It is axiomatic that “failing to plan is to plan to fail.” Plans are publicly announced with public Purpose Statements. Successful Purpose Statements always provide benefit to both providers and users else those Plans will always fail. (search the web for “What is a Purpose Statement” if you are not familiar with the concept)
In that regard, the Apostle Peter tells us in The Acts of the Apostles that “the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God” had literally authored a successful Purpose Statement that prepared the way for “wicked hands to deliverer Jesus to be crucified and slain” (2:23). God planned it all before “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
However, God’s plan was “a mystery that had been hidden” from “God’s chosen people” who “delivered Jesus to be slain by crucifixion.” If “God’s chosen people” had been aware of God’s plan they would never have “delivered Jesus to be slain by crucifixion.” But that decision would have sabotaged God’s plan for “the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world.” Thus, it was necessary that God’s plan would be a “mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ” (Eph 3:9).
Tradition tells us the Apostle Paul was inspired in AD60 to write “to the saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus” (1:1) to reveal “the mystery” of God’s plan was “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by THE CHURCH the manifold wisdom of God” (3:10). However, “the principalities and powers in heavenly places” are the only beneficiaries of God’s “mysterious” Purpose Statement. God’s Purpose Statement continues to be a “mystery” to modern Bible scholars who are taught to believe everything was created to benefit “sinful” humans.
Apostle Peter’s 2nd epistle reveals that “a few called and elect humans” will also benefit from God’s successful plan “According as his divine power hath given unto us <few humans> all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us <few humans> to glory and virtue: whereby are given unto us <few humans> exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2:3-4). Peter identifies “us few humans” as “the brethren” who were created to be “dead in trespasses and sin” (Eph 2:1) but “before the foundation of the world were called and elect” to be used as examples in the demonstration of God’s divine gift of “redemption” for the education of “the principalities and powers in heavenly places.”
Despite the teaching of Apostles Peter and Paul, wisdom deficient Bible scholars “lean unto their own understanding” to speculate conflicted opinions about who really benefits from God’s plan rather than “trust the LORD with all their heart.” “The mystery” is that only “a few redeemed temporary and disposable humans” will benefit from God’s plan to educate “the principalities and powers in heavenly places.”
However, please note that God’s plan depends on the existence of “THE CHURCH” and every “CHURCH” is populated with both “Wheat and Tares” (Matt 13:24ff and Eph 3:2-10). Church attendees are either “redeemed Wheat” or else they are “unredeemed Tares.” Both “Wheat and Tares” are nothing more than tools being used to fulfill God’s successful plan.
Despite the eternal status of current church attendees, God’s plan is guaranteed to be successful because both God and “the principalities and powers” benefit from a demonstration of “THE CHURCH.” God benefits because God’s “Holiness” is learned by observing God’s distinction between “the redeemed Wheat” and “the unredeemed Tares.” “The principalities and powers” benefit because God’s gift of “redemption” becomes a tool for intellectually learning the Isaiah 6:3 need to “cry Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts simply because the whole earth is full of his glory.”
The “principalities and powers in the heavenlies” could not possibly know “the whole earth is full of his glory” unless “a future glorified earth” was already observable “in the heavenlies” when in 6:1 Isaiah reported “ In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple.” Please affirm that everyone “in the heavenlies” exists outside the creation of time-and-space. Thus, everyone “in the heavenlies” sees both “the beginning and the end” as a present tense event.
Jesus teaches in Matthew 7:13-14 that only a “few” humans will benefit from God’s Purpose-For-Creation. However, both “many” as well as “few” humans are “predestined” (i.e., “appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” as described in Hebrews 9:27) to be temporary and disposable tools who are being used to educate “the principalities and powers.” All Creation will be destroyed when God’s education of the “principalities and powers” is finally complete as predicted in 2Peter 3:10.
