Monday, April 1, 2024

THE WORLD: A PRISON FOR CRIMINALS

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” (Strong 2006), then the man was created in a material image in phase two (chapter 2). Then one creation was in the realm of heaven and the second in the realm of earth as would be expected from Genesis 1:1.

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)

 God did not curse the Garden in heaven but the Garden on the Earth. He did not corrupt heaven, but made an abode for their new kind of flesh; flesh that is corruptible.

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)

 Compare that to Genesis 3:24 that describes the guarded Way to the Tree of Life. The “swords” of that verse herein are “lightnings” and the “cherubims’ therein are “four beasts” herein. The thing that kept the Way is not described in Genesis but in Revelation, it is a ‘sea of glass’ that was firm like crystal. There is a barrier between the world and Paradise, and it remains guarded so that those corrupted cannot pass through to the Tree of Life.

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!




 Kruger National Park

 

 

 

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