The Big Picture is that there is a God and you are not Him. God has a plan and your plan is not it. God doesn’t need you help or your advise on how to run things. He already has it figured it out and God’s plan, His will, results in the best and highest for each person, including you. Even though you have “free will”, you can not ruin God’s plan. You can not even ruin the plan God has for others, even though you think you can (Romans 8:28). The only thing you can do is ruin yourself by following your own plan or save yourself by following God’s plan, by choosing salvation and a life of faith in Jesus Christ.
Let’s go back to the beginning, no not “The Big Bang” Theory (but I do like the TV show). Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” This is a summary statement of what God did, He created everything from nothing. And most scientist agree that everything suddenly appeared out of nothing, yet humanistic scientist don’t call the creation of the Universe an effect that is caused by an Intelligent Designer, they call it a “fluke of nature”, an un-caused effect they can’t explain. Of course we can’t explain how the cosmos was created because we are also part of God’s creation. We exist within the box of creation while God is outside the box. And if you want a catchy name for how things began I suggest you use the name “The Big Breath” or the “The Big Stretch”.
By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And by the breath of His mouth all their host. – Psalm 33:6
Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein: – Isaiah 42:5
And within the box of creation there is no other planet like Earth, teaming with life of so many kinds; plants, animals and of course man. And even if you want to try and offer an explanation for how the cosmos and life naturally occurred over time, where did our conscious thoughts (our soul) evolve from? For that matter why do we even try to understand and make sense out of our existence? It is because we are born in the image of God, yet because of sin we are Spiritually disconnected from God and therefore we are born searching for significance to our life that is only found in a relationship with God, through His Son Jesus Christ. Yes, it is all a wonderful miracle of God and you are God’s greatest miracle whether you choose to believe it or not!
Note, “in the beginning“ is when the “Physical realm” was created. In the beginning is when “time“, day 1, began for the Physical realm. Everything on Earth didn’t appear complete all at once, but over six days God perfected and completed creation of the cosmos and life on planet Earth. Also note, Genesis 1:1 is not describing the beginning of God’s existence for God has no beginning or end. God is outside of time and has always existed and will always will exist. There is no one greater than God. He is the great “I am”. He is the only One worthy of worship and praise. “Everything was created by God and for God”. (Colossians 1:16, 1 Peter 4:11) That is why the Westminster Shorter Catechism from 1647 says “The chief end of man is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever!”
Also I want to clear up a misconception about “The Gap” theory of creation that is taught by some people because of Genesis 1:2 “The earth was formless and void”. The Gap theory states that because God created everything in 1:1 and in 1:2 it is formless and void then there was a catastrophic event that occurred between verse 1:1 and 1:2. that caused the earth to go from a “created” state to a “void” state. This is simply not the case here, because the creation story is told first “in summary” (Gen 1:1) then again filling in “the detail” (Gen 1:2-2:3), then again added more specific details (Gen 2:4-25). Some people like the idea of a Gap theory because they use it to explain why the earth and the cosmos appears to be billions of years old, yet the Bible account says that the earth and the cosmos is about 6,000 years old. But you don’t have to use a “Gap” theory to give the earth age, it is simply that God created the earth with age, fully grown just as He created Adam and Eve as fully grown adults. And this is true of all the animals, they were created fully formed. So if you want to know what came first the chicken or the egg … it was the chicken.
And some Christians like to debate whether we live on a “new” earth that was made by God in 6 days to “look old” or we live on an “old” earth that really took billions of years to form after God initiated a “Big Bang”. But you don’t have to look back in time to find the answer, you just have to look forward in scriptures when God creates a new Heaven and Earth “instantly” by fire.
But by His word the present heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men. – 2 Peter 3:7
The earth get’s a resurrected body, as through fire, just as the believer get’s a resurrected body at the Judgement Seat of Christ as through fire (1 Corinthians 3:15). Like our new resurrected body, the new earth is going to be like the present earth but even better! What do you think God is going to do, have His children sit around in the Spiritual realm for billions of years waiting for the new earth to evolve into perfection? No, of course not, God is going to instantly make a new Heaven and Earth. And even the Heaven and Earth that we currently occupy could have been made by God instantly but by doing it over 6 days and resting on the 7th, God is giving us an example of how we are to live our life … working 6 days and setting aside a day for rest and worship to God.
And there is no need for an “evolution theory” on planet earth to explain how life came into existence on earth. This theory is completely false and a physical impossibility (things do not gain information and improve over time … they loose information and decay). Scientist agree upon this concept and they call it “the second law of thermodynamics”, however because these intelligent minds don’t want to recognize an intelligence greater than their own … i.e. God, they ignore this law when it comes to describing the process of creation. Another problem with evolution is that it describes a process that is cruel and bloody, as animals die over millions of years while they “magically” evolve into a higher order of species, gaining DNA information. This is simply not a creative means that is worthy of a God who is worthy of praise! The theory of evolution does account for “micro-evolution”, changes that occur within a species (such as from wolf to dog breeds) as there is a loss of DNA information. But to me the biggest problem with the evolutionary theory is how do you explain the evolution of our thought process? “Why do we wonder why we are here?” “Why do know that death and destruction are not right?” “Where did our Soul come from?” There is only one logical answer. Our soul is created by God, for a relationship with that God and our soul is restless until it finds it’s rest in a relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ.
Some Gap theory proponents take the position that the “creatures” who died from the Gap judgment are now the “Demon Spirits” that roam the earth however I think the Demons are the soul/spirit of the Nephilim that died in the great flood that covered the earth. I discuss this in more detail later in this article. Also some Bible commentators say that all the dinosaurs were destroyed in the Gap judgment before man walked the earth but if this is so why do archaeologist find foot prints of dinosaurs and man together. And what is the giant behemoth that is described in Job 40:15-24, if it is not a dinosaur of some type. Dinosaurs walked with Adam and some survived the flood because they where carried on Noah’s ark (maybe as male and female eggs or perhaps some of them were able to swim in the flood waters).
The worst problem with the “Gap” theory is that if God destroys the earth by fire between the verses Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2, this throws a wrench in the “first” type and “second” type examples that are found throughout the Bible. The first man was Adam the man of sin. The second man is Jesus, perfect and eternal. The first born man was Cain unrepentant. The second born was Able, who humbly brought a blood sacrifice. The first born of Abraham was Ishmael by Sarah’s hand-maiden. Ishmael, however, did not receive the promise of being the chosen people of God, that privilege went to Isaac, the second born son through Sarah, Abraham’s wife. And when the twins struggled in the womb of Rebekah, Isaac wife, God told her (Genesis 25:23) that two nations were in her womb and the older brother, Esau, would server the younger, Jacob. The promise of God’s chosen people came through the second birthed son, Jacob, who was later renamed Israel. The first was Saul a man of statue and appearance in the world. The second king was David, a man after God’s own heart. Our first body is born corrupted by sin with a body that will die. For those born again in Christ Jesus, our second body is an eternal resurrected boy free from sin. And in the same way the first earth is corrupted by sin and dies, the second born again new earth is eternal (Revelation 21:1). Also the first of God’s creation is Lucifer, who sins and become Satan a creature that cannot be redeemed the “second or last” of creation is Adam, who sins and is redeemed and gets a new name in Christ (Revelation 2:17).
Finally, God destroys the first earth by fire at the end of the Millennium period and makes a second new earth that will exist for all eternity. This new earth or resurrected earth will be created in the “eighth” and last Dispensation/Age of man (Revelation 21:1). Note, go to the bottom of this article to see the eight Dispensation/Ages of man. Remember Christ arose on the first day or the week “Sunday” or the eight day, if you consider the first seven days of creation as the first week. Christ’s resurrection begins a new creation of God.
“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.“ – Corinthians 5:17
Another misunderstanding arises because of the King James Version (KJV) translation in Genesis 1:18 “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth …”. The Gap theory people say, look God has said “replenish” meaning there were people here and destroyed during the Gap, now go do it again. But here is why you must study your Bible and look at the Hebrew and Greek words when there are conflicts in understanding the Bible. The Hebrew word from Strongs H4390 should not be translated replenish but “fill”, (to fill, to satisfy, to complete and to accomplish). This is what the Hebrew word means, fill the earth with your offspring, procreate and rule over the earth and animals justly, as God has instructed you.
