05-CHAPTER I HEAVEN AND EARTH IN GOD’S PLAN The Eternal God

CHAPTER I HEAVEN AND EARTH IN GOD’S PLAN The Eternal God

While as yet no star traversed its course, no sun threwits flood of light and energy through space, no systems of stars and suns swept through infinity in mighty curves and uniform relations, there God was; He the eternal without beginning, He who is above the whole course of time, He who in harmony beyond explanation possesses unity and life, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, the basis of eternity, the Living One, the only God.¹

Three divine Persons and yet one God; the Son one with the Father in essence yet voluntarily subordinate to Him (1 Corinthians 15:28), the Cause of all causes, yet Himself uncaused—truly here are mysteries upon mysteries. Here the finite spirit stands always before the riddle of the infinite. To all eternity time- limited thought will never penetrate the sphere of the supra- mundane and supra-temporal, for like can be discerned only by like, and therefore God only by God. At no time to be explained, yet the divine mystery of the Trinity in Unity allows itself to be represented to the spiritual human eye by the mathematical figure of the triangle, and thus through that very region of human thought and perception with which more than with any other, it seems to be in contra­diction. The church fathers had already pointed this out early in the history of Christianity. For of all forms the triangle is the first. Neither the point as a mere object of thought, nor the line as mere extension, has shape. But the triangle, though containing three lines and three corners, is of all forms the first, or, so to speak, form “One,” that has completeness and unity, thus uniting in itself harmoniously the numbers three and one and therefore it was early employed as a symbol of the God­head.² (See on the Chart, at the top of the whole circle, the faintly colored “trinitarian” triangle as background to the A and O.) The universal plan originated from God as Creator. He is the Source of all that exists outside of Himself. Everything arose through His will and lives by reason of His creative energies (Acts 17:24; Acts 17:28). By consequence everything must belong to Him. Because the universe is His work it is also His property. Because each creature is His work it must be also His instrument. All things must remain subject to Him and be always at His disposal. Not only is everything from Him but at the same time unto Him (Romans 11:36; Colossians 1:16).

Thus the course of world affairs, in its ideal consummation, as the Bible pictures it, may be compared to a mighty moving circle which has its origin in God and in God its goal. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the A and the O. (See the top of the circle in the Charts.

Christ Salvation’s Centre

It is through the Son that God executes all His plans. In the Divine Being the Son, precisely as Son, is the self-effulgence of the Godhead to Itself viewed inwardly and upward; and in an exactly similar way, from the moment that God completed the act of creating, the Son is the self-effulgence of the Godhead outwardly and downward (John 1:3; Colossians 1:16; Hebrews 1:2). He is the Mediator, the “Word” through which God speaks (John 1:1-3; John 1:14), the personal living Organ of manifestation concerning His nature and will. Christ is the centre of the mighty moving circle The most detailed elaboration of the “Trinitarian” triangle was that by Raymond Lull, the great and well-known missionary to Moslems (died as martyr, 1315). It is a triangle with its centre of gravity and with lines which connect the corners of the three angles with this centre. At the corners and the centre of gravity there are the words “Father, Son, Spirit, God,” and on the sides and lines there are the small words “is” and “is not.”

FATHER

This is to indicate that the Father is not the Son; the Son is not the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit is not the Father. But the Father is God, the Son is Goa, the Holy Spirit is God. of the whole history of God’s creation, the radiant central sun, the illuminating life-centre of all Divine revelation. (See the Chart, in the centre of the whole circle). This was the purpose of God from eternity (Ephesians 3:11). Before the foundation of the world the Father had appointed the Son to be Mediator. It therefore followed that the creating of the world itself came to pass’ through the Son (Colossians 1:16; John 1:1-3). The ages were called into existence in the Son (Hebrews 1:2); and because from eternity God foresaw the irruption of sin, before all time He appointed the Son to be Redeemer, to be the Lamb “foreknown before the foundation of the world” (1 Peter 1:19-20).

Therefore as the centre of salvation of the universe Christ must be viewed as connected with the cross from eternity. This central Sun of all Divine revelation and the cross belong etern- nally together. (See the cross in the centre of the Chart). Therefore also the later death of Christ on the cross, a self-offer­ing to God, was “through the eternal Spirit” (Hebrews 9:14), a self-devotion in death, which the Son, although carrying it out in the midst of time, nevertheless offered to the Father as a supra-temporal act. This Divine plan of redemption stretches from eternity to eternity. No God-given promise remains unfulfilled. In the events of the whole universe God displays Himself as the eternally Faithful, and Christ, as Himself God, revealing and revealed, is the living Guarantor of these eternal, Divine counsels of salvation.

