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cunning, s ubtile, maste rful
powers of deception. He mus t
have thought he really could out–
wit and spiritually strike down
the Christ. Satan knew well he
was now fighting to prevent his
dethroning over all the earth.
He struck his first blow at
what Satan regarded as the most
vulnerable points both physically
and spiritually. Surely a roa n
without food or water for 40 full
days would be weakened to yield
to almost any temptation for food.
And the most vulnerable spi ritual
weakness is vANITY!
" IF," sneered Satan tantaliz–
ing,- he used that effective little
word
I F- " JF
thou be the Son of
God"- a normal human would
have been insulted, indignant. He
would have defiantly hurled back:
"What do you mean,
IF
I be the
Son of God ? I'll show you that l
am the Son of God!"
But Satan in this first attack,
said ,
" 1F
thou be the Son of God,
command that these stones be
made bread." In other words, the
Son of God can produce miracles.
PRovE to me you are the Son of
God! You are desperately hungry.
Perform a miracle. Feed yourself
by a miracle!
But Jesus only answered by
quoting and obeying the Word of
God,
" It
is written, Man shall not
live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God."
Satan 's first and most effective
st rike was parried. But Satan nev–
er gives up. He took J esus into
J erusalem and sat Him on a high
pinnacle of the Temple. He con–
tinued to QUESTJ ON that Jesus
was the Son of God.
" !Fthou be theSon of God, cast
thyself down: for it is written, He
shall give his angels charge con–
cerning thee; and in their hands
they shall bear thee up, lest at any
time thou dash thy foot agai ns t a
stone." Now Satan quoted Scrip–
ture. But
he misapplied
it , twisted
its contextua! meaning, just as
Satan so frequently influences
scholars to do.
Jesus carne back to him,
"It
is
written again, Thou shalt not
tempt the Lord thy God." This is
quoted from Deuteronomy 6:16
40
and refers to tempting YHWH
{Hebrew), who became Christ.
But still Satan did not give
u
p.
Next he took J esus atop a high
mouotain, showing Him all the
kingdoms of the world and their
glory. " All these things will 1 give
thee, if thou wilt fall down and
worship me."
J esus did not deny that Satan
was now over the nations of this
world. This was a temptation for
gaioing immed iate power. Satan
well knew J esus would inherit all
these kingdoms more than 1,900
years later. But he tempted Jesus
to take Satan's word t hat he
would turn them over and give
Chris t world power IMMEDIATE–
LY. But Jesus decided it was time
to END this titanic battle for the
rulership over the earth .
Jesus now snapped out an
ORDER-a COMMAND showing
that He was MASTER over Satan!
"Get thee hence. Satan!" H e
commanded wi th supreme AU–
THORITY! Satan slunk away de–
feated. But Satan did not give up.
Nor has he given up yet. He
battles against God's CHURCH
still today!
J es us Christ, the "second
Adam," had QUALIFIEO! Never
until that minute could the aooo
NEWS of the coming KINGDOM OF
Goo be announced to the world.
Now the Son of God resisted and
conquered Satan- had QUALJ–
FIED to reestablish Goo's Gov–
ERNMENT and set up the KING–
DOM
OF
Goo on the earth! But
now the CHURCH must also quali–
fy to rule with Him!
Now at last the GOSPEL could
be proclaimed.
Now Further Revealed: WHO and
WHAT ls GOD?
But before we come to Jesus'
proclamation of that Gospel and
building His Church we have
here a further revelation of WHO
and WHAT is Goo! This further
revelation is necessary to compre–
hend WHAT a nd WHY is the
CHURCH!
It
has been shown that the very
fourth word in the beginning of
the King J ames and other transla–
tions of the Bible is
GOD,
trans-
lated from the Hebrew
Elohim.
It is a collective noun (in this case
NAME) meaning more than one
Person forming the ONE God.
God, we must bear
in
mind, is not
only an individual Supreme Be–
ing, but also the Supreme Eter–
nally Living Divine FAMILY.
This is also the opening state–
ment in what sorne believe origi–
na lly was the very
first
book of
the New Testament. In J ohn l: l-
3, 14, as previously covered in
this volume, in the beginning
were the TWO originally eterna lly
existing Persons forming the Goo
Fami ly- t he " WoRo" (Greek,
Logos)
and God - and the
" WORD" was also Goo! This
"WORD," (verse 14) was made
human ft esh- became by human
birth, J ESUS CHRIST.
So at this juncture we must
bear firmly in mind that Jesus
Christ was (and is)
GOD-just
as
God the Father who begat Him is
GOD-and
as you and
1
poten–
tially may
become
Goo!.For Goo
is a collective FAMILY-the DI–
VINE Family- into which THE
CHURCH is to be born!
Therefore, at the outset of
understanding
WHAT and WHY
is the CHURCH,
it is vital to
bear in mind : That all who were
to fo rro a nd compase the
CHURCH had been human- that
all humans (Christ excepted)
have SINNED and brought upon
them the supreme DEATH PENAL–
TY (Romans 6:23).
Jesus Christ was the very Goo.
With the Father He had existed
eternally. He carne, among other
purposes, to call out of the world
His CHURCH. Those called out
had been in-and OF-this world.
Each had brought on himself by
sin the supreme DEATH PENALTY.
But God had created ALL THINGS
by the
WORD
who became J esus
Christ. Therefore, Jesus' life was
greater in value than that of all
humani ty collectively!
Picture a human son of the
wealthiest, most powerful man on
earth . The tycoon's son is his
heir- to inherit his immense
wealth. He has been allocated a
sizable portian of it already while
an heir. T his young man feels
deep affection for another young
The
PLAIN TRUTH