Read Contenders
GOD IS ONE
PART 1
APRIL 2006
WE HAVE SOME MESSAGES THAT WERE SELECTED FOR PRINTING BEFORE BRO. JACKSON PREACHED ON THE SEALS, AND THE MESSAGE “DARKNESS IS SETTING IN.” HE FELT THAT THESE MENTIONED MESSAGES SHOULD BE PRINTED AHEAD OF THE OTHER ONES WE HAD SELECTED; AND NOW WE KNOW WHY. GOD HAD ORDAINED THAT THERE BE NO UNFINISHED BUSINESS LEFT HANGING WHEN HE CALLED HIS FAITHFUL SERVANT HOME. NOW, HAVING PRINTED THOSE MESSAGES, WE FEEL THAT WE SHOULD GO BACK AND FINISH PRINTING THE OTHERS WE HAD SELECTED; THEREFORE WE ARE STARTING THIS MONTH WITH THE MESSAGE ON THE GODHEAD, PREACHED IN APRIL 2004.
We will be dealing with the godhead this morning, we are titling this message, “God Is One.” I will be taking my time with it, because understanding the godhead is so vital to a true revelation of the word of God. I will not hold the service long in any one particular time, because I do not want to lose your interest with long services. We are starting out in Genesis, but we will be in the last book, the book of Revelation before we are finished. I will ask you now, to open your Bible to the 1st chapter of Genesis for our first scripture reading. There are three scriptures in the Book of Genesis, that the Trinitarians really enjoy trying to build their case on. They like to quote (Genesis 1:26), where we find these words, “And God said, Let us (“US” is a plural word.) make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” Well when we come to verse 27, please notice the exact wording. They do not spend much time on this verse, because it very plainly denies their understanding of verse 26. Let us read it now. “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him, male and female created He them.” I want to say to you, that the word “us” has got to be rightly understood. The word US, is used three times in the book of Genesis. What we have to understand if we are going to have a proper understanding of these scriptures, is the relationship in which they were used. In other words, What was going on, that made it necessary for God to speak in plural terminology? I have always maintained, that God cannot say in Exodus that He is ONE, then turn right around and say certain other things by the prophets or the apostles that give people the idea that He is a three distinct persons. God never has been a trinity of beings, a plurality of persons; and He never will be. Furthermore I am going to say something that really rubs the Trinitarians the wrong way, God Himself is not a person. Show me a verse of scripture that says He is, if you can. Of course I know what you can say, but every last one that speaks that way, was written by a trinitarian person. God is not a person: Get that settled and you are ready to start understanding the other scriptures. God is a being, but not a person. He a Spirit being, so He is invisible, and He cannot be seen. He has never been seen by anyone; and He can never be seen except with a spiritual eye. Because He is Spirit, He is not limited to any one certain place. He fills the universe. He always was; and He always will be. Then we have all these people that have the idea that Jesus, the Son of God, previously existed with the Father before all time. That is not true either. It is very strange how some people will take one verse of scripture and interpret the entire Bible by it. Most of the time, that one verse of scripture does not even apply to what they are using it for. I just have to say, If God is ONE instead of three persons, (and I know He is), then He means for the continuation of that thought to be carried all the way through the Bible. We just have to understand what God was dealing with when His words were recorded in a way that suggests a trinity of persons in the godhead. Regardless of what some may think, God was not speaking of a plurality of persons in the godhead when He said, Let us make man in our image. He was speaking to His angelic helpers that were assisting Him in what He was doing. Some might say, Well I didn’t know angels helped God do anything. For goodness sakes! What have you been reading? The Bible says in Hebrews 1:14, that angels are ministering spirits sent forth by God, to do what? Minister for those that shall be heirs of salvation. Now if angels can be in that capacity, what about other angels being in other capacities throughout the universe. At the time this was said, God was not in the process of creating angels. They had been created before, and tested in the prehistoric world, so all the angels have already been tested as to their loyalty to the Creator. These that He was speaking to concerning the creation of man, were absolutely the righteous angels that were going to assist God in His next program. That is what Genesis 1:26 is dealing with; and has no reference to a plurality of persons in the godhead. The Trinitarians make it that way, but God never has existed like that. They make the Bible say things it was never meant to say. Therefore I am very secure in saying, When God does speak in plural terminology, you can rest assured He is speaking in conjunction with angelic beings who are going to assist Him in a plan. It was not the angels that got the idea to make man: It was God, the sovereign ONE, whose idea and plan was going to be activated. When we really do get to know God, so that we have Him understood in our own mind’s in the right way, we find that He is a God that likes to share Himself with something. For instance, since He is the sovereign and all powerful Creator, He did not have to use man to bring about salvation to His lost creatures: Yet because His great desire in His creation, is to fellowship and share with them, we find in Hebrews, that He sent forth His ministers, a flame of fire. He allowed them to carry that great light to lost mankind. He did not have to, He could have used other means, but it goes to show God wants to share Himself with man, through man, and with His created beings. He had a great plan in creation; and He still has that plan.
GOD’S CREATION BEING MANIFESTED
I am saying all of this about God’s creation, because as God was saying Let us create man in our image, we must keep in mind, that at that particular time when God creates them in His image and His likeness, they were not immediately given bodies of flesh and bones, because He was creating spirit beings. You can rest assured though, that those angelic beings which were His helpers, were going to watch over the genetic laws that God sets in motion in His plan for His creation, so that when the time comes that man will replenish the earth, everything will bring forth of its own kind. He made man after His own image, but the reason God brings angels into it is because when there was no angels, then God had to take of Himself an essence of spirit and separate it from Himself and give it a separate identity. I hope none of you ever think God went off out here somewhere and gathered up a mixture of some of this and a little of that and mixed it all up and made angels from it. The Bible says, In Him we live, we move, and have our being. Is that not correct? That means our whole spiritual being is derived from the essence of God. Well angels are the same way: all that they are in their makeup came from God. We just have to realize angels did not create themselves. They were created by God. When God took a little essence of His own spirit and separated it from Himself to make angels, He then gave them an intelligence, and then He gave them a certain knowledge of what they were to do, how to go about it and such like. They are going to minister then in the spiritual realm throughout the universe. Therefore when we come back to this verse in our discussion, those angels are going to assist in all that He does thereafter; and particularly in making sure the genetic laws go into operation. How many understand that? That is not the only time the word “us,” was used in God’s vocabulary. When we get on over to Genesis 3:22, we find Him saying to the angels, The man has become as one of us. “And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever, (23) Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.” We will get to that, but I want to say to all of you, Let us get it settled in our mind’s that angels were going to assist and help carry out God’s reproductive plan once the spirit man and the spirit woman are put here on this earth in the physical form. When He put them here, the man and the woman, the spirit beings that they were, they both were in the one vessel of clay. Then when God saw that it was not good for man to be alone, He took from the man, and designed a wife for him. There is no need for me to read that scripture to you: you everyone know the whole story. He caused Adam to go to sleep, then He took out of Adam’s side, a rib. From that rib, He fashioned the woman’s body. While I am on this let me say, Please do not ever think God made a mistake when He designed the woman’s body the way He did. She was designed to be a mother. (I know what Bro. Branham said in one of his messages, but we have to stick with the word of God, no matter what He allowed His faithful servant to say from time to time, because of the multitude of carnal minded people that followed his ministry and hung on to every word he uttered.) Bro. Branham, talking about the sex act, said sex was not the original plan: the spoken word was God’s plan of reproduction. (Not his exact wording) To those who have grabbed hold of that statement and contended with me I have asked, Then who was going to speak the word? If the spoken word was the means by which propagation of life was to be brought about, who was going to speak the word? Would it be the man? Or would it be the woman? That was just another statement he threw out there, (not by any premeditation), that caused a lot of educated minds to go into orbit. That is why I come back to the fact, when He separated that rib from Adam, in your mind, do not just think of it as only a bone. There was some meat hanging on that bone. Everything on that rib contained essence of the makeup of the man, which was necessary in order to fashion the woman in his likeness. It had all the characteristics of a feminine body, because God designed it to be a mother through which life would be propagated and multiplied upon this planet. Each had their own characteristics as pertaining to male and female, but both bodies were of the same substance. (Can you picture in your mind, what the offspring from that union would have been like, if Eve had not submitted to the seductive advances of the serpent? Their offspring would have been pure, sinless, without any inherited attributes of sin in them, because their makeup was from the pure essence of their Creator.) They were pure and sinless when God placed them in that beautiful place referred to as the garden of Eden, but that changed when they disobeyed God’s instructions to them, and all mankind has been born with attributes of sin in them ever since. Jesus the Christ, the only begotten Son of God was the only exception. Well let us continue on with our thought and go to the 3rd chapter of Genesis. Here we can read what has happened. The serpent has come along and talked to the woman. Why did he not talk to Adam? He knew he would never get anywhere with Adam. The reason I say this, is because the dirty devil behind the serpent creature’s advances knew that this law of reproduction is not going to come about through man’s choice. It was going to come about through the woman choice, when she knew the time was right for it. What do you mean by that, Bro. Jackson? Young people, don’t tell me you went to school in this age and time when sex has been talked about in the classroom so much and you do not know this. Let me just say this, If God had never caused woman to have a period, she would never have had a baby. Think about that as we continue on. That is exactly why, when Eve sold herself to the serpent to do what she did, the devil knew the hour for the woman to make the choice of reproduction was close at hand. That is how he knew exactly when to strike, by anointing the serpent to seduce her. When they committed the act, it was the woman’s choice. The Bible says Adam hearkened to the voice of his wife, meaning she did not put up a sad story, Now Adam you have to understand how this happened. When somebody hearkens to you, it means they listen while you continue on and on with the same old thing time after time. How many realize that? I am not here to talk on serpent seed, but this much fits in as we look at the word, “US,” because the next usage of the word was a result of what the serpent had caused. When the choice has been made to partake of the intimate act just for pleasure, instead of for reproduction only, which was God’s perfect way, then we find that God comes into the garden to confront them with what they had done. They both had partaken of the act for pleasure. She had convinced her husband to go against God’s commandment simply because of the pleasure of it. They were still in the garden when the words of this next verse we will read were spoken. Let us go to the 22nd verse of the 3rd chapter, they both have now partaken of the act and they both know they are guilty before God. They have done wrong and conviction has caught up with them. “And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us.” Now Brothers and Sisters, He was not referring to a trinity when He used the term, US: He was talking to that great host of righteous angelic beings. Why did God include the angels in that? They knew as much about right and wrong as He did, because He had imparted that knowledge to them in their creation. Can you not see the prehistoric world, what it was for? It was a time when angels were tested, whether they would remain true to their Creator or fall for Lucifer’s enticements to commit evil deeds. In their period of being tested in that prehistoric world, they found out what was wrong and what was right and that is exactly why God judged those that had chosen the wrong way. They became known as fallen angels; and they serve the devil. All the others made the right choice, refusing to take part in Lucifer’s murderous games with the animal kingdom. That is why they are in this picture as God’s helpers, because these same angels that are assisting God in this new program, have already been tested and tried and found to be faithful to God. They obey Him in every situation. That is why God could say, Seeing therefore that man has become as one of us to know good and evil. Let us read it. (Gen 3:22) “And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, (How?) to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: (What did He do?) Verse 23, Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.”
