Chapter 1 – THE BEGINNING

With one notable exception, everything had a beginning. Science has confirmed the truthfulness of the opening words of the book of Origin—otherwise known as the Book of Genesis —that the vast universe had a beginning. In a moment of time, from a concentrated tablespoon of matter, a controlled explosion occurred called the Big Bang. 

However, there is another beginning. John 1:1,2 states: “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.” The Genesis beginning relates to the heavens and the earth. In other words, the physical universe, which is composed of whirling bits of matter and energy. That “beginning” was preceded by the beginning stated in the gospel of John.

Although it is humanly impossible to understand, God had no beginning. As a spirit in another dimension, God has simply always existed and always will. We know nothing of His existence. We cannot even call it an eternal existence since God is timeless. The only thing we can relate to is the beginning of something other than God. And that is what is revealed in John 1.1. God created someone—a spirit. That someone was given the title: “the Word.” He was to become God’s spokesman and speak the rest of creation into existence.

Since God is by nature God, His first creation was someone like himself. We all know how that works. Birds give birth to birds. Fish give birth to fish. Horses give birth to horses. Humans give birth to humans. And so on and so on. And God gave birth to a god. Should that be surprising? Since God had no beginning, it is nonsensical to suppose that the Word always existed. That is why John was inspired to explain that “this one was in the beginning with God.”

We can state that this is when time began, because God caused another intelligence to come into conscious existence relative to Himself; hence, “In the beginning.” In case there is any confusion or ambiguity, Jesus said of himself: “These are the things that the Amen says, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation by God.” – Revelation 3:14

Speaking of his own birth in the beginning, Jesus once told an inquiring Pharisee that God loved mankind so much that He gave his only-begotten Son. In what sense was Jesus the only-begotten Son? He was the only person God directly created. Because the Word was then empowered to create everything else, including the heavens and the earth—as John 1:3 goes on to state: “All things came into existence through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into existence.”

God could have created everything by himself. He chose not to. Although He is called the Creator, this tells us a great deal about God’s loving character that He gave His firstborn Son the privilege. Jehovah’s Witnesses are privileged to know the truth about the precious relationship between God and his only-begotten Son.

There is, however, another beginning—and not a good one. It is the beginning of evil, and God had nothing to do with it. Jesus explained who did when he told the murderous Jews: “You are from your father the Devil, and you wish to do the desires of your father. 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.” – John 8:44

After the beginning, the Word created untold numbers of spirits—one and all, sons of God. Not all spirits are the same. Some are called angels, others cherubs and seraphim. The Word, of course, has a personal name as do all the heavenly sons of God. His name is Michael—the archangel.

God appointed a nameless cherubic overseer of the Garden of Eden. (Lucifer is not the Devil’s personal name.) He became a murderer by luring Adam and Eve to disobey God, knowing full well God was not lying when he said, “You will surely die.” Since the beginning, no divine creature had ever told a lie. The Devil became the father of the lie when he brazenly contradicted God and said, “You will not die.”

As a demonstration of the continuing power of that devilish lie, most people who have been born on this earth after Adam and Eve were evicted from paradise have believed the lie that you do not die. We might call it “the universal lie” since virtually every religion teaches that humans possess some sort of immortal soul that survives the death of the body. It is taken as an unquestionable truth, although the Bible does not teach it. Jehovah’s Witnesses are privileged to know the truth about death, hell, and the resurrection, and God’s intention to restore paradise to the earth.

But the father of the lie spoke another, more insidious lie. A lie that gets to the very heart of why God has allowed Satan to exist until now. Besides blatantly contradicting God, the Devil slandered the Creator. In fact, in Greek, “diabolos,” devil, means slanderer. The Slanderer implied that God was selfish. God did not trust his creation to decide for themselves what was good and bad. Ironically, by his own treacherous course, the Devil demonstrated the truth of his accusation. Obviously, some of God’s creation was not trustworthy. But, again, the implication is that God is somehow at fault. There must be something deficient in God that he cannot engender the unbreakable love and loyalty of his own sons. Is there is something wrong with God?

It was a fairly straightforward matter to see that the serpent lied when it told Eve she would not die. Obviously, she and her husband both died. But how can Satan’s accusation that God cannot trust His own creation be proven to be a lie, since not only the cherub in Eden rebelled, but in time untold numbers of others among the angelic sons of God followed the Devil?

The Bible writer tells us that the sons of God became disobedient in the days of Noah when they foresook their own proper dwelling place in the spirit realm and materialized as men to have sex with women. Obviously, God had placed a restriction on the angels, just as He had on Adam and Eve, when they were forbidden to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. God demanded obedience. It was not negotiable. And the sons of God deliberately disobeied even though up until the moment of their defection, they were perfect in God’s sight. God was their loving Father.

Maybe they imagined that God was too kind and would never punish them, at least not with death. Whatever. No doubt, though, just as Adam and Eve suddenly became conscious of their nakedness before God, those rebellious angels realized that they had been condemned and their nature changed to that of wicked, perverse demons and adversaries of God and all who reverence Him.