The people who translated the Bible into other languages like English were not the inspired 40 people who wrote the Bible (39 books of the Old Testament in Hebrew and the 27 books New Testament in Greek). Even though the KJV is an excellent English translation, it’s New Testament translation is based on the Greek text from the “Textus Receptus or received text” which means there are the many old Greek copies found that agree with one another. I think the NASB translation is a better rendering of the words of Jesus and the Apostles because it is based on the “Critical Text” which are the oldest known Greek texts found, even though they are fewer in number than the Textus Receptus Greek text (click here). I have probably just offended all the KJV only people but do your own research first and then get mad. The method I use to make sense of God’s word is I compare several Bible translations of a passage (including the NASB, KJV, Berean Bible, NLT and the Holman Bible) and I also use the Strongs dictionary to uncover the meaning of each word and I read some Bible commentaries, pray to God and rely on His Holy Spirit to reveal His perfect, unchanging truth.
Now back to the creation story … God recounts to Moses, what He did on each day of creation in the Spiritual realm, as He infused order into the Physical realm. God first speaks “Let there be” declaring His intent then “He makes” what He has declared. This is the way an Intelligent Designer accomplishes a project, first there is the idea for the project then there is the execution of the idea to manifest the project. And this is how I view the Trinity of God, three persons who are in in complete agreement, complementing one another in what they do. For instance, God the Father is primarily the Designer, God the Son is primarily the executor of the Design and God the Holy Spirit is primarily the sustained of what is executed. Some see God the Father as the Legislative Branch, establishing the the rules of righteousness, while Christ is the Executive Branch, proclaiming the rules of righteousness and the Holy Spirit is the Judicial Branch, convicting and enforcing the rules of righteousness. There is no perfect analogy to explain the Trinity but the best one I have heard is from Norman Gisler who said the God-head is like an equal-lateral triangle … it has three equal angles, yet three “distinct” angles that make “One” triangle.
The order of creation may not make sense to us, especially since plants appeared on earth (day 3) before the moon and stars are formed in space (day 4) but that is because God’s ways are above man’s ways (Isaiah 55:8-9) and the creation story reveals how God’s attention is primarily focused on making earth, which is the place for man. The Bible’s account of the order of creation is definitely not the way scientist explain how the cosmos was created but which scientist was there to point out this problem to God?
You see, God supplies the creating and sustaining power of the universe. God can use power in light from the sun to grow plants, which makes sense to us or He can use His power in ways that don’t make sense to us (we call them miracles), like when God “turned back time” (Isaiah 38:8), or when He caused time to stand still (Joshua 10:13 ), when He preserved Jonah in a giant fish for three days (Jonah 1:17) or when He took Elisha up in a chariot of fire (2 Kings 2:11) or when He resurrected Lazarus from dead (John 11:43) or when Jesus feed 5,000 people with just fives loaves of bread and two fishes (Mark 6:41) or when Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead with a new eternal body (Mark 16:9) or when God changes a person and grants them eternal life because they believe in His Son, Jesus Christ (John 3:16). As I explained before, it is all a wonderful miracle of God and you are God’s greatest miracle whether you choose to believe it or not!
One thing that perplexes me is that creation doesn’t begin with God saying that He first created matter in the Physical realm but the story of creation begins with God looking at the dead, dark, formless matter in the Physical realm Genesis 1:2 “The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters”. God describes His Holy Spirit moving over the dead matter (the surface of the waters), then He says “Let there be light and there was light” – Genesis 1:3. God’s Spirit brings dead matter to life just as Jesus bring eternal life to our dead sin sick soul. Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.” John 8:12
Light is electromagnetic energy which is emitted by matter that is in motion, the huge amount of “e” energy in “m” matter is know by e=mc2, where “c” is the speed of light squared. God’s “power” is what gives motion to matter (electromagnetic force) and at the same time holds matter together (we call it the strong nuclear force). Scientist search in vain to understand and control the forces of nature, but it is “God’s power” that is the unified force field that holds all things together (Colossians 1:17). I am not saying that God is “in” matter like the Pantheistic believes but that God, by His power, holds all matter together. God’s power is not something we can control but something we can depend on for “eternal life” if we put our trust in Christ.
Genesis 1:6Then God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”7God made the expanse, and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. 8God called the expanse heaven. And there was evening and there was morning, a second day.
The water’s below the expanse are “earth” and the waters about are “the cosmos”. By gathering and separating the “waters”, God brings order (entropy) to matter. Note, God first attention is upon bringing together the waters/matter that is “earth”. God then defines life (plant, fish, bird, reptile, animal and human) by the information in DNA. God’s creates unique DNA that cannot be mixed for each species of life on earth and He creates the means to replicate/procreate life.
Day 1 – light – energy is infused into matter giving it life and motion.
Day 2 – atmosphere of earth is made (1st heaven) to separate Earth from the cosmos (2nd heaven).
Day 3 – dry land of earth appears as seas are contained. Plants and trees are created bearing fruit.
Day 4 – sun, moon, stars and planets are made in the cosmos, giving forth their light.
Day 5 – fish and birds are created.
Day 6 – animals, reptiles, bugs are created. Man and woman are created in God’s image.
… all that God created was good
Day 7 – God rested.
Note, God rested, not because He needed rest but as an example to us, that we need to take a day of rest. And on that day of rest we also need to take time to worship God publicly (that means in a Church with other believers) and thank God for creating us and all the other good things! Also God “rested” from creation declaring “Creation is Finished“, just like Jesus declared on the cross “It is Finished”. The work of Salvation for man was finished on the cross and then Jesus sat down to rest at the right hand of the Father. Even our resurrected bodies that we will one day have are not something God created after the fall of man or when he raptures His church but our resurrected body is something God planned and created before the foundation of the earth. The point I am trying to make is that this is yet another proof of why the creation method of “evolution” is false. All DNA of all species where created in 6 days and then … God rested. Of course, man’s work just begun and man, like other animals, “procreates” and makes offspring with a soul and body that his own … also God is going to create a New Heaven and Earth on day eight … but let’s not get to far ahead of the story.
After God describes the 6 days of creation and the 7th day of rest, God goes into detail about creating the garden of Eden and making woman from man and for man (which was done on day 6). What’s not described in the Bible is the creation of God’s abode, the “third heaven”, the Spiritual realm where God and the Heavenly host (Satan, Cherubim, Seraphim and Angels,) live. Note, from Genesis 1:1 “Heavens” is plural and Genesis 1:1 is describing the creation of the first and second heaven, not the “third heaven”. The “first heaven” is the sky (the atmosphere air we breathe) and the “second heaven” is outer space (the cosmos, the home of stars and planet). The “third heaven” is the unseen Spiritual Heaven where the throne of God resides. The Heavenly host observed the creation of the first and second heaven from the comfort of the Spiritual third heaven. Job 38:4-7 “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? … When the morning stars sang together, And all the sons of God shouted for joy?” The “sons of God” and the “morning stars” are one in the same, they are the Angels, the Cherubim and the Seraphim and of course Satan who was called Lucifier before He sinned.
What’s also not described is the creation of the “Soul realm” where the eternal souls of all created beings reside (both Angelic beings, man and animals). And we know that God breathed a living soul into Adam (Genesis 2:7) and we also know that animals have “breath” and blood and therefore it seems reasonable to say that animals have an eternal soul and a spirit. But even though both man and animals have a “body, soul and Spirit”, only man is made in the image of God. Man and Angelic beings are morally accountable to God for their actions but animals are not morally accountable to God. Man has a free will that can choose to obey God or choose to sin. Animals on the other hand have an “instinct” from God that causes them to live as God has ordained. However, the spiritual nature of animals was changed for the worse as a result of man’s sin and we see in the Millennium Kingdom how the animals nature is redeemed so they don’t fight or kill one another and they are friendly toward man (Isaiah 116). I think in the beginning that God’s spirit was in Adan and Eve and God’s Spirit was in animals and this is what allowed man to have proper dominion and stewardship over the animal Kingdom (Genesis 1:28, Genesis 2:19).
My favorite animal story in the Bible is when a donkey talks to and rebukes the “Jack Ass” Balaam (Numbers 22:28). On a side note, I do not think animals go to Heaven when they die but I do think animals have an eternal soul and therefore I think we may enjoy a reunion with our pets on the new Earth, when they get a new resurrected body. Now concerning the horse we are riding in Heaven when we accompany Jesus to earth in the final battle of Armageddon (Revelation 19:14) this I believe is a special creature that can traverse between the Spiritual realm and the Physical realm, just like we will be able to do in our resurrected body. However, our Heavenly horse may be merely a symbol that represents that we come with Jesus in triumph, majesty, power, authority and conquest to reign and rule with Him in the Millennium Kingdom. Like the four horses of the Apocalypse, the horses represent God’s authority and the riders are His agents that do His will.
