THE INCREDIBLE HUMAN POTENTIAL
Chapter 5

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.

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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 V

What Led to the Creation of Man?

Something caused the creator God to decide to create MAN on this planet. Few indeed know what it was and what the PURPOSE for humanity's presence really is. WHERE are we going, and what is the way?

These are the most vital questions. Yet, I repeat still again, science cannot give the answers. No religion has the explanation. No university teaches this most important of all knowledge.

Earth Not Originally Populated by MAN

Most people know almost nothing about God. To understand ourselves, WHY we are, where we are going, and how, we need to know more about our Creator.

Our present life is like going on a journey. Suppose you had just won a prize -- an all-expense-paid trip to some other country. Wouldn't you want to know where you are going, how to get there, and as many things as possible about this trip? Should we not, then, be even more filled with eager anticipation to know as much as possible about this one great trip of life? And to know that, you need to know some things about the God who is sending you and providing the way.

It is vital at this point, then, to know this -- as revealed in the Bible: The Eternal God not only is Creator of all that is, but is the RULER over all He creates and also EDUCATOR -- that is, the revealer of basic knowledge. He reveals knowledge basic and vital to know -- knowledge otherwise inaccessible to man. Yet mankind -- generally -- has rejected revelation as a source of basic knowledge.

What God creates He maintains. What He creates He creates for a PURPOSE. He intends it to be put to use -- a right use that preserves and improves. This use, maintenance and improvement is controlled in the process of united, cooperative action, by the GOVERNMENT OF GOD.

This earth, originally, was intended to be the abode of a third of all the angels. The angels, beholding the earth at its creation, found it so beautiful and perfect they shouted spontaneously for JOY! (Job 38:4-7). It was to provide a glorious opportunity for them. They were to work it, produce from it, and preserve and increase its beauty.

And at this point, it is well to understand the nature of God's original creation: It is like the unfinished furniture available in some stores. This furniture is "in the raw" -- it is finished all but for the final varnish, polish, or paint. Some can save money by doing this finishing themselves -- provided they have the skill to do so. This furniture may be of fine and superb quality -- yet lacking the final beautifying completion.

So it is with God's creation. It is perfect, but subject to a beautifying finish which God intended angels to accomplish. The original "unfinished" creation was produced by God alone. But He intended angels, prehistorically, and MAN, now, to utilize creative power -- to finish this part in God's creation -- of adding the final beautifying and utilitarian phases of what shall be the FINAL COMPLETED CREATION!

And whether or not it had been revealed to the angels, it was a supreme TRIAL AND TEST. It was to be the PROVING GROUND of obedience to GOD'S GOVERNMENT and their fitness to develop into final finished creation the millions of other planets in the vast universe. For what is revealed in God's Word indicates that God had created the entire PHYSICAL universe at the same time He created the earth. The seventh word in Genesis 1:1 should be translated "heavens."

Radioactive elements and the law of radioactivity prove that there was a time when MATTER did not exist. GOD is a Spirit. God is composed of Spirit. God was before ALL ELSE -- the CREATOR of all. Angels were created prior to the earth. What God reveals strongly implies that matter had never existed before the original creation of the earth -- that the entire physical universe was brought into being at that time.

So the angel potential was to take over the entire universe -- to improve and finish the billions of physical planets surrounding the uncountable stars, many of which are SUNS. The sun in our solar system is merely an average-size sun. Some which we see as stars are actually many, many times larger than our sun. Our solar system, vast beyond the imagination of most minds, is only a part of our galaxy, and there are many galaxies! In other words, the physical UNIVERSE which the mighty God created is vast beyond imagination! How GREAT is the GREAT GOD!

He intended angels, and now MAN, to have a vital part in the final creation of the endless universe!

(But God may not have then fully revealed this awesome potential to the angels, for one third of them set out to take it from Him by force, without first qualifying.)

For this far-reaching purpose, God established His GOVERNMENT on earth over them. The administration of the GOVERNMENT OF GOD over this globe was delegated to the super archangel -- the great cherub Lucifer.

Lucifer was the supreme masterpiece it was possible for even the great God to create as an individually created entity. The Bible reveals the existence of just two others of the same rank -- Michael and Gabriel.

Bear in mind that even the holy angels and archangels -- including this super cherub Lucifer -- of necessity were endowed with ability to think, to reason, to form attitudes, and to make choices and decisions.

