THIS EARLY MORNING – I had commented to one of God’s ministers – Mr. Guy C. LaMar – on his posting of the Church building he is considering renting there in Athens, Alabama – “I truly am overjoyed with the great blessings from the LORD our God!!!!” And I was thinking – just WHAT are our objectives, our goals, and our purposes!? Those of us who are close to this blessed and fast-growing worldwide multi-phased operation use the term “the Work.”
Now, many of you may know just what “the Work” is, and many may not. I feel sure that many of our brethren truly knows what “the Work” is. But many of our growing friends in places like Cambodia, Ireland, Brazil, Trinidad, or Barbados may not. They might think that it is a Protestant work – whatever that may entail.
Well, I thought that our brethren and our friends should know just what IS “the Work,” as well as its PURPOSE. What is behind the “Work,” and how it is financed. Why do we do the things we do!?
When we speak of “the Work” we, of course, mean GOD’S WORK! When we speak or write we will often use the term “God’s work,” or the “Work of God.”
Now, there is a vast difference between man’s work, and God’s. Going back to the early books of the Holy Bible we see that God (the great Elohim – the family of God) marked out, and gave mankind, SIX days of every week for our own work. Recall, He says within His Ten Commandments, “’ SIX days you shall labor and do all your work” – Exodus 20:9. Indeed, the anti-Semite and anti-Union inventor Henry Ford played a huge role in “inventing” the modern weekend.
But, I think we all understand well enough what we mean by “our work,” or “man’s work.” We are speaking of our labor, our job, our business, occupation, etc. God’s Work is God’s activity – His mission. And we are speaking of the activity or what is called the “Great Commission” which God purposes to accomplish in the world – throughout the world – by and through human instruments whom God the Father calls and uses.
Now, as an example, the blessing of this building in Athens – or any Church building elsewhere – is but another means to this great “Work of God.” But, just what is God’s Work – and WHY!? What PURPOSE is it for!? How did it begin, and just HOW does God maintain it through human instruments in this 21st-century world!?
Some Prehistory Facts
For those of our friends in faraway places, who may never have heard the FACTS of prehistory – which explains just why we have the conditions and troubles in this world today – let me take you back. God’s living word – the Holy Bible – records for us events that took place prior to any human recordings.
Now, friends, there is not enough room on a hundred pages for all the details. This glorious and surprising TRUTH is throughout our sermons and articles online. They’re all free and with no obligation to watch and read – at www.owensborocojc.com.
But to be brief here – God’s living word reveals to us a “god of this age” (2 Corinthians 4:4) – one who has blinded the minds of those who do not believe. A Satan the devil – and of his origin as a former “covering cherub” perfect in beauty. He had been at the very throne of the Master of the universe! In an article which I am typing up entitled “A Changing World!” I cover this. He – as the prophet Ezekiel was inspired to write – was on the very ‘holy mountain of God; walking among the fiery stones.’ He had been trained in a role of administration for the very GOVERNMENT OF GOD!
Now, we learn from God’s living word that angels were never meant to rule the earth or the universe – “the world to come” cf. Hebrews 2:5. However, prior to the creation of Adam and Eve – the very first true Homo sapiens – he was allowed access to the garden of Eden to tempt our first parents. This rebellious and prideful cherubim was on the throne of the earth itself, administrator of God’s GOVERNMENT ON EARTH and over legions of angels. All this is revealed to us in the Books of Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28.
He purposely became a rebel, influencing a third of the holy angels to follow his rebellion and an attempted coup d'état of the third heaven – the very throne of the Master of the universe! He attempted to seize the very GOVERNMENT of the entire universe!
Now, a great deal of this prehistory is revealed to us in various parts of God’s living word – something to remember is that God’s living word is like a jigsaw puzzle that must be put together to see the full picture of “God’s Master Plan – From the Beginning.” - cf. Isaiah 28:10.
God – and the word here for “God” is Elohim, the family of God which consists at this present time of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ – is SUPREME RULER of the universe, HEAD of the GOVERNMENT OF GOD and over the finite universe.
* Now, you might notice that I underlined the word finite – as in “the finite universe.” It is my personal belief that what, of course, looks limitless (infinite) to us (relative to our size), may not look that limitless to God. I believe that the universe does have a certain “volume” or a “size.”
