September 26, 2022
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Exmo’s, Prepare to Have your Mind Blown About God’s Creation.
Just being honest, we are going to talk today about preexistence, predetermination, and who God is and you are going to feel very small- and it’s wonderful.
Buckle up!
Today is a big one!
Today’s Question: Was there preexistence?
5 Mind-blowing Facts About God’s Creation-A View You Have Never Heard Before
I have told you all before that my faith journey was a winding road. To recap, I grew up in a mixed-faith home. My dad is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and is very active still to this day. I went to church with him until I was 18. My grandparents were Catholic and I spent a lot of time with them. Second, to the Mormon church, I went to the catholic church. My mama loved God, never joined the Mormon church, and still kinda does her own thing.
I say all this because as I talk about these aspects of God’s creation to most Christians this is just going to seem like kindergarten stuff, the things you learned in Vacation Bible School at 5 years old.
But to us exmos and those who did not grow up in biblical Christianity, this is going to blow your mind. I know, because even way after I became a Christian I didn’t know this: There was no Preexistence.
Let’s dive in.
1) God Created ALL THINGS Out of Nothing
Sometimes the Latin phrase, ex nihilo is used meaning, out of nothing. The Bible teaches creation ex nihilo- Before God began to create the universe nothing else existed except God himself.
Genesis 1:1 tells us, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Meaning God created the entire everything. Nothing was there before.
Psalm 33:6, 9 tells us, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host. For He spoke, and it came to be; He commanded, and it stood firm.”
Revelation 4:11 tells us, “Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created.”
When God speaks, it comes into being. When He said the words, creation was.
He did not rearrange matter. He did not use leftovers from things that were here before Him. He created EVERYTHING and spoke EVERYTHING into existence.
(Sidenote- if there ever was a big bang, THAT, God’s word seems like it to me.)
2) What is the Word?
That brings us to our second point.
I don’t know if there is a more loaded chapter in the bible. Actually, the whole thing is amazingly loaded, but John 1 is pretty dang deep!
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
John 1:1-3
The last episode in the 10 Beleifs Every Exmo and New Believer Needs to Know series was on the trinity. If you missed that one, now may be a good time to pause and go back and listen to that one if you missed it. That was episode 70.
In John 1:3 it tells us, “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” That recaps what we said in our first point today, God made everything! Nothing was made without Him. Nothing!
But let’s go back here to the first verse, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.”
Who is the Word? Jesus. He was in the beginning with God and He was God and all things were made through Him. Jesus as God, with the father as God.
The Father did not create Him, Jesus. He is there in the beginning with God, as God, before creation of the universe. The trinity friends. It’s beautiful.
3) Who is Jesus? Lucifer? And did they have a War?
This brings us to the third point- Jesus is God, not the spirit brother of Lucifer.
To forever Christians, this idea sounds bananas, but to us exmos the concept that Jesus is God and not Lucifer’s brother my feel a bit shocking.
But as we said in the second point- “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” John 1:1.
The creation of the entire universe includes the heavens and all in the heavens.
Nehemiah 9:6 tells us, “You are the Lord, you alone. You have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them; and you preserve all of them; and the host of heaven worships you.”
The Bible Project does a fascinating series on Spiritual Beings. I would highly recommend it.
The spirit world and spiritual beings are complex and far more in-depth than we know. And the devil is part of this and is in no way on the same level as Christ. He is not God.
Revelation 12:7-9 tells us, “Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”
So does the bible talk about a heavenly war? Yes. For the most part, Satan has been at odds with God and still is because he actually thought he could be like God, something he whispers in the ear of us all to deceive us. Pride is at the root of all evil.
In reference to the war in the passages above, Hally’s Bible Handbook, a commentary to help us understand much of the bible, states that many believe this to be in reference to the Great Tribulation, the 3 1/2 years before Christ’s return. This would have to do with your eschatology, and beliefs on the end times, something that many Bible-believing Christians have very different views on.
Others believe that the war in heaven describes Satan’s fall and anger after the crucifixion of Christ, where he then devotes himself to the earth and tries to keep as many human beings as possible out of heaven.
This is where studying the Bible can get fun and theology can get pretty cool.
4) Where were we during creation?
This brings us to our fourth point.
During all of this creation talk and all the verses here, have you noticed something? Have you been wondering about one, very interesting point? Maybe you haven’t because like me it never occurred to you to ask the question:
Where were we?
And this is where your exmo brain is going to explode just a bit.
There is no preexistence.
Well, there was the creation of the universe and there is a spirit world filled with spirit beings, but we are not there. Never were.
The Bible teaches something very different. God, like the potter that throws clay and creates the beautiful creations that He does, He also creates us.
Psalm 139:13 tells us, “For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.”
Job 12:8 tells us, “Your hands fashioned and made me, … Remember that you have made me like clay; and will you return me to the dust? …You clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. You have granted me life and steadfast love…”
Did he know us before we were born? Remember God stands outside of time and place. He sees all and knows all.
Ephesians 1:5-6 says, “He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.”
This has to do with predestination and did God predestine us to be among the saved? This is a whole Theological, Calvinist vs Arminian rabbit hole that you could go down for years.
But in short, there is one main point that I found to be mind-blowing and humbling.
You were knit together in your mother’s womb. God designed you. He created you. You did not exist in the spirit world before needing a body. No friend. The Bible teaches us that like the great creator He is, God created you, He knit you, like clay, He molded you just how He wanted to design you.
5. The Christian Views on Creation
When Christians talk about creation, they are not talking about preexistence or heavenly wars where we picked sides. They are not talking about exalted gods and heavenly mothers. They are not talking about any of this, because the bible never talks about any of this. This is not Biblical Christianity.
What you may end up hearing about is old earth vs. young earth. Evolution vs. 7-day creation. These concepts are going to be what Christians will debate and not all agree upon. To catch yourself up on all this and understand what it all means I would highly suggest reading Chapter 15 on creation in Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem to get a good overview. With Biblical Christianity, not everyone agrees, and that is okay. This is a rabbit hole that may or may not be worth diving into. You decide. It does not change the sovereignty of God.
To Sum it Up…
Why do I think it is so important to understand creation, who God is, and where we came from?
Because it put us in our place- humble, fearing, loving the Lord.
Did God get so much bigger as you listened to this episode? I hope so.
He created all things out of nothing, He is the Word, Jesus is God and the devil is no match for Him, we were intentionally knit in our mother’s womb, and no matter what, He is sovereign.
As we realize the magnitude of His power, the fact that He truly is the Alpha and the Omega, when He spoke the heavens and the earth came into existence, it is then that we realize how small, yet how incredible it is that something so big would intentionally create and love us.
Little ‘ol us that will never even come close to God’s gravity, He loves.
This is why we say faith can move mountains. You have God behind you.
He said to them, “Because of your little faith. For truly, I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you.”
Mathew 17:20
More Episodes from the ‘Basic Christain Beliefs Every Exmo and New Believer Needs to Know’ series
** Note: For every ounce of textural, archeological, social, anthropological, and what seems to be irrefutable evidence in one direction there is a pound in the other by someone who holds a different opinion. If you want to find someone who believes strongly in support of something very opposite of what is written here, you can probably find it. This is where my research and experience have landed me.
Resources used in this article:
Systematic Theology, by Wayne Grudem
Mere Christianity, C.S. Lewis
The Bible Project bibleproject.com/explore/category/spiritual-beings-series/
…And countless hours in other podcasts, websites, articles, books, sermons, and lectures.
