THE INCREDIBLE HUMAN POTENTIAL
Chapter 4

by Herbert W. Armstrong
1978 edition

This is the eye-opening story of the real gospel message of Jesus Christ -- of how this missing dimension was withheld, and the whole world deceived.

It's positively astounding! It has remained undiscovered by science! No religion has revealed it! Higher education has never taught it! Is it possible the whole world has been deceived -- regarding the awesome purpose of human life -- about the WAY to world peace and how it will come? And could it be true that the real gospel message Christ brought from heaven revealed this missing dimension -- but was suppressed? This is the eye -- opening story of the real gospel message of Jesus Christ -- of how this missing dimension was withheld, and the whole world deceived.

---

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 ..... CHRIST'S GOSPEL WAS SUPPRESSED -- NOT HEARD FROM THE FIRST CENTURY UNTIL NOW
Chapter 2 ..... THE STARTLING REVELATION OF WHAT WAS CHRIST'S GOSPEL
Chapter 3 ..... THE INCREDIBLE HUMAN POTENTIAL AT LAST REVEALED
Chapter 4 ..... PRE-EXISTENCE BEFORE THE MATERIAL UNIVERSE
Chapter 5 ..... WHAT LED TO THE CREATION OF
Chapter 6 ..... HOW GOD PLANNED TO REPRODUCE HIMSELF
Chapter 7 ..... BRIDGING THE GAP BETWEEN HUMAN MAN AND THE ULTIMATE SPIRIT -- COMPOSED SONS OF GOD
Chapter 8 ..... WHY TODAY'S WORLD EVILS?
Chapter 9 ..... WHY THE CHURCH?
Chapter 10 ..... JUST WHAT DO YOU MEAN -- CONVERSION?
Chapter 11 ..... HUMAN NATURE -- AND HOW A WHOLE WORLD IS DECEIVED ABOUT ITS ORIGIN
Chapter 12 ..... IS THERE LIFE AFTER DEATH?
Chapter 13 ..... WORLD PEACE -- HOW IT WILL COME


Chapter IV

PRE-EXISTENCE BEFORE THE MATERIAL UNIVERSE

I have explained to you the awesome potential of man. But why? Why does the Creator God purpose all this? Why did the living God decide to create man and put him on earth? God does not do things without a reason.

To understand -- to comprehend the whole picture in the order of time sequence -- we must now go all the way back into prehistory. That missing dimension in knowledge, too, is revealed in the Word of God -- God's message and revelation of knowledge to mankind.

Did you ever start viewing a motion picture when it was more than half way through? You probably were bewildered -- not having seen what occurred before and led up to the point where you first began to see.

It's the same in coming to an UNDERSTANDING of what God has prepared for humanity -- of the ultimate human potential.

True understanding can come only by beginning the story at the beginning!

If one should ask, where do you find the actual beginning of events in the Bible, most who possess even a slight knowledge of the world's "best seller" would say, "why in Genesis chapter one verse one, of course.

WRONG!

The real beginning, in order of time sequence, is found in the New Testament, in the first chapter of John, verse one. The events portrayed in Genesis occurred later -- possibly even millions of years later.

But the event recorded in John 1:1 reveals an existence perhaps long prior to the time God created the earth and the material universe.

Note it: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God." It continues, "The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made."

The term "all things" is translated in Hebrews 1:3, in the Moffatt translation, as "the UNIVERSE." The entire UNIVERSE was made by Him!

The fourteenth verse of John 1 says: "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."

The Personage called the Word was the one who ultimately -- yet more than 1900 years ago -- was born Jesus Christ.

The name, "the Word," is translated from the original Greek text, and means, literally, just what is translated into English -- "Spokesman." But He was not the Son of God "in the beginning." Yet the Scriptures reveal that He has always existed, and always will -- "from eternity to eternity." He was "without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days nor end of life ..." (Heb. 7:3).

So think on this, if you will!

Originally there existed only these two Spirit Personages, self-existent. They had creative powers -- they had perfect supreme minds -- they possessed perfect, holy and righteous CHARACTER.

But THERE WAS NONE ELSE -- NOTHING ELSE! There was no matter -- no material universe -- YET! No other living being or thing.

