The Purpose of God

The sublime conception of the purpose of God pervades the book. It imparts unity and provides a hope for man throughout all ages.

God is represented as having a purpose with the earth. That purpose is to fill the earth with his glory.

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The Origin Of Sin & Death

The chart shows us the chief elements that are to be found in the first few pages of Genesis.

Here we can read of the Creation, of how the newly created man Adam and his wife were placed in a garden. There was special mention of two trees, one a tree of the knowledge of good and evil, whose fruit was forbidden them on pain of death. The transgression of a law of God is termed in the Bible "sin". A serpent creature with the power of speech induced Eve to eat the fruit, on the basis of a lie, that they would not in fact die but become like the angels of God. They believed the lie, they transgressed the law and so they sinned. The result was that sin was punished with death and all the descendants of Adam have ever since inherited the same sinful nature. The ground was cursed and so man might ever after have existed in misery, reaping the just deserts of his waywardness and his failure to subject his independence to the laws of God.

However it was not the purpose of God to forever populate the earth with sinners. The first detail to be attended to was that there should be no access to the tree of life. There would then be no immortal sinners; sinners would die, the Word of God declares "the soul that sinneth it shall die" (Ezekiel). Neither was it the purpose of God that this state of sin and death should continue indefinitely as though His whole purpose in creation had been a dreadful failure.

We might also note that neither did God want robots who would automatically do what He required, if so there might as well have been a creation of clockwork mice or toy trains.

The middle ground chosen was that a means should be provided for those individuals who would of their own free choice subject themselves to Him and thereby gain access to the means of forgiveness. Furthermore those who are forgiven could then justly be allowed the prize of eternal life which Adam forfeited. They must die, they must pay the penalty for sin, but they can be raised from the dead, by an all powerful God.

The Means Of Redemption

The middle section of our chart demonstrates the central figure in this purpose of redeeming mankind from sin and death.

The work of redemption was to be accomplished by one man, born of a woman, a promised offspring or seed.

This son was promised at the very beginning, at the great crisis of man's sin and expulsion from the paradise of God.

The ritual of animal sacrifice was instituted. This showed the necessary penalty of death and that without the shedding of blood there could be no remission [forgiveness] of sins. These sacrifices all pointed forward to a perfect sacrifice. They were in themselves a promise and a prophecy of what would come. It would be a lamb specially provided who was pointed out to those who sought to be his disciples in the words "Behold the Lamb of God", who is also described by the Apostle Peter as "a lamb without blemish and without spot".

This special seed, was born of the virgin Mary, and she was commanded by an angel to call his name Jesus. Jesus means Saviour and it was explained that he should save his people from their sins.

Jesus was born of a woman. He inherited the same nature as Adam who had sinned in the beginning, yet despite all the temptations to sin which beset him, he successfully resisted. It is testified that "he did no sin" and therefore by allowing himself to be taken and crucified he willingly offered himself for the sins of the world.

Because he was personally sinless he could not be justly condemned to an eternal grave, and so God raised him from the dead to die no more. As far as Jesus was concerned personally, death had been conquered.

Now for those who have lived after Christ, sacrifice of animals has not been required. Believers are required to identify with his death by an act of baptism, that is a total immersion in water from which they rise to a new life. In this new life they must keep the commandments of Jesus, they must seek forgiveness where they sin, and they must remember the death of Jesus in the way he appointed shortly before his death. This simple ceremony consists of partaking of bread and wine, symbols of his body and poured out blood. Every believer must do on the first day of the week until Jesus comes.

 

The Removal Of Sin & Death

Jesus ascended into heaven, but not to remain there: a time was clearly marked for his return to the Earth. This leads to the third and lower section of our chart.

When Jesus comes again there will be a resurrection of those who, because they have know the truth of God, He accounts responsible for their actions, we are told that "many that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake". These will be judged according to their works. At the same time those who are alive at Christ's return and know the truth concerning God will also be judged. The faithful will receive eternal life.

 

The kingdom of God will be set up, Sin will be restrained as will the curse, for the Old Testament prophets tell us that, "ploughman shall overtake the reaper", weapons will be transformed into agricultural implements,  there will be no more belief in the lie, trees will be for the healing of the nations, paradise (that word simply means a garden) will be restored, Jesus will reign for 1000 years. After that says Paul, "then cometh the end , when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God even the Father...that God may be all in all."

This is the message of the whole Bible.

The last chapters of Revelation beautifully mirror the opening chapters of Genesis.

The Bible only makes sense as a whole.

The demise of belief in the Millennium

Now an aside, why is not this simple scheme of things understood by everyone - we have had the Bible long enough? The answer is that we have had it too long. These simple truths of the Bible that were preached by Jesus and his disciples were infiltrated by philosophy.

The church grew, expanded enormously and then adapted to the people rather than causing the people to adapt to the church. The historian Gibbon, in his epic work, 'The decline and fall of the Roman Empire', refers to "the ancient and popular doctrine of the millennium", which, says he, "was intimately connected with the second coming of Christ". "It was the reigning sentiment of orthodox believers", he says, and yet the doctrine was discarded. The Church became Pagan and its doctrines a perversion of scripture. This is why we think it is so important that you look into these things yourselves, and we hope this summary is going to help.