Chapter 8a

Pre-existence, Memory,

and Angelfall

"… He has put eternity into the mind of man, yet so that he CANNOT FIND OUT what God has done from beginning to the end" (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

And the following verse from the book of Job, clearly sums up the entire message of Angelfall.

"For we are but of yesterday, and KNOW NOTHING, because our days upon earth are a shadow" (Job 8:9).

An Immense Subject

Time and relativity is one of the most fascinating subjects imaginable. The universe, space, and time are topics that contain a great deal of speculation within the scientific community. Thousands of physicists around the world devote their entire lives into an inquiry of how the universe began or came into existence. That is the motivating factor behind the new multi-billion dollar Large Hadron Collider (LHC) project in Europe—the biggest scientific experiment of all time. See,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider

Even though mankind can see the validity of relativity and all the potential possibilities, this is a realm of great mystery, as men explore and conjecture the mysteries of black holes, anti-matter, parallel dimensions, parallel universes, and other exorbitant concepts.

Looking into all the likely scenarios and possibilities—all of this will help us understand more fully both the nature and capability of God. And how time and eternity works (more or less).

… and the main question—how all of us pre-existed in heaven—yet we have no specific memory of any details. How is it even possible for each person to be born into this world, yet be held accountable for sinful actions that we don't remember or consciously know about? Why is God doing things this way? Why did He wipe out our memory before our physical birth on this planet?

Understanding time and relativity can help answer the question of how all of this is possible. You should enjoy this section of Angelfall immensely.

The Bible Does Not Tell Us

It is important to point out, however, that the Bible does not give us a lot of specific details about the actual events that occurred during the heavenly rebellion, i.e. the location where it occurred, the time it happened, or other such details (it could have occurred in another space/time dimension for all we know). Dozens of Bible passages, along with the theomatics data, simply DECLARE that this is what actually did occur—without "filling in all the blanks." Those specific items will no doubt be revealed on the other side of eternity (see Mat 10:26).

It's All About Redemption

All of this has to do with God's complex plan of redemption—how He is re-creating into His very own image certain of those who had fallen and are now being born again. There is a great process of dividing and separating taking place among all the individual people on planet earth. And for reasons known only to God, He chose to carry out His master plan on this lonely planet floating in the Milk Way Galaxy.

The souls of most people will ultimately be snuffed out in what the Bible symbolically calls the "lake of fire" (see Chapters 11a and 11b). A smaller percentage will be redeemed as "keepers." Numerous Bible passages bear this out—good fish from bad (Mat 13:48), sheep separated from goats (Mat 25:32), the wheat from the tares (Mat 13:29,30), the wheat from chaff (Mat 3:12), the wide road leading to destruction vs. the narrow way (Mat 7:13,14), the seed in good soil vs. other soils (Mat 13:3-9), and so forth. The Bible makes a clear and unambiguous declaration that all of mankind will be split in two parts—a few going to eternal life, but the mass going to eternal banishment (see Mat 25:34,41,46, also 2 Cor 2:15,16).

The Woman in the Wilderness—A Time of Nourishment

"The woman fled into the wilderness…. where she is nourished..." (Rev 12:14).

In the book of Revelation, it talks about the woman in heaven who was clothed with the sun and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of stars. Theomatics proves conclusively, that the woman is symbolic of Eve, "mother of all the living"—she represents the female aspect of the angels who fell from heaven and were cast down to earth. Her children are the stars.

The whole chapter of Revelation 12 is all about the woman and her confrontation with the serpent/dragon, and the stars (or angels) falling from heaven to earth—here we see the direct connection between the garden of Eden and the events that took place in heaven (see Chapter 5a for a lengthy discussion on this). Later the woman flees into the wilderness where she has a place protected by God so she can be nourished (Rev 12:6,14). In the Bible this world is now described as a spiritual wilderness—the exact opposite of the heavenly Edenic paradise.

Theomatics Note: Fleeing into the wilderness of the earth and being cast down, is essentially the same thing. The prodigal son also deserted or left "voluntarily," but had simultaneously sinned against heaven in rebellion. In Jude 1:6, it talks about the angels who deserted their own habitation. The Greek words, "and the woman fled" equal 122 x 12, and "into the wilderness" equals 122 x 4 (the key number in theomatics of the casting down). Just "the woman" by itself equals 470—the prime number to do with all the angels. Numerous other theomatic patterns bring all the aspects together.

Here is the important issue to do with all of this.

This fleeing into the wilderness has something evidently to do with our lack of memory. God is nurturing us, and this requires us to be regenerated, saved, and redeemed. And that could not happen while we were consciously part of the old angelic creation—our mind set being in an impenetrable and incorrigible state of rebellion. Our antagonism and hostility towards the Creator, along with the open and comprehensive knowledge of all that, would have logically made redemption from the heart impossible. We had to in essence be CONSCIOUSLY REMOVED from that atmosphere of hatred and animosity, and then be re-created from the ground up and from the inside out—an old creature being made into a new creature in Christ (see 2 Cor 5:17). This re-creation process had to take place in a different environment, i.e. this world. Of course this process only applies to those who come to Christ, repent of their sins, and are thus made fit for heaven. That is what the expression "born again" is all about.

Look now at this verse from Ephesians. It sums up perfectly everything that we just said.

