DEWITT TABERNACLE TEACHING SERIES

“WHAT HAPPENED IN HEAVEN VERSUS

WHAT HAPPENED ON EARTH”

                    By C.W. Wood                                                             April 2014

 PERSONAL NOTE TO OUR READERS:  Isaiah 41:10, “I will strengthen thee.”  Our Lord has put this promise before us.  How can we think that He has made a promise that He cannot keep?  As the months turn into years, we have great need to lay hold of this Word.  We say, “Oh Lord, You are our strength, the boundless reservoir of your grace can never be exhausted, and the overflowing storehouse of your strength can never be emptied by your followers, nor stopped by your enemies!  You, who feeds the furnace of the sun that it never loses strength, you who created the world does not grow weary!  Can He Who controls the storm, rides on the wings of the wind, and holds the oceans in the hollow of His Hand, can He ever fail us for lack of power?  No, dear readers and supporters of this ministry.  He will, and He is, present tense, giving us all “Strength as our day” as we trust in what He said.  I thank you all who encourage us, and love each of you though I have not the time to communicate with you on a regular basis.

                                                                                                                Pastor C.W. Wood

1 COR. 1:10, “Now, I beseech you Brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing….”  Thus spoke the Holy Ghost through the Apostle Paul.  And in saying this, he spoke the Will of God for His Children.

    We are told to study and pray and meet together until we are all seeing the scriptures in the same light!  Though this is God’s Word and Will to us, there is a problem in the churches that has to be overcome!  The problem is that we each one have a fleshly tendency to promote our own opinion.  But, thanks be to God, He foresaw our problem and has not left us to the mercy of our personal opinion, nor that of any other person.  He has given us His Spirit, the Holy Ghost, who has a right to a personal opinion.  Since He, the Holy Ghost, wrote the Word, He is the One who must reveal what is meant by the Word He wrote.  When these revelations come, then it is written that the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against them!  And there are two great revelations that we must have before we can put all the Word together and prove that Word does not disagree with other Word.

    First, we must know what happened in Heaven before there was an Earth.  When we were there in our angelic bodies called Theophanies.  (Gen. 1: 26-27)

    Then, second, we must know what happened on Earth when we were put here in flesh and subjected to vanity (Rom. 8:20).

    Having the whole picture will let us place every piece of the puzzle in its proper place.  We will look at the whole picture.

    If there is a person in faraway China (or any other country), who has the Holy Ghost and is at the same stage of spiritual growth as a person in America, they will be saying the same thing about God’s Word.  This is God’s promise, and He always keeps every promise, John 16:13, He will guide you into all truth….”

    There has never been an open mind and an open, honest heart that did not receive Truth when it was faithfully sought.  To say anything different from this is to throw a dark shadow on the character of our perfect God!  And so, His Bride is learning to ask for Truth, and then believe it will be forthcoming!  It is then that we opinionated people will be required to receive spiritual revelation and lay down our fleshly reasoning.  There is no difference of opinions between believers that cannot be resolved when we approach it in the right way, and that way is to lay aside our false pride, willing to be corrected in case we are wrong.

    I will share a story I once heard about two men that visited a large city, but at different times.  While there, they both had viewed a certain, celebrated building.  Later, after they had returned home, there was a controversy between them as to how the building was built.  One man said, “There was four large windows in the building, with a large arch and a doorway in between the four windows.”  The other man said, “No!  There was only two large windows with an arched doorway between the two windows!”  Both men were convinced they had correctly described a certain part of the building!  But, finally the controversy was resolved when it was discovered that one man had viewed the building from the south side while the other one had only seen it from the north side.  They were both correct in their part!

    I would like to use this example in explaining some controversial doctrines that are circulating in our End-Time Message.  There are some who are preaching the truth about what happened on Earth concerning the human race, while they are ignoring what happened in Heaven before there was an Earth.  I would like to teach what the Bible and our Prophet taught about what happened in Heaven before the Earth was formed.  Then, we will look at the other side of the building and see what happened here on Earth after it was created and man placed on it.