OK, let’s get back to discussing the third Heaven, “the Spiritual realm”, which existed before the Physical realm or the Soul realm. The Spiritual realm is more significant than the Physical realm, since the Physical realm needs the Spiritual realm in order to exist. And it is not revealed in scripture how long God and the Heavenly host enjoyed fellowship together in the Spiritual realm before man came on the scene and that is because there was “no time” or there was no way to measure time as we understand it before God created the Physical Realm on day 1. In other words, God created the Angels in the Spiritual realm and they enjoyed a wonderful existence before sin infected the heart of Satan. And prior to the creation of the Physical realm I don’t think there existed anything in the Spiritual realm to tempt Satan and the Angelic beings to sin.
Note, in the Physical realm, the first and second heaven, will one day be redeemed with “fire” at the end of the Millennium age to make a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1 2 Peter 3:10) but the Spiritual realm will not be destroyed or redeemed with fire. Instead Satan and the Angels who have fallen from Heaven will be permanently cast into the “Lake of Fire”, which is a place of suffering in the Spiritual Realm. For now, while man is on earth, man’s relationship to the Angels is explained here Hebrews 2:7 “YOU HAVE MADE HIM FOR A LITTLE WHILE LOWER THAN THE ANGELS; YOU HAVE CROWNED HIM WITH GLORY AND HONOR, AND HAVE APPOINTED HIM OVER THE WORKS OF YOUR HANDS;“ But that one day man will judge Angels. “Do you not know that we will judge angels? How much more matters of this life? – 1 Corinthians 6:3” We will judge Angles when we stand as “witnesses” at the White Throne of Judgement and agree with God’s judgement that Satan, the fallen Angels and men who reject Christ deserve to be cast in the Lake of Fire where their soul will be tormented as they experience Spiritual death, eternal separation from the Spiritual love of God.
Yes, I do a lot of pondering about what the Spiritual Realm is like but I have never been called into the Spiritual realm like Paul or John or Daniel or Isaiah so I don’t have any extra knowledge beyond what is revealed by God’s word to describe the Spiritual realm. However, you will notice that I often connect dots of Biblical references to make logical sense of what I think the Spiritual Realm is like. Please comment and correct anything that is wrong. I am “truth seeker” not a fame seeker. Most of the reports of people who say they have been to Heaven, revolve around seeing their friends and family and having a good time, but when John is “Spiritually” brought to Heaven he gives us details of the awe and majesty of “God’s Throne”. God’s throne and Jesus upon the throne and the Heavenly host around the throne praising God is the central activity, most important thing that is going on in Heaven. If you say you have been to Heaven but you weren’t overwhelmed by the throne of God then I’m not sure what kind of “trip” you went on. For example, if I said I went to Sea World but didn’t see “Shamu the whale” or even know he was there, you would say I wasn’t at Sea World. The point I am trying to make is that I am basing my view of the Spiritual Realm upon scripture, not personal revelation.
I am planning to write another article about the Spiritual realm but in summary, without going into to much detail, I believe Angelic beings are a three part beings, like man with a body, soul and spirit. And I think “the body” of the Angelic being in the Spiritual Realm (Heaven) looks the same as they have when they appear in the Physical Realm (earth), with the exception of the Demons who are disembodied soul/spirit of the Nephilim. Also Satan is a special one of a kind being with a body, soul and spirit but he has power to transform himself into a serpent or a Dragon and posses people like Judas and the Antichrist. Corinthians 11:14, NKJV. “And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.” So here’s the list of Created Beings (that have body, soul and Spirit), the number of them and their appearance.
| Created Being | Number | Their Body | Their Soul | Their purpose |
| Satan | 1 | Serpent, Dragon, Angel (man) of light | After choosing to sin, fixed for evil | Deceive man and keep him from belieing in the truth of savlation in Jesus Christ, rules over the earth, ruler of the Spiritual power of darkness thru Fallen Angels to influence people and world affairs |
| Cheribim | 4 | 4 faces (lion, ox, man and eagle) and 4 wings | After choosing, fixed for good | Protect the thone of God (same as the 4 Living Beings) |
| Seraphim | few? | multiple faces?, 6 wings | After choosing, fixed for good | Praise God and Personally Serve Him |
| Angels (good) | 66 million? | similar in appearance to man (male and no wings) | After choosing, fixed for good | God’s messengers to men, a guardian Angels physically protect a person from evil, harm and death (sometimes), they fight fallen Angles in the Spiritual Realm to prevent and delay them from influencing world affairs, pour out God’s wrath, they carry out God’s judgement, wrath and death upon wicked men. The number is based of 10,000 x 10,000 from Daniel 7:10. |
| Angels (fallen) | 33 million? | similar in appearance to man (male and no wings) | After choosing, fixed for evil | Deceive man by producing false illusions such as UFOs thru Spiritual power like hypnosis. Occult meditation leaves the mind open to Spiritual power of suggestion and manipulation. During Noah’s time “some” of the Fallen Angels appeared in human like body form and pro-created with woman to produce the Nephilim. These Fallen Angles who commited this crim are now in chains in Tardas (the bottomless pit) |
| *Demons | many | no body, no gender | Fixed for evil | *Note, Demons are pro-created (not created). They are the dead and disembodied souls of the Nephilim, the offspring of Fallen Angels and women. They search for a body, preferably human to inhabit and torment. They must be “cast out” in Jesus name. They cannot be saved because they have a soul fixed to do evil like their father, a Fallen Angel. |
| Human | 108 billion? | body like the Son of God choose | Originally innocent, after sinning, able to be saved … if willing | Only Adam and Eve were created being, all others humans are “pro-created”. Of course God makes the sexual attraction between man and woman very appealing and the sex very pleasurable. Within the scope of marriage between one man and woman, the joy of sex and the blessing of children is meant to be realized to it’s fullest for God’g glory. |
With God surrounded by His Heavenly Host of Angels in the Spiritual realm, why did God want to make man? And why did God make Adam and Eve with free will, the capacity to sin and disobey Him? Why did sin have to enter the world and destroy God’s creation? Many people say God is looking for a family to love and love can only exist where there is free will to choose (this part I agree with). And in order for free choice to be exercised you have to have something to choose from, something that is in opposition to what God has to offer (this part I am not so sure about). Therefore, sin entered the world to show the death and destruction that occurs when we choose our will over God’s will. And when we accept Christ as Savior, we confess that something is wrong with our ability to choose “the best” thing to do. We confess we need to be Spiritually connected to God to choose what is “right and true and best for everyone”, not what we think is best based on a world which revolves around us – instead of God. When we accept Jesus as our savior, we are repenting of our sinful desires and agreeing that by trusting and obeying God that we will get the highest and best for our life, a life of glory with Him. In other words, some Bible commentators teach that sin is a necessary evil that must exist in order to demonstrate God’s love for us and allow us to exercise our love for Him.
However, this theory has some holes in it because if sin is necessary to cultivate a relationship with God, then that makes God the author of sin. And if God is the author of sin, why does God hate sin? (Isaiah 59:2) It seems illogical and contrary to the nature of God that He would create something that He hates (sin) and allow it to destroy what He loves (man). It also doesn’t seem loving to let a cruel cat like sin out of the bag on the first two innocent people that walked on the earth. Sin was created by God but it was allowed to be “initiated” by one of God’s creatures, Satan, in order to prove a point for all eternity … that choosing to do what your own will is futile, insane and ends in death. Also a point will be made for all eternity, that those who overcome sin by clinging to belief in Jesus Christ through the trails of life will glorify God and be rewarded by God for their faithfulness. So sin, in the end, brings God glory.
Sin was initiated by Lucifer which means “light bearer” … this was Satan’s name and title before his fall. Satan is the first to choose to do something contrary to God’s will. Satan is kind of the author of sin, although sin is not something that is created but it is the destruction of what has been created by God. Satan, hasn’t created a thing and neither has man, Satan just destroys what God has created, including man. Sin can also be thought of as darkness, which is the “absence” of light.
Sin is separation from God or the absence of God’s Spiritual and personal presence in your life … it a Self Indulgent Nature – SIN – that man is physically born with, having inherited it from Adam and Eve. Sin is not something that can be touched or measured or removed … because it is the lack of something, it is the absence of God’s presence. Sin is also the decisions that we make by our free will that is NOT subjected to God’s perfect will. And I think “love” is a decision that we make that is based on faith in Jesus Christ, which is to say we subject our will to God’s perfect will.
Love’s a decision that’s founded on faith,
in God fearing promises time can’t erase
but sin’s a decision of self made in haste
apart from the goodness that’s comes from God’s grace.