"For He (Jesus) is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; Having abolished in his flesh the ENMITY, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making PEACE; And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the ENMITY thereby" (Eph 2:14-16).

Let us now return to the major discussion relative to this chapter.

The Limitless Universe

As Columbus who sailed the ocean blue in 1492—looking for new worlds—the limitless universe is now the unknown sea that beckons and draws men's interest. More and more scientists are asking questions. What actually is the universe? What does it hold for man? How was it made? How did it all begin?

Albert Einstein, the famed Princeton scientist, opened the door of the universe with his theory of relativity, which is now universally accepted as scientific fact. He proved that time was not a constant. The more recent world renown scientist is Cambridge, England professor Stephen Hawking. He took Einstein's unified general relativity and unified it with quantum theory. His popular books include titles such as, A Brief History of Time, Black Holes and Baby Universes, and The Cosmos Explained. Professor Hawking has ALS (motor neurone disease), and is in a wheelchair and barely able to talk with the aid of an electronic vocalizer. Yet he still travels and lectures around the world.

When astronomers analyze light from distant stars, they are essentially looking back in time at light that was created billions of years ago. Man probably never will be able to look back as far as the actual beginning of the universe, which allegedly happened at least 20 billion years ago (according to recent calculations—yet who really knows???)

The End of Time

Now here is an interesting fact. In the book of Revelation, it talks about a point in time when the seventh angel will blow his trumpet, and time as we know it upon earth will come to an end.

"And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that there should be time no longer" (Rev 10:6).

What does it mean "there should be time no longer"?

Time is not a Constant

As humans living on planet earth, the only sort of time that man knows about or comprehends, is linear time. Our natural instincts would tell us that time is something that has always existed and never changes. In other words, father time moves progressively forward at a predictable rate —as the clock ticks the seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years.

Yet time itself is but relative. In other words, time is not always one continuous line of past, present, and future. It can actually be changed.

It is theoretically possible to move from future time to past time and back again, similar to walking from one room to another in a house. Of course Hollywood many years ago made epic movies such as The Time Machine, where someone was able to crawl into a contraption and go back and "attend" certain events in history (such as being on the Titanic when it sailed), and also go forwards and "view" the future world a thousand years from now.

In Chapter 8d of this section, an illustration is given of how much time can change based upon the speed one travels through outer space. As an example, imagine two brothers who are born identical twins. One of them decides to become an astronaut and travel to the stars. On March 1, 2115, He takes off in his spaceship and accelerates to near the speed of light. As he approaches 186,000 miles per second, time begins to slow down. It will take over four years of earth time for the spaceship to travel to Alpha Centauri (our sun's closest star), but near the speed of light time on the spaceship has slowed to less than two weeks by earth's clock. After a short stay of several days, the spaceship again accelerates and returns to earth. When the astronaut arrives back on earth and steps out, he has aged only 30 days from the time he actually left. He arrives back on April 1, 2115 (according to the calendar on his watch). But the actual date on earth is March 1, 2125. His twin brother left behind on earth is now ten years older.

God and Time

The supreme fact to realize in all of this, is that God was the very first cause. He is neither time-bound nor space-bound, for He existed beforethe very Universe itself, before even the creation of space, or time, or physical matter (or what scientists like to refer to as the "big bang"). This fact is no doubt hard to comprehend.

"For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place" (Isa 57:15).

It was by the very Word of God—who existed before all things—that all things themselves had a beginning and came into existence. Of utmost importance is the fact that when God created the universe He also, apparently, created the beginning of time itself as we know it.

"By the word of God the heavens were of old" (2 Pet 3:5).

"In the beginning God created the heavens…" (Gen 1:1).

So the Word of God preceded everything, i.e. it apparently existed before "the beginning."

"In the beginning WAS the Word, and the Word WAS with God, and the Word WAS God. The same WAS in the beginning with God" (Joh 1:1,2).

The Bible clearly differentiates between time and eternity. When we say that God is eternal, that means that He is not restricted by time. He can travel into any time dimension—millions of years forwards and millions of years backwards. Time is not an issue with God whatsoever. However, this ability that God has is not limited to the physical realm. God lives in a spiritual dimension and realm, something that we as Christians accept by faith and can right now only access through prayer.

In fact, time is proportional and different to God. Look at these words from 2 Peter.

"But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" (2 Pet 3:7,8).

In the introduction to the forthcoming article of this section, Chapter 8c by Lambert Dolphin, he states the following.

"The created universe consists of a physical, material world and a spiritual realm—the latter is called in the New Testament "the heavenly places." In the heavenlies time has quite different properties than we usually think about in regard to the physical, material world. Man was created to live in both worlds (the material and the spiritual) at the same "time" and a study of time and eternity (a much neglected subject) carries a number of surprises. The physical universe has been drastically affected by the fall of Lucifer and his angels, and by the fall of man. This means we now live in a damaged, deteriorating "old creation. "Time itself has been altered by the fall."

When we die and our souls leave our bodies, we will enter into this spiritual dimension which will be just as real (however different) from the physical. In that "other" dimension time will no doubt take on different qualities.

Jesus, in the book of Revelation, promised eternal life to those who overcome (Rev 2:7 and 22:14). This person will evidently have the ability to travel throughout the universe, going forwards and backwards in time, apparently at will. This possibly will be one of the perks granted to those who overcome and are granted to eat of the tree of life.

