Read: Genesis 1:3-4
What did God do?
He said, Let light be or in some versions Let there be light.
What happened next?
Then he divided the two, darkness was assigned to its domain and light was assigned to its domain. The light and darkness was not merged – it could not be merged, it was divided or separated by God. The two shall never meet. Where God gives us light, he doesn’t give us darkness. And where darkness exist, God vanishes darkness by giving us light.
Light verses Darkness, The Spiritual
Genesis 1:1-2 tells us that the earth was formless, void, and darkness was upon it. The word ‘void’ references that something was lacking. Darkness covered the earth. If we read the Bible correctly, it defines God as light and in Him is no darkness at all (1 John 1:5). We also know that God is omnipresent, which means He is everywhere; therefore, light should be everywhere. Now, if darkness covered the face of the earth why was this blot of darkness in this perfect universe ruled by a God of light?
The Bible says there was war in heaven. This war culminated in the expulsion of Lucifer and his hosts. Satan is also called the Prince of Darkness See: Genesis 3;14, Ezekiel 28:13-19, Isa. 14:12-15, Luke 10:18, John 8:44, 1 Peter 5;8-9, 2 Peter 2:4, Revelation 12:7-17). This spot, which we call Earth, was the spot where Satan was banned to. Now, we have this blot of darkness which did not reflect the glory of God; and in the midst of this darkness God chose to place his beautiful creation and made a distinction between the light and the darkness. God placed mankind onto this planet to set straight the record of the character of God. In other words, man was created to reflect the glory, which is the character of God. How do we reflect the character of God? We were created to be “image bearers’ of God (Gen. 1:26). What is the character of God? Love (1 Jn 4:7-8; Deut. 6:5; Joshua 22:5; Matt. 22:37-40; Mark 12:30-34; Luke 10:27-37; Jude 1:21; Romans 5:5, 8:28; 1 Cor. 2:9; 2 Tim. 1:7).
God created his ‘image bearers’ male and female and he shared with them the creative capacity which is God’s alone possess. He created us to be the caretakers of Earth; giving us dominion over it within the confines of His rules and regulations, which come with authority and are inseparably bound to rulership. No one can rule without a set of standards. These standards were to reflect the very character of God, then humanity could demonstrate to the entire universe what God was like. We were created to show that God is love, not a harsh authoritarian God as Lucifer made him out to be. Unfortunately, mankind failed because they listened to the voice of the deceiver. In our fallen state, God came down to our level and through His merits mankind could be lifted up again into the full stature we were originally created to be.
The universe is caught up in this great controversy between good and evil…the angels were involved as well as the sons of God (Job 1:6-7, 2:1-2, 38:6-7; Heb. 1:2, 11:3; Luke 15:4; Rev. 5:13). Yes, the Bible indicates that are other created beings besides angles and humanity. Not only are we to be enlightened as to the character of God, but also His other creations that are witnessing this conflict that has been raging for millennia. The goodness of God, which is linked to his character, is personified in the life of Jesus Christ the victor. The greatest witness for all was this act of love to save the lost sheep that had gone astray while the 99 stayed together to watch love in action. Article: Life on other planets.
Light verses Darkness, The Physical
God established the 24-hour physical day, which consist of light and darkness. Prior to this there was no morning, after the establishment of day, there was evening and morning.
In Genesis 1:5, “God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night.
So, the evening and the morning were the first day.” Now by deduction we know there was light and darkness on day two and three, for it is recorded in scripture that there was evening and morning. Evening on one side of the planet and morning on the other.
What about day four?
On day four the sun was created to rule the day, not to create the day for God had already created the Day (John 11:9 ). The sun did not create, God creates. The moon and stars were to rule the night, in addition their job will be for signs, seasons, days, and years. A couple of examples are in the Old Testament – the day was divided into four watches: 6-9 first watch, 9-12 second watch, 12-3 third watch, and 3-6 fourth watch; and this cycle would occur twice in a 24-hour period. And of course, we have the seven 24-hour days that constitute a week, and so on.
Satan’s attack has always been focused on light, ‘thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path’. He introduces darkness to fight against the light. God always introduces light to defeat darkness. This is the cadence of the great controversary: darkness is introduced in opposition to the light.
God established an embargo in the beginning against darkness when He created light. He also established an embargo against darkness by giving Adam and Eve light about what would happen if they succumbed to following their own way (Gen. 2:16, first command). It was a simple equation: Good equals light, and darkness equals death.
What did man prefer?
Darkness. God didn’t banish darkness in the garden, and darkness still exist today and what does that give us? Choice. We are free moral agents…thank you Jesus. ‘Choose this day whom you will serve’. This is why everyone must give an account for what they have chosen. We all stand before God, we all are judged according to what we chose. Some to life (light) and some to death (darkness). We only find freedom from the things we accept to acknowledge. In 2 Corinthians 6:14, Paul shows us God’s attitude and warns against creating a companionship with darkness. This principle applies to every avenue of life (marriage, business, etc.). When there is a companionship with darkness, there is something that confuses the mind. Solomon says, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov. 14:12). Isaiah 5:20 recorded this same deficiency in the children of Israel. Isaiah said, “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
What Satan accomplished among the children of Israel, he wants to accomplish among us. Chronicles records and brings to the forefront what happen to the children of Israel. They practiced merging light with darkness: they practiced worshiping towards the rising sun, sacrificing their children, walking through the fire, pattering themselves after pagan nations, etc. The devil did this at a time when he was not angry with the woman (prophetically meaning: church), but just angry with a single nation.