So why did Satan sin? Satan’s name before He sinned is Lucifer, the first and most beautiful creation of God. He was like a brilliant and dazzling light, as the light of God shinned upon him and he even shared a title similar to Jesus, the morning star. Isaiah 14:12 “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!”. He had the position of highest honor and privilege. He is called a cherub “a living Angelic being” but he is not like the other cherub that we read about in scripture that have four faces and four wings. I think Satan is the first created being (while man is the last) and he is unique among God’s creation, with none other like him. Ezekiel 28:14 “You were the anointed cherub who covers, And I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire.”
Satan covered and protected the throne of God in Heaven, the holy mountain of God, covered with stones of fire. When God’s throne is reveled in Heaven or on earth, as when Elisha was taken up by the Chariot of fire, the Cherub are with God and seem to be transporting God but actually God is powering the Cherub. This description sounds similar to what Moses and the elders saw on mount Sinai. Exodus 24:9-10 “Then Moses went up with Aaron, Nadab and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and they saw the God of Israel; and under His feet there appeared to be a pavement of sapphire, as clear as the sky itself.”
Satan enjoyed the closest presence and fellowship with God. Only God’s glory exceeded Satan’s glory. Satan was covered with precious stones like the breast plate of the Jewish priests wore when they ministered to God in the temple. And Satan may have had built in pipes and percussion to play and sing praise music to God, although the NASB translates tabrets and pipes as “settings and sockets”. Reguradless, even if he didn’t have tambourines and pipes, you get the sense of the dazzling beauty and wonder of this created being. Even later when Satan takes on the appearance of a serpent in the garden (and a Dragon in Heaven), the colors of a snake are dazzling and appealing, yet the danger of handling him are real!
Ezekiel 28:13 “Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone wasthy 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 thy tabrets and of thy pipes (settings and sockets – NASB) was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.”.
Satan’s main activity, like the cherubs mentioned in scripture, is to worship God. Satan was the worship leader in Heaven, the one expressing the worthiness of God with the most passion and leading the Angels in praise to God. And this is the highest and greatest privilege that is bestowed upon God’s creatures, to worship before Him, in His presence. It is said that Satan went to the garden of Eden, to perhaps check out God’s latest creation, man. Man in comparison to Satan must have looked weak, frail and kind of puny.
So what caused Satan to go AWOL? Ezekiel 28:15 “Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.” I think it was man that caused Satan to leave his domain, not that man had anything to do with tempting Satan but I think Satan saw how much attention and detail God put into creating a world for man and he saw how God made man in His image. I think Satan saw puny man and how God walked with Adam and Eve daily and lavished His love upon them and Satan saw how much man loved God and enjoyed the fellowship of God. Perhaps Satan saw Eve and how she was like Adam but she was also different from him and how happy he was to have her company. Perhaps it was Eve or a bride that Satan desired and left his domain to obtain?
In the creation of Eve from the side of Adam we see the great joy that Adam found in fellowship with his bride … and you can see this similar marriage story repeated in the life of Jesus who went to the cross, to redeem for Himself a bride, the Church, from his side where His blood flowed because of the great joy set before Him of the everlasting fellowship with His bride. (Hebrews 12:2)! Maranatha!
Perhaps, Satan thought man was not worthy of God’s love, in comparison to his beauty and position before God. Or perhaps Satan was jealous of the love God lavished on man and all the work that God put into creating everything for man to rule over. And maybe Satan thought that God would not have enough love for him or God no longer loved him as much as man. Perhaps Satan thought that God have something “better” in store for man than for him? Maybe Satan wondered why God tested man’s free will made something that was forbidden for man to eat in the garden of Eden but Satan had free will to eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. Satan had everything … except the worship from man that was due God?
A mother once asked God how she would be able to properly divide her love when she found out she was pregnant with another child. And God told her that love didn’t work that way, instead God would expand her heart so she could give and receive twice as much love. And this is the way love works, God has enough love for everyone. In God’s case, the more the merrier is really true. But for some reason Satan didn’t understand this or didn’t want to understand it. We will probably never know what made Satan sin, anymore than we will understand why God made us and loved us in the first place. I think one day in heaven Satan exploded from jealousy over man and Satan decided to destroy man, and the first act of disobedience to God was born … sin (the act of a self indulgent nature).
Now jealously and pride are closely related. You can not be jealous unless, because of your pride, you think you deserve what someone else has as much or more than they do. There is however, a good kind of jealous and that is displayed by God towards His children when He is jealous for his children to choose Him and not sin. And, a good jealousy can be displayed within us when we are zealous for God’s righteousness. But I am talking about the bad kind of jealously that makes you want what someone else has and the pride that makes you want the whole world to recognize that you have what the other person had and that makes you better than them. I think Satan was jealous of the worship that man gave to God and Satan wanted man to worship him. Satan was the worship leader and he knew how much pleasure it brought to God to be worshiped by His created beings, so I think Satan wanted the pleasure of worship for himself.
In other words, Satan “coveted” the worship and love that man gave to God. Satan saw man’s innocence and weakness and knew he could tempt man to disobey God (sin) and thus he would win the trust of man and the soul of man. I think Satan made a bet with God, in a similar way he later made a bet concerning Job (of course in Job’s case, Satan lost the bet because Job didn’t curse God). Satan bet that if he could make man disobey God then man and earth would be his! And Satan thought if God had to watch all of His creation die from sin, that this would be to great a loss for God. And therefore God would have to admit that He was wrong in making man and allowing man to have “free will”. God would have to allow Satan to rule over man and earth forever and forever receive their worship. But Satan was “high” on his own reasoning and he didn’t foresee that the sin of man would “kill” the Physical realm so he would one day be king of nothing. Plus Satan didn’t foresee that the “cross of Christ” would redeem man and earth, so he would be the king of “less than nothing”.
Here is good video on the distinction and danger of breaking the “10th commandment”. Thou shall not covet:
So, perhaps, the presence of sin in the world has more to do with proving a bet with Satan and less to do with showing us how bad the effects of sin are, so we will freely choose to be rid of sin and live and love God eternally. For instance, consider a baby in the womb that dies or a baby that lives but briefly, both die and go to heaven. This is what David said about the baby he fathered by his adultery with Bathsheba 2 Samuel 12:12 “But now he has died; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me.” So based on scripture, a baby that dies before birth or a child that never reaches the age where they understood the effects of sin (the age of their accountabilit to God) go to Heaven and they stay there. I think those that do not reach the age of accountability go to Heaven and “choose Jesus”, just like the “good angels” choose to stay with Jesus and did not rebel. My point is that the “experience of sin” is not necessary in order to bring a person into a loving relationship with God. And the 2/3 of the angels that did not follow Satan are like the baby in heaven, they chose not to sin. And this is how born again believers will be in Heaven, we will have a free will but we will not want to choose to sin. In light of my sin nature, that I have now, I don’t understand how this is possible but this is why God’s ways are above our ways. There are some things we may never know about God but He has not left us in the dark about what we are responsible for knowing and that is to recognize the effect of sin in us and around us and that we need to be saved from it
Anyway, God allowed Satan to sin but He didn’t have to allow sin to come into the world. God could have just destroyed Satan on the spot for sinning and cast him into the Lake of Fire, instead of allowing him to tempt people for thousands of years. Surely, God knew Satan was going to sin and rebel against him and lead a 1/3 of the angels to follow him in rebellion And God knew man would sin and turn from Him. But God wanted to prove to Satan and the fallen angels something that is greater then the rebellious free will of God’s created beings. God allowed Satan to sin to prove for all eternity that God’s love and His Amazing Grace is greater than sin.
One day, every knee shall and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Those who reject Christ as Savior of their life, will confess that Jesus has the right to authority over their life but they are unwilling to give Him authority. They will agree that they would rather suffer eternity in the misery of their own selfish thinking, than enjoy the blessings of a life surrendered to God. In other words, even those who reject Christ will agree that Christ is more worthy than them to rule. Therefore even those who reject Christ will give God glory and also demonstrate God’ grace, which allows them to have their selfish and insane way.
Yes, Satan was right, puny man was an easy target for the temptation to disobey God. And the one thing that God forbid Adam to eat from, the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil, would be the means of man’s fall. Knowledge puffs up but love builds up. Having the knowledge of what is right and wrong does not mean you will choose to do right over wrong. Moreover, having the knowledge of what you are supposed to do does convict you of your unrighteousness after you transgress it but it does not give you the power to do the right thing, only God supplies the Spirit and power to do what is right at all times … that is why we must choose God over self.