CONSEQUENCES OF WRONG CHOICES
Adam had a choice, either to say yes, or no when Eve presented herself to him, but he made the wrong choice, so now when God is saying this, He is speaking to the angelic beings that assist Him in things concerning man. They are down here on earth for this occasion. They are not spirit beings up there somewhere: they are down here on earth. Those angels were going to assist God in the furtherance of man’s propagation of life upon earth. I have to say again, “Us,” in these scriptures do not pertain to a plurality of persons in the godhead. We are now seeing how this sovereign Creator and Father chooses to deal with man once he has crossed the line of disobedience. God drives him out of the beautiful garden of paradise. It sounds to the carnal minded man like God drove him out of a beautiful place where there was a beautiful gate, a wrought iron fence and everything we picture a garden to look like. Adam and Eve were not driven out of a geographical spot on earth anywhere. How do you know Bro. Jackson? Simply because they were still right where God had put them, but the fact that they had been kicked out of the garden, just meant the garden was gone. Where did it go to? We have a lot of religious people that read the Bible like a story book. I would like for you to remember this, When God planted a garden eastward in Eden, Eden is the name of the geographical spot, but the garden was a little bit of heaven on earth where the presence of God was manifested along with angelic beings: They were all around the man and woman. God wanted His new creature to enjoy that benefit, but once sin entered the picture, God will not let him live in that paradise atmosphere knowing good and evil as they had come to know. He would not allow them to have access to the tree of life and at the same time have access to the tree of knowledge of good and evil. You cannot live in this life, do wrong one day and do right the next day and expect to go to heaven when you are like that. You everyone know that. It just does not work that way with God. When God said,(to the angels) “Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil.” He had no choice but to remove that heavenly atmosphere from where they were. Only after they disobeyed Him and gained the knowledge of right and wrong did He drive them out and judge their disobedience. I know it sounds like He came behind them with a stick and said, Get out of here! Keep in mind though, Adam and Eve did not leave that geographical spot of Eden. God just lifted that paradise setting, which was a little bit of heaven, from where they were and all they saw from then on, was the natural vegetation of the natural life around them. That is why I have asked people before, Where did the tree of knowledge go to, if it was something that grew out of the ground? It did not grow out of the ground: Those symbolic trees represented a beautiful law that was pictured right there, and symbolized in the beautiful paradise God had placed around them. Well what about the tree of life? Where was it? When God lifted that heavenly setting from them, it took the tree of life with it. You find that tree of life mentioned in the book of Revelation. On the other hand the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was left here and every human is born with it in their mind. How many realize that? The point I am really making, is, once again God used the word “US,” in connection with something that was to be done. When man came to know the difference between good and evil, he is down here on earth surrounded by earthly things and he can no longer see what is taking place in the spirit world. He is here in physical form; and that which is seen with the natural eye is all he can see. I just have to keep saying, God is not speaking of a plurality of persons in the godhead when He uses the word US: He is speaking in conjunction with the angelic beings that are going to assist Him in the furtherance of His plan for the ages and with the future of this man that now dwells in a physical body and must deal with natural things of the earth. We know that from that moment on, (the time when God dealt with their disobedience) sin began to propagate itself on earth. By the time we come to the hour that God looked at what it had produced, (in the days of Noah) it grieved God that He had even made man and put him here. That is when He began to deal with the man by the name of Noah as He prepared to judge the entire thing. He told Noah to build a boat for the saving of his household and such. There is no need of going into details about that at this time. It rained forty days and forty nights and everything was under water; and only Noah and his family along with the selected animal kingdom were spared alive.
ANOTHER USAGE OF THE WORD, “US”
We have covered quite a bit in the two previous usages of the word, “US,” so now let us go to the 11th chapter of Genesis, where we will find the next usage of that word. Here, is where God speaks again in the plural terminology, concerning something He has determined to do. The flood is over and those left alive are back down on earth again. The time has come, when God wanted them to move out and begin to subdue and replenish the earth again. Instead of them doing that, all those families got together and said, Let us build a tower to heaven. We don’t want to be scattered all over this earth. That is when they started working to build a tower that would reach into heaven; and God knew they would succeed if they were left alone to work on their project, so He inaugurated a plan that would put a stop to their disobedience. You can read the entire story if you choose to. God let them get so far with their plan; and then He took the necessary action. Some would say, Why did God let them get so far along with it, if He knew they were going to do wrong? God does not force any of us to make a proper choice about following His plan. He gives everyone the choice to do right or wrong; and then He deals with us accordingly. He wanted them to exercise their choice and put it into action before He did anything about it. I will say this, Once you put your thoughts in action and there is a material realm around you that begins to prove what you thought and what you are doing, that speaks exactly what your motive is. Those who were supposed to be repopulating the earth had determined instead, to build them a tower to heaven and huddle together. God would not let them get by with that, so let us notice what God does as He again deals with disobedient man. First we see in the 4th verse of the 11th chapter of Genesis, what was on their mind. “And they said, Go to, (get ready) let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name.” That has always been man’s highest thoughts of achievement. It is just like our long haired scientists today, with those play toys up on Mars or wherever. They want to find water out there somewhere. What is on Mars mean no more to me than an old rock out by my garden. It is very strange, how we have a bunch of carnal minded people today, that put so much dependence upon what I consider useless knowledge. Every bit of it is earthly. I am not running down anyone who desires to obtain a decent education, but I just heard in the News, that every one of our politicians are saying, We have got to be willing to spend more for better education. Brothers and sisters, I have heard that for the last sixty years of my life, and it is sickening. Politicians and educators would bankrupt a society if they were turned loose to do as they please. The more they spend, the more they want to spend. It is the same in our overall society. There is a rebellion within the minds of young children, that they will only be willing to accept so much. Well once you pass that deadline and you leave God out of your life, and out of your future, then God is going to let you go so far and then wreck up. When God looked down and observed modern man of that hour that had said, Get ready, let us build a city and a tower that will reach to heaven, that is like our scientists today, trying to put people out in space to live: They are going beyond their God-ordained bounds. Let us build a play toy and go to Mars and see if we can find water there. Why? If they were to find a little spot that had a trace of water, they would only come out with that much more scientific attitude and say, Now we know that God did not create anything. That is all they are after, to try and find a scientific fact to throw in your face if you believe in God. That is why I say, Come Lord Jesus, and let them see your hand at work. Well as man has said, Go to, meaning get ready and do thus and so, we will now see what God said about their plans, and also what He did to stop them. (Verse 5), “And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, (They have their minds made up, and you cannot change them.) and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” That is just like our scientists today, leave them alone long enough and they will bankrupt a society just to see what is on the other side of Pluto and all the rest of those planets out there. In verse 7, as man said, go to, which means get ready, God said, “Go to, (get ready) let us go down, and there confound their language.” I think this makes it simple, to see that angelic beings were very instrumental in carrying out this plan. I believe once God said that, He made the choice, they did not make the choice, He only said, You get ready, because they are his servants. God could say to this angel, you will go to certain ones and you will change their language over night. He says to another angel, and you will go and change the language of a certain group or family. Each angel is given a language dialect to see that the households he visits will definitely be changed from that of the others to this new one. I have said before, They did not go into a household and change the husband’s language from the wife’s language. That is nonsense to think that. However He did make it impossible for those workers to communicate with each other and carry on their building project. I have to say, God had made the choice and angelic beings were assigned to assist Him in this confusion of language. I can just visualize those angelic beings as they came down and went their particular way. They enter into certain households, and where the angels entered into, their presence affected the mentality of the people on earth, so when they wake up the next morning, every member in that particular household is speaking the same language, but when they step outside the next morning to go about their daily activities, here is where they find out something went wrong during the night. The same men they had previously met in the street going toward the tower to work, on that morning they were all speaking a different dialect. These angels came down and assisted God in the choice He had made to confuse their language. The angels carried out what they were assigned to do precisely. None of those righteous angels ever express or manifest something from their own mind. They are totally submitted to do whatever they are instructed to do to fulfill the plan of God.
