Before all other things, God and the Logos existed from eternity in antiquity as divine spirit beings.

Their way of life is founded on true outgoing love and concern. It is ex­pressed in divine perfect law as encapsulated in the Ten Command­ments and administered through the government of God, with God over all, and the Logos enacting and commanding the perfect lawful love and will of God. Both God’s law and government are perfect expressions of His divine love.

This history of the Godhead (consisting of God and the Word—or, in Greek, Logos) is revealed in John 1:1-5. There was righteousness and perfect harmony emanating from the absolute intimate unity of the Supreme God and the Logos. They lived together in mutual love and total agreement.

The First Creative Activity

“But if they lived, what did they do?” asked Herbert W. Armstrong in his inspired book, Mystery of the Ages. He answered: “They created. One might say that by profession they were in the creating business.”

As far as God has revealed, the first creative activity and project of the Godhead was the creation of the angels as spirit beings. The Logos, under the government of the supreme God, created all things (Rev. 4:11). The Logos spoke and, through the power of the Holy Spirit, the express creative will of God was performed (Eph. 3:9). The angels were individually created in various forms (some with human features and others with animal features), but all with magnificent elegance, mental prowess and awesome power. All were ministering spirits, or agents, under the Godhead (Heb. 1:14). They were to be helpers in God’s creation.

Among the angels (possibly billions of them) were three archangels: Lucifer, Michael and Gabriel. Lucifer was possibly the most exalted of all angels, and much is said about him throughout the Bible. Lucifer had an intimate relationship with the Supreme God and the Logos. He was trained at the headquarters of the whole universe. He was a covering cherub; his wings formed a glorious canopy over God’s throne.

We are given a stunning glimpse of the magnificent Lucifer as a covering cherub in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. “Thus saith the Lord God; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering … the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created. Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created …” (Ezek. 28:12-15).

What a magnificent spiritual being!

Notice: Lucifer was full of wisdom. He was perfect in beauty, with a built-in capacity for glorious music production. He occupied an honored position, covering the mercy seat of God, situated at the headquarters throne of God over the whole universe. He was perfectly complete in all his ways as God created him.

Lucifer, evidently, was the pinnacle of God’s masterpieces of creation. He was the finest that God is able to create by fiat. Lucifer was probably the most qualified, most able, most magnificent and powerful being outside the Godhead!

Lucifer’s Rebellion

The next major activity of God revealed is the creation of the vast physical universe and the Earth. The angels were incredibly excited about this terrific accomplishment; they sang for joy (Job 38:4-7), largely, no doubt, in anticipation of their work and responsibility in this new creation.

Lucifer was eventually placed on the Earth, apparently with a third of the angels under his leadership, to implement the rule of God while fashioning and beautifying the finishing touches to the globe’s surface. This was a testing ground for the angelic realm, which would later lead to them putting the final touches on creation across the whole universe once they had succeeded in the “Earth project.”

Lucifer and the angels under his control, however, “kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation” (Jude 6). Here we begin to see a shocking event appearing in the universe for the first time. Under the direction of Lucifer, catastrophic change entered the scene, revealing the most shocking events in the history of eternity to that point.

Further details on the leader of this rebellion are given in Isaiah 14: “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground …. 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” (vv. 12-14).

And, in Ezekiel 28: “Thou was perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned …. Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness …. Thou hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the iniquity of thy traffick …” (vv. 15-18).

These verses show the colossal tragedy of the perfect archangel, Lucifer, mounting rebellion against his own God and Creator, along with the aid of one third of the angels!

In this violent spiritual overthrow, Lucifer—the former “light bringer”—became Satan the “adversary.” The angels under his care were swayed; they succumbed to Lucifer’s rebellious ideas and fell from their positions as ministering servants to become miserable demons. All these seditious spirit beings became perverted, reprobate and twisted in mind and character.

In the titanic battle that ensued from the rebellion, the planets and stars in the universe were marred and scarred from their original creation. The Earth became “without form, and void” (Gen. 1:2).

Sin had entered the universe!

As a result of this vile introduction of sin, God’s physical creation was nearly destroyed. What’s more, approximately one third of His majestic spiritual creation became irretrievably corrupted and perverted. God’s purpose in this “Plan A”—to expand His realm through the obedient rulership of the angels—was now thwarted. Only God and the Logos could remain trusted with such a momentous task.

Though the Godhead had not created a faulty plan, “Plan A” had sadly failed due to the rebellion of Lucifer and his followers.

Plan B: The God Family

In God’s great desire to expand His creative work, guided by His law and government and built upon His divine love, God then decided to implement the most magnificent plan of all. This plan would involve massive, universe-shattering risk. This plan—Mr. Flurry has called it “Plan B”—was now to be implemented in a whole new creation project.

