Why Didn’t God Just Send His Children Straight into the Millennium Teaching Period Instead of into this Flesh?
Steve, some teachers claim God created this flesh age as a testing period for us to see whether we’ll choose to follow Satan’s ways or God’s ways. If this is so, then why wouldn’t God just send us straight to the Millennium instead of this 6,000 year age of flesh? Why do we have to go through the misery and pain and uncertainty of this flesh? In other words, what’s the point of this 2nd world age we live in? It seems this flesh age is superfluous at best — a big waste of our time. So please tell me, what’s the point of this age in the flesh? — Paul
Steve’s Answer:
Hi Paul,
The short answer is this: If we didn’t go through this flesh age, we’d never know what death is. We’d have no personal experience with it.
And since “death” is what we get when we choose to follow Satan’s ways, our heavenly Father wanted us to personally experience it so we’d know exactly what we’re getting into if we choose to follow Satan instead of Him.
My Personal Belief
It’s my personal belief — and please don’t ask me to document it Scripturally because this is just my own assessment based on decades of Bible study — that in the first age, just before the katabole, Satan basically taught God’s kids to act as the wild animals act.
In other words, he used nature as a teaching tool, claiming that we need to be more “natural.” Instead of teaching what differentiates us from the animals — compassion for each other, for example — he taught that we need to become more like the animals.
For example, in the animal world the strongest take from the weakest…the fastest outrun the slowest…the predators attack and devour the innocent…the strongest and fittest survive longer while the weakest die earlier, etc.
It’s the exact opposite of God’s moral code for His children. And I believe it’s what Satan taught God’s kids in the material dimension in that 1st world age. He probably taught something like this:
“Observe the fox. Watch how he sneaks up on the little rabbit eating grass, then rushes in and grabs it by the head, snapping its neck while crushing its skull. The fox is the winner because he’s bold and decisive, and he takes what he wants and has no remorse over it. It’s his nature to win. If you want to be the winner, you have to imitate the fox.”
I think that kind of teaching was very likely the basis for the great falling away from God’s Word and God’s Way in that first world age. And after God’s kids started acting like the animals, and turmoil developed on earth in the material dimension because of it, I think God basically said:
“If you idiots want to act like a bunch of animals, then I’m going to put each and every one of you through animal flesh, so you can experience for yourself what it’s like to live in a world where the strongest take from the weakest, the fastest outrun the slowest, the predators attack and devour the innocent…and in the end, everybody dies.”
You Asked for It, You Got It
In other words, as I’ve stated many times, our heavenly Father is a “You asked for it, you got it” kind of guy.
If you want to act like an animal, Father will put you in animal flesh and let you personally experience everything that goes along with being an animal, including pain, suffering and death.
I also believe this is the basis for the following Scriptures from the books of II Peter and Jude, which describe those who choose to follow Satan’s ways over God’s:
2Pe 2:12 But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;
Jud 1:10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.
God sends us through this flesh so He can see which of us prefer to act like a bunch of animals (and even die like animals), and which of us want to be part of His system of compassion, kindness and true family love for each other eternally.
It’s all about choosing between life and death. And to understand both well enough to make an informed decision, we have to experience both.
The book of Job tells us that in the first age, before Satan led his rebellion against God’s throne, there was perfect peace. Nobody lacked for anything. There were no tears, no sorrow and no death. All of our needs were taken care of. And everyone was joyful.
As it’s written regarding that time, “…the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy…” (Job 38:7).
But in my view, as God’s children grew farther apart from Him under Satan’s tutelage, and began acting more and more like the animals — what we call “survival of the fittest” today — God saw that they needed of a life-changing lesson.
And He knew it was a lesson that simply could not be taught verbally, but instead, had to be personally experienced by each soul.
So we ended up having to come through this flesh age in order to experience this dog-eat-dog animal life — including the death it inevitably results in — something no angel had ever experienced before and therefore could not make a proper judgment about.
