Outline
Many people only care about their afterlife, and do not deeply think about where they were before they came to this earth. In this book, Christ Ahnsahnghong explained it in detail. Humankind who lives a short life on this earth was originally angels who lived in glory in Heaven, but committed grievous sins and was cast down to this earth. Christ Ahnsahnghong made known this through various records in the Bible. He also proved that the soul exists even after the body dies, and gave us spiritual hope by letting us know the resurrection and the glory of Heaven that God’s people would receive.
Preface
This book is about the good news that numerous angels, who sinned in the angelic world of heaven and were born as humans into this sinful world, will escape the punishment of their sins and return to the angelic world.
All people born into this world are visitors from the angelic world. The human soul is a theological topic of discussion throughout the world. Many religionists including Christians study the subject of the soul. However, they do not reach a unified opinion, but only discuss or teach it in their own ways. Wherever you go, you cannot hear any thesis or sermon which is definite, convincing, and consistent. It is because the Biblicists today do not realize the fundamental principle of the soul.
If you realize completely how all the heavenly hosts and angels, the sons of God and the souls of people were created by God, then you will fully understand the soul―its past, present, and future.
This book will give you understanding of how the human soul and angels were created and insight into the angelic world, this human world and the next world. It will clearly show you where the human soul came from and where it will return to.
If anyone preaches without knowing where the human soul comes from and where it returns to, he has no confidence in his sermon. Without knowing where you are from, how can you say that you know where you will return to? However, if you study this book, you will realize that you were close friends with the sons of God and the angels of heaven before you came into this world; and you will believe that the angels and the sons of God, who have not sinned, are waiting for you to repent of your sins and return to heaven.
Now, you can neither see nor understand all these things clearly, because you have put on a veil of sin. But if you gain a thorough knowledge of the soul, you will look forward to meeting them all again with joy and hope. This book reveals undeniable truths about the soul based on the Bible. Please study this book seriously.
CONTENTS
- Chapter 1 The Way of Eternal Life for Mortal Men
- Chapter 2 Chosen in Christ Before the Creation of the World
- Chapter 3 Life and Activities in the Angelic World
- Chapter 4 About Angels
- Chapter 5 To Seek and to Save What Was Lost
- Chapter 6 The Law Was Established So That the Trespass Might Increase
- Chapter 7 In Studying the Soul
- Chapter 8 Those Who Insist That There Is No Soul
- Chapter 9 The Soul Who Sins Will Die
- Chapter 10 Where Does the Human Soul Come From?
- Chapter 11 Jesus’ Soul and Our Soul
- Chapter 12 The Corrupt Sons of God and the City of Refuge
- Chapter 13 The First Adam and the Last Adam
- Chapter 14 Why Does Man Die?
- Chapter 15 Our Country We Will Return to
- Chapter 16 Our Home Is the Angelic World
- Chapter 17 Why Does Man Not Remember His Previous Life?
- Chapter 18 The Soul Made of God’s Breath of Life
- Chapter 19 Our Body Is the Prison of Our Soul
- Chapter 20 The Human Soul Continues to Exist Even After Death
- Chapter 21 Preaching Even to the Dead
- Chapter 22 What Will Become of Our Body at the Resurrection?
Chapter 1 The Way of Eternal Life for Mortal Men
Man is born, but he cannot escape death. A man is born and dies, another is born and then dies . . . How many people have been given birth and have died up until now? Though it is said that man is the lord of all creation, he is merely a slave to death. Why has the lord of all creation become a slave to death?
Whether a man lives for ten years or a hundred years, he is destined to die. Human life is utterly meaningless. This world is merely a short journey; no one lives forever. Every human being is a slave to Satan; he is held in slavery by his fear of death until it comes upon him. Nobody can escape death. How miserable the human life is!
The writer of Psalms described the vanity of life as follows:
Ps 90:9-10 『All our days pass away under your wrath; we finish our years with a moan. The length of our days is seventy years―or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.』
Although the length of our days is seventy or eighty years, it is like a dream overnight and like the grass which sprouts in the morning. Therefore, we can conclude that life is but an empty dream. The prophet Isaiah wrote:
Isa 40:6-7 『All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass.』
Then, why were we born into this troublesome and vain world? Who made this vain and empty world? The Apostle Paul wrote:
Ro 5:12 『Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—』
If we consider the above words, it is a very serious matter that tens of billions of people must die because of one man, Adam. Why did the omniscient and omnipotent God allow Adam and Eve to commit sin? To this question, some give an answer as follows: “God could have kept Adam and Eve from sinning, but if He had done that, they could not have had absolute freedom. So God gave them the freedom of choice, and they chose to sin.” Do you think their answer is correct? If it were correct, how would they answer the next question? As it is written:
Rev 21:4 『He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death . . .』
Here, why does God not give absolute freedom of choice, but get rid of death? If we are given absolute freedom in heaven, shouldn’t there also be the freedom to choose death or eternal life? How would they answer this question?