In this “back-up plan” (which was, in reality, a better plan than the first one), God refurbished Earth’s surface in six days, culminating in the creation of Adam and Eve (Gen. 1:2-2:3). God’s ultimate purpose was now to be realized through the most incredible task of recreating Himself—of bringing born sons of God into a God family!

In this awesome plan, the first humans were offered the gift of eternal life. Adam and Eve could have chosen God’s happy and abundant way of life by following God’s government, which would have guided them in the way of God’s love. They could have obeyed and taken of the tree of life and been converted before having sinned; they could have received eternal life and been born into the God family. Yet they did not choose this way.

Instead, they were duped into disbelieving and disobeying God; Satan the devil persuaded them, with cunning insinuation and deception, to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 3:1-6). This disobedience was a great sin for which they were barred from receiving eternal life and driven from the garden paradise at Eden (vv. 22-24).

The sins of our first human parents started man on the sinful path, which, over a 6,000-year period, would separate him from God—except for the very few God would call to use for His purpose of keeping His truth alive through the thread of human history, and for God’s work of witnessing to mankind, even though most would not listen.

The ugliness of sin first entered the whole creation of the universe through Lucifer in “Plan A,” and then, through Adam (and Eve), sin entered the Earth in “Plan B” (Rom. 5:12).

Adam and Eve were forced from the Garden of Eden and, cut off from God and access to the tree of life, continued to stray further from God’s way. To be sure, their lives—and, for the most part, the lives of their children—were not joyful and abundant, as God had intended. Before long, their firstborn son, Cain, committed sin by murdering his brother, righteous Abel, in a fit of jealous rage (Gen. 4:1-8). And so it went. Each successive generation became more wracked with sin and misery than the previous one.

Of course, as biblical history records, this sin-driven world culminated in the Noachian Flood. Even after that worldwide cataclysm, however, and even after God raised up the nation of Israel as His chosen people and revealed to them His law of love, sin persisted. The ancient Israelites wanted to live their own way—the way of sin. They didn’t like God’s authority and laws. They wanted to be like other nations that were cut off from God, free to do as they pleased, even though it meant suffering and death.

God had to reiterate His law, in codified form, through the Prophet Moses, to the Israelites in the wilderness at Mount Sinai. Some today have argued that this event was the first introduction of God’s law. But the same basic, eternal, spiritual principles expressed in the law had existed from eternity. In fact, it is because the law always existed that rebellion to this law caused sin to appear from the time of Lucifer’s rebellion!

The Apostle Paul plainly taught that without law there can be no knowledge of sin (Rom. 5:13). And, as the Apostle John was inspired to write, sin, by its very definition , is the transgression—or violation—of God’s law (i John 3:4). Thus, sin is fundamentally against or aberrant to law and the Lawgiver.

On the other hand, righteousness, from the very beginning, has always been that way of submitting to God’s law as exercised by His loving government. Following any other way of life has eternally been aberrant to God’s way, and sin. This is still the case today. God’s law is eternal and immutable in the past, present and future (Matt. 5:17-18). Any other course or direction is rebellion and sinful.

The penalty for human sin is death (Rom. 5:12). But God had purposed to bring man out of sin—to deliver him from the eternal death penalty. How?

God realized that His created humans, as free moral agents, could sin, and probably would sin, so in “Plan B” the Logos had already been allocated the role of a propitiatory blood sacrifice (Rev. 13:8), just in case mankind would choose to sin and subsequently require a Savior.

The Need for Christ’s First Coming

Incredible as it is, the Creator of mankind was prepared to give up His eternal life, become a human being and prevail against both Satan and sin by living a perfect life culminating in His slaughter. This perfect life of Christ, as the Creator of human life, was worth more than all other human lives put together; thus, through His sacrificial death, He paid the penalty of sin for all humans. Also, having lived perfectly, He could be resurrected and restored to His former glory.

Contrary to popular opinion, it was possible for Jesus to sin during His human lifetime on Earth (Heb. 4:15); He too was created with free will. He was not an automaton. If Christ had sinned, though, this would have meant that He would have died forever. There would be no hope for salvation. Indeed, this was the massive universe-shattering risk that the Godhead was willing to take to have an expanded divine family! We can be thankful that Christ, by the power of choice, and with the mighty power of the invisible Holy Spirit working in full measure within His mind (John 3:34), utterly prevailed against all sin—Satan, society and even His own fleshly pulls—to lead an absolutely triumphant life. Even the sacrificial crucifixion of Christ, we may say, was the ultimate, final and decisive triumph of the Logos incarnate.

Satan never won over Christ, as Christ was always utterly and completely victorious against Satan through the application of the power of God in Him. What an example for true Christians to aspire to!

God’s eternal law was not done away at Jesus’s death. Rather, the penalty of death had been lifted for the repentant.

