The Plan of God can be divided into three parts; Salvation, the Christian's life in time, and the eternal state. Each of these
divisions is already examined in detail in other sections on the Beacon site, so I'll concentrate more upon tieing the three
components of God's plan together in this section and leave the visitor to study the individual parts as they may be inclined.
The individual parts;
Salvation
Christian Life
Eternity
Perhaps it is more profitable, in terms of understanding the thrust of God's plan, to first consider the whole of this great
drama of which we are a part, and what role we play in it's consumation;
To do this we must go back to the very beginning, a moment which John so aptly termed "a beginning which was not a beginning".
This sounds like a play on words unless you understand that God is eternal, and has no beginning. But there was a moment
in "eternity past", before the creation of the material universe, when the three Persons of God, The Trinity, adjourned a
meeting, so to speak, to discuss this plan which they desired to implement. Their objective was to share themselves with a
race of creatures of their own design, for the riches of Divine Love are such that they exceed, to an infinite degree,
our concept of happiness and blessing.
I hasten to add that God does not require an object of love, for He is Love. He did not undertake this vast experiment
because He was lonely, or otherwise lacking in anything. In fact, the best word we can use to define God's motive is
"pleasure". It pleases Him to share the unfathomable wealth of His Person with us.
But right off the bat He encountered a problem, or conceived of it. If He created a race of creatures (two races actually...
angelic and human) they would use their volition to fail, and in so doing, they would become corrupted, sinful. Understand
that He could not avoid this inevitablility, in case you may be wondering why He didn't simply program us to be perfect.
You see, He could not create us with less than total, absolute freedom. This would be a violation of His Righteousness and
Justice, for we are made in His image, and that referes to our invisible life force...the soul. As He is free, so we must
be free, and to program us as perfect beings would be a violation of our volition in that we would not be given the
freedom to choose for ourselves.
Please note that there are some differences between the angelic and human destinies, and I allude only to God's plan
as it pertains to us.
So, as humans we tend to question God's modus vivendi, imposing our logical conclusions; such as that which I already mentioned;
Why didn't He just make us perfect and avoid all the turmoil, to which we are witness at this moment? I have already
explained the necessity for our freedom in God's design, but other questions arise.
Why does He allow such violence and suffering? Why does He permit good, upright people to die? And how about the poor,
starving waifs in Africa and elsewhere? Why does He allow injustice to persecute His family on earth? And there are
many other issues which we may or may not ponder from time to time.
There are many, many nuances to the answers for these questions, and good questions they are. But rather than isolate every
possible subtlty, I will explain the overall attitude of God with one word; "Revelation". The Word says, several times, that
God has the power to convert the motives of evil into glory for Himself, or in other words, He "turns the tables" and
causes the outcome of even evil human motives to glorify God in eternity. In this case we are dealing with what we would
call in the human race, an ulterior motive.
Knowing that we would fail, and aware that our free will would surely bring this to pass, He decided to use these seeming
disasterous consequences to accomplish one very important aspect of His plan...revelation of Himself. And what better
means could He utilize?, for that which He wants us to know of Himself involves His boundless Love, which includes the
charactaristics of mercy, compassion, and forgiveness. What better venue could there be to reveal these qualities in
Himself than His dealings with a race of utterly despotic and corrupt creatures?
In spite of our sinfullness, our repungnance by reason of our sins, He provided a means of redemption, which is given
freely to any and all who ask for it. Once again...our volition comes into view...and this one dimension is an undercurrent
which parallels the entire plan of God...our freedom of choice.
Once saved, He gives us eternal life in His presence forever, and we can only understand the magnitude of this blessing
when we are in a resurrection body with a mentality that exceeds the capacity we have now by thousands of times. And
there are countless gracious acts of God in time which sustain and promote us.
Look at the plan of God this way; The Trinty agreed upon a plan of action, and their focus was upon the end result,
what civilization will be after time, in the eternal state, when the tawdry centuries of man's depredations and corruption
are cleansed forever from us and we embark upon the journey which will never end, into the eternal future. This is their
objective.
But on the way to reaching that objective man's will throws a huge rock in the path! So God's plan, so far as
His objective is concerned, is detoured for a period of time called human history. God pauses, as it were, and
attends to the responsibilities and details involved in managing this period, but His eyes are ever upon the
end. He tolerates injustice, evil, violence, corruption, until His plan is complete and the eternal state is
underway. Then, and only then, will He retire forever the issue of sin.
So then, if you want to consider the matter of Divine planning in this vein, the eternal state is the Divine objective,
and the issues of time and salvation only become a necessity when human volition entered into the flow of events.
The matter of revelation has a singular importance to God's plan as a basis for creature love of His Person(s). Such is
the nature of love that we cannot truly love anyone until we know them. Ask anyone who is married! Our loved ones are
total strangers in the beginning, compared to what they become over many years. We may think we love someone when we
marry them, but in fact, our motivation is combination of sexual attraction, some measure of soul rapport and a generous
dose of illusion.
The same goes for our impression of God. Only love based upon Truth, His revelation of Self, is acceptable to Him, and
He has even provided for a higher love, an expanded capacity for creature love, which is the sharing of His own eternal
attribute of Love. This is a supernatural Love, not attainable by any other means than the filling of The Holy Spirit with
a "balance of residency", that being a residual resource of Bible doctrine in our souls. The resultant Love is no less
that Divine, and the attainment of this sublime pinnacle of the spiritual life is called in scripture; "The Friend of God",
and "The Pleroma of God", meaning "the fullness".
In the eternal future, beyond time, all elect creatures will have this Love, but the plan of God wills that each of us
attain this "high ground" in time, and this, in a very brief nutshell, is the overall thrust of His plan for us on this
earth. Those that execute His plan for their lives in time will be given unimaginable treasures in eternity which far
surpass the "standard issue" blessings which all creaturs will have. The first manifestation of those eternal blessings
will be ruling with Christ in the millenium. The "winner" believers who achieve Love for God in time will be sovereigns
over nations in the future.
Theime's Doctrinal Notes: The Plan of God
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