As It Was in the Beginning...So Shall It Be

By Michael Scantlebury

Have you ever wondered about life and all its intricacies? Why are we here on planet earth? What’s out there in deep dark space? Since time began, man has tried to explain the known world. Study and research have revealed many truths about the world, but many questions haven’t yet been answered.

While many Christians enjoy documentaries that ponder the many ways we may have “gotten here”—from the theory that alien transports dropped us off to the idea of a cosmic slime pit which one day came to life—the only authority we have as Born-Again followers of Jesus Christ is the Book of Genesis. Only God’s inspired word, the Holy Bible, can answer the many questions at hand.

In this book, we will journey into the heart and mind of our incredible Creator to learn the reason and purpose for our existence. Every created being will be considered, from the angels and lucifer to Adam and Eve and their eventual fall into sin. We will also contemplate God’s masterful plan for the salvation of mankind and explore what we should expect from life after death.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Word Alive Press
• Release date: Sep 27, 2018
• ISBN: 9781486617296

Book preview

TITLES

Chapter One

Creation

As we explore life and all of its intricacies it really makes one ponder. What is out there? Why are we here? Who is the one who created this majesty and wonder of everything surrounding us? As we broach the answers to these and other questions only God’s inspired word, the Holy Bible will answer the many questions at hand.

While many of us enjoy documentaries on the ponderings of the many ways we may have gotten here from alien transports dropping us off, to the idea of a cosmic slime pit which one day came to life,… truly the only authority we have as Born-Again followers of Jesus Christ is the Book of Genesis, the very first Book of the Holy Scriptures, which simply states: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1

In The Beginning God…

The only true and real account we have for our planet and the solar system of which we are a part is the Holy Bible. The Holy Bible declares in the very first verse: In the beginning God (Hebrew: Elohim) created the heavens and the earth.

The word Elohim is the plural of El (or possibly of Eloah) and is the first name for God given in the Tanakh: The name Elohim is unique to Hebraic thinking: it occurs only in Hebrew and in no other ancient Semitic language. The masculine plural ending does not mean gods when referring to the true God of Israel, since the name is mainly used with singular verb forms and with adjectives and pronouns in the singular (e.g., see Genesis 1:26). However, considering the Hashalush HaKadosh (Trinity), the form indeed allows for the plurality within the Godhead. So this is how the Creator-God chose to reveal Himself to mankind!

From this we understand that God existed before creation began, which solidifies the premise that He has always existed. This is truly irrefutable, as the Creator of all things must have always existed. Without a constant state of existence, He would have to have a Creator, who would have also been created, and so on and so on and it would be never-ending. So we must come to the conclusion that the Creator God always existed and will always exist. From this we get the understanding that He is indeed The Eternal God, without beginning or end!

God Created The Heavens and The Earth

One of the interesting things that we see as soon as we begin to read about the creation of the heavens and the earth is found in Genesis 1:3: Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light.

This may sound simple as you read it, but if you read the full account of creation, it becomes much more interesting. A closer look into Scripture shows us that after making the heavens and the earth, God calls forth light before anything else. He did not create the sun or the moon until the fourth day, yet light was there, and night and day were there. The human brain might be befuddled by this fact that without a sun blazing in the heavens and setting to give way to the moon lighting the evening, light existed during the creation process. You may wonder why this was so when it comes to dissecting this phenomena… It is simple, there is a spiritual realm called LIGHT, which we do not see, but it is there.

God is light and without Him there just is no light. Hence the logical equation is that we need not only the light of the sun and the moon, but also the light of God in our spirits and in our lives. Without that light, we walk in darkness. During the creation process, God was going to bring forth mankind in their purest form where they had to walk in that supernatural LIGHT even before the light that the sun and moon would provide. You see, the spiritual realm is just as important in our lives as the physical is. I encourage you who are reading this and have not yet done so, that today you would allow the light of God to invade your life, invite Him in, and begin to see and experience life in the light of His light.

As was previously stated, it was not until much later that we see the introduction of the sun and the moon to rule over the day and night. Here is what is said in Genesis 1:14-19:

And God said, Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth. And it was so. God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.