Today, he is angry with the woman (church) of the end time who has been given the responsibility to give the three angels messages of light (Rev. 12:17, Revelation 14) . The people of Israel strayed so far from God they could no long distinguish light from darkness, which was a progression over time. Just like the people before the flood, they came to the same demise and was caught up in judgment that they could have avoided if they would have listened to the warnings of God. If they would have just entered into the one door of the ark they would have been covered and saved. Just like us today we are invited to come to the One, that can save us and can cover our sins.
By the time we get to Malachi, which is the book that preaches to return and come back to God. In 2:17 they say “In what way have we wearied him?” They were so far gone into darkness they said God delights in what they are doing.
After Jesus established his church and ascended to the Father, Stephen was called to give his last testimony. Acts 7:36, “He brought them out, after he had shown wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red Sea, and in the wilderness forty years.” Verse 39, the devil wants us to go back to the old self where we use to be or be so enamored with the world that we don’t want to go where God wants to lead us. He is trying to get in our heart so we look back, just like Lot’s wife.
The reformation of the 16th century shook western Christianity. The world had been enshrouded in spiritual darkness by that time for more than 1,000 years, ever since the ecclesiastical powers of Rome rose unhindered to ascendency in the year 538 and they turned on the engine of ruthlessness to root out all of God’s truth and replace it with tradition (purgatory, limbo, eternal burning hell, worship of the saints, etc.). All these things they poured into Christianity and they forbade access to the Bible. The people couldn’t read scripture so they had to rely on what they were told was scripture. The dark ages were really the dark ages. Through all this, God preserved his church. In 1517, when Luther catapulted the Reformation, it began to signal the end of the Middle Ages and the banishment of the Dark Ages. The devil would not have got upset if the dark ages was not challenged.
Martin Luther was not the first reformer. There was a man by the name of Peter Waldo, a wealthy merchant who gave his property in about 1173 and started a movement called the Waldensian movement. They were the first reformers that vehemently resisted the teachings of the church of the dark ages, the Roman Church. By 1215, the Church of Rome was successful in their edicts to identify the Waldensians as heretics…and sought to get rid of them. But they hid and continued to distribute the word of God on pieces of scrolls to people. Finally, Rome began the inquisitions (French, German, Italian, Spanish). In South and Central America thousands were persecuted and many died because they refused to give in to the engines of Rome.
Nothing has changed except the method, rather than direct persecution Rome changed their tactics in the counter reformation. The more the Christians were killed, the more they grew. The church began to be flooded with subtle diversions such as music, literature, science, and art that was painted on the inside of the cathedrals…capturing the peoples minds by external stimuli. That was the media of their day (music, literature, science, art).
Satan began to defeat by compromising the mind…creeping compromise. Something happened in the 1800’s, another great end-time reformation took place. God raised up a remnant message and in 1863 a inter denominational flock said we don’t have this right – we have beliefs that are not in line with scripture – and to this end was born the advent movement.
What can we find in the light (scripture) to replace our darkness? God rose up this church while Rome was handcuffed, they could not touch the church in this time. In every attempt of God to reform his people. He is met with a violent reformation of Satan. He tries to find earthly powers to flood the church. Revelation 12:15, this is a time during the counter-reformation when Rome was building steam in finding ways to get rid of the woman (church). Note: Satan’s plans began in verse 13, then 14, then 15 until he got to Revelation 12:17 – this one might work. We are living in verse 17.
Satan learned from verse 15 that … the purpose of a flood is to wash away anything that does not have a firm foundation. Anything that is not grounded in Christ, established in Jesus, and standing on the word of God will be washed away in the flood. The purpose of the flood is to wash away light and replace it with devastating darkness. As in the beginning, the pre-creation condition had been replicated again.
Isaiah 60:2 tells us that Satan has the people of the world, but what he is concerned about is the people who have God’s glory…he doesn’t want their light to shine any longer. John 3:19 this is how the Devil has been successful in pouring water into God’s remnant people to get some to walk in darkness while others remain and walk in the light. Being successful in this method, Satan causes disunity in the church.
Paul tells his protégé Timothy what is ahead of them, 2 Timothy 3:13.
On October 4 something happened that shook the world. At 11:39am billions of people experienced a Facebook interruption, it disappeared from the internet, the outage lasted over five hours. Satan has found a way to wrap the world in a counter reformation in the world wide web. He did it in the dark ages: music, literature, science, art. Today, it is an electronic form of the old. 1 Peter 2:9 tells us we have been called out of darkness into his marvelous light. We must be careful that we are not being beheaded intellectually.
It is very important to state that when we make reference to the Roman Church it is the ecclesiastical system not its members. They are our brothers and sisters in Christ, but we have a duty to ‘shine light on darkness’. It is in love that we preach these messages.