DRAMATIC CHANGE
Well Brothers and Sisters: I just want to say, My Bible tells me the day is coming when God is going to return to mankind a pure language. That is going to be wonderful. We will not have to go to some college to learn from some professor. If God is the one that changed the dialect after the flood, He can change it over night as He sees fit. We have used the word “us” and I have to say in all of this there is not one thing that proves to anyone that God is a plural of persons. God Himself never was a person. I cannot stress that enough, because I do not know who may hear this and hear that for the first time. If you read a passage of scripture somewhere and it seems to suggest that God is a person, or that God is three persons, just remember, That is because a Trinitarian has translated it from the Greek that way. That is how the Trinitarians think of God, but that does not make it that way. God is never referred to in a plurality. The scriptures plainly tell us that GOD is ONE. When we leave this thought, we are going to go to Isaiah, because it is necessary that we obtain the proper understanding of these visions that have been shown. Let us go to Isaiah 6. The reason I am taking this route, I want to get to a certain point with this vision given to the prophet Isaiah, which was the first vision of its kind. (Verse 1) “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. (That is the angelic beings.) Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.” I have said this, Isaiah saw this, but that is not how heaven looked at that time. I hope you understand me. It is a future tense picture of a scene, which as time goes on, God will add more to it. That is why I say, That is not even how heaven looked. Up until that time, no prophet has actually seen the heavens, how it appears, because God is invisible. How many realize that? This is a prophetic vision in process. It is actually telling through Isaiah, that there will be a scene in heaven one day, once all the component parts are there that will be as Isaiah described. Let me ask you a question in order to show you something. When you get over in the book of Revelation all the component parts are there. The Lord Jesus is sitting on that throne, is He not? You have these seraphims, these angels, one with the face of a man, an ox, and so on, but notice in Revelation there is four and twenty elders sitting on their thrones around about the throne of God. Isn’t there? Well how come they are not here? That is why I have to say, That is not the way heaven looked at all at that time. It is a future picture of what one day will be in heaven, a scene just like this, but it is all in the future. It is not present tense. Isaiah saw the glory of God, and that glory of God was channeled to a throne. We must keep in mind though, and never think that glory exists and dwells in the form and shape of a man. Otherwise, if that is the way it is, why did John the Baptist say what he did? He said no man has seen God at any time, save He who came out of the bosom of the Father, Him He hath declared. Therefore when we read our Bible, we have to read it the right way. You just simply have to stop hanging on to one verse of scripture, if you ever expect to have a proper revelation of God (the godhead). Some say, Well that is what the Bible says, and that is what I believe. Yes, that is because you are hung up on a verse of scripture, and you do not even know where it goes to from there. The reason I am bringing this in, is because it is necessary that there be limits concerning this vision, because it is not all there yet. Time will produce it. He had that vision in 758 B.C., so we just have to leave it there until the time God brings it into the picture of fulfillment. Go with me now to the book of Ezekiel. Ezekiel was in Babylon, in captivity, along with other Jews when he had this vision. In the 1st chapter of Ezekiel, he describes this glory of the Lord as he begins to see it. He describes it as a whirlwind, like a cloud and fire infolding. He comes on down and deals with each aspect of it in a little more detail. He talks about the wings, but in this vison he sees a wheel, like another wheel in a wheel. You did not see that in Isaiah’s vision, did you? You will not see that in Revelation either. It goes to show, that this is in a mobile setting: it is traveling. Wherein there were six wings, now there are four. What happened? The wheel has taken over, it is how the wings have manifested themselves. This speaks of how time is adding to the dimension. That is the best way I know to express it, because it is not how heaven looked at that time. It is all pointing to the future. But this is showing a hundred and some years later after Isaiah, Ezekiel sees it has a little more incorporated. Now as he does, let us go on over to the 26th verse. He has talked about all the wings, even here in this he can still hear holy, holy, holy. We hear that in Revelation, do we not? It was Holy, holy, holy. “And above the firmament that was over their heads (he is talking about these angelic beings) was the likeness of a throne, (now it gets specific) as the appearance of a sapphire stone: (We read that in Revelation also.) and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.” That is pointing to the future tense of the immortal Christ, who had not even been born when this vision was seen. How many realize that? “And I saw as the colour of amber, (That is all in Revelation, all these colors and reflections of stones, that brings out the deity, the glory and manifestation of the being of God around this throne, because when you get to Revelation and you see it in its finished setting you see exactly that.) as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of His loins even upward, and from the appearance of His loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had a brightness round about. (That you see in Revelation also.) As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.” The reason I read that, is because it brings the throne out in more detail and puts the likeness of the appearance of a man sitting there. That is pointing to the future tense, when Christ actually will sit upon that throne. I want to say this, We have many people around us, that believe Jesus pre-existed with the Father before all time. I am going to challenge you and ask, In what state was He when He existed back then? What was His position when He supposedly pre-existed as a person before He was born from the womb as any other baby would be? You absolutely have no scripture for that idea. When we do see Him, from heaven down here on this earth, how was He seen? He was a little baby that had to grow into manhood and present Himself to John the Baptist for water baptism, before the Father incarnated Him. In the thirty years prior to His baptism, He never performed a single miracle. Why? Because every miracle He ever performed, was at the instruction of His heavenly Father that had come to abide in Him there at the River of Jordan. He did only what the Father in Him, instructed Him to do. There are various scriptures to vindicate this, but I am only going to read two right now. The first one is found in (John 8:28). “Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am He, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.” The other one is in (John 14:10), so we will read it now. “ Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works.” After He has conquered and ruled over all the earth for a thousand years, He is then my elder brother. He became my Savior one day. Then He is coming to rule throughout a Millennium of time: in which time He is going to be King of kings and Lord of lords. Is He not? Will that last forever? No it will not. It lasts for a thousand years. Doesn’t it? Well then Paul has the last word on this, and you will find it in (1st Corinthians 15), that God Himself who has ordained that all things, all spirits, devils, are subject to Christ, and for a thousand years He will sit on an earthly throne in Jerusalem and rule and reign over the entire earth, because He is actually executing the mind of the Father by this means. The Bride will rule with Him, so that is exactly why you have got to be there with Him. No you will not refer to Him yet as your elder brother, but follow me as I continue. When He is has ruled through the Millennium, then the wicked dead are raised and hell gives up the dead, and what does this do? This takes out of the crust of the earth all the wicked bodies that have been there through all time. Right? It takes out of hell, all those wicked spirits. Now do not tell me you don’t believe hell existed before man came into the picture. It certainly did exist back then. I know we have some advent people who believe that when God made man, He just took some clay and breathed into his nostril the breath of life. If that is all there is to man, then you are just telling me that all man is, is just a bunch of dirt and hot air. When God breathed into the nostrils of that man that He had made in an earthly form, He imparted to him that spirit man that was made after His own likeness. If you do not believe that, then you have not read your Bible the right way. Don’t tell me that God is just hot air. God is a spirit. If you call Him your heavenly Father, then you are a spirit also, and you are not just air out here like we breathe. As we look at the scriptures the right way, we can say that when the last judgment is completed and the earth is totally renewed, Jesus the Son who has ruled on earth over all of God’s creation, will turn the kingdom back to the Father; as the apostle Paul wrote in 1st Corinthians 15: and only then, will we look to Him as our elder brother. There are other scriptures, but I will just read two verses right now, to establish the fact that we are all children of God; and as Paul said, If we are God’s children, we are also joint heirs with His only begotten Son, Jesus who is the Christ. (Rom 8:16) “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God. (17) And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together.” Some may not know this, but do you know we are going to judge angels? How many realize that? Who said that? The apostle Paul. Well Bro. Jackson, why should we judge angels? What in the world do you think has been haunting you all your lifetime, tempting you to drink, tempting you to use the Lord’s name in vain, beguiling you to do this and that? It is those dirty demons, or devils. They made their choice way back there in the eons of time, but God has allowed them to come back here again to test and try you and me. Therefore when we look at this in the right way, when Jesus sits on the throne of His glory ruling the nations, His Bride will be ruling with Him The Bride will make judgments on matters pertaining to their delegated authority throughout the one thousand years of His earthly reign. Then when Christ has delivered up the kingdom to the Father according to Paul’s revelation, there is no more dead in the earth, hell no longer has an existence, the earth is completely cleansed and made new, then what did Paul say? Then shall the Son deliver the kingdom to the Father; and lay down all the authority that has been delegated to Him for a period of time to rule on earth. He then relinquishes all that authority and delivers the entire kingdom back to God, that God may be all in all, as Paul wrote. Now you can see Jesus as your elder brother after that. Do any of you still want to tell me Jesus pre-existed before all time? I just have to say to all who want to hold to that, What a glorious position He had back then, and then to wind up in this forsaken situation of suffering and dying for our sins. Furthermore I have to ask you, How can you prove your position by the scriptures? How many understand my thought? The Bible has a beautiful picture in it, if we will let it speak to us by the leadership of the Spirit of God that is in us, but if you get your mind all twisted up with some of these doctor of divinity thoughts, you are destined to go in circles.
