The Beginning and the End

Robert King (e-watchman)

The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.—1 Cor. 15:45

But where did the super condensed matter come from in the beginning? —matter, being the atomic and subatomic little bits and pieces, from which everything is made.

The genius, Albert Einstein, devised an algebraic formula, the famous E=MC², that expresses the correlation between mass and energy.

Understanding that secret unlocked the immense power contained in a single atom. But if mass, or matter, can be converted into energy, as in the case of an atomic bomb, then the reverse must be true too. Energy can be transformed into matter. Scientists have only recently discovered that light, which is made up of tiny massless bits of energy called photons, can degrade into matter.

So the question really is, where did all the energy or light come from?

The Bible, supplies the answer. Referring to himself as the source of unlimited energy, the Creator invites people on earth to contemplate the immense universe as it continues to unfold above us:

Lift up your eyes to heaven and see. Who has created these things? It is the One who brings out their army by number; He calls them all by name. Because of his vast dynamic energy and his awe-inspiring power, not one of them is missing.

And just as God has a name for all of the countless stars, some of which have already died even as new ones are being born, God himself has a personal name. The same 40th chapter of Isaiah goes on to say:

Do you not know? Have you not heard? Jehovah, the Creator of the ends of the earth, is a God for all eternity. He never tires out or grows weary. His understanding is unsearchable.”

In Hebrew, God’s name was represented by four consonants corresponding to the Latin letters of YHWH. In Old English the name was first translated using the letter “I”. But around 1600 the letter “J” was introduced to the English alphabet and all the Hebrew names that are spelled with a “Y” are translated with a “J.” That would include common names such as Joseph, Jacob, Joshua, Jeremiah, as well as the name Jesus. Ever since the invention of the letter J the English rendering of God’s self-given name has been accepted as Jehovah.

But the creation of our local universe was not the first creation on record. The Bible reveals that there exists life in the same dimension that the Source of energy inhabits —countless intelligent creatures who witnessed the creation of the earth billions of years ago.

Referring to that event God once asked a man named Job where he happened to be when the earth was created: “When the morning stars joyfully cried out together, and all the sons of God began shouting in applause?”

Obviously, there were no earthly sons of God who could have witnessed the creation of the earth. Those sons of God who applauded Jehovah’s masterful, creative work were angels. They came into existence long before God created the physical heavens and the earth.

Since the angels are referred to as sons of God, that means they had a beginning too, just as human sons are born from a father. And the Bible tells of that beginning in the opening words of the gospel according to John, saying “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god. This one was in the beginning with God. All things came into existence through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into existence.”

Although that statement is widely misunderstood by professed Christians, the book of Revelation sheds some light upon it —chapter 3, verse 14 revealing that the Word, or Jesus, was “the beginning of the creation by God.”

Both scriptures citing “the beginning” are in reference to the beginning of the creation in the spirit dimension —that beginning preceded the beginning of the physical universe, and reveals that the entity who came down from heaven as the person of Jesus was the first of God’s creation. That is why the apostle Paul said of Jesus: “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.”

Paul went on to reveal that the firstborn of all creation was then empowered by God to create everything else. That is why Jesus referred to himself as the only-begotten son of God, because all of the other sons, or angels, came to life through the firstborn.

Being the image of God the Firstborn is himself a god, which is exactly what is stated in the first chapter of John, verse 18, which says that Jesus was the only-begotten god who is at the Father’s side.

Among the heavenly sons of God that the Word produced for the Father were cherubim and seraphs, which are a special orders of angels. In the book of Psalms God likened angels to flames of fire —indicating that they are a form of energy, not matter, not of the dust. In keeping with that, the Hebrew word seraphim literally means “burning ones.”

One cherub was given a very special assignment by God. He was to serve as the benevolent overseer of God’s first two humans. In the book of Ezekiel he is called the perfect cherub that was covering in Eden. Tragically, though, that trusted cherub became envious of God. He fabricated a scheme to exalt himself as god over the embryonic human family.

