In The Beginning - Chapter 11 (Betrayal)

Chapter 11

Lucifer gazed down at the garden and watched the man and the woman living in utter joy while worshiping God and obeying his command not to eat of the tree.  They were worshiping Him because they chose to worship Him.

He looked around at the hosts of heaven and felt frustration that those who obeyed his commands did so because they had to, not because they wanted to.  “I would make a good God,” he thought.

He had been observing the princes and their hosts since he was created.  He began to study them, to look for those who would obey his commands no matter what.  He remembered the conversations he had overheard and began to formulate a plan.

Those he thought would obey his commands he called aside.  “Are you happy with your roles?” He asked.

They looked around at each other and one replied “We are what we are; there is nothing else.”

“What if I told you that you could all be princes?” he asked.

“We were not all created to be princes,” replied one member of the angelic host as the others looked at each other in confusion.

At this Lucifer pulled the princes from the group and asked them, “Will your hosts follow your commands?”

“They will,” replied the Prince of Persia.

“Look at me,” said Lucifer.  “Am I not the most beautiful and most powerful being you have ever seen?”

“Save for God himself,” replied the Prince of Persia.

“If we all band together, we can rule heaven and Earth.”  He said.  “We can be like God.”

He waited for a moment for this to sink in.  The princes were astonished.  He couldn’t have said what they just heard, it wasn’t possible.

“If we band together we can take over heaven and rule it all, both heavenly and earthly realms.  If you will bind together and swear allegiance to me, I will lead you to power and glory.  When God sees that He is defeated He will have no other choice but to succumb.”

“What of the Cherubim?” replied one of the princes.

“We will overwhelm them with the force of our numbers.”  He replied.  “If you follow me, we shall surely win and we shall surely be like God Himself!”

Each of the princes looked to the others then back at Lucifer.  “Where you lead we will follow,” said the Prince of Persia.  The Prince of Grecia said nothing, but listened intently.

One of the others exclaimed, “He is the Lord God, Creater of Heaven and Earth.  He is all powerful and cannot be dethroned!”

Lucifer looked at him with disdain.  “Do you know who I am?”

The question was rhetorical and the others standing before him cowered a bit in fear of the most powerful of all angelic beings.

And then, just as easily as telling a joke the unthinkable happened.  “I have seen things that you have not seen,” said Lucifer, “I have seen God’s vulnerability.  Why do you think he created the Cherubim if not to protect himself?  Why would an almighty God need protection?”

Never before in Heaven or on Earth had a lie been told.  Having never before happened it was unthinkable that it could happen now, coming from the master of all angels.

He glared at the prince who dared to question him.  “Where will you be when I rule all Heaven and Earth and the God you so adore is left with nothing?  Where will you be when I am God?”

“I will be your servant,” he replied, and bowed his head in deference.

He looked at the entire group and said, “Take your hosts, then, and mix yourselves up with the others.  When I give the signal, you turn on the others and bind them with chains such that they cannot break free.  You, Prince of Persia, when I give the order you come with me.  We will charge the throne room and make God our captive.  When He sees that He has no host to support Him He will have no choice but to succumb.  Our victory will be swift and complete.”

The Prince of Grecia took his place among the other princes and waited.  When Lucifer and the others had finally dispersed he approached Michael.

“Michael,” he said.  “May I have a word?”

“Of course,” replied Michael as they stepped away from the crowd that accompanied Michael wherever he went.

“Lucifer has enticed many of the princes to betray God,” he whispered.

Michael was astonished.  It was unthinkable that such a thing could be possible.  Angels were not given free will; they were each made for a job and they had no choice but to do it.  How could this be?

“How many are with him?” asked Michael.

“More than half of the princes were there, as was I.  The Prince of Persia has sworn his allegiance to Lucifer along with the allegiance of his host.  I did not say anything at the time and I am not sure how many will actually follow him.”

“You have done well,” said Michael.  “Wander about among the hosts and see if you can determine how many will actually support Lucifer.  I will inform God.”

In The Beginning - Chapter 10 (The Creation of Man)

Chapter 10

What was to come was different from all that had come before.