Nevertheless, Bible scholars continue to be unaware that only a “few” temporary and disposable humans will benefit from the 3:9 promise that “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise” of “everlasting life” for the “few” who are “called and elect” as reported in 2Peter 1:10.
Human authors of “mystery” stories withhold pertinent information until the end of their story. That is also true of the Author of both Ephesians and Revelations when the divine Author withholds pertinent inspiration until AD60 near the end of God’s inspired story (i.e., History).
Temporary and disposable humans are accused in Romans 12:3 of “thinking of themself more highly than they ought to think.” God rejects that egotistical “thinking” by asserting Adam, Eve, and each of their human descendant has a DNA that is “appointed once to die, but after this the judgment” (Heb 9:27). Nevertheless, God inspired Apostles Peter, John, and Paul to jointly teach “humans whose names are listed in the Lamb’s book of Life are predestined to be born again of the Spirit to inherit a new DNA that provides everlasting life” before God’s scheduled destruction of everything in 2Peter 3:10.
Please affirm the philosophical reality that “God’s Holiness” cannot be demonstrated to “the principalities and powers in the Heavenlies” unless “evil and death” already exist. However, neither “evil” nor “death” exist “in the heavenlies where both God and the principalities reside.” That’s the reason why God had to create a time-and- space environment that contains both “evil” and “death” “to the intent that” God could sequentially demonstrate His cause-and-effect “Holiness” to the “principalities and powers in the heavenlies.” Scripture may hint about other reasons, but Scripture reveals only one reason why God created anything at all.
Ephesians 3:10 asserts “conflicted churches” are temporary and disposable tools created by God specifically for the process of educating “the principalities and powers in the heavenlies” about God’s “Holiness.”
God’s rationale for creating “THE CHURCH” is that every “church” is populated with both “Tares and Wheat” (Matt 13:24ff). Thus, every earthly version of “THE CHURCH” demonstrates “the knowledge of good and evil” that was initiated by Eve when she ate “of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
The entirety of Scripture simply records God’s sequential cause-and-effect activity in His successful fulfillment of God’s Purpose-For-Creation. Scripture simply records what God did.
God’s “only begotten Son” was prepared for that process when He became “the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world.” He is the same “Lamb” whom Revelations 13:8 predicts “all that dwell upon the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” The Apostle Paul agrees in Romans 14:11. Every “unredeemed Tare” will recognize the Lordship of Jesus Christ despite all the “redeemed Wheat” who have already been “resurrected to everlasting life in the Heavenlies.”
The reality is that “everyone whose name is written in the book of life” is “predestined” to be “redeemed” (i.e., “purchased”) by God to be saved from the penalty of death using the shed blood of the “slain Lamb” as the “ransom” (i.e., the “purchase” price) paid to “the god of this world.”
The “Lamb of God” was “predestined from the foundation of the world” to be incarnated as a temporary “born of the flesh” human who was “appointed once to die, but after this the judgment.” The DNA of “the Lamb of God” became the pattern for the DNA gene of “death” as well as the gender determining chromosomes used by God to “make” Adam and Eve (Gen 1:26-27) so that every “born of the Flesh” male and female human would “die and be judged” according to the DNA already established for “the Lamb of God.”
God is a Spirit who has neither an “image” nor chromosomes that determine gender. Thus, it is physically impossible for God to “create man in God’s image; male and female created he them.” Instead, God used “His only begotten Son” as the pattern for the temporary and disposable “image (i.e., the DNA) that had already been prepared before the foundation of the world.”
Contrary to modern theological speculation, humans do not have the freedom to volitionally choose “everlasting life.” The reality is that every human is “born of the flesh to be dead in trespasses and sin” (Eph 2:1). And “dead humans” are incapable of choosing to no longer be “dead.”
Please affirm that every human DNA and chromosome is patterned after the “image and DNA” of the temporary “Lamb of God” who was supernaturally incarnated into time-and-space as the “born of the flesh male child” of a “born of the flesh” virgin mother named Mary.
