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  • God Stopped Eternity...

    God Stopped Eternity There is no time in eternity. It is an eternal, unchanging state where there are no intervals, no succession of moments. The essence of eternity is that all things are present simultaneously. Eternity is the complete, simultaneous and perfect possession of everlasting life, meaning that in eternity every experience is fully present at once. However, eternity is not static. It is timeless perfection in God. Eternity is not merely an endless extension of time described as sempiternity, a perpetual property, but rather a state of timelessness. Eternity is “the complete, simultaneous and perfect possession of everlasting life,” meaning that unlike our sequential, ever- changing experience of time, eternity is a unified “now” where past, present, and future are all present at once. This timelessness is associated with the divine. And with that said, our prayer now is to come to reason with God in the highest level of understanding that we are afforded. Let’s reason: Jesus is understood to be not only the path to eternal life but as the very embodiment of that life. Everlasting life isn’t simply a future promise after death – in Christ it’s a present, transformative reality that begins when one enters into a relationship with Him. Jesus declares, “I am the resurrection and the life,” indicating that through Him believers experience life beyond physical death. He defines eternal life as “knowing the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom He have sent,” highlighting that eternal life is about an intimate, ongoing relationship with God. Jesus isn’t just a mediator for us now; He is the very reality of everlasting life. His life, death, and resurrection restore our broken relationship with God and empower us to live in the light of His eternal kingdom right now. Can we reason that “eternity” and “time” are both filled with every eventful moment possible - past, present, and future are in a present actual continuation of existence “all at once?” Having been created in the very image of God, with the possibility of eternal life, our existence wasn’t limited to a fleeting present; rather, our entire life, with its many temporal parts, was laid out in a dimensional spacetime. In this sense, existence is both “in time”, since events are ordered by temporal relations, in tme and “eternal”, since all those moments exist equally, regardless of their “presentness” for us. In this understanding there can be reality outside the present moment. God’s knowledge and being are “eternal” while still engaging with temporal creation. And because of that “image” the eternal is realized in our lived, temporal present. The power of the presence of God where there is nothing of sin invites us to consider that the ultimate reality may not be a flowing sequence of events but an eternal state in which all events are interrelated, transcending our ordinary temporal experience. Here is where only God can move our minds; under the aspect of eternity, we are given a vision perspective to understand a vast, unified whole beyond the transient concerns of existence. Eternity’s reality to us today remains something of a mystery - a profound ground of being that underpins and transcends our every moment experience. It challenges us to ask whether our most deeply held notions of time, change, and existence are limited by our perspective, and whether the true nature of reality might be found in a realm where time, as we know it, simply does not apply. We will come to learn that eternity isn’t just a measure of endless time - it’s a journey into the timeless truths that shape who we are and what we can become. As we learn of eternity, we explore concepts that go beyond our everyday moments: questions of purpose, the nature of the soul, and our destiny in a reality that transcends the temporal. We will possess such an attainment of spiritual insight the decisions we make now can echo into eternity. Eternity deepens every dimension of life. Growth and change is not sequential, but constant always. Advancement in an eternal realm might be understood as the continuous unfolding or deepening of an inner perfection that is already complete. That is, while there’s no temporal change, there can be an experiential or qualitative enrichment - a kind of “growth” that isn’t image by Unsplash measured by change over time but by the fullness of being. We redefine advancement as the realization of complete, eternal perfection, then “growth” in eternity becomes a different kind of process; one that is not temporal but reflective of an ever-deepening awareness or perfection that is already fully present. A mystery ever beyond human understanding is the core mystery of the doctrine of the Triune relationship. Truth teaches that there is one God in essence, one divine substance or nature, and that God exists eternally in three distinct persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We can reason this considering the One Essence of which God is - the single, unified divine nature. This means that God is not divided; He is one in His being. Three Persons in context denotes distinct centers of consciousness or relational identity. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct in how they relate to each other and to creation, yet they share the same divine essence completely and perfectly. These are not three Gods: but rather one God who has a threefold personal existence. The relationships within the Triune, the Father sending the Son, the Son offering redemption, the Spirit sanctifying, highlight different roles and relationships without compromising the unity of God’s nature. A truth mystery of the wonder of faith. The doctrine of the Triune is ultimately considered a divine mystery that goes beyond human logic and fully comprehensible explanation. It is accepted by faith as a revealed truth about the nature of God.God the Son has always been the Son - eternally begotten of the Father, not created - and the Holy Spirit is the power, presence, and love of God who proceeds “from the Father and through the Son” to work in the people of God. So, although God is One in His divine nature, the eternal relationships within the Godhead reveal three distinct persons who are co-equal and co- eternal. The distinctions are relational rather than in the divine substance: the Father is the source; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; and the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. This formulation preserves both the unity of God and the reality of the three Persons who relate to one another in love and communion. In short, the “coming forth” of the Son and the Holy Spirit does not imply that they are separate or created gods, but that the one divine essence is expressed relationally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit - a mystery that, while ultimately beyond full human comprehension, is revealed in scripture. Begotten of God expresses that the Son is eternally generated from the Father - sharing exactly the same divine nature and substance. There was never a time when the Son did not exist; His Being is a timeless, spiritual act that reveals the unique, eternal relationship within the Godhead. This does not mean that the Father and the Son are the same person - instead, they are distinct persons who nevertheless share one undivided, singular divine nature. This doctrine was established to affirm the full divinity of Jesus. Thus, when we say the Son is the very essence of the Father, we are expressing that in His divine nature, Jesus is completely and entirely God, just as the Father is, even though they are distinct as persons. Eternal generation is that power of love whereby God the Father eternally begets the Son. This isn’t a temporal event but an eternal, unchanging relationship within the one divine essence having no beginning…no ending. And thusly, the eternal procession where similarly, the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds from the Father, expressing an unending outpouring of divine life. Preceding every particular event and time is God’s existence. Incomprehensive of any temporal sequences exceeding the full grasp of human reason. The totality of God’s infinite and transcendent nature remains beyond complete human understanding. Our finite minds can catch glimpses of the divine through analogies, symbols, and partial revelations, but the fullness of God’s essence - His omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, and mystery - is ultimately ineffable. We can reason divine truth but will fall short of encapsulating the entire mystery of the Godhead. And even so does the word of God invite believers to embrace both the revealed knowledge and the mystery, trusting that the divine reality, though partially knowable, is inherently and wonderfully beyond the confines of human comprehension. How did the bible writers, both of the old testament and the new testament tell others about Jesus? Most of the writers never had direct personal interaction with Christ. Those who did receive the blessing of abiding in his presence, were not of the faith to present his testimony in the light of the truth that he lived until the Holy Spirit brought inspiration to their lives. John, the hearer who revealed the words, the thoughts, the scenes, the purposes, the times related both to prophecies and eternity, that God purposedly called him up to heaven to write for our understanding of things to shortly come, admonishes God’s people to write, that their personal understanding of God’s working His will in their lives through the indwelling Holy Spirit by the commonness of life shared with Jesus can witness to those who choose to read that a glimpse into the mystery of how the word of God affects His people. So, God gives us time...to think about eternity. So, let this be said here for those of us who by faith, and that means the faith of Jesus, have a somewhat knowledge of things existing in the Determinate Counsel. Before creation, God in His sovereign wisdom and foreknowledge convened a divine “council” in which He determined that humanity would fall into sin and that redemption would be provided through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ. This affirms that Jesus’ crucifixion was not a tragic accident or a mere human conspiracy - it was the fulfillment of an eternal plan. Before this plan was “established” in time, God had already foreordained every detail necessary for our salvation, ensuring that even events like the cross were part of His divinely orchestrated design. That implies eyes capable of envisioning eternity past...eternity future, we might say even while understanding that in eternity there is no past, no future. Life in eternity is usually considered a future experience. However, truth emphasizes eternal life as a "present possession" existing outside of time. Eternity in the past and eternity in the future...in eternity past God planned and purposed, and in eternity future everything will have been accomplished. When does God accomplish His work, then? Between the two sections of eternity is the bridge of time, and it is here that God accomplishes all that He wants to accomplish. Again, so, God gives us time. And does that mean that eternity is waiting for us sometime in the future? And because eternity is always in the present tense, God gave us time to understand things that must be resolved before moving forward. Because our being was created in the first of time, we are temporal beings. And because we were created in the image of God, we are likewise touched with eternity. And so, we are in the now, yet able to consider a past and a future. All peoples are eternal...that is we all were in the mind of God. But time, that event created to deal with sin, will determine who among us will continue into eternity. The purpose of God stands. There is in this a great mystery. Spirits return to God indicating eternality. The mystery is that of godliness. For it is only in Christ that the body changed can enter into the kingdom of God. What can the almighty power of God not effect? He will change faithful sleeping and the living that will not die. Because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. This is the mystery. This is the reason why we need to think intentionally about eternity. And because we do reason the truth, we are able to give correct answers to those who ask us about it more than when we are not being mindful about it. But whether we intentionally think about it or not, we