Therefore the chief name of God in revelation is Jehovah. It comes in the Old Testament nearly 6,000 times, and, as derived from the Hebrew hawa, to be, to exist, it describes God as the Existing, Abiding, Eternal One, the One “Who is and always will be,” or, as the exalted Lord Himself explains, the One “ Who is and Who was and Who is to come” (Revelation 1:4; Revelation 1:8; Revelation 4:8)³ As symbol of this covenant faith Savior God has set the rain­bow in the clouds (Genesis 9:13-17). Every time we see the rain­bow—this beautifully colored bridge of light which unites heaven and earth—we ought to think of the trustworthiness and faith Savior of the gracious God, of the God who does not will the death of the sinner but even after the judgment lets His sun shine, who wishes to forgive him and to take him anew into His covenant. Therefore in Old Testament prophecy (Ezekiel 1:28), as well as in the picture-language of the Revelation (Revelation 4:3), the rainbow appears not only as a half-circle in the natural firmament, but as a complete circle of light around the throne of God, so as to signify that God is the perfect One, eternally Faithful, the Rock of the revelation of salvation, the Reconciler of heaven and earth, the God of the eternal covenant. The Starry World as the Background of the History of Salvation

It is impossible for man to survey this whole universal plan of God. As finite and limited we cannot fully comprehend the Infinite (Job 38:4-7; 1 Corinthians 13:9). As fallen and sinful—and because our very thinking lies within the circle of the curse upon the Fall—we cannot press into the last and highest height of that pure and holy super-world. Therefore God, as the infinite and eternally pure, is enthroned in unattainable height above all His creatures (1 Timothy 6:15).

Therefore the Bible is free from all speculation. In all its utterances it everywhere concentrates on the message of redemp­tion, even upon that which we men must know so as to attain to eternal salvation. Therefore its revelations are restricted on the whole to God’s government of earth and mankind in reference to salvation. Only so far as is occasionally necessary does it give intimations concerning the cosmic, supra-earthly background of this whole matter, and then only in mystery, without removing the veil which still hides this supra-sensual world from our gaze. “That which is secret belongs to the Lord” (Deuteronomy 29:29). But we are at least permitted to perceive indubitably that God’s royal rule embraces the whole of His great creation, that cosmos and super cosmos, visible and invisible, supra-earthly realities, sun, moon, and planets (Isaiah 30:26; Luke 23:45), angels and stars (Hebrews 1:14; Matthew 13:39; etc.), cherubim and seraphim (Revelation 4:6-8; Isaiah 6:2-3), partly as observers (1 Corinthians 4:9; Ephesians 3:10, partly as servants of God (Acts 12:7; Hebrews 2:2; etc.), or in some other relationship (e.g. Daniel 4:13-14; Daniel 4:23; 1 Peter 1:12), stand in connection with the history of the salvation of men as it unfolds on earth.

Thus this, so to speak, circular movement from God to God, which for earth and mankind has been given Divine revelation in the Biblical history, unfolds itself at the same time against a cosmic universal background. The starry world of God en­circles the events of earth. The worlds of suns and stars, which on a cloud-free night, out of a dark, blue-black firmament sparkle upon man’s earth, are in a certain sense cosmic world-frames, observers and partakers of that which here below comes to pass from God. In ancient times these cosmic powers had been set forth under the symbols of lion, ox, eagle, and man. “Four are the highest in creation: the lion among wild beasts, the ox among tame animals, the eagle among the birds, and man over all. But God is the All-highest.” Thus ran an old, pre-Christian Jewish proverb. Here the essentially leading kingdoms of created life, viewed in their chief members, are conceived as representatives and symbolic exhibitions of cosmic powers in general. The ancient Babylonish astronomers have likewise applied these symbols to the stars, and in the four constellations of Man, Ox, Eagle, and Lion—distributed at the same time to the four quarters of the heaven—have seen the four chief representatives of the whole starry world and the Zodiac.

Ezekiel saw the four Living Beings as they bore, as it were, the throne-chariot of God (Ezek. i:5, 10, 15, 22-28); and John saw them as the representatives of the whole worshipping creation, surrounding in eternal praise the throne of the Most High (Revelation 4:7-9; Revelation 5:8-11). In the highest view this whole symbol will declare that God is the Lord of the universe. Every­thing should serve Him. The whole realm of created things, in its members, heads, and representatives, should be subject to Him and should glorify Him, and in this sense the whole universe, as one entire kingdom of God, forms at the same time the cosmic background of God’s saving acts on earth. (See the starry background on the Chart). The Earth in the Universal Plan of God The earth is the chief theatre of the revealed saving works of God. Its history reaches back to a more remote period than the beginning of the human race. There lies a veil of mystery over the details of the ancient time. But the following can well be noted: The present condition of the world of nature on earth shows a fateful disharmony of splendor and terror, communion and confusion, life and death. Gladness and misery stand in mighty conflict with each other, and permit us to perceive that behind this discord in nature lies discord in the kingdom of the spirit. But this cannot have first entered with the history of man; for the stratified rocks, showing the history of the earth, prove beyond doubt that death and destruction existed in unthinkable ages before the history of the human race begins. The Bible itself allows us to see that before the fall of man there existed an adverse kingdom of evil, and in some way it was clearly interested in the earth and in man. Therefore also the command given in Paradise itself that the man should not only cultivate the garden but “guard” it (Genesis 2:15). Therefore also, and very soon thereafter, the entrance of the Tempter (Genesis 3:1-24), who must have been the enemy of God before the temptation and fall of man. When in the history of the universe this Power for the first time appeared in this attitude of hostility to God is wholly beyond explanation, as well as how he became so, seeing that originally, as a creation of God, he must have been otherwise. This original catastrophe must have entered like a fearful flash of lightning, tempestuous and destructive. (Compare the statement of Jesus in Luke 10:18. See the flash of lightning on the Chart). But the manner and the time of the fall of Satan remains a secret. But it is obvious that it worked destructively upon that realm of creation which was subject to this Prince of God. In any case it is proved by the rocky strata of the earth that ancient destruc­tions by death, wild beasts, and catastrophes, were connected with it. From this standpoint the prehistoric period of the development of the earth is divided into two chief and incon­ceivably long periods.

