Today. We’re going to be covering the concept of creation versus evolution. We’re gonna be looking at the true meaning of faith. And so much more. But before we do that, I just wanna share some positive feedback we received from episode one of this season called Why was Sin Permitted?  We got a comment, a question from Gabriel.

He responded to one of my posts on Instagram with the question, and I’m paraphrasing it, but basically he was responding to the idea that every day is a gift that we receive from Christ. And while he wasn’t really arguing that point, his point was that, you know, not every day feels like a gift. Sometimes it feels like the greatest gift that God could give would be to help us get out of this world, to get off this planet that is full of sin and suffering and death.

And Gabriel, I just want to  acknowledge that point because it’s an important one. Even as Christians, there are days that we struggle.  There isn’t always going to be this bright and cheery morning when we wake up. And  I can think of many different characters in the Bible that struggled with depression, struggled with doubt, struggled with fear, and  even  the prophet I Elijah, right?

He. He had a, a lot of ups and downs in his ministry. And one particular time I can remember, he  had just  had this mountaintop experience as he saw the people of Israel accept the message that he was sharing on Mount Carmel. And there was a great revival that broke out in the countryside. And then the next day he woke up and was told that Jezebel was seeking to kill him.

All of a sudden he just started running and running and running away as far as he could. And  eventually he got to the point where he laid down and he just wanted to die.  I think we’ve all been in those situations right, where we just  get worn out, we get fatigued. We  get overwhelmed.

And even though the sun may be shining in our hearts  it’s foggy and cloudy and we can’t see ahead, and God comes alongside us as he did Elijah. You know Elijah didn’t quite understand what God was doing in that moment, but later on we see that. It was in the still small voice while he was up on the mountain that God spoke to him.

Not in the whirlwind or in the earthquake or in the fire, but in the still small voice. And so I would say to Gabriel and anyone that when you’re having a rough day, when every day doesn’t feel like a gift, just remember. God is with you. And sometimes in the more obvious places, you won’t hear his voice, but sometimes you just have to go alone.

Go for a walk, get outside, get in nature. Clear your mind, clear your schedule, and spend some time alone with him and listen to that still small voice. When you do that, I know that you will find comfort. You know, ’cause Paul himself. Acknowledged as much. When he wrote to the Corinthians in his second letter in chapter four, starting in verse 16, he said, therefore, we do not lose heart, even though our outward man is perishing.

Yet the inward man is being renewed day by day for our light affliction, which is, but for a moment is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. Well, we do not look at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. But the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

And so I just wanna encourage you today, you know, wherever you are in your walk with God, know this, that this world is not your home. Right? We have a limited amount of time here. And although there are great trials that come along the way, even though we have this hope of a better tomorrow, sometimes we have to acknowledge the fact that our outward man is perishing, that we are struggling, and that we are being afflicted and persecuted and overwhelmed.

But let me just encourage you to keep on moving. Keep on going. Don’t give up. That’s what this podcast is here for. We’re here to walk together on this journey toward heaven, that God has called us on this journey here on earth. We don’t know how long it’s gonna last, but we do know at some point the Bible says Jesus is coming again.

So let’s get into our topic for today. It’s called the creation. And you know, there’s a lot of ways we could cover the topic of creation. You know, the first two chapters of the Bible are our main emphasis, but the reality is the whole Bible refers again and again to the foundational principle that we were created.

We did not create ourselves. We are not here by accident. We’re here because we have a purpose. And we have a God who loves us and is gonna carry us through to fulfill that purpose. Even though there has been a delay even though it’s been diverted, it’s been detoured because of sin, ’cause of Satan, and even our own stubbornness.

Sometimes we choose to go off the path that God has chosen for us, but if we repent, if we’re willing to turn around and come back, God somehow is able to get us back on the path he originally planned for us and ultimately get us to where he wants us to go. So that’s why we’re here. Now, there’s an interesting text about the creation that you can find in the book of Hebrews chapter 11, also known as the faith chapter, and an overlooked verse.

But one that we’re gonna focus on right now is verse three, which says this by faith. We understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God. So the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible. So here we have a very clear statement about faith. The fact that everything we see when we go outside, when we look around, Was created by the Invisible was created by God.