naturally will have to think about it even without being mindful about it, just because our very nature knows about eternity past and eternity future. We are yet to see the complete beauty of God’s providence. Faith tells us of the wonder of eternity. The bible says we must wait with patience for the full discovery of that which to us seems intricate and perplexed, acknowledging that we cannot find out the work that God makes from the beginning to the end. We are in the midst of God’s counsel...we are in time. The veil will be rent soon and time will be no more. God has a people who are spiritual beings. This will be our powerful witness in these final days. It is our greatest testimony that we are but spiritual beings, longing for that eternity future with Christ. This idea, which expresses the essence of the body under the form of eternity, is, as we have said, a certain mode of thinking, which belongs to the essence of the mind, and is necessarily eternal. Yet it is not possible that we should remember that we existed before our body, for our body can bear no trace of such existence, neither can eternity be defined in terms of time, or have any relation to time. But, notwithstanding, we feel and know that we are eternal...existing in the mind of God from the beginning. For the mind feels those things that it conceives by understanding, no less than those things that it remembers. For the eyes of the mind, whereby it sees and observes things, are none other than proofs. Thus, although we do not remember that we existed before the body, yet we feel that our mind, in so far as it involves the essence of the body, under the form of eternity, is eternal, and that thus its existence cannot be defined in terms of time, or explained through duration. Thus our mind can only be said to endure, and its existence can the womb only be defined by a fixed time, in so far as it involves the actual existence of the body. Thus far only has it the power of determining the existence of things by time, and conceiving them under the category of duration. The power of the mind of eternity tells us that God knew us before the womb. He wrote our members in a book. Purposed before the womb to call those whom would be His servants, predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, to be holy, without blame before Him in love. This from dust called forth in the beginning. If you are reading this, you were made for the last days. Our mind, in so far as it knows itself and the body under the form of eternity, has to that extent necessarily a knowledge of God, and knows that it is in God, and is conceived through God. The reality of eternity is in God. We are living out events that are already finished in eternity. There is no rebellion against God; there is no question of God’s sovereignty, power, dominion, rulership, or His love. It is all settled, complete, final. All that John sees and hears in the transport to heaven is done from God’s perspective. The bible speaks of us who love Jesus and trust in Him here on earth, it describes the finality of our existence in terms of the eternal duration of eternity: we are already there as citizens, united in heaven, and our place is reserved in eternity. These terms describe us already in that eternal domain, while we live out our temporal lives here on earth. With this faith in every word of God, may this writing set forth our touching the mind's power over the emotions and the mind's freedom. Now to us let it appear how potent is the wise man, and how much he surpasses the ignorant man, who is driven only by his envying. For the ignorant man is not only distracted in various ways by external causes without ever gaining, the true acquiescence of his spirit, but moreover lives, as it were unwitting of himself, and of God, and of things, and as soon as he ceases to suffer, ceases also to be. He has no thought of eternal things. Whereas the wise man, in so far as he is regarded as being wise, is not disturbed in spirit, but, being conscious of himself, and of God, and of things, by a certain eternal necessity, never ceases to be, but always possesses true acceptance of his spirit. Eternity involves judgment. Not just the contemplation of it, but the discernment necessary to understand the standards of separation principled by God in Christ. Therefore, even if we cannot be sure of how eternity exactly looks for our life from where we stand, step by step we can be sure that the intended way to live would be a step-by-step choice to choose God’s way above our own, laying down our natural inclinations in exchange for His - this is to be our daily spiritual act of worship. The tension of living for eternity in mind continues as we persevere knowing that it is God who guides and directs our steps. God grants us the grace to construct this vision of eternity. God stopped eternity for the beauty of allowing His people to witness the beginning of eternity again and to involve us in it. This time with higher understanding. With love. And not in His determination, but in His presence. So, in our day we see more how God has made all things beautiful in its time. This earth is but a cemetery. Time will cease. But it is beautiful, as in it, God reveals His mind in time. History consists of all the generations of men and their experiences fused into a whole. This concentrated time in which all the generations of man are fused and from which all things come is called eternity paused. It is a complete compression of every conceivable thing that man could ever do, all in just one compressed section of time. The old testament is that block of beginning whereby the wise begin to understand. Every frightening thing in the world is openly described in the bible. There isn’t a crime that we read or hear about in the media, not a war, that isn’t openly described in the bible. Talk about rubbing out a whole race, that’s described in the bible; a whole country, that’s described in the bible, a people set apart to sound a trumpet of warning for the whole world, that’s described in the bible. Eternity exists, and all things in eternity, independent of creation which was an act of mercy. We do realize that revelation means something was hidden, right? So, the word of God tells us that we must be waiting for something, that was concealed. God gave us grace that we might search and inquire about our salvation. This - why the reference to the old testament as that block. The prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be ours searched and inquired about this salvation. They inquired what person or time was indicated by the spirit of Christ within them, and to be in us, when predicting the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glory. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves but us. All these characters of the old testament were all in us. They were serving not themselves; they were serving us. They were writing for our admonition for when the fullness of time arrived. They asked, “what person or time was indicated by the spirit of Christ within them when prophesying this state? We are in the fullness of time. Now can be revealed which was hidden in the minds of man. Here is what is hidden. Jesus Christ as the personification of God; seen as the glory of God. Now, think of humanity, God’s love, and who personifies humanity...this same Jesus. When we his humanity, God’s love, God’s beloved – we see his love with mankind, with humanity. This is eternity personified reflected in Jesus. Take the block and fragment it. God has hidden eternity in the mind of man. Christ in man is the hope of glory. There is to be the unveiling of God, an act of God in self-revealing: He unveils Himself in us as us. God sets up events in time to reveal Himself in His people. He is revealing eternity, and this takes time. Now the time will fulfill itself in that too. All things take time. Time is a facility for change in experience; space is a facility for experience. This is necessary because the day will come when we will be called to testify to the truth of God’s word. That’s all that we are going to testify to: it is truth. We will have the experience. We will go into the world and testify to the truth of his word. The contemplation of God eternally is incomprehensible. We are from the beginning lost in the wonder of His infinite greatness. When we turn our thoughts to God’s eternity, His immateriality, His almightiness, His absolute sovereignty, our minds are overwhelmed. While incomprehensible in His totality, God has not left us completely in the dark, but revealed certain truths about Himself in His Word. These truths should teach us humility, caution, and reverence. God is all-sufficient in Himself and to Himself. He can receive nothing from another nor be limited by the power of another. There was nothing before God. It is He who created eternity. God is before “beginning”. But God wants His people to reverently inquire with prayerful strivings to apprehend what He has so graciously revealed of Himself in His Word. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued, investigation of the subject of the Deity. The most excellent study for expanding the soul is the science of Christ and Him crucified and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Triune. The fitting study of the believer is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can engage the attention of a child of God is the word, the name, the nature, the person, the doings, and the existence of the great God which we call our Father. There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep, that our pride is drowned in its infinity. If we could only come to a right reasoning first among ourselves and then approaching by invitation unto God, He would give us a true report of Himself, but not a full. We could then secure ourselves from error and from ignorance. We could think on the perfections we discover of His Being. Then, all our thoughts can be attributed to Him. There is a difference indeed that is great between the knowledge of God which we may have in this life and that which we shall have in Heaven, yet, we should not undervalue what we learn here even in its imperfection. We, by faith magnify nothing above its reality. Though we will be like Christ, we will be glorified, not made Divine. In the heavenness of the new creation we will see God with the eye of the spiritual mind, for He will be always invisible to the bodily eye. We will see Him more clearly than we could see Him by reason and faith, and more extensively than all His works and dispensations have so far revealed Him. Though forever learning, forever attaining, our minds will not be so enlarged as to be capable of contemplating at once, or in detail, the whole excellence of God’s nature. To comprehend infinite perfection, we must become infinite ourselves. Even in Heaven, our knowledge will be ever growing but partial, but at the same time our happiness will be complete, because our knowledge will be perfect in this sense, that it will be adequate to the capacity of the subject, although it will not exhaust the fullness of the object. We believe that it will be progressive, and that as our views expand, our blessedness will increase. But it will never reach a limit beyond which there is nothing to be discovered, and when ages after ages have passed away, He will still be the incomprehensible God. Consider this viewpoint if you proceed to hear this...God could have dealt with sin in eternity destructively from the beginning. He stopped eternity and brought forth time. Yet it was not in order to supply a lack, but that He might communicate life and happiness to angels and men, and admit us to the vision of His glory. We are to see a glimpse of the perfectness of His love – God commands the faithfulness and services of His intelligent creatures, yet He   derives no benefit from our offices; all the advantage redounds to ourselves. God makes use of means and instruments to accomplish His ends, not from a deficiency of power, but to more strikingly display His power through the feebleness of the instruments - us. No dominion is so absolute as that which is founded on creation. He who might not have made anything, had a right to make all things according to His own pleasure. God's nature and existence aren’t contingent upon His acts of creation. In other words, God is defined by His own self-existent, being of and from Himself, aseity, not by what He has made. God is the uncaused, eternal Being. He is the “I Am” regardless of whether creation exists or not. God is God even if he had not