Читать книгу God's Interventions In Secular History - Kenneth B. Alexander BSL JD Deacon - Страница 18

Introduction-Fall of Man

The purpose of this Book is to show how God used aspects of creation to accomplish His will on the earth. God will use anything even if it seems not to be logical. He uses Satan, men, nations, miracles, sinners, prostitutes, wars and just about anything He can lay His hands on all to glorify himself n His creation. He will call men His servants who don’t know Him. He will destroy the love of His life if they disobey Him. All of this he does in the name of love even though it may not seem so at the time. He honors and blesses those that are His. He destroys that which prove themselves not to be His. All his ways are just and righteous. He is our personal Father not some far off God living in a spirit realm we can’t understand. He is omnipresent (everywhere at once), omniscient (knows all) and fills all things. He speaks a Word and it comes to pass. He is always on time (His time) as He rushes to deliver one of His. This book will reveal His ways which are past finding out. He will annihilate His enemies.

God’s greatest intervention history is that He created the vast havens and the earth from nothing visible. He created everything we can see and much we cannot. Man was the jewel of that creation and the earth was His focus. He filled created space and filled it with galaxies and trillions of stars and planets with distances between them to far to contemplate. He filled the microscopic world of quantum mechanics too small to see. He foresaw everything that was ever to exist in this physical realm and spoke it into existence with a word: “let it be”. He carved a section out of eternity, called it time, and included the heavens and the earth. He created all manner of life including man made in His image. His purpose in physical creation was to integrate this physical realm in the likeness of the eternal Spirit realm (heaven if you will) where He lives. One of the few specific prayers He gave man was: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, On earth as it is in heaven” (Mt 6:10).

God began with “the heavens and the earth,” (Gen 1:1) but then chose to the earth, not the heavens, as the theme from which He chose to inhabit man. Having chosen the earth, God now bypasses the angels (fallen angels included) and elects to deal with man. Man is first created below the angels with the expectation that he will rule angels and will in fact rule all of His creation. From Adam’s many sons, God chooses Seth (4:25). Of Seth’s many descendants (Gen. 5), God chooses Noah (6:8), and from Noah’s family, He chooses Shem (11:10), Terah (11:27), and finally Abraham (12:1). Abraham has many children, but Isaac is the chosen seed (21:12). Isaac has two sons, Jacob and Esau, and God chooses Jacob to be the recipient of His blessing. He chooses His younger Son Joseph to save a world from starvation. (Wiersbe, Warren W.: Wiersbe's Expository Outlines on the Old Testament).

God left the remainder of the heavens to the other nations of the earth (Deut 4:15). Most ancient civilizations worshipped Satan through the heavens or the pagan gods associated with them (Sumeria, Babylon, Canaanites, Chaldeans, Medes and Persians, Grecians, Macedonians, Asiatic nations, Native Americans, Romans and countless others. God made this clear in Deuteronomy: So watch yourselves…”so that you do not act corruptly and make a graven image for yourselves in the form of any figure, the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the sky, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water below the earth. “And beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, and be drawn away and worship them and serve them, THOSE WHICH THE LORD YOUR GOD HAS ALLOTTED TO ALL THE PEOPLES UNDER THE WHOLE HEAVEN” (Dt 4:15-19). His intention for the heavens were for planting, keeping time and navigation and looking up to see the glory of God.

Man asks the eternal question “Why are we here?”. He searches the earth, the vast heavens and the minute quantum realm seeking answers to this question. He asks “Are we alone in the universe?” and searches for alien beings and misses what is right infront of his nose. He asks “What was before our beginning 13.7 billion years ago?”. “How did life begin?” The deeper he searches the more questions he uncovers but no answers. Man does not comprehend the basic truth that: “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and HIS WAYS PAST FINDING OUT!” (Ro 11:33-34). Only the Son known the Father who is the creator of all things and those whom the Son chooses to reveal Him (Luke 10:22). Man and all his efforts to know God, without accepting the Son, are utterly useless and futile. The human mind, no matter how intelligent, can never know God and the mind is actually hostile to God because it does not think His thoughts (Romans 8:7). Only those with the mind of Christ will know the truth (1 Co 2:16).

Why are we really here? The answer is that we are responsible for converting the earth into a place that mirrors the spirit world (heaven if you wish). He didn’t make it an easy task. He placed Satan “the adversary, [Peter 5:8] and the accuser” [Rev 12:10] directly in man’s path to challenge him every minute of every day. Jesus defeated Satan through His death and resurrection. But it remains for mankind to make what Christ accomplished on the cross a reality in the earth. Adam and Eve were created into an atmosphere of perfection but they lost it by disobedience to God. However God created a path back to a perfect world and we know the end from the beginning. “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, [from Eden[ who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;… When the thousand years are completed… the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Rev 20).

So God had a plan for the redemption of mankind and he works toward that plan every day. God uses man/women to accomplish this plan. However He intervenes in the affairs of mankind when He finds it necessary. He uses what we call miracles, He uses Satan, He uses nations hostile to Him, He uses men of God (prophets and Kings), He uses secular leaders and all the tools in his arsenal when there is a need. But he does not come down soveringly to do the job delegated to mankind with his invisible hand always in the background. That is primarily the function of this Book, to show how God intervenes in history to accomplish His will. His workings on earth are more of a nudge in the right direction as He accomplishes full redemption for His people.