Time and Sin and Everlasting Life

"And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power" (Act 1:7).

"We don't know tomorrow what our life will be" (James 4:14).

As humans living on planet earth, the future is hid from us. Think about this. We sin because we are locked into time. Sin results from time. We do bad things for pleasure and self gain and for profit, simply because we cannot see the future damage that will result. Our whole in life for most people is instant gratification. We live as though there is no tomorrow or consequences for what we do.

In eternity it will be impossible to sin, because we can always see ahead as to the outcome. How many criminals being sentenced, as they stand before the court receiving their life sentence, would love to put the bullet back into the gun? If they had been living in eternity instead of in time, they would never have committed the crime.

To have eternal life and live forever—this means that one is not relegated to time. All outcomes—potential and otherwise—will be clearly visible. In heaven it will essentially be impossible to sin.

All of the misery and sin and evil that exists, is the result of eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil instead of trusting the Creator for intellectual sustenance—man took it upon himself to figure out right from wrong. He wanted to TRANSCEND TIME and eat from the tree of life so he could be like God and live forever.

The Bible calls this the "broad way that leads to destruction" (Mat 7:13). Such a highway can only lead to death. God warned man of the consequences of disobedience, but he chose the easy low road knowing what would result, but not really caring either.

Johnny Carson, who apparently died a sinner, had a favorite expression he uttered thousand of times on his show over the decades. After hearing a good joke or story—"That's as funny as hell!" he would say. People headed for perdition don't give a rip. The idea of hell is a joke. They live only for their own fleshly desires in this world, with no sense of accountability to the God who created them. They believe that when they die and go into the ground, that is simply the end.

God's Knowledge is Infinite

To be in control of all that happens in time, One must live outside and above the realm of time, i.e. live in infinity.

Einstein said that nothing ever leaves the universe, it only changes (perhaps this is true even of our eternal souls). So I believe Jehovah had to think out every aspect and every hypothetical scenario before he created anything. He had to know even you and me as individuals when he created Adam himself. He had to work out all the equations of everyone's life. He had to know every evil imagination that each of His created beings would be capable of contriving. Simply because nothing can ultimately be destroyed (unless both the universe and time itself were destroyed).

The Lord has to know the future of everyone before they actually existed. And what they would ultimately do if let off their leash. He knows exactly who will end up in heaven and who will be damned to the second death and everlasting disposal. The Lord has the keen ability to search and know the hearts, to know and understand the depths and deepest purposes in the innermost part of every living being.

"Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do" (Heb 4:13).

"Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly" (Job 4:18).

"He telleth the number of the stars [angels]; he calleth them all by their names" (Psa 147:4).

Each of us fell in rebellion from heaven because we disobeyed by not keeping our vessel and temple clean—it was solely our responsibility to keep and protect our own hearts, because all the ISSUES of life and even our own existence emanate from that.

"Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life" (Prov 4:23).

Because God created His angels with a free and independent will, He has had to endure the pain of watching them perish due to their lack of knowledge, immaturity, and insidious arrogance.

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee" (Hosea 4:6).

Yet none of this rebellion caught God by surprise. He knew it was bound to happen, but He had to allow it to run its course in order to reach a higher plateau of relationship—which was God's prime focus—man ultimately created in the image of God—not the old angelic creation (the sons of God mentioned in the book of Job).

A Whole New Basis of Relationship

Look now at this profound verse from the book of Hebrews. This is one of the most significant verses in the entire Bible. God began a whole new basis of relationship with Abraham that evidently never existed before with angels. Abraham was able to actually call God His personal friend. And that is why he was able to look TOWARDS THE ETERNAL DIMENSION—the heavenly Jerusalem.

"For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham" (Heb 2:16).

"And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God" (James 2:23).

"For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God" (Heb 11:10).

It is important to point out that Abraham and all the patriarchs lived in tents. In the Bible tents are temporary and symbolic of time. They are not permanent structures because they have no foundation. That is why Abraham looked for something beyond that, i.e. the New Jerusalem.

God is God Because…

So then it is this author's opinion, based upon scripture, that the one factor that that gives Father God his power and authority and dominance, is the fact that He did indeed create time, and He is the only One in the universe that has the keys to time and can actually control what happens in time (Jesus is now the executer of all that John 5:22). For He is the only One that inhabits eternity. Look at these amazing passages, just a few from the Bible.

"For thus saith the high and lofty One THAT INHABITETH ETERNITY, whose name is Holy; I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones" (Isa 57:15).

"Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure" (Isa 46:9,10).

"God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were" (Rom 4:17).

"I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which IS, and which WAS, and which IS TO COME, the Almighty" (Rev 1:8).

"For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us" (1 John 1:2).

"And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand" (John 10:28,29).

Not only is God in control of our lives upon earth, but the glorious fact is that He guarantees us eternal life in the hereafter, something apparently equal pretty much to the Creator's own abilities. There will no longer be any Divine "secrets." Yet God will not hand this out in a superficial or flippant manner. There must first be a complete conformity to God's only begotten Son.

"Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2).

"For NOTHING IS SECRET, that shall not be made manifest; Neither anything hid, that shall not be known and come abroad" (Luke 8:17).

But if and when that happens, God will only allow it in such a manner as to bring glory to His own name and protects His interests as Creator.

"Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created" (Rev 4:11).

