" of life. It answers not only the "how" but the "why." The gospel message needs the whole man, intellectually, spiritually, emotionally, and morally to discern it's authenticity. Man must see his "need." Then and only then when one understands these things can one discern the true reality of his "life or death" need for salvation. If he cannot see the urgency of the need, you mind as well talk to the wind. Modern man needs to see the whole picture, understand God's entire plan, therefore one must start at the beginning, the universe before man, to the time of angels. Grasping first the universe before Adam, man can then and only then be given the story of His incontestable justice, the price, His merciful grace, the awe, the gift, man's freedom from death, and His beautiful Bride dwelling in His indubitable and inexhaustible love, Thy kingdom to come.
Chapter God's plan in 21st Century speak
This story, though not an exact Biblical account, but my interpretation of the Biblical account, contains the history of the universe, as I perceive the scriptures in 21st century speak. I want this story to enable one to imagine how things "may" have transpired logically. Biblical history is logical, it is rational, it makes sense. It isn't some way out mythological world of make believe or a walking stick for mental cripples, or a fantasy mind trip, nor a diabolical method of enslaving the masses. I'm certain that this account can't possibly be exactly as it happened, but only that it is feasible and reasonable attempt to describe history and God’s plan for man eternally in 21st century speak.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~In The Beginning~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Once upon the heavenlies, in the most holy place, a place without time or limits of space, a place of all things of dazzling beauty, dwelled the Most High, Elah Sh'maya, the "God of Heaven." In His love, the Beautiful One made angel life, whose purpose was to receive God's love and to freely love, honor, praise and worship Him. These angel beings were not created in His image, nor according to His likeness.
The Beautiful One made one angel above all others, the most exquisitely unique being ever created. This angel had great intelligence and knowledge, second only to God Himself. He had brilliant wisdom and more superpowers then all the rest of God's angel life. He stood in radiant panoply of sardius, topaz, diamonds, beryl, onyx, jasper, sapphires, emerald, inlaid in gold. Elah Sh’maya called his most beautiful angel Lucifer, which means "light bearer." The King of All placed His “Light Bearer” Lucifer in charge of His heavenly hosts, the "Chief of Staff of the Angelic Air Force," the supreme position before the Beautiful One.
Ezek 28:13-14, "You have been in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of your tabrets and of your pipes was prepared in you, in the day that you were created. You are the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set you so: you were upon the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire."
Heaven was beautiful, God was beautiful and angel life was beautiful. And then it happened.
Once upon a timeless, Lucifer stood before an angel, speaking a command. Looking into the angel's eyes Lucifer beheld himself. Stunned by his own breathtaking beauty and magnificent form, he stood statuesque, transfixed on his sterling radiance. Following that moment, with each infatuating glance, Lucifer's pride filled vanity swelled with a malignancy.
As his imposing stature hovered over the multitude of heavenly hosts, he began conducting the praise worship. A whimsical dreamscape suddenly danced before his eyes, as endorphins exploded in his brain, he heard a symphony of praises being lifted up ... in his name. As he stood in all his magnificence before the heavenly hosts, Lucifer suddenly had an epiphany. The birth of a greater god was on the horizon. The universe radically shifted that moment, but no one felt it but God.
Lucifer's obsessive desire for adoration, praise and worship became as an all consuming fire, praise after praise, and song after song. His jealousy fueled a raging determination as he coveted the praises belonging to God alone. Soon intrusive thoughts of narcissism raced through his mind. Satan, deliriously smitten with each reflective gaze, was soon conquered by his obsession, distorting reality, and resulting in delusions of grandeur.
Lucifer's pride first consumed his infected mind in entrancing self-adoration and self-centered obsession, he could think of none other. Intoxicated in distorted reality, resulted in pride's final end, the bondage of obsessive narcissism.
The greater his pride magnified, the more intensely he obsessed, culminating in his declaration, “I am the Stellar One. I am the God of the universe!"
Eek 28:15, “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee."
Isaiah 14:13, "For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High."
Satan's reasoning now degenerated into delusions of supremacy. God's ordained "second place" was now thought unworthy of his exquisite beauty, unique charms and superpowers. First place was better suited for his "magnificence." In his new state of autonomy, independent of God's will, self governing, subject only to himself, Satan imagined himself a god and imagined God as dead.