God continuously repopulates “the world” with male and female descendants of Adam and Eve who share the temporary incarnated “image” of “the Lamb of God” including the chromosomes that determines gender and including the characteristic of being “appointed once to die, but after this the judgment.”
Mathew 7:14 reports “the manifold wisdom of God has planned redemption” for a “few” “born of the flesh” temporary humans who will become “born of the Spirit” (John 3:6) to inherit a Spiritual DNA of “everlasting life.” Nevertheless, “THE CHURCH” is populated with both “redeemed” and “unredeemed” God believers. And every “church” including so-called Independent “churches” affiliates with other “churches” to evangelize their preferred list of conflicted doctrines. Conflicted “churches” are tools created by God to demonstrate “the Evil of conflict” while “the manifold wisdom of God” is demonstrating “the sinless church Jesus is building against which the gates of Hell (i.e. death) cannot prevail” (Matt 16:18).
God also prepared a tree named “The Knowledge of Good and Evil” as well as “the serpent which the LORD God had made” to be tools for that same educational demonstration. But until the promised “resurrection,” both “redeemed” and “unredeemed” church attendees are temporary and disposable tools who demonstrate the distinction between “Tares and Wheat” as well as the distinction between “Good and Evil.”
That same “manifoldly wise and good” God graciously inspired various disposable humans to either record or else predict God’s cause-and-effect plan as it is being sequentially executed within the time-and-space that was specifically planned and designed to fulfil God’s Purpose-For-Creation. English speaking humans have titled that multi-authored literary compendium of diverse books as “Scripture.”
The compendium of Scripture describes “sin” as being “evil” while “the manifold wisdom of God” demonstrates everything God declares to be “Good.” God’s Purpose- For-Creation benefits “the good principalities and powers in the heavenlies” rather than benefiting “the many dead” humans.
God had a Purpose-For-Creation “from before the foundation of the world.”
God’s Purpose-For-Creation was statistically at risk
However, God also had “foreknowledge” of the statistical probability that His plan would be sabotaged by temporary and disposable humans who sincerely attempt to please God by resisting “the evil of sin.”
A historic example of the statistical probability of a religious attempt to resist “the evil of sin” was recorded in Matthew 26:65-68 to reveal “the high priest of God’s chosen people” attempting to resist “the evil of blasphemy.” A more modern example is “pastor teachers” sabotaging God’s Purpose-For-Creation by resisting the “evil of sin.” Bible school trained “pastors” teach the nonsense that humans who are “dead in trespasses and sin” can make-a-volitional-decision to “stop being dead” by being persuaded that they can acquire “everlasting life” by “their own free-will effort.”
It is linguistically obvious that “Holiness” must be defined before “Holiness unto the LORD” can be observed. It is also linguistically obvious that the symbiotic attributes of “Evil,” “Sin,” “Good,” and “Holiness” are each dependent on the existence of each other. No symbiotic attribute can exist by itself without the existence of all other symbiotic attributes.
Accordingly, God simultaneously created every symbiotic attribute when “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” to include both “the Tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil” as well as “an angelic Lucifer/Satan whom God had already determined would be the god of this world.” All creation was merely God’s preparation for God’s intention to demonstrate the distinction between “Good and Evil” to “the principalities and powers in the heavenlies.”
Prior to Genesis 1:1 “the Holiness of God” was impossible to be known “in the heavenlies” because neither “the evil of sin” nor “death” exists “in the heavenlies.” God had to create “both the evil of sin and death” before God could demonstrate “there is none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understands, there is none that seeks after God … for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.”
God defined “the Holy Law” that was delivered to Moses but “God’s chosen people” immediately and repeatedly disobeyed “the Holy Law.” Yet the sin of “God’s chosen people” was exactly what God planned to happen.
However, God also planned for “the enmity of the Law to be abolished in His flesh, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of twain one new man, so making peace” (Eph 2:15). “Abolishment of the Law” had always been God’s plan “from before the foundation of the world.”
