My 1st hint that God had a mysterious purpose
About halfway through my Christian life, I joined a Bible study concentrating on “the Church being built by Jesus” as predicted in Matthew 16:18 and actualized by the Apostle Paul in The Acts of the Apostles. That Bible study led me to finally recognize God’s Purpose-For-Creation.
The Acts of the Apostles provides the cultural and historical background for every New Testament document that follows the four Gospels. That Bible study included the establishment of the Ephesian church as well as the epistle addressed to “the saints” in that same church.
I was philosophically intrigued by Paul’s writing style in the KJV of Ephesians 3:2-12 where Paul “mysteriously” breaks into his inspired explanation to explain why God did anything. The Apostle Paul inserted his parenthetic beginning with the KJV conditional “If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward …” I originally thought that parenthetic seemed artificially inserted into the context of The Gospel which Paul resumes teaching in 3:13ff. The translators of more modern Biblical versions tend to disguise the parenthetic to appear as a continuous explanation of what God did but the reality of an inserted parenthetic of God’s Purpose-For-Creation is apparent none the less.
What was Paul trying to tell us? Why did Paul insert this “mysterious” parenthetic after his 2:1 assertion that “you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins” by being 2:8 “saved through a faith that is not of yourselves: that faith is God’s gracious gift” and before the 3:13ff continuation of teaching the behavior expected of “dead sinners” whom God “promises to gift with a Spiritual birth” that de facto inherits a Spiritual DNA which both “believeth in Him” as well as inherits “everlasting life”?
My intrigue with Paul’s literature was heightened by discovering that Bible scholars are also conflicted about this parenthetic. I have never heard a Bible scholar exposit Ephesians 3:10 as if it literally reveals God’s Purpose-For-Creation. It really seems as if God has “mysteriously” withheld that “understanding” until the imminent scheduled “resurrection of the church.” That is to say that “understanding” God’s Purpose-For-Creation was “mysteriously” withheld from Bible scholars until just now. I naively assumed my new-found intrigue would also intrigue my family and friends. But they each preferred to “lean on” the sectarian “understandings” we previously learned from conflicted Bible scholars.
My family, friends, and I had each been taught to believe the “sectarian understandings” of Bible scholars whose conflicted opinions about “the oracles of God” are evaluated in Romans 3:4 as being a “lie.” Some family and friends even suggested I was allowing myself to be influenced by the “lies” of fringe theological con artists or cult leaders.
Perhaps you also are dedicated to the “sectarian understandings” of a Biblical scholar whom Scripture evaluates as “a liar.” My humble advice is to immediately convert to “Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.” That’s a summary of the conclusion of this entire book.
Nevertheless, I continued to be intrigued by Paul’s parenthesis.
The verse that intrigued me most was Ephesians 3:10 where Paul asserts God’s philosophical Purpose Statement beginning with the KJV words “to the intent that …” The complete KJV translated Purpose Statement is “To the intent that, now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known BY THE CHURCH the manifold wisdom of God.”
I admit my prior dependance on “sectarian understandings” made that text difficult to parse. However, even the best Bible scholars have the same difficulty. Publicly observable commentaries and pulpit messages reveal “conflicted understandings” (i.e., interpretations) of Ephesians 3:10.
My 2nd hint that God had a mysterious purpose
God later made me aware of Isaiah 6:9-10 when God commissioned Isaiah as a prophet with these “mysterious” preclusions: “Go, and tell this people, hear ye indeed, BUT UNDERSTAND NOT; and see ye indeed, BUT PERCEIVE NOT. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; LEST THEY SEE WITH THEIR EYES, AND HEAR WITH THEIR EARS, AND UNDERSTAND WITH THEIR HEART, AND CONVERT, AND BE HEALED.” Jesus essentially repeats these preclusions in Matthew 13:14.
These “mysterious” preclusions immediately follow Isaiah’s 6:3 vision of “Seraphim” who cry “Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory.” However, “Seraphim” could not possibly know “the whole earth is full of his glory” unless “the whole earth” had already been re-created. Nevertheless, “the whole earth” has never been “full of his glory” since “the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.”