HEAVENLY VISION GIVEN TO JOHN
The reason I read this vision of Isaiah to you, is to show you that the visions given to Old Testament prophets were in part, and not as John saw later, when he was caught up to heaven and shown various things. Therefore I ask you, Where were the twenty four elders when Isaiah was given that vision? I ask that because, when I get over to the book of Revelation, where John the revelator was taken up into heaven, did He not see Jesus sitting on the throne? Did He not describe all the likenesses to the rainbow, the sapphire stone and all that? Those are reflections of the deity of God, His being, His Spirit and everything around the throne. However that visible form that John the revelator was seeing, that was the immortal Christ. Then, around the throne, John saw twenty four other thrones (or chairs). Did he not? Why did Isaiah not see them? Why was it that Ezekiel did not see them? That was because the way had not been paved from hell to heaven, for them to be there. How many realize that? Only when the day came, that Jesus went down into the lower parts of the earth and He led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men, did He take those old patriarchs of the Old Testament from there and take them to heaven. That was to get them ready to take up their throne position. When Jesus went up that day, He was then seated upon the throne of intercession where He has been ever since then. From there on, it is a vision being materialized in heaven. One by one, as the apostles were martyred, they took their position around there. That is why I say, What the vision was back here, was not yet fulfilled. I will say this, Jesus is not going to sit on that throne forever and ever and ever. The Bible says that He is made a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. Do you know Melchizedek is not a high priest forever? He was only an angelic being sent down here to characterize certain things that Christ will fulfill once He takes that position. What we have got to realize though, Jesus only sits in that position of mediator and High Priest for two thousand years. That is why when He leaves that throne, He will not return back to be High Priest anymore. He is coming then to be a King on earth for a thousand years. Saints I just want to say, You and I, living here in 2004, are getting close to the day when He comes for us. One day real soon, Jesus will break that last seal on the little scroll of redemption, and when He does, He is going to step forth from that intercessory throne forever. Salvation for Gentiles will be over. He is then ready to come to earth and there is going to be seven thunders echo throughout this earth that will be known only to the Bride of Christ. Praise God! When grace for Gentiles comes to an end, all attention will then turn back to the Jews and the seventieth week of Daniel is on. Then, when that seventieth week of years concludes, that is when He comes back with His bride to rule on earth for a thousand years. Well I believe we have explained these heavenly visions, so go with me back to Isaiah. In the 7th chapter, Isaiah wrote something that a lot of Trinitarians get hung up on. As Isaiah prophesies this in the 7th chapter, we come to the 14th verse, which says, “Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” Which means, God with us.
MISUNDERSTOOD SCRIPTURE
Religious leaders through this Gentile Age, have taken scriptures like Isaiah 7:14, and interpreted them without a revelation, then they say, That proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that Jesus was none other than God the Elohim Himself. That is twisting the scriptures. When the angel was telling Joseph, the man who was going to be the husband of Mary and so forth, the angel explains this, using that very reference from Isaiah, but said, Thou shall call His name Jesus. Well I ask anyone who reads the entire New Testament, Do you find any scripture where anyone walking up to this man ever said, Good Morning Immanuel? I have a reason for saying that. The word means God with us, but you have to understand the application of that thought. God was not on earth with anyone before He incarnated His only begotten Son when He was about 30 years of age. Jesus was around among a lot of people in the first 30 years of his life, but at no time back then, would it have been according to scripture to say, God is with us when Jesus was in their midst. God was not in Him during that first 30 years of His life, like He has been ever since then. After the incarnation, God was among His people wherever Jesus went, but He was still called JESUS, not Emmanuel. That is why I said, You do not see anywhere in the four gospels, that anyone ever addressed Him saying, Good Morning Immanuel. Well if His name meant that, why did they not call Him that? It was because, from the human standpoint you see a man whose name was Jesus, but within that human vessel of clay, there was something manifesting and working to accomplish the purpose of God. That was the very Creator Himself. If you had lived in that hour, and you did not have a revelation, you certainly would not call Him Immanuel. You would say exactly what some said in that day, You are just a devil that came down here pretending to be something. Actually the name given to Him was Jesus, which was according to what the angel had spoken to Joseph. Was it not? Were there not other Jews in that hour named Jesus also? Yes, there were, but only one was the Christ of God. There was only one named Jesus, whose name had a twofold meaning. That is why you had to know the man by divine revelation. That is why Jesus could talk like this, The words that I speak to you, they are not mine, meaning they did not originate from His own thinking. Sure they are articulating sounds of my voice, but they are of the inspiration of God Himself that had taken up abode inside of his Son. That is why we have to realize, that all through those three and one half years of the earthly ministry of Christ, some Jews only saw a man. They saw Him as Joseph the carpenter’s son, and no more. On the other hand, there were those who could see something radiating from the man, that let them know He has got to be the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now let us take that and harness it with a thought. These people that want to say Jesus pre-existed before all time with the Father, I am going to ask you, When the time came that Mary, a virgin girl that had never known a man intimately, was going to conceive, we know by revelation that she conceived by the Spirit of God, but what do those of the other persuasion believe? Sure the Trinitarians will say the Holy Ghost overshadowed her, but will they confess that she actually conceived by a supernatural act of the Spirit of God, and brought forth a Son of God that had not pre-existed with the Father, except in His mind and His foreknown plan that was to be manifested? You everyone know they will not. When we say she conceived of the Holy Ghost, here with go down the road with the Trinitarians that really have no revelation as to how it happened. She gave birth to a little baby named Jesus, but as He grew up into manhood, God the Father manifested Himself to Him at the river in a way that caused much controversy. Because He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, He is absolutely the Son of God. They will say, He was the Son of man, yet in the experience at the river, God came down and took over, and now it is God the Father abiding in, and working through the human flesh of His only begotten Son. Brothers and sisters, there is no such thing as three persons in the godhead. God the Father and God the Holy Ghost are one and the self same Spirit being. The Holy Ghost is just another term for the Spirit of God. When we speak of the Spirit of God in the Old Testament, it is bringing out the fact that He is the Creator of all things. From Him every living thing derives its life and existence. Then as we come into the New Testament era, that same sovereign Spirit is referred to as the Holy Spirit, because it speaks of how God is going to manifest His Spirit. Let me explain it like this, It was not to create another moon nor another sun, but to deal with mankind which was already in existence, but needing to be changed. He deals with man through a spiritual relationship. Therefore He is referred to as God the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit, dealing with this man to regenerate him. Why? Because the Holy Spirit and God the Father are one and the self same Spirit. When Jesus went to John the Baptist that day to be baptized, and He came up out of the water, the heavens were opened immediately and an audible voice spoke to Him. I want to say this, God the Father, is the Creator, the designer of life and everything that exists, and He never did leave the heavens just to come down here and wander around. Neither did the Son previously exist up there in any way except in the mind of the Creator. Regardless of who says Jesus has just been changed from up there, and now He is down here, born like a little baby, that kind of talk comes from a carnal, intellectual doctor of divinity that has his mind all twisted up. There is only one being in this universe that we can refer to as, My heavenly Father; and that is God Himself. In Him we live, we move and have our existence, because everything is in Him. As we have said already, Even the serpent seed got their life from God the only Creator, because there is no other source of life. When the Son of God was born, it was not that the Son was up there standing by the Father waiting, Daddy, is it time for me to go down there? He was there in the mind of God only. You need to get that straight. I am going to prove to you, as we deal with this subject, God had already chosen Him to be a part of this plan before He ever put Adam on this planet. How many realize that? He was not up there with the Father in a form that allowed Him to talk to the Father. All down through the Old Testament period He remained with God only as a thought to be developed in a future time. That is why I have said, He was not up there talking with the Father back then. He was only a part of the mind of God. God waited for the hour when it was time for the human race to have a visitation which would begin to turn man from His fallen, sinful way. God knew that would be the time when He would send forth His only begotten Son, born of a woman, but not as some would have it, because it would be according to His foreordained plan, which was finished in His great mind before He ever created anything at all. As long as that thought was just in the mind of God, the word was God, because it is impossible to speak something if it is not first a thought. How many realize that? What words do we find in (John 1:1)? Notice, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (Did God not speak the WORD that formed the cell of life in the virgin Mary?) (2) The same (WORD) was in the beginning with God. (3) All things were made by Him; (GOD) and without Him was not any thing made that was made. (4) In Him (GOD) was life; and the life was the light of men.” As an example of what I want everyone to see, As long as my thought is still just a thought it is in me, but once I speak that thought in an expression, then it becomes separate from me. That is why I have to say, Either God is the author of that thought, or else I am just saying a bunch