    It is my heart’s desire that when we see both truths, that our controversies can be done away.  Because when we see both together, we get a true revelation of God’s overall Plan and the Truth about Election.

    We will start with God’s Creation in Heaven.  Gen. 1:26-27, “God created man in His own image, and after His own likeness.  Male and female created He them.”  This was before there was an Earth or anybody on it.  We were first created in a supernatural body called a Theophany.  It was an angelic body and God-like!

    QUOTE:  “UNFAILING REALITIES OF THE LIVING GOD”  PAGE30, “We were once the angels who did not fall….You were once somewhere else, you were just not always right here.” (End of quote)

    The Bible says one third of the created angels fell.  They followed Lucifer who was also created a perfect being according to Ezek. 28:15, “Thou was perfect in thy ways from the day thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.”

    The great revelation here is that in the beginning, God did not create anything or anybody evil!  He did create some, knowing they would become evil, but it is a slam oh His Perfect Character to say He created evil!  When the Bible says He “created evil for the day of evil”, it means that He knew some would become evil by choice, and He created them knowing what their choice would be.  We are reviewing God’s Plan, starting with what happened in Heaven before we were ever put on Earth!  In Rom. 8:29, God said He predestinated some to be saved because He had “foreknowledge” of those who wanted to be saved.  This foreknowledge was acted out in Heaven when God’s created beings had to make a choice as to who would follow Lucifer and who would stay with their Creator!  One third chose wrong, and our Prophet said we are of the group that chose to stay with our Creator, speaking of the Bride.

    And so, we see that in one way of speaking, we were all on probation in Heaven.  God set before us a choice and we had to choose Him or Lucifer!  There was no middle ground.  There are no white black birds and no drunk sober men.

    Those of us, who have a revelation of God’s perfect character, know that He warned the angels in Heaven about following Lucifer, just as He warned Adam and Eve against the forbidden fruit!  Even so, they rejected the warning.

    Now how can we deny that we were created as free moral agents who had to make a choice in Heaven before we were ever put on Earth?  Some may deny it, but to do so they have left the revealed Word.  Remember, we are told to read between the lines.  Some are only looking at one side of the building, the Earthly side, while they ignore Heaven’s side.

    We will now look at the earthly part of God’s Plan, which has to do with His Bride on Earth in flesh bodies.

    Rom. 8:20, “For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason (or because God had a reason for it) of Him who has subjected the same in hope.”  It was God’s plan to give the Devil another chance at those who did not follow him in Heaven.  Who is going to argue with God’s Plan?  Heb. 2:14-18, “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil;

    15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

    16 For verily he took not on himself the nature of angels; but he took on him the seed of Abraham.

    17 Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

    18 For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succour them that are tempted.

    Notice Verse 14, we were children up in Heaven, who did not fall and follow Lucifer and we were put here on Earth in flesh bodies!  Then it says Jesus took part of the same kind of a body that God put us in!  It says Jesus took not on Himself the nature of angels, but He took on Himself the Seed of Abraham (a body like Abraham had).

    Now, here is where I am asking the people to look at both sides of the building!  A man said to me, “Br. Wood, you are basing your Salvation on the fact that you chose God, and I am basing my Salvation on the fact that God chose me!”  Now Friends, can’t you see that both statements are true?  If we are Children of God, we chose to stay with God in Heaven when Lucifer rebelled!  But down here, having been born from Adam’s blood line, we were totally lost, unless God chose us (called us to Himself).  The rule on earth is “No man can come to Me except my Father draw him.”   (John 6:44)  Can you see it now?  We chose Him in Heaven, and when He put us in flesh we were unable to come back to Him until He called us.  And so, it is true that we chose Him, and then in turn, He chose us.  “He was able to succour them that are tempted.”  (Heb. 2:18)

    Question:  What happens to the angels in Heaven that kept not their first estate?  Jude 1:6, “And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation (left their own dwelling place by choice), He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day.”