For some reason known only to him, God desired, and continues to desire, persons (self-conscious beings) with whom he can share his nature (which is supernatural). It appears that this was a desire of God well before the first self-conscious human being was fabricated. The results of that creative gesture we know as angels. But something went wrong in the freedom. Various theories have been offered for the matter including a belief that there was war in heaven. The rebels were cast out, with their leader. Earthlings are nagged with the result of Satan and devils. These persons retain some of heaven’s context relating to god-like powers and influence. That storied context will end in a final catastrophic encounter, some of which story we are offered in Scripture. It may be that mankind has been formed to take the place desired for that previous order. Mankind will gain that lost in the first creation. Everything will be made new.
We cannot account for it to our complete satisfaction in that the context of God is infinitely beyond ours, and there is no way we can line up a human syllogism to cover all the issues (questions). If a fish could think, and we were to ask the fish to explain the absorption of oxygen for fish survival we would get the explanation that oxygen is extracted from the water so to sustain life. That which is life giving to fish will drown the human being. Both the animal on land and the fish in the water need oxygen. Each finds it in different patterns and environments. Heaven is even more foreign to the earth environment (nature) than the habitats of fish (gills) and vertebrates (lungs). We simply do not have enough information to offer a sure (complete scientific order of evidence and consequence) narrative of it all. God permits us to lump it together in a trust experience. The faith experience permits the individual to benefit from the blessings of God up to the limits permitted to nature, and offers the hope that all will be well – found ultimately in immortality and the victory of God in any and all of creation. In God’s redemptive gesture in Jesus Christ the perfection of God and the absolutes of God are made so as to assure freedom, love and righteousness for all that God does or will do. The alternatives to the attributes of God are slain. Mankind is included in the factors of the plan of God to achieve his purposes for his kingdom. Since the principle of conscious life comes from God, that essence will not be destroyed. Those who choose to follow God, as presented in Scripture, are afforded the immortal life privilege. Those preferring not to follow are banished. In all this there is the perfect expression of the attributes of God. Judgment is evaluation that determines the habitat of the souls of those who have lived, and will always live. Self-conscious life comes to us from holy God, and he will determine the ultimate habitat for those who accept it on his terms.
What seems odd to us is that there is God who would bother with all this. Why bother? Perfect God does not need anything. He can surely find fulfillment in himself. I have no doubt of it. To be perfect is to need nothing more. But to be perfect may mean desiring something more. If I were perfect, a part of my perfection would be to share it, in a fellowship of those who believed and felt as I believe and feel. What is perfect love if it cannot be shared? It is perfect love but has no conscious object to, in turn, also love. Perfect love, if shared perfectly, must relate to free persons who may, if they wish, turn away from that love because they don’t want to return love in kind. As God gives freely, the object must give back freely. Freely given it is not required of the recipient to return love. In God’s redemptive gesture the object is assured not only of God’s love, but also in accepting that redemption his or her own love is also assured. The love of the previous order was lost for some beings who misdirected their privileges. The love of God’s redemptive order can never be lost. The privileges of the first order were violated by some. The privileges of the second order will always be the soul choices of the persons who have chosen it. Scripture casts the consequences in a scenario that faith persons can understand. Jesus relayed some information to the Apostles, to whom he gave authority to advance the message in parables, as in making the Church the Bride of Christ – entities include unbroken fidelity. All this seems exotic and fanciful, especially to those unacquainted with the large implications of Scripture. They seem remote to future realities. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020