Existence and Pre-Existence

     I have prepared a chart called "Existence" which I hope explains God's scheme of things, (i.e., His own Existence and ours) which also of course includes his plan. (Figure #1 Existence).

Fig. #1: Existence

     There are three types of "existence" all within one: (1) The eternal Existence of God, thus his Name, (2) The existence of matter and time, and 3) what was before that, or pre-existence. Pre-existence is antecedent to physical existence. To be honest, no one knows when the spiritual world came into existence, but since spirits are not material, they surely pre-existed prior to the beginning. 

     When God created the heaven and the earth (Gen 1:1); was that only the beginning of matter and its container, the "void" encircling the earth because void describes the lack of form of the earth (Gen 1:2)? "The heaven" in the first verse, according to Strong's Dictionary applies to whatever was above the earth, but we don't know how far up. It appears that in the beginning God set a formless mass without an atmosphere in the great expanse of nothingness, to which void would also apply because there had yet to be created the other heavenly bodies. 

      The only physically living matter in the universe right after the beginning were three: (1) vegetable matter (Gen 1:12), animal life (Gen 1:21), and human life (Gen 3:27). Only mankind was created in the image of God: (Physically "living" depends on the oxygen of the earth for survival, and water to nourish. Spiritually "living" is depending on God's "breath" and grace for existence.)

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image... (Gen 26-27).

     The "image" of God turns out to be more than one for God said "our image".  The question arises then, who is God referring to as "ours" since this was the beginning? That mystery is not explained until millennia later:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made... He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not... And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us... (John 1:1-3, 12, 14). 

     Therefore, the "our image" must refer to at least Jesus Christ. The mystery is that Jesus was there in the beginning assisting in the creation. Of course, Jesus is not another being but God manifested.  We think of Jesus as merely God in the Flesh, but throughout scripture he is manifested in different forms: The Voice, the Word, Light, a Cloud, a Fire, a Burning Bush, a Man who wrestled with Jacob, the Angel of God, the fourth Person in the fiery furnace, and even Melchizedek. 

For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually. Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils. (Heb 7:1-4)

     That "great Man" Melchizedek had to be Jesus - one of the ours in "our image". Not only because he was great, and the King of Peace, not to mention King of Salem which Hebrew sacred literature teaches is the heavenly Paradise, but because he was eternal. Like Jesus, Melchizedek was a Man but much more than a man! He was and is God manifested - showing Himself to mankind. Abraham always sacrificed to God, and that is what he did to Melchizedek!

     I have identified that God is pre-existing the foundation of physical existence, and is now Jesus. However, since God existed before the beginning, pre-existence is pre-creation of matter. Power was needed to Create something from nothing. Let's examine power: 

Thine, O Lord is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all. (1 Chron 29:11)

     The energy required for the creation was not an amniotic fluid resulting from Higgs Boson, but emanating from God. We see therein that God's Kingdom is all of Existence - the world just rebelled for a time. His Kingdom will come on earth again as in Heaven (Mat 6:10. God's Kingdom is the spiritual and physical world, albeit there is a pretender to His throne - Lucifer who has already invented for himself a royal title - Satan. 

     It is the Holy Ghost which is the Power which does things as can be seen when God created His own image:

The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee (Luke 1:23).

     Pre-existence is at least three substances, but before the beginning, everything was without substance (Gen 1:2). Therefore the Father God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost were without substance, and cannot be three persons. God's one person is Jesus who was God revealed 2000 years ago. Before God created His person, God spoke the Word who was Jesus. The Word was without form but still existed because his voice walked in the Garden (Gen 3:8). Humans can only think in material things because that is all we can see! Jesus Existed before matter existed. Did we exist before since we were made in His image? "Seeing" the invisible existence is faith.

     The angels are not material. "The beginning" was merely the beginning of physical things. There was a pre physical existence:

Thou (Lucifer) wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. (Ezek 28:15).