Each of the creatures of the Earth was made after their own likenesses, each species propagating more of its own kind in a never ending succession of life.  But these creatures would not persist.  They were there for one reason and one reason only, and that was for the benefit and the pleasure of man.

Man, however, would be created in the likeness of God Himself.  He would be given aspects of God like no other creature.  Not only would man have the free will to choose whether or not he would love God, but he would also be an eternal entity.  Man would be created with an immortal soul which would be the essence of his being.  It would be attached to his body so long as his body had physical life, but a man’s soul would be a heavenly entity.

He would rule over all the Earth and subdue it and use it for his own needs and pleasure.  Although this species called man would be an animal, but he would be an animal like no other.

Jesus entered the earthly timeline at the point where all else which he had created was perfectly suited for the creation of man.  He knelt on the ground and spat on it.  Rubbing the mud between his hands, he formed the clay which would become the first man.  Using the same programming language he had used to create all other living creatures, and like the fine artisan that He is Jesus formed the body of man.

Jesus bent over the form of the man and breathed into his mouth.  With his breath he imbued man with not only with the breath of life, but also with an eternal spirit, his immortal soul.

Jesus arose and took man to a garden which he had created and called Eden.  It was beautifully covered in lush vegetation.  Rivers provided water, and fruit trees grew in abundance.

Jesus turned to the man and said, “Your name is Adam; look at all I have prepared for you.”  Adam spun slowly around looking at the awesome beauty which was created for him.  His newly created mind struggled to take it all in.  He was overwhelmed with emotion. 
The sights, the sounds, the smells and the feel of the physical Earth was magnificent.  He was overcome with the joy of life and love of his God.

“You may eat fruit of any tree in the garden,” said Jesus, “except for this one.”  He pointed at a massive tree growing in the middle of the garden.  The fruit growing on this tree was much larger and looked much more inviting than the fruit of any other tree.

“This is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil,” he explained.  “The day that you eat of it you will most certainly die.”

Adam understood perfectly and acknowledged his consent with a nod of his head.

Throughout creation, the higher life forms were created in two sexes dependent upon each other for the survival of the species.  Jesus wanted Adam to fully understand the specialness of the relationship of a man to his wife who was yet to be created.  The relationship of a man to his wife would be a typology of the relationship of God to all mankind. Just as a husband and wife would trust and depend on each other for the survival of their family and the species, mankind would be dependent on God.

It was important that Adam understand this and so God gave Adam the opportunity to see how special his wife would be to him.

“To you I now give dominion over the entire land,” Jesus said to him.  “I will bring to you every animal and bird and whatever you name it, that is what it will be called.  It is not good that you be alone, we will find you a helper such that your burden will be light and your joy may be full.”

One by one a representative of each species in Eden came before him.[i]  Adam considered each carefully, but after all had come before him none was on par with he himself.  None was suitable to be a helper, to be his equal in intelligence, spirit, and emotion.

With is point being made that a man was incomplete without a relationship with his wife (and that mankind was incomplete without a relationship with God),  Jesus caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep.  The creator then pulled a part of the man’s flesh from him and along with it a part of his soul.  The essence of man was ripped in half.  The part of him which was violent and strong – his masculine side - was left behind.  The weaker part which was more nurturing and peace loving – the feminine side- was used to form the woman.  The two of them working together would accomplish the goals that neither could accomplish separately.  Some of the masculine was given to the woman and some of the feminine was left with the man, in this way each individual could be self-sufficient, not having to depend on the other for life, but together they would accomplish much more than either could alone.

By grand design and the knowledge of what was to come, Jesus created man and woman as a typology of his relationship with mankind.  The man would protect and die for the woman as Jesus would protect and die for his people.  The woman would follow and support the man as Jesus’ people would follow and support Him.  Man and woman would bind together to reunite the soul into one flesh just as Jesus’ people, who would be separated from him in the earthly realm, would one day be reunited with him in Heaven.  The love of a man for the woman would only be surpassed by Jesus’ love for his people.  Thus, the bond between the man and the woman became the fundamental bond that would hold all society together.

Together Adam and Eve tended the garden.  They lived in perfect harmony with each other and with Nature.  Their constant diet from the Tree of Life regenerated their human bodies and they remained ageless and in perfect health.  They communed with and worshiped God, not because they had to, but because they chose to, and their joy was complete.