As created beings, our time is our existence. This time, during which we now are living, is a gift given to us by God Himself. We exist only because we are given a slot in time. Time is God's gift to us. And God possesses the right to change or deny that. Therefore, God controls His creatures by locking them into linear time and numbering their days upon earth (see Genesis 6:3). The day of our birth is predestined, and likewise the day we die. That is why God sees every event in every human life in its entire scope—beginning to end—as it has ALREADY taken place. This should give us as Christians great security, knowing that if we have genuinely repented and trusted in Him, He guarantees us eternal life in the hereafter.

Man and Free Will

Most Christians believe that God created man to have a free will. This was only true in heaven and in the garden of Eden. But not now! Man lost that free will due to sin and eating of the forbidden fruit (see the chapter that discusses predestination vs. free will, Chapter 15a). On this earth, we only have a will, but not a free will—man possesses an inherent willful nature that will always gravitate towards sin. The Bible says that we are now the slaves of sin (see Rom 6:16,17). The only way to be liberated is to repent and believe the Gospel, and allow God's Holy Spirit to rule over our own spirits. We must learn what it means to do God's will rather than our own will. That is what Jesus taught us when He prayed to His Father, "not my will, but Thine be done." When we accept God's will as the rule of our lives, we are in a certain sense stepping out of time into eternity.

"For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ" (1 John 1:2,3).

Time is at the Core

This subject of time is really at the core of everything and it explains everything. If you study the Bible cover to cover, there was an appointed time for everything. Everything took place in time and only at the proper time, and certainly things could not happen until the time was ripe. Even the birth of Christ could not take place until the time appointed.

"But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman" (Gal 4:4).

Knowing the future is a subject that has always captivated men's imaginations. Not being able to know or predict the future, is a fact that has always frustrated man. From Nostradamus to Hal Lindsey and Bible prophecy, and to the Bible code fallacy, man has always tried to pick holes and pry into knowing what the future holds. Fortunately, God has made this very difficult if not altogether impossible. Even the best psychics miss the mark on a regular basis. Even men of God within the charismatic movement, with supposed prophetic anointing, miss it by a mile at times. When one occasionally gets it right, people go bonkers. So God in His sovereignty does not allow that sort of thing to happen regularly because things would quickly spiral out of control.

The only "Beings" in the universe that know and understand the future, are the Father and Holy Spirit. Obviously, the Son Jesus in heaven now administers and executes everything. But the father's Plan is based upon eternal principles and the working out of those principles in individual lives, and the Holy Spirit carries out that plan. Since the Son cannot do anything of His own accord, but only according to the Father's eternal plan—for that reason He does not control or "know" the future (at least while He was on earth). He can only submit to the Father's plan.

"But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father" (Mar 13:32).

An Appropriate Illustration

Now we turn to the major question that this chapter is supposed to answer. How all of us pre-existed in heaven—yet we have no specific memory of any details. How is it possible for each person to be born into this world, yet be held accountable for sinful actions that we don't specifically remember?

The following illustration and imaginary scenario will give you a really good overview of how all this could happen. It all has to do with time and relativity. As we saw earlier from Job,

"For we are but of yesterday, and know nothing, because our days upon earth are a shadow" (Job 8:9).

God apparently removes our specific memory by transporting us to a different time zone of space/time dimension. When we are moved "backwards" in time, all memory of what took place in the present tense or "relative future" is automatically erased and removed. Putting it simply, it is impossible to know anything about the future if you have never existed in the future. Albert Einstein aptly said; "If we can predict the future the future already exists."

To illustrate this, let's look at a hypothetical and fictitious story, one that I totally invented and made up. This example could be easily applied to the events in anyone's live, including yours.

* * *

On June 29, 1993, Dick married Jane in a beautiful wedding ceremony in Texas. They had met each other in a most unusual way. About nine months earlier, on the 20th day of September, 1992, while driving home from his job at the Dallas-Forth Worth airport, somebody suddenly rear ended Dick at a stop light in his new Nissan sports car. Somewhat shaken and upset, after pulling over, Dick got out to get the insurance information from the opposing driver. Only to find himself confronted by a very sober and frightened (albeit attractive) young lady who was very apologetic at her lapse in concentration. Dick, taken back by her remorse, quickly altered his emotions from being upset to trying to soothe the situation. He took down the necessary information and drove away.

During the following week he needed to call Jane to get some specific information relative to the accident, and they ended up having a rather pleasant phone conversation. The visit somehow led to the discovery that they had both attended the same school in a city 100 miles away, but had graduated five years apart. In discussing further, they also found out that they had both at one time attended the same Baptist church. This led immediately to the discovery that they were both Christians, and they also had some more things in common in other areas. Jane was recently widowed after her former husband was killed in an industrial accident, and Dick was a bachelor in his mid thirties. The conversation ended with more pleasantries, and the possibility that they could perhaps get together sometime. After some consternation, a few days later Dick called Jane and they agreed to meet for lunch at a nearby coffee shop. The rest of the story is obvious.

After their marriage, Dick was suddenly laid off his job as a baggage handler with American airlines. Soon thereafter he discovered that there were no job opportunities with any other airline similar to his job description, and now he was forced to look for another career.

