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On earth God has created the
flora-plant forms of life, as well as
the fauna-animal forms. Plants,
grass, grain, fruits, flowers have life
and reproduce themselves. But they
do not have brain or mind. They have
no possibility of character develop–
ment.
The fauna have brains, but apart
from humans they do not have
MINOS. There is not in them the same
self-consciousness, think:ing and rea–
soning ability that is in man.
Ther~fore,
of alllife forms created
on earth out of matter, only
humans
have the potential of having God's
character created in them. (Inciden–
tally it follows , then, that God's
purpose in creating the fauna and
flora on earth is primarily for the
benefit of man. Much of both fauna
and flora serves as food for man.
Sorne as food for animals. Flowers,
vines and grass for beauty and for the
enjoyment of man.)
And, as stated, God created angels
with mind-power. So it devolves
down to the fact that of all separate
entities created by God, only two-–
angels and humans-have the poten–
tia! of character creation.
The Duallty In Creatlon
But now an important fact in HOW
God creates. There is a duality prin–
cipie involved.
God creates in
two stages.
1
am reminded, as an analogy in
explaining this, of certain furniture
stores. Most cities in the United
States have a store selling "unfin–
ished furniture" or "furniture in the
raw." Often such furniture is of very
fine quality.
It
is new, fresh from the
factory, but it is unfinished-the
varnish, polish or paint has not been
applied. It is finish-it-yourself furni–
ture.
Few if any have known it, but God
created this earth and all planets in
this unfinished state.
It
was mentioned in chapter 3 that
angels were created before even mal–
ter. God formed angels with minds,
even superior to human minds. They
are composed of spirit. But sorne
"appeared" by sorne process of mani–
festation to Abraham (Genesis 18),
to Mary Magdalene (John 20:12),
and before the apostles (Acts 1:10-
11 )- and they appeared in the form
and shape of men. Ordinary angels
6
do not have wings, but the two
higher-rank angels, seraphs and
cherubs, are revealed as having
wings.
It is important to know that angels
were created in
two stages.
The
duality principie applied to their cre–
ation as it did to the creation of the
earth and of man.
Perfect, holy and righteous char–
acter, as already explained, is some–
thing God Himself cannot automati–
cally create by
fiat.
(The analogy of
unfinished furniture applies.) But
God did create angels with
mind–
power. God also of necessity gave
them free moral agency- the right of
free choice-the right and ability to
think, to reason, to make decisions
and conclusions.
Deflnltlon of Character
At this point Jet me define holy,
righteous, perfect spiritual cbarac–
ter:
This perfect
spir~tual
character is
the ability of a separately created
entity with mind and free moral
agency to come to the knowledge of
the right as opposed to the wrong, to
decide and
wi//
to
do
the right, even
against desires or pulls to do the
wrong, and finally to overcome pulls
toward the wrong until doing the
right
becomes fixed nature.
But since the right way is simply
God's way- the way of God's own
character and the way of God's
Law- and righteous and perfect
spiritual character is Goo's charac–
ter, that character must actually
come
from
God, but on the decision
and
wi/1
of the separate entity.
Now consider: In the original cre–
ation of the angels, it was impossible
for Qod to build or create this char–
acter
in
them by
fiat.
That would
have made them mere.automatons or
machines- it would not have been.
character.
Therefore, the creation of angels
could not be completed in the origi–
nal creation as an act of God. Their
finished creation could not be fin–
ished-complete- until their own
developed character-either righ–
teous or evil-had been formed and
instilled within them-by their own
volition, decision and will.
God placed them on the earth at
the time of its creation (Job 38:4-7).
The earth, like the furniture in the
raw, was as yet UNFINISHED.
It
was
perfect as far as God had made it.
But He intended the angels to put on
the final finishing touches-beau–
tifying it-developing its usefulness.
The very doing of this was the train–
ing ground to develop angelic charac–
ter. God intended them to work the
earth-by utilizing the physical and
chemical elements and forces already
present in the earth.
In order to regulate them in peace–
ful harmony and unity, and guide
them in cbaracter development, God
placed over them THE GovERNMENT
OF Goo.
To administer this worldwide
GOVERNMENT, God placed a super
archangel, named Light-bringer–
Lucifer, in Latin-one of the su–
preme, top-rank:ing and empowered
archangels, who were cherubs. They
represented the supreme masterpiece
of God's creative accomplishment, so
far as spirit beings directly created
was concerned.
This Lucifer had been trained in
the administration of t he Govern–
ment of God. He was one of two
cherubs whose wings covered the
very throne of God. He was perfect in
knowledge and in all bis ways from
the day God created him until iniqui–
ty- lawless rebellion-was found in
him.
As long as the Government of God
was administered on earth, there was
earthwide
PEACE,
happiness, joy and
rewarding accomplishment.
We are not told in the Bible bow
long that was. It might bave been
millions of years (angels are immor–
tal) or it might have been a very few
years.
But Lucifer allowed jealousy and
envy against God to turn him to
rebellion. He became resentful and
bitter. He turned toa spirit of compe–
tition instead of obedience and coop–
eration, and that led to violence and
destruction. The LIGHT of God's
truth, which had once filled his mind,
turned to utter darkness. He led the
angels under him- a third of all
created angels-into rebellion with
him. In his vanity he tried to exalt
himself above God (Isaiah 14:12-15)
and led his angels into an invasion of
God's heaven to try to defeat God.
A destruction of wasteness and
decay carne over the face of the earth
(Continued on page 42)
The
PLAIN TRUTH