Mike,

Thank you for answering my question about ‘did we exist as individual spirit beings’ before we were physically born. That never seemed right to me, but there is a lot of that thought swirling around the internet these days.

Will we exist as individual spirit beings when God is all in all or will we NOT be individual beings any more? I know that this scripture – Eph 1:10 “That in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ….” – could sound as if ‘all things’ go back to one and not individual beings.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer my questions. You will never know what a difference the truths that I have learned have made in my life.

Bless you,

L____

Hi L____,

I am very grateful that you see that we did not preexist as individual spirits. I should have pointed you to Psa 104 to make that even clearer.

Psa 104:24 O LORD, how manifold are thy works! in wisdom hast thou made them all: the earth is full of thy riches.
Psa 104:25 So is this great and wide sea, wherein are things creeping innumerable, both small and great beasts.
Psa 104:26 There go the ships: there is that leviathan, whom thou hast made to play therein.
Psa 104:27 These wait all upon thee; that thou mayest give them their meat in due season.
Psa 104:28 That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good.
Psa 104:29 Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.
Psa 104:30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.

The word for breath in verse 29 is the Hebrew word ‘ruach’ and the same word is translated as spirit in verse 30. But when Christ is admonishing Adam and Eve for their disobedience in eating of the forbidden tree of knowledge of good and evil, He does not tell them ‘Spirit you are and to spirit you will return’. Instead He tells them they are dust and will return to dust. Later Paul tells us that if there were no resurrection of the dead, then Adam and all in Him will perish in death.

1Co 15:17 And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.
1Co 15:18 Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.
1Co 15:19 If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.

Concerning your question about the entire creation losing its identity and once more becoming God, that would make this whole exercise of creating mankind completely futile, and nothing would have been accomplished. If there were anything to that false and unbiblical doctrine, then we would be told simply that God would be all, and there would be no need for the Lamb as the light of New Jerusalem. But we are not told simply that God will be all. What we are told is that God will be all IN all, and the Lamb will be the light of the New Jerusalem.

1Co 15:28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.
Rev 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
Rev 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.
Rev 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and 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 21:22 And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
Rev 21:23 And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof.

The Lamb is the temple and the light, and we are in the Lamb. We are even told that Christ’s inheritance is “in His saints”, and we are the ones who fill up Christ just as He fills up His Father.

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:
Eph 1:12 That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ.
Eph 1:13 In whom ye also [ trusted], after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Eph 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.
Eph 1:15 Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,
Eph 1:16 Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
Eph 1:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
Eph 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
Eph 1:19 And what [ is] the exceeding greatness of his power to us- ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
Eph 1:20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly [ places],
Eph 1:21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
Eph 1:22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
Eph 1:23 Which is his body, the fulness of him [ Christ] that filleth all in all.

I hope this helps you to see clearly that we are not going through all of this just to cease to exist. We are being tried to be placed in a position of everlasting glory with and in our Lord.

Your brother in Christ,

Mike>