In other words, when God’s children lowered themselves to act like animals in the first world age, God saw that the only way to save them was to bring everything to a screeching halt (i.e., the katabole, in which He destroyed that entire age) and put each and every one of us through this second age — this animalistic flesh age — one time only so we’d know from experience what living like an animal is truly like.
Beauty and Brutality
And why? So we could personally experience animal life in all of its beauty and all of its brutality (i.e., the knowledge of good and evil, set forth by Satan).
Only in that way could we decide — from personal experience — whether we’d rather live forever with Father in his loving, forgiving, peaceful, joyful and eternal family household, or live and die like the animals under Satan.
So no, I don’t think this flesh age is superfluous or a “big waste of our time.” Every one of God’s wayward kids will get to experience death. And that will be the ultimate lesson of this flesh life for them.
So when God says, essentially, “Operating outside of my Word leads to death” we’ll know exactly what He means, having personally experienced it in the flesh.
And that personal experience will lead many back to the Lord, once they truly “see” (i.e., with true understanding) what life under Satan is like.
A Helpful Analogy
Here’s an example: When a parent sees one of his or her children becoming fascinated with fire, that parent might wisely allow that child to put its own finger into a candle flame so they can experience for themselves the searing pain.
Visually, the child is experiencing fire as something beautiful.
But once the child reaches out and physically puts its finger into the candle flame, he knows that the fiery beauty is actually something very painful. And most likely, for the rest of that child’s life, he or she will never again purposely put a finger into a burning flame or be so fascinated with the beauty of fire.
I don’t know if you get the analogy, or not. But God is letting us experience both the beauty and barbarism of the flesh because it all revolves around death, which is Satan’s power.
He knows that asking us to choose between life and death — between the policies of Jesus and the policies of Satan — is not fair, because we can’t possibly know what death is, until we’ve experienced it.
We know our heavenly Father is the source of all life. And we know Satan is the source of all death (Hebrews 2:14).
And coming into this flesh age and personally experiencing both life and death gives us the opportunity to know beyond any shadow of a doubt what the end result of following Satan is going to be.
To choose between death and eternal life, the only fair thing is to be allowed to experience life and death, so we can make our choice with full knowledge.
So again, no. This flesh age is most definitely not a waste of our time. It’s probably the most important lesson we’ll ever learn.
If you take a look at the following video, perhaps you’ll see what I mean, in terms of the animalistic nature God’s kids have adopted and seem to admire and revel in, under Satan’s direction:
Watch the video, and tell me whether or not it helps you understand how animalistic God’s children have become. I believe this behavior goes all of the way back to the world that was, i.e., the first world age.
Indeed, if you’ve ever wondered what things were like on this earth just before the katabole in the first age, look around yourself today.
There’s nothing new under the sun. What you see today is just a reflection of what’s already happened in the past, in that first age when Satan led God’s children in rebellion against His throne.
Except for one thing:
In this flesh age we get the added bonus of personally experiencing suffering and death so we actually know what it is and can make an informed choice between following God and His just and fair ways, or following Satan and his animalistic “might makes right” and “survival of the fittest” ways.
If we just jumped to the 1,000 years of teaching — the Millennium — and skipped this flesh age, we’d have had no personal experience with suffering and death and all of the animalistic things leading up to it, which are the ultimate end result of Satan’s system.
So we’d be missing a key piece of knowledge (and personal experience) that might otherwise help God’s wayward children fully understand the consequences of Satan’s ways which always leads to death, compared to God’s ways, which always leads to life.
How Would Christ’s Blood Have Been Shed Without the Flesh Age?
Finally, it’s also important to note that without this flesh age, Christ’s sacrificial act of redemption could not have been carried out. If God’s children had been sent straight from the first age to the Millennium teaching period, there would have been no atonement for sins, which is to say, no price paid. So the Millennium would have been of no recourse, because God’s children would have still been sin-stained at the end of it.
So this flesh age is a necessary interlude that serves several purposes, including (and most importantly) our salvation. But it also serves to educate us about the inevitable outcome of following Satan, so we can make an informed choice.
Regards in Christ,
Steve Barwick
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