Only these two, equal in mind and powers, except that God was supreme in authority, and the Word in perfect harmony under that authority. They were of one mind, in absolute agreement.

But ALL THINGS -- the universe and everything existing in it -- were made by the Personage called the Word. Yet, as we read in Ephesians 3:9: "God ... created ALL THINGS by Jesus Christ." And prior to becoming Jesus Christ, He was "the Word!" Also, in His human life Jesus said He spoke only as the Father directed.

Yes, THINK!

In the eternity even prior to "prehistory" there were these two Supreme Beings. Alone! In the emptiness of space! No other life forms -- no other living beings! Nothing else!

But they possessed MINDS of supreme capacity. And, much, much later, they created humans after their own likeness and image. They endowed MAN with the power of MIND. It seems obvious that human minds were made to function in the same manner as the Creator's, although in an inferior way.

But how do we humans use our minds? We are endowed with something akin to creative powers. Man produces buildings out of existing materials. Man has produced intricate machines. But how? Man thinks it out -- makes plans -- before the actual making.

As an illustration: After much prayer about it to learn God's will, I was allowed to build the finest modern auditorium on this earth -- the Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena, California. But I did much thinking and planning -- I engaged the largest and best firm of architects and engineers in the world to design my general idea of such an edifice into finished PLANNING. We were twelve years thinking out, designing, and putting into actual plans and blueprints this Auditorium before even breaking ground. Every cubic inch of the Auditorium was designed on paper before a single cubic inch went into production.

How much more, then, must the Great God and the Word have thought out, planned, and designed in their minds, before the actual Creation?

They did not create matter first. The laws and facts of radioactivity tell us with certainty that there was a time when such matter did not exist.

But the Great God through the Word first designed and created SPIRIT BEINGS -- angels, each individually created -- millions or perhaps even billions of them! They were composed wholly of Spirit. They were given self-containing life -- life inherent -- immortality. But also God created within them MINDS -- with power to think, to reason, to make choices and decisions!

The Supreme Creative Accomplishment

But there was one super-important quality that even God's creative powers could not create instantly by fiat -- the same perfect, holy, righteous CHARACTER inherent in both God and the Word!

This kind of character must be DEVELOPED, by the CHOICE and the INTENT of the one in whom it comes to exist.

So mark well this super-vital truism -- that perfect, holy and righteous character is the supreme feat of accomplishment possible for Almighty God the Creator -- it is also the means to His ultimate supreme PURPOSE! His final objective!

But HOW?

I repeat, such perfect character must be developed. It requires the free choice and decision of the separate entity in whom it is to be created. But, further, even then it must be instilled by and from the Holy God who, only, has such righteous character to endow.

Perfect, holy and righteous character is the ability in such separate entity to come to discern the true and right way from the false, to make voluntarily a full and unconditional surrender to God and His perfect way -- to yield to be conquered by God -- to determine even against temptation or self-desire, to live and to do the right. And even then such holy character is the gift of God. It comes by yielding to God to instill HIS LAW (God's right way of life) within the entity who so decides and wills.

Actually, this perfect character comes only from God, as instilled within the entity of His creation, upon voluntary acquiescence, even after severe trial and test.

I have devoted a few paragraphs to this point because it is the supreme pinnacle means in God's overall PURPOSE!

Now as to the pre-historic angels: God 1) created them with minds capable of thinking, reasoning, making choices and decisions with self-will, and, 2) revealed plainly to them His TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS WAY. But God of necessity allowed them free moral agency in accepting God's right way, or turning to contrary ways of their own devising.

What was God's ULTIMATE OBJECTIVE for the angels? Beyond question it is that which, now, because of angelic rebellion, has become the transcendent potential of humans!

As the testing ground, and opportunity for positive and active creative accomplishment, God created -- brought into existence -- the entire vast material universe.

God now created not only matter, but with and in it energy and such laws as man has discovered in the fields of physics and chemistry. God formed matter to be present in both the organic and the inorganic states.

And so we come now to that which is revealed in Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning [of the physical universe] God created the heavens and the earth."