Electrical work had always fascinated him, and one day while reading an ad in the paper he saw a school that offered a special training program for would be electricians. Yet after two months into the curriculum the school had to close down due to a business catastrophe, and all the students were left hanging (no diploma and no refund either). After going through a time of anxiety, there was another branch office to the school that somehow had merged with another company, and they agreed to take on the existing students and complete the educational program for a token cost. But they were based in Seattle, Washington—a long ways from Dallas. This would require Dick and Jane to move clear to the Pacific Northwest, at least so he could finish his schooling. So after telling their friends good-bye, they packed their car and belongings and headed North.

Dick completed his education and shortly thereafter got a job as an electrician's apprentice in the Puget sound area of Washington. About that time their second child was born. Dick did well with the company, and eventually became a journeyman and opened his own shop. The year was 2005. They had discovered that they loved the Northwest and decided to make it their permanent home.

Dick also discovered a new hobby. Flying airplanes. A buddy at work had taken him for an airplane ride. Shortly after, with much consternation from his wife, he took flying lessons. Within the next year he got his pilot's license. This eventually led to a number of flying trips and outings throughout the Northwest to various fishing and vacation resorts, as he and Jane and the kids learned to love the outdoors and the convenience of getting there quickly in the new six seat airplane that Dick's company was able to purchase. Life was good.

Many more details could be added to this story. All the events that transpired in the lives of Dick and Jane carry a simple lesson. Even the smallest and most haphazard of life's events (such as getting bumped in the rear), can alter a person's entire life dramatically and forever. Each person reading this account, no doubt has their own version of the Dick and Jane story.

The Time Machine

Now let us totally imagine for a moment the following possibility.

Suppose it were possible for us to take both Dick and Jane, and put them in a time machine, and then move them back from 2005 to the 19th day of September, 1992—the day before the car accident. At that point in time, neither one knew that the other person even existed on the planet. If they had happened to bump into each other at the grocery store, or perhaps they saw each other at a friend's house, they would not know each other from Adam (or Eve). They would look at each other with total unfamiliarity, the same as the hundreds of other people we all come into contact with on a daily basis.

Now let us suppose that someone over the years had video taped all the events in Dick and Jane's life—doing a complete documentary on their lives together, with scenes from their courtship, their wedding, the birth of their children, their new home in Seattle, Dicks Cessna airplane… and so on.

Now sitting in two rooms on the 19th of September, 1992, are Dick and Jane (who have never yet even seen or met each other). And they are going to watch a movie covering the next thirteen years of their lives.

How would something like this affect a person?

Perhaps on first impression, Jane does not like Dick. "I married that man?!!!" "I am going to leave my family in Texas and move to a far away place, married to an electrician and crazy pilot?"

As you can no doubt see, if something like this actually were to happen, it would create nothing but confusion. It would totally mess up everything. It would actually be very traumatic? How could all of the events in the recorded movie take place, if we knew ahead of time what we are going to do before we even did it (could I change that instance the day when my foot slipped and I fell off the ladder?).

The truth of the matter is, for something like this to even occur—it would be impossible. No one could function normally, as things could be theoretically changed that had already occurred! Again, as Albert Einstein stated; "If we can predict the future the future already exists."

Only if God could somehow, supernaturally, insert the two to three hour movie episode into a nanosecond of September 19, then moving them forwards back to 2005 where they left off. God would have to completely erase even the memory of that nanosecond from Dick and Jane's mind in 1992 when they saw the movie (so the future could occur naturally as it of course, already had).

The message to all this should be obvious. The only thing we know for sure as human beings is what has happened in the past. We call that history. What happens in the future is something we can only hope to know or control. No one can print next Thursday's newspaper until Thursday arrives. As any grave digger will tell you, tomorrow is promised to no one.

The Kennedy Assassination

Another good example of this principle occurred on November 22, 1963 in Dallas, Texas. As the presidential caravan wound its way through the city streets, and thousands of people were happily waving at president Kennedy and first lady Jackie, little did anybody know that up in a window of the Texas school book depository building, a lone gunman was waiting with a high powered rifle resting on cardboard boxes. As the presidential limo turned the corner into Dealey plaza, seconds before the shots rang out—the president with a big smile on his face had absolutely no knowledge that he only had seconds left on this earth. The Dallas police, the FBI, the Secret Service—absolutely no one at that instant in time, had any comprehension as to what was about to occur in FUTURE space and time.

Similarly, this total lack of knowledge of the future is an exact parallel as to the same degree our knowledge of the past and pre-existence in heaven has been wiped out and removed from our mind and thoughts. As there was no knowledge of the fact before the shots rang out in the Kennedy assassination, likewise TO THAT SAME DEGREE we have no knowledge of the fact from another place in space and time, i.e. our individual pre-existence in heaven.

What is the Point of This Discussion?

The key fact I am trying to emphasize here, is very simply this. Returning to our little illustration, if it were actually possible to move Dick and Jane backwards in time, from 2005 to the day before they met—it would be categorically impossible at that point in time for them to have any knowledge of the future events that would eventually transpire in their lives (just like the Kennedy assassination). There would not at that very moment be even the slightest mental knowledge of events yet to occur.

Similarly, God has taken each fallen angel and placed him individually into this earth's space/time dimension. The angels would be placed "back" at a point in "1992" to live their lives from that time forwards (in earth's dimension), not having any prior knowledge of a pre-existence (or the events experienced in another time sphere).