And  this is something that can only be acknowledged through faith. It’s not something that comes natural to our proud hearts. And you know, obviously that’s not the prevailing view. Of  how we came into existence. You know, the standardized view that has been ingrained into all of us through our education and through all the books that we read about science is that this world evolved over billions of years and somehow by some galactic mistake earth came into existence on its own accord without a creator. 

And so the question is, which actually takes more faith to believe that we just randomly appeared, or that a designer put us here for a purpose. Now, I’m not really here to debate this topic, but I believe there’s a simple reason why many choose not to accept the idea that we were created.

Because to believe that we are created logically requires us to accept that there’s a higher power that has authority over us. Just like we came into existence through our parents and we give them respect and authority because they were the ones that birthed us into existence. So in a greater sense, the idea that God created us creates  an issue of authority that we have to deal with because if he created us, then of course he has the right to dictate to us certain aspects, including his law. 

But if we just came into the earth in existence on our own, then we’re not subject to any authority. We can live as we please with no consequences. There’s no judgment, nothing to worry about, and in essence, really no purpose. So it’s kind of a sad way to live and ultimately, not many people who accept evolution really have followed that belief to its logical conclusion, but that still doesn’t mean that we don’t have to have faith to believe it.

The author of Hebrews says, by faith we accept that God created the heavens in the earth. And you know, when you go back to the creation story in Genesis one, It’s interesting that when you think about it,  Adam and Eve weren’t even there to witness the creation, right? 

Because the story goes like this on day one of course, God’s creates light. On day four, God fills that light with the sun, the moon, and the stars, right? Then on day two, God separates the water and the air from one another. On day five, he fills the air and the water with birds and fish. Then on day three, God brings the dry land out of the water and creates vegetation. And then on day six, God fills the land and the vegetation with animals and creepy crawly things. 

So as you can see, God forms and then God fills. Now the psalmist described it this way in chapter 33 verses six and nine. He says, by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made, and all the hosts of them by the breath of his mouth for he spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. 

And so this idea, this principle that God’s word has creative power built into it is a foundational principle of faith for the Christian religion, right? This belief that  God can speak and something appear out of nothing is  central to understanding the gospel.

Because if you go to the gospel, if you go to John chapter one, for instance, it begins. By letting us know that in the beginning was the word, and the word was God, and the word was with God. Right? And later on in verse 14, we find out who the word was. It was the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. 

So we find that the word is personified into a person. That person is Jesus, right? And so why is that important? Because we don’t have Jesus here with us today, obviously. But guess what we do have? We do have the word right? We have the word of God. And to believe that the word of God has creative power in the same way that that word created the heavens and the earth in the same way that when Jesus spoke, that the elements responded to his words, the, the sea and the wind and the wave ceased.  That he could manipulate the elements by simply opening his mouth is a powerful reminder of what the word of God can do for us when we believe what it says. 

Now this idea of the word having creative power is essential not only to understanding who Jesus was, but what he does for us. Especially when it comes to conversion, right? Because remember the psalmist in Psalm 51 cried out, create in me a clean heart. Oh God. In other words, there has to be an act of creation. It’s a miracle every time our hearts are changed, are turned toward God. We can’t do it on our own. Just like none of us can make light shine out of the darkness, just like none of us can make the wind and the waves cease or the sun rise or set.

We can’t do any of those things and neither can we change our own heart. It is something that is impossible for us to do. But the good news is that just as God’s word created the heavens and the earth  in six days we know that God’s word also can recreate our hearts. 

And this didn’t happen over time. This wasn’t an evolutionary process, right. God created the earth in a literal six day week, and we don’t have to wait when God’s word speaks to us either. The moment he speaks, it happens. The moment God says that our heart is made new, it happens.

Now we see many stories throughout the Bible where this is the case, but one of my favorite is the centurion in Matthew chapter eight. Where he had come to Jesus and asked that Jesus heal his servant. Now, when Jesus went away to speak  to the centurion, and actually to go and visit the servant, he was gonna lay his hands to heal him. The the centurion said, no, no, no, no. I don’t need you to come. I just need you to speak the word only, and he says, look, I’m a man under authority.