So, why did “Seraphim” conclude that “the whole earth is full of his glory”? The only answer is that both God and “Seraphim in the Heavenlies” can see future events such as “God’s gifting of redemption” which mere humans cannot see until those events have literally happened in sequential time-and-space.
Nevertheless, the preclusions of Isaiah 6:9ff protect “predestined” events from statistical sabotage. For example, 1Corinthians 2:8 reports “none of the princes of this world knew: FOR HAD THEY KNOWN IT, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” That verse teaches that “before the foundation of the world” God had already guaranteed (i.e., “predestined”) the “crucifixion of the Lord of glory.”
The point of this discussion is that the “crucifixion of the Lord of glory” was precluded from statistical sabotage by precluding the leadership of “God’s chosen people” from having “eyes to see and ears to hear” the critical importance of “the crucifixion” within God’s Purpose-For-Creation.
That protection from sabotage was implemented by “the determinate counsel and foreknowledge” of a SOVEREIGN and OMNIPOTENT God.
My 3rd hint that God had a mysterious purpose
Luke 19:10 reports the time-and-space incarnation of “The Lamb of God who is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” John 3:16 reports “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” 2Peter 3:9 reports that “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” And Hebrews 6:18 reports it is “impossible for God to lie.”
I observe those verses are used as proof-text by Bible scholars who “lean unto their own understanding” to teach the salvation of temporary and disposable humans is attained when “whosoever is dead in trespasses and sin” makes a volitional decision to “no longer be dead.”
However, Romans 3:4 teaches “let God be true, but every man a liar; as it is written, that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged.” The phrase “when thou art judged” refers to God believing scholars who “lean unto their own understanding” about that which God really meant to say when Jesus declares in Matthew 16:18 “I will build my church.” Bible scholars incorrectly “lean to the judgement” that this declaration by Jesus along with Matthew 28:19-20 is a “Great Commission” to persuade those who are already “dead” to populate earthly churches that publicly “Trust” non-Biblically manufactured sectarian concepts such as “dead people making-a-decision to be everlastingly saved from death unto life.”
Matthew 24:4-6 explains the reason Jesus “is building His church” when He warns “Take heed that no man deceives you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.”
Please affirm “Christ” is warning that “many who come in my name” will teach “deceptive understandings” as if those “understandings” are literally “Thus saith the LORD.” Each earthly church competes with rival earthly churches as well as competes with “the church being built by Jesus.”
Without exception every “conflicted sectarian doctrine” is the outcome of “leaning unto thine own understanding.” “Conflicted sectarian doctrines” are never the outcome of expositing the Literature of “Thus saith the LORD.”
Without exception every earthly church is established by a Biblical scholar who “deceitfully comes in my name” with the intent to religiously compete with rivals who are also “deceitful.”
No thinking person can deny that sectarian conflict is always the outcome of Bible scholars intentionally rejecting “the unity of the faith.”
Without exception Biblical context is ignored when “deceptive understandings” are being taught that a “good” God wants to “save everyone who is lost” simply because God is “not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” If a “rightly divided” 2Peter 3:9 literally means that “God is not willing that any should perish without repentance” then God is “lying” to us because 2Peter repeatedly “reminds us” that many have already “perished.” The entire epistle of 2Peter is a “remembrance” of a “wrathful” God destroying “sinful” beings of whom some were actually human.
The immediate context of 2Peter 3:9 is the “remembrance” that “scoffers” or “mockers” teach the “lie” that a “good and loving” God will never cause unbelievers to “perish” simply because “all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation” (2Pet 3:4).
Bible scholars who “lean unto their own understanding” tend to agree it is impossible for God to “lie.” Thus, it is intuitively obvious that the “scoffers” are literally conflicted Bible scholars whom Peter claims are “deceiving” modern Christians into “understanding a lie.”
2Peter 3:9 is quoted by Bible scholars as proof-text that everyone has been enabled to “make a volitional decision to choose to be saved.” But that “lie” contradicts Peter’s purpose for the epistle as stated in 2Peter 1:10 “give diligence to make your calling and election sure.” Only those who are “called and elect” can “give diligence” with respect to God’s 2Peter 3:9 promise “that all who are called and elect will come to repentance before the end of time” – that promise is guaranteed by Creator God.