created anything underscores that God’s essence is self-sufficient and not dependent on the created order for His existence. Even if nothing existed except God, He would still be God because His identity isn’t derived from creation—it comes from Himself. God with eternity, and eternity with timelessness, is the essence of spiritual life. God made man, and to these He added in man the gift of reason, and an immortal spirit, by which we are connected to a higher order of beings who are placed in the loftier regions of creation. God chose the path of love to demonstrate His wisdom, His power to overcome the one-time only contempt for His Godship. Eternity is vastly grander compared to time. God’s placement of human beings within time is generous. It is necessary for preparation. Fortunately, the believers’ concept of God as triune commends the divine becoming through time, for our advantage. What was it that made the fall of the rebellious angels so devastatingly harrowing to them...they resigned themselves to be in the deep for all eternity. They had no knowledge of the concept of time. But that would mean that the darkness brought into the light of eternity with God for the unfallen would forever be a contamination to the wellness of the accord of creation. The triune view that God is three persons united through love can now be revealed which demands divine eternality. There is now distinction between His attributes and His essences of divine simplicity. Relationality relies on change for its content. The divine attributes of God Himself was to show in the humanity of His Son and those same attributes and essence had to be impersoned in the Holy Spirit as the only Person of the three which could be holy and dwell in all humanity without ending life. So, for the gift of God, eternal life, to be bestowed to humanity two unknown dimensions had to be brought forth...time and space. We needed a continuum special construct that is measured in terms of events which succeed one another from past through present to future with probational limits. This was needed that we might experience a type of oneness with God. Eternity had to be stopped. A merely human Jesus could not save us. Because today will never come again, we make precious our time with Christ. It is the key by which we can realize life, and answer the call to a higher possibility. For God to be internally related, God must be internally timeful. Moreover, to assert that the triune persons relate through time places a high value on human relationships. Created in the image of God, we are called to create ever-closer community through time. This effort sanctifies time, rendering kairos of chronos. Kairos is the experience of time as sacred, whereas chronos is the experience of time as purposeless. For the three persons of the triune, all time is kairos. For us, every moment contains the potential for kairos because God sustains the universe continually. Through faith, the moment by moment progression of time can become the grace by grace gift of God. Will this be the transformation of time in eternity? Man was not spoken into being. We were created for growth. Every living thing brought forth in the concept of time and space has the ability to recreate its likeness. And this mystery is that power contained in life, and that life is that spirit of God, breathed into man that returns to God in the occasion of death. That spirit breathed into man was a crucial point in creation that would instill in man God admiring thoughts. This, that worship may be the act of understanding essentially who God is. Worship is an act of understanding, applying itself to the knowledge of the excellency of God, and actual thought of His majesty, recognizing Him as the supreme and sovereign lord of the creation, and beholding the glory of His attributes in the Redeemer, Jesus Christ, His Son. In truth we cannot comprehend eternity, yet we may comprehend that there is eternity; as though we cannot comprehend the essence of God, what He is, yet we may comprehend that He is as we see Jesus. Though the eternity of God be one permanent state without succession, yet the Spirit of God, suiting Himself to the weakness of our conception, divides it into two parts, one past before the foundation of the world, another to come after the destruction of the world. God’s eternity means in particular the eternal life promised to those who are in Christ. God’s eternity is “His own” eternity; God has life in Himself, by His essence. And in that God is without beginning and the essence of this is the unchangeable resolve of God to save man. The gospel is not preached by the command of a new and temporary God, but of that God that was before all ages. Though the manifestation of it be in time, yet the purpose and resolve of it was from eternity. Christ is God because eternity is an attribute of God that is clearly ascribed to Christ as he is before all things, and by him all things consist. This truth goes forth in Christ’s promise to believers. Christ’s eternity is an eternity of “actual possession” not merely “of decree.” This applies both to His glory and His preexistence. Christ speaks of a glory that he had “with the Father before the world was”, when there was no creature being; this is an actual glory, and not only in decree; for a decreed glory every believer has, and why may not every one of us say the same words, if it were only a glory in decree? It cannot be said of any man that he was before the world was. Christ speaks of something peculiar to him, a glory of actual possession before the world was. The eternity of Christ is clearly of fundamental importance to our faith. There is no hope for sinners such as us without it. Why would eternity need to be halted? God has perfect wisdom deriving from a perfect foreknowledge. If God is in heaven and we are on earth, then God is elsewhere. If God is in eternity and we are in time and space, then God is elsewhen. But God stopped eternity that His Son may occupy time and space with us that we might know God and worship God in truth and in Spirit and attain life eternal. Love cannot express itself without an object. All love is love of; hence all love is relational. God is persons united by love. In time and space God can be with us here and now though not limited to here and now. God’s character never changes. But God’s character expresses itself in different ways due to the change that time required. Time is a creation of God. And time is relevant to prophecies. Time and prophecies will end. This speaks to why God stopped eternity. He takes sin very seriously. He takes sin so seriously in fact, that in the fulness of time He sent a Savior for us. Eternity is an interesting subject. What does it have to do with God’s relationship with time? Eternity is “a time” with God. For God is the beginning and the ending. And eternity is like a rope with one end. There was a law in heaven in the government of God. Could God have done in eternity unbounded what He does in time limited? Immateriality is a quality of state that can lack a relation between something and matter. This is how after the change of body of Jesus at the resurrection he was able to appear in the midst, the doors being shut. This we know – sin can exist in eternity. Choice can exist in eternity. Suffering could exist in eternity. The wage of breaking the law is death. But could death exist in eternity? That would imply “an end”. God had to deal with the results of sin that started in eternity. God had to stop eternity and bring forth time and space to fulfill His determined purposed plan. The punishment of the wicked is not endless. That signals that God’s entire plan for creation is based in His universal love that is unconditional and directed at all of existence and transcending the boundaries of having a subject. That should give us something more to think on. Let’s say time for an individual is the space between birth and death. Time described by God is from the moment His word says, “let there be light” and “I make all things new”. But God created us in His image. We are eternal beings. We are beings who pass through a mortal existence while we are becoming what we were meant to be. This is both a reality and a source of sorrow. For not all beings will pass through. But Christ is purposed to bring us home with him for all eternity. He has experienced mortality. And so, if we have the mind of Christ we learn to think in terms of eternity rather than just time. Until we step into eternity our God’s divine providence must be our path in faith. Death is relational with time. And in time death spreads to all mankind because of sin. The gospel revolves around the life, the death, the majesty of Jesus. The apex of his ministry and of his life was that he died. That was the apex of his achievement. The resurrection was absolutely essential, absolutely glorious, and confirmatory of the apex of what he achieved in dying. We have this faith...Christ died. There is no one to whom the gospel message is irrelevant. All meagerness should be ignored. There is something so massive that our attention must be set on. The great central truth of the gospel, that God sent His Son into the world to die and rise again, to overcome the problem of death. God uses the reason for death, sin, to focus our hope on heaven. Death has a way of keeping us from putting any hope in this world. Seeing the loss of life can help transform the character. God’s foreknowledge is just that. There is nothing that God does not know. Death, that strange act foreknown by God to come, however was not part of God’s plan...time was. Eternity had to be stopped to ensure the continuing of eternity. Heaven is not God’s ultimate destination for us. If the bible is the revelation of truth, we look forward to living on a new earth, in a new creation and dwelling with God. But we must deal with the reality of the Genesis account. God made man a combination of spirit and flesh with the intentions of man living in a physical state upon the earth forever! Death only came about as the result of sin. And death in the bible is never extinction; it is always separation.God's purpose for saving us is to restore us to His original plan, fulfilling His purpose which was before sin. This purpose is based on His hidden plan from eternity past, and includes: cleansing us from our sins, bestowing God Himself in Christ as the Spirit into us, revealing and magnifying his glory showing his goodness to the world, teaching us about his mercy and encouraging us to be workers of righteousness. All creation learns there is no sum total to His divine perfections, His attributes, His intrinsic glory. Where God’s timing is perfect, His eternity is set in our heart that none can find out the work of God from beginning to end. We have a God who sees all time, and sees our circumstances in the forever continuing context of all of eternity. That sin and suffering and hurt and pain and despair, and even the meaninglessness, the struggles and toils that we experience in this world, that they will not have the last word. Why? Because God, the Lord over time, has come to us in the person of Jesus. He has lived the life we couldn’t live. He’s died the death we deserve to die, on a cross, and he has conquered the enemy we could not conquer, death itself. He has risen from the grave. He has ascended on high, and he is bringing all who trust in him to be with him for all of eternity. What a picture, that God has put in all of us a sense that this world is not all there is, that there is more beyond what we see, both in the past and in the present, that lasts for all eternity. We are not complete in our understanding by the fact that we are constrained in time. Every aspect of our being is ordered by time, so it is a task to rationalize anything outside of time. In the same way, it is challenging to imagine anything outside of our physical universe, because we have no rational context into which it can fit. It is not a vacuum, because a vacuum is still a function of matter and energy, time and space. It has to be something totally different than anything from our physical and temporal existence. It is eternity. In each of us, there is a part that seems to know that there is something “out beyond” – a realm we cannot directly access, but a realm that can still touch us. The bible is a message from one who dwells there, as incomprehensible as eternity itself, but none-the-less real and significant in our lives. We were created for eternity, yet fell from eternity and became bound in time. But God stopped the eternity