Are the lost ‘sheep’ in a prison or an animal reserve? It depends on how you look at it and from what perspective.
“In the beginning God created the
heaven and the earth” (Gen 1:1), or literally the firm (earth) and lofty (heavenly)
things. With that said, it should be expected that what follows are the ways,
or processes, in which God created those two things. Indeed, there seems to be
a division between the creation of heaven and the earth, as is written; “Thus
the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them” (Gen 2:1),
then scripture goes on to describe what seems to be another creation. In
between God rested.
Of course there were not two
creations, but perhaps two realms each of which had similar characteristics.
Since the man was made in the Image (Selem) of God in the first phase of
creation, and that Image was a ‘Shadow,” or “Phantom”
Those who are astute might say
that the trees and such were created in chapter one; that must be the planet
Earth that was created! Not necessarily! Enoch wrote about the Third Heaven
(Paradise):
I saw all the sweet-flowering trees and beheld their fruits, which were sweet-smelling, and all the foods borne (by them) bubbling with fragrant exhalation. And in the midst of the trees that of life, in that place whereon the Lord rests, when he goes up into paradise; and this tree is of ineffable goodness and fragrance, and adorned more than every existing thing; and on all sides (it is) in form gold-looking and vermilion and fire-like and covers all, and it has produce from all fruits. Its root is in the garden at the earth’s end. (Secrets of Enoch 8:2-4)
According to Enoch, he saw the
Tree of Life in Paradise in heaven — in another realm. That agrees with
scripture, as is written, “To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the Tree
of Life, which is in the midst of the Paradise of God” (Rev 2:7). That was John’s
vision; the Tree of Life was not here on the planet Earth, but in
Paradise in heaven. It is in another realm accessed only by a portal of some
sort that only the dead can pass through, and only in spirit, or as I wrote
before, in phantom.
Adam and the woman, before they
sinned, had bright eyes and bright natures, according to the Books of Adam
and Eve. They could not only see heavenly things but transmigrate freely
between the two realms, in the same manner as Jesus.
The two sinned, causing their
natures to change. They were thereafter forbidden access to the Tree of Life,
to wit: “He (God) drove out the man; and He placed at the east of the Garden of
Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of
the Tree of Life” (Gen 3:24).
Eastward was probably not directional,
but since the Sun comes up in the East, it can mean ‘before time.’ In other
words, perhaps time did not commence in the beginning (Gen 1:1), but after the
two human beings were cast out of the Garden Paradise.
From the Book of the Secrets
of Enoch, Paradise on Earth was a phantom image of Paradise in heaven; it
had rivers and such that were the same with similar features. However, as Enoch
wrote, “Paradise is between corruptibility and incorruptibility” (Secrets of
Enoch 8:5). Therefore, Paradise straddles the visible and invisible realms,
the former of which is corruptible and the latter incorruptible.
Corruptibility is the environment
of the corrupt. Sin corrupted Adam and the woman. They would have been cast out
of incorruptibility into corruptibility — from access to heaven to exist solely
on Earth. Enoch wrote of heavenly Paradise, “Here there is no unfruitful tree,
and every place is blessed,” (Secrets 8:8).
On the other hand, scripture describes Paradise on Earth:
Unto Adam He said, "Because you have hearkened unto the voice of your wife, and have eaten of the
tree, of which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat of it: cursed is the
ground for your sake; in sorrow shall you eat of it all the days of your life;
thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to you; and you shall eat the
herb of the field; in the sweat of your face shall you eat bread, till you
return unto the ground; for out of it was you taken: for dust you are, and unto
dust shall you return.'” (Gen 3:17-19)
It seems that because the two
trespassed against the will of God, that they were punished for their
trespasses. On the other hand, perhaps they were by grace provided a place that
was more suitable for their newly acquired countenances. Perhaps they were cast
out of heavenly Paradise into earthly Paradise that they soon corrupted. Before,
they could migrate from one to the other with no barrier in between.
Did John see the barrier? In his vision, he saw heavenly Paradise as
well as Enoch. He wrote:
And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal: and in the midst of the throne, and round about the throne, were four beasts full of eyes before and behind. (Rev 4:5-6)
For the incorruptible on Earth —
the ones that Jesus has made righteous — there is a portal (door) in the barrier
for the ones that Jesus made worthy to pass through.