Hêlēl – meaning “shining one” – incorrectly translated Lucifer in the King James Version – along with his angels were thrown “like lightning” back down to the earth where they currently reside – disqualifying him as an administrator of the GOVERNMENT OF GOD on the earth. Satan – meaning “that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan” the very word meaning adversary; an adversary to God’s Government. This covering cherubim – and in that article, I mentioned typing up, we find out just what this evil and vile “serpent” looked like to Eve – became the devil. And his angels became demons. Their minds had become warped and perverted in thought and reason.
Now, because of the rebellion of Satan the devil, and his demons, physical destruction occurred to the earth! Notice this – Genesis 1:2, “The earth [became] without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep.” And, we’ve covered this many times before – the Hebrew words which our great patriarch and prophet Moses used are tohu and bohu – which truly means “chaotic and in confusion.” God – “in the beginning created the heavens and the earth … And God saw that it was good” – Genesis 1:1, 10.
God did not create the earth in tohu and bohu – God is not a God of disorder (1 Corinthians 14:33). The earth became tohu and bohu. The earth was “GOOD.” Recall, “the morning stars sang together And the sons of God [meaning here, the angels of God] shouted for joy” upon the laying of the foundation of the earth – Job 38:1-7.
But then the family of God RENEWED the face of the earth (Psalm 104:30), causing the sun to shine through the darkness – dividing the light from the darkness, calling the light day and the darkness night, creating a twenty-four hour period of time.
* A great answer to the question: “Has the Earth's rotational period always been 24 hours?” is from Simon Ellingsen, Associate Professor in Physics, University of Tasmania, Australia: “ … Anything which changes the mass distribution of the Earth changes its rotational period. So heating of the atmosphere or the oceans makes them expand, the Earth's moment of inertia increases, and the length of the day increases. Large earthquakes are observed to change the length of the day as well. …”
God created an atmosphere – which is divided into five different layers, based on temperature, creating the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, thermosphere, and the uppermost layer, that blends with what is considered to be outer space, the exosphere – Genesis 1:6-8. God created the seas with its different layers – in which the deepest level of the ocean lies the Mariana Trench, at a depth of some 6,825 miles! – cf. Genesis 1:9-10. God also created flora, fauna, and other forms of life – Genesis 1:11-13, 20-25.
Now, lastly, on the SIXTH DAY, God created MAN in Their ‘image and according to Their likeness’ - Genesis 1:26.
In a 2018 Letter to our Brethren I had written:
“Last night I caught a glimpse of a program that NOVA was airing on television called The Dawn of Humanity. And, it indeed was intriguing. Yet, pangs from my heart wept. They KNOW NOT GOD, nor HIS TRUTH! Yes, there were, definitively, creatures which archaeologists - and the like - have incorrectly been trying to link with Homo sapiens. Ape-like creatures which were bipedal and possibly used "tools." But this does not make them human.”
Not only did the LORD God form MAN of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, but MAN has a spirit – Job 32:8.
God created MAN out of matter, with the potential of being begotten, and then born of SPIRIT composition, immortal, into the very family of God!
* Now, I’d like to note, that I wrote in a Letter to our Friends of the subject of decay: “The law of decay is a physical law described in mathematical manners that describes the properties of a nuclear atom in a state of decay. The radioactive decay law states that this decay is constant. For if nothing was done about this law of decay, this corruption will ultimately lead to the complete annihilation of the universe. For I refer to a little physics here, the laws of thermodynamics –
• First Law - Energy cannot be created or destroyed in an isolated system.
• Second Law - Entropy – or disorder – always increases.
• Third Law - The entropy of a system approaches a constant value as the temperature approaches heat, and eventual death.
So, truly, this law of decay proves that life originated from a Divine Being with intelligence outside of this physical universe.