of stuff from my own carnal mind. My point is, When God separated that little essence of life from Himself by speaking it into the womb of the virgin girl He did not have to say, Now Holy Spirit, you go do this. If God the Father is omnipresent, and if God is omnipotent, and if God is omniscient, is He not already everywhere? He does not have to wait and get on a fast moving train to get down here. Right? Therefore when His Spirit was sent, not to create another planet, but to overshadow the virgin womb of a little lady on earth, the angel Gabriel announced it. Since God is the Creator, He created in that virgin womb the very essence of a life cell. He bypassed the egg of the woman. He bypassed the gene, the sperm of man. He created the little essence of life that became the little fetus. Just look at it like this, If God created the universe out of nothing, surely He can take a virgin womb and create within it a little fetus from which that life is transformed into a male child. Can He not? Who can disagree with that? Once He did, He separates from His mind that thought He had conceived and held there for the past centuries, just waiting for the day to come when He would manifest it. Now He has separated it from His mind by speaking. The thought then becomes a materialized object. The life came from God. How did this life come from Him? Not through the egg of the woman, nor the seed of the man, it came from God Himself because He was and is the author of life. Right there in that virgin womb for the next nine months, that little fetus will grow. Sure she is going to eat. She is going to drink. Her body will break the food content down, and the nutrients in it is transposed to the blood stream. As that little fetus is automatically attached to the wall of the womb through the umbilical cord it receives the benefits. Then some might ask, Bro. Jackson, isn’t there a way for sin to be transmitted in that process? Not at all. The only thing that was transmitted was protein, carbohydrates, and everything essential in producing a little body that will grow from a little fetus to take form as a baby. Everything that the flesh is made up of was in the food that Mary ate. How many realize that? The very nature of that baby came from God. Nothing came from Mary that affected its nature. There was nothing from man that affected its nature. It all came from God. That is why you have modern man today, that cannot explain anything about the godhead, because they want to dissolve it, throw it away, declare it to be impossible, and who knows what else. Well, let them think that if they want to. Nothing any of those skeptics thought back then, changed the reality of what was taking place. God was working out His own plan, not bothering to explain what was about to take place, to those doubters.
EXPLAINING OTHER MYSTERIES
Nine months from the time of Mary’s conception, when it was getting close to her time to deliver, Mary and Joseph knew what to expect, but they did not know exactly when to expect it. That is why God purposed for it to fulfil prophecy, when there was a decree made that all the world should be taxed. Some translations say it was that there should be a census taken, that everybody had to go back to the place of their lineage. Well Joseph took his wife and headed for Bethlehem. I have said this before, When they left Nazareth, Mary did not know exactly when the baby was to be born, because she did not know exactly when conception even started. How many realize that? Had she known that she was to give birth in a few days, do you think she would have left home and not taken anything with her for the occasion? Young mothers, I think you would be foolish, when you become expectant with a child, and you waste your whole nine months and never buy anything for that little baby. How many know what I am talking about? Mary did not know when she was going to give birth. That is why she did not take anything with her for the baby. It was supposed to be that way. When they got there, every motel was full, every hotel was full, but there was a certain merchant that had a stable in a cave, so he gave them permission to use the stable. That is exactly where God wanted that baby to be born. That night when Mary did finally give birth, I imagine she thought, Lord, I have nothing to put on this little one. Hanging on the wall of the cave was some oxen yokes. They had been padded with swaddling cloth, meaning padding around the ox yoke. Across the fields, sheep herders were tending their flocks by night. You know the story. The angels came down and gave the announcement, Rise, go into the city of David, for there is a Savior born, which is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign unto you, Ye shall find the babe wrapped in what? In a new baby blanket? No. swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. I have watched young mothers; they will go and see a bargain somewhere and say, I think I will get that for my little one. That is a natural thing. That is why I said what I did. If Mary had known when she left Nazareth that she was going to give birth to that child, I believe she would have taken what she already had, things she had put away for that occasion. The fact of the matter is, She left everything she might have had behind, because those swaddling clothes were what God intended for them to use, to fulfill what the angel told the shepherds. Now saints, please do not think I am fool enough to say those oxen yokes had been used time and time again and the oxen had sweated and they were turned brown and hair all over them. I hope none of you would ever take such a carnal attitude about that. I have seen oxen yokes that have been used many times and I know what they look like. In this case though, I will say these had not been there long, nor used enough to look like that. These were clean enough, that when Joseph said, What are we going to wrap him in? Mary said, Look at the padding on that oxen yoke. He began to unwrap it and wrapped the little baby in it. I said that for one simple reason which is, I do not see the life of this little baby that has been born in a cave, in a cow stall, ever having been somewhere before time even started with the Father, with him already as a being, knowing all about what was going on. Do you understand me? There are many carnal ideas about all of this, but none of them can be vindicated by the scriptures. However what I have spoken to you can be easily proved by the scriptures, if you are willing to accept the Bible as the inspired word of God. There was no reason whatsoever, for Him to have been with the Father in creation as a person; and then come to earth the way He did. That is why the scripture brings out so clearly, that He is God’s only begotten Son. I have to say, When God brought Him forth, God brought Him forth to be a means of the salvation of lost mankind and salvation and redemption for a lost and perverted creation. I have said that for a reason. When I said creation, that takes us right to the book of Revelation, but I am not going to touch it at this time. Keep in mind though, that when God sent Him forth the way He did, the entire plan was already chosen by God, in the plan He determined before the foundation of the world, that when time on earth had reached a certain point, and the sin of mortal man has accumulated to the point and season predetermined by Him, then God was going to fulfill all the types of what the Law was, that had been given to Israel by having the Passover Lamb and the observance of the Passover. Now this baby is going to reach a point in life when He would be God’s true Passover Lamb for the sins of the whole world. That, my brothers and sisters, was the beginning of the Son of God. His beginning was in that cow stable just as we have read about it in our Bible’s. He grew to thirty years of age without ever doing one thing that could have been considered a miracle. Do you know why? It was because the miracle worker was not in Him prior to that. When He was baptized by John and the great Creator Himself descended upon Him and took up residence within, that was the turning point of His life. Before that time He was the sinless and perfect Son of God, but had no extraordinary abilities like was attributed to Him later on. After the Father came down and anointed Him, His life was dedicated to one thing, which was to reveal His Father to that generation. The Catholic people as well as others, have Him as a young child out creating birds and so forth, but I assure you, nothing like that ever happened. He had no creating abilities as a child growing up. Only at the time God the Father anointed His Son there at the Jordan River, did He take on any kind of resemblance of one that had any supernatural powers. Up until that time the Father had absolutely given His Son eternal life, but up to that thirty years of age, He never performed a miracle, He never went anywhere or did anything that was out of the ordinary, except the way He behaved Himself. He never preached a sermon, yet he learned beyond what other boys around Him did. The Bible says He grew in stature, in the knowledge. He learned all about the things of God because He knew He had been foreordained to fulfill a purpose of God. We will say, He was fore ordained, or chosen, that one day He would be a means of God reconciling the world back to Himself. I will say this, His birth was the beginning of the purpose of God bringing forth His Son, to eventually reveal Himself to the people. No other time in time, did the Son have any purpose, any object of authority in the universe. If He did, why would God bring Him from such an exalted place, down here to such a lowly place to redeem a bunch of sinful creatures like us, and then one day have Him rule and reign with His redeemed on earth? In the plan of God, everything is designed to lift this planet back up, and rid it of death and hell and everything that has defiled it. Then one day, when the last judgment is all concluded, He delivers the redeemed kingdom back to the father, just like we find in 1st Corinthians, chapter 15. What does the scripture mean, where Paul said He will deliver the kingdom back up to God the Father, that God may be all in all? It really establishes the greatest? The Son had all authority here on earth, but it was delegated authority and not of Himself. To those who insist that Jesus is God I have to say, God is as He always has been: the supreme ruler of the universe. How many realize that? God the Father is the greatest; and everything and everyone derives whatever they have or are from Him. Thinking of Jesus, just look what He did through Him: He redeemed you and me and reconciled us back to Him, as well as the entire planet that has been ruled by Satan for so long. We were everyone brought into existence as sprouts off of the tree of knowledge. How many realize that? But now our life has been changed, because Jesus, the righteous branch off of the tree of life, came into the human family in order to be a means lifting you and me back up here to a level and relationship that we can all be sons and daughters of God through Him. We were outside, aliens from all the covenant provisions God had made for Israel, but through Him, we are brought back to God. Paul expressed it in Eph 2:12-13, this way, “That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: (13) But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.” I think it is a beautiful picture.