As previously stated, in the King James English language translation (AV) will be found the word "heaven" in the singular. But this originally was written by Moses in Hebrew. And in the Hebrew the word is in the plural -- "heavens" -- thus including not only our earth, but the entire material UNIVERSE.

It is therefore indicated that at that time -- after the creation of angels -- the entire universe was brought into existence at the same time as the creation of our earth. I find strong indication of this in other biblical internal evidence.

The Perfect Creation

The original Hebrew words (the words originally written by Moses) imply a perfect creation. God reveals Himself as Creator of perfection, light, and beauty. Every reference in the Bible describes the condition of any completed phase of God's creation as "very good" -- perfect.

This first verse of the Bible actually speaks of the original PHYSICAL creation in its entirety -- the universe -- including the earth, perhaps millions of years ago -- as a perfect creation, beautiful and perfect as far as its creation was a finished, completed work. God is a perfectionist!

In Job 38:4, 7, God is speaking specifically of the creation of this earth. He said all the angels (created "sons of God") shouted for joy at the creation of the earth. This reveals that angels were created before the creation of the earth -- and probably before the material universe. The suns, planets, and astral bodies are material substance. Angels are individually created Spirit beings, composed solely of Spirit.

It will come as a surprise to many to learn that angels inhabited this earth BEFORE the creation of man. This passage from Job implies it.

Angels on Earth Sinned

Other passages place angels on earth prior to man.

Notice II Peter 2:4-6. First in time order were "angels that sinned." Next in time sequence, the antediluvian world beginning with Adam, carrying through to the Flood. After that, Sodom and Gomorrah.

This Book of books, containing the revealed knowledge of the Creator God, tells us that God created angels as composed of Spirit. But can you imagine angels becoming sinning angels? Angels were created with power of thought, of decision and of choice, else they have no individuality or character. Since sin is the transgression of God's law, these angels rebelled against God's law, the basis of God's government.

Notice carefully what is revealed in II Peter 2:4-5: "For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly."

These verses show that universal sin brings universal destruction to the physical earth. The antediluvian sin, culminating with the flood, was worldwide, universal sin. Notice:"... the earth was filled with violence....for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth....for the earth is filled with violence ..." (Gen. 6:11-13). "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the [Eternal].... Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God" (verses 8-9). All flesh had sinned -- over the whole earth. But only Noah "walked with God." So, the Flood destroyed the whole earth -- all but Noah and his family.

The homosexual and other sins of Sodom and Gomorrah spread over the territory of those two cities. And physical destruction came to their entire area. The sin of the angels was worldwide; the destruction of the physical earth was worldwide.

The verses quoted above place the sinning of the angels prior to the antediluvian sins that started with Adam, prior to the creation of man. And that should be a surprise revealing of one phase of the missing dimension in knowledge! Angels inhabited this earth before the creation of man.

And the government of God was administered on earth until the rebellion of the sinning angels.

How long these angels inhabited the earth before the creation of man is not revealed. It might have been millions -- or even billions -- of years. More on that later. But these angels sinned. Sin is the transgression of God's law (I John 3:4). And God's law is the basis of God's government. So we know these angels, apparently a third of all the angels (Rev. 12:4), sinned -- rebelled against the government of God. And sin carries penalties. The penalty for the sin of the angels is not death, as it is for man. Angels are immortal Spirit beings and cannot die. These Spirit beings had been given dominion over the PHYSICAL EARTH as a possession and an abode.

The universal, worldwide sin of the angels resulted in the physical destruction of the face of the earth.

God is Creator. God is also ruler over His creation. He preserves what He creates by His government. What God creates, He has created for a purpose -- to be used, preserved, and maintained. And this use is regulated by God's government. When the angels rebelled against God's government, the preservation of the physical earth and all its original beauty and glory ceased -- and physical destruction to the surface of the earth resulted!

God is Creator, Preserver, and Ruler.

Satan is Destroyer!

So, now, we read in Jude 6-7: "And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."

Now back to Genesis 1:1-2. Verse 1, as stated above, implies a perfect creation. God is the author of life, of beauty, of perfection. Satan has brought only darkness, ugliness, imperfection, violence. Verse 1 shows the creation of a perfect earth, glorious and beautiful. Verse 2 reveals the result of the sin of the angels.

