Is the Locale of God

By Pastor George D. Cutler

Grace Gospel Ministry

The inception of God’s creative acts engender Eternal settings in the Heavenlies, as this subject matter imbues the host of all things ultimately displayed in and by God’s Decree (Ephesians 3:10). The settings of exhibiting the manifestation of God’s creative acts are strictly assigned to the Earth within the Time Capsule. Thus the Earth and its subject matters exude manifestation of the creation of life, as well as inanimate entities. Ultimately, all will reside in these manifested acts in the new Heavens and the new Earth, as the final testimony in their glorified essence of reconciled subject matters, in the completed revelations of God’s Eternal purpose. Hence, Creation actually began in the realm of God’s Divine Decree in the Heavenlies as perceptions in the mind of God. The manifestations or revelations of God’s perceptions are conveyed through their depiction in creation, which were adapted for display in the Time/ Earthly region.

In this light, the creation of things upon the Earth is not specifically stated in Genesis 1:1 but rather this is where reference is made to God manifesting His creation. Hence the statement of Genesis 2:1: “Thus the Heavens and the Earth were finished and all the host of them,” does not contemplate expressions in the antecedent verses as the enactments of things that did not previously exist. In fact, it is factual to express that manifestation of the Heavens resided previous to the manifestation of these proceedings in the Earth, hence, it is scripturally reasonable to state that the manifestation of the Heavens actually preceded what is stated beginning in Genesis 1:2 through Genesis 2:1. The manifested creation of the Earth engendered man as the principle part of God’s revelation of acts on the Earth, whereas the manifestations of His creative work in the Heavens engendered angelic beings, as the highlight of His revelations of acts in the Heavens. This is corroborated by the conveyance of Psalms 148:1-5, which states, “PRAISE the LORD, Praise the LORD from the Heavens: praise Him in the heights. Praise Him, all His angels: praise Him, all His hosts. Praise Him, sun and moon: praise Him, all the stars of light. Praise Him, Heavens of Heavens, and the waters that be above the Heavens. Let them praise the name of the LORD: for He commanded and they were created!”

The basic difference between what is evinced in the enactment and effectuation of actualization as opposed to manifestation of the Heavens and in the Earth is depicted by these distinct realms with their distinct kinds of created beings. Because manifestation of these testimonies are more pronounced in the Earth, spirit beings were adapted for the Heavens, which are not necessarily embodied, whereas mankind was manifestly created with a spirit, soul and body, as well as other Earthly creatures were necessarily fitted as such (material and immaterial natures) for the Earth. There are some unscriptural suggestions that the creation of the Heavens (including the spirit beings) and the Earth was all on the “first day,” as designated in Genesis 1:5. This is viewed by some who aver that there was “nothing existing before this Earth.” The conveyance in Psalms 90:2: “Before the mountains were brought forth or ever you had formed the Earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God,” is expressive documentation of God’s creative acts before the beginning of Times, in that the Heavens and the Earth were created by God’s Divine Decree before the manifestation of the “first day,” which aligns with rather than contradicts this Scripture.

Actually, the creation of the Heavens and the Earth was actualized in God’s Decree in the sphere of Timelessness. Genesis 1:1 merely portrays that the announcement was made with one short but majestic sentence: “In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth.” This could be properly termed the initial manifestation of creation wherein God’s absolute wisdom and power were displayed. What were formed in the Divine mind became the actual external expressions (manifestation of) the Heavens and the Earth by the Word of God’s power (Hebrews 1:3). God’s creation was not out of necessity for the purpose of certifying what He had perceived but it was for the testimony of His glory through manifesting the creation of man, man’s fall and redemption’s commutation in the new Heavens and the new Earth. Unlike books written by men that may be read from either left to right or right to left, God’s book (the Scriptures) must be viewed as documentation of the manifestation of all things from the end to the beginning, as they were eternally consummated in Him.

In this light, distinction must be made between the original manifested creation of the Earth and its subsequent reconstruction viewed as becoming the eternal habitation of (some of) designated mankind. Hence the beginning of the Time Capsule and commensurate sphere of Time actually precedes the point in time of the six days, which give the account of a new beginning but they are not the first beginning. The Hebrew word ~Ay (yom) is translated “day, time, today, forever, age,” etc., but it is also used in the sense of a “solar day,” as its denouement (the outcome of a complex sequence of events) can be determined by the context. The fact that the phrase “evening and morning” is connected with each of the six days of Genesis chapter one proves that ~Ay (yom) means a solar day, not a long period of time or progressive sequences of manifestations according to theistic evolution. This is confirmed by the fact that the seventh day, unlike the preceding six days, is not described in the same way, i.e., there is no evening to the day of God’s rest (Genesis 2:2-3). Apart from the original statement of God’s creation in Genesis 1:1, there are not actually any creative acts during the six days of reconstruction of the “without form and void” Earth. The manifestations of the creatures of water and air on the fifth day and of living creatures for the Earth, as climaxed by man on the sixth day, are highlights of Genesis’ revelations.

Hence, the distinctions between manifestations of the Heavens and the Earth, the original creation of Earth and its subsequent reconstruction firmly establish consideration of the subject of “Time” objectively. There are many references to “beginnings” in the Scriptures. Herein the prevalent focus is on the three major manifestations of creations, which involve the Heavens, the Earth, and the new Heavens and Earth. Before the first beginning of all things that was created, God was alone in eternity in which there is no time; therefore, there is no sequence of “before” and “after.” However, His creative manifestations in the Time Capsule, in effect produced temporal, historical beginnings but such were and are essentially with God present realities and therefore timeless.

