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tians 5:22-23-showing more love
or outgoing concern toward others,
growing in joy, which is happiness
running over, in peace with your
own family, witb neighbors, witb
all others. Growing in patience,
being more kind and gentle toward
others, goodness and faith, as well
as meekness and temperance.
The CHURCH, then, is that body
called out from Satan's world
being
prepared
to restare, with and under
Christ, the GOVERNMENT of God.
That shall be a time when Satan
shall bave been REMOVED.
Jt
shall
be a time when all living shall be
called to repentance and salvation
with eterna! life through the Holy
Spirit of Goo! The CHURCH,
immortal, shall be RULING with
Christ- replacing the present rule
of Satan!
The CHURCH, then, is that body
of called-out-ones, who at the res–
ur rec t ion shal l form the FIRST–
FRUITS of God's harvest. That har–
vest is the reaping of physical flesh–
and-blood, matter-composed hu–
mans converted into d ivine immor–
tal Goo BEINGS-those in whom
God actually
has
reproduced him–
self!
Church Stlll Carnal
WHY has God in wisdom gone
slow- a step at a time? Few real ize
HOW GREAT is God's PURPOSE!
After all these years of sinning,
human life c uT OFF from God, even
with God's own Holy Spirit given
to those
changed
by initial conver–
sion, those in the Church are ini–
tially " babes in Christ"-st ill far
more carnal than spiritual.
UNDERSTAND THIS!
The CHURCH, as initially called
in this life, is NOT YET capable of
RULING the earth--of si tt ing with
Christ in the THRONE where God
originally placed Lucifer--of ad–
ministering THE GOVERNMENT OF
Goo.
And THAT IS
WHY
God has
placed HIS GOVERNMENT in his
C hurch. That is
WHY
God' s
Church government is theocratic
ins tead of democratic. That is why
God has set ranks of government in
his Church, apostles, evangelis ts,
pastors, elders, both preaching and
nonpreaching, "till we [in the
Church] all come in the unity of
the faith, and of the knowledge of
24
the Son of God, unto a perfect
man, unto the measure of the stat–
ure of the fulness of Christ" (Eph.
4: 13) .
It
is not a matter of having
"made it into the kingdom" upon
being baptized, but a matter of
spiritual growth and development
in knowledge and in righteous
character. That is
WHY
it is hierar–
chical in form- government from
Goo at tbe top on down, not from
the bottom up. Otherwise those at
the bottom would be ru1ing Goo!
It is the SAME government by
which Christ shall rule all nations
beginning with the millennium!
And that is
WHY
Satan has sub–
tilely influenced dissidents in God's
Church to become resentful and
bitter over God 's government–
why sorne have gone out of the
Church!
The churches of this world–
"tradit ional Christianity"-oo NOT
speak of the government of Goo.
They do not picture J esus as com–
ing world RULER. Tbey do not
preach Jesus as coming KING-but
only as Savior. They overlook–
reject-scriptures s peaking of
Christ as King and coming Ruler,
and
government
rule in the king–
dom of God. And that is to say,
they deliberately REJECT and OMIT
the gospel MESSAGE of Christ in
their teaching and preaching! They
teach that one is
a/ready saved
on
" receiving" (GETTING) Christ!
1
repeat, the individual whom
God calls and adds to his Church is
not, at initial conversion, remotely
capable of being given POWER of
rule over nations!
He is called a " babe in Christ."
He has, if repentant and real ly con–
verted in this preliminary human
state, actually received a portian of
the Holy Spirit of God. Indeed in
Romans 8:16 we read: "The Spirit
itself beareth witness with our spir–
it, that we are the children of
God."
But we need to grow spiritually
before we are qualified to rule over
cities and nations and teach those
being converted.
As the apostle Paul said to those
in the first century Church who
were not growing spiri tual ly: "That
ye be not slothful , but followers of
them who t hr ough fait h and
patience inherit the promises. For
when God made promise to Abra-
bam, because he could swear by no
greater, he sware by himself, say–
ing, Surely blessing
1
will bless
thee, and multiplying
1
will multi–
ply thee" (Heb. 6:12-14).
We a re already, though yet
unborn, the begotten children of
God. By direct comparison the
impregnated embryo or fetus in a
mother- to-be's womb is
a/ready
the child of its parents, though not
yet born. Therefore
1
remark, in
passing,
abortion is MURDERI
But this brings us to a most
important PURPOSE and FUNCTION
of the Church!
Beginning verse 22 of Galatians 4
is an allegory about the two cove–
nants- the Covenant made with
national Israel at Mount Sinai and
the New Covenant to be made at
Christ's return. However, ministers
in the Church are "able ministers of
the new testament"
(11
Cor. 3:6).
The CHURCH is a part of, and
preliminary to the final making of,
the NEw TESTAMENT.
In this allegory of the two cove–
nants, the Church is called "THE
MOTHER OF US ALL"-that is, of
those in the Church.
So notice the direct comparison.
God is r eproducing himse lf
through humans. He endowed us
with power to reproduce ourselves.
Apd human reproduction is the
exact type of God's SPIRITUAL
REPRODUCTION!
How Human Reproduction Plctures
Splrltual Salvation
Now see and UNDERSTAND how
human reproduction pictures spiri–
tual SALVATION!
All human life comes from a tiny
egg, called an ovum. It is produced
inside tbe human mother. This
ovum is about the size of a pin
point. Inside it, when highly .mag–
nified, can be seen a small nucleus.
But this ovum has a very limited
life,
of itse/f!
Sorne doctors and
scientists believe it has alife of only
sorne 24 hours, unless fertilized by
a sperm from a male.
But human life may be imparted
to
it by a sperm cell, produced in the
body of the human fat her. The
sperm cell is tbe smallest cell in tbe
human body-about one fi ftiet h the
size of the ovum. The sperm-tech–
nically named a spermatozoon (plu–
ral , spermatozoa)--on entering an
The
PLAIN TRUTH