Adam and Eve are said to have been in a state of innocence before God, like a child. They were learning right and wrong from God. God’s spirit of grace was communicating and increasing within the heart of Adam and Eve as they learned to trust God and learned to do what is right. This process of “sanctification” would have continued until their graduation and they would have been granted access into the Spiritual realm with a Spiritual body, if they had not eaten the forbidden fruit.
“The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! “For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” – Genesis 3:4-5
This is what Satan and the Angles are … “Sons of God”. Yes, Adam and Eve became like God by eating the forbidden fruit because they gained the knowledge of good and evil that God had been slowly teaching them. However, they lost the Spiritual wisdom of God within them to know how to use this knowledge correctly. The Demons know the Jesus is Lord of all and they shiver at the mention of His name but it doesn’t prevent them from doing evil, it only makes them hope that they don’t get caught and cast out of the human body they inhabit and torment. Satan and the fallen Angles have the knowledge of good and evil but they choose only to do evil and sin against God at all times. Without God’s Spirit inside a person, a person will be convicted by God that what he does is morally wrong, so he can seek God’s forgiveness through Jesus. However, if a person ignores this conviction from God, they will call evil “good” so they can satisfy their sinful desire and ease their guilty conscience. A sin nature, if not repented from, will eventually lead to delusion and insanity, where a person thinks they can determine for himself what is right and what is wrong and they will think they are god.
And this is what happened to Eve and Adam after they ate the forbidden fruit, their eyes were opened, they were convicted by God of their sinful action and they saw they were naked before God, both physically naked and Spiritually naked. At that moment their Spiritual connection to God was severed and the grace and glory they enjoyed was cut off. They knew they had done something seriously wrong … they had sinned. One second they enjoyed a fellowship with God’s Spirit and a contentment of His righteous, the next second they were cut off from this fellowship and they saw they were no longer covered by God’s glory and righteousness. I think Adam and Eve may have been covered by a robe of light, like the Angels when they appear on Earth but when they sinned their robe of light was removed. God is not ashamed of our body for we are made in Him image, to be like Jesus in character and to have resurrected body like Him. Frankly, I do not think Adam and Eve were ashamed to be naked in front of each other but they were afraid of being seen naked before the Lord, since their nakedness was the evidence of their disobedience toward the Lord.
If you think it has been a wild tale up to now about God’s creation, I might really loose you in my explanation about sin … our Self Indulgent Nature (SIN). You are made up of three parts; your physical self or physical senses (emotions, smell, sight, hearing, taste and touch) your soul self (free will, feelings, personality and reasoning) and your Spiritual self (God’s image upon you – the morality of right and wrong, wisdom and love). Your physical and soul self were designed by God to be guided and lead by your Spiritual self, which is feed by God Spirit. However, when our parents, Adam and Eve disobeyed God, the Spiritual sense in them was “cut off” from God’s Spirit and this left a void of leadership to the soul self. The soul self no longer had the clear righteous presence of God to determine what is God’s will for their life. The soul self of Adam and Eve realized the problem and tried to cover their nakedness, a nakedness that was previously covered by the righteousness of God. However, now in their fallen state they knew they were both Spiritually and physically naked, so they hide from God and covered themselves with leaves.
And this is the problem with every man or woman, we are born disconnected from God, a sinner. It is not the doing of unrighteousness deeds (sin) that makes you a sinner, but you sin (disobey God) because you are a sinner. You are Spiritually disconnected from God, a rebel by birth. You do not know God’s will and you can therefore not do God’s will. This is called a sin nature, a Soul self that is Spiritually disconnected from God.
This is a lot of information to take in so sit back and breath through your nose to calm your physical self, which should calm your emotions and sooth your feeling but don’t be deceived, no yoga pose, is going to reconnect your Spiritual self with God. It might cause you to be connected to the god of this world, Satan, but we will talk about that later. God designed our Spiritual self to be united with Him and for it to lead our soul and physical self, with all three self’s living in perfect harmony and for His glory. But, since our Spiritual self is empty and disconnected from God, it no longer has the power to lead us, however God’s Spirit still convicts the unbeliever of his sin (John 16:7-11).
For example, when you do something morally wrong, God’s Holy Spirit convicts your empty Spirit self (your heart), making you feel guilty. This guilt is meant to prompt you to confess your wrong doing to God and to the one you offended. In order to try and block out the feelings of remorse you might eat or drink to calm your nerves. It’s just a vicious circle because your soul keeps sinning and your Spiritual self senses God’s grieve because of sin, but even more importantly your Spiritual self is lost, it craves the love and connection to God. However, your soul self, who is on the throne of your heart deciding what is right and wrong, is not easily convinced to give up control to God. Worse yet, if the soul self continually rebels and doesn’t heed the warning from the Spiritual convictions from God, the soul self will be hardened beyond the point of repentance, unable to be convicted of sin by the Holy Spirit, eternally damned and separated from God.
We are told that our resurrected body that we will be clothed with the righteous robe of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:2, 1 John 3:2). Even now before the eyes of God, the born-again believer, is covered with the Spiritual righteousness of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21). And when God called to Adam and Eve, they were ashamed, which was a good thing, because they recognized their sinful state and they desired to be restored to God. So God killed the first animal in front of Adam and Eve to show them the price of their disobedience, the perfect must die as a substitute, to pay the penalty of death for their sin. And the blood of a “perfect” animal temporarily paid the price for their sin until the time the perfect lamb of God came, Jesus Christ. And God covered them with the skins of the slain animal to show that they were righteous before God based on the sinless animal, which foreshadowed the righteous robe of Christ we are covered with when we put our faith in His work on the cross that paid for our sin.
And then God gave Adam and Eve the bad news, the earth would no longer give up it’s bounty easily to them. They would sweat to grown their food among thorns and Eve would have pain in child birth. Worse still, they and their offspring would physically die and at their physical death they would face a second Spiritual death “in dying you will die”, (Genesis 2:17) unless, once a year, they brought to God an animal blood sacrifice to pay for their sin. This yearly sacrifice was a way to remind them that a perfect life, the blood of the animal, was necessary to forgive their sin and give them life. And to remind them that a perfect life that would be born from the seed of Eve would one day defeat Satan and death.
Genesis 3:15 “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
At this point God kicked Adam and Eve out of the garden of Eden and He placed a cherub to guard the tree of life, so that Adam and Eve would not eat the fruit of that tree and live forever in their sinful state. An interesting side note is that later when we see the mercy seat of God it is covered by two cherubs, where Satan use to do the job alone (Ezekiel 28:14) Then God changed Satan, who was already in the form of a serpent that could walk and talk, into a serpent that had to crawl around on his belly in the dust that Satan despised since man was made from dust. And God told Satan that there would come a man, born of woman, who would lead a perfect life, free from sin and that this man’s heel would crush his head (Genesis 3:15). This perfect man would win the bet for God because He would be able to redeem man and redeem earth. This perfect man would be both a man born from the seed of Eve and God’s Son from the Holy Spirit of God. This God/man would be able to live a perfect life pleasing to God and free sinful man from Satan’s grip. This man of course is the last Adam, the only begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:45).
This news must have shocked Satan and infuriated him because prior to this he was feeling high as a kite and celebrating his victory in causing the fall of man and Satan’s right to rule over man and earth. Now he had to suddenly shift gears to try to come up with a new way to win the bet with God, a way to corrupt man’s flesh so Jesus could not be born of a woman. And this is what Satan tried to do, throughout the Old Testament and especially during Noah’s time, when Satan tainted the gene pool of man by successfully tempting the Sons of God, fallen angels, to have sex with the daughters of men. This resulted in a hybrid bread of man called the Nephilim, which God destroyed by the great flood that covered the earth. And later in Bethlehem, Satan enticed Herod to have all children under two years old killed, thinking he would kill Jesus as a baby. Satan, even tried to tempt Jesus in the dessert by offering Him the world (which does belongs to Satan) but Jesus quoted God’s word back to Satan and defeated him. Satan then thought if he could stop Jesus from setting up His Kingdom on earth by killing him that he would finally win the bet with God. That’s why Satan entered entered Judas (John 13:27) to make sure Jesus was betrayed and turned over to the Jewish Leaders to be crucified.
But when Jesus gave His life on the cross it was game over for Satan because Jesus had lived a perfect life, free from sin and satisfied the requirement for man to be forgiven for his sin. Jesus stated the victory on the cross … “it is finished” (John 19:30). And though Satan knows his days are numbered before he has to pay with his life for loosing the bet (be thrown into the lake of fire) Satan continues to deceive as many people as possible, perhaps to enjoy the brief worship he receives from man. Satan also continues to try and exterminate the Jews, thinking that if he can foil God’s future promises concerning the Jews (that they will look upon Jesus who they pierced on the cross and morn and be saved – Zechariah 12:10), then God will have to let him off on a technicality. But God is not a liar and all He says comes to pass. God’s plan and God’s people will prevail.