God started this Lucifer out with everything going for him. He sealed up the sum of wisdom, beauty and perfection. He was PERFECT in all his ways from the instant he was created UNTIL (Ezekiel 28:15) INIQUITY -- rebellion, lawlessness -- was found in him.

He had been trained and was thoroughly experienced in administration of the GOVERNMENT OF GOD at the very throne of the endless UNIVERSE! He was one of the two cherubs whose wings covered the throne of God the MOST high (Ezek. 28:14, Ex. 25:20).

He was created gloriously beautiful -- perfect in beauty, but he allowed vanity to seize him. Then he turned to erroneous reasoning. God's LAW -- the basis of God's government -- is the way of LOVE -- outgoing concern for the good and welfare of others, love toward God in obedience, humility, and worship -- the way of giving, sharing, helping, cooperating. He reasoned that competition would be better than cooperation. It would be an incentive to excel, to try harder, to accomplish. There would be more pleasure in serving SELF and more enjoyment.

He turned against God's law of LOVE. He became jealous of God, envious, and resentful against God. He allowed lust and greed to fill him, and he became bitter. This inspired a spirit of violence! He deliberately became his Maker's adversary and enemy. That was his choice, not God's -- yet allowed by God!

God changed his NAME to what he became, SATAN the DEVIL -- which means adversary, competitor, enemy.

He directed his supernatural powers henceforth to EVIL. He became bitter not only against God, but against God's LAW. He used his subtile wiles of deception to lead the angels under him into disloyalty, rebellion, and revolt against the Creator and finally into a WAR of aggression and violence to attempt to depose God and seize the throne of the UNIVERSE.

As long as Lucifer remained loyal and administered the GOVERNMENT OF GOD faithfully, this earth was filled with wonderful and perfect PEACE. The angels were vigorously HAPPY to the extent of joy! The LAW of God's government is THE WAY OF LIFE that CAUSES and produces peace, happiness, prosperity, and well-being. Sin is the WAY OF LIFE that has caused all existing EVILS.

The penalty of sin by the angels was not death -- for God had made them immortal spirit beings who cannot die. What God gave them was THIS EARTH as their abode and opportunity to qualify to possess and beautify the entire UNIVERSE.

Their penalty (they are still awaiting final judgment up to now) was disqualification -- forfeiture of their grand opportunity, perversion of mind, and a colossal earthwide CATACLYSM of destruction wreaked upon this earth.

As a result, the earth came to the condition briefly described in Genesis 1:2 -- (the Hebrew words "tohu and bohu" here mean waste and empty, chaotic and in extreme confusion) with water covering the whole face of the earth, in deep darkness. Lucifer was created a perfect bringer of LIGHT. Now he became author of DARKNESS, error, confusion, and evil.

So the rebellion of the angels that sinned (II Pet. 2:4-6; Jude 6-7; Isa. 14:12-15; Ezek. 28:12-17) brought this extreme cataclysm to the earth.

And in all probability it did more!

Whatever God creates is created in perfect condition. The other planets were not created as dead hulks of waste and empty DECAY -- like our moon and Mars. We do not yet know too much about the other planets, but every evidence so far indicates this same state of decay.

We have already covered the awesome, incredible POTENTIAL OF MAN. Originally, this potential of being put over the UNIVERSE was the potential of the angels. But they disqualified themselves.

God did not create our moon and the planets in this state of waste and decay. The evidence of what God does reveal strongly indicates that the entire material universe was created when the earth was created. As just stated, God is NOT the author of waste, decay, and destruction, but Satan is. It seems, therefore, based on what is now revealed, that a similar cataclysm of destruction most likely happened to the surface of our moon and the planets at the time it happened to this earth! And all this was caused by the rebellion of Lucifer and his angels! But notice what God did next.

In Psalm 104:30, "Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth."

Back, now, to Genesis 1:2, "And the earth was (became ) without form and void [Heb. tohu and bohu -- chaotic, in confusion, waste and empty]; And darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters."

God now RENEWED the face of the earth, preparing it to become the abode of MAN!

But WHY?

Why God Created Man!

Here is a truth perhaps never before understood by man!

Here is AWESOME TRUTH!

Look, now, at the situation as God must have seen and considered it. God has given us 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 to us, "Let this MIND be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. 2:5). We can learn to think His thoughts after Him. If we have His Spirit, we can learn to think, to some degree, even as HE THINKS!

How must God have looked at this situation after the colossal debacle of Lucifer and the angels that sinned?