With that background and hypotheses,
consider the consequences for Adam and Eve. Were they put into a prison or did
they have a hedge put around them to prevent the fiery darts of the Wicked One
from penetrating their flesh to corrupt their souls. Were they cast out to be
with the Devil on Earth or were they kept secure in the world away from Satan
in the other heavens.
Enoch saw the Third Heaven as two
very different places; one place was a garden Paradise (Abraham’s Bosom), and
the other Hell. It too was separated by a “great gulf” as Luke described it
(Luke 16:26).
The heavens have their prisons as
well. Enoch described the Second Heaven as a realm where corrupted angels are
held prisoner. Could it be that this world is not our home, but a place which
pardoned sinners serve time before they pass through to Paradise in heaven?
Could this world be a prison
wherein Adam’s kind must do all the work while God looks on with great sympathy
at his once majestic (glorious) creatures, now so pathetic? If so, the truth
should hurt our self-esteem and humble us!
We are not ‘gods’ but ‘prisoners’
held captive on planet Earth until somebody posts bond for us. God did that. He
secured us and sort of put onto his creatures ‘ankle bracelets’ to keep us from
hazards that we may encounter. Scripture refers to those ‘bracelets’ of sorts
as ‘coats of skin,’ and the “whole armor of God,” ostensibly to circumvent the
fiery darts of the Wicked One that strike us while either in pleasure or while
working. Those fiery darts are the Devil’s ‘hot shots’ (for you farmers) to
keep us ‘beasts’ in line while we gather.
However, many of you consider
Earth as paradisical for it is party time for most when the lights go out. We
are no more than serfs in a fiefdom run by the Prince of the Power of the Air,
but at night we are as nocturnal as wolves on the prowl.
Could it be that you are in prison
all the while thinking it is a party, even a blessing? Paradise has a ‘hedge’
around it to keep the unworthy out. Here on Earth, as the Book of Job
relates, for the righteous, God puts a hedge about us to keep us safe (Job
1:10), not our bodies but our souls.
Do you think you are not in a prison
because there are no walls? Perhaps as scripture reveals, there are walls that
you cannot see!
It could be a prison or it could
be a place for safe-keeping and reform until completely reformed, or born again
(John 3:7). Whether it is a prison, or a place of safety, depends on how the person
looks at it. Are the Divine Warden’s rules for punitive measures or for
reformation? Are the Ten Tenets of God ‘commandments’ or are they ‘privileges”
for good behavior? It depends on whether you see yourselves in prisons or a
divine commune away from the perils of the world.
Mankind, so inferred King David, are
born feral, or as scripture has it, “shapen in iniquity” (Psalm 51:5). If we
are feral, as David believed, then this world is a huge ‘cage’ to keep us ‘beasts’
away from the holy ones in Paradise.
Either way, whether a place of
safety or a prison, there is a way to freedom, “If the Son therefore shall make
you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). If you are not incarcerated,
how could you be made free? You must be imprisoned to be released from it.
First you must know the ‘Warden’ in
person. You deserve your sentence here, but by grace, the Divine Warden can set
you free. John prefaced the condition for release from our bondage, “You shall know
the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32).
Pontius Pilate asked Jesus, “What
is truth?” (John 18:38). Jesus knew Plato very well; He showed Pilate that His “Shadow”
was a figment of His Person. He used the ‘Allegory of the Cave’ to prove that
His Phantom was as much God as His flesh and vice versa.
What will make you free? For you
to see that heavenly Paradise is as real as the earthly Garden and that the
former is merely a figment of the latter!
The adage, “Stone walls do not a
prison make” (Richard Lovelace) may be true, but also no walls can a prison
make. Invisible walls are as real as
the walls of stone; you just cannot see them.
Can you not see that you, doing
what is right in your own eyes, are in a prison, not for penalty per se but
for your own goo? That is because the lost are no more than ‘feral beasts’ that
God thinks are worth saving.
The problem is that until the lost are converted, they feel that God has them in a prison. With enlightenment, they discover it is a preserve!
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