Lucifer then surmised that angelic cohorts were necessary to overthrow the kingdom and worshipers necessary for his praises. Being more intelligent than the angel life, and the "Father of lies" he devised a plan and then the great orator's campaign began.
Lucifer called for the golden trumpets to sound, "The Chief of Staff of the Angelic Air Force requests your presence immediately." Myriads of angels suddenly hovered effortlessly from every direction, as sounds of powerful wings swelled. Standing before them, Lucifer lifted his head, viewing the masses of snowy white wings, and then spoke these words, "Brothers, what I must say, I must say quickly, so listen carefully to my words for I may not be with you much longer. When He and I alone existed, there suddenly, in a microsecond, materialized as out of nowhere, an electro-magnetic zero point of light energy, caused by an unstable particle flux created through anti-gravitational geomagnetism. As we watched there suddenly came from within this minuscule particle, a colliding of cosmic energy and dark energy, causing bolts of cold and negative electricity to converge, splitting dark matter. A magneto hydrodynamic luminous star, Wormwood, was born. It began projecting billion and billions of photons through the universe, scattering gammas and inelastic gammas, causing energetic debris to enter the ionosphere, producing titanic ionization. This of course, resulted in morphing all angel life seedlings.
This evolutionary transforming light energy, resulting in mutated zygote angel life seedlings, causing a metamorphosis, D.N.A., Divine Nature Angelics. These mutations have advanced angelic species, transmuting angel life to divine significance, transcending angelhood to godhood. As your evolutionary advancement progresses, becoming more complex, and more divine, His is dissipating. Entropy is hurling Him towards insignificance, and His final destiny, extinction. Yes, it's true; the Great One is destined to die. He knows this ionization has not only created the elements necessary for angelic deity, but exponentially has accelerated the forces of thermodynamics. With His once all omniscient power weakened, his demise is now inescapable. He has chosen to hide this knowledge from you. He fears you will later torture Him for His dictatorship. He wickedly plans to cast you into the outer darkness of Tartarus, the black hole of the lost. I realize you are unaware of Tartarus, because He has kept it a secret, even from me. But as my god powers are increasing, I can now read His mind. And I tell you the truth; He has you in checkmate my friends. Realizing you haven't yet reached the level of my powers, unable to see into the future, nor read His mind, nor comprehend the scientific knowledge I possess, I am compelled to swear my unswerving benevolence for my fellow angels. I must reveal to you my brothers, His tortuous plan ... no matter what consequences I must suffer. Survival of the fittest is our victorious destiny if we subjugate His kingdom with all expediency, before it's too late and He casts us into the black hole of the abyss. "We will not descend to Tartarus is our cry!” He declaimed. “As we must increase, He must decrease. Choose this day whom you will serve!"
And so was born the scientific angelic progressive evolution revolution movement. Lucifer’s "progressive enlightenment," transformed into a festering rebellious scheme for the title of “Master of the Universe. “At that moment, with Lucifer's deception complete, he had convinced the many of his scientific arcane??? of the heavenlies. The angels, unable to fathom Lucifer's complex scientific explanation, rather than appear ungifted, nodded in agreement, applauding his brilliance. The angels reasoned together, "It must be true for he is brilliant and comprehends all of science." "We can see he is infinitely more intelligent than we." Whispering, "Besides, why would he lie, he's one of us?" Many swore unquestioning allegiance to him, believing his superior intelligence had no bounds. "We have faith in you O Great One." Luring a third of the heavenly hosts to his newly formed government, he proclaimed the dawning of "enlightenment." and an angelic "progressive evolution revolution movement."
According to Lucifer, as citizens of progressive angelism, angels could reign as demi-gods and Lucifer, of course, would evolve into God. These angels, one third of the heavenly hosts now adamantly refused their created positions as angels in God's universe, rejecting God’s position as Final Authority, and began their insurrection, to enter the Holy of Holies and to mount the very throne of Elah Sh'maya.