Picture time as a constant. God could have a creation in any part of the universe running at different times. Let's suppose that there was a vast realm of angelic beings residing in the Andromeda Galaxy (the closest galaxy to our own). Let's suppose that this event took place ten thousand years from now (based upon earth's time). We could all have been a part of that angelic creation. Now God would simply move us out of that time slot, through a apace/time tunnel of sorts, and place each of us beings into the earth time slot—and we could exist after, yet before, the time that ran concurrent in the Andromeda Galaxy—the place of our prior existence. There would be absolutely no memory or consciousness of that fact or any events that had occurred.

That explains how it is indeed possible for us not to have any recollection or memory of our prior rebellion or existence in heaven.

Since God controls time, this scenario is entirely possible. That is how existing beings can be moved around without having any prior knowledge of what took place wherever and whenever—yet they retain being the exact same person—still containing a heart shaped by the thoughts and events that had taken place prior. Moving through the tunnel of space-time, all memory prior is lost, yet the same identical person emerges with all the same rebellious nature, thought patterns, and natural inclinations. If their hearts were corrupt then, they will be equally corrupt now. They just don't know the specifics of how they got to be that way. Their nature and disposition is set.

That is precisely why the sinner is naturally pre-disposed to rejecting the gospel. The Bible teaches that he has no inherent desire to come to the Savior that he might have life (John 5:40), and submit his will to God.

Please understand that these possibilities and this discussion is somewhat speculative. Yet the Bible and theomatics unequivocally proves that all men upon earth were an integral part of a massive angelic rebellion in the heavenlies that was cast down to earth. Those are the hard cold facts. Therefore, the fact that we don't remember those facts must by necessity have to have an explanation—as to why? The discussion here is simply an attempt to fill in the blanks.

COMMENT: An interesting thought I have often wondered about, is if after we get to heaven, we will perhaps be able to come back to past earth time, and actually witness earthly events? Of course we could not do this in the physical, but would have to stand and observe everything from the spiritual dimension.

Predestination

Also, this brings in a good explanation of predestination, i.e. every single event in every person's life is pre-determined and already mapped out (even the choices we make). This is the case in hundreds of instances relative to actual people in the Bible and the events that took place in their lives. In order for the Bible to contain the truth and message that it has, all the stories had to unfold themselves exactly as God had pre-determined (otherwise the Bible would have never been written and Jesus would not have died on the cross for our sins). The idea that man is in charge and we can determine everything during our own lives is a total fallacy. If it was not true for the people in the Bible, then why you and me living today?

People are probably able to achieve things down here that parallel who they were up in heaven. Individuals who attain vast financial wealth, celebrity status, achieve great things in sports, attain political success—all of that has been pre-determined. Many people struggle to obtain success and never achieve it. For others, everything falls into place at the drop of a hat. Elvis Presley constantly stated that he believed everything he achieved was predestined and he was simply fulfilling some sort of a plan (true, but certainly not the Holy Spirit's plan).

When it comes to the subject of salvation and who is ultimately saved (and who isn't), the Bible unequivocally teaches predestination (the five points of Calvinism). While this is a hot topic for debate among those who believe in the sovereignty of God vs. human responsibility, it is none-the-less taught throughout Scripture.

Time Truly Changes Nobody

Time does not really change who a person fundamentally is. For illustration, let's say that Dick is a very temperamental person by nature. He can get irritated easily and does not have a lot of patience. He is impulsive. He has other personality traits as well, some very positive. Jane is an extremely loving person. She is not the least bit selfish by nature, and will always go without so others can have. By nature she is a giver and not a taker.

These personality traits that both Dick and Jane have, will probably never change a whole lot over the years. If we could take both of them, and transplant them backwards thirteen years, they would still be the same identical people. They obviously would not have the knowledge or experiences in life that can alter a person somewhat. But they would still be who they are, intact. This is true of everybody.

Self help courses and listening to "Dr. Phil" on television can definitely have an effect. But the core of who we are can only be managed, never changed.

So just like the story of Dick and Jane and their marriage, these two people would simply have no specific knowledge or "memory" of what had not yet taken place. But they are still the same individuals. What is interesting, is that you can take any person, no matter what kind of a life they have lived. And you can go back to the time they were as a child. They will still remain the same identical person, just their environment changes. Even school teachers, looking at their students forty or fifty years later, can still see the same person they saw in the third grade class.

In fact, it is this author's assertion that no one fundamentally changes their inherent nature any time during their lifetime. Unless God supernaturally changes them by the Holy Spirit. True lasting change can only happen when an old creature becomes a new creature in Christ (2 Cor 5:17). We are WHO we are and we are WHAT we are—from the cradle to the grave. Our nature is like the seed of a fruit tree. An apple seed will always grow apples. An orange tree will forever be an orange tree. The only way we can ever grow fruit acceptable to God, is to be GRAFTED into the olive tree which symbolizes the Holy Spirit in scripture (Rom 11:23,24; Rev 11:4).

You can take a pig from the hog farm, give him a bath, power him with perfume, and put a pink bow around him. But as soon as the opportunity arises, he will do what all pigs naturally do. That is the nature of the beast. That is why throughout the Bible God describes sinful men as brute beasts (see 2 Pet 2:12, Jud 1:10). They live by their instincts rather than by divine logic. This also has a whole lot to do with the "mark of the beast." The beast of Revelation chapter 13 all relates to the fall from heaven and the beast nature itself. It cannot be redeemed!

