Is the sea part of the God’s original purpose?
By Abraham Israel
Q: Is the sea part of the original purpose of God before the creation of the earth? We see in Genesis 1:2 the chaos and confusion upon the earth due to the rebellion of Satan and his demonic followers, and as a result of it the Bible clearly says, "The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." Does this mean that God never wanted to create sea upon the earth in his original plan as there is will be no sea in the new earth and heaven (Rev 21:1)? I do believe that the sea was planned by God to be deep under the earth to supply trees and plants with water naturally without any external effort of man (Gen 2:6; 7:11). But because of the rebellion of angels, God came up with a secondary plan to salvage the earth and to fulfill his original purpose which is the new heaven and new earth (Rev 21). Because this is right based on the word of God, do you believe that the sea creatures were not part of God's original purpose but were things created as a temporal part of "all things [including Satan and his cohorts evil rebellion] working together for the good of those" (Rom 8:28) saints of all ages who are called according to His original purpose to inhabit the new heaven and earth (Gen 1:20-23; Rev 21)?
A: As you say God has an original purpose which is a perfect heaven and earth without sin, sickness or death. When the first sin in this entire universe was started by the rebellion of Satan and his demonic cohorts, the distorted picture of God’s creation started (Isaiah 14:13-15). Even though God says that earth was created in the beginning at God’s appointed time to be inhabited by humans (Gen 1:1; Eccl 3:11; Is 45:18), we see right after the beginning of the earth and heaven’s creation, the Bible starts with a distorted picture of chaos and darkness covering the whole earth (Gen 1:2). This chaos was not the will of God, but an opposition to the fulfillment of His will. I believe the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters because the rebellion led the fallen angels to fill the land right over all the earth with waters so that mankind will not come in to existence and reign in this earth (Ps 8:6). Actually the creation of the heaven and earth was going on well until the first thought of sin got conceived in the heart of the Arch angel Lucifer and as a result from that time he began to think contrary to the will of God (Job 38:4, 6-7; Is 14:13-15; Ezek 28:14-15). So lawlessness and sin entered the universe through one angel’s disobedience to the will of God (1 John 3:4; Ezek 28:15).
Man is the apex of God’s creation, up to that time of the beginning of the heavens and the earth, Satan was the one who knew everything that God had planned and he was the chief leader of the whole of heaven up to that time of creation of man (Jude 9). But he knew that if man comes, man will still move closer to God than Satan himself and will have dominion over the earth and will worship God in the Spirit. That’s why he became jealous of God and man. Angels were created to serve both God and man, as a result are lesser than both in the original creation (Ps 91:11; 103:20; Heb 1:14; Rev 22:8-9). As the Bible also says in Psalm 8:4-6, “…For you have made him [man] a little lower than ["the angels"] God ['Elohim' - Here the word for 'angels' in the original Hebrew is Elohim which means Creator God, because this word is used in a pluralistic way by the writer David the Jews translated it wrongly as angels] …you have put all things [including the angels] under his feet.” Satan didn’t like the idea of God putting Man over Satan himself, thus he became proud and said in hid heart “…I will” 5 times, which up to that point of time had only one will [i.e. God’s will] (Isaiah 14:13-14). Once Satan sinned against God, the Bible in a veiled way revels that he took on third of angels along with him and formed an evil band to work against the purposes of God, he convinced the demonic angels greater freedom and power than what God had given them already (Rev 12:3-4, 9; John 8:44; Eph 6:12). Ever since this had happened there has always been deterioration of all of the universal creation since the beginning in which God created the heavens and the earth.
We cannot call God’s restructured plan as a secondary plan even though different from His initial desire and original purpose, as God is the “beginning and the end” (Rev 1:8) all the plans of God according to Him are equally good. This is why the Bible says, "The end of a thing is better than its beginning; the patient in spirit is better than the proud in spirit." (Ecc 7:8). In other words, in what ways God achieves the end it doesn’t matter because ultimately God will fulfill His purpose in His appointed time (Is 46:9-10). God has never been taken by surprise and has changed to plan B because of being not able to fulfill plan A that he had planned (Acts 15:18). It is like a grand chess master knowing the end chooses to lose a soldier to kill the king and check mate the opponent who plays against him. In this present universal scenario, God is the great chess master of the universe against whom Satan is playing as an opponent thinking that he can win somehow. God works out by His might all things which includes the bad things and the good things together until the end for the good of those who love Him deeply, follow Him now and wait for that glorious end by faith (Matt 13:24-30, 36-43; Rom 8:28). One of the greatest and the best among English Dramatists and Poets William Shakespeare nearly hit the same frequency when he said, "All's well that ends well".
We humans find hard to understand God’s foreknowledge because God acts as a drama director who knows and declares the end “from the beginning” (Is 46:10), because he has written the script and directs it sovereignly. We are like those who play the Characters in the drama and are also like the audience who see the drama unfold with excitement. The only difference in the real life scenario is, we choose our own character in the play, either to act as a wicked villain teaming up with Satan or as a good hero by teaming up with God. No matter what choice we take, the director knows each one of us personally beforehand with knowledge about where we will end up if we choose good or bad character in the play.
