(For advance book sales or to make arrangements for a book signing, contact the author, David R. Tolson, at drtolson@verizon.net or at www.facebook.com/drtolson.)
Introduction
With one swift jolt, Jehovah God thwarted an uprising that had been meticulously planned. [l]ucifer, one of God's elite, created beings, secretly plotted to ascend above the angelic host in power and prestige in an effort to be like God. This was no noble objective to be like God, as Christians attempt to be like Jesus. This was an attempt to become equal to God in glory and majesty. Pride, according to Isaiah, convinced lucifer that he could share in God's glory:
12.How art thou fallen from Heaven, O lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! 13.For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into Heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: 14.I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High (Isaiah
According to the testimony of Jesus, lucifer and presumably his band of ill-advised followers were cast from Heaven like lightning: And He said unto them, I beheld satan as lightning fall from Heaven (Luke
There may not be clear answers to many of the questions surrounding the heavenly insurrection, but one thing is certain, lucifer is a highly cunning creature. It took great guile to persuade one third of the angels to turn their backs on God. [l]ucifer's plan that deceived the angels was so deceptive and so persuasive; it is my belief that God refused to place it in the Scriptures so that His earthly creation would not be deceived by it. If one third of the angels were deceived by this lie, certainly many men and women would be challenged not to believe it, causing them to question the salvation plan of Jesus Christ.
Although the handbook for the satanic ascension into partnership with God Almighty has not been revealed through the Scripture, satan's notion of equality with the Divine has been carried out by numerous societies down through the ages: The ancient Egyptians practiced polytheism, as did the ancient Greeks and Romans, as well as a number of modern day sects—Hinduism, Mahayana Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism and Shintoism in the East, to name a few.
[s]atan has mistakenly been reviled down through the ages for being less than intelligent for his rebellion and subsequent removal from Heaven. This may be true, but intelligence, or the lack thereof, is not what motivated lucifer. He was driven, not by stupidity, but by a compulsion to be like God. His ambition was not quenched by being full of wisdom or perfect in beauty as discussed in Ezekiel 28:12: Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
This insatiable desire to be like God seems to suggest, among other things, that the object of his passion was a need to be worshiped as God is worshiped. Although the Scripture seems to be silent regarding the sequence of events surrounding the rebellion, I believe satan's encounter with Jesus during His forty-day and forty-night fast gives us a key to understanding what took place:
8.Again, the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; 9.And saith unto Him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. 10.Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve (Matthew 4:8-10).
[s]atan's bold attempt to have Jesus worship him is part of a theme of false worship that is found throughout the Scripture. He has inspired every civilization to bow down in worship to false gods. There are a few notable instances of this corrupt form of worship that bears attention: Aaron created a molten calf for the children of Israel to worship while Moses was on Mount Sinai in Exodus 32; King Nebuchadnezzar created an idol in Daniel 3 and required the inhabitants of Babylon to bow down and worship it when they heard the music play; and, the anti-Christ will bask in the worship of all men and women during his reign in Revelation 13.
After his heavenly rebellion, satan was cast into the earth where he cajoled Eve into rebelling against God by partaking from the forbidden fruit in Genesis 3. She subsequently offered the fruit to Adam, who ate it as well. The sin of Adam and Eve caused their descendants to be born in sin and shaped in iniquity. What may have appeared to be a benign act by the first couple was the forerunner of every evil act ever committed in the earth: rape; pillage; murder; genocide; abortion; and all other forms of human aggression.
Certainly God could have prevented satan from entering the Garden of Eden and causing the turmoil that we now see in the earth. However, it is self evident that His plan permitted the temptation of Adam and Eve, and our first parents miserably failed their test. Despite their sin and our subsequent need for redemption, it was not the rebellion of Adam and Eve that initiated God's plan to redeem His creation, but it was the rebellion in Heaven that compelled God to initiate the plan of redemption. The need for redemption began before the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. The Holy and Righteous God had to consider the uncomfortable reality that a rebellion had taken place in Heaven. This luciferian revolt left stains of iniquity in the holy city of
The need of a heavenly cleansing placed a greater burden of responsibility on the shoulders of Jesus than simply saving us from our sins. This is certainly not to diminish His mission to save us, which was an enormous task within itself, but to reveal the dual purpose of His crucifixion. As you will see in Flawless, the death of Jesus, along with His resurrection and ascension, not only redeemed humanity from the fall, but it also purified Heaven from the stains of sin.
Redemption was the divine coordination of scores of specific events that had to take place in a sequential order, as a means to cleanse Heaven and bring mankind back into a proper relationship with God. No one can fathom the responsibility that Jesus had when He embarked upon His journey to redeem God's creation: If the lineage of His earthly ancestors had been altered slightly; or if He had not been baptized by John the Baptist; or if Mary Magdalene had touched Him after His resurrection; or if He had stayed longer than three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, the plan of redemption would have failed. God's plan had to be perfectly executed.
Flawless spans the course of human existence to reveal aspects of redemption that heretofore have never been expounded upon in the way that I will demonstrate them. A few of the highlights of the book are as follows:
H [l]ucifer walked with God in the Garden of Eden and most likely developed a relationship with Adam and Eve before his tragic fall and prior to tempting them to partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil;
H The birth of Jesus was the result of God=s spoken Word fertilizing the womb of the Virgin Mary;
H The death of Jesus severed His first marriage to Israel, opening the way for Him to legally marry the New Testament church—“... until death do us part” (Volume II); and
H Once redemption is complete, Jesus will no longer need the use of His human body.
These and many other subjects will be explored in Flawless. Volume II of this series will demonstrate scripturally that although the judgment of the wicked will be eternal, their punishment in the lake of fire will not be. After the judgment has concluded, God will do away with the lake of fire and everyone in it. Also, in Volume II, I will explore one of the greatest mysteries of the Bible. God has revealed to me the meaning of what the seven thunders uttered in Revelation 10, and I will share that mystery with you for the first time:
3.And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. 4.And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard a voice from Heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not (Revelation 10:3-4).
I approached the writing of Flawless by using the following standard: We can only know as much about God as we know about His Word; therefore, the more we understand His Word, the more we will understand Him. With this in mind, I have set out to accomplish two reasonable objectives with this book: I will start with my second objective, which is to demonstrate how lucifer interrupted the holiness of Heaven and the immortality of humanity by very deceptive means. By examining lucifer's pattern of stealth and deception, it will give the saints of God a deeper understanding into the mind of their enemy. The Chinese Art of War says, "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."
My first and most challenging objective for writing Flawless is to show the perfect nature of God's plan for redemption. This will be a challenge, because though I have been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, I still live in human flesh, which carries severe limitations when attempting to interpret the perfect plan of the omniscient God. It may sound like a paradox that a human mind can harness the mystery of the incomprehensible God; however, Jesus granted me a glimpse into the mind of His heavenly Father.
Well-intentioned students of the Bible may doubt that new light can be shed on the subjects of redemption and judgment; two stories which are as old as civilization. However, as I began this project, I relied on our heavenly Father to make known unto me a deeper mystery of His plan to redeem humanity and judge the wicked. You now hold in your hands the manifestation of His revelation to me.
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