Feast of Tabernacles 2024 - Changing the Physical Environment

After Atonement comes the Feast of Tabernacles, a seven day festival to celebrate the kingdom of God and the millennial rule of Christ and the saints on the earth.  The first of the seven days is a holy day, a day of rest and assembly.  Traditionally, on the other days we assembly every morning for services, usually having double services on the weekly Sabbath as it comes during the Feast.

After Christ returns and the saints are resurrected to immortality, as represented by the Day of Trumpets (1 Corinthians 15:50-57, Revelation 11:15-19), and after Satan is put away as pictured by Atonement (Revelation 20:1-3), Christ and the saints will rule the earth for a thousand years (Revelation 20:4).  Our rule will bring happiness to mankind.  The Feast of Tabernacles represents the happiness of both the millennium and the kingdom of God for eternity.  To help us picture this, God gives us our second tithe to enjoy during the Feast, money we can spend for festival expenses, food, drink, entertainment, and recreation.

There are many scriptural passages that refer to the happiness and joy of that time.  Here is a list of some of them:    Amos 9:13-15, Ezekiel 39:25-29, Zechariah 8:23, Isaiah 9:6-7, Isaiah 11:1-16, Isaiah 12:1-6, Isaiah 2:2-4, Isaiah 25:6-8, Isaiah 35:5-10, Jeremiah 31:31-34, Psalm 98:4-9, Micah 4:1-4, Habakkuk 2:14, Isaiah 65:24-25, Psalm 22:27-31, Psalm 47:1-2, Psalm 97:1, Jeremiah 23:5-8.

After the millennium, there will be a general resurrection as pictured by the Last Great Day, a time when billions of people will be brought back to life.  This will be a massive number of people that will have to be clothed, housed, and fed.  Eventually, they will be able to provide for themselves from their labor, but to start off they will need help for a time.

It is during the millennium that the people on the earth will prepare to help those who come up in the general resurrection.  They will not just be growing food, building houses, and making clothing for themselves but also for those who will come up in the general resurrection.

This will be an opportunity for them to learn the give way of life by practicing it.  They can practice the way of loving their neighbors as themselves by sacrificing, laboring, and contributing to the massive work of preparing for the billions who will come up in a general resurrection.

During the millennium the environment will be changed.  Deserts will have water (Isaiah 35:1-2, 6-7, Isaiah 41:18-20, Isaiah 43:19-20, Isaiah 51:3).  The nature of animals will be changed (Isaiah 11:6-9, Isaiah 65:25).  Waste areas will flourish.  A great deal of work will be involved in changing the environment and ecology.  It is not just a matter of making aggressive animals tame.  If animals no longer kill animals for food, their diets will change.  They will have to eat plants.  That means other changes will be required in the digestive system, teeth, etc., as well as instincts.  Also, reproductive instincts and processes will have to change so that there is not overpopulation of species that are no longer eaten.  Foxes can be changed to not kill rabbits, but what happens to the rabbit population without predators to keep it in check?  Too many rabbits will destroy the plant cover, then the rabbits will starve.

And whatever changes are made to the plants and animals will have to be made to their DNA so the changes are passed on from generation to generation.  Everything will have to be planned in detail to produce a well-functioning, balanced, and stable ecology.

Changing the environment will be a big job.  Who will do it?

Christ has been given all power and authority over the universe (Matthew 28:18), and no doubt He will do it.  But we, the resurrected saints, will be His wife.  Christ will rule the earth, but we will help Him in ruling the earth - we will rule with Him.  Likewise, will we also assist Him in making the changes to the animals, bringing water to the deserts, and any other changes that need to be made to the earth?  I think that is a possibility to consider.

Mr. Armstrong has taught, I believe in Mystery of the Ages and The Incredible Human Potential, that he believed it was man's destiny to bring life to the planets of the universe.  So the resurrected saints will have to know about physical life and its complexity and how to work with DNA or other means to work with life in all its variety.  We will also need to know how to change the surface of a planet to make it hospitable for life, having the right temperature and atmosphere and bodies of water for example.

Perhaps working with the environment on earth for the millennium may be a starting point for us to begin to learn about these things.  Perhaps Christ will have us assist Him in making these changes just as we assist Him in ruling the earth.

This is something we can consider the next time we review the scriptures about the wolf dwelling with the lamb and the lion eating straw like the ox (Isaiah 11:6-9).  Perhaps this may be an interesting topic to talk about as we discuss God's truth in the spirit of iron sharpens iron.

"As iron sharpens iron, So a man sharpens the countenance of his friend" (Proverbs 27:17).

"Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, And the Lord listened and heard them; So a book of remembrance was written before Him For those who fear the Lord And who meditate on His name.  'They shall be Mine,' says the Lord of hosts, 'On the day that I make them My jewels.  And I will spare them As a man spares his own son who serves him' " (Malachi 3:16-17).

