Final Chapter Part 2 - The Creation of the earth

The Father and the Son engaged in the mighty, wondrous work they had contemplated, of creating the world. The earth came forth from the hand of the Creator exceedingly beautiful. There were mountains, and hills, and plains; and interspersed among them were rivers and bodies of water. The earth was not one extensive plain, but the monotony of the scenery was broken by hills and mountains, not high and ragged as they now are, but regular and beautiful in shape. The bare, high rocks were never seen upon them, but lay beneath the surface, answering as bones to the earth. The waters were regularly dispersed. The hills, mountains, and very beautiful plains, were adorned with plants and flowers, and tall, majestic trees of every description, which were many times larger, and much more beautiful, than trees now are. The air was pure and healthful, and the earth seemed like a noble palace. Angels beheld and rejoiced at the wonderful and beautiful works of God.

After the earth was created, and the beasts upon it, the Father and Son carried out their purpose, which was designed before the fall of Satan, to make man in their own image. They had wrought together in the creation of the earth and every living thing upon it. And now God says to his Son, "Let us make man in our image." As Adam came forth from the hand of his Creator, he was of noble height, and of beautiful symmetry. He was more than twice as tall as men now living upon the earth, and was well proportioned. His features were perfect and beautiful. His complexion was neither white, nor sallow, but ruddy, glowing with the rich tint of health. Eve was not quite as tall as Adam. Her head reached a little above his shoulders. She, too, was noble--perfect in symmetry, and very beautiful.

This sinless pair wore no artificial garments. They were clothed with a covering of light and glory, such as the angels wear. While they lived in obedience to God, this circle of light enshrouded them. Although everything God had made was in the perfection of beauty, and there seemed nothing wanting upon the earth which God had created to make Adam and Eve happy, yet he manifested his great love to them by planting a garden especially for them. A portion of their time was to be occupied in the happy employment of dressing the garden, and a portion in receiving the visits of angels, listening to their instruction, and in happy meditation. Their labor was not wearisome, but pleasant and invigorating. This beautiful garden was to be their home, their special residence.

In this garden the Lord placed trees of every variety for usefulness and beauty. There were trees laden with luxuriant fruit, of rich fragrance, beautiful to the eye, and pleasant to the taste, designed of God to be food for the holy pair. There were the lovely vines which grew upright, laden with their burden of fruit, unlike anything man had seen since the fall. The fruit was very large, and of different colors; some nearly black, some purple, red, pink and light green. Everything was tastefully and gloriously arranged. In the midst of the garden stood the tree of life, the glory of which surpassed all other trees. Its fruit looked like apples of gold and silver, and was to perpetuate immortality. The leaves contained healing properties.

Adam was crowned king in Eden. To him was given dominion over every living thing that God had created. The Lord blessed Adam and Eve with intelligence such as He had not given to any other creature. He made Adam the rightful sovereign over all the works of His hands. Man, made in the divine image, could contemplate and appreciate the glorious works of God in nature

Very happy were the holy pair in Eden. Unlimited control was given them over every living thing. The lion and the lamb sported together peacefully and harmlessly around them, or slumbered at their feet. Birds of every variety of color and plumage flitted among the trees and flowers, and about Adam and Eve, while their mellow-toned music echoed among the trees in sweet accord to the praises of their Creator.

In the midst of the garden, near the tree of life, stood the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This tree was especially designed of God to be the pledge of their obedience, faith and love to him. Of this tree the Lord commanded our first parents not to eat, neither to touch it, lest they die. He told them that they might freely eat of all the trees in the garden except one; but if they ate of that tree they should surely die.

(On a side note – I just found out that supernova observed by the Chinese in 1054 AD happened in about 4000 BC. The light of course took that long to get here. I wonder if it had something to do with the war in heaven this chapter of the blog has already discussed?)