Now, I want you to understand that mankind was going to die – no matter if they were to choose the tree of life or the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Had they chose the tree of life, they would still have lived out their days and died; and indeed we find this did happen, “So all the days that Adam lived were 930 years; and he died” – Genesis 5:5 – but would have, after losing consciousness, “in the twinkling of an eye,” been resurrected unto eternal life! But, we know of which tree they chose “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive” – Adam and Eve will be resurrected in what is known as “the Great White Throne Judgment” (Revelation 20:11-13). Adam and Eve have yet to receive the precious gift of eternal life. They were driven out of the garden of Eden lest they received it.
* Note: God’s perfect and righteous character can only be created in us by and through God, but with our own individual free choice, decision, and will. God cannot create His character in us by fiat, character must be developed.
Because mankind was created with a carnal mind it is enmity against God; “for it is not subject to the Law of God, nor indeed can be” – because God’s Holy Spirit is not present (without being freely given by God) in the carnal mind. Mankind has what is called HUMAN NATURE. This nature is but an invisible pull toward the likes of self-centeredness, vanity, lust, greed, jealousy, envy, hatred, rivalry. It is a nature of rebellion, hostility against authority. And mankind has another pull in our nature – the inordinate desire of the FLESH – an unrighteous desire of our five senses.
Angels, however, are wholly spiritual beings – who have the ability to transverse different dimensions. Depending on which string theorist you ask, there may be upwards of 10 different dimensions. They were created long before mankind, but also with a free moral agency – the right of free choice. They are individually created beings of great and immense knowledge, holy and righteous. They KNOW the causes of desired results as well as the causes of evil results.
Here is a vital point: angels had no excuse for rebelling against God and turning away from the GOVERNMENT OF GOD. Hêlēl and his third of the angels rebelled against God despite what they knew was the utmost evil. God’s living word tells us that the severity of God’s judgment depends on how much knowledge a person possesses - Luke 12:48. The angels who rebelled against God, then, with the great knowledge they possessed, are greatly deserving of God’s wrath!
But friends, MAN is different. Man was created “in the image of God,” with the very potential of being begotten and eventually BORN of God – as God’s own child, having God’s own DIVINE NATURE!
“By which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption [the decay] that is in the world through lust” – 2 Peter 1:4.
And we could easily say, ‘through pride” – cf. Isaiah 14; Ezekiel 28.
MAN has the potential of being elevated to the GOD plane high above the angels.
Let us understand two things about the nature of mankind. Psychologists are utterly ignorant in their postulating that human nature is essentially good. MAN desires to be good but desires more to be evil. In the five decades I have been alive I have witnessed this firsthand. My own wife has a famous saying, “It’s good to be bad!” MAN resents being told that it has done WRONG – denies it – and justifies it, or blames the wrong on another!
Case in point: “’ The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, …’” – Genesis 3:12.
It is the very nature of MAN to have an attitude of hostility to GOD’S GOVERNMENT. It is completely natural to MAN that he sins – and sin is defined as transgression against the LAW OF GOD – 1st John 3:4. But, does it mean that MAN has to sin!?
No, not at all!
The Word (John 1:1, 14) was born a human being – of a human mother – was tempted in all points as we are (which means that He was subjected to all the same temptations as we are) – YET WITHOUT SIN! There has been no other that has ever done that – past or present. Besides our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” – Romans 3:23.
But I digress, getting back to the very creation of Man.
God the Father created “all things through Jesus Christ” – cf. Ephesians 3:9; John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:16. And, MAN was created with human nature.
So, here we have an adult man and an adult woman (according to the living word of God, a person becomes an adult when they reach the age of 20 – cf. Numbers 14:29) with the pull of human nature, with carnal minds – as yet unfilled with knowledge. But their minds were capable of receiving knowledge, instruction, reasoning – and choosing and acting according to will.
A Seventh-day Sabbath
Now, at sunset that SIXTH DAY of the week, “God ended His work which He had done” – Genesis 2:2. But He did not end creating. He then created His sabbath (the very word sabbath meaning - from Friday evening to Saturday evening as a day of rest and worship) by ‘blessing the seventh day and sanctifying it,’ “because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made” – vs. 3.
On this very FIRST SABBATH, the LORD God – the very One who would later become JESUS CHRIST – INSTRUCTED THE MAN AND THE WOMAN IN GOD’S WAY – in GOD’S GOVERNMENT! Instructing them in the causes of desired blessings or curses –
“’ I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; 20) that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; …’” – Deuteronomy 30:19-20.