This LUCIFER was the supreme MASTERPIECE of God's creative power as a single, separately created Spirit being! He was created the most perfect in beauty, mentality, knowledge, power, intellect and wisdom within the almighty power of God to create in a being, with power to think, reason, make choices and decisions on his own. God knew that no higher, more perfect being could be created as an initial creation.

Yet this superior being, trained and experienced at the very throne of the GOVERNMENT OF GOD over the universe, had resorted to wrong reasoning and made a diabolical perverted decision. He worked on the angels under him until he turned their minds to rebellion also. This, incidentally, might have taken Lucifer millions of years. In all probability he had to begin perverting the minds of his angels one at a time, at first. He had to cause them to feel dissatisfied, wronged by God, and inject into them resentment and bitterness.

When Lucifer allowed thoughts of vanity, jealousy, envy, lust and greed, then resentment and rebellion, to enter and occupy his mind, SOMETHING HAPPENED TO HIS MIND! His mind became perverted, distorted, twisted! His thinking became warped. God gave him and the angels control over their own minds. They can never straighten them out -- never again think rationally, honestly, rightly.

I have had a number of personal experiences with demons through a few demon-possessed people. I have cast out demons through the name of Christ and power of the Holy Spirit. Some demons are silly, like spoiled children. Some are crafty, sharp, shrewd, subtile. Some are belligerent, some are sassy, some are sullen and morose. But all are perverted, warped, twisted.

Look, now again at God's overall supreme PURPOSE. It is to develop GODLY, PERFECT CHARACTER IN THE MILLIONS OF MANKIND WHO SHALL DO THIS CREATIVE COMPLETION THROUGH OUT THE ENTIRE LIMITLESS PHYSICAL UNIVERSE!

That is THE AWESOME PURPOSE!

For this PURPOSE, God started by creating millions of angels -- Spirit beings. Then He created the PHYSICAL UNIVERSE and this earth, and He put angels here to develop this earth, ruled by THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD.

But the king He set as ruler -- LUCIFER -- rebelled, revolted, misled a third of all the angels, and THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD no longer governed the earth.

Lucifer was the supreme masterpiece. If Lucifer and his angels went wrong, there was no assurance the other two thirds would not.

As God surveyed this tragic cataclysm, He must have realized it left HIMSELF as the ONLY BEING who will not and CANNOT SIN! The only possible ASSURANCE of accomplishing His great PURPOSE was for Him now to reproduce Himself!

But let us answer another question before proceeding:

WHY is it IMPOSSIBLE for God to sin? No greater power exists that will prevent Him -- but God has simply by His own power -- supreme and above all power -- set Himself that He will not!

What God saw was this. No being less than God could be certainly relied upon NEVER to sin, that is, NEVER to turn against God's LAW, and God's government, which makes possible His ultimate PURPOSE. To fulfill His PURPOSE for the entire UNIVERSE, God saw that nothing less than HIMSELF, and His holy, righteous and perfect CHARACTER, could be absolutely relied upon to carry out His SUPREME PURPOSE throughout the entire, vast, endless UNIVERSE!

The question might be raised: Could not God have known, in advance, what Lucifer and the angels under him would do? Doesn't God know EVERYTHING? The answer is NO. If God were to have known in advance what choice they would make, He would have had to FORCE them to make it -- taken away from them power to think, to reason, to have a choice, to make decisions. God does not CHOOSE to know, in advance, what YOU or I will be thinking, reasoning, deciding, tomorrow or in the future. He gave these Spirit beings, as He gives us, the power to think for ourselves, to choose, to make decisions. Otherwise we should be nothing more than automatons, doing what we are compelled to do. He simply did not choose to know. His PURPOSE includes the development of CHARACTER in His created beings.

All that had happened caused God to now UNDERTAKE THE MOST STUPENDOUS CREATION OF ALL -- that of REPRODUCING HIMSELF! The ultimate creation of God Beings in His God Family -- superior to angels!

Reproducing HIMSELF??

Now came the CROWNING PINNACLE of even God's unmatched creative POWER! Now came the very zenith of all Divine accomplishment! Now came a project so incredulously transcendently AWESOME it is hard for the human mind to grasp.

How could the great GOD -- self-existent, before all else, CREATOR of all else, reproduce HIMSELF into multiplied millions of others JUST LIKE HIMSELF -- Divine, supreme in power, perfect in character -- each by his own choice perfectly like-minded with the Father, each having so set himself that he CANNOT SIN?

The next chapter will reveal HOW God planned to carry out this incredibly AWESOME feat of reproducing Himself.