we were to dwell in and reached into time from eternity, touched us and is drawing us back. God Himself paid the price to bring us ever forward into eternity. We see that even though eternity exists outside of time, it permeates all of time. Time may be thought of as a subset of eternity. This concept helps us understand God’s ability to operate in and out of time, His ability to be everywhere all at once. God can place His finger into time at any point and turn the flow of history in the direction He has purposed from eternity. He can permeate all of time and all of the universe at once. Stopping eternity was not a random act by God. The determinate counsel has all the wisdom, all the understanding, every insight, the deepest penetration, the holiest of judgment, the experience of things created...everything. God is not constrained to effect His will only sequentially in time, thus He is able to deal with our free will and still ensure that His plan unfolds as He has purposed. He can see our every future acts as clearly as He can see our past acts. God is so God that He knows not only everything we do, He knew everything that everything would do, including every consequence ever before there was anything created. And He can reach into what we consider our past and tweak what we call our history to bring us to the point of decision we reach today or tomorrow, building the sequence of events in our past that will allow us to see His best for us today. He is able to bring us to a point where we agree with His will for ourselves and freely make decisions in keeping with that agreement. He is sovereign – yet we are free to act as we see fit. Predestination and free will need not be in conflict! Long ago, even before He made the world, God chose us to be His very own through what Christ would do for us...His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into His family by sending Jesus Christ to die for us. One day very very soon God will gather everyone who's put their full faith in Him, and we will live together with Him in the new heaven and new earth. Life here on earth is preparation for eternity. The bible says that God has “set the world in our heart”. That means we were made to last forever. We were made for eternity. To be ready to stand for God, the first thing we need to do is understand the purpose of our life. God made us to be part of His family. He made us so He could have a relationship with us - to love us and to be loved in return. But there’s only one way to become part of God’s family: through faith in Jesus Christ. Not only does God want us to be part of His family but he also wants us to spend eternity with Him. This is His purpose: that when the time is ripe He will gather us all together...to be with Him in Christ forever. History is moving to its climax. The time given to us in this life is a time of opportunity for us to prepare for the eternal kingdom of heaven. We should find the meaning and the purpose of our life in service to others in this world and go back together with many people to the kingdom of heaven which God has prepared for us. Living by faith must be our purpose. Having a sure faith and living in obedience to the pleasing will of God...that is our life of faith. We will willingly endure hardships and persecutions. We diligently walk the path of faith knowing there are much severer trials to come than our ancestors of faith endured...having the assurance that nothing would be able to separate us from the love of Christ. Nothing will persuade us to deny Jesus Christ. We are now preparing ourselves for glory. We should wholeheartedly give thanks to our Elohim, for calling us into the truth and giving us the hope and joy of eternity with Him. We are to thoroughly preach the everlasting gospel diligently, keeping God’s commandments faithfully, and achieving beautiful unity among us, brothers and sisters of Zion, according to the teaching of the bible which is a spiritual preparation for our fulfilling our purpose and completing our journey. God stopped eternity for our preparation. He determinately called with purpose His election to stand in the last days. He created time and space that we may come to know His Son personally, intimately who was made so much as we are yet without sin that we may be as he is. The eternity that we will dwell in is like no eternity ever. Eternity has been designated as having no time, no special limitations. Yet, our God tells us of our worship of Him. We will have a celebrated Lord’s supper and a sanctified holy Lord’s day. Will this supper in eternity and this day in eternity be monthly, weekly. How so can time measurement exists in eternity? The Sabbath is a day that celebrates time and holiness, and is a metaphor for paradise and eternal rest. It's a day to become attuned to time, and to share in what is eternal in time. The Sabbath is also a time to spend in intimate fellowship with God, and to rest in God's loving care. It is marked in the world by an even to even event. Evening in heaven?? The bible shows that the Sabbath has been ever since this world was created. And it shows that it will remain even in eternity, when the Redeemed will worship God every Sabbath in the New Earth. Time differs from the divinity of eternity because time is based upon change while the divine eternity is unchanging. The Sabbath on earth foreshadows the rest God will give to us who love and honor Him once our purpose for Him on earth is done. The eternal Sabbath is the goal of all who proclaim Christ as Lord. We observe the Sabbath to remind us of our place in God’s creation. Taking this day to recognize our smallness and acknowledge God’s power reorients our perspective and aids in shedding any pride that may have been building inside us. As we enjoy the rest, we remember it is only a precursor to an eternal Sabbath when we will worship in the presence of our Creator and Lord. Jesus Christ hung on the tree of life in time. Jesus Christ is the tree of life in eternity. The street is the way. The Holy Spirit feeds the roots on either side of the testament, the covenant, the truth. The river of water of life proceeds out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. For the water of life to flow out of the throne means that it flows out of God Himself. In the New Jerusalem, we have God in the Lamb, and out of the redeeming God flows the river of life, the life-giving Spirit. This is the dispensing of the Triune God. Before God could dispense Himself into us, He had to redeem us. Thus, the picture reveals that the redeeming God is the life-dispensing God. The Lamb signifies redemption, and the river of life signifies the dispensing of life. For eternity, our God will be the redeeming and life-dispensing God. In the New Jerusalem in the new heaven and the new earth, our God will be in the redeeming Lamb, flowing out as the river of life, the life-giving Spirit, to dispense His life into every part of the city. The tree of life grows in the river of life, and the river of life that flows out of the throne reaches every part of the city. This indicates that the flow of the Triune God waters the whole city. Every part of the city receives the life supply because the tree of life grows in the river and the river reaches every part of the city. The tree of life, as a vine, grows on both sides of the river, following the flow of the river. Wherever the river flows, the tree of life grows. The supply of life is in the flow of life. This is a picture of God’s dispensing. Christ as the tree of life is the life supply available along the flow of the Spirit as the water of life. Where the Spirit flows, there the life supply of Christ is found. The entire city of New Jerusalem, which will be constituted of all the redeemed people of God, will be watered by the river of the water of life and nourished by the tree of life. This is the dispensing of the Triune God in full for eternity. This was the message at the cross. At the piercing of our Lord flowed forth water and blood on the earth. The Holy Spirit in the life of God. How richly we are fed! The flesh of God’s own Son, the leaves of the tree, are the spiritual food of every heir of heaven. He is the water of life. He is the balm of Gilead. Will God create a sacredness of time in eternity? A creation that transcends time? What will be the greatest of heights in this eternity? As the Oneness of the Godhead is one, so will be the people who are the New Jerusalem. This New Jerusalem is a body of teaching based on divine truth. This is because divine truth is what the Lord refers to as “holy.” And the Word says “the New Jerusalem” for much the same reason that it refers to the earth as new. That is, “the adorned bride” means the church and New Jerusalem means that church in regard to its body of teaching. It is described as coming down from God out of heaven because all the divine truth that gives rise to a body of teaching comes down out of heaven from God. Love will be the highest acclamation of praise to the One who is love. The people who make up this city...what are they like? Namely, that they are of one mind, because when we live a life of Christ and caring we love our neighbors as we love ourselves, and love that is mutually felt joins us to them and them to us. This joining is reciprocal and mutual because in the spiritual world of eternity love is a joining together. So, when all beings are acting on the same principle, then a single mind arises from the many - from countless individuals, in fact, who are gathered in harmony with heaven’s form. Peoples of every form in creation become one in this way because there is nothing that separates or divides them; everything connects and unites them. No longer will there be heavens as they are, an earth as it is. Eternity will see new heavens...new earth. And still, all these heavens make one heaven because of an indirect inflow and a direct inflow, which come from the Lord. At the end of our journey through time is a destination we can scarcely imagine - a destination called Eternity. Everything in scripture points to Eternity, and everything within us cries out for it. God’s work with us is not finished in this life. God has prepared something incomprehensibly beautiful for those who love Him and trust Him - something that lies beyond time, something so beautiful and vast and breathtaking that only Eternity is big enough to contain it. And His description of eternity gives us grounds for confidence and courage as we face the trials and pressures of the present time. There are aspects of our present experience as believers which indicate that something much greater is coming. The increase of wisdom and the mellowing of love which mark the spirit of one who walks with God. What was Jesus saying when he said, “I go to prepare a place for you”. Did this mean that heaven was not yet ready and needed some additional work before we could be brought there? But hear the further explanation which Jesus gave. “If I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you.” Jesus’ way of preparing a place for us was to send the Holy Spirit to us. The Spirit, when he came, would give us the power to handle the pressures and pains of life, "hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; struck down, but not destroyed", and in the mystery of redemption, transmute each trial into a corresponding glory. So, the trials are preparing the glory; the hardships are preparing "the place" for us. Jesus was doing this by means of the Spirit. Eternity and time are not the same. Time means that we are locked into a pattern of chronological sequence which we are helpless to break. For example, all human beings sharing the same room will experience an earthquake together. While there are varying feelings and reactions, everyone will feel the earthquake at the same time. But in eternity events do not follow a sequential pattern. There is no past or future, only the present now. Within that “now” all events happen. An individual will experience sequence, but only in relationship to himself, and events will occur to him on the basis of his spiritual readiness. No two individuals need, therefore, experience the same event just because they happen to be together. This helps us to understand how we have the Sabbath and the new moon in eternity. Reason this...Jesus is referred to as "the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world." Now the cross occurred at a precise moment of time in history. We know when the Lamb of God was slain. But the bible says it occurred from the foundation of the world. How can an historical