     Lucifer, the cherub (Ezek 28:14) was a created being in the spiritual realm. Thus, before the beginning of the world, the Kingdom of God consisted of unseen things - not material. To be honest, the Mormons believe in pre-existence of mankind. The pre-existence of what I write is pre-existence of a spiritual world which was created by God for whatever purposes that He had (before He created what we think of as "existence".) We don't know how long before our existence, but Lucifer and other angels existed before humankind did. 

    When God created physical things, He placed them in a void. (Gen 1:1). I believe, perhaps, mankind's soul is nothing more than a void in the spiritual, being the Kingdom of God before the world was created. To be King there must have been subjects. Spiritual beings were the subjects. 

      "Regeneration" is returning to mankind's original condition - as in the Garden. The reward for that is eternal life as mankind's soul "lives" on, perhaps just as it always "lived". Before the creation, it seems that the soul was merely emptiness in which God shared his Holy Spirit. That makes sense since that is what God did when the Holy Ghost filled the early Christians (Acts 2:4). 

     Adam was created in the image of God. He was born with the Holy Spirit filling his void - his soul. When Adam sinned, his void was emptied and he became sorrowful. Everyone has an emptiness which can be filled one of two ways:

The Lord is at hand. Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.  And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. (Phil 4:5-7)

    "The peace of God" is the Comforter (John 14:16) who is the Holy Ghost. Again, that aspect of God is not a "person" but the Ghost of the Person, Jesus. We know that because Jesus "gave up the Ghost" (Luke 23:46). The souls of men, thusly, have voids which need filling.  Souls are not ;physical things and cannot be identified by physical evidence. The study of the soul is psychology, which arrogantly replaces the Bible in the study of the soul. Thus the Spirit can fill the soul but before it can, uncleanness or iniquity must be exorcised. Jesus's blood does that!

     The soul is not a thing. Even psychologists agree with that, referring to souls as psyches. The soul is a void which needs filling just as the void before the earth and other things filled it! Adam's original image at the beginning was mind, body, and spirit. His void had been filled as he was created. Thus, the void for Adam's imbuement with God's Spirit was there all the time. God has foreknowledge - He always knew that He would fill the void with things. He planned "the beginning" long before it began. His Plan pre-existed before the beginning. He allowed "space" in the void for all the heavenly bodies. It seems that in His wisdom that he allowed space for mankind as well:

Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. (Jer 1:5)

     At least God knew everyone before they were ever born because He allotted space for them. We call that "space" the soul, but it is not material. God knew us before we existed (i.e., we all existed to God.) When everyone is born, that void which was intended for God's Spirit, with original sin, was quickly filled with iniquity. Only regeneration (or pre-genesis, pre-origination or before the beginning) can mankind's soul be filled with God's Holy Spirit. When we die, just as Jesus did, we will give up the ghost. Ghost's must exist somewhere. Saved "ghosts" are rewarded with Heaven while unrepentant "ghosts" live forever in Hell but are actually forever dying since "ghosts' are immortal but corruptible.

     My point for this commentary so far, is that there was always a void even before the beginning in which everyone would exist:

According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world... (Ephes 1:4).

     God had a plan for us before the beginning. He left "space" for each of us to be created. Upon our creation at birth, we were born spiritually vacant just awaiting to be imbued by God's Holy Spirit. Rejection of the Spirit of God is blasphemy, the unpardonable sin (Mat 12:31).
     You see, we physically did not pre-exist and neither did we have spirit. There, however, was an emptiness which was God's Plan for our existence. His will for us was that we be holy and without blame (Gen 1:4b). He planned on filling everyone's soul - that void - with His generous Spirit. Due to foolishness, since mankind was also created with a "will" in the image of God, fools can reject the filling of the Spirit - the Holy Ghost.

    God's manner is putting something in voids. In the case of people, God's manner is filling it with Spirit. Satan has a manner as well: he beats God to the "draw" because of original sin, then puts iniquity in the souls of men (Psalm 51:5). The blood of Jesus cleanses that inherited sin, and displaces it with righteousness - made right with the Holy Spirit.

Pre-existence, then, is not physically existing at all, but the plan for existence.

(To be continued).