"TWO WAYS"
HEADLINES: "See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil, Deuteronomy 30:15. "Two ways hath God given to the sons of men, and two inclinations, and two kinds of action, and two modes of action, and two issues. Therefore all things are by twos, one over against the other. For there are two ways of good and evil, and with these are two inclinations in our breasts discriminating them", Testament of Asher I:3-5 (LBB).
The "pattern" of God's work is to teach by use of two contrasting ways. Always one way is opposed by the other. This started at the very top with the Highest Himself before He began the creation. He decided to make peace and joy for Himself by creating a "FAMILY" to assuage His loneliness and suffering. At that point He was all there was in existence, Isaiah 45:18, Secrets XXIV (LBB). His infinite Wisdom determined that order as modes of conduct was necessary for the relationships He envisioned. TWO WAYS ORIGINATED IN HIS OWN MIND FIRST as He thought of all the possible modes of relationship-actions that might be conducted by His "FAMILY". Those actions that were conducive two peace, joy, harmony, and unity were called "GOOD". Those behavior modes that were displeasing to Him and were disruptive, injurious, strife-producing, divisive, and whatever He decided He did not like and did not want done to Him were called "EVIL". So... God is the very first to be confronted by "two ways". They existed in His mind as "ideas" in His thinking process when He was deciding the order in His "FAMILY". This was the early PLANing stage, 2 Esdras 6:1-6.
God's "FAMILY" PLAN called for a counter-part as a companion and friend who is like Him yet different reflecting various degrees of His glory and personality, Proverbs 8:1,12,22-30. "She" is called "Mother". From God and His Wife all the little duplicates of their glory would arise. These little "images" in the PLAN are called "children". They were created or molded in the spiritual figures of God and Mother Wisdom while in Her womb to complete the bond of unity or "oneness" between Father, Mother, and the children, Secrets XXV, Matthew 5:14. This PLAN was the beginning of planned "wifehood" and the original version of "planned parenthood". Every child to the exact equal number of males and females was pre-planned, Secrets XXIII:2, Psalm 147:4. Mother and the children would have to be taught to participate in FAMILY "order" and to share in God's thoughts. It is His will that ALL reflect His image, likeness, and glory, Genesis 1:26; John 17:22-24.
To teach "Mother" is the first step God undertook. She had to learn Her role as "wife" and "mother". She was the first "created" FAMILY member to experience "two ways" and to choose between "good" and "evil" in Her own mind as God did when He envisioned the PLAN. To teach Her required the creation of a pair of teaching "tools" with natures quite the direct opposite of God's nature. This part of the PLAN called for a male and female mechanical, android, imitation spirit, Isaiah 14:11-12; Ezekiel 28:13-15. All the qualities and ways God rejected and deemed divisive, destructive, injurious, disorderly, and strife-producing were programmed into these creatures. Because this behavior is called "evil", the two fake-beings are called EVIL SPIRITS. The male is called Satan and the female is called Babylon, Secrets XXVI, Revelation 17:5. All this was part of the PLAN to help teach Mother and "US" our roles. And after use the "tools" are to be discarded. So... God set "two ways" before Mother first, namely (1) Himself and His personality qualities and ways in contrast with (2) Satan and Babylon and their personalities and behavior. Mother was taught by comparison and contrast as She learned God's nature and Her own. She learned by precept and example. Satan and Babylon were the negative examples of what not to do and how not to act. She learned modes of behavior from reproduction to ways of social interaction. Once Mother learned Her roles, it was time for Her to become "Mother" of ALL the children of God, Psalm 87; Isaiah 66:7-8.
The PLAN requires that ALL the "children of God" also receive an education and learn God's "approved" ways of behavior so that there would be eventual social order and harmony in His "house" called Heaven. ALL the children must become His likeness by experiencing a first-life of grief and imprisonment and by experiencing the "two ways" God faced in His thought processes. We, too, must choose the best modes of behavior by direct and vicarious experience with them. A special place was to be made for that purpose, the earth. So before man's advent to the earth began according to PLAN, Mother Jerusalem, or Zion, or Wisdom as She is called, while in Heaven reproduced ALL the infant spirits that they wanted. There are billions of them, an equal number of males and females, Revelation 7:9-15; 2 Esdras 2:38-41. First twelve pairs of sons and daughters were selected to help Mother learn to be "mother" and while in heaven to face their negative teaching examples, namely Satan and Babylon and their firstborn children.