Some people think that if they acknowledge their sin nature and they turn to God in forgiveness and are reconnect to God’s Spiritually that this will remove their “free will“. They will be like a Stepford Christian, a robot that is programmed to love God, no longer freely deciding to love God or anything else. Of course we know this is not true now, the born-again Christian, has both the our old sin nature and it battles our new Spiritual nature so we must constantly be choosing whether to follow our new God Spiritual nature our or our old sin nature. That is why 1 John 1:9 was penned, so the believer would have the assurance that if we repent of our sin as a born-again believer, we will resume our fellowship with God. A believer cannot loose His salvation and his entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven no matter how badly he sins but a believer can sin be out of fellowship and God will discipline the believer.
However, in Heaven there is no sin, therefore there is never a loss of fellowship with God and never a time of discipline for sin. This takes us back to the issue we discussed earlier, that most Bible commentators say that sin must exist in order to have free choice and display love. But, like I said earlier to refute this clam, babies die and go to heaven and they are born again in Christ. They don’t sin and they never did sin, nor do they sin in the future. They are like the 2/3 of the Angels that didn’t follow Satan. They have free will but not the desire to sin. And this is how it will be when born again believers are in heaven, we will be like Angels with a free will but we will not desire to sin. Or as Norman Geisler states it, in Heaven man is both able not to sin and not able to sin. We will still retain our free will but we will always freely choose to pursue holiness. It will be illogical and impossible to sin just as it is illogical and impossible to not think.
But how about the convicted mass murderer who repents of his sin and comes to Christ, yet he is never apprehended by the law. In Heaven will his mind be racked with guilt over his wicked deeds and his cowardliness to turn himself in? Even this kind of thought is sin, as though Christ’s sacrifice is not enough to cover all your sin. The answer is “no”, no, no, no, a thousand times no. There is no purgatory in Heaven for the believer. You will never choose to sin or be effected by sin because (1) you will be rid of your mortal sinful body (2) the fullness of God’s Spiritual goodness will dwell in you. I think this is something Adam and Eve didn’t have. They were innocent and were slowly acquiring a knowledge of God as the walked and learned from Jesus. They were being sanctified into the image of Christ and growing in Spirit of God but they didn’t have the fullness of God’s Spirit within them which would have exposed the deception of Satan’s lies. They were vulnerable and lacking in the Spiritual knowledge of God’s goodness but still they knew enough about God’s goodness to be responsible for giving in to temptation and disobeying God.
We, as born-again believers on earth have a seal and down payment of God’s Spirit in us. It allows us to be reconnected to God and overcome the penalty of sin (our Spiritual death) but it is not intended to overcome our physical death. On earth, our flesh is subject to sin, displaying sickness, aging and causing us pain, even as our new born-again Spiritual nature gives us hope and tries to free us from our sinful desires. But in Heaven we won’t have a mortal body to drag us down in weariness and pain, we will enjoy the fullness of God’s Spirit within us and we will have a body that is fully able to serve and enjoy God forever!
In Heaven, there is no sin but we will see and touch the effect of our sin when we see and hold the nailed scared hands of Jesus while we walk through the garden with Him. To sin in heaven will be illogical, it will make no more sense than an eagle wanting to swim or a fish wanting to walk or a frog worrying about bumping his ass while he hops along.
Well, what will we do in Heaven if we don’t have to battle sin, which we spend so much time doing now on earth. We will not have to share the gospel because everyone will be saved. We will not have to learn God’s way as we do now by studying His word, for we have His fullness of Spirit in us. Yet we will always be learning about God and about creation, for God is all knowing and we are all learning. We will no longer have to apologize for misunderstandings and selfish behavior. We will not need to work for food or shelter, since our new body is eternal, not with blood and earthly means of sustenance. Yet, God will have work for us to do that will be enjoyable and will not be destroyed by sin and decay. And we will have a body that is never hungry but we will still be able to enjoy food and fellowship. I know Heaven will be wonderful and as the song goes “I can only Image” how wonderful.
Frankly, it’s not exactly clear what we will be doing in Heaven but it will not be boring or in vain. For one thing, as we do now, we will worship and praise God but it will be so much more wonderful in Heaven! Perhaps, this may be the biggest way we spend our time in Heaven and it will most likely be the most enjoyable thing to do in Heaven. Also, we will have a resurrected body that is able to traverse from the Spiritual realm of Heaven to the Physical realm of Earth where we will rule and reign with Christ. And the plants and animals and people we enjoy on Earth now will be even more enjoyable in our resurrected body. Plus after we rule and reign with Jesus for 1,000 years on earth, God is going to make a new Heaven and Earth that is going to be even more awesome!
“Sin” – what is it good for? Well you might be singing along and say “absolutely nothing”, but that is not entirely true. If sin wasn’t necessary for some good, God would not have allowed it. And if sin was nothing but a cruel experience to win a bet with Satan then we could consider God unfair for taking an unborn baby right to heaven without enduring sin and suffering, while we on earth who reach the age of accountability have to first repent of our sin nature and, be born-again only to then to fight the rest of our life to keep our sin nature in check. So, sin is good for something. It does teach us by experience of what not to choose but it has a much greater purpose. I think that the believer who fights the good fight of faith against sin will receive a reward, a crown of glory from Christ. Choosing not to sin in this life will be rewarded in heaven. So even though earth is a living hell for the believer, there is reason to rejoice because we will be rewarded according to our faithfulness to suffer.
And the saying from Matthew 20:16 “So the last shall be first, and the first last.” will make sense. Those who choose Christ and served him but a short number of years or even days or moments before going to heaven will be rewarded in Heaven, not based on how long they served Christ but by how much zeal of motive that they served Christ and overcame their sin nature. In other words, those who choose Christ last in life but serve Him with all their heart will be rewarded more in Heaven than those who choose Christ early in life but did not serve Him much on Earth. And another meaning is that he who is considered least of all worthy in this world, but yet because he loved the Lord and lived a life of faithfulness, he will be rewarded in Heaven above someone on earth who thought he was highly appraised in the eyes of the men.
Another purpose of sin is that it sets the record straight for all time that rebellion towards God is futile. And one of the hardest things for me to understand about sin is why does Satan continue to sin and rebel against God even though he knows he is defeated and his time is short? Or for that matter, why does anyone decide to stay a slave to their sin when they can clearly see that it’s only reward is death? Einstein said insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different result. And that is the diagnosis of Satan, he is insane. The great deceiver has deceived himself into believing he can still win the fight. And those who choose to remain a slave to sin are insane too since they choose to serve a master that is unpredictable, depraved and leading them toward death.
And even though Satan knows that he was defeated at the cross and man’s redemption was won and those who believe in Christ are free from his grip, there is still a promise of God that is yet to unfulfilled. That promise is that the the Jews on the earth will one day look upon the one whom they pierced and say “blesses is He who comes in the name of the Lord” (Matthew 23:39). If Satan can kill all of the Jews before that day, he will prevent this from happening and therefore win a minor battle over God. This explains the hatred of the world for the Jewish people.
So you see, Antisemitism (the hatred of Jews) is really a manifestation of demonic Spiritual activity aiding and abetting Satan. This is why God warned said in Genesis 12:31 “And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.” If nothing else can convince you that there is a God and the Bible is His word, the existence of his people, the Jews, should be enough living proof. From Pharaoh to Herod to Hitler, Satan has used these men to try and eliminate the Jews and destroy God’s plan, yet God and God’s people have prevailed. It is not because the Jews are smarter or better or more worthy than any other people, it is simply because of God’s grace. The Jews are God’s chosen means to bring salvation to all men.
Yes, Satan is a real intelligent being and no he doesn’t wear a Halloween costume with red horns, a pitch fork and pointy tail, unless of course it serves his purpose. I don’t want to write about Satan because I don’t think he deserves the effort it takes to write about him. But he does exist none the less and he is a real and present danger. He has real power and persuasion upon man. Satan’s primary purpose is to keep unbelievers occupied with issues of the world so they won’t have time to look to God and deceived by his lies so they won’t believe they are sinners and Christ can save them from their sin. His secondary purpose is to try and discourage believers from living the abundant life of Christ. Though Satan is powerful and thinks he is ruining God’s plan, his evil schemes and evil actions ultimately serve God, because all things work together for good (Romans 8:28). God is in Sovereign, as “He allows” evil from Satan, the Fallen Angels and man to exist for “a while”.