Prior to AD60 it was a “mystery” that God’s plan was to demonstrate the distinction between “Good and Evil” to “the principalities and powers in the heavenlies.” For example, the “mystery” was never revealed to “God’s chosen people” who were “chosen” to demonstrate the impossibility of God’s Holy Law being obeyed by “unredeemed” humans (Gal 3:21ff). For example, David was “a man after God’s own heart” (1Sam 13:14) but David was never taught the “mystery” that he was “predestined to be a man after God’s own heart.” In fact, David was an exceedingly sinful “born of the flesh” human. Nevertheless, David always “Trusted the LORD with all his heart.”
I am a modern example of that same “mysterious” ignorance. The first half of my life I was taught that “God so loved the world” that He created everything to enable me and other free agent humans who are “dead in trespasses and sin” to volitionally choose to “no longer be dead” by the impossible act of “a dead person making a decision to believe in Him.”
You were likely taught to that same wisdom deficient absurdity.
But the absurdity of my own doctrinal belief led me to ask who caused Eve to commit sin in an “ex nihilo” environment (Heb 11:3)? The Latin term “ex nihilo” is defined in English as “from or out of nothing.” The problem with theology
It is intuitive that an omnipotent God can create “ex nihilo.” However, God’s omnipotent “ex nihilo” effort does not explain the source for “sin” despite the sincere but absurd belief of theologians who “lean unto their own understanding” that the source for “sin” was Satan’s temptation.
For example, if Satan caused “ex nihilo” “sin” then were did Satan get that “sin?” Did “sin” exist before an “ex nihilo” creation? Did “hell” exist before an “ex nihilo” creation? Where will Satan and “sinners who are dead in their trespasses and sin” exist after God’s “ex nihilo” creation is destroyed and replaced by “a new heaven and a new earth”?
Similar questions ought to force every God believer to ask, “Why did an omniscient God who knows both the beginning and the ending of everything decide to create ex nihilo?”
Can we “trust in the LORD with all our heart” to give us an answer to that question or do we have to “lean unto our own understanding” so that our “dead in trespasses and sin” intellect can manufacture an answer?
This book reports my observation of rival belief systems being preached from rival sectarian pulpits as if “pastor teachers” already know the answer. My conclusion based on those observations is that sincere sectarian church leaders “lean unto their own understanding” to market and sell conflicted opinions about that which God meant to say rather than “trust in the LORD with all their heart and He shall direct thy path.”
I admit I am guilty of the same sin as every sectarian preacher because I sincerely think I “understand” the meaning of God’s Words. However, my “understanding” conflicts with the “understanding” of rival Bible believers. That kind of “conflicted understanding” is characteristic of every religious leader who leads sectarian church affiliations to believe conflicted doctrinal opinions. I confess I am aware of my own susceptibility to that kind of “sinful” error.
I am linguistically compelled to agree that Romans 3 teaches “let God be true, but every man a liar.” Every conflicted Bible school taught “liar” attempts to “judge” that which “the oracles of God” (3:2) really meant to say. My “Trust” is that I have grown in my own “understanding” to finally desire “That thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged” (3:4).
Despite my confessed susceptibility to the “lies” of doctrinal error, my intention for this book is to contextually analyze each rival “understanding” of that which God meant to say according to 2Timothy 2:15 “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” The alternative is to “lean unto my own understanding” about the real meaning of various texts of Scripture which “lying” rivals have interpreted to have conflicted meanings.
Please affirm that every decision made by those who “lean unto thine own understanding” is disobedience of God’s command to “lean not unto thine own understanding.”
Please affirm the absurdity of believing that an omnipotent, omniscient, and immutable sovereign God would create anyone or anything with the capability of altering God’s own Will by making-a-volitional-free-will-decision.
Yet, that absurdity is pervasive among those who claim to be Christian.