So we understand that even from the very beginning that there was LIGHT released from God that was not natural and that was needed for mankind to live. Let that sink in!

Ponder this…the Creator God who always existed decides to create the heavens and earth! But why would He need to? Added to that; where was this Creator God before the creation of the heavens and the earth? As I pondered on these questions, thoughts began to swirl in me and several things came to light. So here we go!

When we read about the heavens being created we first have to understand that the Bible speaks of several heavens. For example, here are just a few of them: we have the atmospheric heaven in the blue sky that all can see as we stand upon planet earth. Then there is the heaven that is beyond the earth’s gravitational pull and finally there is the Heaven where God resides along with Jesus and the entire angelic host!

We know that the angelic host existed before the creation of planet earth and the entire solar system and our heavens and earth as the banishment of lucifer and one-third of the angels were cast down to earth when they rebelled against God. They were present in that realm! Let’s explore this idea for a while!

The Angels

The first thing that the Eternal God did was to create His angelic host. He created lucifer and all the other angels so that they would serve in His Kingdom.

We know that the Creator God is Eternal (meaning He has no beginning or ending) and always was, is very present and always will be. We also know that there is no being above Him or His equal and that no one or anything existed before Him, because He always existed! However, we also know from Scripture that the angels existed before He created what we know to be the heavens and the earth. Hence He had to create them because He is the only Eternal Being, everyone and everything else has/had a beginning, including lucifer.

Long before time existed, the Godhead was! Three persons; coherent, and co-existing in One—Father, Son and Holy Spirit were there always, longing to share Love in its purest form, the very essence of their being. Permit me to say this: all that the Lord has done/is doing is as a result of whom and what He is, Love!

I remember one time many, many years ago as I was sitting on my bed and as I looked through my window and gazed into the sky I pondered on who this Awesome God that we serve is. As I sat there, in my mind’s eye I removed everything that there was, ending up with what we call space and thinking to myself God existed even before there was space. The more I explored this, I heard the Holy Spirit say to me "if you were to strip away all that you know about God, His omnipresence, His omnipotence, His almightiness, His awesomeness, His majesty, (and the list goes on) you will get to the point where you cannot strip anything else away and you will find out who this God really is, and that would be—pure, perfect and unblemished Love!

As a matter of fact if we were to do a deeper study of the Hebrew word for God, it means the self-existent one. Yes, God could have existed all by Himself. However, because love is at the very core of His being, He chose not to be by Himself. In fact, He could not because the very nature of love would not permit it. Love is always giving, always sharing, always caring.

lucifer’s Revolt

The strength and essence of this love was demonstrated in the fact that He created the angels including lucifer the cherubim who thought he could dethrone God. God certainly was aware of this but still allowed him to continue.

I am certain that God gave lucifer an opportunity to not take that course of action resulting in banishment, to appreciate the goodness of his Creator and not follow down that road. lucifer paid the price as he and one third of the angels were cast out of Heaven because of their rebellion!

The question could be asked—what caused God to allow lucifer to convince one-third of the angels to rebel against Him? Are you seeing this? In order for one-third of the angels to rebel, lucifer had to speak to all of them. Not only that, but God had to know he was doing it. What could have caused Almighty God to allow that to go on seemingly unchecked? I believe the answer is simple: LOVE! As hard as that may be for us to comprehend it must be so, it supports the idea that the angels were given free will and the power to choose. From that occurrence it reveals to us that the angels were not created and then forced to serve God, no they were not. No more than we are. Just like them, we were offered a choice!

So you ask, where did lucifer come from and where did he get the idea to rebel against God? Well you see God is love and true love will always allow a choice. True love allowed the angels to be free moral agents similar to what God has allowed mankind to be... And of course as free moral agents lucifer and one-third of the angels chose to rebel. You see lucifer had [and still has] a false sense of his perceived greatness and feeling of equality with God... Now as free moral agents we know that we love God when we give up our rights back to Him.