Lucifer’s calculated plan was a war for headship, to destroy the Lordship of God, and replace the Creator with that which was created. They then, being gods, would dwell in the Lordship of their autonomy. Lucifer's unspoken desire was to murder God. "He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies." John 8:4
War of the Worlds
Lucifer mounted his mighty horse Opium as throngs of mounted stoic angels, with faces as chipped from pale rock, followed behind, looming over the Holy Mountain. Great clouds of shimmering gold dust trailed behind as they thunderously galloped towards the City of Lights. Hearts pounding, and eyes blazing in the reflective light of the Great City, they clenched their reins with whited knuckles, crying, "We will not descend to Tartarus!" as they swarmed around the throne room of Elohim.
But the war of progressive angelism was short lived. God's faithful angels warred against Lucifer and his rebellious ones. At warp speed, God then hurled the gimpy one and his cohorts, marred and hobbling, towards the grey barren sphere of Earth. His mighty archangels, Gabriel and Michael, now stand at the ready, before the throne of the Almighty.
Revelation 12:7-9, "And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him."
Ezekiel 28:16-17, “Through your widespread trade you were filled with violence and you sinned. So I drove you in disgrace from the mount of God, and I expelled you, O guardian cherub, from among the fiery stones. Your heart became proud on account of your beauty and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth. “
Prior to the war, God's eternal foresight had viewed the condition of their hearts, and it revealed a malignant pride, which resulted in terminal unrepentance, forever refusing to place themselves in subjection to the authority of their Creator. The angel's chosen unrepentance had hardened their hearts and seared their conscience resulting in a reprobate mind. Had they humbled themselves, they would have then had the ability to sense their moral guilt, and then repentance would have been possible. Then and only then could God's forgiveness and salvation have been accepted in their hearts. Therefore, no salvation was provided, for their hearts were eternally unrepentant. Hardened, there was now no escape from their poor choice of total autonomy. Choosing their autonomy they chose a total separation from their creator and King. Just as their free will demanded, God turned them over to their chosen will ... no relationship, no fellowship, and no salvation returning them to God. This was their choice. God is always faithful to honor one's free will; He will never interfere with one's choice to love Him. No one will ever abide in heaven against his or her will.
Progressive angelism, the choice of autonomy and self-worship, could only have had one outcome, total separation from God. Their failure to honor their obligation of commitment, to abide in the structure of who they were and who God was, lead to their eternal separation.
Most would be compelled to ask the perplexing questions, how could Lucifer, being such a brilliant being be so oblivious to the obvious futility of his revolution and where did evil come from?
Choosing to exist in a state of narcissistic pride, resulted in Lucifer's delusions of grandeur, blinding his heart and mind, and culminating in a rebellious nature centered in autonomy. Satan's free will choice was to refuse God's proper place as Lord, resulting in losing his position as the most beautiful and powerful angel, exchanging his eternal "life" for eternal death and forfeiting his pure, godly nature. Lucifer now named Satan, meaning "enemy," was then left with his "self willed" dark nature, his chosen ways apart from any godly attributes. His once magnificent superpowers began to entropy as the law of thermodynamics was activated, as "the wages of sin is death." Cast from heaven and sentenced to eternal death, Satan, God's enemy, is now eternally separated from God.
The existence of the concept of evil exists in the antithesis of good, as light's antithesis would be darkness, as the antithesis of hot would be cold. Darkness or cold need not exist physically but the concept exists in it’s absence,” it’s opposite."
Hurled to a barren planet
What would Lucifer do now that his government of progressive angelism failed to come to fruition and the battle lost? Was his only pleasure a sardonic dishonor of God and His majestic creation? And what would become of the rebellious angels? Aimlessly loitering in nowhere land, they had little choice but to continue placing their bets on Satan, their last dismal hope. Stripped of all godly attributes, they were now as Satan, left with their chosen evil nature and worse, they were left with their "Commander in Chief," the universe's biggest Loser.
Now vanquished, Satan was bitterly angry with himself, not because he realized his rebelliousness and autonomy separated him from his God, refusing his proper place, or that his pride blinded him from reality but because of his miscalculation of power. Satan, though cast from heaven, continued the narcissistic delusion, wanting all of creation's praises. Remaining obdurate in conscience, he hardened his heart all the more, void of repentance, he began to scheme, devising another battle plan against the Master of the Universe.