Jesus as one man had achieved the impossible. He had obeyed in a world of sin, refuting the charge that God’s laws are too harsh. He had offered Himself as the sacrifice in man’s place, refuting the charge that God doesn’t care. And! By doing both He also refuted the charge that God is some sort of egomaniac demanding worship without anything in return. God Himself in the person of Christ showed just how much he really does care about His creatures. Philippians 2:5-11 says “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of [things] in heaven, and [things] in earth, and [things] under the earth; And [that] every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ [is] Lord, to the glory of God the Father. “

I once worked with a man I’ll call “Ned” who asked me “how can they say Christ was tempted in all things when He was never molested as a child?” It’s a worthwhile question to consider. Hebrews 4:5 does say “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.” Ned’s reasoning in part came from a lack of understanding as to the nature of the first and second deaths and many of the other truths we’ve been discussing. As wonderful as it is to read the four gospels and focus on Christ dying a gruesome, horrible, physical death, it’s in light of the overall background theme of the conflict between good and evil that has been going on in every generation that makes the cross of much greater value.

When I explained to him the meaning of the separation and the Father forsaking the Son on the cross it help him to understand better. As well, to be tempted in all points may not mean every actual sin. For instance it’s a sin to eat drink or smoke things that damage you body. Your health is a gift from God so alcohol, cigarettes and street drugs are not things true Christians will have anything to do with. Tobacco did not exist in Bible time except in the Americas, which had no contact with the Holy land at the time. To be tempted in all points really means every kind of sin. No one had fancy sports cars then. There would still have been the same prideful “because I can afford this and you can’t, I’m better than you” attitude in those who looked at their chariots the same way some people look at cars today. I’m sure you get my point.

If Jesus were only a normal man living a life of sin, His sin would have been enough to keep Him out of Heaven even if He did become perfect while on earth. He had to have lived a perfect life for the whole time He was here. If He was a perfect man, (but only a man) and died, He would have only been able to save one other man, and He would not have been able to get out of the grave Himself, because someone has to pay for sin. It is because He was God, therefore infinite, that He could make an infinite sacrifice and save as many as will come to Him. It is important to note that as God alone, He could not save man because it was man that sinned and man must die for sin. Therefore, for the infinite God to make this infinite sacrifice, the infinite God had to become a finite man. Only He truly has life in Himself because God is the creator and not a created being. All that life was wrapped up in the person of Jesus Christ and offered on the cross to pay the debt mankind owes.

Consider the words of Ephesians 2:8-10 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: [it is] the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” No one can make themselves good enough for God. Think about what it would have been like though if humans could make themselves good enough for God? Then the Lord would owe us salvation, wouldn’t He? Who then would be the highest authority in the universe? Though it is not possible for us to make ourselves good enough for God, His plan of salvation had to play out the way it did in order to preserve His integrity and legal authority as King of the Universe.

And the cross also shows the pain sin has caused the heart of the Lord. With one member of the Trinity coming to earth with the approval of the other two, it was God’s way of acting out how much He hurts when any of us do anything wrong. Isaiah 49:15 and the first part of 16 says ....”Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me.”

Romans 3:26 speaks about how through the plan of salvation God is both “just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus” at the same time. The penalty for sin was death, but because God took that penalty upon Himself man could live and have a second chance. Is that what you’d like to have? If you’ve never done so before I would invite you to ask Jesus to be you Saviour right now.

John 3:16 POST TWO

The Father obviously gave control of this earth to the Son. 1 Corinthians 15:20-28 shows that what Christ is doing in the plan of salvation is to buy the world back that Adam sold. He was already king of the universe ruling with the Father from eternity, but when all is said and done here He will also be king of this world too. He’ll have the place Adam once had.

"But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. But each one in his own order: Christ the firstfruits, afterward those who are Christ’s at His coming. Then comes the end, when He delivers the kingdom to God the Father, when He puts an end to all rule and all authority and power. For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet. The last enemy that will be destroyed is death. For “He has put all things under His feet.” But when He says “all things are put under Him,” it is evident that He who put all things under Him is excepted. Now when all things are made subject to Him, then the Son Himself will also be subject to Him who put all things under Him, that God may be all in all."