Although most of God’s heavenly sons remained loyal, surely the troubling questions lingered in their minds: Why can’t God trust his own creation?  Is there perhaps something wrong with God? Is God really suspicious of his sons? Is God a tyrant who is only obeyed because of the threat of death that hangs over everyone? What if someone other than God could decide what is good and bad without the impending threat of permanent death?

When God sentenced Adam and Eve to death, he also condemned the serpent, saying that the offspring of the woman would crush his head. For 4,000 years, the identity of the seed, or offspring of the woman, was a sacred secret. But when Jesus was baptized, and a dove came down from heaven and perched upon him, a voice came from heaven and said: “This is my son.”

Although his first disciples initially seemed unaware of the miraculous nature of Jesus’ birth as the human son of God, John the Baptist bore witness to them of what he saw and heard when Jesus was born again. That’s right. Jesus was born again from the water and the spirit. Christ is, in fact, called “the firstborn of many brothers.” What does it mean to be born again?

In the case of Jesus, God begot him as a spirit son, even as Jesus explained to Nicodemus: “Most truly I say to you, unless anyone is born from water and spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. What has been born from the flesh is flesh, and what has been born from the spirit is spirit.” – John 3:5-6 Contrary to the Devil’s lie that humans possess an immortal soul, the only way for Jesus to return to heaven after his sacrificial death was to be begotten as a spirit before he died. Jesus did not possess an undying soul. Because he was sinless, and the wages of sin is death, Jesus could have lived forever as a man in the flesh just as Adam would have if he had been faithful.

Before he became human, Jesus was mortal. All of God’s spirit sons are mortal. Angels depend on God for life, just as we humans do. No one possessed immortality except God—that is, until Jesus was anointed and resurrected.

“JUST AS THE FATHER HAS LIFE IN HIMSELF”

Jesus explained to his Jewish listeners: “For just as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted also to the Son to have life in himself.” – John 5:26

Trinitarians claim Jesus was God by nature, that he was uncreated, and that God is not really his Father and lifegiver. But Jesus plainly stated that the Father granted the Son to have life in himself. Did anyone grant the Father to have life in himself? Of course not. The Devil has concocted all manner of lies to deflect from what God has done—given immortality to someone.

Just as Jesus was the firstborn of all creation, and the firstborn from the dead, he was also the beginning of a new creation. No, God did not violate the Sabbath he declared in Eden. The new creation is spiritual in nature—not of this realm.

Although Jesus spoke of having been granted life within himself, he first had to die and trust his Father to bring him back from the dead before he could actually become immortal, never to die again. The foundation of Christianity is that God resurrected Jesus from the dead. That is why the sons of Satan claim that Jesus did not need God to resurrect him. They lyingly claim Jesus resurrected himself from an inanimate, unconscious state. Jehovah’s Witnesses are blessed to know that Jehovah raised Jesus from the tomb as an immortal, indestructible spirit.

Being immortal—having life in oneself—means no longer being dependent on God for anything. Being immortal means that one cannot by any means ever lose the life within them or be destroyed by any means. Essentially, having an indestructible life means that the person has become like God in every possible way, even knowing good and bad—the very thing the Accuser said God would never allow.

But Jesus is not the only one to be born again. It is God’s will that 144,000 be brought into union with his Son and that these, too, may have immortality and indestructibility.

What a humiliation for the Devil. It is one thing that the always faithful, perfect only-begotten Son was rewarded by God. The presumptuous god of this world will have to acknowledge that God has chosen the lowest of the low, some among the dregs of sinful humanity, to become co-rulers with Christ.

Knowing God’s rapturous purpose, Jesus became overjoyed when the disciples reported that the demons had been made subject to them because of his name. It was a sign of things to come—a guarantee that God’s purpose will ultimately be accomplished. No demon can prevent Christ’s victory over the serpent and his brood. Jesus exclaimed, “I see Satan already fallen like lightning from heaven. Look! I have given you the authority to trample underfoot serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing at all will harm you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice because the spirits are made subject to you, but rejoice because your names have been written in the heavens.” In that very hour he became overjoyed in the holy spirit and said: “I publicly praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have carefully hidden these things from wise and intellectual ones and have revealed them to young children. Yes, O Father, because this is the way you approved. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son is willing to reveal him.” – Luke 10:18-22

It is the remaining ones of the 144,000 who will be on earth when the Accuser is hurled down. It will be his intention to prevent them from being faithful to God after they have been sealed and Christianity is concluded.

The rest of this publication will consider the things God has carefully hidden from the wise and intellectual and has revealed his confidential matters to his servants, the prophets. We will consider how God will punish, correct, and redeem the chosen ones from the corruption the wicked one has induced them to embrace, and save them from the man of lawlessness and the operation of Satan to which they have been subjected, ultimately revealing in them the glory of Christ.