 

Atonement 2024 - Why Did Lucifer Sin?

Atonement is an annual holy day.  It is a day of rest, assembly, and fasting.  We go for 24 hours without food or drink from sunset to sunset.  It is commanded in Leviticus 23:26-32.  Its meaning is described in Leviticus 16:1-34 and Revelation 20:1-3.

It represents the putting away of Satan, but it also, like Passover, represents the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.  Both we and Satan share in our guilt for our sins.  He tempts us into sinning, so he shares in the responsibility for our sins, but we make the choice.  Christ paid the penalty for our share of the guilt (Leviticus 16:15-19), but Satan pays his own penalty for his share of the guilt (Leviticus 16:20-22).

Satan is the ruler of this evil society (Luke 4:5-7, John 14:30) and deceiver of mankind (Revelation 12:9).

After Christ returns and the saints are resurrected, pictured by the Day of Trumpets, Satan is bound and put away and not allowed to deceive or tempt mankind, pictured by Atonement.  This lasts through the millennium.  With Christ ruling the earth and Satan not around anymore, there will be peace and happiness for a thousand years all over the earth.

There are two passages in the Old Testament that describe Satan's history and nature, in Isaiah 14:12-15 and Ezekiel 28:11-19.

Satan, originally named Lucifer, was not created evil.  He was perfect in his ways, for a time, until he sinned (Ezekiel 28:15).  This can raise the question, why did he sin?  Did he not know the consequences for himself?

Apparently not.  But he could have known.

Did not God warn him?  Did God not tell him if he turned to sin, to vanity and self-centeredness, that he would suffer the penalties of sin, his mind would be corrupted and he would be miserable forever?

It is evident in the Bible that it is part of God's loving nature to warn.  God's warnings fill the Bible from God's warning to Adam about the consequences of taking of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:16-17) to warnings to anyone who adds to or takes from the book of Revelation (Revelation 22:18-19).  So God, who does not change (Malachi 3:6), must have warned Lucifer and all the angels about the consequences of sin.  God's motive was love.

So how could Lucifer not know?

To know what God reveals requires two things - God must teach us and we must believe God.  It takes both instruction and believing the instruction for us to learn.  Without belief, instruction does no good.

For Lucifer to believe God's warnings, he would have had to exercise faith to believe what God said.  Without faith in God's word, he couldn't know for sure.  Without faith, he couldn't know for sure if God was telling him the truth.

He had no experience with sin, either his own sin or anyone else's sin.  Apparently, Lucifer was the first being to sin.  Before that, there was no sin and no chance for Lucifer to learn by experience or observation.

He had not suffered.  As long as he was perfect in his ways, as long as he lived righteously, he knew nothing but happiness.  He didn't know what suffering was.  To understand and know God's warnings about the misery that would come upon him if he turned to vanity, he would have to believe what God told him.  He would have to take God's word that the warning was real.

That was his choice.

He could have believed God, believed God's warnings, and avoided sin.  But he didn't.

Instead, he turned to vanity, perhaps as an experiment.  Maybe he wanted to try vanity, to try the pleasures of sin, to see and observe how things turned out.  Would he be more or less happy?

If Lucifer was the first to sin, and apparently he was, there was no person or outside force to tempt him.  God did not tempt him and the angels did not tempt him.  He had not sinned, so there was no evil nature within him to make him sin.

It was a deliberate, thought-out choice by Lucifer.

He should have believed God.  He should have trusted his Maker.

Instead, he practiced the way of vanity.  Maybe this was the first scientific experiment.  Lucifer decided to try vanity, to try sin, to see if it made him happier.  So he ignored God's warnings.  He chose the "scientific method" in a sense rather than the word of God, just as he teaches mankind today.  Don't believe God, he thought.  Try things, observe the results, and draw your own conclusions.  Find out for yourself from experience.  Then follow your own reasoning.  Isn't this the way of life this world follows?

This is the way of Adam and Eve when they took the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:1-7).

There was a time when Solomon tried seeking pleasure to see the result (Ecclesiastes 2:1-16).  It did not produce a good result for Solomon either (Ecclesiastes 2:17-20, 1 Kings 11:1-40).

We should believe God, as Abraham did (Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3, Galatians 3:6-9, James 2:23, Isaiah 51:1-3).  We should walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7, Habakkuk 2:4).

After Lucifer sinned, the penalties God had warned him about took effect.  His mind became twisted.  His vanity corrupted his wisdom (Ezekiel 28:17).  His mind became filled with hate and resentment.  He became God's enemy, and God changed his name to what he had become - Satan.  He became a liar and the the father of lies (John 8:44).  He became a murderer (John 8:44).  His evil nature makes him miserable.

Can he go back?