"And the earth was [became] without form, and void." The words "without form and void" are translated from the Hebrew tohu and bohu. A better translation is "waste and empty" or "chaotic and in confusion." The word "was" is elsewhere in Genesis translated "became," as in Genesis 19:26. In other words, the earth, originally created perfect and beautiful, had now become chaotic, waste, and empty, like our moon, except its surface was covered with water.

David was inspired to reveal how God renewed the face of the earth: "Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou the face of the earth" (Ps. 104:30).

Now another surprise for most readers. Here is another bit of the missing dimension in knowledge, actually revealed in the Bible, but unrecognized by religion, by science, and by higher education.

From verse 2 of Genesis 1 on, the remainder of this first chapter of the Bible is not describing the original creation of the earth. But it is describing a renewing of the face of the earth, after it had become waste and empty as a result of the sin of the angels.

What is described from verse 2 on, in the supposed "Creation chapter" of the Bible, did occur, according to the Bible, approximately 6,000 years ago. But that could have been millions or trillions of years after the actual creation of the earth described in verse 1!

I will comment later on the length of time it might have taken before all earth's angels turned to rebellion.

The earth had become waste and empty. God did not create it waste and empty, or in confusion. God is not the author of confusion (I Cor. 14:33). This same Hebrew word -- tohu -- meaning waste and empty, was inspired in Isaiah 45:18, where it is translated "in vain." Using the original Hebrew word, as originally inspired, it reads: "For thus saith the [Eternal] that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain [tohu], he formed it to be inhabited."

Continue now with the remainder of verse 2 (Gen. 1) (the earth had become chaotic, waste, and empty): "And darkness was upon the face of the deep [the ocean or fluid surface of the earth]. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness" (verses 2-4).

Satan is the author of darkness. The rebellion of the angels had caused the darkness. God is the author of light and truth. Light displays and enhances beauty, and also exposes evil. Darkness hides both.

The verses which follow in this first chapter of the Bible describe the renewing of the face of the earth, yielding beautiful lawns, trees, shrubs, flowers, vegetation -- then the creation of fish and fowl, animal life, and finally man.

The Great Lucifer

But first, before coming to man, we need to fill in the prehistory portion.

How did this sin of the angels come to take place? How did it start?

Remember, God the Creator preserves, improves and enhances what He creates by His government. What He creates is created to be used. This earth was to be inhabited and used by angels, originally.

When God placed angels -- apparently a third of all (Rev. 12:4) -- on the newly created, perfect, beautiful and glorious earth, He set over them, on a throne, to administer the government of God, an archangel -- the great cherub Lucifer. There were only two other beings of this extremely high rank of cherub, Michael and Gabriel.

So far as is revealed, these are the supreme pinnacle of Spirit-composed beings within God's power to create. This Lucifer was a super being of awesome, majestic beauty, dazzling brightness, supreme knowledge, wisdom and power -- perfect as God created him! But God of necessity created in him the power of choice and decision, or he could not have been a being of individuality and character.

I want you to grasp fully the supreme magnificence of this towering pinnacle of God's created beings. Two different biblical passages tell us of his original created state.

First, notice what is revealed in Isaiah 14. (This famous chapter begins with the time, shortly ahead of us now, when the Eternal God shall have intervened in this world's affairs. The people of Israel -- not necessarily or exclusively the Israelis or Judah -- shall have been taken as captive slaves, and God shall intervene and bring them back to the original promised homeland.) "And it shall come to pass in the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made to serve, that thou shalt take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased! the golden city ceased! The Lord hath broken the staff of the wicked, and the sceptre of the rulers. He who smote the people in wrath ... he that ruled the nations in anger, is persecuted, and none hindereth" (verses 3-6).

This is NOT speaking of the king of ancient Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar. The time is yet ahead of us -- but shortly ahead. It is speaking of the modern successor of that ancient Nebuchadnezzar. It is speaking of the one who will be RULER of the soon-coming resurrected "Holy Roman Empire " -- a sort of soon-coming "United States of Europe" -- a union of ten nations to rise up out of or following the Common Market of today. Britain will NOT be in that empire soon to come.