So this verse is an overview of all of human history. We talked already about how the story of the world can be summed up into a few distinct phases. God gave the universe a demonstration of just how bad things would get under sin before the flood, then He gave us a chance to recover ourselves through obedience, but that didn’t work either since we are no longer capable of obeying on our own. Finally when Jesus came He did for us what we can’t do for ourselves. This text describes the final phases of history. Since Jesus rose from the dead He can now give the promise to those who seek Him that He will raise them up when He returns again. “Then comes the end” refers to a time after when the wicked will be punished for their sins. In just a little bit we’ll briefly discuss what that punishment will entail. This earth, once cut off from God the Father by sin, will then be given back to Him by His Son, Jesus, the king of this world. The earth will regain the place in the universe it once had.

Of course when Jesus did come to earth He looked like any other human being. It was the combination of the miracles He performed and the prophecies He fulfilled that proved He is the Messiah. In Acts 2:22-24 Peter said “Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves also know— “Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death; whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.

It was not possible for death to hold Him because death is the penalty for sin and Jesus never sinned. This is according to Hebrews 4:15 “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Peter continues in Acts 2:25-32 with:
"For David says concerning Him: ‘I foresaw the LORD always before my face, For He is at my right hand, that I may not be shaken. Therefore my heart rejoiced, and my tongue was glad; Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope. For You will not leave my soul in Hades, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption. You have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your presence.’ "

"Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. “This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses."

The fact that Peter comments the way he does shows that he and the rest of the early church finally understood what the coming of the Messiah really meant. Before the cross everyone within the realm of God’s people was looking for an earthly king to free Israel from the Romans. However, Jesus as a heavenly King came to free them from sin itself. What happened over time is that people had misinterpreted the prophecies of Jesus coming. Instead of a spiritual leader they were looking for a political one. This is why Jesus said in Luke 20:41-44 “And He said to them, ‘How can they say that the Christ is the Son of David?’ ‘Now David himself said in the Book of Psalms: “The LORD said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”’ Therefore David calls Him “Lord”; how is He then his Son?”

Though we have discussed it quite a bit from several angles in the first few chapters of this blog, there is great significance to the changes made in our world since the mid 1800’s. This also has a lot to do with what Jesus is doing now. You see the very first time anyone came to understand the significance of Daniel 8:14 and the cleansing of the Sanctuary was in the early 1800’s. This sparked a great religious revival as a movement rose up believing the cleansing was a sign of the end of the world. The book “Daniel and the Revelation” by Uriah Smith, a man who was there, puts it this way on page 386:

The great religious awakening in the early part of the nineteenth century which resulted from a study of the prophecies, culminated in this advent movement. Men from all denominations were convinced that the coming of Christ was near. As they came out of the various churches, they left sectarian names and feelings behind, and every heart beat in unison as all joined to give the alarm to the churches and to the world, and pointed to the coming of the Son of man as the believer's true hope. Selfishness and covetousness were laid aside, and a spirit of consecration and sacrifice was cherished. The Spirit of God was with every true believer, and his praise upon every tongue. Those who were not in that movement cannot fully realize how great was the searching of heart, the consecration to God, the peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, and the pure, fervent love for one another which true believers enjoyed.

From The Great Controversy by Ellen White, page 611 “The advent movement of 1840-44 was a glorious manifestation of the power of God; the first angel's message was carried to every missionary station in the world, and in some countries there was the greatest religious interest which has been witnessed in any land since the Reformation of the sixteenth century”.
This revival came about as a result of what’s known in history as “The Second Great Awakening”. After Napoleon took the Pope prisoner in 1798 the political power of the Catholic Church was broken, though persecution had already been waning for decades. This combined with the failure of the French Revolution gave great confidence to Protestant Bible scholars. The Bible was no longer illegal for the common man to possess and people began studying it more earnestly as the various Bible societies spread God’s word.

This ‘Advent’ movement keyed in on Daniel 8:14 and the cleansing of the Sanctuary as we have discussed above. Daniel and the Revelation, page 635 elaborates further.

