Before time began, in the dark foreshadows of eternity, God created the heavens and the earth, “and the earth was without form and void” (Genesis 1:2). In Psalm 90:2, it says, “Before the mountains were brought forth or ever You had formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.” In the first verse the earth was alone, without the “world,” but in the psalm, world was added. Apparently, the earth is just a planet, but the world added to it the inhabitants—plants, animals, creatures, people. We will consider later how this fits into the picture.

When God created the heavens, included were the angels and the hosts of heaven. At the top of the multitude of angels was one who decided he was going to be like God, not under His subjection. Ezekiel 28:1 and following, as if addressing the King of Tyre, the Lord gives the account of this top angel and how he rebelled and left his position as the head of the band of angels, taking with him one-third of all the angels. How could he do this? Apparently, this one who came to be called Satan, or Lucifer, was created with “free moral agency.”

Having that ability of choice, then, Satan turned from God, giving up his morality, and establishing his own “immoral agency” which has absolutely no morality whatever. It is filled with lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. This he did in opposition to God.

The intent of this rebel is also repeated in Isaiah 14:12-15: “How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations, for you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; 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.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit.”

That term, “free moral agency,” is familiar to Bible students. The online dictionary, Wikipedia, describes a “free moral agent” as one who is “capable of acting with reference to right and wrong.”  So Satan was created with knowledge of right and wrong and the ability to act on that knowledge. And he did just that, becoming the very first to commit the unpardonable sin—complete rejection by and from God and obvious truth.

Perhaps God responded to Satan’s intent to be like God with the suggestion that he take this earth that was “without form and void” and see what he could do with it. No wonder, then, that it remained “without form and void,” for Satan can create nothing. He only counterfeits and duplicates what God has already done. Note what happened when Moses and Aaron went before Pharaoh, and Aaron threw down his rod. It became a serpent. Then the magicians threw down their rods, and they became serpents also. Aaron’s serpent swallowed those two, however (Exodus 7:9-12).

The truth of Satan’s empty promises, in contrast to those of Jesus, is displayed in John 10:10: “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” No wonder the earth was left “without form and void,” if that was the actual way things happened in the beginning. Satan is the thief.

Were Adam and Eve created with free moral agency? Yes, they were, as we see how they exercised their option of doing right or wrong when they ate of the forbidden fruit. What happened then? They lost their relationship with God, but He provided a blood-stained solution for their desperate need, as Genesis 3 reports the account.

In the secular world, agencies make an illustration that may make sense of this principle in spiritual matters. An insurance agency is owned by a company that offers insurance policies to consumers. They contract with an agent to represent them in contacting consumers. The agent is an independent agent having authority to represent and offer the owner-company’s product. Likewise, somewhat, God created “free moral agency” and owns that “product.” In creation, He gave it to Lucifer, who decided to create his own agency and offer “immoral agency” to all who follow him.

God’s agency seemed to take a fall when Adam and Eve rejected God’s “free moral agency” and immediately became agents of Satan’s “immoral agency” for all mankind. Their “product” became “immorality” and eternal death in opposition to God’s product, “morality” and eternal life. Thus, we have that spiritual warfare continuing on and on.

God, however, had already formed a better plan, as explained in this article. He would offer a redeeming plan that, once accepted, would permanently close the door to eternal death, the plan offered by Satan and his agents. He would pay the ultimate price for Satan’s agents and offer them an agency relationship that is part of His family as adopted children. 

Let’s follow the trail. What happens to those born of Adam’s lineage? They are born outside of God’s favor, spiritually dead in trespasses and sins and pointed to certain death, both physically and spiritually. Even a child unknowingly displays their condition as they exert their demands for selfish purposes. That presents a problem for all mankind, for all are descended from Adam.

“But God,” a prefix to the solution for all mankind—that was put in place also “before time began.” Titus 1:2 tells us that “in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began.” It came in the form of a gift, as clearly told in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” The plan worked out like this: “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him” (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Romans 5:18 further explains how it fits together with the universal problem of Adam’s sinful nature: “Therefore, as through one man’s offense judgment came to all men, resulting in condemnation, even so through one Man’s righteous act the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life.”

Why was it in the form of a gift and not just readily applied to all mankind? It is because a gift must be received, accepted, by the one for whom it is meant. That is, in this case, the need for a person to exercise his moral agency of acting on the knowledge of right and wrong that is embedded in his conscience. God does not force Himself upon any person. The old idiom, “you can take a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink—but you can salt his oats” is how it works in God’s economy.

Romans 3:20 says, “By the law is the knowledge of sin,” and it is the law of God that is embedded in man’s conscience, the inherent knowledge of good and evil that works in man’s conscience to convict him of his sinfulness and the need for a Savior. We can see how this worked in the conversion of Saul of Tarsus in Acts 9:1-9. Jesus said to him, “Why do you persecute Me? It is hard to kick against the goads.” But man cannot exercise moral agency as a descendant of Adam, born so from birth. That is the bottom line regarding repentance, for no one can repent from being born of Adam’s heritage. Only by being born again can one enter the gate of heaven.

So how does God handle that major roadblock? He makes another gift available. Look at Ephesians 2:8-9 for that gift: “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” It is the gift of faith.

John 6:29 puts it this way: “This is the work of God that you believe in Him whom He sent.” And Paul told the Philippian jailer, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31). A gift not accepted is of no value to the intended receiver; but to the one who does receive Christ, the gift has eternal life!

