THE PANORAMA OF GOD'S PLAN
Dec
03, 2018 by Dr. Stephan Jones
The
purpose of God in creating the universe was to extend His Kingdom beyond the
spiritual dimension into a realm of matter. Genesis 1:1,
in fact, provides us with the known extent of His Kingdom: “the heavens and
the earth.” Those who are unbalanced in their perspective see just one of
these realms as being His Kingdom. The full balanced view is to see that the
Kingdom of God includes both of them.
Spirit, Soul, and Body
There
are some with a materialistic view who do not recognize the realm of spirit.
Such is the view of modern science and law, which have developed into purely
materialistic views. Many Christians too know little about spiritual matters,
for they confuse spiritual things with religious matters. Spirit is a different
dimension that is inherently different and invisible to the material
world—invisible to our physical eyes, for instance.
Nonetheless,
because man has been created as a tripartite being (spirit, soul, and body), we
were all given a means by which we may interact with the realm of spirit. The
soul (carnal mind) and physical body are limited and cannot interact with the
spiritual dimension, apart from being influenced or directed by one’s spirit.
In
other words, your spirit is the door to the spiritual world. Paul says in 1
Corinthians 2:14-16 that only the inner “spiritual man” can know spiritual
things. The soul, or “soulish man,” is incapable of comprehending “the things
of the spirit of God.” For this reason, the soul must submit to the leading of
the spirit and trust that one’s spirit is more capable in such matters.
The
fact that Paul calls both the spirit and the soul a “man” was more than a
personification. It indicates that each has a conscious self, a mind, one
carnal and the other spiritual. This teaching is important to know, so that in
the course of becoming a “new creation” (2
Corinthians 5:17), we may understand that we are to change our identities
from soul to spirit and from Adam to Christ. The Christ that is in us as
begotten children of God is the product of two parents. You are the mother
(like Mary was to Jesus), and God is the Father who has begotten us by His
Spirit through the seed of the word (gospel).
Times
of Refreshing and Restoration
In
order to establish the Kingdom of God on earth in the fullest sense, all must
at some point in time be begotten from above. Only then will time end as we
know it. Hence, the Creation Jubilee marks the end of time, for only then will
the divine plan be complete. The final ages of time are known to the prophets
as “the times of refreshing” (Acts 3:19)
and “the period of the restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21).
John
shows us in Revelation 20 that these are times of divine judgment and
correction, where the Spirit of God is poured out in a final baptism of fire.
John drew upon the familiar metaphor that Moses used when he referred to the
divine law as “the fiery law” (Deuteronomy
33:2 KJV) by which all sin is judged and “burned up.” The prophet Daniel
had the same vision of fiery judgment when he saw the fiery throne of the
Ancient of Days, by which judgment flowed as a “river of fire” upon
those who were being raised from the dead (Daniel 7:10).
So
John the Baptist too understood that the Holy Spirit was to baptize mankind
with “fire” (Luke 3:16). He showed that this was a purifying fire,
designed to burn “chaff,” a farming metaphor well understood by his audience.
“Chaff” is that which is inedible, such as the traditions of men and any other
carnal thought or activity.
John’s
teaching prepared the way for the day of Pentecost, when tongues of fire was
seen upon the heads of the disciples in the upper room (Acts 2:3).
It
is only when we understand the “fire” metaphor in Scripture that we can truly
see the purpose for the Holy Spirit. That purpose is to judge all sin, purify
all men of their carnal ways, restore the lawful order by restitution and
labor, and ultimately to correct all that is wrong. Divine judgment ultimately
restores all things—the mission of Elijah (Matthew
17:11).
Because
Elijah himself called down literal fire from heaven (2 Kings
1:10), Jesus’ disciples thought that they should follow the same example
upon the unbelievers (Luke 9:54). But Jesus rebuked them, because they did not
understand that what is death in the Old Testament is life in the New. The
fiery judgment in the Old Testament (Sodom, for instance) did not truly reflect
the heart of God or the mind of Christ. The baptism of the fiery law was to
restore, not to destroy.
Those
of us who have a New Covenant mindset and who have put on the mind of Christ
are able to apply the judgments of God in a manner consistent with the true
purpose of the divine plan. By knowing that God intends to be “all in all” (1
Corinthians 15:28), we have forsaken the Greek dualistic viewpoint, where
in the end God is said to rule just a portion of the universe, while the devil
gets the vast portion of humanity in a realm called “hell.”
In
our view, God wins, and He wins by changing the hearts of all men, mostly
through divine judgments.
Three
Harvests
The
severity of these judgments are seen again in the metaphor of “chaff,” which is
the primary problem of all humanity. In the three harvest festivals in
Scripture, we see three first fruits offerings, each representing a different
portion of mankind: barley, wheat, and grapes.
Israel
was given three main harvest festivals, each having a first fruits offering to
sanctify the harvest. These have personal application, of course, but in the
long-term prophetic story, each represents a group of humanity that is
presented to God at different times in history. This relates directly to the
presentation of the sons of God, so they may be manifested in the earth.
Barley
is winnowed, wheat is threshed, and grapes are trodden down under foot. The
chaff of barley does not cling to the grain (germ) but blows away in the wind
very easily. Such are the overcomers, who, like Christ, are most easily moved
by the Spirit (ruach, “wind”). These repent most easily with a minimum
of pressure (judgment).
The
wheat company, which represents the church in general, require threshing to
remove the chaff from the grain. Hence, Paul says that the church will be “saved
yet so as through fire” (1
Corinthians 3:15).