EXPLAINING GOD’S RENEWING PROCESS
We are on the subject “God is One;” and I do not intend to leave out a single scripture anywhere along the pathway of God’s word, that we need to establish and nail down the truth we are presenting to you on this subject. The godhead has been one thing that Satan has relied upon through the years to confuse people who want to go to heaven, but are not willing to apply themselves toward searching out the truth of God’s word. He has used every means and done his best to confuse the believers’ mind’s. That is exactly why, when you read the little Epistles of John, written in 90 A.D., you find that the godhead was already being challenged by Satan, bringing on false prophets that were teaching certain things denying the godhead, at least the way it was taught to the early Church by the apostolic fathers. If the Bride of Christ can absolutely get their minds settled on the fact that God is one; (One sovereign Spirit)and that He never has been revealed in three persons, they are ready to start understanding other scriptures that cannot be understood by those who believe God is a trinity of persons. God never has been manifested in three different ways at the same time. He has fulfilled offices, or operations in ways that make it seem to the unrevelated, carnal minds, that He absolutely has to be three persons, but when we allow the Holy Spirit (which is the same Spirit that created all things) to guide us into all truth, we soon know by a revelation, that the One God that created all things, He who is called our heavenly Father, fulfills all the functions that the Trinitarians believe can only be accomplished by a godhead of three persons. I hope I have stated this in a way that has clarified all of this for all of you.
GOD’S PROCESS OF RENEWAL
We started this message with the word “us,” as is used in Genesis 1:26, as we opened up this thought. When God said, Let us make man in our image, He was not talking about, or to a plurality of persons in the godhead. He was speaking in conjunction with His angelic beings that have always assisted Him in whatever He has purposed to do, as He began the process of bringing the earth back from its state of being without form and void and began to create the new inhabitants that would repopulate it, as we see in Genesis 1:2. I want to say at this time, At the time He spoke that, God had already been in the process of bringing the planet earth itself, which has been judged in a prior age, and had been frozen up for thousands of years, back to a state for habitation. That is why in Genesis 1:1, it says, In the beginning God created the heavens and an earth, period. Darkness was upon the face of the deep because of that prior judgment. The earth was without form and void. What does that tell you? It tells you there was no life functioning on it, but it certainly does not tell you God has just now made the earth and He is slowly bringing it into a relationship to be inhabited. He was not re-creating anything. He was reaching out there and redeeming it, bringing it back, getting it ready to use it again. That is why I have to say, When we talk about Jesus the Son of God, and how God was manifested in the person of His Son, it is essential that we realize God did not become a man. Let us just speak it the way the Bible says it. We have too many today, that want to make it sound in a way that pleases the people. Regardless of what some might want it to say, the Bible says God was manifested in the flesh. Does it not? Did He just go hocus-pocus and there was flesh? No. Absolutely not: He was manifested in the person of His Son. That is the only way God, (Jehovah, the Elohim, He who always was and always will be, the intelligent one, the omnipresent, the all powerful one) after He incarnated His only begotten Son manifested His presence. He had brought forth His Son for the sole purpose that He Himself, at a certain time of the Son’s life, could come down and manifest His deity-ship, His power, His attributes, in and through the Son. At no time did God leave the universe, because He fills the universe. If He is omnipotent, (and we know He is) He is everywhere. He could have done whatever pleased Him in this thing of the redemption of lost mankind; and that could have been a lot of different ways, but He chose this to be a means He would use because this man He placed the fullness of His godhead-ship, deity-ship in, was a sinless and perfect man. He is a perfect man, born without sin, because he had none of the genes in Him from either Mary or Joseph. Therefore the Son of God is the only man in the godhead. Let me say this, God, known to us as the Father, did not become a man. Neither did He who was to be born the Son of God, become God Himself. You do not find Him talking like that in any of the four gospels. It has been doctors of divinity in the Gentile world of religion, that absolutely climb a tree and use their ecclesiastical education to make things sound fantastic. I am trying my best to bring it out of all this bewilderment, all this confusion and show you how it really is. I will say this, Jesus, as we know Him, before He was born of virgin birth, as I have said over and over, existed only in the mind of His Father, which is the sovereign Spirit that created all things. He existed in the mind of the Father; and not as a person of a trinity with the father. Yet we have got those that say, But He was up there with the Father before all time. Where would I find Bible scripture for that? I sure would like to read it. Well saints, that is just my remark: I know there is no scripture that would establish a thing like that. I happen to know the Trinitarians that translated the Bible, inserted a lot of things in certain places that cannot be found in the original text. They translated certain things according to their perverted understanding; and not as responsible translators should have done. God had already designed this era of time we are living in. He had designed the earth and He redeemed it and brings it back out of that chaotic, judged state. Then He puts a man here to repopulate the planet earth and to subdue it and have dominion over everything else. Yet God knew that man would choose the wrong thing, so He had already perfected a plan He would put into effect at a later time. I was asked the question one time, Bro. Jackson, if God at one time made man perfect, what came about that caused him to sin? What you do not realize, is that God did not make man to sin, but He made man capable of making a choice. If He did not make him able to make a choice, then He did not make him a free moral agent, did He? You would have to say He made a robot otherwise. He made him to do one thing, to choose one thing, to live one thing. What else can he do? We have to say this, The Son of God, when He was born from a virgin womb two thousand years ago, that took Him out of the mind of the Father and brought Him forth as a manifested word that took on flesh. That is why it says in St. John, and the word was made flesh. It could have been more properly expressed, That the word which was God’s word, made flesh. By His spoken word a cell of life was planted in a virgin womb; and that in due time produced a man child. Yes, when the thought originated with God, because His mind is sovereign, as long as that mind, that thought was there, that was God, because it took God to think that thought. But when the time came that God separates that thought from His mentality and expresses it in the form that He has foreordained for it to be, now we have God’s thought being expressed. We find it is God’s only begotten Son, because He was the only Son of God that was begotten of Him according to His law of reproduction. All others were begotten of men after He created Adam. Now I want to take you back to where I read from when we started, which was Isaiah 7, that speaks of how a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and thou shall call His name Immanuel, meaning God with us. Then we will read from the 9th chapter of Isaiah, where this is referred to again, but we do not read the same words. In the 7th chapter it referred how His name would be looked to in His first advent, but when we go to the 9th chapter and we are starting in the 6th verse, “For unto us a child is born, unto us a Son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” (Notice again, it is His name that shall be called these things, not Him, but we have to understand how that name became that. This is when He comes to be King of kings and Lord of lords, that He will fulfill this role. But we can say this, when He will come in His glorified, immortal body, He is not coming to be a prophet again, nor to be a Savior again: He is coming to be King of all kings. So that kingly attribute of God the Father is now going to be expressed in His Son, so that His Son can become the King of all the earth. Brothers and sisters, the Bride of Jesus Christ around this world, all of you are going to be part of that beautiful picture, and it behooves us to have in our minds a little concept of what are we being made like unto and for what reason are we going to be the wife of Him who will be KING, and in what relationship. When this body we reside in is changed into immortality, then I have to say, God is going to impart into us this immortal person that we are, the knowledge, the authority and everything we need to rule and reign with King Jesus; and all of that is depending on how faithful we have been to this calling we have been living under during this period of time we have been called out children of God. The point is, we will see exactly how and why the name of Him (who is King Jesus) will be called Wonderful, Counsellor, mighty God,) The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Is that literally the name people will walk up and say when they come before Him, Good morning Counsellor? That is not it at all. It is the fact that they see God represented and manifested in and through Him. It takes that, for Him to fulfill all of that. Now with this in mind, Let us look at this thing that gets people so carried away, and especially the Trinitarian mind, the thing that causes them to put Him up there with the Father before all time, even before there was a star or anything. They look at certain Trinitarian translations in their Bible and cannot help but put Him with the Father in creation. They make it sound that way. That is why I have to ask, Then what was He doing? Was He just a little fellow waiting for His chance? As for the Son, if He is called the Son of God, at what time in eternity did He come into existence so as to be called the Son of God, and by what means? Was He literally born by some means back then? There is a lot to think about. See, when people begin to try and make the scriptures come down on their human level and materialize what is written therein, they get into a lot of carnal thoughts. To you who believe Jesus Helped the Father in creation I say, You cannot show me one place in the Bible where even one star, or one asteroid was created by Him. As I talk like this, keep in mind, It was the apostles of Christ Jesus that wrote most of the New Testament, so that has the last answer to any question of doubt or unbelief. That is where the revelation, as it unfolds to you, brings progresses and development in our lives, and that is all for the objective and purpose God has set it forth, that in this dispensation of Grace, all of this will materialize. With this in mind, go with me to St. John’s gospel. John was the only apostle that wrote anything in this fashion. I am reading from the King James version which is the English translation. The early translators translated it into the English language, and they were all Trinitarians. Therefore certain phrases speak what they thought and how they looked at what they were working on. I am going to read this verse from the King James translation of the Bible. St. John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word.” Keep in mind, as we look at that English word, “W-o-r-d.” I am going to ask you, try to imagine in what form it was. Was it a person standing there? The trinitarians would say yes, but if they had a revelation of the godhead they would know God the Father is not a person. Oh they want to climb a tree when they hear you say that. Now see, he has gone wild. No, I have not gone wild: I am just stating a fact. He is a being, but not a person. When you refer to a spirit being, you are referring to something that does not have a form that the human eye can see. God does not exist in any kind of form. He is a being that fills the universe. He is everywhere. Therefore He is not