Needless to say the social interaction between both family groups in Heaven was quite a learning experience. The actions of Satan and his family were odious and repulsive. They created so much fighting and discord that LAWS were enacted to govern and restrict their vile ways. Mother and those first children learned by negative emphasis from Satan's household the VALUE of "good", that God's selected behavioral qualities that we have come to know in our time as "righteousness" and "holiness" are BEST for us and our FAMILY! A revolt occurred because Satan and his family refused to be bound by God's rules, and they decided to settle the issue by war, Revelation 12:7-9,12. They lost and were kicked out of heaven into a place where according to PLAN, the remaining numbers of God's children would be sent at designated intervals (generations) to experience their first-life phase of suffering. On earth we were to face the "two ways", the "good and evil" mix. For the mechanical, android, imitation spirits, this "place" was an untouchable dream-world (hell) where they "fell" in endless circles. They could see solid ground, rivers, lakes, fruitbearing trees and plants, but they passed right through them as they longed for rest and relief from hunger and thirst. This condition is called "hell" or the "bottomless pit". It is a hole beneath the lowest heaven. Animals were created on the land mass and Satan and his family soon discovered that they could catch hold of them and break their fall. The land mass was similar to Paradise, yet it was outside of Heaven. Here is the obstacle course where God's children would experience a net negative education phase as a part of their curriculum as they learn by comparison and contrast, Secrets XX:4-6.
Adam and Eve were the first pair of God's children to experience life on the obstacle course. Earth was a "STAGE". "Two ways" symbolized as two trees set the stage for their education tenure. The "tree of life" symbolized God and His ways, and the "tree of knowledge of good and evil" parabolized Satan, his ways and the means by which he would deceive them... "using" and taking advantage of man's limited knowledge of good to create evil. You are familiar with the events that occurred during Adam's episode on "stage". He and his generation personally experienced the demerits of evil as they learned painfully that heeding God's voice and abiding in His ways is in man's BEST interest! "DEATH" is a trick against the adversary as well as a teaching example (man's dead body). It revealed what God planned to do to them for their rebellion and attempted destruction of His "FAMILY". Devils will eventually be dissolved and disappear just like the dead bodies of men. Observe this KEY, Isaiah 61:3; I Corinthians 15:44,49-50: Because God knew the trauma we would experience in the aftermath of our earthly "exercise", ALL children would come down to the "wilderness of sin" incognito, that is disguised in clay suits called bodies of flesh. They would rise as spirits discarding their clay "stage" costumes, and no one but God would know who was who on earth, John 6:63; 2 Corinthians 5:1-8. In Heaven men have new faces, new names, and new bodies and they are commanded not to respond to nor identify in any way with their former earthly roles. This part of the PLAN helps to erase the memory of sin and the traumatic stigma that would arise from identification with the various evils man is involved in both as a slave and a victim, Isaiah 54:4, 65:17. So the experience of Adam and Eve set the tone on the earth-stage for ALL the educational episodes of the generations to come, 2 Esdras 7:3-14. But for the mechanical, android, imitation spirits, this was warfare and a chance to get back at God for condemning their household to the curse of "falling in circles" and eventual termination, Revelation 12:12. For them revenge is to torture God's children and turn them backwards using man against man and to turn them against God as much as possible. They discovered that they could hold on to man's body also. And this marked the beginning of demonic possession and control.
Before we go any further, let us review God's reasons for causing man to undergo a traumatic "exercise" on His obstacle course where he faces an invisible and formidable robot force, Ecclesiastes 1:13. God's first existence was one of loneliness, suffering, and imprisonment, because He is all there was. There was no place for Him to rest but a continuous wandering in a directionless void of nothingness. He conceived the idea of making a "FAMILY" and a "house" for them in order to make Himself happy, to assure His own peace, and to provide many friends in place of the eons of loneliness that He suffered. Providing "order" and teaching His FAMILY posed a slight problem. He had chosen "GOOD" behavior patterns as opposed to those He rejected, the "evil" ways. A robot force into which the "evil" ways were programmed proved to be the solution. God's PLAN entailed that both His Wife and children should have a similar beginning phase of life like His own as we are made in His image and likeness. Placing man on the obstacle course provides man with an initial "equivalent" first-life of pain, suffering, and imprisonment in a pattern similar to God's first existence. Next we are to experience the two ways physically and MENTALLY as those ways came to God as OPPOSING THOUGHTS. We are also to learn by comparison and contrast while on earth, and in our second phase of life in Heaven. We are to conclude as God did that the "good" is really GOOD and best for us an our "FAMILY", Romans 8:18-22. Only then can our social and interpersonal order be established in peace, joy, and oneness. There is no escape from experiencing the painful and negative first phase of our life, and consequently we ALL must face "two ways".