event, which occurred at a certain spot and time on earth, in the biblical reckoning be said to have occurred before the earth was even made? The passage does not say that the Lamb was foreordained to be slain before the foundation of the world, but it says He was actually slain then. That means that the cross was an eternal event, taking place both in time and eternity. In time, it is long past; in eternity, it occurs now. God stopped eternity to give us time. Time to consider eternity. Time to understand that God is the God of love who desires for us to spend eternity with Him. Time for us to choose Him over all things. So, God makes His word deeper, higher, broader, and amazing that we who study might grasp the concept of eternity. God lives in eternity and He always has. He is not bound by time - He lives outside of time. For God every part of time is in the present. He created time. He carved out a section of eternity, gave it a specific starting point and ending point and called it time. Our past, present and future is all the same to Him. That is one reason He is called I Am. He need not move forward or backward in time, He sees all as if it is happening now. Recall how we spoke of Jesus being called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. That statement showed that God already completed the work of redemption before man even sinned and needed to be redeemed. He could do it this way because eternity is of Him. Having an understanding of eternity, even if it is a limited one, will change how we see life. Plan a trip from Marietta today. Where are you right now? Open a virtual online map showing the total areas between Marietta and your destination point. Can you see where you will be tomorrow? God has a written map for us to get from where we are to eternity. The bible is virtual in its spiritual presentation of how God shows us the gift of eternal life in Christ. We see beyond of where we are. Understanding God’s entire work from before time began to after time ends is beyond our current limited comprehension, but once we who are born-again come to reason with God, we will be able to understand it much better. “In time” and “in eternity” are united by being purposed by God. We are chosen to be God’s in both time and eternity. In truth, all of the words we read form pictures that are limited by the existence with which we are familiar – time. There is no description of eternity that we can describe. Eternity is not really like anything we have experienced. It is only by revelation from God that we can get glimpses of eternity and His nature. Even then, our nature only allows us to see a tiny glimpse of what it must be like – not what it really is. He is able to express it in language we can relate to, but our understanding will still be limited. Know that if we are faithful, we will have a view from the vantage point of eternity. We will see time as God does. This will be that we may understand how history had to flow and how we fit into that flow. This is why there will be no more tears of sorrow. We will see that everything did indeed unfold according to a plan that brought God glory and brought us to that blessed place with Him. Because of our experience with time, eternity will be an entirely new experience, one filled with the wonder of discovery and understanding of things we can only hope about while we are bound in time. Yet there is a part of us that can relate to eternity, even though we have no language with which to describe it. Time is spiraling downward. And many are going down with it. Only those of true faith know that it is God who directs and drives history forward towards a climax and a conclusion that He has prepared before time began. Life is not futile, it can have purpose and meaning because God is drawing us back into eternity to fellowship with Him. There is a purpose for all that we experience, and once we are free of time, we shall see it and rejoice. Too many will regret that they did not accept His offer of grace. Having this revealed understanding about eternity helps us anticipate some of what heaven may be like. And knowing how limited is our understanding of eternity, assures us that heaven is undoubtedly far greater than all we can hope or imagine. But it also convinces us of the horror of separation from God, after having clearly seen all that He created us to be, and all He did to draw us back to Him. The flames of the lake is the realization of what will be forfeited by foolish choice. Even if we do not fully grasp eternity, as faithful and true believers, we have already entered into eternal life. It is not just a future reality, it is here and now. It was always here, but we were deceptively unaware of it while enslaved to sin. Time, as related to sin can be so cruel. Because of time we know of the reality of eternity. We have an eager anticipation of it. It is with this frame of reference that we place proper perspective upon waiting for the Lord. Our treasure, our hearts are in heaven. This eternal perspective brings true humility. We play a significantly purposed role in God’s plan. We have a deeper urgency to help others come to Christ. At this moment, knowing of eternity, suddenness to the irrelevance of all things earthly is made clear. Eternity is the way God reasons all things. God’s will was to see the culture of eternity in heaven realized in the earth. Discord in heaven and man’s sin on earth introduced God’s plan of redemption for His creation and salvation for man. For this to be a reality, there must be an example of the Father’s character in the earth. Jesus was this example. He is the only person who could represent the character of the Father in the earth - in a way that was acceptable to Him. This is a very important point because before one can be a part of the culture of heaven, he or she must also be exposed to the character of the kingdom. Again, we must be reminded that God thinks from the perspective of eternity. What did God have in mind? God did not intend to provide a temporary solution to an eternal challenge. His plan was based upon His always present knowledge of all things possible. Jesus was proclaimed in the Determinate Counsel as the Father’s will to be manifested in the earth. The heart of God was to see the hearts of men and women changed by one man’s example of what kingdom character is like. Jesus went on to reveal the mind of the Father - “that His will be done on the earth.” The Father knew that this would not be accomplished without there being a culture change in the earth. This is the purpose of God according to election. This is the finishing of His people. This one reality validates the existence of the church spiritual in the earth today. God has never changed His mind, nor altered His will. He still wants heaven’s culture on the earth. The people of God must be challenged to think eternally. This simply means that the church must think beyond reaching the lost, and go further to change the culture of this world! There is no way the culture can be changed without the people being changed in the process. And so, God stopped eternity that His people could in time come to the fulness of that solution determined before the foundation of the world. God is so loving that His love extends beyond those who will be saved. If we abide by sound biblical teaching then we know that God loves all humanity including the non-elect. God’s expressions of hatred such as was spoken concerning Esau was unrelated to Esau’s conduct or character. It was rooted in God’s eternal, sovereign purposes determined in eternity before ever there was anything. If we understand the wisdoms of God in revealing His higher ways, His higher thoughts then our spiritual fervency for love, time, and eternity will be sorely tested in caring for those who will not see eternity. Love makes time of no consequence. Time is not to matter where love is in play. This is why God stopped eternity that we might experience time in relation to love. And so we learned that even time stops being so important when love is displayed. That explains why being in eternity where love is perfected, time will be totally irrelevant. Eternity is the place where we lose all consciousness of time. We will be in the deepest embrace of love that minds can conceive. What makes love so powerful? God is love. Love always gives and that is why God created time for us to love to give. This is how we begin to enjoy eternity now. We are to love even those who crucify our Lord daily that we may be sons of our Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. The implication...we are to love as God loves. Consider this: Jesus perfectly fulfilled the law in every respect, including this command for universal love. His love for others was surely as far-reaching as His own application of the commandment. Therefore, we can be certain that He loved everyone. He must have loved everyone in order to fulfill the law. After all, the whole law is fulfilled in one word, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself’. He reiterates this theme: “he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law”. Therefore, Jesus must have loved His “neighbor.” And since He Himself defined “neighbor” in universal terms, we know that His love while on earth was universal. Would God command us to love in a way that He does not? Would God demand that our love be more far-reaching than His own? And did Christ, having loved all humanity during His earthly sojourn, then revert after His ascension to pure hatred for the non-elect? Such would be unreasonable. Jesus is God. Stopping eternity gives us the chance to learn vital truths about the character of God. He has lived our yesterdays, our todays, and our tomorrows, the past, present, and future. God is the Alpha, the Omega. We redeem the time. We warn the wicked. In time, eternity is future...in eternity, time is now. Though the actual possession of eternal life in eternity cannot be now, and at the same time, a future gift our faith makes it a reality. It is a promise of God. A promise conditional and dependent on our being faithful. That which is before set forth by God in His counsel, for His interests for things that are due Him, according to the act of His free will by which before the foundation of the world He decreed His blessings to certain persons through Christ by grace alone, whom He judged fit to receive His favors and separated from the rest of mankind to be peculiarly His own and to be attended continually by His gracious oversight so that the ground of the choice lies in Christ and his merits only to remain as one called by name. The truth and certainty of this blessed state are ratified by the word and promise of God, and ordered to be committed to writing, as matter of perpetual record. The subject matter of this time-eternity vision is so great, and of such great importance to the church and people of God, that we have need of the fullest assurances to understand it; and God therefore from heaven repeats and ratifies the truth thereof. Besides, many ages must pass between the time apportioned. It is done already. God will leave nothing imperfect. We may and ought to take God's word as present. As His power and will were the first cause of allthings, His pleasure and glory are the last end, and He will not lose His design; He is the beginning and the end! He is the source of all life, existence, and purpose. God is the goal and fulfillment of all things. All creation finds its purpose in Him, and history moves toward His divine plan. In Him all things are fulfilled. With God all things are possible. God is the ultimate reality where everything is completed, for all creation finds its purpose in God. Every part of existence, every event, process, and purpose, finds its complete meaning, culmination, and realization through God. In this view, God is not only the originator but also the ultimate end of all things; everything in creation is directed toward and finds its fulfillment in His will, love, and divine plan. It means that whether we look at the unfolding of history, the fulfillment of biblical prophecies, or the personal growth and moral development of individuals, all these aspects of life are ultimately woven into God’s grand design. Even the challenges and sufferings we encounter are understood to be part of the process that leads us closer to the perfection and completeness found in God. Nothing is accidental but part of a larger, divinely orchestrated plan. It is God’s presence in perfection with all its diversity and complexity.

  • God and Conscience...

