Judas Iscariot
Did he kill himself?
5) His Free Will was broken.
Our souls have free will, because that is the only way to measure sincerity. We all recognize a fake apology, and we all know we can't make someone love us. These things come from within, and are expressed by us through our choices and actions. In this time of the flesh the evil you see isn't what God created, it's what man chooses to do. The purpose of this time is to see what our souls would do if God wasn't enforcing justice. It lets us be in charge of our own fate, because the eternity is only for those who don't operate at the expense of others.
In these modern times we don't ask if someone fears God, we ask if they even believe in God? And then there's denominations and spinoffs, or completely different gods. So while our souls instinctively seek God, we meander because we're trying to find answers from our own perspectives. It's part of the plan in this testing ground for the eternity, and it's very real because the price on each marker is a living soul. One by one, each and every one of us.
Unless you're doing something of Biblical proportions, or under His special protection, I'd say life is full of curve balls... don't get hit, and don't blame God, he isn't pitching.
Free will is more than choices. It's also a variable in other things we're trying to grasp. It's an important part of the big picture. Let's do a simple progression.
When Satan fell he pulled 1/3 of the stars, and they challenged God for the throne. That battle is called the Katabole. God ended that war with a meteor crashing through and resetting the planet from dinosaur days. The timing is first mentioned in just the second verse of the entire Bible.
Genesis 1: 2
And the earth became without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
Your Bible says the earth "was" without form, but that word is translated from Hava, which also means to become. How do we know which word to use? Well in Isaiah God tells us he did not make it in vain (the same word void was translated from).
Isaiah 45: 18
For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the Lord; and there is none else.
If you read the creation verses with the perspective it became that way after the destruction you will find it describes the earth's natural rejuvenation from that experience. Once the earth was ready God put the animal kingdom and us here. Since then we've been coming generation by generation until all generations have lived and died in the flesh (except those still alive at the second coming).
You are an eternal soul that has an eternal spiritual body. It looks just like you. That's why God said let "us" make man in "our" image. That's plural. Surely we don't all look like God, and he doesn't look like all of us... he looks like Jesus. And you look like you. Every soul created is charged with being born from above. Above is the location where all the souls that aren't here with us now are while this unfolds. It's where the soul "returns" upon death, and where it was before being conceived.
Ecclesiastes 12: 7
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.
That includes the ones that didn't care, the ones that fought with God, and those that fought with Satan.
Romans 9:13
As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
You're going to side here where you sided there, but this time you will do it of your own mind and will. This time there's nobody to blame but self. Your flesh time is just the evidence you provide for the judgment. The good news (Gospel) is that it's not doom and gloom if you don't want it to be. God doesn't put you here to trick you. He wants to prove you! But you will be you, and do you.
Stick with me here... IF Satan pulled 1/3 to fight God, and 1/3 didn't care, what about the 1/3 that fought on God's side against Satan? Yes. Those souls. Those souls have already been justified. They were justified then. For that reason those are the ones God has the right to intervene to ensure the scriptures are fulfilled. The basic concept is under free will God can't interfere in your life, otherwise you could point at that influence as throwing you off. For example, God hardened Pharaoh's heart several times. Pharaoh was going to let the people go, but God had a plan and hardened Pharaoh's heart to ensure his plan came to pass.
Exodus 7: 13
And he hardened Pharaoh's heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said.
Think about that for a minute. Pharaoh was going to do the right thing several times... but God interfered. Do you not think Pharaoh has a case at the judgment? How could God stop him from doing the right thing? Or, is it possible Pharaoh fought along side of God at the Katabole, and is one of the Kings of the nations spoken of in Revelation?
Revelation 21: 24
And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.
Meaning that God leveraged Pharaoh's "team availability" status to ensure his plan went accordingly. Pharaoh was available because of where he stood before the earth became void. So out of all the souls that happened to be here when Jesus was here, do you think the 12 disciples were just randomly drawn? Wouldn't they at least be from the 1/3 that stood with God? Even among that group don't you think it would be God's closest officers with him here in the flesh? And wouldn't that put each of them in the category of allowing their lives to be interfered with, like Satan entering Judas?
Why one of the twelve? Why didn't it come from the other side? Because the lesson for us is that Satan strikes from within. When Satan was created he wasn't evil. He rose within the church to be God's bodyguard (the cherub that covereth). It was a religious position.
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