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successor, has both qualified AND
been inducted into office.
Immediately on Christ's retum,
Satan shall be BOUND.
Continue: "And cast him into the
bottomless pil, and shul him up,
and set a seal upon him, that he
should deceive lhe nations no more,
till the lhousand years should be
fulfilled: and after that he must be
loosed a little season" (verse 3).
Those resurrected then shall reign
over aU nations with Christ for a
thousand years of PEACE on earth.
Imagine what il shall be like with
Chrisl and resurrected saints form–
ing the KINGDOM OF Goo, ruling
with the GOVERNMENT OF Goo over
all living humans who sball be left
alive. Satan will be restrained from
broadcasting. Christ will be ruling
with Goo's
w
AYoflife.
But NOW NOTICE! Verse
7:
"And
when the thousand yea rs are ex–
pired, Salan shall be loosed out of
this prison, and shall go out to de–
ceive the nations wbich are in the
four quarters of the earth ... to
gather them together to battle: the
number of whom is as the sand of
the sea" (verses 7-8).
Grasp it! Tbese are people at
PEACE! They have not been in–
oculated wilh the satanic NATURE
we now call "human nature." They
shall have been living happily in
PERFECT PEACE. Now Satan once
more BROADCASTS. Remember these
nations are HUMAN. Satan
is
INVISmLE
to
them. But ootice the CHANGE come
over them as sooo as Satan is loosed
and able again to sway humanity :
Verse 9: "And they [the human
oations] went up on the breadth of
the earth, aod compassed the camp
of the saints about, and the beloved
city...." lmmediately "HUMAN NA–
TURE" shall have entered into them!
Immediately they shall have been
filled with envy and jealousy against
the saints of God, filled with wrath
and violence! But God will not
allow them lo destroy. They shall
bave been
to/d -
have been warned
about Satan. "... and fire carne
down frorn God out of heaven, and
devoured them. And the devil that
deceived them was cast into tbe lake
of fire and brimstone ... and shall
be torrnented day and nigbt for ever
and ever."
After this shall occur the "Great
The
PLAIN TRUTH Apri i-May 1976
White Throne Judgment" - the res–
urrection of
a/1 humanity
frorn the
time of Adam to Christ's corning
who had not been in the first resur–
rection or called by God. In this
judgrnent is lo be " the book of life,"
meaning many, perhaps most, shall
then find spirilual salvation and
eterna! life. In the time of their
judgment, Salan will be GONE!
Up to now, God has called VERY
FEW to spiritua l salvation, contrary
to general tradition and opinion
in
the "Christian" world!
From Adam to Noah we have the
record of only Abel, Enoch, and
Noah - sorne
1,900
years! From
Noah to Christ , there was Abraham,
Lot, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, prior
to calling the children of Israel out
of Egypt. God NEVER otfered spiri–
tual salvation (eterna! life) to the
O.T. nation Israel, but only to the
prophets and those called to SPECIAL
DUTY.
From Adam to Christ, NONE were
called to spiritual salvation
except
those ca/led to a SPECIAL MIS–
SION TO PERFORM.
From Christ to now, ooly a VERY
MINUTE PORTION of hurnanity has
been called, and they for the SPE–
CIAL MISSION ofTHE GREAT COMMIS–
SION - "Go ye into all the world
and preach the GOSPEL" (of the
KlNGDOM OF Goo).
We who bave been called in this
"church age" have been called to
qualify as rulers with and under
Christ
in
the kingdom of God, re–
storing the GOVERNMENT OF ÜOD, in
other words, to develop the holy,
righteous CHARACTER of God. But
OUR PART in the GREAT COMMISSION
is the assignment God has given as
THE MEANS of preparing us for ruler–
ship with and uoder Christ when He
comes - and THAT IS NOW SOON!
This installment began with the
q ues tion of whether this e vil
"human nature" is boro in a sweet
tiny baby. Let me now, before the
close, q uote three passages from the
Bible.
"And they brought unto hirn
[Jesus] also infants, that be would
touch them. . . . Jesus called them
unto him, and said, Suffer little chil–
dren to come unto me, and forbid
thern not; for
ofsuch
is the kingdom
of God" (Luke
18:15-16).
The evil
nature which sorne erroneously
have supposed was boro in babies is
the nature of Satan's kingdom, but
"of sucb" -
these babies
-
is the
kingdom of Goo.
"At the same time carne the dis–
ciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the
greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
And Jesus ca ll ed a little child unto
bim, and set him in the midst of
them, and said, Verily I say unto
you, Except ye be converted,
and
become as
little children, ye shall not
eoter into the kingdom of heaven"
(Matt.
18: 1-3).
" Jesus said, Suffer
little
child ren,
and forbid them not, to come unto
me: for of such is the kingdom of
heaven" (Matt.
19: 14).
We humans start out at birth all
rigbt. But soon we begin to absorb
and ACQUIRE the selfish, self–
centered attitude broadcast by
Satan. But Satan's kingdom of an–
gels - now turned to demons - re–
jected the GOVERNMENT OF Goo,
and it was thus removed from earth.
Goo's PURPOSE in having created
and put HUMANS on earth was to
develop in them Goo's own holy
and righteous character. God wants
a people who will REJECT and over–
corne Satan's
w
AY OF LIFE and turn
to THE GOVERNMENT OF ÜOD -
wbich is Gon's WAY oflife.
That GOVERNMENT OF Goo exists
at this time on earth only in the
Worldwide Church of God. Satan is
angry. He bates it! He subtly tries to
inject into minds under that govem–
ment of LOVE a hostility that MIS–
represents it as a harsb and cruel
governmeot ofSatao.
But 1 repea t, LUCIFER was created
by God
"perfect
in aU his ways, until
iniquity was found in him." He
ac–
quired
the oature of rebellion and
evil by false reasoning. Adam
ac–
quired
it
from Satan. The Ephesians
(Eph. 2:
1)
acquired it from Salan
-
as has al/ humanity, except
Jesus
Christ. But now, IN CHRIST, througb
His grace, we may ACQUIRE the DI–
VINE NATURE (11 Pet. l :4).
God's GREAT PURPOSE is to RE–
STORE THE GOVERNMENT OF ÜOD to
this earth, in and through the KING–
DOMOFGon!
We CAN , by Christ's grace,
CHANGE " human oature" and eradi–
cate
it
entirely from us, replacing it
with the-DIVINE NATURE! 0
(
To be continued in future issues)
27