When I tell someone to go, he goes. When I tell someone to come, he comes. So I know that whatever you say will be as you said it. Now, Jesus responds in amazement and says that I haven’t found so much faith, not even in Israel. Why? Because the centurion took Jesus at his word. He believed that whatever he spoke would happen because he believed his word had creative power.

We find even Jesus when he’s  fighting temptation in the wilderness  and the devil comes to him and says, look, turn these stones into bread to prove you are the son of God.  And Jesus responds. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. So we find that according to Jesus, the word brings life. 

Just as bread does for our body the word brings life to our soul, and ultimately it’s the word that leads us to eternity, right? Because the word is Christ. We can’t love Christ and not love the word of God. We can’t say we’re a follower of Jesus and not follow what the word tells us to do. As you can see, this is nonsensical to separate Christ from the Bible is to do a  great harm to your Christian faith and belief. The two were always meant to be one with each other. Christ and the word. He is the word made flesh. 

And so I don’t know what difficulties you’re facing in your life right now, but I can guarantee you God’s word has a solution for you. 

The promises of God. They’re not platitudes. They’re not just wisdom or good advice. The promises of God have power to change your life right now. There’s no evolution. You don’t have to wait days, months, years, decades, for those promises to begin working in your life the moment you believe is the moment they begin to work. 

The scripture is clear. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he’s a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Second Corinthians chapter five, verse 17. 

And of course, we know that not all of God’s promises have immediate fulfillment. Some of them are conditional, some of them are prophecies, but the one thing we can be sure of is the promises of God that have to do with forgiveness of sin and changing our heart are immediate. They’re the work of a moment. 

 The moment you cry out in faith, the moment you lay hold of the promise of forgiveness, it’s yours.

You see, just as when Christ said, let. There be light and light shone out of the darkness on day one of creation. The same is true for you today, my friend. You may feel like your heart is full of darkness. Do not despair. Just trust the word to do what it says. God will shine the light, not just on you, but through you. Your heart will become a reflection of the light and love of Jesus  when you lay hold of what he has promised to do for you. 

While discipleship is the work of a lifetime, salvation is the work of a moment. That’s why Ephesians chapter two, verses eight and nine, it says, for by grace you have been saved by faith, not of works, it is the gift of God. I love that text because it shows you how easy it is to be saved. You simply have to believe 

 And finally after pronouncing the evening and morning of each day good. Having set everything into place, then God said, let us make man in our image according to our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creepy thing that creeps in the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God, he created him. Male and female, he created them. Genesis one verses 26 and 27. 

And as you can see because we were created in the image of God. That means  we aren’t here by accident. We were created with a purpose and with a destiny. But that destiny can only be discovered when we, by faith, lay hold of the truth, that God is our creator and our redeemer, and he loves us with an everlasting love.

He wants more than anything else for you to reach out to him, for you to discover who he is and in turn through discovering who he is, you will also discover who you are.  Because we were made in his image. By beholding we become changed. By focusing on the thing that we want to become. It automatically becomes a part of us, but when we’re focusing on things that aren’t true, then we’re becoming a lie.

But when we focus on the truth, when we focus on the reality of who we are in Christ, when we focus on the reality that we are created in his image, then the possibilities are endless. There’s really no limit to what we can become when we believe that we were created in his image. He’s here with you today and soon he will be with us face to face.

The scripture says, starting in John chapter 14, verse one. Jesus said, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God. Believe also in me, in my father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would’ve told you. I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself. That where I am there you may be also. 

Can you imagine what it’s gonna be like to see him face to face and his glory to truly see who we were meant to be? Because when we see him and his glory, we’re gonna see ourselves as well. And after he takes us to heaven, he’s gonna one day again, bring us back to Earth recreating it again. Except this time we’re gonna be able to watch him do it.

We’re gonna be able to watch him speak life into a dead planet, A planet that was destroyed by sin, but is recreated because of the love and the grace and the power of Jesus. That’s the promise for those who believe and trust that Jesus is both our creator and savior. 

