(Easter Weekend 2011)
Greatest Story Ever Told
In The Beginning
Chapter 1
'In the beginning, God ...', Gen. 1
Once upon a time, actually before there was time, nothing existed, no nothing at all. No trees, no bees, no plants or leaves, no animals, no rocks, no dirty socks, no sun, no moon, no stars in the sky, not even the sky, way, way up there high.
All was emptiness our universe was bare. Totally bare, empty and void of everything, everywhere.
But there was life, eternal it was. It was spirit and true. One spirit in essence, and three in persons, ready to reveal you and me. God is that life eternal and perfect in all respects. There is the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and they were then, and are now, perfectly happy.
Long, long ago, they gathered together and had a meeting and the Father said, 'We will create life. This is the plan. The Son will bring it into being and the Spirit will reveal it and sustain it.'
The Son and the Spirit agreed. It was a good plan. All the possibilities had been considered. All the possible arrangements of life, and their order and sequence of occurrence, right down to the smallest detail. Nothing was overlooked. All the options thought through. Even all the possible interactions that these created things and living lives would have with each other were considered.
The Father considered when would be the best time in history for you to live. He could have given you life hundreds of years ago. Imagine being a pioneer on the prairie, or a peasant in some kings realm. But God thought of all the possible times that you could have lived and decided that your life was best lived here and now, not in centuries past, and not in the future. This brings the best possibilities of your future now in this current time. Not at some other time.
Perhaps at another time in history, you would not have had the opportunities that you have and need today. After considering all the possibilities for each person who would live in history, the final plan was sealed and decreed by the Father. This is what we call the Divine Decrees, or Gods master plan for history.
Does this mean that God decides history? No. He decides where best to place each one of us in history, but does not make our decisions for us from day to day. We do that. God knows ahead of time what we will think and decide and do, but He does not cause any of our decisions. So in this manner God controls history, by means of His foreknowledge. By knowing ahead of time what everyone will think, say, and do under any given situation, God then can decide when to place people into history.
'This is the plan. All is arranged.', said the Father. We are all in agreement, therefore we will begin. But first lets review the outline of history which We are about to invent, and then We will make it so.'
'First we will create angels in an instant. They will all come into existence at once. They will all have the opportunity to see history and its results from the beginning as a witness to this, the best of plans. We should not have a history where there are no witnesses. These angels will exist during all of history, therefore they will have first hand testimony, or be able to see all that happens. They will know the truth. They will see all of the creations except their own, of course. But then we will create them in this empty universe, and allow them to see first hand Our power and Our wisdom. They will all be happy and content , at least in the beginning. Then they will need a playground.' , said the Father.
God the Father continued with the outline. 'Then we will create that playground. The universe. It will be made perfect and full. There the angels will play and enjoy their new existence. They will go to and fro throughout the universe. Not only will they witness the power of God in the instantaneous creation of the universe, but they will see and enjoy all that has been created for their pleasure and happiness.
But alas some will become discontent and one especially. And, unfortunately, all will have their doubts, such that none can be trusted, because we will give them free will and the right to choose, and they will choose wrongly. They will be deceived and confused by one leader, Lucifer. Their leader will fall and a full 1/3 of all the angels will follow him, never to return. The two thirds who come back to Us and to Our wisdom, will see true miracles and therefore will be blessed forever.'
The Father went on, 'The leader who was Lucifer, will be called Satan, or the Devil, after his fall. He will find faults and attempt to confuse the issues with fancy talk and rhetoric. He will deceive many. But with our revelation many will have the opportunity to think for themselves and make their own decisions. Satan will not fool everyone. Satan and his little band will go forth and will destroy all life. The last of which will be the dinosaurs on a little planet we will call Earth. And that is the place where we will make our case and demonstrate to all that God is the creator of all and the sustainer of all. Without God nothing can exist.'
'Satan will be judged for his crimes, along with those who follow him and refuse to change their minds. We will give all a chance to reject Satan and come back to Gods wisdom. He, Satan, will appeal and ask why I, God, have the right to make such a decision. And we will answer with the creation of a new life form, whom we will call man. Everything that We, God, touch will be blessed. While everything that Satan touches will fall into disaster.
'We will bind this mankind to this single planet, because this is the only place in the entire universe that life will exist for this final portion of history. The distances will be too great for him to stray very far from this planet. He will be made with the right to choose also. But man will not have the full extent of the abilities that angels have. He will have many limits.
And with man, a creature made lower than angels, we will demonstrate that I, God, can sustain all life even in the face of Satan's attempts to destroy it for his own selfish interests. And that the wisdom of God is infinitely far superior and true above all other opinions.'
'And so man, like the angels, will fall, we will permit it. And too, I will give man a choice and a second chance because man will be fooled by Satan, and was set up and deceived by Satan, but at the same time, man will be warned and will still make the wrong choices.
