Addendum – What happened between verse 1 and 2 of the Book of Genesis
This Addendum was originally in Part 6 – The Extent of Christ’s Redemption (page 17). Since its content does not have a direct influence on the subject of this fellowship, which is: “HOW are we saved”, I placed this topic at the end of this elaborate for those, which are interested in enlarging their knowledge and in this kind of study of the Bible.
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In order for us to have at least a basic concept about the God’s Creation in general and about its Redemption by Christ, we need to know at least the following. There are three biblical Beginnings and three God’s Creations. The First Beginning does not include any Creation. The Second Beginning include the First Creation. The Third Beginning includes the Second (present) Creation. And the Third (future) Creation does not have its own particular Beginning. It is, therefore, important NOT to equate (identify) the numbers of the Beginnings with the numbers of the Creations. God’s Beginnings and Creations are the following:
1) “In the beginning was the Word (The Son of God as the member of the Holy Trinity – 1Jn. 5:7,8) and the WORD was with God, and the WORD was God.” (Jn. 1:1,2)
THIS IS THE FIRST BEGINNING. At that time, there did not exist any God’s Creation, which would be recorded as God’s Creation though it is written that everything was (later) created by Him – by the Word (Jn. 1:3), what I call below in point 2) as the First Creation. However angels might have already existed in some form before this First Beginning. Let us understand that GOD HAS NO BEGINNING… NOR END! Hence, Jesus Christ has no beginning as the Son of God either, but He has a beginning as the WORD and as MAN. Because at the time of this First Beginning, it was decided in the Judgments of God that the WORD will create the whole Creation, which we perceive today and know as Universe including the heavenlies and the earth and all the living creatures on the earth. Later (in the Third Beginning – see point 3), the WORD will become flesh-man and will dwell among men (Jn. 1:14), which men did not exist in the First and Second Beginning! On the basis of this foreknowledge of God, the WORD will redeem and renew everything what Satan destroyed after the Third Beginning, which means the Second Creation.
The Third Beginning includes in itself the Salvation of man provided by the death and resurrection of the WORD, where the WORD received the name Jesus=Emmanuel, which means “God with us” (Mt. 1:20-25). In the First and Second Beginnings, this Name did not exist. It is the same with the Name Christ, which means, the Anointed One. This Name of Jesus did not exist either.
This Salvation of man was accomplished only once, in this Third Beginning and thus in the Second Creation and never before. Nor will it ever be repeated (see below point 3). That because man was created in the Image of God only once, and was created from the dust of the earth. Therefore, any living creatures outside of the earth (extraterrestrial) may only be spiritual and not from the „dust of the earth“.
2) “In the beginning God created heaven and earth.” (Gen. 1:1)
THIS IS THE SECOND BEGINNING, which will take place after God (as the Three Persons) decided to create heaven and earth and the whole Universe through the WORD (Col. 1:16,17). This was the First Creation of haven and earth. It is more than probable that this First creation God gave to an „autonomy“ or self-government to someone, who in this position of responsibility totally failed. It is again more than probable that it could have been Lucifer, who was tested by God before he became Satan, the enemy of God. Therefore, it is again more than probable that during the Lucifer’s rulership, evil must have “ripened” in him because at some point of time a terrible catastrophe must have happened on the earth and the Judgment of God must have covered the whole earth and all life upon the earth, which was created after this Second Beginning. When evil accomplished its work in Lucifer and turned him into Satan, the whole First Creation was deceived through him, misused and defiled throughout by evil. There are two justifiable reasons for it from the Word of God, namely:
a) Already during the Second Beginning and the First Creation of heaven and earth, Satan must have become a “fallen angel”, the Prince of earth, who caused the earth to tremble and the kingdoms were shaken, who made the world into a wilderness and destroyed the cities thereof and did not open the house of his prisoners (Is. 14:16,17), who destroyed his land and slain his people (Is. 14:20). The then living creatures did not have to be created to the Image of God though they had to have a free will, as we have today, by which they could have stood against God and be disobedient to Him being deceived or seduced by the Devil (similarly as before the Flood). Therefore, God determined as His Purpose the destruction of the entire earth and His hand was stretched over all the nations according to His Judgment (Is. 14:26,27).
b) Whenever God created anything, it was never „without form, void or covered by darkness“, as it is clearly seen from the facts of Creation in the following point 3. On the contrary, everything was good because whatever God created (Genesis, chapter 1) He Himself confirmed that it was “very good”. Hence, between the first and second verse of Genesis, chapter 1, to us unimaginable catastrophes must have taken place about which we have no detail information from the Scripture except what is stated above. We do not even know how long that period lasted and what specific catastrophes or destructions were happening. For some reason, God allowed Satan to destroy the First Creation as He must have already planned a Second Creation with a man, who would be created in His Image and should have dominion over that Second Creation (Gen. 1:26). In this light, point 3. is then comprehensible, even the fact, that the Spirit of God started immediately His task of renewal for a new Beginning. This has been His task even today in this Third Beginning – in our Second Creation – which is also being defiled and destroyed by Satan the second time. (Let us not mix up the Beginnings with Creations! In this point 2, we are in the Second Beginning and the First Creation and man does not exist as yet.)