When considering God and His plan for mankind after man’s fall from the Garden of Eden we must view secular and religious history in a completely new light. After the fall of man from Paradise in the Garden of Eden He, of necessity, subjected all of creation to a curse of futility. “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but  because of Him who subjected it, in hope” (Rom 8:20). We continue to live in that futility today but with hope that: “ …that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body” (Rom 8:21-23).

The curse on planet earth will be defeated. We are deeper into the days of His Kingdom than even we ourselves realize. The sons of God have journeyed through the work of the cross and the baptism of fire on their way to the manifestation of authority. They have learned not to stop at merely identifying with Christ’s experience; they have learned the necessity of being identical participators with Him in His experiences. Because of this, man is able, with faith, to accept their progressive manifestation as Sons who possess His nature and all that goes with it. The curse on creation was imposed with the fall of man. Now with the coming of the manifestation of the sons of God, the curse will be lifted from creation. The eternal purpose of God is being worked out through His sons that are coming forth. Theirs is the destiny to see principalities and powers brought down, creation released from futility, and Satan crushed under their feet.

God’s original plan was quite different. He wanted to create mature Sons like Christ but man was to proceed along another track to perfection. God’s original plan for man was that is he was to grow and flourish in a perfected state in a perfect world. Remember when God looked at creation on the 7th day after He had finished His work he made the following comment as to creation: “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very  good” (Gen 1:31). Original creation, the creation in which he set Adam and Eve, was perfect in every way. There was no sin; there was no offense. God intended to build upon this perfection using the perfect human beings that were the capstone of his creation.

However when man, who he had been left in charge of this perfect world, sinned by disobedience he was faced with a decision. Either destroy all he had worked for or provide a way out for man to be able to return to the perfect land. Therefore cursed the serpent (Satan) and left open the possibility of another outcome by giving His creation the ability to choose God with their free will. When man chose disobedience over obedience God realized that the forces released by that decision could no longer exist in His perfect world; otherwise man would live eternally in a sinful state. He realized that if this occurred He would have no choice but to destroy the entire creation. As God put it: “Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” [meaning evil would live forever]—therefore the Lord God sent man out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life” (Gen 3:22-24). Instead of destroying man, His mercy gave him another chance and set about to redeem him from the jaws of evil. But in the meantime He put man out of the Garden and into a world of futility to put limitations and controls over him until the coming of the Messiah.

He subjected creation to futility but in hope that, through that futile creation, He could still work His will which was ultimately the perfection of man and creation. Romans 8:20-22 states: “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now”. God confirmed this by what he said to the serpent in the Garden. I will put “ENMITY Between you [Satan] and the woman [Israel or Mary], And between your [Satan’s seed] and her [the woman’s seed Christ]. He [Christ] shall bruise [crush] you on the head, And you [Satan] shall bruise him on the heel” (Gen 3:15). Therefore God, at the point of Creation, prophesied the defeat of Satan through the seed of the woman—Christ.

Enmity is positive, active, and typically mutual hatred or ill will-- syn enmity, hostility, antipathy, antagonism, animosity, rancor, animus meaning deep-seated dislike or ill will. enmity suggests positive hatred which may be open or concealed 〈an unspoken enmity) (Merriam-Webster, Inc: Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Eleventh ed. Springfield, Mass. Merriam-Webster, Inc., 2003). Through this enmity God promises the demise of Satan by being crushed by the seed of the woman-- Christ. Satan will put up a fight but will render a non fatal blow to Christ by biting His heel. So when God speaks of a creation it is subjected to futility but in hope this hope, expressed in Genesis.

Futility was God’s way of tempering the evil that could otherwise be generated by a creation who would live forever in sin. He introduced death, limiting man’s lifetime and his ability to live forever in sin. He limited man in his evil endeavors by not allowing him to realize his dreams and aspirations connected with evil. So God, by making everything futile, had to rework His original plan and accomplish it through a creation ruled by principles of good and evil that Adam and Eve had unleashed by their disobedience. In His great omnipotence he chose to complete His plan through the same fragile instruments who caused the problem in the first place--man. He had to, in a sense, recreate mankind in the form of Sons of God who would themselves release creation from this divinely imposed futile state into a state of perfection and fulfillment He called it the Kingdom of God. So for the past eons this has been, and still is His purpose. How He has set about to complete it, through the maze of Satanically imposed evil, is a fascinating journey we will address here.

Following the Garden, God set about to create a nation on the earth who would not be subject to the perversion around them. He set about creating a people who were His own, different from all other nations and religions on the earth and for that matter that universe. This nation would eventually become Israel (meaning “struggle with God”) and He would use them to restore Earth to a state of Perfection through great adversary and suffering. They would defeat the ”adversary” (Satan) and create the atmosphere for the return of Jesus Christ, the Lord and Messiah. God the father Himself would send His precious Son to earth to forgive the sins of his people and destroy the works of the devil. You may call this the long way around because a simple act of obedience in the garden would have made all this unnecessary but God in His infinite love, mercy and righteousness had a plan to bring man into a Paradise, despite what happened in Eden and called it the Kingdom of God.