As early as 1831, William Miller, of Low Hampton, New York, by an earnest and consistent study of the prophecies, was led to the conclusion that the gospel age was near its close. He placed the termination, which he thought would occur at the end of the prophetic periods, about the year 1843. This date was afterward extended to the autumn of 1844. … When he began to promulgate his views, they met with general favor, and were followed by great religious awakenings in different parts of the land.

Soon a multitude of colaborers gathered around his standard, among whom may be mentioned such men as F. G. Brown, Charles Fitch, Josiah Litch, J. V. Himes, and others, who were then eminent for piety, and men of influence in the religious world. The period marked by the years 1840-1844 was one of intense activity and great progress in this work.

Now remember this happened when 1844 was still in the future. Their critical mistake came from the fact that they didn’t really know what the Sanctuary was and assumed its cleansing meant the end of the world when Jesus will return and cleanse the earth. As Uriah Smith discussed there was more than a year of approximate guesses that came and went from 1843 to 1844. The last possible day fro Jesus to return was October 22, 1844. (I’ll explain how they arrived at these dates in the next chapter.) When He didn’t come the event was written up in history as “The Great Disappointment”.

Why did revival go wrong? They were injecting their own opinions into the Bible rather than letting God’s word speak for itself. However the Lord knew this would happen. The cleansing reference of verse 14 is preceded by Daniel 8:13 “Then I heard a holy one speaking; and another holy one said to that certain one who was speaking, ‘How long will the vision be, concerning the daily sacrifices and the transgression of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled under foot?’” Daniel 8:13 has two saints talking. It’s the second saint who is asking the first the question the question of when? The first saint answers the second only on that question of when. The second saint is left to learn the meaning through further study later. Though the first movement fell apart, those who were willing to hang on after being so broken and disappointed were given many great rewards. God worked in several ways to raise up a new movement. As this happened, those who studied their Bibles saying in their hearts ‘where did we go wrong?’ found many other important truths missing from the theology of the mainstream church of the day. These people found out the very truths we have discussed here among others.

They are now known as the Seventh-day Adventists. ‘Adventist’ from the understanding that Jesus will soon return to end this world and begin a new one and ‘Seventh-day’ from the Bible fact that the original Sabbath has never been changed in God’s eyes. Sunday is not the true Sabbath, but we’ll leave that discussion for another day.

Jesus gave us the truth when He came to earth the first time. Indeed as John 14:6 says, He is the “way, truth and the life”. The early church began with the benefit of that truth but soon fell away from it over the course of a few centuries. Then God worked again to bring His people out of the Dark Ages. First there was Martin Luther, the man we all owe our freedom to today. Then wave after wave of Reformers came along from the Baptists to Wesley and the Methodists, each one adding a piece as they were lead to study the Bible. Ultimately though, the 14th century mindset still had its influence.

Jesus went into the original Sanctuary when He went back to Heaven after rising from the dead and appearing to His disciples. What He is doing now according to the Bible is going through the real cleansing of the Heavenly Sanctuary. He is applying the promised forgiveness from the cross to the legal record of those who accepted it, those who were willing to afflict their souls.

Think about it this way, God knows all things right? None of His creatures do though. However many billions of people who have lived here on earth have committed however many trillions or quadrillions of sins through world history and it’s all written down in these books! Imagine you are not an earthling but a being from another planet. You have lived through countless eons of time in perfect harmony as a result of your world’s complete submission to the Lord’s will all this time. Then you saw how Lucifer, who was once the highest angel, corrupted himself and was cast out of heaven for it. After that Adam and Eve started the rebellion here as well. You have seen every single rape, theft and murder even though these things are completely unheard of on your planet.

You then watched Jesus, Whom you knew as your Royal Commander, come down to this world, live a life of suffering and humiliation; and finally be crucified at the very hands of the ones He was trying to save. Now even though you saw how much God worked to save humanity through every generation culminating in Jesus’ death and resurrection, you might not yet feel guaranteed that the people He’s about to admit back into the family of the universe can actually be trusted not to do it all again at some point in the future. This is especially true as you see the majority of the world’s population trying in its own way to achieve that place. Wouldn’t you want a guarantee?

