7d) A Recap of the Big Picture Model
A "model" is a conceptual framework, an orderly system of thought, within which one tries to correlate observable data, and even to predict data. Let's recap the Big Picture model:
God had angels, so we know He did not need to create "sub-natural" humans. My Big Picture plan says that He created our entire 3D universe as a temporary demonstration of free will and the consequences of certain choices that the angels were trying to decide on. I call this the Sin Drama. By consequences, I don't mean punishment in hell or the like. I mean that the wages of sin are death, ie if you do not want God watching your every move, and you keep trying to separate yourself (hide) from God, then your actions will ultimately lead you to self-destruction in a world that does not work. This is hard even for angels to believe.
So, a third of them are deciding to follow Lucifer, hoping that they can get the kinks out of his new independent life style. It is not working. There is war in heaven as the Bible says. Maybe they'll eventually get it working. Then again, maybe Michael (the Image of God in angel form) is actually correct and they'll never get it working. If so, then they will self-destruct and take the entire angel world down with them ! If that happens, then there is no one left to tell the tale and God needs to start over again, and then again, and again,…. Until finally God introduces a solution. He reveals it to His angels via the archangel, Michael, who speaks to them face-to-face:
Let's make Man in our image and let him play out the drama on a 3D stage where we all can watch. I say he'll self destruct and bring down the entire stage. As he does, if you watch you will understand that:
1) There is no need to try to
hide from Me. I am indeed watching your every move, as I must, but you still
have moral free will. I am not pulling your strings.
2) If you try to exist separate from Me, it will actually cause you to
eventually but surely die (self-destruct).
3) If you never forget what you learned from this drama, then sin will never
rise again anywhere in your universe.
[Note: I suggested that the eternal message demanded that God carry out this drama in order to achieve His original and eternal purpose, ie that all His created, free-willed beings live in a perfect kingdom of heaven for ever after.]
So, you can see that mankind must go through all the motions until he actually self-destructs. If God were to intervene before that happens (even though He surely wants to) then some angels would feel that mankind would have pulled himself out on his own, if only God had given him a little more time. The demo would have failed.
This is why we have sin and injustice in our world today and why it will only get worse. However, from the beginning, God has set up the circumstances to emulate the situation in the Angelic universe. Eden was like that universe when it was "perfect". Lucifer is put in Eden to introduce the same issue that the angels were dealing with. Mankind was set up to fall. If he had not fallen, then God would need to do another demonstration until he did.
In order to keep the demonstration on track and to not drag on forever, God will intervene on occasion. However, He controls situations and does not control our wills. He does things to make us think and then we control our choices. He can take lives when decisions have become final, because these people have already decided to take themselves out of the equation. Their lives are no longer a variable. God merely gives them more of what they really want and that kills them.
I see this happening when God leads His people into battle. God is offering people a choice through His agents. The "bad" guys really want to kill these agents and are willing to die to attempt it. So, they die. The critical factor is that the angels watching must agree that whatever God is doing, He is not forcing the demonstration. Mankind is still self-destructing, even though God is trying to give them opportunities to change. His agents tell the bad guys what the demonstration is all about, but they reject the agents. If some "innocent" people die as well, God can deal with them off line. Bad guys, he stops thinking about (in any active scenario), Good guys eventually get everlasting life. Meanwhile the demonstration goes on.
The rest of this Plan involves the escape clause. You see, God could have been accused of creating thinking beings (humans) a little lower than the angels, only to die to prove His point. That sounds like an evil God. So, to prove that He is a loving God, He has had from the beginning, a plan of salvation: Even though they die, yet I will give them everlasting life, if they choose to have a relationship with Me. I will raise them up on the last day and change them from mortal to immortal and from human to angelic beings so they can live in this angel universe with us.
This love that God must demonstrate to the angels, must also be conveyed to the humans. God (Michael, the Image of God) must give up everything (as the Archangel) and the Father/Thinker must think Himself up as another human (Jesus of Nazareth). Jesus is literally born of woman and God’s Holy Spirit. As prophesized, Jesus is the one and only Son of God. He must come to live with us and show us what the Father is like and how we humans can actually relate directly to Him. If we decide on our own free will that we want to do that; then even though we are sinners and we must therefore die, He will later give us everlasting life and a permanent relationship with Him.
He takes on our sins, to show us that our sins will not keep Him from loving us. Yes, we must die to prove His point. But, we have chosen death whenever we sin. He must die a human death too, because He takes our sins on Himself. No greater love has a man for someone than to give up his life for them. What a plan. Very dramatic. All the angels are watching us closely.
Therefore, when a human dies (Ecc 9:5) never is it for him to participate in this world again. We never again become human nor do we as angels ever show up here again, unless God makes a special exception. God made specific exceptions when He raised up dead people through his human agents, eg Lazarus in John 11 and the ruler’s daughter in Matt 9: 18-26. Humans have returned as angels in a very few special cases (eg Moses and Christ Himself), but then they are not human but angelic / ”glorified humans”. Both cases require a special act of God. There is nothing normal about these occurrences. Christ the human is totally dead and yet He has risen from the grave just as we will someday. The human Christ was changed into an angelic being (Michael again - but with the holes in His hands), as we will be on that last day (1 Cor 15:52).
16 August 2001, updated November 10, 2001
For more on this and a response to any questions, please email any comments to nasamike@nasamike.com