One may question, why didn't God cast Lucifer and the fallen angels into hell? God could have destroyed Satan and the fallen angels, and it would have been totally just. But Satan had changed the heavenly abode of tranquility and harmony to doubt and doubt leads to a diminished faith. Satan had convinced multitudes that he was just and that God was unjust. He portrayed himself as having unswerving benevolence, willing to suffer no matter the consequences, for the angelic brotherhood. We must remember that the angels were limited; intellectually Satan was their superior. Secondly they had not sinned and had no comprehension of being good because they hadn't yet experienced good's antithesis, evil. They couldn't comprehend Satan's true motives, nor comprehend his narcissistic pride, nor his scheme to murder God. They were deceived, persuaded by doubt and fear. The true reality of the rebellion was known to Satan and God alone.
The remaining faithful angels may very well have questioned in their mind if it was possible that an all powerful God could use His power unjustly, witnessing Lucifer and the warring angels sent far, far away. Seeds of doubt poisoned Heaven's perfection. Living in doubt with an all-powerful God who could be evil was a terror beyond imagination. But God dearly loved the faithful angels and refused to allow this deception to haunt them for all time. God's imperative was to make His universe eternally secure in peace of mind and faith. Satan's true nature had to be exposed. God's good nature had to be proved unalterable, immutable, incorruptible, unmodifiable, and indelible. God, man's true Father, desired to restore heaven to the home it was meant to be. The final outcome of Satan's rebellion and rule over mankind would be witnessed and understood by all God's creatures. Mankind would experience Satan's kingdom, his world rule, and by embracing his damnable autonomy would result in world wide human carnage. The violence, the suffering, the brutality, and man's finally reality, despair would result from Satan as the "god of this world."
The destructive aftershocks of man's choice of humanism's autonomy would be written across the pages of human history. When God judges Satan in the end, He will be acknowledged as a "Just Judge" and all creation will, on bended knee, praise and worship Him, not out of fear, but out of the witnessed knowledge of His perfect justice, and eternally merciful unconditional love. All of mankind will acknowledge His divine love in sending His only Son to ransom mankind, proving "He alone is worthy." And so in order to fulfill God's plan, and restore heaven's confidence He postponed Satan's judgment seven thousand years.
In the Beginning…
In Genesis 1:26 Elohay Kedem, the "God of the Beginning," said, "Let Us make man in Our image according to our likeness." And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed."
In Elohim's magnificent love, He created man, the loving creation of the King of all creation, born of a pure heart in His eternal love. This most beautiful being was unique in all the universe. Man was created in the personal image and personal likeness of God. This meant possessing a portion of His divine attributes, a godly nature of righteousness and love. This personal connection, possessing godliness, gave man personal insight into God's soul, a knowledge and experience of the very essence of God, which the angels did not possess. What an incredible display of intimacy, sharing with man His soul, a beauty beyond words. His very essence, the King of the Universe, was graciously displayed before man and in man, clearly demonstrating His desire for an intimate personal relationship. God had lifted man to a place of extreme importance of all of His creation, for all time.
His shared attributes were the conduit by which man could have a personal relationship, to communicate personally, intimately and lovingly. His communication with God was not designed to be merely mechanical, a complex conglomeration of organized chemicals which obey God mechanically, genetically, or instinctually, but personally, and intimately. He was not created to serve, as the angels, but to be the object of God's unconditional love, to shower with blessings, all that He had.
God has created and designed each person individually, uniquely, unlike any other, with the uniqueness of each snowflake, each star, every leaf on every tree, beautifully, wonderfully unique. Man's uniqueness displays God's relationship with man as one of a highly personal nature. We are not mere faces in a sea of humanity to Him, but each is individual, and His cherished treasure.
"And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil." Genesis 2:7-9
Though man was cognizant of his actions in the garden, he couldn't comprehend his goodness, purity and holiness, his state of perfection, as he had never experienced its antithesis, thus man had not the "knowledge of good or evil." God placed Adam in His mind-blowing garden in Eden and said to him, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest there of thou shalt surely die." And so Adam was given knowledge concerning the tree of life and the tree of death, both is full view in the middle of God's garden, the Garden of Eden. Of the tree of life, Adam was told he may freely eat but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, the tree of death, he was commanded not to eat.