    What kind of great witness could the church be if its people were willing to reason with God to come to what the reality of truth is and align their minds to that which is revealed? When we are humble enough to hear and secure enough in our identity in Christ to be wrong, we are modeling a law of love that pursues the kingdom of God through “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.   If we really want unity in the church, we have to be humble enough to learn from other believers that may see something scripturally that we do not. And that means hearing. Really hearing, not for flaws in the argument, but for understanding.   Conscience is a gift from God. But it’s not God. Can conscience grow with truth when one is fully convinced in her or his own mind or can it be better achieved with the mind of Christ? What are we offering to God? The Holy Spirit is specifically assigned to aid our growing in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and having our minds renewed by the Spirit of God. He will also speak to us when our thinking becomes contrary to God’s will. Suppressing this prompting is ignoring the voice of God through your conscience. God does speak through His Spirit. God creates us with a capacity to know and love him, and we have a natural desire to seek the truth about him. We don't search for God unaided; he calls us to himself to help us draw closer to him. Conscience helps us hear the voice of God; it helps us recognize the truth about God and the truth about how we ought to live. Conscience is "a judgment of reason" by which we determine whether an action is right or wrong. Hearing God deepens our relationship with Christ by following him, and in doing so, we become more fully ourselves.   Wherever we are on our journey with Christ, we can grow deeper with him by continuing the work of forming our consciences well, so that we may follow him ever more closely. The conscience is the God-given inner voice that either accuses or excuses us in terms of what we do.  It is the “divine sense” that God puts into every person, and that divine sense is a significant aspect of God’s revelation to us.   God’s revelation may be common revelation or unique revelation. Unique revelation refers to that information given to us in the scriptures. Not everyone in the world possesses this information. Those who have heard it have had the benefit of hearing specific information about God and his plan of redemption. Common revelation refers to the revelation that God makes available to every human being on earth. It’s common in the sense that it’s not limited to any specific group of people. It’s global, and it can extend to every human being. The audience is general, and the information given is general as well. It doesn’t have the same level of detail that sacred scripture does. But here’s a mystery of knowledge to better understand the conscience. With common revelation, we must distinguish between interceding common revelation and direct common revelation.   Intercessory revelation refers to the revelation that God gives through a mediator: creation, in which God reveals his invisible attributes. Common revelation mediated through creation is clear enough that every single person knows God exists and, therefore, is without excuse as stated in the book of Romans. Unique revelation is revelation that is transmitted to without external assistance. It’s internal. It’s the revelation God plants in the soul. God reveals his law in the mind by framing a conscience within each of us. The crisis here is that we learn how to turn the volume of our conscience down so that our ethics align with how we want to live and not how God tells us we should live.   We prefer silence from God rather than being reminded that what we do is under the condemnation of Almighty God.   Here is the supreme irony and tragedy of sin: the more we repeat our sins, the greater the guilt we incur, but the less sensitive we become to the pangs of guilt in our consciences. This is how we store up wrath for ourselves. Some people have so seared their consciences that they believe it really doesn’t matter what they do as long as it is consensual, and they can see no harm. In a deluded fashion we find new ways to accept sinful behavior, both as individuals and as a culture. There is no collective conscience left in this country.   W e practice things deserving death and approve of others who practice them as well. When people destroy their own consciences, they do everything in their power to destroy the consciences of others. It is so important to keep our hearts tender to the testimony of God’s word in our conscience.    Our minds must be in captivity to the scriptures. The only antidote is knowing the mind of Christ. We need men and women whose consciences have been captured by the word of God. Thank God for his word. It exposes the ploys of the enemy. A taste of judgment is now in part, through our consciences, as a gift from the God who desires all would come to repentance. The Holy Spirit convicts us of sin, and with that conviction comes a certain tender mercy that leads us to repentance and forgiveness so that we might walk in his presence. It is the blood of Christ that gives the true believer a clear conscience – hence the admonition: let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.   If we know the free grace of Christ in acquitting us before God, and then his ongoing grace each day, we will possess something very precious – a clear conscience. So important is the conscience that even one that is ill-informed is to be respected. Conscience is not our final authority; there is something above it - for if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things.   All humanity possesses a conscience bearing witness to the law of God which is written upon all our hearts. Even those who refuse to believe the claims of Christ are not devoid of conscience. Conscience can provide us with the capacity for accurate self-examination, particularly when used in the light of God's truth. We should realize that it is not a dictator of our beliefs, but a response that reflects our current values. Conscience means “with knowledge”.  The conscience is not an audible voice, but it is a sense that echoes responsibility and obligation to do right. It can be a wise counselor. Do not permit imagination to muffle the conscience. As the Spirit educates the believer’s conscience with the things of God, the personal standard formed by the conscience begins to align with the standard of revealed truth. As a result, the renewed inner man becomes increasingly in tune with the will of God.   An important question arises, though. If the nourishment of God’s Word by the Spirit is the means through which our conscience is properly trained, then how do we discern whether or not we are indeed being illumined by the Spirit? Answer: by comparing what we believe the Spirit to be communicating with what God has said in His Word. This is how we know that something truly is from God – comparing scripture with weight it in the balance with God's Word scripture. We take what we believe the Spirit to be teaching us, and weigh it in the balance with God’s Word. This is the way in which the Spirit teaches, “comparing spiritual things with spiritual”. Our conscience is to be in agreement with godliness…confident that we are in His will. Underneath our actions, thoughts and emotions, in a quiet mode, there is an utterance that continually attempts to guide us towards love and spiritual influence. Oh, to sense the wind of this whisper. The more knowledge of God’s Word, the more sensitive the conscience is to sin. Conscience is a most important part of our inward man, and plays a most prominent part in our spiritual history as we pray to have our minds enlightened by the Holy Spirit. It is our principle within. No longer as a true believer can we sin with impunity. Let conscience open its ears and eternal hope sounds the refrain of heaven. The strongest evidence of God's eternal truth, is the universal conscience of mankind. It is that clear understanding of who is our peace. Christ answers every accusation. He calms every fear. No thought of past sins and present failings and future judgment can refute blood of Jesus. Scarcely anything seems to approach the work of grace so nearly as the deepest convictions of conscience bringing a divine power into the heart. Peace of conscience is a fruit of reconciliation with God. The blood which reconciles, when sprinkled on the conscience, produces a sweet peace which can be obtained in no other way. If the atonement of Christ satisfies the law which condemned us, and we are assured that this atonement is accepted for us, conscience, which before condemned, as being the echo of the law, is now pacified. We have peace with God. The conscience must be continually enlightened and developed by an exposure to God’s Word. By it is the judgment which we pronounce on our own conduct. Conscience singles us out as though nobody else existed. God has given us a faithful witness inside of our own being. It is able to single a man out and reveal his loneliness, the loneliness of a single soul in the universe going on to meet an omniscient God. That’s the terror of the conscience. Conscience never deals with theories. Conscience always deals with right and wrong and the relation of the individual to that which is right or wrong. Remember the conscience is always on God’s side! It judges conduct in the light of the moral law, and as the scripture says, excuses or accuses.   The conscience of man, when he is really quickened and awakened by the Holy Spirit, speaks the truth. It’s that barking dog. Turn over to sleep if you like but that dog barks again and again, the wrath to come...the wrath to come...the wrath to come! Let’s lay this revelation out. Not a soul needs to witness our sin. Not a soul needs to know of it. We cannot hide the truth from the eyes of our conscience. In the end, what is important is not that other people know, but that we ourselves know. And heaven will know. Conscience is knowledge together with oneself. That is to say, our conscience knows our inner motives and true thoughts. It is above reason and beyond intellect. We can rationalize, trying to justify ourself in our own mind, but a violated conscience will not be easily convinced. God calls a people who sins neither in thought nor deed, and is fair and just, who gains enormous courage and strength to stand every fiery trial. The convictions of their mind are encouraged and sharpened in accordance with God's Word. The wise wants to grasp biblical truth so that the conscience is completely informed and judges right to co-operate fully and in accord with true holiness. Conscience is a thing that is inseparably united to the soul, and is essential to it. In what part of the soul is this conscience seated? It has a place not only in the understanding, in the will. The place of conscience is in the whole soul, in what we say references the body—that it is wholly in the whole, and wholly in every part. That which may be truly said of conscience in reference to the soul, is that it is not only a part of the whole, but wholly in every part. Conscience is in the understanding and acts there. It is in the will and checks there. It is in the affections and governs there. It is in the memory and records there. Conscience makes the understanding practical, and the will obedient, the affections spiritual, and the memory faithful. These are all the workhouse of conscience. Here it sits, here it acts, and from here it sends forth its influences into all the actions of a man's life. It extends itself over the whole man, and is concerned in every interest, and every motion, from first to last.  C onscience, it runs through all our duties and practices. Faith looks to the promises, fear looks to the threatenings, obedience looks to the commands, repentance looks to sins, but conscience looks to all. Conscience has a very high and solemn power in its respect of God. Conscience is God's repository, where the revealed will of God is kept and preserved. God wrote his law on tables of stone, and he writes it also on the fleshly tables of man's heart. This is the book of record. God never revealed more of his will, than he has written in conscience. The declaration of his will in the moral law, is no more than what was written on Adam's conscience. And the declaration of God's will in the covenant of grace, is no more than what is written in the believer's conscience.   As c onscience takes counsel of God, and we take counsel of conscience, we are led into the divine presence. Conscience is a witness of God's own appointing. God has ordained it, and set it up to give evidence both to the found and to the lost. It is a faithful witness that will not lie. Conscience stands indifferent between God and man, and therefore more fit to be a witness. Self-interest leads to partiality, but that which is indifferent, is the more likely to be for the equity of the cause. Conscience is a thing between both parties; it is not so of God, but it has something of man. Neither is it so of man, but it has something of God in it, and therefore the fittest to give evidence. Divine irradiation is that book of conscience in the last day. It is a solemn and fearful consideration—that every sin is written in the book of conscience, and that book must be opened in the great day of judgment. We are in the day where we must hold communion with our own consciences and do search that acquits us from hypocrisy and reigning sin. Then we have confidence towards God and liberty of access now, and boldness in the day of judgment. The consolations of conscience are most sweet…but its condemnations are very terrible and dreadful. Thank God for a tender conscience.   📖 Applying the Study For ongoing spiritual encouragement and prophetical insights, visit Higher Learning.