“’ Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14) Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it. 15) Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves’” – Matthew 7:13-15.
Satan the devil’s religion
As soon as the sabbath had ended, and the LORD God had finished instructing MAN in the Way of God, along came “the serpent” – the enchanting whisperer – an evil and vile cherubim – on the FIRST DAY of the week. Known today as the day of the sun.
He began instructing the first woman in the religion of Satan – teaching her that MAN has an immortal soul and that God had lied –
“’ You will not surely die. 5) For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil’” – Genesis 3:4-5.
So, the woman reached out and TOOK! She rejected the LORD God and His revelation. She rejected God’s revealed knowledge – she used her own reasoning. She reasoned that the forbidden tree was “good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise” – Genesis 3:6.
* To note: ever since MAN has desired as the choicest of foods that which the LORD God has revealed as NOT GOOD FOR FOOD – Leviticus 11. See also our article “Is God’s Biblical Food Laws Still In Effect!?”
Now, understand, Adam was not deceived, yet he allowed his wife to lead him astray, and he too obeyed and followed Hêlēl, and DISOBEYED the LORD our God!
Therefore MAN DISQUALIFIED THEMSELVES to succeed Satan the devil as administrator of GOD’S GOVERNMENT over the earth, as well as the universe beyond – cf. Romans 8:21-22.
And ever since, mankind has followed the deceptions of Satan the devil, and of their human nature. Only two are ever mentioned in the living word of God has having followed the LORD God’s Way before the patriarch Noah – Abel and prophet Enoch.
Only Noah – who found grace in the eyes of the LORD, ‘a just man, perfect in his generations’ after some 1100 years Noah alone was obedient to the LORD God! – Genesis 6:8-9.
Then, the next recorded as being righteous was Abram (Abraham). And, the LORD God chose Abraham’s descendants – some 430 years later – for God’s service. He made them HIS NATION, and set up HIS GOVERNMENT over them, under prophet Moses. But they eventually demanded human government with a human king like other God-rejecting nations around them – cf. 1st Samuel 8:4-7.
‘the acceptable year of the LORD’
In the acceptable year of the LORD, God the Father sent His own begotten Son – Jesus the Christ – cf. John 3:16; Isaiah 61:2a; Luke 4:18-19.
* To note: When our Lord Jesus Christ was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah to read, He turned to chapter 61, but did not read the following verse. Notice what comes next – “And the day [the Day of the LORD] of vengeance of our God” – vs. 2b.
MEN rejected Him and murdered Him!
Now, our Lord Jesus Christ was sent to START God’s Work through humans in this world.
Yet, before even beginning this vital mission, He had to be subjected to the temptations of Satan the devil and His own human nature – to prove that He would qualify to ADMINISTER THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD over all nations on the Earth – replacing Satan the devil as ruler of the Earth! – cf John 14:30. Under the most extreme conditions of temptations, our Lord Jesus Christ resisted Satan the devil – He resisted the extreme temptations of hunger and His human nature – He quoted and obeyed God’s living word!
“Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2) And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterward He was hungry.3) Now when the tempter came to Him, he said, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.’4) But He answered and said, ‘It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’5) Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on a pinnacle of the temple, 6) and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written: ‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’ and, ‘In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’7) Jesus said to him, ‘It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the LORD your God.’8) Again, the devil took Him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. …”
Such as the kingdoms of Rome, the Hans Dynasty in China, as well as Gaul, Greece, and Egypt.
9) And he said to Him, ‘All these things I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.’10) Then Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve’” – Matthew 4:1-10.
He proved in this most ginormous struggle, that He was loyal and faithful to God the Father and HIS GOVERNMENT, and that nothing could move Him to defy or disobey His Father.
JESUS CHRIST qualified to become King of kings and Lord of lords over all kingdoms of the world (Revelation 11:15) and to set up and administer the KINGDOM OF GOD in the WORLD TOMORROW!
He then built His Church upon HIMSELF! – cf. Matthew 16:18; Exodus 17:6; Deuteronomy 32:4; 1 Corinthians 3:11; 10:4. He began His own personal phase of this Work. □
to be continued
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