You know, maybe you have a question about something we covered today. I wanna encourage you to reach out to me, travis@adventology.com. I want to walk with you. There are many misleading and confusing things out there about our creator and our creation. So I’m not a scientist, but I do believe that the word of God gives us the answers that we need so that we can overcome the deceptions that are coming our way.

And I wanna encourage you as well to pick up the book Patriarchs and Prophets in the show notes. I have a link to it. You can get it for free. It’s a great supplementary guide for everything we’ll be covering this season on our podcast. And if you were blessed by this episode, let me encourage you to follow, rate and review us.

Especially if you’re on Spotify or Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts, writing a one sentence review really helps others discover this podcast. And if you’ve been blessed, don’t you wanna share the love with someone else? 

Thank you for doing that.

So what does this have to do with being ready for Jesus? 

Well, number one, God is worthy of our worship. Why? Because he’s our creator. This is the reason why we worship him, and worship becomes a major issue when we get down to the end, when we start looking at the Book of Revelation, we’re gonna see that the world has to choose between worshiping the creator and worshiping the beast. 

So we need to know who our creator is, and we need to know the foundation upon which our faith is built. And that foundation, of course, as we’ve learned today, is the word of God. In the end, the world will reject the plain teachings of the word, but by doing so, they’re also rejecting the giver of the word, the word made flesh, that is Jesus. They may claim they’re following him, but by rejecting his word, they’re showing that they’re not really following Jesus. They’re following the antichrist. 

And finally, by trusting the word to do what it says, we can know and believe that we will be sustained by it when everything is taken away from us here on the earth.

Thanks for tuning in to another episode of Adventology.

Be ready for Jesus. 

Speak life, live love. 

Until next time, 

Maranatha.

[PODCAST MANUSCRIPT] Hello everyone, and welcome to a brand-new season of Adventology. I’m your host, Travis Walker, in today’s episode we’re going to be exploring the origin of evil and answering the question why was sin permitted? 

But before we do that, I just want to say it is good to be back. A lot has happened since our last episode for one, I have moved, I am currently now the pastor of the Fort Myers Seventh Adventist Church. I enjoyed my six years in Daytona Beach, and, as you can imagine, the transition has, been busy one. But we are now in a place where I can give this podcast the love and attention it deserves.

And to be truthful, I have missed it. I’ve missed making these episodes and I missed the feedback and the relationship I developed with all of you through the years that we were weekly producing episodes up until about 2021, I. However, in this new iteration of our podcast here, I want to include a little bit more about my own life and your life as well.

I would love to hear from you, get your feedback after each of our episodes, maybe even including some of your comments and questions in future podcast episodes. So even now as you prepare for this episode consider letting me know. Consider dropping me a line if I say something that strikes your mind in a certain way or creates a question in your mind.

 You can reach me at Travis@adventology.com or you can follow me on Instagram at pastortwalk. You know, I was kind of resisting Instagram all these years, but over the last year, I have really. Come to embrace it, and I’d like to embrace it even more. So, whether you’re an audio person or a visual person, we hope to provide content in both of those settings.

So again, thanks again for joining us today.  remember everything we do on this podcast is designed to help you. Be ready for Jesus. And so part of being ready for Jesus is walking with Jesus. Amen. And so my question for you today is how is your walk? How is God in your life right now? Are you closer to him than you were before?

Are you farther away? Do you find yourself drifting?  The truth is, we don’t, we’re never in a neutral position with God. We either.  Kind of moving toward him or moving away from him. But the good news, of course, is that Christ never moves away from us. The Holy Spirit is always chasing after us, and it’s his desire to draw us to himself through the love and truth found in the Word of God, and through the love of those in this world who have accepted Christ and their life and are living and breathing incarnations of Jesus in their day-to-day lives.

And so, the point that I’m trying to make here is that wherever you’re at right now, God loves you and I want you to know that he’s never far from you.  He’s always there. If you would just kind of turn your head and look up to him, he’s right there.  And so, this idea that God is love is so central, especially when we, look at the overarching theme of the Bible and the great controversy.