Wisdom deficient Bible scholars tend to “deceitfully” ignore that “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” after which He destroyed “the earth” with a flood along with its entire human population except for Noah and his family. And they tend to ignore that God drowned Pharoah and his army in the Red Sea. And that same God commanded Joshua to kill all the men, women, and children who currently inhabited the promised land. It is intuitive that “GOD KILLING PEOPLE ALL THE TIME” contradicts the sectarian religious chant that “GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME.”
That’s the reason Jesus warns His disciples that Bible scholars are being “deceptive” to the point of initiating “wars and rumors of wars” to defend their incorrect “understanding” that a “GOD IS GOOD ALL THE TIME” wants “whosoever is already dead to volitionally stop being dead.”
Conflicted Bible scholars teach that a “good” God is like the fabled Genie who granted Aladdan’s wishes (search the web for “Aladdan and the lamp” to read about that fable). Bible scholars predict healing from physical suffering, healing from financial losses, and healing from everything else if we simply express our wishes to a Genie-like God by “praying without ceasing.” In other words, sectarians teach that repeated prayers convince God that He ought to answer at least some of those requests that we repeat every week.
So, why does a “GOOD” God withhold Biblical “understanding” from all those Bible scholars who pray to a “Genie like god” to do that which the God of the Bible has already promised in Matthew 6:1-8 “your Father knoweth what things ye have need of before ye ask him” so “use not vain repetitions as the heathen.” In other words, God wants us to avoid using the same prayer list week after week until we finally convince an omniscient God to do something about the requests we prayed for last week.
Sectarian Bible scholars ignore that a “GOOD” God is actually “Holy and righteous all the time.” It is linguistic reality that “goodness,” “Holiness,” and “righteousness” are linguistically impossible to devalue unless “the evil of sin” already exists. God immediately demonstrated the existence of “the evil of sin” by “predestining” Eve’s “sin before the foundation of the world.”
The philosophical reality is that a demonstration of God’s “Holiness” to “the principalities and powers in the heavenlies” requires the cause-and-effect of “evil conflict” to be sequentially demonstrated by “CHURCHES.” My 4th hint that God had a mysterious purpose
Scripture teaches that neither “evil” nor “death” exist “in the heavenlies” where God resides. Thus, if God expects “Seraphim” to intelligently “say Holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory” they must be shown “God’s Holiness being opposed by evil as well as being opposed by death.”
The evidence reported in Genesis 3 is irrefutable that God created “evil and death.” It is obvious that “the serpent which the Lord God had made” was divinely inserted into the Garden of Eden to be used by Satan. The reality is that the God whom sectarian scholars chant as being “good all the time” created an environment where “evil and death” could be demonstrated “to the intent that the principalities and powers in the heavenlies” could observe the cause-and-effect of Eve’s “sin” as well as observe Adam and Eve’s eventual “death from old age, and after that the judgement.”
The “manifold wisdom of God” is summarized in John 3:7 “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.” That summarization is based on the irrefutable axiom of John 3:6 “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” John 3 teaches “a Spiritual rebirth financed by the slaying of the Lamb” which was “predestined from the foundation of the world.”
Every “born of the flesh” descendant of Adam and Eve demonstrates “the evil of sin” simply because “all have sinned and come short of the Glory of God.” And each instance of “sin” is guaranteed to result in “death” simply because “it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”
God’s plan is that a “Holy and manifoldly wise” God will “call and elect a few evil and spiritually dead” humans to be “born again of the Spirit to the intent that” God’s “Holiness” can be observed “in the heavenlies” by viewing an “earthly” comparison of the distinction between “good and evil.”
“Predestined sinful behavior” guarantees the success of God’s plan so God wisely prevents any chance of statistical risk to His plan by causing God’s Purpose-For- Creation to be a “mystery” to “God’s chosen people” when He withholds “eyes to see and ears to hear” (Isa 6:9-10).
