Chapter 1 Excerpt

The Bible is like a treasure chest full of multi-layered gems and nuggets. But sometimes it can be more like buried treasure, you have to dig. Even so, the hunt is always worthwhile. First you get the surface story. Then further digging often reveals types and shadows, clues pointing to other things. Often there are prophecies as well; some fulfilled, others yet to be.

But before digging in, it would help to understand that before time there was eternity. And something terrible happened in eternity past. A rebellion of unimaginable scope disrupted God’s perfect order when Satan, a top-ranking angel, began making accusations against God. The Bible doesn’t tell us what those accusations were. We can only image the evil things said about God’s character, about His motives, perhaps even His fitness and right to rule. But whatever they were, they had to be convincing lies because one-third of all the angels joined Satan in his rebellion.

But while we don’t know what Satan said, the Bible does tell us his motive. He wanted to be like God and to take His place!

So, what was God to do?

He could have easily killed the rebels. After all, they were created beings. His created beings. But that would leave Satan’s lingering accusations to possibly foment another rebellion among those angels still loyal.

It was a predicament.

How was God to once and for all illustrate His true loving character, and lay to rest all those lies and accusations perpetuated by Satan? And how was He to do this while, at the same time, allowing Satan to expose his true nature?

Since God knows the beginning from the end and everything in between, He knew what was necessary. He knew what it would take to fully restore His kingdom. And He knew it would come at great cost.

God’s plan was brilliant, magnanimous, and terrifying all at once. He would create a dimension called time, containing a set span of seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, years in which he would unfold His plan and display His true nature while exposing Satan’s, and thus repair the torn fabric of His kingdom.