God is love really is the lens by which we need to study the Bible. If we look at the Bible with any other lens, we’re going to get a distorted view. And of course, there’s reasons why we question God’s love, and we’ll be getting into that more through this season. But one of the things that is a true reflection of God’s love, and his character is his law.

 And really that’s where the whole great controversy begins with a question about whether God is truly love and whether his law is, just and right.  and so, the reason that people question those things is because there’s this idea out there that maybe God is responsible for all the evil in the world today.

 Maybe God and the devil are, are in cahoots together, maybe they’re not enemies so much as they are partners and others just accept that God is good and the devil is evil and, that they’re at odds with one another. But then they start asking themselves if God’s so much more powerful and greater than the devil, then why didn’t he just destroy him, at the beginning?

And so, we’re going to be answering some of those questions today. Not that I’m going to be able to totally answer those questions. cause there’s certain things about God that I don’t even understand. I mean, his foreknowledge is clear. The Bible says he knows the end from the beginning. And yet clearly if that was the case, then people would say, well, why did you even create Satan to begin with?

And you know what, I don’t know the answer to that question, but what we do know is that God is good. And so to really understand God, we have to begin by looking at Christ. I think because Christ is the manifestation of God.  We can’t see the Father, the Spirit as well is invisible, but Jesus is the revelation of God to man.

And so if we turn in our Bibles, we look at John chapter one. And starting in verse one, it simply says this, “in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him. And without him, nothing was made. That was made.”

So right here we see that any question about the nature of Christ is answered right here in the beginning of this gospel. Jesus has always been with the Father, will always be with the Father, and he’s with the Father today. And that means that he was with the Father through the creation of everything that we see.

Everything that exists in the world was made through him. And so not only is Jesus then our Savior, right, but he’s also our creator. He is also our law giver, and this is where a lot of people struggle. They want to see Jesus as this loving savior, but they have a difficult time seeing him as the creator of the 10 commandments, right?

The giver of the law, and the one who set all things into motion from the beginning. But lest we forget, right? When we look at the prophecies of the Bible concerning Christ, the prophet Isaiah said this about Jesus. “Wonderful. Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.”

And so, Christ has always been, will be and will continue to exist throughout eternity.  There are other scriptures that reiterate this point even piggybacking on what John said in John chapter one, Colossians Apostle Paul said this in chapter one, verse 16 and 17.

“For by him all things were created and that are in heaven, that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions, or principalities, or powers, all things were created through him and for him, and he’s before all things. And in him, all things consist.” So I think this is an important point cause every day we wake up, it’s a gift from Christ, right?

He not only made us, he not only saved us, but he also sustains us, right? He’s the one that makes the world spin around. He’s the one that allows the sun to shine. He’s the one that brings the rain.  Christ is the great lover of our soul. Everything good that we experience in this world is a gift from Christ.

Every piece of bread we eat, every glass of water we drink is a gift from Jesus. He sustains our life. He sustains our bodies, and so this is the great truth of the Christian religion, right? Everything centers on Christ. And you know, sometimes it can become a little cliche, but that’s only because we have lost some of the awe and wonder that would come if we spent more time really contemplating the nature of God through Jesus as revealed to us in Jesus. Because that’s truly the only way we can understand love. You know, God doesn’t force, and this is one of the big themes that we’re going to be talking about today. He doesn’t force, he draws, right?

He wants us to appreciate him for who he is and his character. And so Christ is the manifestation of that character of God. It’s through Christ that we understand even what love is because that is the principle and the foundation of God’s throne. And yet a lot of times we kind of have a shallow approach to love.

We see it more in a sentimental way. Rather than the principle that it truly is. Because if you think about love, right? Love is something that requires choice. And, and this is kind of where the rubber meets the road with this conversation about the origin of evil, right?  Because the idea of God being love then means that he would create beings both capable of receiving and giving that same love.

But with that capability, there is even a greater core principle than love that is required. And that’s, and that’s free will, right? Because we can’t love without choosing to love, otherwise it’s not love otherwise we’re just programmed to be behave in a certain, and although you may create a perfect world, a perfect environment, if you pre-program everything to do exactly what you want it to do in the end it’s just a program, right? It’s like a computer program. You know, you can make it perfect in that environment, but at the end of the day, you know, it’s just doing what you programmed it to do. And God didn’t want that. That’s not according to who he is, and that’s not how he made the universe.