In this sense, an informed order of Genesis 1:1, as view from revelations in the Grace Covenant, is of the greatest importance: (1) “In the beginning God....” in which “God,” as the Subject is eternal, in that He perceived everything at once. The word “once” is not to be understood in the sense of at one time in the past nor the present understood as Him “seeing” all things simultaneously. (2) Actually “Created” is the verb. Creation is the instantaneous activity of God, as all things were at first created by His means, in Him, in their essential perfection. Hence, created things were Ontologized (came into being or existence) in obedience to God’s command (His Divine Decree) (Colossians 1:16-17; Hebrews 11:3; Psalms 33:6). (3) “The Heavens and the Earth” are the manifested objects of God’s creation. The order of this verse places the eternal and timeless God highest, the manifested Heavens as beginning under God who is without beginning and then the manifested Earth as beginning under the Heavens that also had a beginning.

In the limitations of the knowledge-based linguistics of the pre-Grace Covenantal conveyances regarding the “Heavenlies,” there are statements, i.e., “...behold, the Heaven and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain You; how much less this house that I have built” (I Kings 8:27). As to the Earth, there are statements, i.e., “He stretched out the north over the empty place and hung the Earth upon nothing” (Job 26:7). “Have ye not known? Have ye not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Also the conveyances of Isaiah 40:21-22 are, “have you not understood from the foundations of the Earth? It is He that sits upon the circle of the Earth and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers...” For clarity sake, these expressions must all be viewed in the light of what is revealed to the Apostle Paul in the revelation of those things that were unknown prior to the enlightened volume of Truth that were hidden but are now comprehended in the Gospel of Grace, the Mystery.

The “Mysteries of God” (I Corinthians 4:1) are exclusively understood though elucidation by the Holy Spirit rather than their belief by human understanding. Hebrews 11:3 statement, “Through faith we understand...” does not indicate that faith is blind because genuine faith is the gift of God, which apprehends what the natural mind does not comprehend. To comprehend the scriptural concept of the mystery is tantamount to knowing the unknowable (Ephesians 3:18, 19). The Scriptures are replete with such glorious mysteries; explicating the essence of Eternity and the entities of Creation and Time. It was voiced by someone: “The sense, which one can fathom, is not the sense.” In is in the comprehension arena of human intelligence, the subjects of timelessness and time are both mysteries but timelessness is the greater of the two. Since humans are creatures of time, there is inherently in them some relevance to time that does not exist with timelessness. To human understanding, the phrase “In the beginning” was the beginning of time. However, it is foreign to human comprehension to fathom the reality that prior to “the beginning,” there was no time because there was no measurement of duration, as there was no duration to measure. In this sense, it is philosophically unsound to ask what God did before the beginning of creation.

In the Scripture’s consideration of human minds forming such foolish questions, the Holy Spirit conveys progressive views of God’s purpose in His Eternal workings of salvation to His elect: (1) the eternal Wisdom, which became the incarnate Word, was eternally with the Father (Proverbs 8:22-31; John 1:1, 14). (2) Christ was loved by the Father pro. katabolh/j ko,smou (pro kaht·ahv·ol·ees kos·moo) rendered “before the creation of the world” (John 17:24). (3) God gave (placed) the elect in Christ pro. cro,nwn aivwni,wn (pro khron·on ehon·ee·on) rendered “before Times, Eternal” (II Timothy 1:9). (4) The wisdom that conceived the plan of salvation for the elect was ordained by God pro. tw/n aivw,nwn eivj do,xan h`mw/n (pro ton ehon·ee·on ees thox·ahn ee·mon) rendered “before the world unto our glory” (I Corinthians 2:7). (5) God elected some to salvation pro. katabolh/j ko,smou (pro kaht·ahv·ol·ees kos·moo) again rendered “before the creation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4). (6) The blood of Christ for the elect was proegnwsme,nou me.n pro. katabolh/j ko,smou (proehg·nos·mehn·oo mehn pro kaht·ahv·ol·ees kos·moo) rendered “foreknown before the creation of the world...” (I Peter 1:18-20). And (7) the slain Lamb, names written in the book of life and the kingdom prepared from pro. katabolh/j ko,smou (pro kaht·ahv·ol·ees kos·moo) rendered “before the creation of the world” prove that the elect and their future were always God’s forethoughts in Eternity (Revelation 13:8; Matthew 25:34).

Hence, this proves that All of God’s Divine activities were in essence, actualized in His Decree before the creation of the world and manifested from (in) the creation of the world. Also, the manifestation of the beginning of the Heavens with its host of spirit beings is a different realm from that of mankind on Earth. This places into scriptural perspective the locale of creation, as exclusively abiding in the Eternal realm, wherein only God has excess to its determining factors. God’s timeless realm is the creation of but not the manifested habitation of created beings. Their regions (the Heavens and the Earth) had a beginning of which time is its concomitantly created entity. The Holy Scriptures’ innumerable references thus certify the locale of the new Heavens and a new Earth, i.e., “...I create new Heavens and a new Earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.... Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new Heavens and a new Earth, wherein dwells righteousness.... AND I saw a new heaven and a new Earth: for the first heaven and the first Earth were passed away...” (Is. 65:17; II Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1). Note that it is always in terms of the manifestation of the ultimate residency of creation in its transudation (permitted passage of) in the Eternal sphere, which is the exclusive abiding region of activity after the cessation of Time. The manifestation of the present Heavens and Earth, beautiful as they may appear to some, are under the curse. The new creation will be manifested in preparation for portraying God’s ultimate purpose, which All declare h` polupoi,kiloj sofi,a tou/ qeou/ (ee pol·ee·pee·keel·os soph·ee·ah too Theh·oo) rendered “the manifold wisdom of God” (Ephesians 3:10).