1. The original condition of the earth before sin broke in, and 2. The early further development of the earth to the entrance of man.

Closer investigation here is not the task of a history of salvation but of natural science.

How far at the time that sin entered the universe the work of creation had progressed in detail the Biblical account does not particularize at full length. We do not know whether that early creation had reached the stage of a completed development, either as “first earth,” or “light earth,” or “primeval creation.” Therefore, since full information as to conditions on that pre­historic and pre-human earth is not available, we speak but quite generally upon that stage of earth’s history.

Nevertheless, even this modest measure of knowledge opens to us mighty perspectives. Upon this earth God later set man. Therefore his appointed calling must be viewed in connection with this ancient prior development. This earth he should subdue and thereby remain the servant of God (Gen. i:28). As “viceroy” of God he should extend authority. But this should have signified that in ever-increasing measure God’s will should have been carried out on earth and the earth be more and more claimed for God. The extension of the rule of the earth by an earthly king who would remain subject to God would have been nothing less than the perfecting of the plans of God for the earthly creation and the triumph of His kingdom over the oppos­ing kingdom of Satan. This belongs to the higher call of man. This also explains the enmity of Satan against this new and special instrument of God. This explains also the mystery that there can be a new heaven and a new earth only by the perfecting of the plans of God for mankind, therefore only after the great white throne, after the conclusion of the history of redemption. But on this account our tiny earth acquires significance for the whole universe. Upon this small planet will be fought the decisive battle between God and the Devil. Although a mere atom in comparison with the colossal stars of universal space, it is, though not as regards size and matter, but as regards the history of salvation, the centre of the universe. On it the Highest presents Himself in solemn covenants and Divine appearances; on it the Son of God became man; on it stood the cross of the Redeemer of the world; and on it—though indeed on the new earth, yet still on the earth—will be at last the throne of God and the Lamb (Revelation 21:1-2; Revelation 22:3). The whole course of revelation moves towards this goal. God does not abandon His plan for His creation, and even as in the beginning there was an earthly condition before sin broke in, so will there be finally a renewed and transfigured earthly creation, a perfected condition of the earth after sin has been overcome; and the last will surpass the first. The presence of God will be fully revealed. The heavenly Most Holy Place will be on the new earth, set forth in the Revelation, after the manner of the picture language of the Old Testament, as a vast cube, the expression of perfect harmony on all sides, and thus a symbolic shape representing absolute perfection. The heavenly Jerusalem will descend to earth. The throne of God will be on the new earth. Thereby earth will become “heaven,” for where the throne of God is there is heaven. Then, in this renewed, transfigured world, will God, “in the ages to come,” show to His perfected saints the “unbounded riches of His grace in kindness towards us” (Ephesians 2:7). Out of His infinite inexhaustible fullness will He cause to stream forth one glory after another in an endless inconceivable sequence of God-filled ages.

Here also, as in the beginning, our gaze loses the detail in the whole ocean of the eternal. The circles of light of the ages fade into the radiant flood of the Divine. (Compare on the Chart the two areas of light on the two sides of the upper half of the whole circle with the gleaming but ever-receding light rings.)

Thus does faith view eternity. Looking back it sees the be­ginning in the eternal ages before time; looking forward it sees the perfecting in eternal ages. All comes forth from God; all returns again to God; He Himself is eternally inexplicable. He dwells in a light which no man can approach. Therefore to Him we consecrate our worship.

Notes ¹ Regarding the so-called “proofs” of God’s existence see TheDamnofWorldRedemption, pp. 17, 18.

* See over, page 14.

²Concerning the word “Trinity,” both as to its content and as to the self-revelation of this mystery in the course of the history of salvation, seeDawnofWorldRedemption,pp. 18, 19.

³ Concerning the names of God see The Dawn of World Redemption, pp. 187 ff.