Please also reference the context of Jeremiah 4:23 where God discusses His intentions for creation as if those intentions are the direct outcome of “the sinfulness of God’s chosen people and the way sin effects The Promised Land.” Every Old Testament prophet predicts God’s intentions to destroy except for the prophesies predicting the restoration of the glory of Israel. It is incredible to read that the land of Israel will again be “a land flowing with milk and honey” when today it looks like an arid desert covered with rocks and sand. God’s preclusion of “eyes to see and ears to hear” also applies to modern Bible scholars (Matt 11:25, 13:16). Bible scholars never exposit the Ephesians 3:3 “mystery” from a pulpit simply because they lack “eyes and ears to understand.” If God had given Jewish leadership “eyes to see and ears to hear” that Jesus was their “Messiah” they would never have crucified Him. Similarly, modern Bible scholars would never establish conflicted sectarian churches if God had given them “eyes to see and ears to hear and understand the mystery of God’s purpose for the church.” God- believers are precluded by “predestination” from accidentally sabotaging God’s demonstration to “the principalities and powers in the heavenlies” of the distinction between “good vs evil as well as life vs death.”
That’s the same reason Jesus repeatedly charged “don’t tell anyone about this” to those whom He divinely forgave. Neither God nor Jesus want anyone or anything to sabotage the “predestined crucifixion of Jesus.”
God’s withholding of “understanding” was only hinted in the Garden of Eden when God seemed to forget to teach Adam and Eve the distinction between “good and evil.” However, God’s hints were eventually made official when God commanded Isaiah “Go, and tell this people, hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not …” (Isa 6:9-10). In other words, an omniscient God didn’t forget anything.
“From the foundation of the world” humans have been precluded from having “eyes to see and ears to hear” that God created “evil” “to the intent that” God’s “Holiness” could be observed “by the principalities and powers in the heavenlies” (Eph 3:10) without any risk of statistical sabotage.
God’s Purpose-For-Creation has always been a “mystery” (e.g., Matthew 13:13ff and 1Cor 2:8) but the “mystery” is finally revealed in AD60 by God’s “dispensation of grace” according to Ephesians 3:2-12.
Tradition teaches AD 60 is when the Apostle Paul was inspired by God to write The Epistle to the Ephesian. God authorized Paul to give you and me initial “understanding” of “the mystery” simply because the education of “principalities and powers” is already initialized by the planned formation of “churches against which the gates of Hell cannot prevail.”
The final completion of God’s Purpose is described in 2Peter 3:10 when God finally destroys everything that exists in “time-and-space.”
Scripture is easily “understood” by anyone who has been given “eyes to see and ears to hear.” But pulpit conflict between sectarian religious leaders indicates “God’s gifting” is withheld from “many pastor teachers.” My 5th hint that God had a mysterious purpose
“In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth” (Gen 1:1) “to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God” (Eph 3:10) “but the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up” (2Peter 3:10).
That summarization of Scriptural statements reveals God’s Purpose-For- Creation from start to finish.
The remainder of Scripture is simply a report of “What” God is doing to accomplish the “Why” of His Purpose. Intuitively, the “What” can be correctly “understood” only after the “Why” is known.
It is conceivable that a sovereign God had additional reasons for creation but Ephesians 3:10 seems to be the only reason reported in the Literature of Scripture. God’s inspired revelation of “The Mystery” occurred about AD60 when tradition teaches the epistle to the Ephesians was inspired by God.
A possible additional reason for God’s Purpose-For-Creation is the distinction between “Dispensational” and “Covenantal” theological interpretations of Scripture. For example, it is conceivable that the resurrection of “the church” merely ushers in the events described in Revelations 7 when the “hundred and forty four thousand from the tribes of the children of Israel” are described as having been “sealed as the servants of our God in their foreheads.”
In other words, it is conceivable that both “Dispensational” and “Covenantal” interpretations of Scripture are True. But that’s beyond the scope of this book.
The final hint that God had a mysterious purpose
This is the hint that finally resolved all my intrigue about God’s Purpose-For- Creation. 1Corinthians 1:9-29 is conclusive that
God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus
Christ our Lord … For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring
to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe?
Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this
world?
For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For the Jews require
a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified, unto the
Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is
stronger than men.
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh,
not many mighty, not many noble, are called: But God hath chosen the foolish things
of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world
to confound the things which are mighty. And base things of the world, and things
which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to
nought things that are. So that no flesh should glory in his presence.