From Heaven the triune God gazed upon his creation.  He observed the history of the universe from beginning to end.  He watched Adam and Eve in the garden experiencing perfect joy as it was designed to be.

He saw how man struggled with God over himself.  He saw the results of his handiwork as millennia after millennia passed and man struggled with the choice of loving Him or only himself.

As man chose to love God he was rewarded with peace, love, and joy.  With no negative influence in the world, nature thrived and man excelled in all of his endeavors.

With this, creation was complete.  In six eras He had created the entire universe and everything in it.  The living and ever changing book of the history of the Earth was written and his perfect plan was set into motion.

He experienced the love of the entirety of the universe, every particle of which He held together with his limitless power.  All at once he was aware of the temperature of the air moving out of the mouth of a rabbit in North America and the temperature of a drop of water dripping from the mouth of a Hippo on the African Savanah.  He was aware of them because it was his might that kept the particles which formed them from flying apart into nothingness.

He knew the exact number of scales on a fish swimming down the Amazon River and he knew the number and lengths of hairs on every human’s head which ever existed in the earthly realm over the entirety of his life.

To the God who created everything which existed in all of its amazing complexity, knowledge such as this was mere trivia.  He also knew that everything was about to change.

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[i] Since God’s creative work was completed on the sixth day and Adam and Eve were His final creation, there would have been millions of different species on the planet to be named.  Even if we exclude all the fish of the sea, insects, and species which would have been too small for Adam to see there still would be far too many for Adam to have named in a single day.  According to Keil & Delitzsch (Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament) “there is no difficulty in this, since it would not have required much time to bring the animals to Adam to see what he would call them, as the animals of paradise are all we have to think of”.  Likewise, Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown state “not all the animals in existence, but those chiefly in his immediate neighborhood to be subservient to his use”.  Nothing in the original text requires that a representative of every single species on Earth was paraded before Adam.  The text literally says: “And Jehovah God formed every animal of the field, and every bird of the heavens out of the ground.  And He brought them to the man, to see what he would call it.  And all which the man might call it, each living creature, that was its name.  And the man called names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the heavens, and to every animal of the field.  But no helper suited to him was found for a man.” (Genesis 2:19-20).  Nowhere in the text does it specify that the animals and birds came from around the entire Earth.

In The Beginning - Chapter 9 (The Rise of Lucifer)

Chapter 9

Lucifer gazed upon the Triune God with awe.  “Ah, to be like God!” he thought, as a shudder rushed through his angelic body.

At that, a thought began to form in his mind, which he immediately dismissed.  He turned his face away from God in embarrassment.  But God didn’t need to see his face to know what was in his mind.

Lucifer gazed at the angelic hosts filling the heavens.  “Mindless automatons,” he thought, “They will do whatever they are told.”  He considered the possibility again and this time it was not so quickly dismissed… “they will do whatever they are told,” he thought, “and I am their master.”

“Will they follow me without question?” He thought.  “To whom will their loyalty be?”

His gaze moved from one angelic face to another examining the expressions on each and considering what he might do, what he might say, and how each might respond.

Some, he knew, were fiercely loyal to him and he knew he could count on their support.  Of others, though, he could not be sure.

He turned back to the throne room to find the living God gazing directly into his eyes.  Lucifer lowered his head and walked away, trying again to dismiss the thought from his mind.  The whole idea was ridiculous.

He approached a group of princes who were discussing their charge to serve and protect man once he was created.

The Prince of Persia spoke to Michael, the prince of Israel and said “From whom or what are we to protect man?”

“Who or what, indeed?” thought Lucifer.

“From themselves, I suppose,” responded Michael.

“And what will man choose to love if he does not choose to love God?” asked the Prince of Grecia.[i]

“What indeed?” thought Lucifer again.

“He would choose to love himself, I suppose,” replied Michael.

Lucifer smiled and went back to his original place to await the creation of man with the amazing spectacle of the universe spread out before him.

It would not be long now.