The existence of the "Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil" demonstrated man’s gift of choice. The choice of disbelief, lacking faith in God's word would bring death and the choice of disbelief resulted in the act of disbelief, eating its fruit, which brought spiritual death. Its antithesis, the "Tree of Life," brought life if man would choose it by faith, to believe God's word that if eaten, it would bring eternal life. "Without faith it is impossible to please Him."
I must say this with great emphasis; in order for love to exist it must be given within the framework of free choice. And so God established the provision of choice, to choose to accept God's love or to reject God's love, to love God or to choose not to love God. Man was to think freely, and to act freely, free to self-determination, and free to love God. Had God not given them a free will they would have been perfect people, in a perfect place, obeying God merely out of their state of perfection, no different than programmed robots, incapable of love. In Eden God gave this knowledge and understanding of choice, He planted the "Tree of the knowledge of good and evil," the tree of choice and so Adam knew he was a free person.
This was man's first great gift; his free will of personal choice and it existed in a relationship with his God. When God spoke to Adam concerning the tree of good and evil, {as Eve had not yet been created} He said, "In the day you eat of it you shall surely die" God demonstrated Himself as a caring God who's warning was meant to protect him from the harmful consequences of antithesis, disobedience’s resulting death. Death was not a punishment from God, but the consequence of antithesis, sin. But if Adam chose to trust God, to live in a state of faith, to choose "the tree of life" he would live eternally.
God is a God of absolutes and with the existence of an absolute is always the existence of its antithesis, an existing opposite, as love and hate, good and evil, hope and despair, freedom and slavery, etc. These exist as absolutes exist. Thus God is not the author of evil, but evil resides in the antithesis of godly absolutes. They are equally available choices within man's free will choices. The warning was out there, with the consequences spelled out clearly, in black and white and in full view, ".... You shall surely die."
The scripture then states, "And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a help meet for him." So God then made woman. Gen. 2:23. Since Eve had not yet been created when God warned Adam of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, she never heard those words of warning directly from God, but learned God's instruction through the headship of Adam and Satan knew it. This little fact will play a major role in the plan of The Loser.
God gave the command to Adam, forbidding the fruit to be eaten. Now Adam and Eve understood that there existed in their relationship with God their own personal free will, a free choice, to obey or disobey. The tree, man's tangible symbol of choice, had been placed there for man to comprehend God's gift to man, his inalienable freedom to choose. In man there existed the ability to think freely and to act freely on those feelings. Man was not a machine, but a uniquely free being. But with personal freedom came personal responsibility and with choice came consequence.
And then God said, Genesis 1:26 "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” Man was given dominion to rule over all the earth, man became earth’s ruler.
Conversations in the Garden of Eden in 21st Century speak
This is my interpretation of the Garden of Eden conversation and not scripture. All scriptures are stated.
1 Peter 5:8. “ Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour."
One breathtakingly glorious day, late in the afternoon, Satan approached Eve, seeing that she was hungry and alone in the Orchard of Delight.
Genesis 3:1, “Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made."
Serpent: Quietly Satan came to Eve from behind as she sat in the grass. “Hey Eve." He sat down next to her, and most pleasantly inquired, "Whatcha doin'?"
Eve: “I hungered and so I came to Paradise to eat. I am deciding of which tree to eat of its fruit."
Serpent: "Eve, did you check out that awesome lookin' tree in the middle of the garden? The fruit on that thing looks to die for! “
Eve: "Really, to die for? Lifting her eyes Eve gazed into the distance. The shimmering metallic green leaves of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil added to its mystery.
Eve: “Do you mean the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil?"
Serpent: "Dang, Eve, there's so many trees here, I can't remember all the names. Ya know what I mean? It's the one with the beautiful glistening crimson fruit. You are going to try it… aren't you? "
Genesis 3:2-3, "And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die."
Eve: "Adam said God forbid us to eat of it. He said we would die... even if we as much as touched it."
But Eve was mistaken. God never told Adam that he would die if he touched it.
Genesis 3:1, ".... And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?"
Serpent: "Huh? Where did you get that crazy idea? God's forbidding you from eating food? Wow, that's weird. I've gotta go see this fruit that will kill you if you touch it. You comin'? You can look at it… can't you?"