Human beings now have the opportunity to repent and—through the gift of God’s grace (an unmerited pardon made possible by that propitiatory sacrifice of Jesus Christ)—to be forgiven, reconciled to God and spiritually begotten to live anew. Then, with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, after a spiritual gestation period of righteous character-building through life’s trials and experiences, they may be spiritually reborn into the God family King­dom! Thank God for that! What an incredible human potential!

Sin and God’s Holy Days

God’s Plan B is actually summarized in the seven annual holy days listed in Leviticus 23. God’s holy day plan shows His incredibly powerful process of utterly vanquishing sin in complete love and mercy for the salvation of man.

Herbert Armstrong was inspired to author an incisive, illuminating analysis of these days, titled Pagan Holidays or God’s Holy Days—Which? This booklet (along with several of his other writings) exposes the truth behind the origins of man’s holidays, as well as the truth about God’s master plan. Mr. Armstrong placed special emphasis upon the “sin problem” and the plan of God, and powerfully attested to God giving the final solution for sin.

The first and primary festival, Passover, makes the entire master plan of God possible. Jesus’s last act as a human was one of ultimate victory over Satan and the demons. By willingly allowing Himself to be slaughtered, His torture, spilled blood and death paid for every physical and spiritual sin of all mankind. The penalty of sickness and death was paid by Christ in total. His beating and scourging allows us to be healed and forgiven of physical sin. His spilled blood and death allows us to be graciously forgiven, cleansed and reconciled to God through faith-filled repentance.

But it is by the life of the resurrected, glorified Christ as a Son of God that we live and are saved (Rom. 5:10). The sting of sin, death, has no more claim over us.

The second festival, the Days of Unleavened Bread, pictures the putting of leaven (sin) out of our lives and eating unleavened bread, which symbolizes submission to God’s law and living in obedience to God (i Cor. 5:5-8). Sin is therefore dealt with in our lives through submissive obedience both at the physical and spiritual-intent levels.

Pentecost follows the first two festivals and is for the firstfruits, who receive the Holy Spirit, which empowers them to overcome sin (Acts 2:1-4). These firstfruits are but the small “out of season” harvest representing a harbinger of the pending offer of salvation for all mankind at a later time as shown by the following festivals.

Christ’s magnificent and glorious return is pictured by the Feast of Trumpets, when the process of salvation will be complete for the firstfruits who have utterly prevailed against sin and its author, Satan. From then on, Christ’s unrivaled rule, with the resurrected saints, will not allow or tolerate widespread and systematic sin, as He rules the nations in a thousand-year paradise (Rev. 20:4), giving all who will live in that time the opportunity to prevail over sin.

The Day of Atonement has a powerful meaning for the vanquishing of sin. Christ, having already paid the price for each human for his individual responsibility in sinning, will now put Satan’s responsibility for sin back on him. Satan, along with the demons, will be banished and restrained forever (Rev. 20:3), except for a “short season” at the end of the Millennium. Satan will pay his own price for his own sin, and for all the sin he inspired, by being confined forever. Also on this day each year, God’s people fast to break the clutches of sin and draw closer to God. This spiritual proximity to God helps us to know His will, develop a humble and teachable attitude, and have God’s strength to prevail against sin and do God’s will and work.

The Feast of Tabernacles shows that God, in the wonderful World Tomor­row, will offer all who will live then salvation without the sway of Satan and the demons. Men will be able to accept God’s way and, through submission to God, build righteous character and receive eternal life—being born into the God family as the children of Christ and His bride.

The Last Great Day is a massive event in which all who have ever lived and not heard the true gospel and been converted will be resurrected to physical life (Rev. 20:5; Ezek. 37). They will then have the opportunity to repent in a world free of Satan, to reject sin, to follow God and be born into the God family.

At last, then, there will be a final resurrection of those who had been called to spiritual redemption during all 7,000 years and who had rejected God’s loving mercy and rebelled, knowing the truth (Rev. 20:13). They will realize fully who and what they have rejected and rebelled against. They shall then die the second and final, eternal death in the lake of fire described in ii Peter 3:7 and 10. Their days of suffering shall be over.

In the final solution for saved immortals, “there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away” (Rev. 21:4).

From the rebellion of Lucifer to the lake of fire, possibly spanning billions of years, the great loving, merciful and just God will have relentlessly triumphed over sin, the greatest problem ever in the universe.

This will bring all of us, who have been reborn as God beings, to the coming of the New Jerusalem, when the spiritual throne and home of the supreme God will come down to this physical Earth to replace it, as the regal center of the universe, from where God’s law and government, based on His love, will be administered by the God family, universe-wide, in the ever-expanding Kingdom of God (Isa. 9:6-7).

Surely, when we stop to meditate on this, we are awestruck as we look forward to this great beginning. We must pray that by the grace of God we all give God unspeakable joy by joining Him eternally in this great victory over sin by becoming born gods!