That the promised assurance is being given now is shown by Daniel 7:26 and 27 ‘”But the court shall be seated, And they shall take away his dominion, To consume and destroy it forever.Then the kingdom and dominion, And the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven, Shall be given to the people, the saints of the Most High. His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, And all dominions shall serve and obey Him.” The dominion taken away here is that of Satan and his man on earth, the antichrist. The dominion given is the earth. Jesus is proven right here in all His decisions regarding whom to save and whom not to. He now has he legal right to return to this world and rescue His people.

WHAT JESUS IS DOING NOW BY LOOKING AT THE RECORD IN SUCH FINE DETAIL IS TO PROVE TO THE REST OF THE UNIVERSE THAT THE ONES HE WILL SOON RESUCE FROM THIS WORLD REALLY WERE SORRY FOR EVERY WRONG THING THEY EVER DID AND REALLY DID SUBMIT TO GOD COMPLETELY! There is another level to the judgement where before God curses those who weren’t sorry with hellfire He explains to His people why He’s going to do it. However, that’s a topic for the next chapter.

Really the Lord Himself is the One on trial here. The questions the whole universe needed to have answered every since Satan rebelled are simply: “Is God fair?” “Does He really have our best interests at heart when He demands our complete loyalty?” and “Is His way really the only way for the universe to coexist in peace?”

Put all three of these secret keys together and you will realize that heaven is in the same physical reality as this world. There is no such thing as a ‘spirit world’ as someone with a 14thcentury mindset would say. And modern minded people who say heaven is in some sort of other dimension are really saying the same thing in pseudo-scientific terms. This understanding, this fullness of truth will protect one from the errors of the modern view of evolution and the errors of the 14th century mindset already discussed here in this blog. Most Christians who misunderstand certain key Bible passages such as the creation story do so because they have clung to errors on these important topics. Their view of death is that you become a ghost as soon as you die and that you face the judgement alone instantaneously thereafter. Just as their view of the universe was once earth centered and therefore human centered, so their view here is as well.

When you die you fall asleep and don’t go anywhere. People aren’t in heaven yet enmasse. Jesus, His angels and every other being out there are as real as the desk you are sitting at right now. Angels are not ghosts they are physical beings, we are simply being prevented from seeing them. They’ve been working through every generation of history to help people in various ways. And they’ve seen every single If you had a space ship fast enough and knew where to go, you could fly to what Revelation 21 calls the New Jerusalem, what Paul called the ‘third heaven’ God’s Holy city with its Sanctuary itself, right now.

This leads us to secret key number three, in which we look at what exactly Jesus is doing up in heaven right now in a very brief fashion. Jesus went to heaven as a real person in a real body not as a ghost. Therefore He’s up there actually doing something. What is it? We get a clue from Acts 3:19-21 “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you: Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.” This quote is from the King James Version. Notice carefully that forgiveness does not come instantly, but at a later date, the “times of refreshing.” This is very important. Jesus does offer us peace now when we turn from sin. However, in light of this verse the offer comes in the form of an assurance, a promise for the future.

Allow me to illustrate the point with this example. Forgiveness is like buying a TV and paying for it with a cheque. You take home the TV from the store that day but the cheque takes another ten days to clear the bank. A cheque is accepted as good as cash but it isn’t actually cash. It’s a promissory note in essence. Well, every time you do something good an angel writes it down. Every time you do something bad, an angel writes it down. The Bible says that at some point, God is going to look at these lists. Though we have the promise of His forgiveness now if we will change our wicked ways and accept His death on the cross, the ‘paperwork’ won’t be complete until this ‘times of refreshing’ is.

Please take careful note as well of the order of events listed in that text. The times of refreshing takes place shortly before the Second Coming of Christ. First the refreshing comes, then Jesus returns, and finally the ‘restitution of all things’, which refers to God completely finishing the conflict between good and evil and making this world into a paradise again for all eternity. Revelation 14:7, a prophetic message for the last generation concurs by saying. “… Fear God and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment has come …” This verse is not saying the judgement will come, it is saying it has come. This is present tense English here.