Satan is real and just because you don’t see him or the Angels this does not mean he and other beings in the Spiritual realm don’t exist. I’ve never seen the billions of dollars the Bill Gates has but the fact that he owes Microsoft and supports so many charities is good evidence of his wealth. And the war, hate, pride, confusion, destruction and death in this world are evidence that Satan and powers of Spiritual Darkness are real. Remember the magicians of Pharaoh’s court, they were able to turn their staffs of wood into snakes, after Moses showed them the sign from God and his staff became a snake. Of course the snake of Moses’ ate the magician’s snakes proving God’s power is greater than the power of Spiritual darkness.
The point is that Satan, the fallen Angels and Demons have Spiritual powers. The Spiritual power they originally had at creation and they used to obey God is now used to destroy God’s work … and mainly to destroy man. Satan was the #1 creature of heaven so he probably has Spiritual power greater than Michael the Archangel of God. And Satan and the fallen Angels use their power to oppose God, within the boundaries of God’s permissive will but they cannot violate God’s sovereign will. Remember, Satan was given permission to destroy Job’s life but not to take his life. And this is Satan’s objective to destroy an unbeliever by deceiving him into thinking everything is OK, thus keeping him captive to his sin. Plus Satan tries to disarm and incapacitate the believer by discouraging and reminding the believer of his sin and how he fails to overcome the sin in his life. Satan tries to put doubt in the mind of a believer concerning his salvation or keep him ignorant of God’s word. The power to fight Satan is found in God’s word not our ability. Fervent prayer of a righteous man works to battle the world, the flesh and the Devil (James 5:16).
The spiritual powers of darkness are able to do deceiving signs and wonders. It is hard to know exactly how powers of Spiritual darkness work but we know that our righteous prayers are heard by God in the Spiritual realm and He is able to manifest results in the Physical realm. In a similar way, a person’s petitions of “positive thinking” and desires for “self esteem” are actually offered up to Satan and he is able to answer out selfish desires in the Physical realm. Satan wants to keep us captive to sin, thinking we are in charge of our life and destiny. In this sick arrangement, people may even think they are praying to God but if they have no “born again” relationship with God, and are not praying for God’s will to be done, and they are not praying in the name of Jesus, then they are in fact worshiping Satan. On the other hand, when Satan tries to destroy the faith of a true believer of God, this usually backfires on Satan and ends up strengthening the faith of the believer and glorifying God, like it did in the life of Job.
Satan, can’t learn and he can’t win but he can increase the body count of people that end up burning with him in the lake of fire. Jesus has won the victory over sin at the cross, “It is finished” (John 19:30), people don’t have to remain captive to sin and deceived by the schemes of Satan. The Church has had a big impact over the last 2,000 years proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ and freeing people from their Spiritual death sentence of sin. But I think the time of the Church is winding down because people are so deceived by the world, the flesh and the Devil that most do not believe in God, sin or Satan. Most people are busy rebuilding the tower of Babel to prove they we are self sufficient and they can build a better world than God. People do not want the grace of God to overcome their sin and receive a life with God in the Kingdom of Heaven with a daily provision of God’s grace but people want a daily handout of provision from the Government or they want a life of worldly wealth and affluence in the Kingdom on earth. Man today is so focused on obtaining selfish pleasure like in the days of Noah and doing self centered works as in the days of Babel that God is coming soon to judge the world for putting self above His amazing grace.
Satan uses the fallen Angel and the Demons to help keep man occupied in self deception,rebellious and distant from a loving relationship with God. We know 1/3 of the Angels fell with Satan … but who are the Demon Spirits. I think a Demon is the lost and wondering “sou/spirit” that once inhabited the body of a Nephilim, which was created by sex between a fallen Angel (sons of God) and a daughter of man (a woman) described in Genesis 6:2. A Demon spirit can invade the conscience mind and take up residence in the unbeliever who “invites” in powers of Spiritual darkness through drug use, despair, meditation/trance and Satan worship. (I am writing an article on the “Spiritual Realm” and will provide a link to it when I have published the article.)
But most of the damage that is done to man is not a result of following temptation from Satan, fallen Angels or Demons, it is self inflicted damage done by our #1 enemy; our own rebellious sinful will as we sing along with ol’ blue eyes “I did it my way”. We are born Spiritually disconnected from God and our nature is to stay busy doing our own thing, lost in sin. Our flesh tempts us to sin through pleasure … “a little is good” then more must be better. And the world temps us to sin when we think that we will be satisfied if we “have a certain thing … fortune” or we “have recognition among men …fame”. Finally, our pride makes us sin, like it did Satan, when we think we are “better than others and we want power over them”. A person may even be so self deluded that he thinks he is invincible and has become a god. Unfortunately, this is usually where the heart has hardened beyond the point of salvation.
And Satan knows man is a sinner and he accuses man before God of man’s failure to obey God and the judgement that is due him, death (Revelation 12:10). But when Satan reminds me of my past, I remind him of his future. Actually, it is foolish to try and defeat Satan by trying to accuse him or reason with him. Jesus showed us how to defeat Satan by quoting the word of God to him (Matthew 4:1-11). Depend on God’s word to overcome temptation. Don’t play around with sin and think you are immune from it’s effects. Run from sin and run to God. “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.“ – James 4:7
What is curious to me is “why did the 1/3 of Angels sin and follow Satan”? Or why did 2/3 of the Angel not sin and decide to stay in Heaven? I think God gave all the Angels one chance to make a free will decision to go with Satan or stay with Him. Unlike man, who continually sins on earth and has a life time of chances to accept salvation, the Angels had but one time, one chance to make the decision to stay in heaven with God or be damned and go to earth with Satan. I think here is where Satan launched a big campaign to show how life on earth was more wonderful than it was in Heaven, with all the animals to play with and food to eat and of course “the woman”!
When Angels are spoken of in scripture they are only male in gender. When they appear on earth or in Heaven they have bodies that look like a man and they DO NOT HAVE WINGS! The Cherubim and Seraphim are the ones that have wings and multiple faces. The Cherubim and Seraphim are a distinct class of created being that live in Heaven but the are not the same as Angels and when they appear on earth or in Heaven they have either 4 or 6 wings, receptively (also note the wings are covered with eyes). The Cherubim have 4 faces and based on scripture it is hard to determine if the Seraphim have multiple faces. Yet, even with wings and multiple faces the Cherubim and Seraphim have some human like features such as hands. The Cherubim, Seraphim and Angels were not “procreated” through female Angels, they were created by God as fully formed adults and probably all at once … all male.
So how many Angles are there? “Then I looked and heard the voice of many angels, numbering thousands upon thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousand. They encircled the throne and the living creatures and the elders.” – Revelations 5:11. From this scripture there are 10,000 x 10,000 or 100,000,000 or 100 million Angels but scripture also mentions that the Angles are like the stars in Heaven (100 billion x trillion) and the 1/3 of them that serve Satan now in the Spiritual realm and will eventually be cast down to earth in the Physical realm at the mid-way point of the Tribulation period. “And his (Satan’s) tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.” – Revelation 12:4
Now we read in Genesis 6:4 that “some” of the fallen Angles had sex with the daughter of men and produced offspring called Nephilim, “giants”, men of renown. “The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.” – Genesis 6:4 Because of this transgression, God caused the flood to cover the earth. He also punished these Angels greatly by holding them in chains so they can cause no more trouble. “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment;” – 2 Peter 2:4 “the Angels who didn’t keep their first domain are held captive in Tardis”. – Jude 1:6. I think this display of God’s punishment against the fallen Angels who committed sex with woman is the warning message that stops other fallen Angels from committing this kind of transgression today. The fallen Angles don’t commit acts of sex with woman because they don’t want to be locked away in chains before their time of judgment before the White Throne.
After God told Satan that He would send man “a redeemer” through the seed of a woman (Genesis 3:15), Satan’s new plan was to foil God’s redemption of man by tainting the DNA of man with fallen Angel DNA. I think Satan tempted some of his fallen Angels to transform into their Angel body on earth, take a wife and rule on the earth. We know from scripture that when Angles appear on earth they look like men and I think their DNA is close enough to men so they can procreate with woman. I think “some” of the fallen Angels had sex with the daughters of men and produced offspring with a genetic defect that causes giant bodies and reduced their life span, i.e. the Nephilim.