When we study these matters carefully, we come to know that eternal life was not guaranteed to Adam and Eve. God only said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number” (Ge 1:27-28). Eternal life was given under a certain condition. As it is written:
Ge 2:16-17 『And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”』
The condition was this: “If you eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will die; and if you do not eat of it, you will live.” To those who are redeemed by Jesus, however, eternal life is guaranteed. As it is written:
Rev 21:4 『He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.』
Chapter 2 Chosen in Christ Before the Creation of the World
Here is another question: When God put the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden, did He know that Adam would eat from it, or not? We cannot say that the Almighty God, who had declared the end from the beginning, did not know it (Isa 46:10). If God knew, He must have intended for Adam and Eve to sin. Even the serpent that tempted Eve was also made by God. It was God’s providence that Adam and Eve were to be deceived by the serpent and eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Ge 3:1-5).
Actually, all this was predestined in Christ before the creation of the world (Eph 1:3-9). Some may think that God established the administration of redemption after Adam sinned. However, it had already been established before the Creation. For it is written:
Eph 1:4-9 『For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will . . . In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace . . .』
Considering that God chose His heirs, who would inherit salvation, in Christ before the creation of the world, it is certain that Adam was predestined to die.
As for the origin of sin, we have to study it by putting all the related verses together (Genesis 2 and 3 about the history of Adam, Isa 14:12-14 and Eze 28:11-17) and not in fragments, so that we can understand the exact relationship between the corrupt angels and human beings.
Adam’s sin is explained well so that people can easily understand it. And the books of Isaiah and Ezekiel teach us how angels became corrupt and committed sin. Actually, their sin is the same as Adam’s. The book of Isaiah explains the motive and the mental process of the first sinner’s rebellion against God. The book of Ezekiel tells us about the first sinner’s original nature and position.
In the book of Ezekiel, we can see how the king of Tyre sinned in heaven: He was anointed as a guardian cherub, and walked among the fiery stones on the holy mount of God; however, on account of his overflowing splendor, he became proud and corrupted himself and sinned, and finally he was driven out. As it is written:
Eze 28:11-17 『The word of the LORD came to me: “Son of man, take up a lament concerning the king of Tyre and say to him: ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: ‘You were the model of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz and emerald, chrysolite onyx and jasper, sapphire, turquoise and beryl. Your settings and mountings were made of gold; on the day you were created they were prepared. You were anointed as a guardian cherub, for so I ordained you. You were on the holy mount of God; you walked among the fiery stones . . . Your heart became proud on account of your beauty, and you corrupted your wisdom because of your splendor. So I threw you to the earth; I made a spectacle of you before kings.’ ”』
The book of Isaiah reveals the actions of the king of Babylon in heaven: Since he was in the glorious position of the morning star, son of the dawn, he became proud and tried to exalt his throne above the stars of God and to be like the Most High; finally, he was cast down to this earth of sin.
Isa 14:4-15 『. . . you will take up this taunt against the king of Babylon . . . How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, son of the dawn! You have been cast down to the earth, you who once laid low the nations! You said in your heart, “I will ascend to heaven; I will raise my throne above the stars of God; I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly, on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain. I will ascend above the tops of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.” But you are brought down to the grave, to the depths of the pit.』
When we study the above two chapters together, we can gain a basic understanding of the origin of sin. What we must figure out through the aforementioned verses is the fact that these two cases are representative of all human beings and they show numerous angels’ committing sin. As it is written:
Rev 12:9 『The great dragon was hurled down―that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.』
Even after Satan rebelled against God and was hurled down along with numerous angels, he attended the whole assembly of the firstborn in heaven as the representative of the earth (Job 1:6-7; 2:1-2; cf. Heb 12:23). But as soon as Jesus won a victory over him through the Cross, he was completely expelled from the assembly of the firstborn in heaven (Lk 10:18; cf. Rev 12:9).
Chapter 3 Life and Activities in the Angelic World
In the angelic world where there is no limit in speed, we can see the whole universe in about an hour. In the book of Daniel, as soon as Daniel began to pray at three in the afternoon [about the time of the evening sacrifice], the angel Gabriel came and delivered God’s message to him.
According to astronomers, our galaxy is a hundred thousand light years in diameter and it contains about two hundred billion stars like the sun; moreover, there are about two hundred billion galaxies in the universe. In the center of the great universe which contains two hundred billion galaxies, there is “the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God” (Heb 12:22-23), where the central palace is located; the throne of God occupies the central palace. When God heard Daniel’s prayer and sent Gabriel to him from His throne in the capital of the universe which is several hundred million light years away, Daniel was still in prayer (Da 9:20-24).
In the angelic world, even a fiery furnace heated several thousand degrees cannot harm the angels or the righteous. There is sufficient evidence of this fact: Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, Daniel’s three friends, were thrown into the blazing furnace heated seven times hotter than usual, but the fire did not harm their bodies (Da 3:19-27). In the angelic world, no one except God can kill the angels or the spirits of the righteous: Neither chains nor a prison’s restriction can bind them. When the Apostle Peter was locked up in prison, angels were able to enter in freely and open the gate for him, even though four squads of soldiers kept a close watch over him, so Peter was rescued safely (Ac 12:1-10). And in the angelic world, they eat invisible food and drink invisible drinks. The Apostle John wrote as follows:
Rev 22:1-2 『Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations.』
The fruit of the tree of life and the water of life mentioned above are not of visible material. They are mystic food made by God’s word. The river of the water of life flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb, and on each side of the river stands the tree of life. Men cannot even express one-ten thousandth of the glory of the angelic world with their own wisdom or understanding.