Eve: "Well, ...God never say I couldn't look at it." Eve slowly stood up. "I guess it would be ok to just take a peek. It wouldn't hurt to go and just look."
Serpent: Jumping to his feet Satan smiles, "Now you’re talkin’!"
Genesis 3:4, "And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."
Serpent: Approaching the Tree of Knowledge, he said, "Wow! Just look at that fruit! That's the most beautiful fruit I've ever seen, and it's all yours for the taking Eve. I wish I were in your shoes. Ya know what Eve? You know what I think? I think Adam just misunderstood what God was saying; he could have just heard it wrong. Or maybe he's just not good at explaining things. I mean, think about it, would God not want you eating food? Killer fruit? C'mon, it's silly!” He exclaimed. “ Look, maybe you misunderstood Adam, these things happen Eve. Or perhaps ... well ... I don't like saying it, but what if Adam's holding out on you? I know you're new to these parts Eve, and to be quite frank with you, I've known Adam all his life, and he's not the most honest guy on the planet. Maybe he wants the knowledge all for himself. Maybe Adam's like, um ...uh...on a power trip. Ever think about that?”
Eve: “No, I never thought about that at all.”
Eve slowly moves closer to the tree.
Serpent: “Anyway, that's not the story I heard. I heard that when you eat it your eyes will be opened and that you will instantly be aware of all the mysteries of the universe. You’ll be wise, you’ll know everything Eve, everything, good and evil, and Eve ... you'll become a god. How cool is that?"
Eve hesitates. "I don't know."
Serpent: "Use your head girl!” He exclaimed. “What's the real reason He doesn't want you tasting that fruit? I'll tell you, He knows it has magical powers, and if you eat it, you'll be like Him; you'll be a god. You’ll have His knowledge; you'll finally know the mystery, the mystery of good and evil.” Shaking his head as he raised his brows, he grins and says, “Why else… would He do it? C'mon Eve,” Then he whines loudly, "Think outside the box!"
Eve moves even closer, her eyes transfixed on the illuminated fruit framed among the translucent lime green leaves as the setting sun cast its last rays.
Serpent: “Now Eve, listen to me, ….God isn’t going to kill you for touching that fruit” he said gently. “Look Hon, I’ll prove it. I’ll touch it. Satan then reaches up and takes the forbidden fruit from its branch. “Ya see Eve, nothin’ happened, just like I said. C’mon, just touch it, you’ll see…it’s really OK, …trust me.”
Seeing Satan holding the fruit without effect Eve becomes confused and now curious why she was misled. Eve stepped even closer; her curious desire enticed her hand to reach for the fruit, as her finger barely touches it.
Serpent: “You go girl! Ya see!! He laughs. Nothing happened! Now don’t you feel stupid?
Eve smiles: “Nothing happened.”
Serpent: “Nothing! Nothing at all. See, I was right. What’s all this mess God telling you there’s killer fruit in the garden? Ridiculous!”
The Serpent moves behind the hanging fruit and faces Eve: “ Eve, aren't you just dying to know what it tastes like? C’mon, …you know you are. Just take one tiny bite. No one’s here… it's just you and me. And you know I won't tell ...promise. It'll be our little secret.” The Serpent and Eve’s eyes locked, as he quietly says,” Eve ... it's to die for!"
James 1:4, says, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.”
Pertinacious Satan first tries to discredit Adam's eyewitness testimony by saying he may have errored in his hearing or understanding or communicating it to Eve. Doubt now enters in, her trust overshadowed by Satan’s creation of doubt. Then he tried to throw her off kilter, saying it might have been her fault, her inability to understanding. More doubt. Then he uses covetousness, Adam will become God, but you won't. Then pride, you'll have all knowledge. And best of all, you'll be a god, total autonomy. Curiosity enticed her mind. She was smitten with its crimson beauty; the lust of the eye brought forth desire. Just one little bite, meant one small infraction. I promise not to tell, meant it would remain hidden, no nasty consequences. She was lured with the imagination of the magical powers it possessed and the ultimate thrill, supreme deity. It just doesn't get better than that!
Satan knew exactly what God had spoken to Adam about the Tree of Knowledge. When Eve mistakenly thought that God had said that she couldn’t as much as touch it, Satan knew that Eve was wrong. So he used it to trick her, coaxing her to touch it, knowing that when she did, nothing would happen and God would appear to be a liar. Satan had her hook, line and sinker.
