What Happened on the Cross. Nick Peros

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СКАЧАТЬ God establishing this covenant with Noah, that covenant did not exist. To establish the covenant means to bring it into being.

      Likewise, in 2 Samuel 5:12 we are told that David knew his earthly throne was now “established” by God, meaning it was now “brought into being”—put into place, as a certainty to unfold. Until God had established David’s throne, David had no throne; to establish his throne is to set it up, or to bring it into being.

      In Leviticus 26:26 we are told how God gave his laws and regulations to Israel, and in doing so, he “established” these very laws and regulations. Once again, prior to God establishing his laws and regulations with Israel, those laws and regulations did not exist in Israel. The act of establishing the laws and regulations is what brought those laws and regulations into being in Israel. In every instance throughout the Bible, to establish something means to bring it into being.

      Likewise, when Psalms 9:7, 93:2, and 103:19 tell us God has “established” his throne in Heaven, it is telling us God created his throne, or brought it into being in Heaven. This means until God established his throne in Heaven, it did not exist. Heaven was created to be the seat of God’s throne within his own creation. The fact the Bible repeatedly tells us God established his throne in Heaven affirms God’s throne had a beginning, which likewise implicitly affirms Heaven, as the seat of God’s throne, itself had a beginning. That beginning of Heaven is the same “beginning” referred to in Genesis 1:1. Once God created Heaven within the fabric of time and space, he then chose Heaven as the location where he would establish his throne within his own creation.

      The establishment of God’s throne in Heaven was an important event, for with the establishing of God’s throne in the created Heaven, within God’s creation, God himself came to fully and physically inhabit his own creation.

      God Inhabits His Creation

      God is certainly greater than time and space since he is the creator of both. However, God is not outside of time and space; rather, since “the beginning,” God is fully within time and space, fully inhabiting both time and space—he is in his creation.

      A clear analogy to this is found in a man who builds a house. Since the man is the builder of the house, the man is always greater than the house which he has built, for he is the maker of the house. But once the house is finished, the man then goes to live inside the house and inhabits the house. The man is always greater than the house, since he is its maker, but he is now living within the house of his making, inhabiting it. Once he inhabits his house, he is no longer outside his house, but within it.

      It is exactly the same with God and his creation. God created time and space, as well as the rest of all creation, including Heaven. He created Heaven as the place where he would establish his throne within his creation so he himself would fully and physically inhabit his own creation, not remain outside of it. Just like the man who builds a house, God is always greater than his creation, for he is its maker. But just like the man who builds a house and then enters into it to inhabit the house, God has come to dwell within his creation, to inhabit it fully. So it is not true to say God is outside of time and space; rather, he dwells within it. As a result, God is always greater than time and space and is always greater than his whole creation, but he is not outside of it, rather he is in it, inhabiting it fully. The establishment of God’s throne within the created Heaven is a testimony to the fact that God inhabits his own creation.

      The Ascension and Resurrection as Evidence

      of the Physicality of Heaven

      We know the resurrected Jesus Christ is God incarnate, who, ever since his incarnation, is eternally a physical human being with an eternal, resurrected human body of flesh and bone. His incarnation was not temporary—only lasting thirty-three years—but it is eternal; Jesus Christ is incarnate forever. Jesus himself describes his resurrected body: “See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have” (Luke 24:39 NIV). Jesus makes it clear his resurrected body is a physical, human body of flesh and bone, and not a spiritual body. Throughout the New Testament, the physicality of Jesus Christ is affirmed, clearly telling us he is incarnate God in human flesh:

      Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. (1 John 4:2 NIV)

      The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. (John 1:14 NIV)

      It is with this same incarnate physical human body that Jesus ascended into Heaven in Acts 1:9, to sit at the right hand of the Father (Heb 1:13; 4:14). This resurrected, physical, human Jesus is now sitting at the right hand of the Father, sitting there as a resurrected, physical flesh-and-bone man.

      If Heaven, the seat of God’s throne, is not a physical place, but rather some sort of spiritual dimension, then the question remains how and where is the physical, resurrected, flesh and bone Jesus sitting? Is he floating in some alternate dimension or in some spiritual state? The Bible does not say Jesus ascended into Heaven to float at the right hand of the Father, rather, we are told the physically resurrected Jesus is actually sitting on an actual seat at the right hand of the Father. Since the resurrected Jesus is a physical flesh-and-bone human being, the seat upon which he is sitting must also be a physical seat.

      Since the physical Jesus is sitting, in Heaven, upon a physical throne, then upon what is Jesus’ physical throne itself sitting? Is his physical throne floating in some cosmic dimension? No, rather, the physical seat itself, the actual throne upon which Jesus is sitting, must rest upon an actual physical platform; this physical platform must itself be sitting upon an actual physical base which, ultimately, is itself sitting upon an actual physical world.

      As a result, not only is God’s Heaven an actual physical place in the universe, a created place subject to time and space, but Heaven must certainly be a physical world, or what we would describe as a planet, just as is Earth. All of this must be true because the resurrected Jesus Christ is a physical, flesh-and-bone, resurrected human being who is right now sitting in Heaven at the right hand of the Father, upon a physical throne. Heaven itself must be just as physical as is the resurrected Jesus Christ.

      The Creation of Angels

      After creating time, space, and Heaven, and after establishing his throne in Heaven, God then continued with the rest of his creation by creating the angels. We know the angels were created by God before he created the earth, but also after he created Heaven. When God created the “heavens and the earth,” the angels were created between the creation of the heavens and the earth. We know this from Job 38:4–7: “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you have understanding, who set its measurements? Since you know. Or who stretched the line on it? On what were its bases sunk? Or who laid its cornerstone, when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy” (NIV)? The angels watched God as he laid “the foundation of the earth.” What is the foundation of the earth?

      Just as the Bible refers to three heavens, it also refers to the earth in three different ways. Throughout the Bible, the earth is referred to by the following terms: “the foundations of the earth,” “the earth,” and “the world.”

      The Foundations of the Earth

      The term “the foundations of the earth” means the actual physical planet itself, which is eternal and everlasting, as seen in Micah 6:2: “Hear, you mountains, the Lord’s accusation; listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth” (NIV). Further, when Job 38:4–7 tells us of God laying the foundations of the earth, he is describing God’s creation of the planet itself. The “foundations of the earth” is the planet Earth.

      The Earth

      The СКАЧАТЬ