So therefore, God had to give us, the freedom to choose. He had to give all his intelligent beings the freedom to choose. Because what is love without choice? Right? If you force love, it becomes slavery, right? Or worse, you know, just being a robotic existence.  If you buy love like the Beatles famously sang, you can’t buy me love, right?

 You can’t, because if you do, it’s just flattery, right? It’s just a way to get people, to manipulate them to do what you want them to do, but at the end of the day, it’s not coming from the heart. And so either way, unless love is given freely, love ceases to exist.  Thus, in order for God to be true to himself, he had to create us with that same reflection, and the created beings they had to both have the ability to receive and accept love, but that also meant they had the ability to reject and distort it.

Now, it’s really impossible for us to understand how long creation existed.   We don’t know how old the universe is, scientists estimate 5 billion, 10 billion years.

 I have no idea if that’s true, but the reality is that however long creation had existed before Earth came into existence is really not the point.  The point is, at some point right before Earth was created, evil entered into the universe, right? And while Star Wars and other Eastern Buddhist type philosophies will teach that good and evil depend on one another to exist. The Bible doesn’t say that. 

The Bible says that there was a time when there was only good and no evil, and there will be a time in the future when that will be the case again.  And so just as darkness is the absence of light, so evil is the absence of love. 

So where then did this evil come from? Again, the Bible doesn’t really explain it. The Bible just says it’s the mystery of iniquity.  In other words, if evil could be explained, it could be justified, but since there’s no justification for evil, then there can be no explanation for it as well.  And yet we do know where it came from, right?

We do know where it took root, I should say. It took root in the highest, most beautiful of all God’s created beings, an angel named Lucifer. Thus, God said, in the, in the book Ezekiel concerning Lucifer, he said, “you were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom, and. Perfect in beauty, you were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering. You were the anointed chair of who covers. I established you. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created until iniquity was found in you. Ezekiel 28, 12 through 15.

Again, we see here the Bible gives no excuse for Lucifer’s rebellion. He had it all. He had power, he had beauty, he had influence, but the only thing he didn’t have was control. He was not satisfied being the first among angels. He wanted to be God himself. And once that root of pride took root in his heart, it just wouldn’t let go.

Later we find in Isaiah another description of the fall of Lucifer in chapter 14, starting in verse 12, it says here, “how you are fallen from heaven. Oh Lucifer, son of the morning, how you’re cut down to the ground. You who weakened the nations for you have set in your heart. I will ascend into heaven. I’ll exalt my throne above the stars of God and I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high.”

And that was truly his desire, right? That’s what pride had planted in his heart. This desire to be God, this desire to control rather than to be controlled.

At least that was how he felt. And although he had been given everything that one could ever ask, it wasn’t enough. He wanted more. And soon those gifts of beauty, power, and influence that he had used for who knows how long up to this point to serve God, were turned against God and became a weapon that even God couldn’t fight with. Right. And that weapon was deception. 

Because at the heart of his deception was this idea that angels would be happier, right? If they weren’t restricted by God’s law. And so what he began to say and began to believe in his own life was that the law of God was a weapon of control, a weapon of manipulation.

And he failed to see it as it truly was, which was a manifestation of God’s character. Right? And even though over and over again, God proved himself to Lucifer, showing who he truly was with his patience and love toward him, and trying to turn him back from the road of perdition that he was walking.  Lucifer began to become even more stubborn in his belief, right?

And so cunning and making himself the victim, pointing to God as the tyrant, and eventually began influencing the other angels. The Bible says he convinced a third of the angels in heaven to follow him and turn their back on God. Thus Lucifer, the light bearer became Satan, the great adversary. And of course, the inevitable result was war, right?

Not a physical war, right? I mean, that’s something that we can understand. We’re not always fighting wars with swords and guns, right? Sometimes we are fighting wars with words and ideas, and this is clearly the case of what was happening in heaven. Otherwise, all the evil angels and Lucifer himself would’ve been wiped off the face of existence.

