GOD’S PLAN IN DETAIL – THE STUDY GUIDE

CONCLUSION

Religion in human history is primarily about providing philosophical frameworks for explaining and dealing with life’s problems, including our consciousness of life and death. Religion provides a sense of continuity with the past and some kind of hope for the future.

The concept of eternal life with rewards for good behaviour and punishments for bad behaviour provides a useful mechanism for governing populations. We have a built-in sense of the basics of what is right and wrong, and a successful religion meshes with that.

Regardless of what particular doctrines are taught, every such religion is the result of human imagination and reasoning, combining good and evil in some mix that suits the natural characteristics of the people concerned, and the circumstances in which they live. We have this as a direct result of Adam and Eve’s choice to eat from the forbidden tree in the garden that God planted for them. They elected to follow the way that seemed right and to decide for themselves what is good and evil. As their descendants, we have been doing so ever since.

By contrast, God has revealed in Scripture that he created us, and the entire physical universe, for the sole purpose of expanding his own Family. Yeshua, the only begotten Son of God the Father, qualified himself to become the first-born of many brothers. Our time on earth is for learning how to live as enthusiastic and contributing members of God’s Family and for developing the character and qualities that we will need in order to be trusted with such a fantastic inheritance.  We need to learn how to be at one with God through learning to follow and exercise the power of God’s Holy Spirit.

This plan is being implemented in three main stages:

The first stage began in the Garden of Eden and will end when Yeshua returns to take control of our world. This is the time when Satan is the ruler of the world and all those called during this time must overcome while living in this world.

It is also a time when all mankind will have to learn, and have re-enforced in our minds, that the human desire to decide for ourselves what is right and wrong leads only to suffering and death. We see this all around us every day. It is written in the lives of every one of us.

Yeshua came during this time to announce the purpose that God has planned for us, and to suffer and die a criminal’s death so that our sins could be forgiven and we could be reunited with God. When he returned to his Father he sent the Holy Spirit to live in us and provide the power we need to achieve that purpose.

However, very few will be called to participate in this first stage. Those who are will have been trained and prepared in the toughest environment of all – a world controlled by Satan. Those who overcome to the end of their lives will be battle-hardened and fully prepared to be given great responsibility as younger brothers of Yeshua when he returns to govern the whole world from the rebuilt Jerusalem.

The second stage will begin when Yeshua returns in full power to take over the governments of the earth. Satan and his demons will be chained so that they cannot deceive any more. At the end of this time many more members will be added to God’s Family. They will have a much easier environment to grow in, but will still be tested by Satan at the end of their training.

The third and final stage is when all the people who have previously lived are raised up to be judged. We don’t know the details of how this will be done, or how long it will take. When it is completed, all those who qualify will also become full members of God’s greatly extended Family. All those who have refused the opportunity will be disposed of in the lake of fire.

This is all that matters. When God’s Plan is fully completed, everything else will disappear and be replaced by a new universe, with a new earth as the home base for God’s new Family.

There is no freedom here to decide what we want to believe – only whether or not we will believe. Our perishable human bodies have only one purpose –to become perfect as God Himself is perfect so that we can finally be born as immortal members of God’s own Family. We need to learn how to live in harmony with God.

The first step is to recognise that we have all sinned and are condemned to die. The only way to escape is to believe what Yeshua taught and to accept the sacrifice he made for us so that we can be reunited with our Father.

We must realise that we cannot become perfect by using our own strength - we need the help of God’s Holy Spirit working in us to overcome our natural desires and to give us the desire to love and want to please God. While Christians can and do sin, God is generous to forgive and count us as innocent as soon as we realise our mistake and ask for his forgiveness. The rest of our human lives is then our training program for God to re-create us as perfect new members of his Family.

Death is just a time of ‘sleep’ while God completes the training program for everyone else. Our next moment of consciousness will be to hear the wake-up call of our older brother Yeshua the Messiah when he finally returns. We will wake up with new spirit bodies just like he already has.

God’s Plan is well advanced.

By accepting Yeshua’ sacrifice for our sins and using the power of God’s Holy Spirit to reject Satan’s temptation to live and believe as we choose, and by overcoming our human nature until the end of our lives, we can finally receive the full inheritance that God planned for us from the very beginning. We will then be able to eat freely from the Tree of Life as part of God’s Family Kingdom forever.

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our God is a consuming fire.” Hebrews 12:28-29 NIVTherefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, 29 for our “God is a consuming fire.”.