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[i] Daniel 10:13-20

In The Beginning - Chapter 8 (Sixth Creation Day)

Chapter 8

Back in Heaven the angels continued to watch with excited anticipation.  Lucifer, his princes and their cohorts stood silent and powerful awaiting the orders they knew were to come, orders to enter the earthly realm and reside on the earth along side God’s greatest creation.  But the Earth was not yet ready.  Before man was to be created, the beasts of the field must inhabit the Earth.

Lucifer continued to watch as creation was unfolding before him.  But he was also watching God’s earlier heavenly creation.  After all, all those heavenly hosts were his to command as he saw fit; but man… man intrigued him.

God’s plan was known by all of the heavenly realm including Lucifer.  The idea of another being choosing to follow him was intoxicating, but that was not to be.  Those he commanded in the heavenly realm did so because they had no choice.  They were created to that end, but man was another story.  Man would be given the same free will that Lucifer possessed.  Man could make his own decisions about who he would love and follow.  Oh, how Lucifer wanted to be like God.

Sitting on his throne observing the act of creation, the Almighty God saw right through Lucifer.  He saw the emotions stirring within him.  He watched as Lucifer sized up the angelic hosts surrounding him.  He listened to his thoughts as Lucifer continued to struggle with his desire to be like God.

All the while the Cherubim hovered beside the throne of God, ever vigilant and alert.

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Jesus, who existed in the present in every instant of time simultaneously, watched the entire timeline of the Earth as it teemed before him.  It was time to create the beasts of the field.  “Let the earth bring forth every living creature after its kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the Earth after its kind,” he said.

Using the same programming language he had designed for the plants, sea creatures, and birds, Jesus began populating the land with every species of animal.  Moving throughout the timeline of Earth’s early history he created species after species, one species preparing the way for others, those preparing the way for others still and on and on as time flew by.

Knowing man would need an abundant supply of fuel, Jesus created a means to provide it.  The life of  mankind would be short as earthly time goes, but during his reign upon the Earth he would consume more resources than all the other species combined.  Knowing full well what was needed, Jesus moved to the appropriate time and began creating the creatures which would be known as the dinosaurs.  These dinosaurs would be massive compared to the other creatures, but that great size would mean they could exist in fewer numbers and still provide the resources needed by man.

Jesus knew that creatures of that size would quickly exhaust the other resources on the planet.  His plan called for these creatures to live for time enough to achieve His purpose, then they would once again become a part of the Earth from which they were created.

Moving again to the  appropriate time, Jesus caused a large asteroid to strike the surface of the planet.  The effect was near total annihilation of the dinosaurs and many other species of animals, birds, and sea creatures.  As the surface of the planet heated up, toxic gasses filled the atmosphere and acid rain fell.  A large portion of the plant life also died.

These soulless plants and animals were created from the beginning for one purpose and that was for the benefit of  man.  In their coming full circle back to the Earth from which they were created, the stage was set for the creation of man.

Man would now have a world perfectly situated among the planets of a solar system perfectly situated within a galaxy, perfectly situated within the universe. 

It was located perfectly distant from its star to make the temperature perfect.  Its tilt and rotation provided for the seasons and its moon caused tides both of which were critical for the survival of life.

And now the natural resources critical for man to thrive were in place.  The stage was fully prepared.

Standing in the throne room of heaven Jesus gazed upon the entire universe throughout time.  In the vastness of his omniscience he simultaneously watched every single plant and creature which would ever exist in the history of the universe.

Each had a name as did every star in the heavens.  He knew of every single hair on the surface of every single creature, because his power sustained them.

Every single particle of matter that existed in the universe did so because God willed it.  Each atom held together because of the force He exerted upon it, each planet held its orbit because of the gravity he held in place.

The very fabric of the universe responded to his every whim simply because He willed it and the entirety of it was no more effort for him than a child building a gangly stick figure with a set of Tinker Toys.

In The Beginning - Chapter 7 (Fifth Creation Day)

Chapter 7

God’s plan was moving along swiftly now, the stage was set for the next step in creation

“Let the water teem with living creatures, and let the birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky,” decreed Jesus.

He dived into the ocean already full of wondrous varieties of plants, and by pointing His finger began creating the creatures of the sea.  From the shallow shores to the deepest depths he created creatures in glorious variety.