a person. Look up the word person in your dictionary and see what it means. It winds up saying it is something that has a form or shape. It is an object that can be seen or described. I will say this, Anyone ought to know, that before a word can be spoken, it has to first be a thought, does it not? Alright, so in the beginning was the word, but I will ask you this, At what time was the beginning referring to in that verse? Are we going back fifty billion years ago before the planet was made? No. This is going back to the beginning of the era when God was going to bring man on the scene on this planet. This verse does not reach back beyond the prehistoric world. When I say that, some people say, Oh that crazy Jackson, just listen how he talks. Well to whoever you are that says that, I say this, Come on, I challenge you: Do you know those days in Genesis 1, 2 and 3 were not days of twenty four hours each? It starts out in the second chapter, verse 1, “Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. (2) And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made. (3) And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.” Then when you get down to verse 4, it refers to the generation of the heavens and earth when God created them. Please notice how they are called generations. That means something, but most people just read right over it. Gen 2:4 “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, (5) And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.” Did you catch that? You simply cannot take a day of twenty four hours and refer to it as a generation. That is totally unrelated to proper understanding. I am saying this refers to where God is bringing the planet earth back, redeeming it out of that judged, chaotic dark stage, bringing it out of the void condition that is mentioned in chapter 1, verse 2. He is redeeming it for a further purpose, getting it ready for habitation again. Yes, I said again, because anyone who refuses to believe there was a prehistoric earth population, has to be blind and deaf, because science itself proves it by many things that are found in the earth today. It was in that void condition and without form because of a prior judgment of God upon those that defiled His beautiful creation. I never worry about the scientific world dating something as millions of years old. It just helps vindicate what we know to be true. God was in no hurry about redeeming it from that chaotic state and making it habitable again, so life could once again be brought forth and function here. His end purpose was the important thing; and He has made that clear to all who will receive it
CONDITIONS OF THIS VERY AGE OF TIME
I have to say to you my brothers and sisters, What looks to the natural, carnal mind to be a creation, is a re-creating or redeeming of something that had been created long before that. Having said that, let me take you to Revelation 3:14 where Jesus is speaking to John on the Isle of Patmos. Did you know you and I are the people of the Laodicean age? How many will accept that as fact? This is the Laodicean age. We have already had the angelic messenger of this age, haven’t we? Here in this verse, Jesus is instructing John, there on the Isle of Patmos as to what to write to those of this very age. Notice this, “And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.” That is not being said about the prehistoric world: Jesus was the beginning of the new creation of God. As we go along in this, I am going to show you why He is exactly that. He is God’s means of bringing this planet earth and fallen mankind, out of the judged, sinful state it has been in for hundreds of years. If the Bible winds up by saying, Behold, there was a new heaven and a new earth, does that mean that God the Creator made a new planet? Absolutely not! You everyone know better than that. Well, how come it says He makes a new heaven and a new earth? Well let us read (Rev 21:1) “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.” Please, brothers and sisters: We have gone over this many times before and every time, we have shown you that God did not have to create a new planet earth, or a new heaven, It is expressed that way because it has been redeemed and cleansed, so that it is new in that way. In the days of Noah when the entire earth was filled with sin and corruptness, God judged the entire mess and sent a flood that covered the entire mess and destroyed everything on earth except what was in the Ark with Noah, but the interesting thing is, the verse I am going to read, sounds like God destroyed the earth in that flood, but we know from other scriptures that He just cleansed the earth with that flood. Gen 6:13, says this, “And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Well the same planet earth is still here; and after Jesus rules it a thousand years it will be cleansed and renewed once again, ready to be turned back over to the Father, that He (the Father) may be all in all.” He has redeemed it and regenerated it, through the redeeming process of Christ living here, ruling here, and restoring laws and all things that fallen man has thrown away. That is why Paul could say in (1st Corinthians 15, God has delegated unto Him authority to rule, to restore, to bring back to the earth everything the earth has lost from its former righteous state. That is why He will rule for a thousand years, sitting in Jerusalem. The population of the earth then will go to Jerusalem once each year to worship. That is the way it reads, but it sounds like millions will do it. I have to say, as the planet begins to multiply and populate, after awhile it would get too many for that, so then these races of people will pick representatives to go and represent them to the King of kings and Lord of lords. Throughout this entire thousand years, there will definitely be a redeeming process. When the end of that time comes, then you have the great white throne judgment which we brought into the message this morning, the time when He is going to destroy every grave, death and hell will give up the dead. That is the wicked dead of course. They will be judged by the things found written in the books. Now I ask you, In that process, what will it actually do to the earth? There will be no more grave yards. Right? Now I say to all those who believe in an eternal hell, There is no more hell after that. There will be no more need for such a place, so it will be been done away with. All the wicked are cast into a lake of fire. There is no one there yet, but there will be a great multitude cast into it after the last judgment. My point is this, Tell me how all of this will be done? Will the Father make a new planet? He absolutely will not. He delegated authority to the Son, the Son which was the beginning of the new creation of God, and that is not referring to a new star or a new moon or anything like that. He is the very means that God has instituted His divine power through to redeem this planet, bring it back and restore it back into a divine relationship with God, so that there will be no more sin, nor the traces of sin. Then when this redeeming process is over, we can say this, He is the beginning of a new creation and that is by redeeming, reconciling, restoring back to a proper sinless state of existence. Then that is why Paul could say in 1st Corinthians 15:24-25, “Then cometh the end, when He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. (25) For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under his feet.” When He does that, His ruling is finished. Now this is the part I want to emphasize, and it causes educated theologians to climb a tree. I say to all such, You make Jesus the WORD of John 1:1 and John 1:14; and see Him standing there by His Father’s side before all time. That is because you do not know how to read John 1:1 and John 1:14, and know that the WORD pertains to God the Creator, the Father. If the word, “WORD,” speaks of Jesus, and that causes you to put Him there with the Father in person, in creation, then please tell me, What is He supposed to be doing all that time until He gives up that identity to be born of a virgin womb two thousand years ago? You cannot explain it: You just want to make it literal, the way it sounds when you read it. Well I can show you where He is going to be when the Millennium is over. The Bible says this, that is when we see a new heaven, a new spirit realm around the earth. That has nothing to do with Mars, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn and all those other planets. That is why I say, Jesus has nothing to do with that. All of His potential activities are right here on this planet, where sin developed and reigned. What did sin affect? Man of course. That is the thing we have got to see about this thing in creation. I am going to read those two verses again. In John, (1:1) we find this, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (Not Jesus the Son) (1:14) “And the Word (made flesh, and we have already explained that) was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” At least Dr. Scofield does put in the footnotes, the English word, “Word,” taken from the Greek text, which means Logos. When you go to Logos, what are you dealing with? You can even get this from your dictionary. Notice, (copied from Heritage Dictionary) Theology, In Saint John's Gospel, especially in the prologue (1:1-14), the creative word of God, which is itself God and incarnate in Jesus. In this sense, also called Word. Saints, Are you dealing with a person? You are dealing with a thought. That is why even Dr. Scofield says the Greek word Logos, or the Aramic Memra pertain to a thought or concept. That word sounds like memory, the capacity to think, also used in the Targums. The Targums is the Hebrew, which means a thought. The reason I am saying all of this, is, if these people want to put Him with the Father before all time, before there was a star or anything, then I have to ask, What was He doing? God made man in His own image, In the image of God, made He him. Do you see any room in that verse to indicate that God needed a human person to help Him create what He created? Genesis 1:27, should be enough to settle any right thinking mind; and if it does not, then how do you explain that scripture? It is very strange, the idea they get out of the book, somehow that God existed in three persons from all time, but they have no words to tell you what Jesus was doing all that time. Now I am going to take you to what the apostle Paul said about it. That is why I have said all along, Any time you take one verse of scripture and try to make the whole Bible line up with it you have trouble on your hands. If you cannot absolutely place that verse in a finished picture that does not contradict other scriptures, you are going to get lost with your ideas. I just want to say, Before God ever started bringing the planet out of the dark Ice Age, from the prehistoric world, He already had a predetermined plan and only the righteous angels worked with Him: His only begotten Son had not been anything beyond a future plan way back there. I am glad He did things the way He did. It is a beautiful picture to me. Nevertheless we will go a little further with what John wrote. He said, “And the Word was with God.” Well brothers and sisters, if it is a thought of His mind, it cannot be anywhere else except with God. Can it? You see this building you are sitting in? The original building was built according to the plans I drew up back in 1967. I drew them, because, at that time we did not have an architect we could go to. I was just a little old country boy, and I drew them myself and took them to Indianapolis to the board of Commissioners. The man in charge said, Reverend, I wish all the plans brought in here were as good as these. I never had any reason to think I was a good designer. I just knew what we needed at that time and drew the dimensions, the depth of the foundation and everything. I have to say though, Until I put that on paper, that was just a thought in my mind. I could say, Well we are going to build a church, but if I did not tell you what it was going to look like, you could have said, Well it is in his thoughts, and it is in his mind to build it, but we don’t know what it looks like until it becomes separated from his mind. Once I put it in a drawing, then I have separated it from being just in my mind. When they approved it at Indianapolis, then we brought it down here and we all went to work on it. So I can say, The original building was first conceived in my own mind. That is exactly what we are talking about here. That thought was with God, and that thought was God, because, where else can it originate?