No.  He would have to think clearly to do that, and he can't anymore.  He can no longer think right to even try to go back.  His mind is now perverted, and he cannot think rightly to straighten it out.  His choice has become permanent.  This is what God had warned him about, but he didn't believe God.

Perhaps this is why God places such an emphasis on faith.  He wants us to believe what He says.  He doesn't want another Lucifer in His kingdom.  He wants faith, the willingness to believe what He says, to be a permanent part of our character.

After Lucifer sinned and became Satan the devil, he set about persuading the angels under his authority to follow his example.  They did, most or all of them, apparently a third of all angels created (Revelation 12:3-4), and they suffered the same penalty.  Their minds became twisted and perverted.  They became demons, unclean spirits.

How did he do this?  Probably, it took time.  Mr. Armstrong has taught that Satan no doubt worked on individual angels one at a time at first, persuading each that God was unfair to them, arousing bitterness and resentment in them, and then it would spread to the others.  There could have been a long history of quarrels and conflicts among the angels on the earth as this played out over time.

After seeing what happened in Worldwide after Mr. Armstrong died, I can imagine another stage in the process that would precede and prepare the ground for building resentment and bitterness in the angels on earth over imagined injustices.

Satan first had to weaken the foundation of the way of life the angels had been living when they followed God's instruction.  What was that foundation for the right way of life?  Love.  Mr. Armstrong called it the "give way of life".  Having an outgoing concern for others.  That was the exact opposite of selfishness, self-centeredness, and vanity.  Satan had to weaken that foundation in the angels' way of life.

Maybe he did that a little at a time.

In Worldwide, the doctrinal changes that followed the death of Mr. Armstrong were sometimes justified by someone saying that Mr. Armstrong told his successor in private to make the changes.

Satan could have done something similar with the angels regarding the give vs. the get way of life.  He could have started with a slight change in doctrine.

I have no doubt that God taught all the angels directly the give way of life and that Lucifer's job was to continue to teach this way of life to the angels, just as in the Church of God Mr. Armstrong set doctrine and had the ministry teach it to the brethren.

But Lucifer, now become Satan the enemy of God, could have started to subvert the teaching of the give way of life little by little in his teaching and supervising and ruling the angels on the earth who were under his authority.

He could have continued teaching the give way of life, but not 100%.  He could have introduced compromise here and there.  He could teach maybe 1% the get way of life and 99% the give way of life.  And when questioned by the angels under him, "Didn't God teach us that we should live 100% the give way of life at all times?", Satan could have replied something like this.  "You are right, we should all mostly live the give way of life, the way of love, as God taught us.  But that doesn't mean all the time.  God talked to me personally about this and told me to teach you that a little bit of the get way of life, a little bit of selfishness and looking out for ourselves, can be a good thing - it leads to a more balanced, less extreme life.  The main thing is to live the give way of life most of the time, but not always.  Yes, God told us to live the give way of life 100% all the time, but He said this for emphasis.  He did not intend you to do this literally all the time.  A little bit of 'sin' can be a good thing, if done in balance."  

This could undermine God in the eyes of the angels under Satan in two ways.  It would introduce sin into their way of life, even only a little bit, and this would begin to produce a penalty, a loss of wisdom and perversion of mind, the same perversion of mind Lucifer went through went he first sinned.  But it would also slander God, accusing Him in a subtle way of lying to the angels when He told them to live 100% the way of love, the give way of life.  Though Satan could seem to be supporting God, his hidden message would be, you can't always trust what God says.

Then, little by little, Satan could teach the angels more and more of the selfish, vain, self-centered get way of life.  They would be weakened more and more.  Their minds would become corrupted as they became more and more vain and selfish.

Then, they would be ripe for Satan to begin building resentment and bitterness over imagined unfair treatment, one angel at a time, then watching it spread till all the angels were totally corrupted.

Of course this is speculation.  The Bible doesn't give this kind of detail.  But I think most people who were in the Church during the period that changes were being made after 1986 can remember and imagine how this is possible.  This is something like how changes were justified.  So it is possible.

The lesson for us is, don't compromise with God's word.  Obey Him 100%, always.  Sometimes one scriptural passage can help explain and balance another scriptural passage, but our doctrines and our lives have to be based on God's word.  Live the give way of life.  Serve the brethren.  Put sin out of our lives.  Do God's work.  Trust and believe God.  Study the Bible and live by every word of God.  Put zeal into it.

" 'For all those things My hand has made, And all those things exist,' Says the Lord.  'But on this one will I look: On him who is poor and of a contrite spirit, And who trembles at My word' " (Isaiah 66:2).

"But He answered and said, 'It is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God" ' " (Matthew 4:4).

If we do these things, we will succeed in God's purpose for us.  We will effectively do His work and we will be in His kingdom.