Why is it people enjoy violence and sexual perversion so prevalent on television and in the movies? Few would do the things seen in the movies if they had the opportunity (mostly out of fear of going to prison). But if we had the opportunity and could actually get away with it, many would not hesitate in a heartbeat to succumb to the lower nature. The fact that godless people enjoy sitting and watching others perform what they cannot do, shows that the same evil is inherent by nature in us all, and that is why Hollywood is so entertaining and endearing to the masses. Better than 75% of everything Hollywood produces is straight out of the pit of hell and directly opposed to the righteousness and holiness of God. Even worse, the sea of perversion on the internet is directly in rebellion against God the Creator, all incurred during the fall from heaven.

Now the Fall from Heaven

So likewise, when God cast the angels from heaven to earth, just like Dick and Jane, He moved them "backwards" in time—to a place where it was impossible for them to remember any specific facts of prior "events," or even their own previous existence. Yet they retained the same exact persona. Nothing changed as far as character or inherent nature is concerned. Given the opportunity, just like the pig, all of us will invariably go right back to the sins of our formulated heart and former self interests.

"Having eyes full of adultery, and that CANNOT CEASE from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous PRACTICES; cursed children" (2 Pet 2:14).

That explains everything that criminal psychologists have to deal with on a daily basis. For example, it is a proven fact that people who are sexual offenders rarely if ever change. That is why numerous states have tried to pass laws incarcerating high level sex offenders for life, irregardless of the fact they completed their sentence.

Furthermore, all this points to the fact that the sinful events that take place in every person's life, have actually been predestined. The wicked things we commit down here are a direct reflection of who and what we were up there. A case in point from the Bible is Judas Iscariot. The Bible makes it unmistakably clear that everything Judas was and Judas did, was for-ordained hundreds of years before he was even born. In fact, Jesus made the remark that it would have been good if that man had never even been born at all (Mark 14:21). Yet the things Judas did were of his own volition. Judas betraying Christ is a type of all the angels turning against their Creator and betraying Him. They wanted to be gods themselves and do away with the Lord of heaven.

It will make me very unpopular to say this, but I do not believe that little babies are born innocent. The Bible teaches no such concept as an "age of accountability" (where if a person dies before they are a certain age, usually "age 12" according to some, they automatically go to heaven—if that is true—praise God for abortion). Only God knows for sure what happens to infants who die. It may be possible that babies born to dedicated Christian parents are sanctified by the faith of their parents.

When little babies are born, they are actually fully developed adults in God's eyes, because of the fall. They simply don't remember or know anything. But their spirit of rebellion is the same. It just needs time to ripen. Perhaps this could explain the exception cases, where a young child has the mentality of a genius. A little three year or four year old girl can play the piano like Chopin. Or a seven year old boy graduates from a university with a bachelor's degree. These kid geniuses are really no different than anybody else (their intelligence eventually levels out be the same as the rest of the population). The question is, how did they get so smart so fast? It's like the knowledge was already there in their minds.

The Heavens are a Scroll

So from this little illustration of Dick and Jane, we can see how all of this is now possible. Our lack of memory in no way gets us off the hook as far as the final judgment is concerned. In fact, our sinful nature here on earth that we are born into, condemns us all the more. In the day of judgment, the crimes and immoral acts we commit during our sojourn on earth, can only reinforce our guilt from the time we consciously disobeyed God and ate of the forbidden tree.

"And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and THE SCROLLS (books) WERE OPENED: and another scroll was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the scrolls, according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they WERE JUDGED EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO THEIR WORKS. And death and hell (Hades) were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire" (Rev 20:12-15).

"Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels" (Mat 25:41).

Every theomatic pattern proves conclusively that the above is talking about the fall from heaven and the final judgment of the fallen angels. The judgment "according to their works" is talking about what we all did UP THERE—only reflected and carried out more fully by our sinful nature DOWN HERE. As explained in other portions of Angelfall, the "books" or scrolls being opened is actually talking about the things we committed in heaven. There are several verses in the Old and New Testaments that refer to the fall of the angels from heaven, as the heavens being rolled up AS A SCROLL. In the book of Revelation the scroll is finally opened, and everything we did up there was recorded in the scroll (or heaven) and each fallen angel will be judged accordingly.

"And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree" (Isa 34:4).

"And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together" (Rev 6:13,14).

So in the above verses, the events that occurred in the heavens with the rebellion and fall, are rolled up in a scroll; and then during the judgment the scroll is unrolled where all the rebellion can be read in the light of day (Rev 20:12). So God uses the illustration of the scroll, to show us how time is actually rolled back and the events that occurred THEN are NOW the basis for the pronouncement of final judgment.

The rebellious angel in us that came from heaven, will be the person we are until the lake of fire, that is, unless we are baptized into Christ's death, burial and resurrection, and take up our cross—there is simply no other way to get out of the death sentence incurred in the fall. We must acquire a new nature by eating the flesh and drinking the blood of the Son of Man. We have to learn what it means to die to self or we will never make it back to the Garden and into the Father's arms.

The Religion of Atheism

All of this easily explains the fertile ground from which spring such concepts as evolution and atheism. There is not a stitch of scientific evidence supporting evolution. In fact, some honest evolutionists themselves admit that the whole thing is a wild theory at best (where are the billions of missing links one would expect?) Yet they don't know what else to believe. Why? Because the human psyche CANNOT ADMIT the reality of God. Our fallen nature cries out against it.

