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Dr. Jennings,
My question is in regards to Revelation 12:7. Would you please tell me how the event happened before earth was created? I do believe that angels were here before we were created as it says in Job 38:6, 7.
I have in my mind that Revelation 12:7 is a parenthetical statement, but is there another way to verify it’s context Biblically as happening pre-Earth?
Keep up the awesome work the Lord has given you. Thanking you in advance,
Louis
The following is my understanding:
God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit existed in the Triune state of perfect love. God is Love. This is Their nature and character, and the Bible tells us that “love is not self-seeking” but love “gives” itself away (John 3:16, 1John 3:16). Thus, God exists in a plurality of perfect love.
The Triune God of love gave of self in order to create all that we know in the universe (except sin), time, space, matter, energy, and life all originate in God.
The first intelligent living being created by God was a brilliant being, the sum total of perfection, created at the dawn of creation, an angel named Lucifer. (Isaiah 14:12-17). After making Lucifer, God created more beings, angels and intelligent beings on other planets, billions of years ago (Job 1:6, 38:7, Heb 1:2 ASV).
The universe existed in perfection with all things operating in harmony with God’s character of love for billions of years. Jesus, prior to His incarnation, manifested Himself in the form of an angel (see last week’s blog, Are Jesus and Michael one and the same?).
Lucifer at some point became filled with pride and began to think he inherently possessed all his abilities and talents and came to think himself equal to Christ (Ezekiel 28:1-19).
But, no matter how exalted a finite being is, that being is still finite and cannot enter into the understanding of the Infinite One (1Tim 6:16). This is not because God is restrictive in His willingness, but because created beings are restricted in their abilities, being, by definition, finite. But, when Jesus, the infinite one, appearing in the form of an angel, entered into counsels with the Father, Lucifer, filled with pride and an inflated self-importance, became jealous of Christ and began spreading rumors that God was unfair and arbitrary in taking Christ into counsels that Lucifer was not permitted to enter.
In Revelation 12:7, the Greek which is translated, “war,” is polemo, from which we get polemic, which is a verbal presentation or argument. Satan is the father of lies, and his war was a war of words over the character of God, based on his jealously of Christ. Thus, 2Cor 10:3-5 states that we wage war with divine weapons to demolish, “every argument and pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.”
With the lies about God spreading throughout the universe that God was unfair because of his preference for Christ when, as Lucifer claimed he and Christ were equals, God the Father, Son and Spirit, in addition to telling the truth, began to provide evidence. They created planet earth.
This is why Christ is the member of the Godhead through which all things were made, not because the Others couldn’t have created, but because Christ was demonstrating by action that He was God and not a finite being like Lucifer. Further, to destroy the lies of Satan regarding God’s character, God made life on planet earth, and then made man in His image to rule over the planet in love. The earth was created as the lesson book, or microcosm of the universe itself (1Cor 4:9).
As the Father, Son and Holy Spirit come into the unity of love and create beings in their image, so too mankind was designed to come into the unity of love and create beings in their image. What would the universe have learned if Adam and Eve would have stayed loyal and had children in a world without sin? Would they have enslaved and abused their children, or given of themselves constantly for the health and welfare of their offspring? And the universe would have realized God didn’t create us to wait on Him, God isn’t restrictive with His love, but He is giving of Himself constantly for our good! What an incredible privilege mankind was created to fulfill.
Further, Adam and Eve were to have dominion over all life on earth, a miniature of the universe in which God has dominion over all life. As the Bible says, this earth is “a theater a spectacle unto angels and men” (1Cor 4:9). And when Adam and Eve were planning where they wanted to build something in the garden, etc., why wouldn’t they include the lion, giraffe, or elephant in the conversation? Would it be because Adam and Eve were arbitrary and selfish, or that the animals simply couldn’t comprehend and had nothing to offer to the conversation? This is why Lucifer was not included in the counsels between Christ and His Father in heaven. After all, which is a bigger intelligence gap, that between man and a lion, or that between a created being and God?
When we understand things in this way the Bible makes so much more sense and science harmonizes perfectly. Genesis is the account of creation of earth, not the entire universe. In the context of Lucifer’s polemic – war of false allegations against God, Jesus goes to a small corner of the Milky Way and begins terraforming of a black hole into a planet teeming with life. This is described in the first few chapters of Genesis. On day one the black hole dissipates, and light from the rest of space is seen “let there be light.” And on day four, God makes the sun, moon and stars of our solar system (Venus, Mercury and Mars). The matter from the center of the black hole, which God made billions of years in the past when He created the rest of the universe, He used to make planet earth. Thus the bedrock of earth is billions of years old, the universe itself, with its cosmic radiation, is billions of years old, while life on earth is less than 10,000 years old.
Satan realized if Adam and Eve fulfilled their purpose in revealing God’s character he would be exposed, so he utilized the same “warfare” tactics on our first parents as he did on angels. He called God’s trustworthiness into question and got them to believe lies. Because when lies are believed love and trust is broken. Our first parents were infected with lies about God, which resulted in love and trust being broken, and fear and selfishness, a.k.a. survival of the fittest, being established in humankind and planet earth. Christ came in order to reverse all of this and restore mankind back to God’s original design!
Yes, we are at war, and the battlefield is the mind, and the issue centers on the trustworthiness of God Himself! As Jesus said, life eternal is knowing God, and the truth about God will set us free from the lies of Satan (John 17:3, 8:32). It is our privilege to know the truth about God and share that truth with others to lighten the world with the true knowledge of God and prepare for Christ’s return!
On this Thanksgiving day in the US, I give thanks to God for who He is, and all He has done to reveal the truth, win us back to trust, and restore His love into our hearts!
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