As Earth Churns…24. Earth

During the 1656 years from the creation of Adam until the death of the world’s oldest recorded person, Methuselah at age 969 years, mankind was multiplying so that the population of the world grew nearly exponentially. During those centuries Rafael made many trips to earth and interviewed many others who had minor or insignificant missions among the humans mainly to check up on things. The Heavenly Herald only reported on two events of any import during all that time.

The first was a meeting between Lucifer and his angels. They gathered in a clearing East of Eden on one warm afternoon. Lucifer began, “I want to thank all of you for your outstanding efforts over these last centuries to cause so many humans to choose lives of sin rather than of faith in God. In fact we have succeeded so well that the goal of ruling the entire world is within our grasp. I want to encourage you to redouble your efforts in the next few years. Make friends of the sinful and cause calamity to fall upon the faithful. In these ways the number of those following our path will increase. Soon God will have no other choice than to destroy all mankind or leave them all to us. Either way we win!” He concluded with exuberance amid a standing ovation. “Now go forth and wreak havoc!”

Rafael reported all this from his surveillance spot in a tree just within the line of the forest 10 yards from the clearing. Satan and his angels were so mesmerized by what was going on in that glen that they were oblivious to the presence of a heavenly spy. The eyewitness account made for exciting if somewhat disturbing reading in heaven the next day. Even God seemed distressed by Rafael’s article even though he already knew about the meeting because of his omniscience.

The second event on earth during those 16½ centuries was even more amazing to the angels in heaven. Likewise Satan’s followers could only ponder in baffled amazement. This occurrence culminated in the first human arriving in heaven. After an interview with God upon His return from a self-appointed mission to Earth, Rafael penned the story as factually and faithfully as possible.

The headline screamed, “First Man Enters Heaven!” the article was published as follows: “Today, in the 987^th year since the creation of Adam and Eve, the first human entered heaven. This most blest of Adam’s descendants was 365 years of age. His name was Enoch. After receiving numerous reports of Enoch’s faithfulness from this reporter and other earthward-sent angels, the Father decided to journey to Earth and see for Himself.

It only took him a few minutes to realize two facts. First, that Enoch was special of all mankind. His heart and his spirit were continually turned to God and helping his neighbor.

The second fact God immediately ascertained was that Enoch was constantly being bombarded by various devilish angels and their schemes to turn him into one of their followers. On several occasions they nearly killed him.

Additionally they caused Enoch and his entire family to suffer immeasurably many times; yet through it all Enoch’s faith remained undaunted. More effectively than any other mortal to this date, Enoch walked with God. After just a score of Earth days, as God experienced the goodness and love of Enoch’s soul, God made the determination to take him away…away from Earth.

God related that he had spoken to Jesus and pondered what to do with Enoch once he was removed from the planet. ‘I could have made a special place for him much like the Garden of Eden,’ God explained. ‘I even thought about placing him in Eden within that perfect paradise where he would be guarded by my angel with the flaming sword.’ Neither of these solutions seemed appropriate since Enoch was a very social person and isolation from others, especially his family, would have seemed more like a punishment than a reward for his daily walk with God. 

God then explained to this reporter why he didn’t just opt for the abode of the souls of the dead, that waiting place…Hades. ‘The other patriarchs were living about 900 plus years at this time on Earth. It just didn’t seem like a fitting reward for Enoch’s faithfulness to have him abide in Hades for an extra 600 years.’

So the Father, in his penultimate wisdom, carried Enoch away from the Earth and brought him here to our Heaven. All angels are invited to a reception and meet-n-greet in the Throne Room of the palace at 3 p.m. this afternoon. Keep reading the Heavenly Herald so as not to miss the next amazing event in the lives of the humans populating the Earth."

[to be continued]