Hi all,
We ended last week sharing how the rebellion of Satan brought opposites into the spirit/Spirit realm. God is Light and Love, Satan is blackness and hate, God is peace and assurance, Satan is fear and confusion, and so on. Darkness, hate, fear, confusion, strife, envy, and the rest had never existed before Satan rebelled. There was only God.
That rebellion enabled our physical universe, and empowered free will
Because we are told the physical universe (sun, earth, stars) was created by unseen forces in the Spirit realm*, once that unseen Spirit realm had opposite forces at work, our universe, indeed we ourselves, could exist. Satan’s rebellion and the preparation of a place for him that was the opposite of all that is God, caused the invisible spirit realm to be changed forever. *Hebrews 11: 3, II Corinthians 4: 16, 18
For the first time the spirit/Spirit realm now had light set against the complete absence of light, love set against hate and fear, joy set against torment, patience set against ungodly wrath, peace and order set against confusion and disorder. Moral uprightness set against moral depravity. Gentleness set against violence. Opposites. Opposite forces in the spirit realm. The physical universe can only mirror the unseen realm that created it.
For example, forces that keep the earth from escaping the sun’s pull (gravity) while also preventing earth from being pulled into the sun (centrifugal force and centripetal force). The things that make our world possible are only possible because the unseen realm created the seen, and first had opposing forces.
That we are of God’s realm of light but were once darkness, is woven throughout the NT in particular:
“Having their understanding darkened, alienated from the life (light) of God..” Ephesians 4: 18
“You were previously darkness, but now are you light in the Lord, so live as children of light…” Ephesians 5:8
“…wrestle against…rulers of the darkness of this world..” Ephesians 6:12
“…but when they knew about God but did not want to acknowledge Him as God, they became vain in their thinking and their foolish heart was darkened…” Romans 1: 21
“…who (Father) has delivered us from the authority of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His dear Son..” Colossians 1: 13
“…you are children of the light, children of the day; we are not of the dark nor of the night…” I Thessalonians 5:5
“Those who are wise will shine as the brightness of the sky, and those who win others to righteousness will shine as the stars forever and ever.” Daniel 12: 3
Before Satan fell there was only God’s light, love, joy, peace, gentleness, integrity, patience. Just God.
When God created man
But with Satan’s rebellion, now the spirit realm had opposites. The physical universe that created our universe requires laws of opposites. That in turn allowed the Father to create His ultimate creation: Humans: Beings that could function and rule in both the spirit realm and the physical realm.
Because creation mirrors the spirit realm, being made in God’s image and God’s likeness would mean human beings would have the same free will as their Creator – We would have to have that ability to choose Light/dark, right/wrong in self-determination. That’s how it was with the angels, that’s how it would be with the highest creation, man.
Consider how amazing human beings are. By creating us spirit, soul, and body, He put spirit-beings in a physical body, which had never been done before. Angels have spirit-bodies. God the Father is a Spirit and is seen sitting on a throne in the whole of The Revelation chapter 4, and is seen as the Ancient of Days in Daniel 7, that throne and those elders around it, and the clear flooring before it, and the rainbow over it, are all in the Spirit realm.
After telling us in James 1:2 to ‘count it all joy when you fall into various temptations, tests, and trials’, he says in v13: “Let no man say when he is tempted, tested, or tried that God is doing it to him. For God is not tempted, tested, or tried by evil and neither does He tempt, test, or try anyone with evil.”
One reason God is not tempted by evil is that He doesn’t have a physical, of this earth body. Being tempted requires a human body. Satan occupies the dark realm of his kingdom but seeks to expand his borders by influencing human beings toward darkness.
Tempted with gambling away your money? That’s of the earth and this body. Tempted by addiction? That is of this body. Tempted by eating too much or too little? That’s of the earth and this body. The Father doesn’t have a physical body so He is not tempted with evil, therefore neither does He tempt, test, or try people with evil. As James said a few verses later to support his claim: “Every good gift and perfect gift comes down from the Father of lights, in whom is no variableness, nor hint of shade in His being.”
It is difficult to wrap our minds around the idea there was a ‘time’ before the beginning (for there to be a beginning there first has to be time so a ‘beginning’ could become a beginning) where only God and His qualities filled the unseen realm(s).
But once we understand when Satan rebelled and rejected all that is God, and He prepared a place to give him what he wanted, the unseen realm of the Spirit/spirit was forever changed. The physical universe we live in could only have come about after that rebellion, for it requires opposite forces to hold everything together. That should prove to anyone we were created with free will to choose God or Satan, light or dark, love or hate.
We will pick it up there next week, until then, blessings,
John Fenn