The same idea is expressed in Daniel 8:14”And he said to me, ‘For two thousand three hundred days; then the sanctuary shall be cleansed.’” The exact nature of this time of refreshing is actually one of the most difficult theological concepts to grasp. To really understand this takes quite a lot of study so I will only give a brief overview here. When the Lord established Israel as a nation He instituted their Sanctuary and priesthood through all the laws He gave to Moses. The various rituals the Israelites were to participate in were all designed to teach symbolic lessons of what God would do to save the world through Jesus. There was a daily sacrifice of an innocent, pure lamb. This taught we all need Christ on a continual basis. Then there was a yearly calendar of religious holidays grouped into spring and fall. These taught the lesson of what would take place in the development of God’s plan of salvation through world history. The spring festivals taught lessons on the First Coming of Christ while the ones in the fall were designed to teach us about things near to the Second Coming of Jesus, the end of this world and the beginning of God’s new earth, a reestablished Garden of Eden for all His friends.

When an individual committed a sin and needed to go to the Temple and sacrifice, there was a specific process as to how it was done. First, the person in question confessed the sin over the lamb and killed it. Now the animal had symbolically taken the sin away. This was like the buying of the TV with the cheque. However, the process was not done at this point! The priest then took the blood of the lamb into the first main room of the Sanctuary, called the ‘Holy Place’. The sin was there symbolically for the rest of the year and day by day more and more sins symbolically ‘built up’, shall we say. Then once a year on the “Day of Atonement” the High Priest went into the inner chamber of the Sanctuary, called the ‘Most Holy place’. This was a special ritual in which one single, complete atonement was made for all the sins that the people had committed that year. The Sanctuary was now cleansed, or ‘refreshed’. The cheque had cleared the bank that day. While this was happening inside the temple the people were required to afflict their souls. It was a day for careful searching of heart to make sure everything was indeed right between each individual and the Lord. God promised He would forgive their sins and by accepting the special sacrifice of the High Priest, He made good on His promise.

According to Hebrews 8:1, 2 the earthly Sanctuary was only a copy of the original in Heaven. “Now this is the main point of the things we are saying: We have such a High Priest, who is seated at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a Minister of the sanctuary and of the true tabernacle which the Lord erected, and not man.” To get even more information as to what this is we go to Daniel 7. Verses 9 and 10 say “I watched till thrones were put in place, And the Ancient of Days was seated; His garment was white as snow, And the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, Its wheels a burning fire; A fiery stream issued And came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him; Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The court was seated, And the books were opened.”

So the Sanctuary in Heaven is the throne room itself where God the Father appears here with 100 million angels. This room is vastly beyond anything humans can imagine (as another Bible /science fiction parallel, an attempt to imagine it is essentially what the Senate is in Star Wars). This cleansing time is a time of judgement. Verses 13 and 14 continue with “I was watching in the night visions, And behold, One like the Son of Man, Coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, And they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, That all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, Which shall not pass away, And His kingdom the one Which shall not be destroyed.”

Secret key two then is the fact that Jesus did exist before being born here on earth. The theology of most Christian Churches emphasizes His time here and that He went off to heaven after rising from the dead. Though they will speak of the over three hundred prophecies in the Old Testament that foretell Christ’s coming, they don’t always have a clear handle on the fact that he is mentioned in the Old Testament as being present. He simply hasn’t used the name “Jesus Christ” yet.

Most people today have seen Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments”, starring Charlton Heston. It’s on TV practically every Easter. If you’ve seen the film or any other Bible movie on Moses, you’ll be familiar with the story of how God appeared to Moses and spoke to him out of a burning bush. Yet look very carefully at the actual reference from Exodus 3:2-6.
And the Angel of the LORD appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.” So when the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” Then He said, “Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground.” Moreover He said, “I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God.