The
grape company, which represents the rest of humanity (unbelievers), will be
judged most severely, pictured in the treading of the grapes. Men tread grapes
to extract the juice and to cast aside the “chaff,” which in this case is the
pulp. God’s purpose is set forth in 1
Corinthians 15:27, where all things are put “under His feet.” Here
and elsewhere Paul quotes Psalm 8:6. It is the well-known metaphor of grape harvest.
When
the final harvest is complete, God sets forth the feast, the great Communion
Table, where He may feast with us on unleavened bread (barley), leavened bread
(wheat), and wine. Whenever men partake of the Communion Table, they prophesy
and bear witness of that final Communion.
Three
Presentations of the Sons of God
The
historical process by which everyone comes into Sonship is seen in clearer
fashion in the New Testament. John shows in Revelation
20:4, 5, 6
and in 20:12 that there are two resurrections, one for the overcomers and a second
for all of humanity—including the rest of the church. The two are said to be a
thousand years apart (Revelation 20:7).
The
first resurrection is for the “barley” company, which will receive its reward
of immortality in time to reign with Christ during the thousand years preceding
the judgment at the Great White Throne. When the church as a whole is raised
from the dead, along with the rest of humanity, they will be treated differently.
Jesus spoke of this resurrection in John 5:28,
29,
where He said that the believers will be given “a resurrection of life,”
while the unbelievers will be given “a resurrection of judgment.”
Hence,
for the church this will be a wheat harvest for God’s Table. For the rest of
humanity, however, they will be raised to judgment. By appearing before the
Great White Throne, they will finally learn the truth, and then “every knee
will bow” and “every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord”
(Philippians
2:10, 11). The Greek word for “confess” is exomologeo, “to
profess, to acknowledge openly and joyfully, to profess that one will do
something, to promise, agree, engage.”
That
is what “every tongue” will say. This describes universal conversion to Christ.
Paul says further that “no one can say, ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy
Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3). Hence, every tongue that professes
that Jesus Christ is Lord is evidence that the Holy Spirit is at work.
Nonetheless,
salvation is not just about being begotten by the Spirit (or “born again,” as
many put it). Being begotten is only the beginning of a maturing process. We
know this in our own lives today, for it takes time for the Holy Spirit to burn
the chaff from our lives. We are not perfected immediately. We must “grow in
the grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter
3:18).
So
also those who are newly-begotten believers at the Great White Throne must be
given time to grow into maturity through the baptism of fire. That is the
nature of the “lake of fire” in Revelation
20:14. This “lake” is formed by the “river of fire” in Daniel 7:10.
The river flowing out from the throne of the Ancient of Days is the sentence of
fiery law being meted out to the people. The lake is the condition in which
humanity lives during that final age of judgment, wherein they learn
righteousness through judgment (Isaiah 26:9).
The
Length of the Judgment Age
This
age of judgment is largely misunderstood because it is hidden by most
translations that render it “eternal” or “everlasting.” The Greek word aion
means “an age, or eon,” and aionian means “pertaining to an age.” When
it is presumed to mean eternity, it is assumed that this age is
never-ending, and hence, the judgment is without hope, and God loses most of
humanity.
But
aionian is just the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word olam. Olam
means “hidden, unknown, indefinite.” It comes from the root word alam,
“to conceal, to hide.”
When
applied to time, olam refers to an indefinite period of time, an age of
unspecified duration. It requires further context to fix a particular amount of
time to such an age. To Jonah it was 3 days (Jonah 2:6).
Phinehas was given an olam covenant of priesthood, which lasted about
300 years, after which time his line was replaced by Zadok in the time of
Solomon (1 Kings 2:27). Neither Jonah nor Phinehas knew precisely
how long their time would last, for God hid that from them. But the time was
not “everlasting.”
And
so judgment in the New Testament was also aionian (the same as olam).
The length of that final age is hidden from most people, but it is limited. How
do we know? Certainly, not by the word aionian itself. We know it by the
law of Jubilee, which limits all judgment and restores all that a man has lost.
In the context of national laws, the Jubilee trumpet cancelled all debt and set
all men free (by grace) every 49 years (Leviticus
25:8, 10, 11).
Scripture applies this law more
broadly, such as in Daniel’s “seventy weeks,” which is seventy Sabbath years,
or ten Jubilees. In the context of creation itself, where a day (or year) is as
a thousand years, the Creation Jubilee comes at the end of 49,000 years. It
appears that we are now at end of the first “week,” or 6,000 years. The seventh
millennium will be the time between the two resurrections, as John says. It
appears that the age of judgment will run for another 42,000 years after that. Revelation
11:2 and 13:5 associate the number 42 with tribulation/judgment.
Clearly, treading the grapes is a
more severe form of judgment than winnowing barley or even threshing wheat.
Those who are blessed by having faith in Christ in this life will receive a
much greater reward and will be given responsibilities in the ages to come. But
in the end, all things will be put under the feet of Christ, and God will then
be all in all. He will not be all in some, nor some in all, but all in all.
That is the good news of the gospel.
When God wins in the end, then both heaven and earth will be fully restored,
leaving no portion of darkness to taint the light, no sin to corrupt the
righteous universe, no unbeliever to disagree with the mind of Christ.
That is the overall divine plan.
Scripture reveals many details along the way so that we might understand the
plan, His purpose, and His way of thinking. We will try to show some of those
details as we proceed.
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