This united Europe will conquer Israel -- if you know who Israel is today, and I do not mean Judah, known as the Israelis today. All that involves a number of other prophecies, which there is not room here to explain.

But this "king of Babylon" shall at the time of this prophecy have been utterly defeated by the intervention of the living Christ in His power and glory. Continue on:

"The whole earth is at rest, and is quiet: they break forth into singing. Yea, the fir trees rejoice ... and the cedars of Lebanon, saying, Since thou art laid down, no feller is come up against us" (verses 7-8).

(I want to interpose an interesting bit of information right here. The cedars of Lebanon, biblically famous, are almost totally cut down. Only one small clump of these trees remains, high in the mountains. I have seen and photographed them. However, perhaps the finest specimen of the cedars of Lebanon surviving on earth are on what was previously our Ambassador College Campus in England. We prized them highly. It is interesting to see that this prophecy, written some 500 years B.C., should record the fact that these beautiful and stately trees should have been so largely felled.)

This passage in Isaiah 14 speaks of the doom of this coming king at the hands of the glorified, all-powerful Christ. It refers to him as Satan's chief political ruler and military destroyer, totally deceived by Satan in the years very shortly ahead of us.

Then, coming to verse 12, this human earthly type of Satan the devil suddenly transposes to Satan himself -- the former archangel, Lucifer:

"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!" A better translation here is: "How art thou, who didst weaken the nations, cut down to the ground." The RSV translates it: "How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!" This the former Lucifer did through the human political-military leader in his power -- spoken of in the first eleven verses.

The name "Lucifer" means "Shining star of the dawn," or "Bringer of light," as God first created him. Now continue: "For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars [angels] of God."

Notice, Lucifer had a throne; he was a ruler. His throne was on earth, for he was going to ascend into heaven. Continue: "I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High" (verses 13-14). Actually, it is plain that Lucifer had nothing less in mind than knocking the Creator God off His throne and becoming supreme God himself.

Apparently he planned to put himself in place of God, over the universe!

But finally, as the context returns again to the human type: "Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell [Heb. sheol ], to the sides of the pit" (verse 15).

From that point, the thought returns to the human king. Lucifer was the supreme masterpiece of God's creative power, as an individually created being, threatening, as a Frankenstein monster, to destroy his own maker -- and assume all His powers to rule the whole universe.

His rebel rule was NOT a government based upon the principle of love -- of giving, of outgoing concern for the good of others, but based on SELF-CENTEREDNESS, on vanity, lust and greed, on envy, jealousy, the spirit of competition, hatred, violence and destruction, on darkness and error, instead of light and truth, on ugliness instead of beauty.

Look now at the other biblical passage describing this supreme angelic creation of God, in Ezekiel 28.

Lucifer a Created Being

Actually, the entire concept in chapter 26 speaks of the ancient great commercial city of Tyre. It was the commercial metropolis of the ancient world, even as Babylon was the political capital. Tyre was the New York, the London, the Tokyo, or the Paris of the ancient world. The ancient Tyre, port of the world's shippers and merchants, gloried herself in her beauty, even as Paris in our time.

Chapter 27 carries on with comparisons to passages in the eighteenth chapter of the book of Revelation referring to a politico-religious leader to come (verses 9-19).

But coming to chapter 28, the theme comes more completely to the time just now ahead of us, the same time depicted in Isaiah 14. Ezekiel 28 speaks of the prince of Tyre, an earthly ruler. God says to the prophet Ezekiel: "Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus [actually referring to a powerful religious leader to arise SOON, in our time], Thus saith the [Eternal] God; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God: Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee: with thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures [or "treasuries"-RSV] ... and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches: therefore thus saith the [Eternal] God; Because thou hast set thine heart as the heart of God; behold, therefore I will bring strangers upon thee, the terrible of the nations ... they shall bring thee down to the pit, and thou shalt die the deaths of them that are slain in the midst of the seas" (Ezek. 28:2-8). (Compare with II Thessalonians 2:4, speaking of that man of sin, "who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called, ... so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.")

What a Super Being!

