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human world and civilization (Rev.
13:8), that Christ, the "Lamb of
God," should come and be sacri–
ficed to redeem the lost. At the
same foundation of this world that
started from Adam, it was decreed
that "it is appointed unto men once
to die, but after this the judgment"
(Heb. 9:27). But how could a man
be judged after he had died?
That is described in 1 Corin–
thians 15:22-24: "For as in Adam
all die, even so in Christ shall all
[the same all] be made alive"- by
a resurrection. This is described in
Revelation 20: 11-12 as the Great
White Throne Judgment. The
" book of life" is opened in that
judgment. Those judged guilty, as
all will be, shall learn that Christ
the second Adam had come and
paid their death penalty in their
stead. And if they then repent, the
tree of LIFE will be open to them.
They may yet be begotten and then
born as sons of God, converted into
the Goo FAMILY.
However, in the meantime all
have died and remain dead until the
resurrections.
The Second Adam
In God's due time, sorne 4,000
years after Adam's sin and tbe
foundation of this world, God sent
his Son, Jesus, born of the human
Mary, and sired by God. He carne
as the second Adam. Unlike the
first Adam, he chose the tree of
LIFE.
Jesus was born through the Holy
Spirit of God. He was filled, with–
out measure, by God's Spirit. He
had the close relationship with God
that THE FIRST Adam rejected. He
was begotten and humanly born of
God. He said: " 1 have kept my
Father's commandments" (John
15:1
O),
whereas the first Adam
rejected them and chose instead his
own human good, as well as evil.
Jesus thus chose the tree of LJFE.
Jesus said, " 1 will build my
church" (Matt. 16:18). This is the
firs t place in all the Bible the word
church
is used. If we are to answer
the question of the title of this arti–
cle, Where is the true Church? we
must pause here to ask, What
/S
a
church? Just what did Jesus build?
WHY should there be a church? ls
the Church divided into many
denominations and sects? Or is
July/ August 1984
there only the ONE original true
Church that Jesus built?
Why the Church?
The New Testament of the Bible
originally was written in the Greek
language. The English word
church
is translated from the original Greek
word
ekk/esia.
It
means "called-out
ones"-from
ek
(out), and
klesia
(called). The Greek word means "a
calling out," to meet together, espe–
cially as a religious congregation.
lt
does not mean a building with sharp–
ly sloping roof, with a steeple atop
pointing to heaven, with a cross on
its facade.
Symbolically the Church is
referred to as the household (or
family) ofGod (Eph. 2:19-21), and
a building that grows into the holy
TEMPLE to which Christ shall come
at his return to earth as King of
kings, ruling all nations.
But WHY the Church? WHY call
its members out from those of this
world? That is answered by another
question. What's wrong with this
world?
It
was founded on a faulty
foundation.
It
is shot through and
through with evils, causing suffer–
ing, anguish, frustration and death.
In traditional Christianity there
seems to be the concept that God
created Adam a perfect immortal
spiritual being-that Satan carne
along and wrecked this perfect spir–
itual mechanism-and that Chris–
tianity is God's attempt to repair
the damage, and make man as good
as Adam was before Satan wrecked
him. That is TOTALLY FALSE and
contrary to biblical revelation.
It has been shown that God
created man MORTAL, with only a
temporary animal existence, kept
alive by the breath of air, the circu–
lation of blood and continually
refueled by food and water from
the ground. Man rejected the tree
of LIFE, which was freely offered
him. Man never obtained immortal
self-containing life. Instead man
embarked on the way of life that
results in pain, suffering, discon–
tent, unhappiness, anguish and
death . A civilization of organized
society was built on that founda–
tion. 1 compare this civilization to
the structure of a building, built of
faulty materials, on a rotten and
crumbling foundation.
God is NOT trying to repair this
decaying and rotting superstruc–
ture we call civilization. God sent
his own Son, Jesus Christ, as the
SECOND ADAM, to START ANEW a
totally different new structure of
civi lization.
A World Held Captive
Let me picture it yet another way.
God said: "Let us [God and the
Word] make man in our image,
after our likeness." God made man
after God's own kind, just as he
made cattle after the cattle kind,
and every animal after its own kind.
But God formed man of the ousT
OF THE GROUND (Gen. 2:7), having
temporary existence by the breath
of air. God told the mortal man
that if he sinned he would SURELY
DIE. Man was not and is not an
immortal soul, but a temporarily
existing soul. But he could have
become a child of God. Had Adam
taken of the tree of LIFE, he would
have received the immortal LIFE of
God injected into him. God's Spirit
would have entered him, joining
with bis human spirit, uniting him
to Goo as God's SON-an actual
member of the Goo FAMJLY.
Therefore Adam and aH his chil–
dren were the potential children of
God. Then Satan carne along, and
through mother Eve induced Adam
to submit to being kidnapped. Satan
had kidnapped God's own POTEN–
TIAL children. But by their deliber–
ate disobedience of God, rejection of
God's offer of sonship and turning to
the
w
AY of Satan, man not only
chose the way of life and type of
civilization of the kidnapper , he
brought upon himself and his family
the penalty of sin-DEATH.
THINK WHAT THIS MEANT!
Man was allowed to make his
own decision--either LIFE eternal
by obeying God and taking of the
tree of LIFE-úR, DEATH by disobe–
dience and taking of the tree of
death. Adam disobeyed.
God could not suspend the pen–
alty he had said plainly would fol–
low disobedience. So what did God
do? How would God even yet res–
cue his potential children from the
kidnapper? Not by compromising
with HJS LA
w
and suspending the
penalty. BuT, by decreeing at that
very foundation of the world that
he would send his own Son, J esus
Christ, to Iive without sin and then,
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