PAUL’S PERFECT UNDERSTANDING
I want to take this thought and show you how the apostle Paul looked at it. Go with me to Ephesians 1. Keep in mind John, who wrote about this in his gospel was a Jew, but so was Paul a Jew, so they both had the same revelation of the godhead. The difference between them, was that Paul was made an apostle to we Gentiles. He brought to you and me what the other apostles preached to the Jews. Now we will let Paul talk and explain this thought concerning the Word of God. Paul goes at it from this other standpoint, found in the 3rd verse of chapter 1 in Ephesians. He starts out saying “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” He is giving all attention to God the Father, isn’t he? Who is He? He is the Creator, all things came into existence by Him, through Him, and for Him. Then Paul went ahead to say, “who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According (Now notice how he puts a condition in there, which is according) as He (meaning God) hath chosen us in Him (Who? Christ Jesus.) before the foundation of the world, (That is not talking about the prehistoric world: it is pointing to the beginning of our era. Do not come up to me and tell me that you existed there also. The only way you existed was in the mind of the Father. You were a part of His finished picture before He even started doing anything. Now it is important that we read this down through here because we are reading from the writings of a Jew that had a revelation of how to get us pagan Gentiles to believe in something we had never been taught before.) that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” All of this was foreordained in the mind of God to be accomplished through Christ, before time even started for us. That is how we have to look at it. Verse 5, “Having (The word “having” expresses that a decision was made.) predestinated.” God, by His foreknowledge, saw you and me before we were ever fashioned in this earth. I have to say, the God that I serve knows a lot of things some people think He does not know. What has been going on through time, has not been something just thrown out here, something that God has been watching over to see what would take place. No. God saw this whole picture from beginning to end, before creation even started. It is important that you understand that, and that you understand the fact that each of us were given a choice as to whether we would serve Him or go contrary to His righteous ways. Even though He gave us that choice, Paul could still say He predestinated us to a certain end or conclusion. He could say that, because God’ infallible foreknowledge allowed him to see what choice each of us would make in life, thereby allowing Him to predestinate or guide us to a certain end. As He counseled with Himself (meditated and thought everything through) He finished in His mind, everything He would ever do before He started to do any of it. In verse 11, Paul says God worked all things after the counsel of His own will; and that we were predestinated according to His purpose, but His predestination was after the fact that by foreknowledge He could see every choice we would ever make. That is what allowed Him to pronounce our end before we even had a beginning. That is what we see in this verse, (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.” So having predestined, means He has come to a conclusion, He has finished His thought by looking at us throughout all future time, to place us in a particular relationship. That is to be the adopted children of God. When you read something where it says, By the word, that does not mean Jesus did it. God has done it through Him, because He is the means through which God works. That is where the translators say God has created all things by Jesus Christ. You just have to realize He did not create the planet earth by Jesus Christ. He did it Himself. You cannot say God is the Creator, then turn right around and say, but the Son did it. How many realize that? Doctors of divinity with their religious teachers have messed up this picture for centuries. We have got to get a picture in our mind that we can understand, so we are not shaken by uninformed sources on the human level. I can say this, Before there ever was anybody, God first thought about and perfected a plan in His mind. He counseled with Himself, (I like this.) So He predestinated us, to be what? To obtain the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ. It is God adopting us back to Himself through His Son. We are not begotten by Him like Jesus was: we were begotten by our earthly father and adopted into the great family of God; and that was all accomplished through His only begotten Son Jesus the Christ, who laid down His own life as a ransom for us, taking our sins and sicknesses upon Himself, that we might be free from the bondage of Satan and clean in our spirit to join God’s great family. You have heard people say, Well if the Son did not do it, what does the Son have to do with it then? God sent His only begotten Son into the world to become a Savior, a life giver. Let me say this, It was not Jesus coming down here from heaven and making the choice to save you. In the first place, Jesus did not come down from heaven as a person: He came as a cell of life implanted in the womb of a virgin girl; and that was by a process of the great Creator speaking, (just like we read in Genesis about His other creations.) He simply said, Let it be. Jesus was raised up in life as the son of Joseph and Mary; and by revelation, certain ones knew He was the begotten Son of God, but as we said already, He never performed a single miracle until after the Father came down and incarnated Him when He was baptized by John in the Jordan River at age thirty. Even then, Jesus did not walk up and down the road of life and say, I will save this one and that one can go to hell, I will save you, but not you. Any time predestination is mentioned, that is the way most carnal minds see it. Well that is not the way it was: All of this was in the mind of the Father from before the foundation of the world; and manifested on earth according to the good pleasure of His own will and purpose. He looked at the entire picture and knew what everything was to be like. He had a plan; and He looked at it straight through to the end. In that, He was going to designate certain things to be done, then He designed for certain things in the finished picture, that would come about through a process. But in the end results, it was all His choice that has accomplished it. (Scripture) “To the praise of the glory of His grace.” That takes it out of the plurality of minds. One mind thought all of this through. “Wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved.” The beloved picture, as God thought it. “In whom we have redemption (Now here is what is meant by, It was through the shed blood of His begotten Son, that God was going to accomplish this, to appoint us to become adopted sons and daughters of God.) through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace.” God is a merciful God. “Wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence.” Meaning understanding. God does not require you to go to a college to learn this. He just allows us to have His Spirit in us, then we are to be willing to let God take our mentality, break it down and put in us a picture of what He has designed. I will say this, Before He even spoke, to bring the planet out of that judged state, God first designed this whole plan. How many understand? Predestination was fore knowing. Before the end, He saw the whole picture, He saw the whole process. Therefore in the mind of God, it was already a finished picture and He would accomplish this by and through the means of Him sending His own Son, His only begotten Son. He had to first be in His mind, once that was in His mind, God delegates that He is going to be the means by how He is going to reconcile and redeem all this sinful state and lift some of us up back out of that, back to Himself through this means. So Jesus had to first be a part of His thoughts. Then you and I had to be a part of that. Then He saw us right on out to the end. “Having made known unto us the mystery of His will.” This was foreordained and prophesied by the prophets of old in the Psalms and all. That is why Paul could say, or express how that God had made known to him the mystery. Then when we take this and go on down through here, notice in this 9th verse, if we are a product of the mystery of His will, then it is according to His good pleasure. In other words, Do not argue with God. Do not argue with God’s faithful servants that proclaim to you what He (God) has purposed to do. He knows what He is doing and He needs no one to correct Him. His ways are perfect.
GOD WORKS ACCORDING TO HIS WILL AND PURPOSE
I am glad that God purposed to take me out of the cornfield, a little old country boy, with a human mind that did not want to get too religious; and bestowed upon me such a wonderful privilege as He has. I have said a thousand times, God forgive me for ever thinking like I did for so many years. He knew my heart better than I did. He knew that I had great respect for the Bible, but was just terribly ignorant about what I had read and heard. I thought, if you got too religious, you might cut off your hand, pluck out your eyes and so forth. That is the way some of those scriptures seemed to portray Christianity, so I just thought it would be better to avoid it. When God did save my soul one day, He put a hunger in my heart and a desire to look at this book and see what it really says. You do not learn it in a day’s time. You just have to realize, He is doing this according to His good pleasure. Notice, He did not sit down and talk it over with a two other gods, the other two of the trinity so many are hung up on. Notice what else it says, “He hath purposed in Himself.” He chose it. He designed it. Do not tell God He needs to change His ways. According to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself, so it is His good pleasure. Cannot God do as He pleases? I am glad when God designed this, He had you and me in mind. In the 11th verse it talks more about Him making the choice. “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him (God) who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.” Follow my expression, before God said Let there be light, to separate the darkness from the light and so on and so forth, God had a plan. In this plan it would be a necessity for Him to bring this earth out of its previous judged state. He did not do all of this, and then, after He got it done, say, Now let me see, what will I use it for? He already had a plan, and for that plan He would need a new earth. He did not make another planet. He brought the earth back out of that judged, chaotic state and put life back on it.
Continued next issue. |
