We Are At War: The History

"And there was war in heaven."--Revelation 12:7

Once we are awakened to the reality that we are at war, we learn quickly that this didn't just happen, nor is it only about us. Neo, from The Matrix, discovers there is more to the world he had grown up in, and he is told of the long and sustained battle between man and the machines. Frodo, from The Lord of the Rings, learns why he must leave the Shire to destroy the Ring of Power, and that the Dark Lord Sauron has returned to make another attempt to destroy the free peoples of Middle Earth. When Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy come to Narnia for the first time, they are told the winter wonderland is actually the work of the evil witch, Jadis, and her rebellious lust for power.

Knowledge of the past frees us to see that life is not about us. We are living in a much larger story set within a world at war. However, this does not diminish our role in the story, nor are we deemed insignificant. It is a story that we are invited up into, to play an irreplaceable role. Samwise Gamgee, in The Lord of the Rings, asks, "I wonder what sort of tale we've fallen into?"

We must ask the same question to understand life here on earth. Deep within we all know that we were made for something more, something grand. Even epic. We are not just some random happenings developed from single-celled organisms. There is purpose and meaning to life, and it goes far beyond anything we have ever imagined or dreamed. Everything we do, good or bad, contributes to the story we are swept up in.

This story does not begin here on earth. Remember, its never been about us. John 1 draws our attention to "the time before all time," and it goes like this:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." (vv. 1-4, ESV)

What we have here is a description of the foundations from which the earth was created. We are given a glimpse of what we understand to be the Holy Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Three persons who are uniquely related to each other, a fellowship of love, to make up what we know to be "God".

Sometime before God creates the earth, holy, powerful angels attended God's throne and kingdom. They moved at the command of the Trinity.

However, there was one, the captain of the heavenly host, whose loyalty to the Almighty had waned. Feeling cheated and an overwhelming sense of pride swelling within, the great Captain, Lucipher, convinced (we are told in the scriptures) a third of the angels to join him in an unholy coup against the Ancient of Days. He brought war to the heavenly courtyards. It was a betrayal like no other.

The rebellion would end in failure. Jesus himself testified, "I saw Satan (Lucipher's name after his betrayal) fall from heaven like lightning" (Luke 10:18). Milton tells the story in brilliant detail in his work Paradise Lost. While Satan was defeated, he was not destroyed. He would wait, until the opportune time to make his move and strike again.

This is the story we find ourselves in, and it is the nature of the war going on around us. Satan, the accuser, has raised the question of God's trustworthiness. Can we really trust the Heart of God? Are His intentions toward us good? The battle in heaven was won by pure might. However, strength will not be enough to fight the battle now turned to earth, specifically within the heart of humanity.

We Are So Far From Home

Just shortly after God created Adam, the scriptures tell us about Eden. It was the garden He planted for his firstborn son of all humanity. It would be his home, a place of shelter, rest, and protection.

As Eldredge points out in his book Wild At Heart, he is placed, not created, in the garden. This is why men long for adventure and to be out in the wild. It is where we come alive and find a lot of the things we long for.

However, the wild is no place to lay your head. It's not the place to drop your guard. God saw this and found it necessary to create for him a home. Eden was made for man. It was the place for him to find refuge and sanctuary.

A friend of mine recently shared with me something he discovered—the garden of Eden was God's original design for a temple or place of worship. It was the one place in the world where God chose to commune with His son. There, God and Adam enjoyed complete openness and freedom as it was meant to be shared between Father and son. In the garden the man would find rest, comfort, food, and fellowship.

Now, imagine the most beautiful natural places on earth. You're close to what Eden was meant to be. We long for Edenistic experiences. Think about where you would choose to go on vacations. It's these places where we find rest from our work, comfort from our stress, and the people we spend it with would be the one(s) who matter most to us.

Adam's story only begins with Eden. Eve is created as Adam's ezer kenegdo (more about what that means later), and the enemy of God is lurking in their midst. Adam is tempted and he fell from grace. The gift of Eden is lost. The openness Adam once enjoyed has become altogether different. He is naked and doesn't like it.

Adam resorts to hiding in an attempt to avoid exposure. Everything feels different from what it once was. Fellowship with the heavenly Father is broken. The vulnerability feels more like a weakness than a strength, and trust is replaced with suspicion.

Eldredge points out that something in Adam's heart shifts. It's why there is this awkwardness that seems to exist between us and God. We dodge, run, and hide from Him because His gaze pierces us and we can't stand the feeling.

Adam's expulsion from the garden is a picture of what has already happened between him and God. The wilderness becomes his home, far away from all the provisions of the garden, including the tree of life. Eden has been surrendered and the loss has been costly.

We've been trying to get back ever since. We live in the wild now. It seems the more we try to get back to the home that was intended for us, the further away it becomes.

Being so far from home, we've tried to recreate Eden. We've pitched our tent here and turned it into a castle. The wild is so dangerous and the more we learn from it, the more we try to guard ourselves from it.

We've learned a whole lot, too. In the wilderness, there is pain, grief, loneliness, rejection, despair, along with a whole host of really bad dilemmas. It's why we abuse drugs and other substances, drink too much alcohol, look at pornography, and commit adulterous affairs. It's why some of us become religious, looking for the ritual without offering our hearts fully to Jesus. We become lethargic watching too much television and playing too many video games. We get greedy, self-righteous, and work way too much. We become perfectionists, power-hungry, or procrastinators.

These are just some of the ways we try to recreate Eden without facing the truth that we have lost it. These "edens" we've built in a world taken over by sin and rebellion are nothing more than elaborate fig leaves to hide under. They are pitiful, messy, and cheap counterfeits leaving within our hearts something to be desired.

We were made for more.

We are a long way from Eden, but here is the good news. There is more. The work of Jesus accomplished through His death, resurrection, and ascension was to help us find our way back to the tree of life. Jesus said it, "If you want to save your life, you will destroy it. But if you give up your life for me, you will save it." (Luke 9:24 CEV)

The saved life is our life offered up to Jesus for His purposes. The destroyed life is the life that refuses vulnerability, refuses to be exposed under the careful gaze of the Lamb who was slain. The life that refuses to surrender his "eden" for the eternal home that awaits those the Father draws unto himself (John 6:44).

"Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood."--Revelation 22:14 & 15 (CEV).