The point of this lengthy context is that God deliberately withholds “understanding” from the wisest and best educated Bible scholars “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known BY THE CHURCH the manifold wisdom of God.” This point is especially likely with respect to the distinction between “Dispensational” and “Covenantal” theological “understandings” of the best educated Bible scholars.
Thus, my intrigue with Paul’s parenthetic in Ephesians 3:2-12 is resolved by simply “rightly dividing” God’s inspired Words to finally “understand” that the wisest and best Bible scholars cannot be trusted to explain God’s Words. Each wise and knowledgeable Biblical scholar is evaluated as a “liar” (Rom 3:4) and cannot be trusted.
Only “called and elect” humans have been enabled to “rightly divide” God’s Words despite any educational attainment.
The context of 1Corinthians 1:9-29 has similarity with the introduction to the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:3-11 where Jesus teaches the so-called Beatitudes. Please affirm the Beatitudes literally refute “the wisdom of the wise.” In other words, Bible scholars are never characterized as being “poor in spirit,” “mournful,” “meek,” “hunger and thirst after righteousness,” “pure in heart,” “peacemakers,” or “persecuted.” Rather than being “humble” Bible scholars typically characterize themselves as having excellent academic credentials. It is only those who “were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord” that are characterized by the Beatitudes described in Matthew 5:3-11.
The “rightly divided Truth” teaches that “the manifold wisdom of God” is deliberately hidden from the wisest and best educated Bible scholars. The fact that “God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty” is the reason why only simple folk who are characterized by the Beatitudes can “Trust the LORD with all our heart.” I humbly suggest you ought to allow yourself to also become intrigued by God’s Purpose-For-Creation by a humble “study to show thyself approved unto God” by “rightly dividing the Word of Truth.”
My purpose for writing this book is described in the Sub-Title of this book to encourage every pulpit preacher to humbly de-value every conflicted “understanding” you were taught in a sectarian approved Bible school by deliberately choosing to “Trust in the Lord with all your heart” so that “God will direct thy paths.” The Bereans in Acts 17:10-11 were complimented for exactly that kind of purposeful analysis. My humble prayer is for “pastor teachers” to reject every instance of pridefully “leaning unto your own theological understanding” and eliminate every absurd instance of Christian preaching that devalues Scripture from ever being heard from the pulpit in your own church.
My caveat
I am not aware of any Scriptural text that requires Christian preaching to be consistent with God’s Purpose-For-Creation. As a matter of fact, God’s Purpose Statement ACTUALLY REQUIRES SECTARIAN CONFLICT in order to demonstrate the distinction between “good and evil.”
Matthew 7:22 teaches the disturbing fact that “Many pastor teachers will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works” but Jesus will simply tell them to “depart from me, ye that work iniquity. I never knew you.” No one enters Heaven “whose name is not written in the Lamb’s book of life from before the foundation of the world.” Behavior is not an issue as demonstrated by a sinful David who was described as “a man after God’s own heart” (1Sam 13:14 and Acts 13:22). Extreme disbelief is not an issue as demonstrated by a sinful Saul on the road to Damascus (Acts 9). God specializes in “calling and electing” the most despicable people.
Ephesians 4:13 teaches that God intends the outcome of preaching to be “Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.” However, “the unity of the faith” has never been the goal of sectarian preaching. The definition of “Denominational Sectarianism” guarantees that “the unity of the faith” will never characterize church-attending Christians. In fact, religious sectarian conflict was deliberately created by God to demonstrate the “evil of conflict” to “the principalities and powers in the heavenlies.”
1Corinthians 1:9-29 suggests that every (i.e., no exceptions) scholarly “understanding” (i.e., interpretation) of God’s Words disagrees in some sense with God’s intentions. Despite all my claims of “trusting the LORD with all my heart” I confess my own pride precludes me from “coming in the unity of the faith” with any who disagree with me.
That’s my caveat of the reason my prayer is presented to God in humility. My caveat is that I sincerely want to emulate the humble prayer of Jesus when He prayed “Nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done.”
That’s my prayer for this book. Amen.