In the beginning Adam only had one rule to follow, not eating from or even touching one special tree. Probably because Adam had greater experience than his newly formed wife, the invisible cherub targeted Eve, pretending to be a talking serpent. More than likely the cunning angel maneuvered the serpent to slither up the tree of knowledge, so as to appear to have eaten some of the forbidden fruit, in order to give Eve the impression that the fruit empowered the reptile to speak, thereby giving credence to the serpent’s suggestion that her eyes were bound to be opened —that she would become like God, if she ate some too.

Having succeeded in his scheme to deceive, the cherub of Eden has since become known as Satan, the Devil. And as a result of their acting upon his lies, Adam and Eve brought death upon themselves and all of their descendants. That is why Jesus said of Satan:

That one was a murderer when he began, and he did not stand fast in the truth, because truth is not in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks according to his own disposition, because he is a liar and the father of the lie.

Just as the evidence for God’s existence is plainly evident in the creation, even as Paul said, the worldwide influence of a superhuman liar and killer is also very much in evidence. How true, the apostle’s words: the whole world is lying in the power of the wicked one.

But we should not suppose that the present system is going to go on indefinitely. Christ has already conquered Satan, having become human by means of a miracle, which involved being born as a human. As a man Jesus demonstrated complete obedience and loyalty to God, something the first man failed to do. Having subjected himself to the cruelest death imaginable in obedience to his Father’s will, Jesus paid humanity’s debt to God and also proved that the Devil is a liar in his taunt that all of God’s creatures are inherently self-preserving. Having been resurrected from the dead to an indestructible life, and having already secured for himself the right to rule the world via God’s covenant with Jesus when he was a man, the second coming of Christ will be with power and great glory.

What remains is a tumultuous transition period that will be initiated when the Devil and his demons are cast down from heaven by the enthroned Messiah, otherwise known by his original name of Michael, the Archangel. Revelation explains it this way:

And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels battled with the dragon, and the dragon and its angels battled but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them any longer in heaven. So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him. I heard a loud voice in heaven say: “Now have come to pass the salvation and the power and the Kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ, because the accuser of our brothers has been hurled down, who accuses them day and night before our God! And they conquered him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their witnessing, and they did not love their souls even in the face of death. On this account be glad, you heavens and you who reside in them! Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing that he has a short period of time.

How long is the “short period of time” —the transition period between Satan’s reign of death and the beginning of the new world that the meek will inherit? The Bible reveals it is roughly three and one half years.

When will that transition event begin? Jesus said no one knows the day or hour of the thief-like coming of the Son of man. However, the apostle Paul foretold the whenever it is they are saying “peace and security,” then sudden destruction is to be instantly upon them like birth pangs upon a pregnant woman.

What form will that sudden destruction take? Jesus said nation will rise against nation, kingdom against kingdom. And that would be the beginning of the birth pangs of distress.

While Jehovah’s Witnesses have been instrumental in declaring the Kingdom of Christ and the name of Jehovah far and wide, publishing Bibles and teaching material in over 700 languages, the short period of time after the demons are confined to the vicinity of the earth will be marked by worldwide persecution of those who have the work of bearing witness to Jesus, resulting in a final witness given by the chosen ones before their departure. Jesus himself forewarned:

People will lay their hands on you and persecute you, handing you over to the synagogues and prisons. You will be brought before kings and governors for the sake of my name. It will result in your giving a witness. Therefore, resolve in your hearts not to rehearse beforehand how to make your defense, for I will give you words and wisdom that all your opposers together will not be able to resist or dispute. Moreover, you will be handed over even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death, and you will be hated by all people because of my name. But not even a hair of your heads will perish. By your endurance you will preserve your lives.

How is it possible to be put to death and yet by endurance preserve your lives? As regards the chosen ones then, their deaths result in their instantaneous resurrection —in the twinkling of an eye. By means of the first resurrection Jehovah will gather all of the chosen ones into the heavenly Kingdom during the end phase, where they will then be empowered to crush Satan and his world.

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