Despite all of this, I , God, will give man another chance. I will send him a savior, the Son of God, whose name is Jesus Christ, who will go to a Cross which has been prepared, and who will take the penalty for the sin of mankind upon himself, so that man can be saved.
But they must believe in His work. For they made the choice to stray from God, therefore they must make the choice to return to God. We will teach them what is the truth, and if they listen, they will learn. And if they do not listen, then they will suffer by their own choice.'
The Father continued as the Son and the Spirit agreed with all that had been said. 'Many will believe and many will learn and grow up in their spiritual lives. Because of their unusual limits in life which they must endure, and because they will overcome these odds and believe in God, We will elevate them to a position above the angels.
The angels had their opportunity and failed. The angels had far more abilities and privileges than man, and the angels still failed. Therefore, man, with all his limits, will rise above those limits, based on faith alone, and for this reason, We, God, will promote them to positions of rulership and authority when the end of time finally comes.'
And so it was. God created angelic life and they were happy, very happy. They danced and sang and had a great time. But they were alive in an empty universe. They had the Palace of God of course, in heaven, with all its surrounding gardens. What would a palace be without gardens and fountains and pools of all sorts? Since it was Gods Palace, it would be magnificent.
Constructed of the finest of materials and decorated with the most valued of precious stones. And in its center, next to a magnificent courtyard whereby all may enter, was the throne of God. A throne made of pure gold and shimmering with the brilliance of a perfect diamond and carrying a dark red hue transparent in appearance, and surrounded by a brilliant rainbow with many shades of green, as the gardens surrounding the palace were green and full of color in full bloom.
'... created the heavens and the earth.', Gen. 1.
God did not forget His plan. He knew that the angels would need more space and one day He announced that he was going to create a new playground for them. That day arrived and so, with all assembled and all eyes on the outer regions beyond the Palace of God, God spoke, 'Behold', and in an instant an entire universe came into existence. Awesome and beautiful it was. And extremely large. It was huge. With all sorts of stars and planets, with lights of all colors. The eyes of the angels grew wide, their jaws dropped to their knees. They had known that God was truly powerful, but this was beyond their imaginations. None of them could have ever conceived of such a creation.
'... And the angels sang.', Job 38.
They sang and danced at this creation. There was harmony within their ranks. They went out into the universe and played and sang their united song together. They went to and fro investigating and claiming various territories for their own. Kingdoms were formed. Trade began. Back and forth between heaven and the universe they traveled. They had great fun and all was well, for a time at least.
Then something changed. They now had all these possessions, and these possessions became more important to them than God who created them. They had witnessed the power of God, and knew that if God could create a universe such as this, then He could create several universes if He wanted, and more.
In the Palace they learned truth from God. The angels all has extremely hi IQ's. They were very smart. They all had extensive talents. They were not confined to the Palace of God, but could go to and fro throughout the universe, and at their leisure. They went into the universe and came back to God. Then they spent more and more time away from God, until they lost track of their priorities.
Lucifer got it in his head that he could do all that God could do. He learned about the molecular structure of the universe and all its tinniest of components. 'Sure, he could do this.', he would think. And, probably, he demonstrated his little tricks to others. Soon many doubted God, and Satan rebelled with his mighty army of many followers.
'...kingdoms were destroyed.', Isa. 14. 'A third would follow Satan.', Isa. 14, Eze. 28, Rev. 12.
God called them to task and demanded they change their minds, to repent, but they refused. Sides were chosen and 2/3's came back to God. The rest refused violently. The universe erupted in war. Life was destroyed.
A trial was held for the rebel Satan. All the evidence was examined and he and his followers were found guilty. A sentence was issued. The lake of fire for all of them.
But the sentence hasn't been carried out yet, it was postponed. Satan challenged the trial and its results, now he was the Devil, the advocate for himself and his followers. 'God had no right.', he would say. 'No right at all.'
So God said, 'We will go to the last planet you destroyed, planet Earth, your last outpost, and there we will resolve this angelic conflict.'
'...and the earth was null and void.', Gen. 1.
And so they reconvened above the Earth, a place that was now empty and void of life, but once was teaming with plant and animal life. Only Satan in his arrogance, destroyed the planet and all that was on it. Just as he had destroyed much of the rest of the universe with its asteroids and meteors raining down on its helpless heavenly bodies. Filling what once was extremely beautiful, with bombardments of chaos and destruction.
With all present as long, long before, and all eyes gazing on this little insignificant planet, the Spirit moved over the face of its deep lifelessness, and began the process of its restoration.
Unlike before when all was created instantly, now God created little by little, day by day, one step at a time, so there would be no doubt as to who was the creator, and who was the created.
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