Notice it was an “Angel” who talked with Moses, yet He is clearly God. This is why of all the modern English Bibles I could have quoted form in this blog, I chose the New King James Version. Wherever in the Old Testament of the NKJV Bible you see “Angel”, that’s Christ. There are 59 such references with another 2 that use the ‘angel’ asnd then in the margin have ‘Angel’.
This maybe a hard concept to grasp as it’s so easy to conjure up old pictures of angels being winged human–like creatures who may have great power and strength, but are clearly not God. The misunderstanding comes from the word itself. It simply means “messenger” According to Isaiah 59:1, 2, we are cut off from God the Father by sin. Therefore God the Son comes as His messenger, or Angel.

Similarly in Joshua 5:15 He is “Commander of the Lord’s Host”. We see the same message given to Joshua here to remove his footwear. Therefore it’s the same being giving the message as the One who appeared to Moses. He is Holy and therefore no ordinary angel. “Then the Commander of the LORD’s army said to Joshua, “Take your sandal off your foot, for the place where you stand is holy.” And Joshua did so.”

Here are a few extra texts to look up if you feel so inclined. In Judges 13:20-22 Samson’s parents offered a sacrifice and the Angel accepted this worship. Ordinary angels don’t do this, see Revelation 19:10. Genesis 19:24 is from the story Sodom and Gomorrah. Read the whole story and you will see three beings from heaven who appear to Abraham. Two of whom are angels, one of whom is God. Here we have two references to “the Lord”. One “Lord” is on earth calling the judgements down and the other “Lord” is in Heaven raining down those judgements. Jesus must be one while God the Father is the other.

Daniel 10:13 calls Michael “one of the chief princes”. A prince is a royal term. The Hebrew word in verse 13 for ‘chief princes’ actually refers to the Trinity. So Michael is one of the Trinity! Verse 21 calls Him “your prince”. Our Lord and Saviour has over three hundred names in the scriptures. Some are titles, others are descriptions. None of them take away from His divinity. This includes the title of ‘Michael’.

I’ll have a little more to say on this in the chapter “John 3:16 in-depth”. For now the important thing is the effect this truth can have one your understanding of who Jesus is. He is not a mortal man who was deified by later generations of believers. That would make the gospels useless. Indeed the whole Bible would be pointless. No, Jesus is God. And God became a man in the early first century, AD to die on the cross for our sins. That one wonderful weekend was the end all and be all of the plan of salvation in one sense; and yet in another it wasn’t. Jesus has working through every generation of human history from the very first day Adam and Eve sinned and the world needed a Saviour. He has also been working since His time on earth to bring world history to where it is today. Soon we will be ready for the next great change to come. That change will be His return in the clouds to rescue His people.

If you’ve never heard of this concept before of the resurrection, it can be a little startling. We don’t become ghosts when we die means there’s very few people in heaven right now. So far it’s only Enoch, Moses, Elijah and a small handful of others who rose with Jesus the day He did. Enoch and Elijah were taken to heaven without having to die and Moses was resurrected. Jude 9 speaks of it and of course Moses and Elijah were both with Jesus when He was transfigured. The others were given a special resurrection early to illustrate what Jesus will do for His people when He returns again. Matthew 27:52, 53 speak of them.

The resurrection can be illustrated by a scene from the 1998 movie version of “Lost in Space” starring Matt LeBlanc of TV’s “Friends”. In this one particular scene the family is being attacked by spider-like alien creatures. They barely get back to their own ship alive leaving the robot to continue fending these creatures off. Then when the robot is overwhelmed Will, the youngest boy, steps into a special holographic chamber and takes direct control of the robot because he can fight the aliens better than the robot can. After a certain point though, things are still going badly. So before the ‘spiders’ destroy the robot, the boy downloads all the robot’s software onto a disc and later builds a new robot. He then inserts the disc and reloads everything the old robot once had.

You and I are in a battle here on earth with an alien force out to destroy us. That force is Satan and his angels. They are doing everything they can to lead us into temptation and get us to cut ourselves off from God. They are constantly on the attack and they never give up. What Jesus did in living a perfect life was to defeat satin by being tempted the same way we are and never giving in. Now that He is in heaven, if we will surrender ourselves to Him, it’s like Jesus lives out that life in us again. We are not robots in that we have free choice. However, we have inherited weaknesses and tendencies toward sin. It is easier for us to give in than to stand firm. Only through God’s power in our lives can we have hope.