But at this point, as in Isaiah 14, the lesser human type lifts to a greater spirit antitype. Instead of the prince of Tyre -- a human man -- it now speaks of the KING of Tyre. This is the same Lucifer.

Ezekiel the prophet continues:

"Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the KING of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the [Eternal] God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty" (verses 11-12).

Please read that again! God would never say anything like that of a human man. This superb spirit being filled up the sum total of wisdom, perfection and beauty. He was the supreme pinnacle, the masterpiece, of God's creation, as an individually created being, the greatest one in the almighty power of God to create! The tragic thing is that he rebelled against his Maker!

"Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God" (verse 13). He had inhabited this earth. His throne was here. "Every precious stone was thy covering ... the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created" (verse 13). He was a created being -- not born human. He was a Spirit being -- not human flesh. Great genius and skill in music was created in him. Now that he has become perverted in all thinking, acting and being, he is the real author of modern perverted music -- of discordant moans, squawks, shrieks, wails -- unhappy, discouraged moods. Think of all the supreme talent, ability, and potential in a being created with such capacities. And all perverted! All gone sour -- all dissipated, turned to hatred, destruction, hopelessness!

Yet, take courage. The awesome human potential, if we care enough about it to resist Satan's wiles and evils and discouragements and to persevere in God's way, is infinitely superior and higher than Lucifer's -- even as created, before he turned to rebellion and iniquity!

But continuing the particular revelation of this crucially important missing dimension in knowledge: "Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so," says God of this Lucifer. This takes us back to the twenty-fifth chapter of Exodus, where God gave Moses the pattern for the Ark of the Covenant. The description begins with verse 10, and verses 18-20 show, in the material pattern, the two cherubs who were stationed at each end of the very throne of God in heaven -- the throne of the government of God over the entire universe. The wings of the two cherubim covered the throne of God.

Trained at Universe Headquarters

This Lucifer, then, had been stationed at the very throne of God. He was trained and experienced in the administration of the government of God. God chose such a being, well-experienced and trained, to be the king ruling the government of God over the angels who inhabited the whole earth.

Continue: "... thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire." This is not talking about any human being. But continue: "Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity [lawlessness] was found in thee" (Ezek. 28:15). He had complete knowledge, understanding and wisdom. But he also was given full powers of reasoning, thinking, making decisions, making his choice. And, with all this foreknowledge -- even of results and consequences -- this superb being, the highest that even God could create by fiat, turned to rebellion against his Maker -- against the way that produces every good. He turned to lawlessness. He had been trained in the administration of perfect law and order. As long as Lucifer continued in this perfect way, there was happiness and joy unspeakable over the whole earth. There was glorious peace -- beautiful harmony, perfect love, cooperation. The government of God produced a wonderfully happy state -- as long as Lucifer was loyal in the conduct of God's government.

What Caused the Angels' Sin?

What caused the angels on earth to sin, to turn to lawlessness? Certainly the ordinary angels did not persuade this great superbeing to turn traitor. No, it was in him that iniquity was found. But, after how long? We don't know. God does not reveal that! It could have been any number of years from one or less to millions times millions.

And then, even after Lucifer himself made the decision to rebel and try to invade God's heaven to take over the universe, it is not revealed how long it took him to persuade all of the angels under him to turn traitor and follow him.

I know well the method he used. He uses the same method still today in leading deceived humans into disloyalty, rebellion, and self-centered opposition against God's government. First, he turns one or two to envy, jealousy, and resentment over an imagined injustice -- then into disloyalty. Then he uses that one or two, like a rotten apple in a crate, to stir up resentment, feelings of self-pity, disloyalty and rebellion in others next to them. And, as each rotten apple rots those next to it until the whole crate is rotten, so Satan proceeds.

If, in the government of God on earth today, the "rotten apples" are not thrown out early enough, they would destroy the whole government. But, once thrown out of the crate, they cannot do any more damage to those in the crate.

But think how long it must have taken the soured and embittered Lucifer to turn millions of holy angels into resentment, bitterness, disloyalty, and finally open and vicious rebellion. It could have taken hundreds, thousands, or millions of years. This was all before the first human was created.