Using a programming language similar to that he had created for plants, Jesus designed sea creatures which used gills for gleaning oxygen from the water which was provided by the plants.  He created other creatures which would come to the surface of the water and breathe the oxygen from the air.

Many of the fish, just like many of the plants, Jesus created in two sexes, interdependent upon each other for life, just as man would be dependent upon God for life – a typology of things to come.

Some sea creatures he created to lay eggs which would hatch, while others would grow within a womb.

Jesus couldn’t help smiling as he thought of the joy man would have studying the amazing variety of life in the oceans.

In the deepest depths He created creatures that he knew would not be seen by man for millennia.  Other creatures might never be seen by man, but would be a part of the ecological system that would sustain the creatures that would give man endless pleasure to study.

With man in mind he created crustaceans and polyps which would build massive coral reefs.  As these creatures died and their shells were crushed, they turned into chalk.  Over time and under pressure, this chalk would turn to limestone which would be key to much of the amazing architecture man would create.

As that limestone softened and re-crystallized under pressure and heat over multiple millennia it would turn into marble which would be by humans used not only for construction, but also for sculpture.  The art man would create would be eclipsed only by the creation of God Himself.

Moving forward to various times throughout the earthly timeline, Jesus created new species of fish and water based mammals as other species became extinct.[i]  Each species added to the eco-system which was being built element by element like so many Lego blocks laid perfectly into place.

With each new creation He was setting up a world perfectly suited for man to thrive.

Jesus returned from the earthly realm to heaven and looked at his handiwork.  Everything was going exactly according to plan.  He gazed from one end of the universe’s timeline to the other observing the effects of his creation.  He saw the very end of time where matter gave way to entropy and the entire universe flew apart into nothingness knowing it would never get that far.

As life in the sea continued to thrive and reproduce, some species died off so that the oceans would not overflow with life.

His programming of sea life provided a natural order of dominance such that the strong preyed on the weak ensuring survival of the stronger species while the weaker species provided a source of food for the stronger.  To ensure that the stronger species didn’t eat themselves into extinction he provided defense mechanisms for the weaker species thus prolonging their survival as well.

Through this cycle of life, the amazing programming of these creatures allowed for them to undergo slight changes from time to time.  Ingeniously, as the creatures migrated and their ecosystem changed, they adapted to their new environment.  A fin could grow taller or shorter, and skin would grow thicker or thinner or change in color.  As the environment changed so did the creatures that inhabited it.

Changes that occurred within an organism which made it stronger would cause the organism to survive where changes which caused an organism to become weaker would cause it to die off.  In this way the species continually adapted in such a way as to maintain survival.[ii]

Some species died off altogether according to His plan, preparing the way for the species to come, but with each new day the building blocks of a habitat designed specifically for humanity to thrive continued to grow.

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When the sea creatures were created and thriving, reproducing themselves at the perfect pace, Jesus re-entered the earthly realm and moved back to the land.  Now He began to program the birds of the air.  He created bright colorful birds which were beautiful to gaze upon.  He gave them the ability to sing which would be pleasant for man to hear.

He made birds which lived near and depended on the sea to sustain their lives and he made birds which lived high in the mountains on the sides of cliffs which were inaccessible for any other creature.

He also made the birds interdependent, requiring both male and female to reproduce.

He stood back and looked at His creation and saw that it was good.

Moving again throughout the early Earth’s timeline He created new species allowing others to become extinct, all the while continuing to prepare the Earth for the His greatest creation.

He commanded the fish of the sea and the birds of the air saying “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.”

The fifth step in the creation of the earthly realm was complete, but greater things were yet to come.

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[i] In the day age viewpoint each period of creation took a long but not necessarily equal period of time.  If this is indeed the case then the described sequence of events is entirely plausible.  If, however, the entire action took exactly twenty four hours to complete, many fossils must have been created in a fossilized state.

[ii] This is the process Darwin refers to in his book Origin of Species and is know today as micro-evolution.  The principle of micro-evolution is well documented and can be bred into animals by breeders within a human’s lifetime.  Macro-evolution, however, is different.  Macro-evolution involved the changing of one species into another – an ape evolving into a human, for instance.  Macro-evolution has never been observed either by direct visualization or by analyzing the fossil record.  There is no evidence it has ever occurred.