Consistent with God's education scheme, we find that Moses was also confronted by "two ways". Satan's forces were active in the domain of Pharaoh. In fact several scriptures reflect that Satan himself was Pharaoh's ruler. His invisible powers also controlled the magicians. Therefore when God gave Moses three signs to enact before Pharaoh, He also empowered the devils in the magicians enabling them to compete with similar "miracles". This is done so that devils born down here and not previously condemned might believe in Satan as something great, and eventually they too would be condemned and damned, Revelation 13:4,13-15. Israel at that time was "acting" the role and glory of ALL HUMANITY, Deuteronomy 32:8. Pharaoh and the Egyptian people had the dubious role of "acting" the dishonorable parts of the powers of darkness. The movement of the children of Israel from Egypt to the "promise land" teaches that mankind is removed from the obstacle course when he dies. They go through their own blood (Red Sea) and from their own flesh (exodus) as spirits into Heaven, Luke 20:37-38; Hebrews 12:22-24. THAT is the WAY God has chosen to draw men to Him as He "calls" each man's heavenly name, Ecclesiastes 12:7. The powers of darkness do go the other way, Ecclesiastes 3:21; Revelation 13:4. They are to be destroyed as the fate of Pharaoh's army predicts. Satan's household can look forward to the day of termination forever, Isaiah 14:12,21-22, 41:11-12; Matthew 23:33, 25:41.
During Elijah's tour of duty, "two ways" were exerting their influences on the people. In his challenge of the evil way, Elijah asked the people, "How long halt ye between two opinions"? With Elijah God did a dramatic thing to establish faith in Himself when He sent fire down from heaven to devour Elijah's sacrifice. The powers of darkness were not allowed to duplicate Elijah's work. Instead Elijah killed the false prophets dumping their controlling evil spirits back into their "bottomless pit" style fall.
Jesus plainly made reference to the "two ways" set before man declaring, "BROAD IS THE WAY" that leads to destruction and many there be that go in there at... straight is the gate and NARROW IS THE WAY that leadeth unto life and few there be that find it", Matthew 7:13-14. THIS INDICATES THAT FEW MEN ACTUALLY FIND GOD AND CHRIST EVEN THOUGH THEY SEARCH FOR THEM SINCERELY....BECAUSE "I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE", John 14:6. A young Pharisee named Saul of Tarsus illustrates the point. But the reality of the situation for mankind is that most of them are not spiritual Levites and even among the "spiritual Levites" only a "few" are chosen by God to be His priests. The rest of mankind cannot come near God in understanding no matter how much they "study" and no matter how sincerely we may desire to draw them ourselves, Matthew 11:25-27. Even as all Israel were captives and slaves to Pharaoh except Moses and eventually Aaron, even so ALL MANKIND remain the victims of Satan's power along with the churches. And these go about like so many Sauls of Tarsus, so sure of themselves! But only a "few" are "kept" for spiritual warfare by God like Joshua and Caleb! Matthew 24:22,24; Revelation 12:17.
I will again mention briefly that God set "two ways" before your eyes even in the pages of the Bible! God told Moses to cover the "ark" which housed the ten commandments and the written testimony with "badgerskin". This indicated that He lets Satan drop a few lines on His writers to provide an "unclean" covering of His truth given to them. This was done so that HE ALONE is "Master" over the WORD OF GOD to "set it in order" and to teach whom He will when He will... not when we will, Psalm 50:16-21; Isaiah 29:10-14; Revelation 5:1-5. Well intentioned MEN HAVE CALLED MANY AS "PROSELYTES" ... AND DEVILS HAVE CALLED MANY TO BE MINISTERS. But known unto God are His chosen "few". Paul was the first to be taught of "badger-skin" in the writings, I Corinthians 13:8-12. And today some have noticed that some things in the Bible tend to "contradict". Jesus is the ONLY WAY to discern which WORD came from the Holy Spirit and which were inserts from demonic "pretenders-to-be-God", Ezekiel 34:18-19; 2 Thessalonians 2:4,8; Revelation 12:15,17.
Today our generation is confronted by a maddening and disturbing network of falsehood so insidious as to be mistaken for truth! Job 41:1,18-22. Because of the mixture of good and evil right in the pages of the Bible, men have trouble finding out what God is like and what He expects of us. They are unaware of God's PLAN. They do not know that our earth-stay is the first step in each man's immortal life! Earthly ideas in the churches are out of phase with God's "FAMILY" purposes and might as well be discarded, Isaiah 9:2, 60:2; John 1:5. YOU WILL AGREE WITH GOD'S PLAN ... sooner or later, Isaiah 28:15-18; Ezekiel 20:32-38. God is LOVE and you might as well get used to that fact, Song of Solomon 8:6,7, Romans 8:38-39.
"For as love would quicken the dead and would call back them that are condemned to die, so hatred would slay the living and those that had sinned venially it would not suffer to live. For the spirit of hatred worketh together with Satan through hastiness of spirits in all things to men's death; but the spirit of love worketh together with the law of God in long-suffering unto the salvation of men", Testament of Gad I:23,24. Now read Luke 7:41-43, 9:51-56. DO YOU AGREE?