All this happened after the original creation of the earth, described in verse 1 of Genesis 1. Verse 2 of this "creation" chapter describes a condition resulting from this sin of the angels. The events described in verse 2, therefore, may have occurred millions of years after the original creation of the earth.

The earth, therefore, may have been created millions of years ago. But continue this passage in Ezekiel 28: "By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy [remove] thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground ..." (verses 16-17). At this point the context returns to the soon-to-appear, human, religious-political ruler -- of whom the prince of ancient Tyre was a forerunner.

Earlier in this chapter, I showed you how physical destruction, ugliness, and darkness had covered the face of the earth, as the result of the sin of Lucifer (who is now the Devil) and these "angels that sinned" (now demons), and how in six days God had renewed the face of the earth (Gen. 1:2-25).

But why did God create man on the earth (Gen. 1:26)?

Look at this situation as God does. God has given us humans minds, like the mind of God, only inferior and limited. God made us in His image, after His likeness (form and shape), only composed of matter instead of Spirit. But God says, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5). We can, to some degree, think even as God thinks. How must God have looked at the situation, as He started renewing the face of the earth -- after the colossal debacle of the angels!

He had created a beautiful, perfect creation in the earth. He populated it with holy angels -- probably millions of them. He put over them, as king, on an earthly throne, the archangel -- the cherub Lucifer. Lucifer was the supreme masterpiece of God's creative power as a single separately created Spirit being. He was the most perfect in beauty, power, mind, knowledge, intellect, wisdom, within the almighty power of God to create. God can create nothing higher or more perfect, by instantaneous fiat.

Yet this great being, knowledgeable, trained and experienced at God's own throne in heaven over the universe and the administration of the government of God, had rejected that government, corrupted his way, rebelled against administering or even obeying it. He had led all his angels astray and into the sin of rebellion and disloyalty.

Now consider further. Apparently the entire universe had been created also at the time of the earth's creation. There is no evidence either in God's revealed Word, nor in science, that any of the planets in endless outer space had been inhabited with any form of life. But God does nothing in vain. He always has a purpose.

Apparently all such planets in the entire universe NOW are waste and empty -- decayed (tohu and bohu) -- like the earth was, as described in Genesis 1:2. But God did not create them in such conditions of decay -- like our moon. Decay is not an original created condition -- it is a condition resulting from a process of deterioration. Evidently if the now fallen angels had maintained the earth in its original beautiful condition, improved it, carried out God's instructions, and obeyed His government, they would have been offered the awesome potential of populating and carrying out a tremendous creative program throughout the entire universe. When they turned traitor on earth, their sin must have also brought simultaneously physical destruction to the other planets throughout the universe, which were potentially and conditionally put in subjection to them.

As God surveyed this cataclysmic tragedy, He must have realized that since the highest, most perfect being within His almighty power to create, had turned to rebellion, it left God Himself as the only being who would not and cannot sin.

And God is the father of the Divine God Family.

Notice John 1:1-5. The "Word" who was "made flesh" (verse 14) has existed always -- from eternity -- with the Father. God the Father has created all things -- the entire universe -- by Him who became Jesus Christ (Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:16-17).

When Jesus was on earth, He prayed to God, His Father in heaven. The Father spoke of Jesus as "my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." Jesus lived on earth as a human, tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin.

The fourth word in all the Bible is "God" (Gen. 1:1). And the original Hebrew word is "Elohim," a uni-plural noun like the word family, church, or group. The family is God. There is one God -- the one Family, but more than one Person.

God saw that no being less than God, in the God Family, could be certainly relied on never to sin -- to be like God -- who cannot sin. To fulfill His purpose for the entire vast universe, God saw that nothing less than Himself (as the God Family) could be absolutely relied upon to carry out that supreme purpose in the entire universe.

God then purposed to reproduce Himself, through humans, made in His image and likeness, but made first from material flesh and blood, subject to death if there is sin unrepented of -- yet with the possibility of being born into the Divine Family begotten by God the Father.

God saw how this could be done through Christ, who gave Himself for that purpose.

And that is why God put man on the earth! That is what caused God to do this most colossal, tremendous thing ever undertaken by the supreme, almighty God -- to reproduce Himself! The following chapter will make this undeniably clear.