BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

Jesus Himself illustrated this circular pattern. He said of His ministry, “I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father” (John 16:28). Do you see the circle? His mission started in heaven where all precious things begin. Jesus came from the bosom of the Father. Then He came into the world. He completed the circle by going back to the Father. Look thoughtfully at Isaiah 55:10-11 to see the circular route God's Word always follows. Also to see the Story of the Glory we must go back to the book of beginnings, the book of Genesis. The Day the Light Went Out “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep..." (Genesis 1:1-2). Contrary to what one might think from a surface reading of these verses, they do not say that God created the earth without form and void. The Hebrew words tohu v'bohu translated “without form and void" mean, according to a Hebrew lexicon, “confusion, chaos, waste....” In other words, a mess, a disaster. I was teaching this at a Bible school in Germany when one woman helped me out. She said, “We know what tohu v'bohu means. We use that saying. We got it from the Jews. It's like this. You have cleaned your house perfectly. It is spotless. You walk down the hall and open the door to your teenager's room. Then you yell, ‘This place is tohu v'bohu! Clean it now!’” The Bible tells us specifically in Isaiah 45:18 that God did not create the earth tohu. “For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain [tohu], he formed it to be inhabited." ***************************************** Watch Billye on bvovn.com ******************************************** God did not create earth a chaotic mess. He created it as He always does all His work, perfectly. It was habitable and full of life. I believe the dinosaurs were part of life on earth in God's first work of creation. A big question among scientists has always been, “What happened to the dinosaurs?" They've come up with theory after theory. But recently many have agreed on one theory—all the dinosaurs died at once, killed in one catastrophic event. I believe they are getting close to the truth. Something catastrophic happened between the first and second verses of Genesis. Millions, perhaps billions, of years lie between them, I believe. Someone has said, “As many years as true science requires." In one great climactic moment, judgment fell on “the world that then was" and, as a result, “the earth became [alternate translation] without form, and void." In Jeremiah 4:23 the prophet records that moment as God let him look back on it: “I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void [tohu v'bohu]; and the heavens, and they had no light." God removed earth's light. Not just the moon and the stars. God removed His light, for “God is light" (1 John 1:5). When God took Himself, the Light of Life, away from the earth, every living creature including the dinosaurs, died in an instant. Jeremiah 4:26 tells us this judgment which destroyed earth's cities and life was the result of God's “fierce anger." What caused such wrath? A rebellion so great that it split the angelic forces of heaven. A rebellion against God led by the most beautiful being God had created, the archangel Lucifer. Isaiah 14:12-15 describes the event: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!... 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: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High. Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit." 10 : BVOV

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