Page 2159 - Church of God Publications

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World Held Captive
(Continued from page 6)
ship with God- bcgotten as God's
own son. Through God's Spirit
joined with his human spi rit , he
wo uld have had the ability to
und erstand God 's spiritual pur–
poses and knowledge, and been able
to develop the very mind of God.
He would have been led by God in
building Goo's WORLD. l nstead, he
was led by Satan, and the whole
wo rld fam ily , s tarted through
Adam, was DECEIVED into building
a civi lization t hat became SATAN's
WORLD-a WORLD HELD CAPTI VE.
lt has developed systems of gov–
ernment over cities and nations, an
economic system, a social system–
all based on the princi pie of "GET"
rather than outflowing love, coop–
eration, harmony and peace.
lt
has
developed into a competitive world,
based on Satan's law-every man
for himself, va nit y, covet ing,
s trife.
l t might well appear that Satan
struck his master stroke in kidnap–
ping Adam, the first human, by
whom God purposed to reproduce
himself millions of times over. But
God's PURPOSE cannot b e
thwarted.
That is the reason God t hen, at
thc very time of Adam's disobedi–
cnce and kidnapping, decreed that
J esus, the second Adam, should
come. He would be God's means of
paying for t he ransom to reclaim
his potenti al children. Further,
J esus would be the SECOND ADAM.
To use a modern s lang term, it
would be "a whole new ball game."
Thc very begotten FAMJLYOF Go o ,
for which Adam had been created,
woufd now be s t arted in a nd
through the SECOND ADAM.
J esus, unlike thc first Adam, did
choose the tree of LJFE. He did
obcy God . He met, conquered and
q ualified to replace Satan on the
throne of the earth. At the same
time, God decreed that as in Adam
all would pay the penalty of DEATH,
so in C hrist , the second Adam, the
SAME ALL would in God's due time
be resurrected again to physical
li fc, brought lo judgment, sen–
tenced to eternal dcath, but then
learn that their death penalty had
been paid for them by J esus Christ
and the tree of LJFE reopened to
June
1984
them, in the Great White T hrone
resurrection ( Rev. 20: 11-12).
After sorne 4,000 years of the
world that developed into a world
of human good and satariic evi ls,
J esus carne.
He carne as the SECOND ADAM,
to found Goo's WORLD, which the
fi rst Adam failed to start.
J esus' coming BECAN the SPIRI–
TUAL PHASE of God's creation of
humans. Jesus did not come to
reform or save this world- Satan's
wor ld . He carne to s tart a DIFFER–
ENT WORLD.
lt
was God's plan to
start it through his CHURCH.
Foundation of God' s World
J es us said: " 1 will build m y
church" (Matt. 16: 18) . The word
church
is trans la ted from th e
G reek a nd means "called-ou t
ones." He chose and called h is 12
original disciples or students, and
taught them the ways of the KI NG–
DOM OF Goo.
l t was prophesied of Jesus in
Isaiah 9:6-7 that he would be born
as a babe, grow up and the aov–
ERNMENT (of God ) would be on his
shoulders. He would bring peace to
th e ea rth . Satan's world has
brought contention, confus ion, di–
vision, hosti lity, violence, destruc–
tion, war and death. The Messiah,
Jesus Christ, would RESTORE the
GOVERNMENT OF ÜOD tOthe planet
earth.
J esus brought the gospel message
from God to mankind-not to con–
vert and change Satan's world, but to
ANNOUNCE the coming world-ruling
Goo kingdom as a witness. Jesus
carne not on a "soul-saving crusade,"
nor did he plead with people to "ac–
cept him as Savior." When the
woman at J acob's well asked him for
the "living waters" of the Holy Spir–
it (salvation), he merely told her of
her sins.
The word
gospel
means "good
news." J esus was a newscaster,
announcing in advance the NEWS of
thc coming KI NGDOM OF Goo.
Since God's PURPOSE is to repro–
duce himself- expand the God FAM–
ILY- and since it shall be the world–
rul ing fami ly, then the KINGDOM OF
Goo is the born family ofGod rul ing
t he entire world. NO RELIGION ON
EARTH UNDERSTANDS THIS PIVOTAL
TRUTH! lt is a DECEIVED world–
held captive by Satan.
T he Church of God was thc
embryonic beginning of the soon–
to-be wor ld-ruling and world-filling
KINGDOM
OF
Goo.
The Church began with the ONE
man , th e second Adam, J es us
C hrist. He cxpanded it to the 12 he
himself chosc and called a nd
taught. During his ministry God
had called a few others to belicve
his gospel message and follow him.
Even among them, severa! followed
only a short time and fell away. By
the day of Pentecost, 120 received
God's Holy Spirit, were baptized
and became BEGOTTEN (but not yet
born) children of God.
After his
3 ~ -year
m inistry,
J esus gave himself as a ransom to
be cruci fi ed, paying the penalty for
all the sins of all of mankind who
wou ld repent , believe, grow in
grace and God's knowledge, over–
come and endure to the end of their
human life.
J esus commissioned his apostles
to teach others, as many as God
should call. The New Testament
throughout teaches that ONLY
those God c hooses and spi r itua lly
calls, cou ld come to him through
J esus. Jesus said, "No man can
come to me, except the Father
which hath sent me draw him"
(J ohn 6:44).
T hose so called and chosen by
God for his kingdom were called
"out from among them [to]
be ... separate" ( 11 Cor. 6: 17).
J esus did not live as part of this
world, its ways and customs- nor
must those called.
This present ev il world of
Satan- the kidnapped world- had
its foundation in the first Adam.
It
was at the FOUNDATION of this world
(Rev. 13:8) that God decreed that
Jesus, as the Lamb of God, would
come to pay the ransom price.
J esus, during his earthly minis–
try, likened this world to a build–
ing. In Ephesians 2:20-22 the
Church is likened to a building.
Jesus, in referring to the present
evil world, said it is built on a foun–
dation of the sand of Satan's way of
vanity, covetousness, envy and jeal–
ousy, competition and strifc, vio–
lence, rebellion, contention, unhap–
piness, suffering and death . THJS
WORLD IS DOOMED TO CRASH! And
great shall be the fall thereof.
Jesus did not come to repair or
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