Before The Beginning
I just love this title: Before the Beginning. It's another reason I love the Bible. It's another reason I love to talk with people who try to impress me with their intellectual brilliance against the Bible - the statement "Before the Beginning" just blows them away.
Anyone who knows anything about the Bible knows that it begins with the Book of Genesis - the book of beginnings, and ends with the Book of Revelation - the book that foretells the events of the "end times." However, if one will read the entire Bible they will find events that happened before the beginning as well as events that will happen after the end. Consequently, no one who really understands the Bible can say the Bible is old and out-dated. How can a book that foretells of things yet to come be called "out-dated?" The Bible has a perfect track record of fulfilled prophecies, to this point, some of which have been fulfilled in our life-time. Having a record of fulfilled prophecies with pin-point accuracy gives us great confidence that the remaining prophecies will be fulfilled with the same degree of accuracy.
Picture this: as I am writing this, I have a big grin on my face because I know that as you are reading this, you have a big frown on your face - a frown of question, so let me explain.
This is Step Four for those who are using The Leaning Center as a systematic way of either investigating the Christian faith or advancing their knowledge with regard to it. By now you should have read "The Bible: Can I Trust it, The Bible Can I Understand it, The Bible: Where Did We Get it, and now we are ready for Step Four: Before the Beginning. At first you might not think you have the need or interest in learning the material in this step, but if you don't know what happened Before the Beginning you won't have a full understanding of what follows in Step Five: The Beginning. So let's get started
Before the beginning there only existed one sphere or realm - the spirit realm. It consisted of what we call "The God Head:" God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. - nothing else. There was no physical realm, just spirit. There was nothing tangible or sensory, just spirit.
At some unknown time, since time had not yet begun, and for whatever reason, God created other spirit beings called "angels." There were tens-of-thousands (no one knows for sure how many) of angels. We know that there were, and still are, different orders of angel as indicated by various references in the Bible: Archangels, Chief Angels, Cherubims and Seraphims. In the Book of Hebrews 1:14 we are told that even though there are different orders with different tasks, they "are all ministering spirits."
Although these beings were spirit beings created by God, they had “wills” that allowed them to make decisions. Sadly enough, one of the chief angels, filled with pride, declared that he was going to be above God. That angel is most frequently referred to as “Satan,” “Lucifer,” or “the Devil.” God’s response to this rebellion was to cast Satan out of heaven along with "one third of the angels" who had “sided” with Satan. The “fallen angels,” or the expelled angels are now called, “demons.” From that point on, even to this present day, there are two spirit, spiritual kingdoms who war against each other:
Kingdoms
- The Kingdom of God
The Kingdom of Satan
- The Kingdom of Light The Kingdom of Darkness
- The Kingdom of Truth The Kingdom of Lies and deception
One of the main characteristic of Satan is falsehood, counterfeit, and deception. As such, he has tried to copy the pattern of God’s Kingdom as well as trying to counterfeit everything God does. In God’s Kingdom there is a “Godhead” or “Trinity.” The Devil has tried to copy that pattern as well.
God's Kingdom The Devil's Kingdom
- God the Father The Devil
- God the Son - Christ The Antichrist
- The Holy Spirit The Beast
The three main things I want you to know about angels at this point is; 1.) they are created beings, 2.) they are spirits, and 3) they have the ability to choose - make choices. (More on angels in the next lesson.).
The simple point is that although the spirit realm is not tangible nor is it a sensory realm, it is important for us to know that it does exist, it is very real, and is still very active and functional today. You'll see why as we move to our next step, Step Five