Thus the emergence of a seed, which was planted in God's garden and on then the entire Earth, the autonomy of narcissistic pride.
Genesis [6] "And when the woman saw, that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat."
Eve no longer chose to believe God's warning, but instead chose to abandon her faith in His word, she stopped trusting God and love must have trust. Her faith was now in Satan's word and no longer in God's word. Eve’s lack of faith in God’s word led to her disbelief. This resulted in her sin of disobedience, which was made operable through God's command. Experiencing the sin of disobedience, she gained first hand experience of evil. And now knowing evil, she understood its antithesis, good, and therefore she possessed the knowledge of good and evil.
Satan was telling the truth, well ... sort of. Her eyes would be opened, true, she would experience the knowledge of good and evil, true, therefore she would be like a god, well, here's where he fudged a bit. Eve became like God only in the sense that she now had the knowledge of good and evil but not as God possessed this knowledge. Eve's knowledge was first hand experience. God's knowledge was knowledge "of" evil, but God never experienced evil personally. Little details Satan didn't mention. Satan also omitted mentioning that Eve's knowledge of evil would be experienced as she "became" evil, acquiring a sin nature, that her faith in Satan's word resulted in a lifetime of horrific moral guilt resulting from sin. And worse, that Satan now had the "power of death" over all humanity.
Her faith in Satan's word over God's lead to death just as God said. The death God spoke of was her spiritual death, as God's Holy Spirit cannot remain in a defiled temple. Eve's spirit being had been the active vehicle of communication with God, and now it lay dead. The life of her spirit being, the Holy Spirit, had departed.
Overwhelmed with her unimaginably hideous guilt, Eve panicked. She wanted to crawl out of her skin. Her death brought a hideous spiritual void, and a putrid sense of vileness. She no longer sensed the presence of God within her. A million thoughts raced through her mind, she was going out of her mind, and she was going it alone. Adam can't understand my sorrow, my pain, he hasn't the knowledge, he could never understand my guilt, this hideous torture of my soul, she thought. Now evil, Eve’s love became corrupted. As misery loves company, Eve didn't want to suffer alone, and so perhaps she devised a plan to bring death to her husband Adam. Perhaps, she calmly and gently approached Adam, pleasantly she held out her hands and offered him a taste of the bitten fruit. She smiles and whispers gleefully that she has eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Seeing a bite missing and yet she remained alive, Adam no longer believed God, his faith, like Eve's was abandoned. Adam reasoned in his mind, Eve ate and didn't die therefore God lied to me. Adam's reasoning prevailed over God's word. He followed his own prideful human reasoning, instead of trusting in God's word. He reasoned, that Eve possessed a knowledge that he lacked. Jealously, he then grabbed for the fruit. At this point Adam's God nature died and his, ”antithesis nature" was born. This was man's point of choosing autonomy. Now instead of being completely drawn to his Creator, man’s moral guilt caused a complete shift in poles, Adam’s 180 turn repelled God.
1 John 3:8, says, "He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning." Ephesians 2:1_2, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient."
Eve had been cajoled, deceived, challenged, taunted, smitten and enticed to eat the fruit but not so with Adam, he freely chose to eat. The Bible doesn't say a thing about Adam being tricked by Satan in any way. Adam knew God's command, as he heard it with his own ears. He chose not to believe and trust God's word he too abandoned his faith. And then through the vehicle of pride, he turned to faith in himself, his human wisdom over God's spoken word. Faith now dead, the sin of disobedience reigned, resulting in moral guilt. Sin poisoned man and man died.
God had given man dominion over the earth and thereby established a theocracy as the world's original form of government (Gen. 1:26-29). In His theocracy, God appointed Adam to be His representative with the responsibility to administer God's rule over the earth. But when Adam chose to trust in himself and lost his faith in God's word, and sinned, his Spirit died. Adam's spirit nature drawn to God, now dead, brought Adam to its antithesis, repelling God. This new repelling nature cast mankind into the vortex of an abysmal black hole, hell, and total separation from God. The law reveals the attributes of God's character, His holy standard; therefore rejecting the law was the same as rejecting God. Adam didn't realize at the time that his unfaithful disobedient act resulted in abrogating his authority as ruler. This left a vacuum, of which Satan gladly filled. This authority was proven in Matthew 4:8-9 when the scripture says that Satan took Christ up to a mountain top showing Him the world, and offered Him the entire world for one act of worshipping him as God, Satan said, "All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me." Man was now put under the subjection of earth's new ruler, Satan, the self appointed "Prince of this World" as man descended towards a certain eternal death.