There comes a time though when every one of us will die. What Jesus does then is ‘downloads our minds’ essentially. On the day Jesus returns again He will use the same power He did when He originally created this world to recreate new bodies for his friends. Then He will ‘reload their minds’ into those bodies. Again however, this is only for those who have surrendered to Him and are His faithful followers. There’s two resurrections, one to take His friends to heaven and one to rid the universe of those who hate truth and goodness. They’re brought back to life only for a short time to show them all how much God did try to save them.

This explains why there is so much multi-level prophecy in the Bible. From any one person’s point of view, they face death, go into their graves, and come up on the other side not knowing anything about the time that passed in between. Remember to them it’s like being asleep. So in any one generation when God spoke through a prophet and gave a promise of reward to the faithful or punishment to the unfaithful, though they were going to receive whichever reward at the end of history; from their point of view that end would be as soon as they died. The prophecies were worded in such a way as to appeal to the needs of the immediate generation receiving them and also appeal to the later generations who would be influenced in their respective times by the current generation’s actions as world history rolled on.

The Secret Keys That Unlock The Real Truth Post Three

Death then, is simply the process of creation in reverse. God removes this breath of life from the body He has put it in. Ecclesiastes 12:7 describes this process “Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.” Here the word used is ‘spirit’. Another important word to connect with death is the word ‘sleep’ as the concept of sleep is used a metaphor for death almost 70 times in the Bible. Here are just a few references:

Psalm 133:3 Consider and hear me, O LORD my God; Enlighten my eyes, Lest I sleep the sleep of death;

Job 14:10-12 But man dies and is laid away; Indeed he breathes his last And where is he? As water disappears from the sea, And a river becomes parched and dries up, So man lies down and does not rise. Till the heavens are no more, They will not awake Nor be roused from their sleep.

Acts 7:58-60 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

1 Kings 11:43 Then Solomon rested with his fathers, and was buried in the City of David his father. And Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.

Psalm 146:3,4 elaborates on this by saying “Do not put your trust in princes, Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help.His spirit departs, he returns to his earth; In that very day his plans perish.” The King James English says “his THOUGHTS perish” (emphasis supplied). Death is a state of complete unconsciousness. This is confirmed by Ecclesiastes 9:5,6 “For the living know that they will die; But the dead know nothing, And they have no more reward, For the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished; Nevermore will they have a share In anything done under the sun.”

Should we then give up hope? No! That’s why Jesus came to earth and died on the cross, to make a way out of death for us. He will return again to the earth at the end of the world and rescue all His friends from the graves they went into. He said it Himself in John 5:28, 29 “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice “and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.”

The Resurrection is the day when the Lord makes the dead come back to life. There will also be two of resurrections. The first will be for Jesus’ friends and then another resurrection will take place later where Jesus’ enemies will be punished for their sins. Notice He said the difference would be made clear by those who’ve ‘done’ good or bad. A lot of Christians like to go on and on quoting certain verses in the New Testament that we can’t buy our way into Heaven with our own good deeds. Man has sinned and cut himself off from God that is true. Man is also not capable of obeying God in his own strength as well and must accept Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins. However, it is possible to use the words and not really live up to them. Salvation is a practical thing. You see the only way anyone can be truly good is when God is working in that person’s life. Real faith is shown in works, see James 2:17-22.

1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17 describe the first resurrection in a little more detail. “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.” Jesus Himself will call His friends out of their graves. The last generation, the one that faced death in the form of the mark of the beast, does not have to die. Both sets of true believers go to Jesus to be with Him forever.

This is the truth about death. On the practical side, this truth completely destroys all the devil’s lies on the subject. When anyone claims to have received a message from beyond the grave, they didn’t get that message from God. Dealing with dead spirits in séances, channeling, and many other forms is really dealing with evil angels in disguise. It is the same with appearances of Mary, the Saints, dead relatives, and ghosts. In the final section in this chapter I will have a little more to say on the practicalities of this truth once the other secret keys are all combined.