Why should a series whose subject is apocalypse and disaster begin with the paradise of Eden?
The obvious answer may escape the eyes of a perishable mortal facing a life-ending disaster. In an instant we may wonder what’s next, yet in accelerated times we may not have considered what was before.
What was before me, even before man? How did I get here? Even more importantly, why am I here? Why, and what does my life have to do with my death?
Certainly disaster will ensnare many: accidents, seemingly random events which bring an unexpected end to an already brief life. That death should overtake a man or woman should not ambush any.
Yet have you considered your death, the death of man, the death of the earth upon which we walk?
If so, you may also have considered the beginnings of the same. Our hesitant conclusions about our beginnings may logically lead toward answers to our existence and inevitable conclusions. So from before Eden and paradise we begin.
Before we move forward with creation let’s just take a minute to consider what we believe. Do you believe in God?
Can you define God? In fact, you may ask, ‘Why God?’
In these last days man has observed both creation and destruction of distant universe of which we have but minuscule evidence.
DNA strand & computer-sequenced 5.5 petabits of data [Harvard research]
We have mapped mysteries of our flesh, split the stuff of our existence with fearful explosion of devastation. Yet our awestruck wonder of creation fails to comprehend —the impassable great divide
We shall consider man next and even the angels and spirits, but first consider the primordial soup of stuff from which great power formed the beginnings of all.
If you must ask what inertia from nothingness moved hydrogen twice into oxygen, then consider the power to bring both into existence. No logic states, ‘in the beginning was water’ or rock or atoms.
Who created atoms and universe? In the beginning was… something: yes, One more powerful and more intelligent; yes, even One more wise and more good than all of which we wonder in awestruck human observation.
If you must deny that things cannot create themselves, then you deny the very purpose for which God, Who IS and Was and Will BE forever, created you for this brief flash of life in our human flesh.
You are not here for nothing any more than you were created by nothing from nothing. In the beginning, God created …
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the watery depths, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters. 3 Then God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.
4 God saw that the light was good, and God separated the light from the darkness.
Let us confess that NO man or alien from planet yet uncreated from nothingness and NO mathematically improbable coincidental collision of primordial matter could possibly have done this!
Do you see the the light is good and must be separated from the darkness to define the glory of the light? Will you consider separating darkness which brings disaster from that light with which your life is blessed?
We with eyes to see know the glory of our creation and the defining darkness which beckons our countenance back toward the deep dark chaos opposing the light of of this life.
The LORD speaks the beginning into existence
5 God called the light “day,” and He called the darkness “night.” Evening came and then morning: the first day.
6 Then God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters, separating water from water.” 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above the expanse. And it was so. 8 God called the expanse “sky.” Evening came and then morning: the second day.
9 Then God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry land “earth,” and He called the gathering of the water “seas.”
And God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, “Let the earth produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and fruit trees on the earth bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.” And it was so. 12 The earth produced vegetation: seed-bearing plants according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds.
And God saw that it was good.
13 Evening came and then morning: the third day.
Light separated from darkness to celebrate God
14 Then God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to separate the day from the night. They will serve as signs for festivals and for days and years. 15 They will be lights in the expanse of the sky to provide light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made the two great lights—the greater light to have dominion over the day and the lesser light to have dominion over the night—as well as the stars. 17 God placed them in the expanse of the sky to provide light on the earth, 18 to dominate the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 Evening came and then morning: the fourth day.
The Beginning of Life on earth
20 Then God said, “Let the water swarm with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the expanse of the sky.” 21 So God created the large sea-creatures and every living creature that moves and swarms in the water, according to their kinds. He also created every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 So God blessed them, “Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters of the seas, and let the birds multiply on the earth.” 23 Evening came and then morning: the fifth day.
24 Then God said, “Let the earth produce living creatures according to their kinds: livestock, creatures that crawl, and the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 So God made the wildlife of the earth according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and creatures that crawl on the ground according to their kinds.
Look at the timeline of man’s history as if the mark on the left is creation. Suppose man (adam) is a second mark and Noah a third. Then Abraham and Moses followed by David, with generations and centuries unmarked.
In the middle of the line a notable mark of the division of time follows which we note as B.C. (or BCE) and A.D. (from the Latin: Anno Domini – ‘In the year of our Lord’).
Before this dividing mark of time between BC and AD, David has reigned and the Prophets have spoken.
THEN..
Jesus Christ is born, teaches, crucified and resurrected (a challenge to mortal time).
His life as God With Us (Immanuel) delineates a beginning to these last days.
Our timeline of these last days endures through persecution of the faithful while the Lord wins repentant sinners.
But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. – 2 Peter 3:9
Following the fall of Rome and rise of false prophets the church witnesses the way of Christ Jesus.
History records the printing of the Bible, reformation of the faith and enlightenment of mindful godlessness.
The nations learn of Christ, empires rise and fall toward an inevitable end, the omega of time. Christ IS near in the omega of these last days, the end of time measured by the created of the Lord God Almighty.
Ω Ō, o’-meg-ah; the last letter of the Greek alphabet, i.e. (figuratively) the finality:—Omega.
Observe any line, even a timeline of history.
It has a beginning (Α, ἄλφα) and it has an end (Ω, Omega).
Yet look beyond the visible beginning and visible end of the line and in your mind’s eye observe the infinite extension of that which is visible.
Look above (heavenward) and below: consider the expanse of so much which the line does not touch.
— Omega revealing the end
Our created living souls can barely grasp it!
The refracted light of our postmodern enlightenment clouds the clarity of the One true Light.