But instead, revelation 12 describes it this way, “and war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven. Any longer.”

So eventually the patience of God ran out. Eventually everyone had to make a decision. There was a D-day. Everyone had to take a side. And once everyone had made that choice the results and the consequence were that a third of the angels, including the devil, no longer could stay in heaven. Now, we asked this question earlier, but let’s go back to it.

Why didn’t God just destroy the devil right then? Right? Why not?  Just be rid of him. And even if you were going to let the devil continue and manifest his character in heaven, why not after a third of the angels had chosen their side, did God just not wipe them all out of existence at the same time?

 But this is a human idea, right? This idea that the moment we come into some difficulty, we just want to get rid of the problem right away. But God is much wiser than that. Right. His character, like we said, is love and since all of his relationships with his created beings must be based on that same principle, what do you think would’ve happened if he had just zapped Lucifer for the moment he began to question God’s character or if he had done the same thing with the angels who had taken the side of  the devil and his  complaint against God. What about those that were left behind? You see, the seed of doubt would’ve still existed. Some of their minds, right? Some would’ve served God out of fear rather than love, and that root of sin would not have been completely wiped out.

You see, the devil was so artful and so cunning that not everyone could see truly what he was up to.  And we all have been around people like that, right. I mean, so many of us have been around deceivers and manipulators. We know that they rarely truly show who they are. They rarely show their true character right away.

And they’re very good at making themselves the victim, making themselves look like they’re the ones in the right, even though they’re opposing authority and truth.  And so, it takes time for people to reveal their character, and then you can see who they truly are. It’s the same thing. This is a principle for all created beings.

The devil was no different. You know, he was even better at disguising his true nature to many. And so, God in his eternal wisdom had to let the true nature of sin manifest itself so that all could see its terrible results and before destroying it.  He had to allow it to mature so that everyone could see God is just, that God is good. That everything God does is in the best interest of his creation. 

And so this is not necessarily comforting to those of us who are in the midst of this great conflict here on earth. Many of us wish we could just say, God, why didn’t you just destroy the devil? Why did we have to be brought into this great conflict?

 And we’re going to be talking more about the human interaction and the human intervention into this great conflict in our next episode. But before we go there, I just want to remind you of a text found in Romans chapter eight, where it says, “and we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, and to those who are called according to his purpose.”

And so, God will make a way, right? We know that in the end, we’re not going to question God’s wisdom. We may not understand how he’s getting to that point, but I promise as you continue to walk with me through this season you’ll begin to understand it better for yourself and hopefully trust God as he leads you on this pathway of life.

Right? Because we have such a short amount of time here on the earth and we really don’t have a lot of time to make a choice, but we do have a choice to make. And we can either choose to believe that God is good, that God is love, and that ultimately God has our best interest in mind. Or we can believe the lie that that God is a manipulator, that his law is restrictive, that he’s just out to, to take and steal our fun.

 And I’m here to answer those questions the best I can. You know, if you have questions about the character of God, if you have questions about the origin of evil, again, my email is Travis@adventology.com. I’d love to hear from you, and in the meantime, I want to encourage you to pick up the book Patriarchs and Prophets. It’s for free. You can get it online, or you can just order a hard copy of your own by typing patriarchs and Prophets into Google. But we’re going to be using this book as a supplementary guide this season.  All the chapters in the book will be episode titles, so it’ll be easy to follow along and know where we’re at.

Obviously, I’m not going to be reading from the book, but if you want to get greater insight into what we’re going to be discussing here on the podcast, then you can do so by reading those chapters.  And in the end, we’re going to end up walking through the entire Bible together in this season. So if you are blessed by this episode, let me encourage you to follow us here on Adventology.

If you can rate and review us, especially if you’re on Google or Spotify or Apple, a five-star review is much appreciated. That will help others discover what you have here on Adventology. And of course, the whole purpose of Adventology is to help you be ready for Jesus. 

So how did what we talk about today help you be ready for Jesus? Well, let me just recap with this. 