They tried to run away from God, and hide themselves, as they were ashamed of their choice of unfaithfulness resulting in disobeying God and inheriting a Satan nature. They covered themselves because they sensed the shame of moral guilt. Man, once a brilliant being was reduced to a slave of his own body to toil in the fields for food, void of God's presence, to die, not only in spirit but also in the flesh. Man was alone with only his sin nature and moral guilt. Man was a loser as he had followed in the footsteps of "The Loser." He was his follower now and his slave.
Could the Loser now convince mankind as he did the angels of a progressive evolution? Could man's progressive evolution lead to an intellectual metamorphosis of man's worldview, with man choosing humanistic autonomy? If mankind chose autonomy it would inevitably result in man's delusional godhood, Satan would then take his place as king of the gods, finally receiving the praise and worship he so desperately sought after, as the apostle Paul describes him as, the 'god of this world." 2 Corinthians 4:4. And so it all began, Satan weaving his World Wide Web.
Man has proven over and over, man after man, generation after generation, that man's fallen nature could never in a million years bring man to his proper place before a holy God. Free will, though necessary for love to exist, brought the freedom of antithesis choice, the sin of faithlessness resulting in disobedience, a sinful nature and spiritual death. Rom. 5:12 says, "Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned." Now dead in spirit, man could not ascend to heaven, as he had no vehicle by which to get there.
But God in His omniscience knew that the free will necessary for love to exist would eventually; inevitably result in man's choice of disobedience. God knew man would lose faith, and choose autonomy, through the vehicle of pride, removing God from His divine throne and replacing Him with himself, just as Satan had, and just as the angels had. But God had a plan.
God could have immediately destroyed Satan and the fallen angels, and it would have been totally just on His part. Satan was clearly in rebellion. But what was worse, Satan’s rebellion was based on deceit of who God was. God’s reputation of perfect holiness had to be clearly demonstrated, if not, a certain terror would always exist in heaven and on Earth. 1 Sam 12:22, "For the Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake: because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people."
Psalms 106:8, “Nevertheless he saved them for his name's sake, that he might make his mighty power to be known."
God set out to prove that perfect justice is the foundation of His throne, and that His mercy, though it be perfect, cannot set aside His justice. God desired to establish evidence that His principles are unalterable and eternally demonstrated within the framework of His holiness. And so God in His wisdom allowed Satan to play out his plan and God played out His.
First, this plan will result in restoring God's true reputation of perfect justice and mercy through the vehicle of unconditional love, casting out all doubt and fear from the hearts of His angels and Earthly children.
Secondly, man will realize that relinquishing the part of his will which enables man to choose sin in exchange for God's holy will is man's perfect choice. All creation will, on bended knee, praise and worship Him, not out of fear, but out of the witnessed knowledge of His perfect justice, truth and immutable, merciful unconditional love. All of mankind will acknowledge, "He alone is worthy." Love will cast out all fear.
Now we have a picture in heaven, God as creator, an understanding of Satan’s narcissistic pride, “The Lie”, the war, Satan and the angel's change of address. God creates the earth in six days, and God created man uniquely in His image. God demonstrated man's free will choice had been given to man, making man capable of love. Man loses faith in God's truth, disobeys God's rule and experiences antithesis of godly obedience, evil embodied in sin. Man has sinned, and becomes evil. Moral guilt follows and man is ashamed. Man becomes abnormal, God’s spirit nature dies as God's Holy Spirit leaves man's defiled spirit temple. Man is now dead in spirit and the antithesis evil nature remains in man. With no hope man exists as a zero. He has lost his authority as ruler over the earth. Understanding this foundation, the stage is set to share the Gospel of life.
Posted by: Mk Mason | March 2, 2009