Time and creation have cause. The Lord will surely accomplish His purpose and the saving of His own at the end.
Before the Α, After the Ω
And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
Genesis 1:31
One commandment from God to man, a simple life in paradise:
“.. of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.” – Genesis 2:17b
Yet man chooses trespass to just one simple command from God. A just and righteous LORD must punish sin.
The Lord God said.. to Adam he said: “.. for you are dust,
and to dust you shall return.” – Genesis 3 excerpt
Living toward life’s end
LATER in Scripture - from a conversation of a righteous man.
Although Job appears later in the Bible his place in the timeline of history is closer to Abraham than to David.
… so I am allotted months of emptiness,
and nights of misery are apportioned to me.
When I lie down I say, ‘When shall I arise?’
But the night is long,
and I am full of tossing till the dawn.
5 My flesh is clothed with worms and dirt;
my skin hardens, then breaks out afresh.
6 My days are swifter.. and come to their end without hope.
7 “Remember that my life is a breath;
my eye will never again see good.
8 The eye of him who sees me will behold me no more;
while your eyes are on me, I shall be gone.
17 What is man, that you make so much of him, and that you set your heart on him, 18 visit him every morning and test him every moment?
Why do you not pardon my transgression
and take away my iniquity?
For now I shall lie in the earth;
you will seek me, but I shall not be.” – Job 7:21
… and in Hades, being in torment… And he called out, ‘… have mercy on me.., for I am in anguish in this flame.’
ᾅδης – hadēs
What do you expect of inevitable death and deserved hell?
(Or do you yet claim blemished goodness with eyes that will not see death?)
Hell [Hades] holds captive many living souls by the certainty of our own sins.
Roman, Hellenist and Hebrew understanding of Jesus’ mention of Hades fits the definition:
name Hades or Pluto, the god of the lower regions
Orcus, the nether world, the realm of the dead
later use of this word: the grave, death, hell
Yet note a subtlety of the root word of Hades:
From the negative participle of Alpha and εἴδω – eidō, a word meaning ‘to see’ or ‘to know.’
And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. – Revelation 20:1
Do you yet see our vulnerability to the punishment for sin after our end without Christ?
“Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house, who have eyes to see, but see not, who have ears to hear, but hear not, for they are a rebellious house. – Ezekiel 12:2
After the Omega, saved in Christ
The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.. – 1 Timothy 1:15
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God…
But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God…
“Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
.. and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!”
“We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ)...
Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.
Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.
And this is the judgment:
the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.
Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb…
“And behold, I am coming soon.
12 “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me, to repay each one for what he has done. 13 I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.”
“Come.”
And let the one who hears say, “Come.”
And let the one who is thirsty come;
let the one who desires take the water of life without price.
20 He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon.”
What can it mean? Can you, o man, measure the time before the beginning?
The alpha of man’s measurement of days and years:
Consider generations, centuries, the millennia of temporal days beginning with the creation of man. How can the created explain the ways of our Creator beyond the alpha or our temporal days? Can we know the ceasing of man’s measurable time?
Surely the Lord will bring to completion all He has created and man’s will be marked by the omega of time.
The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants the things that must soon take place…
8 “I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
Yet prior to the Apostle John’s interment on Patmos and prior to his revelation from the risen Christ Jesus, John had written the Good News of the place of Jesus in creation.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
Therefore He spoke all things into existence and He created life and light, shining through the darkness and void.
You have heard it, as the story of creation unfolds as revealed by the LORD to Moses. And in the Pentateuch (five books) Moses reveals a history of man peering back beyond our own sin, even into the depths of nothingness and dark skies of chaos and emptiness void of the LORD.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the first day.
The LORD spoke the heavens and the earth into existence, then began the measurement of days – temporal, created days – for the heavens, for the earth, and finally for the creation of the first manuntil the last.
And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.. – Gen. 1:26a
The LORD creates the heavens and the earth in His unmeasured time explained in simplicity to Moses as days. Then the LORD creates ‘man’ (actually, man and woman) ‘in our image, after our likeness.’ God gives us a glimpse of time beyond our understanding, the Creator revealing what was to be measured my man as the alpha of all time and beginning of creation.
Jesus reveals His timeless Presence
Christ, Son of Man, born of a virgin, revealed to those with ears to hear the divinity of His own presence and relationship to God our Father.
2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to him,
“Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.”
3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
And if you listen carefully to Jesus in the ensuing conversation you will hear with certainty the divinity of the life-giving Spirit required of all those who will receive life eternal, life with resurrection from certain death by sin.
5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit…
12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
13 No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.
Is Jesus telling the learned Pharisee Nicodemus that He IS descended from heaven into the flesh of a son of man?
Yes. And Jesus further confirms His eternal status before the alpha of time.
12 Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Debate ensues between pharisees and the rabbi Jesus.
14 Jesus answered, “Even if I do bear witness about myself, my testimony is true, for I know where I came from and where I am going, but you do not know where I come from or where I am going. 15 You judge according to the flesh; I judge no one.
19 They said to him therefore, “Where is your Father?” Jesus answered, “You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”
The pharisees accuse Jesus of being illegitimately born to Mary, who by the Lord had born a child as a virgin. Jesus later replies:
56 Your father Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad.”
57 So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?”
58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.”
Only the LORD God could have claimed to have lived before Abraham. Jesus answers with the LORD’s words to Moses’ question after the LORD appeared to him in a burning bush.
Exodus 3:13-14 KJV
And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is his name? what shall I say unto them?
And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.
Jesus: He IS before David, before Moses, before Abraham; yes, even before Adam. The Lord God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit, before time and before creation.
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