"And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb" (Rev 6:15,16).

And why can't we stand to see God's face? Or admit there is a Creator? Because to admit that there was a Creator is to also admit that we are accountable to Someone bigger than ourselves. That is the real driving force behind spiritual vermin such as Stephen J. Gould (he knows better now). Note: Stephen J. Gould, who died in 2002, was the world's major proponent of "scientific" evolution, who literally despised and crusaded vehemently against creationists and Christians.

The Tunnel Experience

Here is something interesting to consider. A lot of people believe in what are called NDEs (Near Death Experiences). There are many hundreds of accounts of these, people who when they die, describe how they come out of their body, view their body laying back on the bed, and are able to simultaneously see both humans and other "spiritual beings" (demons and angelic beings) all around them. What is interesting about these accounts is that they all describe an identical event—eventually starting to go through some sort of "tunnel" experience. I have often wondered if the tunnel is not the moving of the soul into another time dimension? Perhaps back to where we came from.

More Comments

As stated earlier, God controls the universe and his creatures—by controlling their existence in a specific space/time zone. When God created the angels, apparently, they did not have the freedom (or were limited) as to ability to travel through time or exist in different space/time dimensions. Adam and Eve in the earthly garden were confined to a specific place and a specific linear time sequence. Two verses in the Bible (although it refers to men upon earth), clearly shows that God places His creatures within the CONFINES of "times" and "bounds."

"And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the TIMES before appointed, and the BOUNDS of their habitation" (Act 17:26).

"When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the BOUNDS of the people according to the number of the children of Israel" (Deu 32:8).

If the garden of Eden represents the heavenly paradise (and Adam and Eve upon earth is representative of the bigger picture in heaven), then we can only draw the conclusion that the existent state of the angels was one of confinement in linear time. In fact, in the book of Jude, it talks about this very thing—angels who deserted their place of confinement.

"And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day" (Jude 1:6).

It is my belief that the angels who rebelled, did so by trying to get to the tree of knowledge (having God's knowledge) and subsequently the tree of life—were actually trying to figure out how to get out of time constraints so they could unlock the secrets of the universe and be Gods himself and live forever.

This is again happening today with thousands of physicists worldwide investing in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) project in Europe. The whole idea behind this massive scientific experiment, is to try and figure out the origin of the big bang and understand how all things came into existence in the first place, ultimately figuring out space/time itself. As wonderful and educational as all of this may be, it is expressly part of the fall from heaven—mankind is determined to get to the tree of life and live forever (apart from having to worship His Creator). There is a driving SPIRIT behind all of that.

God Places Limits

That is why God won't stand for and He will not tolerate any of His created beings who exist in time, trying to figure out the future and the eternal (see Chapter 10a on heaven's gate). We are deliberately limited by time, and knowing the future is something that is strictly forbidden (even the Old Testament prophecies in the Bible were veiled and little understood until AFTER their fulfillment). That is why God's wrath is upon all forms of fortune telling and the occult, and also upon the evangelical Christian world and the heresy of pre-millennial/dispensationalism, i.e. trying to figure out the future by unlocking the secrets of Revelation and so called "Bible prophecy." Better than 95% of everything taught and written on Bible prophecy and the end times will probably be proven false in the end.

"And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you…" (Acts 1:7,8).

"But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father" (Mark 13:32).

Only the Father knows the future. And He ain't tellin.

Stop and think about this for a moment. If we actually knew the future, we would not be able to function normally. If you knew the exact day and manner you would die (even at 101 years of age in your sleep), you would be forever restless. Everything in our lives would be paced according to that, and it would control everything we did—all we would think about would be that dreadful approaching day. Furthermore, if you actually did know the day you would die, perhaps you would try to take steps to stop it from happening. Nothing could happen in a normal flowing manner if we knew the future.

God, obviously, does not want us to live our lives in that manner. We function much better if we don't even think about the future and just live spontaneously. That is also why most folk act as though they are going to live forever (it never ceases to amaze me to hear of some rich old buzzard 87 years old, breathing oxygen for his emphysema, still out there trying to make multi-million dollar business deals).

God Does Know the Future

There are rare exceptions where God will reveal certain future events through a supernatural word of knowledge, or through an anointed prophetic word. But such instances are extremely rare, and usually only intended by God to get somebody moving in a certain direction (such as a missionary call). The promises and expectancies that God gives us will always be fulfilled if we are obedient, but they will only be fulfilled in God's time and in God's intended way, and usually never how we expect or even anticipate. God deliberately does things this way to keep life spontaneous, otherwise we would start gauging our entire lives on some prophetic or predictive element. Of course, if God does give us a promise of sorts, then after it happens, we are able to look back and see God's faithfulness. Yet God's way of leading, almost 100% of the time, is a step at a time.

Nothing happens in this world unless it is in God's sovereign will to allow it (such as 9/11). If men knew the future, they could actually change and divert things from happening, which would totally mess up God's sovereign plan. Be assured that God protects our knowledge from the future with a vengeance. We will end this discussion with the same verse shown at the very beginning.

"… He has put eternity into the mind of man, yet so that he CANNOT FIND OUT what God has done from beginning to the end" (Ecclesiastes 3:11).