3) “And the earth was (remained) without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” (Gen. 1:2)
THIS IS THE THIRD BEGINNING, and the Second Creation. Then God restored, renewed the earth and heaven and everything new He created pure and good and righteous as it is described in Genesis, chapter 1, including the man, whom He created in His Image. The whole First Creation from the Second Beginning was replaced by this new Second Creation after the Third Beginning. And other things and living creatures were again created for the future Christ and by Christ! (Col. 1:16) All the subsequent deeds and activities of God were leading to the preparation of what was supposed to be the Kingdom of God. The main purpose of the Kingdom of God was to be the revelation of God to man in His spiritual, moral and righteous Character. Then the Purpose of God was to rescue, deliver all the true saints from the darkness and power of Satan and relocate them into that Kingdom of the Son of His Love (Col. 1:13).
Satan, as a “fallen angel”, already existed from the previous First Creation and since his rulership in the First Creation did not fulfill any of his desires, he certainly wanted to make up for it in this Second Creation. That’s why he wanted to prevent also this Purpose of God and the Kingdom of the Son of His Love. And God, according to His foreknowledge and the Mystery of His Will, allowed Satan to deceive and destroy man as a son of God and make him “his son” and slave (he stole man from God through deception). And since then, he has been destroying also this Second Creation trying to preserve on earth his kingdoms of darkness and evil. Satan has so defiled this Second Creation that even Heaven itself has to be newly created just as the earth (Rev. 21:1). This will be the THIRD and the final Creation, which will never pass away, never end and never be defiled again. It will be the Kingdom of God where righteousness and holiness will rule for ever and ever and where Satan and his hordes and all those that did not believe will be condemned, separated from God and cast into the lake of fire and brimstone for ever and ever (Rev. 20:10,14,15).
Concerning point 3), it is needful to notice and realize how God started to renew the old destroyed (First) Creation and how He started that new (Second) Creation. This process of of the work of God is described in chapter 1 of Genesis and its basic SPIRITUAL significance may be expressed in the following two points:
a) God started with the work of SEPARATION. He started to separate what was filthy, sinful and evil, unacceptable and unsatisfactory to Him, from what He planned for the new Third Creation, which was to represent the future Kingdom of God. There would rule truth, righteousness, holiness and Life, which will satisfy God for ever and ever. Every such separation has its spiritual significance, which for us is essential.
First, God separated light from darkness and thereby He also separated day from night, where light represents God and everything that comes from God because in God, there is no darkness (1Jn. 1:5). Then He separated the waters, which were under the firmament from the waters, which were above the firmament. The waters under the firmament provide man with food and the waters above the firmament, which were the waters of the Judgment of God – were the waters of the Flood falling to the earth 40 days and 40 nights (Gen. 7:11,12). Then He separated the dry ground from the sea, where the dry ground spiritually represents the Body of Christ without which the life of man or any other living thing could not exist. The sea represents the sinful mankind and everything, which in the future will be rejected by God as unacceptable, judged and condemned for ever and ever. In the last, Third Creation, which is only coming, there will be a New Earth and New Heaven, but the sea will be no more (Rev. 21:1). And finally, God separated Heaven from the Earth where Haven represents spiritual creation and earth represents earthly-carnal creation.
God separated everything what was the past from what has become the future; what was darkness and death from what has become light and life; what was filthy, sinful and corrupted from what has become clean, sinless and unspoiled. THIS SAME separation God did also with man where his old creation – darkness, sinfulness and death separated him from his new creation – light, sinlessness and life, which he received from the Holy Spirit being born again by Him and renewed. These two creations have nothing to do with one another and there is nowhere any connection between them. In every born-again child of God, there is an incorruptible Life of Christ and this Life is eternally separated from the corrupted old life of that man.
b) God continued with the work of REVIVAL of the old dead creation. The Holy Spirit, Who is the Spirit of Light and Life, began to move upon the face of the waters and of the darkness and through Him the WORD, the future CHRIST, began to create a new life on the earth. Ultimately, The Life of the Spirit of God becomes the Character of the Kingdom of God, which is not an organization somewhere on earth, but it is an organism in which our beings have their Life Eternal. An organism is always a product of life, its order and system is spontaneous and living. He who truly lives in the Spirit of God knows where the old creation ends and where the new one starts, he knows it at every time and at all circumstances. He who does not live in the Spirit of God has no clue about these things.
This Kingdom of God, this New Third Creation, this New Life from the Spirit of God begins in our spirit, but thus far it is NOT in our soul! AND THIS IS OUR WHOLE PROBLEM! Our soul is the battleground where we either win the battle and attain to the Life Eternal, and God will be our God and we will be His sons and daughters… or we lose the battle and forfeit the Life Eternal with our salvation and heritage in God (Rev 21:7 + 3:5).
BLESSED BE THE NAME OF OUR HEAVENLY FATHER AND OF OUR SAVIOUR JESUS CHRIST FOR EVER AND FOR EVER. AMEN.
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To be continued next week
brother Hanola
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