In the way I imagine God's story, eternity -- whatever it is and however it works -- goes both forwards and backwards. Now, I'm convinced that eternity must have much more to it than forwards and backwards, but from our limited one-dimensional experience of time, forwards and backwards is all we know so it's all I can write about.
God is a dyed-in-the-wool Creator. It's the first thing the Bible tells us about Him (Genesis 1:1). His exuberant creativity is also revealed in the amazing diversity of our world. It's as though He can't stop Himself. So, from within my one-dimensional experience of time, it seems to me that He's probably been creating for a long time, long before mankind was created.
This Post is about what I imagine predated mankind. Don't worry, this isn't some new doctrine; I'm just having fun speculating. None of this denies the basics of the Christian faith or our desperate need to be redeemed and transformed by all that Jesus Christ has done and is doing for us. No, this simply helps me frame a mental picture of an imaginary chapter or two that may have preceded mankind's part of the story God is writing. In the movie business, it's what they call a prequel.
You may think that what I'm imagining is pure fantasy, but that's okay with me. This is just for me, and I'm sharing it with you because you're here and maybe, just maybe, it will make you think, too.
In the prequel as I imagine it, angels of all classes (archangels, regular angels, cherubim, etc.) were created before this world and mankind were created. They have always stood openly in His presence. They never dealt with the "Does God really exist?" questions that we deal with. They can't imagine Him not existing or not being powerful. They didn't deal with questions such as "How can you believe in something you can't see, in a God you can't prove exists?" They were truly holy and beautiful in that holiness.
Yet many of them chose to rebel and break away from Him anyway. Incredibly, angelic beings that were so holy and beautiful made deliberate choices that resulted in them becoming filthy, corrupted, incompatible with God's essence, and totally unholy. They made those choices in face-to-face, open knowledge of God. Because it was done in full knowledge, not ignorance, there has never been nor will there ever be a place or ability for them to repent.
I think that maybe -- imagining it in my words -- God said to them, "You who were so holy and beautiful and favored, you have chosen to become unholy and horridly disgusting. So now watch what I'm going to do. I'm going to create a new kind of living being, ones I will call mankind. I will allow them to become totally unholy and disgusting, then give them a chance to let me turn them into something even more holy and beautiful than you ever were. For those that choose to let me, I'm going to transform them into sons and daughters. Sons and daughters are something you don't understand, something you've never seen, something higher than you were at your best. They will choose to love me without seeing me first. In fact, in order to follow Me whom they haven't seen, they will have to choose to love me so much that they will die to the only life they know. "
So, as I imagine this story, God is doing more with mankind than giving Himself more to love; He is also using mankind to openly display His mercy, forgiveness, and transforming grace to the much larger audience of angels, both holy and fallen. For the fallen angels, the lesson of mankind drives home just how poor a choice they made and just how poorly they understood their Maker.
And that's how I imagine it.
This Post is about what I imagine predated mankind. Don't worry, this isn't some new doctrine; I'm just having fun speculating. None of this denies the basics of the Christian faith or our desperate need to be redeemed and transformed by all that Jesus Christ has done and is doing for us. No, this simply helps me frame a mental picture of an imaginary chapter or two that may have preceded mankind's part of the story God is writing. In the movie business, it's what they call a prequel.
You may think that what I'm imagining is pure fantasy, but that's okay with me. This is just for me, and I'm sharing it with you because you're here and maybe, just maybe, it will make you think, too.
In the prequel as I imagine it, angels of all classes (archangels, regular angels, cherubim, etc.) were created before this world and mankind were created. They have always stood openly in His presence. They never dealt with the "Does God really exist?" questions that we deal with. They can't imagine Him not existing or not being powerful. They didn't deal with questions such as "How can you believe in something you can't see, in a God you can't prove exists?" They were truly holy and beautiful in that holiness.
Yet many of them chose to rebel and break away from Him anyway. Incredibly, angelic beings that were so holy and beautiful made deliberate choices that resulted in them becoming filthy, corrupted, incompatible with God's essence, and totally unholy. They made those choices in face-to-face, open knowledge of God. Because it was done in full knowledge, not ignorance, there has never been nor will there ever be a place or ability for them to repent.
I think that maybe -- imagining it in my words -- God said to them, "You who were so holy and beautiful and favored, you have chosen to become unholy and horridly disgusting. So now watch what I'm going to do. I'm going to create a new kind of living being, ones I will call mankind. I will allow them to become totally unholy and disgusting, then give them a chance to let me turn them into something even more holy and beautiful than you ever were. For those that choose to let me, I'm going to transform them into sons and daughters. Sons and daughters are something you don't understand, something you've never seen, something higher than you were at your best. They will choose to love me without seeing me first. In fact, in order to follow Me whom they haven't seen, they will have to choose to love me so much that they will die to the only life they know. "
So, as I imagine this story, God is doing more with mankind than giving Himself more to love; He is also using mankind to openly display His mercy, forgiveness, and transforming grace to the much larger audience of angels, both holy and fallen. For the fallen angels, the lesson of mankind drives home just how poor a choice they made and just how poorly they understood their Maker.
And that's how I imagine it.
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