We know that the sea came as a modified plan of God to salvage His purpose (Gen 1:2). Even during the reengineering process that God initiated after the chaos, God formed a canopy of water all around the earth to make it air-conditioned for man and to keep it in an optimal condition for the self-growth of all herbs, plants and trees to its potential (Gen 1:6-8, 11-12). I believe that God’s intention initially before the chaos of Gen 1:2 were to irrigate the whole earth with a mist rising from the ground. For this to happen, God’s original design was to have seas under the earth which was called by the writer of the Book of Genesis in chapter 6 and verse 11 as “the fountains of the great deep”. This is why the Bible clearly says, "4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5 before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; 6 but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground." (Gen 2:4-6). Do you know that it is a flash back that describes the event that happened between Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 and 2? It was history of heavens and the earth when they were created. When did God create the heavens and the earth? Gen 1:1 says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Yes indeed this is a revelation given to us about the day before the rebellion of fallen angels in which the LORD God made the earth and the heavens. This scenario described in Gen 2:4-6 is clearly before the creation of any plants of the field in the earth and before any herb of the fields had grown. We know that all the plants and herbs were created only on the third day of creation (Gen 1:11-13), after the chaos due to rebellion of angelic beings which we see in Gen 1:2.
Now the question comes up, if God had not planned the seas what about the sea creatures that he created on the fifth day (Gen 1:20-23)? Were those sea creatures came in to existence just because of the fall of angelic rebellion in Gen 1:2 we had discussed about? Do you know that nearly two third of the whole earth is covered by water and only one third of it is covered with land in which we all humans live. According to scientific statistics, “Water covers 71% of the Earth's surface”. Think about it, if God says that the earth was originally created for man to inhabit, he must not have intended for the sea to cover 2/3rd of the whole earth (Is 45:18). Originally in God’s purpose He covered only the deep as with a garment (Ps 104:6). The waters stood above the beautiful mountains that God initially created for man to enjoy after the chaos created by angelic beings in Gen 1:2, and eventually he rebuked the waters and they fled to the place of the great deep again (Ps 104:6-7). So the seas came in to existence and spread across the earth as a curse because of fall of angels and men who sinned perpetually (Gen 10:25), after which God finally commanded the waves not to cross its boundary and destroy the dry land (Ps 104:9). My question to you is, if it is the will of God for the salty seas to cover 2/3 rd of the earth why should God rebuke and command it to keep it where it is as we see today? I believe that God original intention was not to have seas fill the earth.
I believe that the will of God for the whole earth is to have running crystal clear big river bodies all across the earth. All the lakes, ponds and salty seas have huge amount of waters which does not have continuous flow, and also this is the main cause of stagnation and deterioration of water over a period of time. You may ask me how you say this. We see a river of water, clear as crystal proceeding from the throne of God and the lamb and running in to the whole City of God which is nearly 1500 square miles [i.e. (1 sq miles = 2.58998811 sq kilometers) So 2.58998811 multiplied by 1500 equals 3884.982165 Sq. Kilometers] (Rev 21:15-16). As ‘Zion’ which means the model ‘City of God’ is always the example and a model for all other cities on earth or in heaven that God had planned from the beginning of creation, it proves that river not the sea is the original purpose of God for the whole earth (Rev 22:1-2). I believe this is why the moment God speaks about the new heaven and the new earth which will be the eternal fulfillment of God’s original purpose in the future, immediately God follows with the important information and merits of the new earth saying “also there was no more sea” (Rev 21:1) and then the Bible says after that, once this is fulfilled He will bring the beautiful New Jerusalem down to the new earth to make it rest in the centre of the new earth and will start to live with men in it (Rev 21:2-3). Oh glory to God!
To those who oppose this view point, I ask them, ‘why should God say that there will be no more sea in the new earth if it is not a vital piece of information that he wanted to convey to us in order for us to understand that it is not in the original purpose of God?’. I believe that it is the original purpose of God to have huge rivers right across the earth with a pure crystal clear water flowing perpetually through it all the time (Rev 22:1-2). Thus all the sea creatures were intended by God to fill these huge rivers that he had planned to be in all parts of the earth in his original purpose. You may ask me, ‘Do you say that these voracious flesh eating crocodiles, whales and deadly octopus were planned by God to move in these rivers?’ I am sorry that these creatures became wild after the fall of mankind in to sin and not before that (Rom 5:12, 13-14; 8:19-23). Because the animals were under the under the dominion of man, when Adam lost his dominion to Satan because of his willful sin, the curse of Satanic control also affected the entire universe including the sea creatures which was given to Adam by God to have dominion over it initially (Gen 1:28). So no matter how huge these creatures may be, God intended them to be calm and friendly under the humans who are the reason behind all of His other creations (Mat 6:25-32). Jesus through the sons of God will again subdue all things to Himself and will bring restoration to all things on earth including the sea creatures during the Millennium (Phil 3:20-21; Rom 8:19; Acts 3:21). During the Millennium rule of Jesus Christ, all the saints will rule with Him over the entire earth to restore it to God’s original purpose, which will fully happen only when all the rebellion of all of God’s enemies will be put under God’s feet at the end of the Millennium in the final battle of Gog and Magog (1 Cor 15:24-26; Rev 20:4; Dan 7:14, 18, 22, 27; Matt 25:34; Rev 20:7-10). Once all the enemies of God are judged including the angels and the unbelieving men (1 Cor 6:2-3; Rev 20:10, 12-13), they will be cast in to the eternal fire as a detestable abhorrence, which will be somewhere away from the new earth and the heavens but in visibility to all the saints of all times who will inhabit the new heavens and the earth (Is 66:24, 22). Right after the white throne judgment the original purposes of God will be established by God who will reign and live in the midst of the new heavens and the new earth and will be all in all to everyone happily ever after (Rev 21:1-8)!!!! Praise the Lord!
The bottom line is, the sea creatures are part of God's original purpose and design, they were not added because of the rebellion and chaos that happened at the time of beginning when God originally began to create the heavens and the earth (Gen 1:1-2). So God is constantly working together "all things [including Satan and his cohorts evil rebellion] for the good of those" (Rom 8:28) saints of all ages who are called according to His original purpose to inhabit the new heaven and earth (Gen 1:20-23; Rev 21). Glory to God!!!
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