The summation of this topic is this: Beginning with the angels in heaven, God created beings with “free moral agency,” that ability to make right and wrong choices. Adam and Eve lost their created morality and took up the immorality of Satan’s “agency.” They became slaves to the dominion of sin, having the knowledge of good and evil, but controlled by evil. However, God’s plan from the beginning was to redeem mankind from that desperate situation, “Not by works of righteousness [which they could not do], but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5).

Having been now restored to morality, the born-again believer is told, in Philippians 2:12b-13, “…work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” This is the bottom line of walking by faith and choosing to please God in all choices made along the way.

Contact email:  andwegetmercy@gmail.com

Of course he was; God gave him wisdom because he never asked of Him anything of worldly value. Even in his failure in his later years, he shows us an example not to follow. He was King of Israel forty years and died at sixty years of age. Somewhere in those years he had acquired seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines, and they turned his heart away from the Lord with their idols and false religions.

Nevertheless, Solomon’s proverbs and the Book of Ecclesiastes are full of wisdom suitable for all ages and all generations. Particularly are the applicable to this generation in defining the pathways to success and to failure. Note this one at Proverbs 9:10:

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

What that says in “down home” terminology is anything that is called “wisdom” which does not have the fear of the Lord backing it up is pure foolishness, especially when members of mankind are an issue.

Fear of the Lord has two facets—one is a reverence for His attributes, His character; and the other is a respect for His justness, His judgment for sinfulness. In the description of the rebellion of man against God by Paul in Romans 3:10-18 is the final summary in the statement, “They have no fear of God before their eyes!” It is truly a just indictment of those on the left side of many social and political discussions today.

To that point, Solomon made an interesting statement in Ecclesiastes 10:2, saying, “A wise man’s heart is at his right hand, but a fool’s heart at his left.” 

If there were ever a political statement in the Bible, that would be it. The presentations of ideas and theories for their vision of an America of which they would lead into the future show a depth of foolishness that can only be identified as being from the bottomless pit. One seems to be trying to outdo the other in all their racing toward socialism and bureaucratic government control.

One common theme they all seem to subscribe to is “man-caused climate change,” which once was called “global warming.” It is the topic of the campaign the Democrats have mounted. It is a diversion instigated by Satan to offer people an option that is not of God; for who would ever think that maybe God had something to do with the changes in the climates? It is not that climate changes have not been going on for these many centuries. The real reason for the apparent increase in intensity of hurricanes, earthquakes, flooding, fires and such natural disasters is that which is noted in the Bible accounts of the last days before God’s judgment falls upon the world. The list of geological and other disasters in Luke 21:7-19 backs this opinion up.

Another interesting phenomenon is found in Romans 8:20-24:

“For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it in hope; because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body.”

Does the shaking and rumbling of an earthquake resemble a groaning deep within the earth? Jesus said, in Luke 21:28, “When these things begin to happen, look up, for your redemption draws near.”

Let’s turn to another topic in the end-time arena, that called “the falling away” in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. The widespread attack on every facet of our society cannot be denied. And it is primarily in the hands of the left, politically. Who is it that supports rebellion against law and order in the streets, in sanctuary cities, and in the fight to close our borders to illegal aliens? It amounts to wholesale surrender to total degradation of morality. I think I once heard that mankind was getting better and better, that our caveman age of the past was gone forever.

A sub-heading under that topic of open rebellion is the subtle, but open, collapse of moral integrity with the sexual revolution which reveals itself in the “gender manipulation frenzy.” Our English language is being changed to favor the demands of the LGBTQ+ proponents. A person’s gender is to be assigned at birth, not accepted as physically evidenced at birth—male or female.

What foolishness, what hopelessness for each child so manipulated! A child whose gender is not accepted as physically revealed, assigned incorrectly by parents so influenced, will obviously end up a mental wreck. It is beginning to be apparent that the push of the LGBTQ+ is to make natural childbirth gender abnormal, thus giving those of that persuasion more comfort from their deep inner conviction of the lack of moral integrity in their lifestyles. It is obvious that a person is born with the inherent knowledge of what is right versus what is wrong, morally. And that ache of conviction haunts the LGBTQ+ continually. It then becomes necessary that society accept them as normal so as to have a sense of rightness.

That is my opinion, of course, but what a burden to bear when turning to Jesus Christ for redemption and His transforming power is available!

Mankind—man and woman—were created as such in the image of God. Specifically, the Bible says, “Let Us make man in Our image,” thus bringing the total Godhead into the issue. (It is interesting that the appearance of the Angel of the Lord in the Old Testament—as in Genesis 18—is in the form of a man, as well as whom Stephen saw “standing by the throne of God” in Acts 7. Did God see that pre-creation picture that became the man He created after time began?)

The rejection of God that has become prevalent today is giving those of that frame of mind their rightful label, as Psalm 14:1 says: “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’” Therefore, it is apparent that no godly wisdom can come from that person, but only foolishness. When man turns away from God in rebellion, He describes the result that happens to him in Romans 1:20-29, truly a terrible destiny:

 “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.

“Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.

 “For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

“And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers,  backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.”

Will the world be saturated with moral degradation as it was in the days of Noah and of Lot when Jesus returns for His redeemed ones? (Luke 17:26-30).

Contact email:  andwegetmercy@gmail.com