Interplanner
Well-known member
1, section titles
2, the heavens
3, 'formless and void'
4 other things before the beginning
While the Bible speaks only about life on earth, we find that it is not geo-centric. "The universe is full of angels, beings, entities"--E. Goodrick, Multnomah U., Greek. It's just that the Bible only mentions these other things as off-stage.
As for other things before the foundation of this world (it would be hard to say that a 'formless and void' place that was ruined by God in displeasure was founded; surely, He means after that) we find several statements by Paul and Christ.
The Father and Christ loved each other before the world began and considered the creation of mankind to be a risk of love, as when a family weighs the risks. Given how quickly Satan appeared and disrupted things, the venture was very risky. Believers were elect in Christ (the emphasis being on Christ alone). So God was doing other things, and earth was one of them.
In Eph 3, we find out that the unity of the church of both Jews and Gentiles indicates to those in the spiritual realms that God has been victorious over the divisiveness of the law and possibly religion. For a while, the law was a force that was dividing. (Eph 2B-3A). But now that the nations receive the blessings promised to the fathers in Christ, it is unified.
The reason for grouping the law with religion is found in the expression 'the weak and miserable elements of the world' in Gal 4 and Col 2. Paul puts the law (dietary, ceremonial things) in that bucket. In Col 2, you had a neo-Judaism that was trying to revive all that. That's why Paul cut the ground from under it. Compared to what we have in Christ, it was the scum of world religion all over again.
2, the heavens
3, 'formless and void'
4 other things before the beginning
While the Bible speaks only about life on earth, we find that it is not geo-centric. "The universe is full of angels, beings, entities"--E. Goodrick, Multnomah U., Greek. It's just that the Bible only mentions these other things as off-stage.
As for other things before the foundation of this world (it would be hard to say that a 'formless and void' place that was ruined by God in displeasure was founded; surely, He means after that) we find several statements by Paul and Christ.
The Father and Christ loved each other before the world began and considered the creation of mankind to be a risk of love, as when a family weighs the risks. Given how quickly Satan appeared and disrupted things, the venture was very risky. Believers were elect in Christ (the emphasis being on Christ alone). So God was doing other things, and earth was one of them.
In Eph 3, we find out that the unity of the church of both Jews and Gentiles indicates to those in the spiritual realms that God has been victorious over the divisiveness of the law and possibly religion. For a while, the law was a force that was dividing. (Eph 2B-3A). But now that the nations receive the blessings promised to the fathers in Christ, it is unified.
The reason for grouping the law with religion is found in the expression 'the weak and miserable elements of the world' in Gal 4 and Col 2. Paul puts the law (dietary, ceremonial things) in that bucket. In Col 2, you had a neo-Judaism that was trying to revive all that. That's why Paul cut the ground from under it. Compared to what we have in Christ, it was the scum of world religion all over again.