I think these Nephilim creatures had a mortal body that was similar to man and a soul of man but a spirit that was similar to the fallen Angels, always choosing to sin. It really seems counter to God’s loving character to allow a Nephilim to be born into existence with a soul that is eternal but unlike man, they have no choice to be saved from their sin nature. But in the same sense, a soul that is sealed by sin and evil at birth is not really a human soul with a free will to choose good or evil but is more like an animal with an natural instinct at birth that only does evil and is unable to reason, help someone else or be saved from sin. The Nephilim bodies died in the flood but the soul/spirit of the Nephilim roam in the Spiritual realm as “Demons”. They don’t wait in Sheol/Hell like human souls who wait for judgement because they are NOT human. Since they don’t have Spiritual bodies like fallen Angels they roam the earth looking for a body to inhabit. The key point is that the Nephilim threatened to pollute the seed of man and prevent a Savior from being born from a woman as God promised in Genesis 3:15. This grieved God greatly. “And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.” – Genesis 6:6.
BTW, reader, do your own research, read your Bible, pray, send me your commentary about this strange event, I would greatly appreciate it.
I think the Nephilim may have been both male and female but if the “male” Nephilim seed would have produced a soul like the Fallen Angels that could not be saved. However, if a female Nephilim was impregnated by a male human then the offspring would have some of the DNA of the Nephilim but the soul would be human. I think this is likely the case that Ham’s wife had Nephilim DNA because after the flood we hear of giants again called the “Rephaim”. These creatures were giant in size but I think they have a human soul.
I think the fallen Angels may have been able to produce offspring with animals but the outcome would have been similar to the Nephilim; a half animal/half human body with the soul of an animal and an evil spirit unable to be saved from sin. These giant creatures and strange aberrations are the things of myths and legends. This is why most people don’t take this scripture literally but explain the sons of God where the line of Seth and the daughters of men where the line of Cain. Yes, this is convenient way to try and make sense of this scripture but it doesn’t answer the question of why a union of a Seth man and a Cain woman produce a strange giant creature called the Nephilim, that was so violent that it grieved God to the point where he wanted to wipe out all of creation? For more info read this: http://paradoxbrown.com/modernhybridsnephilim.htm/
Genesis 6:5Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6The LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7The LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
But God saved Noah’s eight family members and a pair of every animal species by miraculously carrying them in an ark for a year, over the waters and onto a mountain top but all other human flesh and Nephilim flesh died in the flood. The eternal souls of unbelieving man went to Hell, to wait judgment before the White Throne but the evil soul/spirit of the Nephilim roam the earth looking for a body to inhabit, preferably human. These are the Demons we read about in scripture, who were especially active during Jesus’ ministry on earth. Some think that before God comes to judge the world that Angels will again mate with women and produce Nephilim as in the days of Noah. Or some think that scientist will figure out how to modify the DNA of man to make a hybrid creature that will appear during the end times. But I think the evil that will overcome man in the end-times is not going to be a physical corruption of man’s DNA but a Spiritual corruption that was similar to the days of Babel. The Pope, the United Nations, the celebrities singing “We are the World”, the Lunatic Liberals of the world are joining together to defy the God who asks them to repent of sin to show Him how great a world they could make on their own based on sin. Unbelievers are looking for a Nimrod to return and lead them into their New World Ruler, the Islamic are looking for their Mahi … and the one who is showing up is the Antichrist!
The Ages/Dispensations of Man
We spent quite a bit of time getting our bearings of God’s plan for man. We discussed how we are disconnected from God by the sin of our parents, Adam and Eve and we are tempted to stay disconnected from God by the world, the flesh and the Devil. Basically, everything in the Bible is a lesson from God on how to restore our connection to Him, be born again, redeemed and renewed. The world tries to rehabilitate a person in order to change their behavior for what man calls “good” but Jesus did not come to make bad people good but He came to make “dead people alive“! We are dead in our sin, disconnected from God, so God’s plan is regenerate a person, to change the person from the inside by giving them a new Spiritual heart of Christ. This is God’s message to man throughout the ages, come be reconciled to God. And there has only every been one way to reconciled and connect to God and that is by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. This way has always been the same, “the righteous shall live by faith”. Those in the Old Testament (OT) believed in a Christ that would one day come and save them from their sin and we in the New Testament (NT) believe in the Christ who did come and save us from our sin.
I was raised in a church going family but the Bible didn’t make much sense to me. God seemed more like a Angry Malevolent Dictator in the Old Testament and a Happy Benevolent Jeannie in the New Testament. When I became a born-again believer and read the Bible I could see where OT believers responded to God by faith, the same way the NT believer did but it wasn’t until I saw the book called “Dispensation Truths” by Clarence Larkin that the way God has dealt with man over the ages made sense to me. Click here and you can read the book online for free and see all the cool charts he drew. There has only ever been “one” way for man to come to God (by grace through faith in Jesus Christ) but God uses different messengers and different means for a period of time, a Dispensation period, to demonstrate this one way to man.
When you look at your own life, things may seem chaotic and ugly but when you look at creation, you see order, like the motion of the planets and beauty, like a sunset. God has made the creation with the order that reflects His Holiness, which is represented by the number “seven”, where 777 is the perfect trinity of God and 666 is the trinity of man, for man was made on the 6th day. God took 7 days to create the Heaven and the Earth and I think God is going to take 7,000 years to bring His creation into completeness. Then God will create a “new” Heaven and Earth that has no end and is no subject to the decay of sin! For remember what the scripture says.
But do not let this one fact escape your notice, beloved, that with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years like one day. – 2 Peter 3:8
Therefore based on the 7,000 year timeline for planet earth, the rapture of the church will occur in the 5,993 year after creation God since this event will be followed by 7 years of Tribulation (5993+7=6,000) and then 1,000 years of peace, which brings us to the year 7,000! And even more exciting and relevant is the fact that I think year 5993 is this year, 2017, and on Rash Hashanah this year, Sept 20th, will be the day of the Rapture! I am still crunching the numbers to see if I can calculate the exact number of years since creation but even most scientific accounts of history indicate that modern man has been on earth for about 6,000 years. You can call me crazy or lazy but I would prefer you call me “praisey”!
The way Clarence Larkin explains the Dispensations periods is by using charts and drawings. Clarence Larkin was an Engineer before he became a Christian. He didn’t know how he would use his engineering drawing ability to lead people to Christ or further their walk of faith but when I saw his drawings of what God has done through the ages, it was like a light bulb went on in my head and God’s way made sense to me.
Click on the drawing below to magnify it.
Age/Dispensations periods: (method of salvation during each period – by grace through faith in Jesus Christ!)
| # | Age | Covenant | Man’s Responsibility | Man’s Failure | God’s Judgment |
| 1 | Innocence | Edenic | Trust God, don’t eat the forbidden fruit | Rebelled/originial sin … ate the forbidden fruit of the knowledge of good and evil |
physical and Spiritual death, kicked out of the garden |
| 2 | Conscience | Adamic | Be fruitful and multiply the seed of man |
Corrupted the seed of man by having sex with the Fallen Angels |
Flood, all killed but those in the ark |
| 3 | Government | Noahic | Scatter and fill the Earth with nations |
Stayed and built the tower of Babel | Dispersed people and language was changed for each group dispersed |
| 4 | Promise | Abrahamic | Stay together as a distinct family of people and you will be blessed |
Sold Joseph their brother into slavery into Egypt | Egyptian Bondage |
| 5 | Law | Mosaic | Obey ceremonial laws and Sacrifice animals to confess your sin |
Did not obey laws and sacrificed animals w/o confession of sin, just going thru the motions |
Babylonian Captivity and Israel “cut off” during the Church age, after 7 years of Tribulation for Jews and those alive on earth will be saved |
| 6 | Grace | Church | Repent of sin (Truth) and be born again to eternal life in Jesus (Spirit) |
People think there is no such thing as sin and no repentance from sin. They think that Jesus was just a good person that taught us how to live together peacefully on earth. People are overceom by the deception of the spirit of this world … Kumbaya! |
Rapture of the Church (true believers before the Tribulation), the Tribulation Saints will be martyred, final battle of Armageddon, Satan bound for 1,000 years |
| 7 | Peace | Millennium | Obey Christ, the rod of iron rules on the throne | After 1,000 years of peace and keeping unbelievers “in check”, Satan released, Gog the leader of Magog will make war and Christ will quickly end the rebellion. | Satan, Fallen Angels and unbelievers appear before White Throne of Judgment, cast into Lake of Fire. The present cosmos destroyed by fire and make New Heaven and Earth |
| 8 | Perfect | Eternal | Glorify God and enjoy Him forever! |
N/A | N/A |
– Rogersings