Adam and Eve [Creation of Mankind]

Without a doubt we are currently living in an ever-increasing world in every respect, as we as a human race are discovering more and more of God’s creation and His sheer brilliance. There is no doubt about that. As a matter of fact, man has been trying to come to terms with his existence and how it all started. Some give us what is known as the Big Bang theory; others have offered many other seemingly plausible and even ridiculous explanations. However, creation and a wise God who created all things is certainly the correct and most sensible of all answers. In the following paragraphs, we will show you why man needs God in order to survive. Many of you may have never considered what we are about to say, and then again some of you may have.

I believe that God exists outside of time and space. He always was, is and will always be. There is no one that can explain Him away. All we can do is accept this as fact. Yes, as fact! The fact is that God was, is and will always be; that He is not a created being; that He always existed; always has been there, without beginning and as such will have no end!

Now this is how I would like to suggest that it all occurred: 

It all began with God creating the heavens and the earth in Genesis 1:1, and as we read through the first chapter of the Bible, there are many things happening, where God is creating and calling things that were not into existence. It took Him all of five days to create the heavens and the earth and everything in the heavens and upon the earth. He then spent the sixth day creating MAΝ, both male and female (Genesis 1:24-31)!

As a matter of fact we realize that when it came to the idea of creating mankind God did something special that I would like to briefly point out here. After calling forth the animals from the dirt (Genesis 1:24), He created man from that same dirt but unlike the animals, He then breathed into man His breath and man came alive. God then brought all the animals for Adam to name them and he did, however, not one of them was sufficient for Adam as a mate, a companion. If that was so, then he would have named one of them woman, which he did not. Let me offer this thought here – seeing that Adam did not or was not able to name any of the animals that came before him, woman, I suggest this being the reason why bestiality (man having sex with an animal) is such a sin. This moved God to make or form a companion for Adam and to do this He [God] put him [Adam] into a deep sleep and took out of the man his companion woman. As a matter when Adam saw her he declared she is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, she shall be called woman! Finally he saw what he considered to be the correct type of material to be his companion.

Also, as we look back at creation, there is another powerful principle that I would love to bring to your attention, everything that is created must be attached to the source of its origins for it to survive!

Let’s Proceed In Explaining This To You

After God created the heavens and the earth, He set this powerful principle into motion from verse 11-12 of Genesis Chapter 1 He said:

Then God said, Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds. And it was so. The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

This is very interesting the earth brought forth after its kind. Isn’t it interesting that even today if we were to remove a tree from the source of its origins the earth, for a period of time and not give it any form of the nutrients that the earth provides for it, then the process of death would begin, and the only way to stop that process would be to reconnect it to the earth or to the ingredients the earth provides?

The same thing happened in the heavens, and we all know that the moment a star leaves the heavens it will eventually burn up and cease to exist. The very same thing happened with marine or sea life – if we were to take a fish out of the water the source of its origin, the process of death would begin. When it came to the animals on the earth, God said, ‘Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.’ And it was so (Genesis 1:24, NKJV).

Everything must be attached to the source of its origins for it to survive!

Then came the sixth day and God decided to create MAN. However, unlike all the other life forms that existed in the universe, God decided to do something special in the creation of MAN.

Man was initially created in the image and likeness of God; that word image comes from a root word in Hebrew meaning a shadow or a phantom. It is as if God passed by a wall and His Shadow was cast and He said let us make man like this. This happened before man fell and corrupted that image.

Many Believers even though saved by the Precious Blood of Jesus are still suffering the effects of the fall at one level or another. Now there are three things that I want to identify in this original plan of God for mankind, both male and female:

• The power of dominion.

• They were blessed by God.

• They had the power of productivity and multiplication.

However, mankind lost a significant amount of what was initially given to them because of disobedience to God and their subsequent fall. Another thing we realize is that before they were created God had already pointed out He had planted the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the midst of the Garden. Thereby whatever transpired, man was not created to live in a world without sin or the possibility of sinning. Genesis 2:9, 16-17:

The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were

Reviews for As It Was in the Beginning...So Shall It Be

[jehonathan26 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Great book and very revelatory full of purposes of God