  • Lesson Learned...

    Lesson Learned Ask of us our denomination and we say we are His election, purposefully called to perfect obedience and the keeping of the faith of Jesus. God has already bequeathed a portion of our inheritance to us in this world that we become not disheartened at the complicated scenes of human misery that awaits us. He has each of us right where He wants us at this time…we must know this! We must be committed to living out God’s specific will for our life. His provisioning for our past is to illuminate His purposes for the overwhelming possibilities that will bring about our uniqueness. Do not think too comfortably on this call. God will move us to a new place and season in our calling to serve Him just as faithfully there. His ultimate purpose is to glorify Himself. So long as we are glorifying God where we are, we are where He wants us. In our contentment we are arriving at this “final stage” of service to God. There is this one thing that is worse than sin…worse in what way? In terms of consequences. It is worse when you cause another person to sin than when you sin yourself. Causing another to fall away is exceedingly grave. Woe to the world because of offenses. For offenses will inevitably come, but millstone woe to that person by whom the offense comes. One who incites another to sin, bears the heaviest of judgment, which explains why a millstone should be tied around his neck. We need Jesus in more ways than language can express. Too many who think themselves adventists are devoted to their gross ignorance. These will go out from us but they are not of us. If our teachings are not core spiritual principles, and reality reasoned orientation to the word of God, then we are engaging in verbal proposition only. Every truth that we teach must be centered on the personhood of Jesus. The truth of John 8:32 is the same truth of John 14:6. May I suggest this; let’s make our discussions a way of teaching “how to think”, rather than “what to think”. Have you ever heard this; if you make people think they’re thinking, they will love you. But if you actually make them think, they will hate you. What does that mean? When we think we’re thinking, we’re really not thinking at all. We are mechanically repeating the words or acts of others, frequently without full understanding, or reproducing or repeating a passage or statement of another. Few people reflect on, reason about, work out, and critically decide about something that challenges the mind. The only authority we should defer to is God. When you’re listening to what is written – think! When you’re reading – think! When someone is stating a position – think! There is a role for trusting the judgment and insight of another, especially when you discern wisdom and experience are the guiding lights. There are times where choices are required in situations where you can’t think it out alone. You know an important area where this is the case? The bible, especially belief, faith, and trust. It’s not inappropriate to act on faith and trust, if you have thought things out to the limits of your ability and experience—but it may be inappropriate if you first didn’t bother to think things out as best you could. God gave us eyes, ears, and a brain to think with and intervenes in our lives more than we fully realized or thought! Think about that! Brothers and sisters…we must be sustained by theology, not ideology. We must be appreciative rather than critical of the insightfulness offered by reason. Love must be demonstrably indiscriminate and authentically felt. We must access the head through the heart. The question we absolutely must ask ourselves everyday is; “is everything we are studying and is everything I am hearing the truth, based solely upon truth from error the word of God and the spirit of prophecy, which is the testimony of Jesus? The testimony of Jesus means words spoken with authority, recognized as characteristic of a prophet. Words spoken in the imperative, with the voice of command and authority. Words that provoke. Words that make our Lord’s truth, truth. We must keep our eyes opened to the ark of the testimony. To the word of God, to the precepts of God, the law of God, the statutes of God, the commandments of God. No theatrics. Jesus’ testimony sifts truth from fiction. We make the case for Christ. This represents God’s heart desire, God’s requirement - or may we say it…God’s standard revealing Himself. And the testimony of which we have been given to speak cannot be given by man: it has to come from God Himself. Hence to testify for God requires of us that we touch God, so as to be able to speak the words which God bids us to say. We can speak only after God is known, seen and revealed to us. Only when we have touched this ultimate reality are we able to open our voice and testify for God. If we have not touched this reality, we will have no words to say and therefore no testimony to give. Now think on the question we must ask ourselves everyday. To neglect asking, considering, and examining the answer to this question is opening yourself up to deception and to hinder your judgment. We cannot afford to be loose with any truth. Be sure to evaluate all that is coming to you with eternal values, not temporal values. The bible is an amazing wealth of testimony about the Lord. How blessed we are to have the stories of the Lord at our very touch. We must seek to turn all to righteousness. But let’s not settle there, let’s do even more. God is still at work, and let’s never stop receiving additional light to the testimony of the goodness of God. We make no attempt to supercede the bible. But there are yet secret things that belong to God to be revealed to whom He will. Let the bible speak for itself! Even a child can learn. If you have not a prophetic reckoning in your heart, you are teetering on being lost. We’re not all writers, but we should all have our testimonies on the tips of our tongues. We should be ready in season and out of season to proclaim the truths recorded in the bible. Do you recall that verse in the bible that speaks to God’s purpose? Are we really spiritually enlightened by what it is saying? God is trying to remove us away from bad religion. If we don’t come to know God, misrepresentation of the divine character is the inevitable result. Too many today are saying there is no God. Let’s think on this. Certainly the idea that there is no God is a discouraging thought. If there is no God, then we have no future beyond this life. Worse yet, the here-and-now is basically meaningless. All there is to life is an animalistic scratching and clawing for survival. But wait a minute. At least when it’s over, it’s over. There is something more terrifying. What if there is a God, an actual superior being out there somewhere, but he is not completely good? If the universe is governed by an all-powerful being who is anything less than perfectly good, that is horrifying news. But consider not another possibility, but this certainty. What if there is a God…and what if He is infinitely powerful and at the same time infinitely good? One cannot imagine a more comforting and glorious reality! The character of God matters. He happens to be the Person in charge of the universe, you and me included in that vast domain. Eventually we are going to find ourselves in His immediate presence…and He wants us to understand His purpose for His election whom He calls. The envisioned thought He gave me as I lay distraught, had me asking Him why He purposed the opening text to point to the sorrow associated with wisdom. He showed why His return was delayed; if our witness is prompted to teach the words of the bible connecting people to a church rather than teaching the life of Jesus, causing one to come to God, they will see themselves instead of Jesus. They will follow America’s discourse, Isaiah 5:20-24. There are not yet a 144000 made ready because we believe too much in our knowledge rather than faith, enabling the working of God to occur where things seem impossible. Faith is stronger than our knowledge, logic and all human abilities, because through faith we show we believe and trust in God. That’s enabling faith. Where is our peculiarity? Hear what every word of 9:11 is saying. God assigns His reason for intensification to affirm the nature of a thing. His purpose is the aggregation of many individuals of the same nature to come into existence and made finished by any means, no matter how great, how much, how many, because of the possibility of something undesirable happening. That thing that is undesirable is that much too many are in the game of life for temporal purposes, while God has determined life for eternal purposes. Few are caused to arise and appear in history and as a further matter neither undertaking or accomplishing anything themselves in order that only significant renderings other than "the" counted are set forth to be looked at as was the shewbread, as determined by God according to His free will, by which before the foundation of the world He decreed His blessings to certain persons. The decree made from choice by which He determined to bless certain persons through Christ by grace alone. Choosing out for Himself one out of many whom He judged fit to receive His favors and separated from the rest of mankind, to be peculiarly His own and to be attended continually by His gracious oversight. These He set apart from the irreligious multitude as dear unto Himself, and whom He has rendered, Loud voice call through faith in Christ, citizens in the Messianic kingdom: so that the ground of the choice lies in Christ and his merits only. These He calls by name to cause to speak, to teach, to exhort, to advise. These will continue to be present, not to perish, but to endure and remain as one awaiting one. These heard the utter in a loud voice call them by name to receive the name of and to bear a name of commandment. The faith of these is the end and perfection of the character of Christ. A people with strong faith, confident in their knowledge that they can do anything they set their minds to and weather the toughest times by the grace of God. Their faith should be as much more perfect than the faith of those of a good report; for their status and special consideration are more perfect than the former, and are indeed the perfection and completion of those before them. Only perfect beings are fit for the presence of the holy God, and only perfect beings will come into the realization of that hope which is laid up in heaven. Thrice holiness is our striving in Christ. This reasoning is strong, and should be effectually prevalent with us all. Now hear the testimonies 9, pages 11-18… We are living in the time of the end. The fast-fulfilling signs of the times declare that the coming of Christ is near at hand. The days in which we live are solemn and important. The Spirit of God is gradually but surely being withdrawn from the earth. Plagues and judgments are already falling upon the despisers of the grace of God. The calamities by land and sea, the unsettled state of society, the alarms of war, are portentous. They forecast approaching events of the greatest magnitude.The agencies of evil are combining their forces and consolidating. They are strengthening for the last great crisis. Great changes are soon to take place in our world, and the final movements will be rapid ones. The condition of things in the world shows that troublous times are right upon us. The daily papers are full of indications of a terrible conflict in the near future. Bold robberies are of frequent occurrence. Strikes are common. Thefts and murders are committed on every hand. Men possessed of demons are taking the lives of men, women, and little children. Men have become infatuated with vice, and every species of evil prevails. The enemy has succeeded in perverting justice and in filling men's hearts with the desire for selfish gain. "Justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter." Isaiah 59:14. In the great cities there are multitudes living in poverty and wretchedness, well-nigh