Remember, whoever controls the past controls the future. So what you believe about the history of God and humanity affects how you live your life today and ultimately affects your destiny. And so the devil has been calling God a tyrant since the great controversy began.

He continues to do so today, and so his main objective is to discredit God through discrediting his law. And why is that important? Because this will and will continue to be the great dividing line that will become more obvious as we near closer to the end between those who follow God and those who do not.

So, as we finish the episode today, let me just remind you to be ready for Jesus. Speak life, live love. Until next time, Maranatha.

Related Episodes on this podcast:
A08 Remember Me (Contemplating The 2nd Death)
A09 The Death and Resurrection of Planet Earth (The Next Millennium)
A10 Does God Believe In Hell? (Overcoming Our Cognitive Dissonance With God’s Character)

YouTube:
The Ultimate Fate of the Righteous and the Wicked
youtu.be/WK0tloGN_x0

Adventology · A58 The Two Resurrections: What Happens after Death with Daniel Royo

Video Link:
12 Signs of the Second Coming: The Third Angel’s Message
https://youtu.be/9bGJ7SKnpx0

Adventology · A57 Covid-19, Fear, and Understanding the Mark of the Beast with John Rengifo

Links:
timetogetready.org
steps-to-personal-revival.info

Adventology · A56 A Message to a Lukewarm Church with Faith Connovich

Links:
timetogetready.org
steps-to-personal-revival.info
www.revivalandreformation.org/uip/blog/h…-my-church

Contact Tony:
info@timetogetready.org

Adventology · A55 Time to Get Ready for Jesus with Tony Castelbuono

Connect with Courtney:

www.Fosterchurch.com

Adventology · A54 How To Find Peace When There Is No Answer with Courtney Jimenez

Dr. Tibbits has conducted original research on forgiveness and heart disease which he presented at The National Institutes of Health, Harvard University, The Mayo Clinic, Duke University, Loma Linda University, and Stanford University. He has also conducted research on stress management using principles from his work with those who must perform in extreme stress situations.
Over the course of his career, he has served as a pastor, pastoral educator and clinical counselor at Kettering Medical Center, Chief People Officer at Florida Hospital Orlando, COO of Loma Linda University Medical Center, and COO/CEO of Florida Hospital Tampa.
He lives in Florida with his wife, Arta.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QD4ultalgUY

www.facebook.com/DrTibbits

www.adventhealth.com/adventhealth-p…s/forgive-live

Adventology · A53 How Forgiveness Can Change the Story of Your Life with Dick Tibbits

Lynell LaMountain is the Director of Health Ministries for the Southern Union Conference, as well as co-host of the television show Lifestyle Magazine. In his previous assignment, he worked with the CREATION Health development team for ten years; CREATION Health is the flagship wellness program of Adventist Health System, the largest protestant health care system in the world. He has trained people worldwide in the CREATION Health philosophy and lifestyle.

www.creationlife.com
www.southernunion.com/ministries-services/health/
lifestyle.org

How to Connect with Adventology:

Twitter: @pastortwalk
Email: Travis@adventology.com
Facebook: facebook.com/Adventology1

Adventology · A52 Overcoming Negative Self-Talk and Self-Defeatism with Lynell LaMountain

To date, Jennifer has written or co-written ten published books: Testimony of a Seeker (Pacific Press, 1999), A Most Precious Message (Pacific Press, 2000), I Want it All (Review and Herald, 2003), and A Deep But Dazzling Darkness (Amazing Facts Publishers, 2004), and Dying to be Beautiful (Review and Herald, 2005), A Light for the Last Days (Amazing Facts, 2006), Finding My Way in Milwaukee (Review and Herald, 2008), A Gospel Story (Michael Ministries, 2009), Twice Upon a Time (Fire Engine Publishers, 2009), 13 Weeks to Peace (Pacific Press, 2011), and 13 Weeks to Love (Pacific Press, 2015). In addition she has written countless articles, which have been published in magazines such as the Adventist Review and Liberty Magazine.”

Twitter: @JenniferJillS
jenniferjill.org
www.abidecounseling.us

Adventology · A51 How to Emotionally Thrive though Times of Uncertainty with Jennifer Jill Schwirzer