All Our Yesterdays
"To the last
syllable of recorded time, and all our yesterdays. . ." (Macbeth V.v.)
A series of brief articles
dealing with Human Pre-existence
by Arthur & Rosalind Eedle.
10. Coming into the World
Sometimes
we can read what look like perfectly ordinary statements in the Scriptures, and
think we have grasped the truth, only to find that we have overlooked something
important. This may be a human foible, but on the other hand it could be that
we have not been ready for the work of the Holy Spirit.
This
happened to me over such a well-known text that I was surprised! It was John
1:4 & 9, "In Him was life, and the life was the light of
men . . . . . He was the true light that enlightens every man coming into the
world."
Now, it is
possible to read this sentence in two ways. We could re-arrange the words to
read, "He was the true light coming into the world, that enlightens every
man." In other words Jesus was the Light, and now He was coming into the
world. There is nothing wrong with that statement. It is perfectly true. But is
it a justifiable translation of the original Greek? The order of the Greek
words suggests rather that the other meaning should be adhered to. In
other words, "Every man coming into the world is enlightened by
Jesus." Every person, before being conceived, has been given enlightenment
in the heavenly realm.
Can we
obtain some reinforcement of this conclusion? In the Apocryphal book of 2nd
Esdras 7:21-24 we find the following words. "God has given clear
instruction to all men when they come into this world, telling them how to
attain life and escape punishment. But the ungodly have refused to obey Him;
they have set up their own empty ideas, and planned deceit and wickedness; they
have even denied the existence of the Most High, and have not acknowledged His
ways. They have rejected His law and refused His promises, and have neither put
faith in His decrees nor done what He commands."
I make no
apology for introducing the Apocrypha at this point. The book in question was
written, according to scholars, about the first century A.D., and therefore
reflects current thought in that era. The writer put these words into the mouth
of the instructing angel who was speaking to Ezra, and the sense is exactly the
same as that in John's writing.
If we can
accept this understanding from the pen of the Apostle John, then we have
learned one more important truth about our pre-existence. Whatever man's moral
condition was before birth, every soul received enlightenment from the Lord
Jesus before leaving for earth. No one can therefore claim that God was unjust,
and that we were never given a chance to know the truth. Even though we have
passed through the "river of forgetfulness", it is apparent that a
certain awareness remains. Quite the majority of human beings are aware, for
example, of much within the ten commandments, without ever having heard of
them. They know that Murder, Falsehood, Theft, and Adultery are wrong.
What has told them? Or should we say, WHO has told them?
It may come
as a surprise to learn that even the Greek philosophers of the fourth century
B.C. were debating this very point, and some of them came to remarkable
conclusions, in line with what John said in his first chapter, and this was
achieved without any contact with the Jewish nation, who held the oracles of
God. Somewhat later in this series, we shall have to return to this.