destitute of food, shelter, and clothing; while in the same cities are those who have more than heart could wish, who live luxuriously, spending their money on richly furnished houses, on personal starving humanity (photo by Unspash) adornment, or worse still, upon the gratification of sensual appetites, upon liquor, tobacco, and other things that destroy the powers of the brain, unbalance the mind, and debase the soul. The cries of starving humanity are coming up before God, while by every species of oppression and extortion men are piling up colossal fortunes. On one occasion, when in New York City, I was in the night season called upon to behold buildings rising story after story toward heaven. These buildings were warranted to be fireproof, and they were erected to glorify their owners and builders. Higher and still higher these buildings rose, and in them the most costly material was used. Those to whom these buildings belonged were not asking themselves: "How can we best glorify God?" The Lord was not in their thoughts. I thought: "Oh, that those who are thus investing their means could see their course as God sees it! They are piling up magnificent buildings, but how foolish in the sight of the Ruler of the universe is their planning and devising. They are not studying with all the powers of heart and mind how they may glorify God. They have lost sight of this, the first duty of man." As these lofty buildings went up, the owners rejoiced with ambitious pride (photo by Unsplash) that they had money to use in gratifying self and provoking the envy of their neighbors. Much of the money that they thus invested had been obtained through exaction, through grinding down the poor. They forgot that in heaven an account of every business transaction is kept; every unjust deal, every fraudulent act, is there recorded. The time is coming when in their fraud and insolence men will reach a point that the Lord will not permit them to pass, and they will learn that there is a limit to the forbearance of Jehovah. The scene that next passed before me was an alarm of fire. Men looked at the lofty and supposedly fire-proof buildings and said: "They are perfectly safe." But these buildings were consumed as if made of pitch. The fire engines could do nothing to stay the destruction. The firemen were unable to operate the engines. I am instructed that when the Lord's time comes, should no change have taken place in the hearts of proud, ambitious human beings, men will find that the hand that had been strong to save will be strong to destroy. No earthly power can stay the hand of God. No material can be used in the erection of buildings that will preserve them from destruction when God's appointed time comes to send retribution on men for their disregard of His law and for their selfish ambition. There are not many, even among educators and statesmen, who comprehend the causes that underlie the present state of society. Those who hold the reins of government are not able to solve the problem of moral corruption, poverty, pauperism, and increasing crime. They are struggling in vain to place business operations on a more secure basis. If men would give more heed to the teaching of God's word, they would find a solution of the problems that perplex them. The Scriptures describe the condition of the world just before Christ's second coming. Of the men who by robbery and extortion are amassing great riches, it is written: "Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days. Behold, the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter. Ye have condemned and killed the just; and he doth not resist you." James 5:3-6. But who reads the warnings given by the fast-fulfilling signs of the times? What impression is made upon worldlings? What change is seen in their attitude? No more than was seen in the attitude of the inhabitants of the Noachian world. Absorbed in worldly business and pleasure, the antediluvians "knew not until the Flood came, and took them all away." Matthew 24:39. They had heaven-sent warnings, but they refused to listen. And today the world, utterly regardless of the warning voice of God, is hurrying on to eternal ruin.The world is stirred with the spirit of war. The prophecy of the eleventh chapter of Daniel has nearly reached its complete fulfillment. Soon the scenes of trouble spoken of in the prophecies will take place. "Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. . . . Because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate. . . . The mirth of tabrets ceaseth, the noise of them that rejoice endeth, the joy of the harp ceaseth." Isaiah 24:1-8. "Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. . . . The seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate, the barns are broken down, for the corn is withered. How do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made desolate." "The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth; the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because joy is withered away from the sons of men." Joel 1:15-18, 12. "I am pained at my very heart; . . . I cannot hold my peace, because thou has heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled." Jeremiah 4:19, 20. "I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down." Verses 23-26. "Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it." Jeremiah 30:7. Not all in this world have taken sides with the enemy against God. Not all have become disloyal. There are a faithful few who are true to God; for John writes: "Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus." Revelation 14:12. Soon the battle will be waged fiercely between those who serve God and those who serve Him not. Soon everything that can be shaken will be shaken, that those things that cannot be shaken may remain. Satan is a diligent Bible student. He knows that his time is short, and he seeks at every point to counterwork the work of the Lord upon this earth. It is impossible to give any idea of the experience of the people of God who shall be alive upon the earth when celestial glory and a repetition of the persecutions of the past are blended. They will walk in the light proceeding from the throne of God. By means of the angels there will be constant communication between heaven and earth. And Satan, surrounded by evil angels, and claiming to be God, will work miracles of all kinds, to deceive, if possible, the very elect. God's people will not find their safety in working foundation (photo by Unsplash) miracles, for Satan will counterfeit the miracles that will be wrought. God's tried and tested people will find their power in the sign spoken of in Exodus 31:12-18. They are to take their stand on the living word: "It is written." This is the only foundation upon which they can stand securely. Those who have broken their covenant with God will in that day be without God and without hope. The worshipers of God will be especially distinguished by their regard for the fourth commandment, since this is the sign of God's creative power and the witness to His claim upon man's reverence and homage. The wicked will be distinguished by their efforts to tear down the Creator's memorial and to exalt the institution of Rome. In the issue of the conflict all Christendom will be divided into two great classes, those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus, and those who worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark. Although church and state will unite their power to compel all, "both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond," to receive the mark of the beast, yet the people of God will not receive it. Revelation 13:16. The prophet of Patmos beholds "them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God," and singing the song of Moses and the Lamb. Revelation 15:2. Fearful tests and trials await the people of God. The spirit of war is stirring the nations from one end of the earth to the other. But in the midst of the time of trouble that is coming,--a time of trouble such as has not been since there was a nation,--God's chosen people will stand unmoved. Satan and his host cannot destroy them, for angels that excel in strength will protect them. God's word to His people is: "Come out from among them, and be ye separate, . . . and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be My sons and daughters." "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvelous light." 2 Corinthians 6:17, 18; 1 Peter 2:9. God's people are to be distinguished as a people who serve Him fully, wholeheartedly, taking no honor to themselves, and remembering that by a most solemn covenant they have bound themselves to serve the Lord and Him only. "The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily My Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the Lord that doth sanctify you. Ye shall keep the Sabbath therefore; for it is holy unto you: everyone that defileth it shall surely be put to death: for whosoever doeth any work therein, that soul shall be cut off from among his people. Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the Sabbath of rest, holy to the Lord: whosoever doeth any work in the Sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death. Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the Sabbath, to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the children of Israel forever: for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day He rested, and was refreshed." Exodus 31:12-17. Do not these words point us out as God's denominated people? and do they not declare to us that so long as time shall last, we are to cherish the sacred, denominational distinction placed upon us? The children of Israel were to observe the Sabbath throughout their generations "for a perpetual covenant." The Sabbath has lost none of its meaning. It is still the sign between God and His people, and it will be so forever. Sabbath Rest (photo by Unplash) 📖 Applying the Study For ongoing spiritual encouragement and prophetical insights, visit Higher Learning.

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  • onlinebiblecourse | bible study online

    OnlineBibleCourse: Deepen your search for truth in the bible and learn about Christ. Sounds of Manna -Hymn 10 - Jesus Paid It All Play Video Free books! Play Video Be Transformed Play Video The Truth Watch Now Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tumblr Copy Link Link Copied Close DISCLAIMER: PLEASE NOTE ALL INFORMATION PROVIDED ARE EXTRACTS, EXCERPTS, OR COMPILATIONS AND ARE NOT COPYEDITED. MANY WORKS OF VARIOUS AUTHORS ARE USED. THERE IS NO AUTHOR HERE…IT IS A COMPILATION FOR YOUR LEARNING Schedule Learn at your own pace. Grade your own quizzes. No schedule. No deadline. Contact He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone , and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it. Revelation 2:17 KJV Online Bible Courses No Cost *New Blog Entries Added Weekly* Bible Prophecy Charts & Maps Learn where we are in the stream of time Bible Helpful Links From reputable sources About About White Stone Bible Study Online/OnlineBibleCourse Have you had questions about the Bible? Perhaps you just want to know more about the life of Jesus or how to become a better person. Or, rather, you have come here to learn more about prophecy and the events that are coming upon this earth. Well, put on your seatbelt, because you are about to have a bumpy ride; these studies may cause you to question long-held church traditions that might make you ponder and wonder...

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    Bible Maps, Prophecy Charts, Bible Images, Bible Charts, 1844 Chart Learning Tools For Bible Study Online In this area, you will find a treasure trove of bible maps, charts, images, and videos that we have collected over years from various vetted sources. Please feel free to take a look. If you need any explanation for anything, just contact us. Principle Policy Practice "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path." Psalms 119:105

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