Panoramic The Story of God
The Doctrine of the Church
Preparations – Symmetry in Chaos
Panoramic
The Story of God
as seen through
The Great Christian Doctrines
1
~The Bible tells us that when humanity was created, the human soul was created in sweet union and fellowship with the
Creator/God - and life on this planet was really good. and rich, and
safe
for the first man
and woman, as danger was not known to them. But Satan came along and planted lies
about God in their heads So it wasn’t long (we don’t really know how long) and the lies
took root, and the first man and woman rebelled against God, and went their own way –
and God let them,
for fellowship with God was a choice – a very real and consequential
freedom that God had given His humans! But there was a great penalty that had to be
factored in. God had warned them about it. They didn’t believe Him, and they should
have! So,
need
,
hard toil
, a
hostile earth (danger)
, and the
death
-process
attacked them
for the first time! But more than anything else, they were
alone,
and they were lost
!
God withdrew, as they wished, and stopped providing for and protecting them. As their
own leaders, they were lost in so many ways. By worst of all, they lost touch with God!
For His part, God found future generation of humans to have become
selfish, arrogant, cruel
, (which rhymes with
fool)
. Men
made themselves into
fools,
who went so far as to make up gods out of their own fertile imaginations to fill the hole in their soul
left there by the absence of the true God and source of their eternal soul (as I stated last week)! After the rebellion of the
human race against God, they were expelled from the great paradise-like garden/park of Eden! For His part, God found future
generation of humans to have become
selfish, arrogant, cruel
, (which rhymes with
fool)
. Men made themselves into
fools –
fools
who made up mythical gods out of their own fertile imaginations to fill the hole in their soul left there by the absence of
the true God and source of their soul (as I stated last week)!
~At that time, God put a plan into effect. He started out using one nation – the Hebrews/Israelites/Jews/descendants of
Abraham- but they were not the end game for God
[*Gen. 12:1,2]
! The Hebrew nation was an important part of an ongoing
process in which the Creator/God was out to win
the entire WORLD
back to Himself! He would start with love! His goal was to
ultimately create for Himself a kingdom, not of one location like normal, but of
no specific location on earth
- made of
people/citizens – from
everywhere
– people called out from among
all
the nations for this special task of drawing
even more
people from around the earth to rescue them out of His judgment and for them to be transferred into the love of God and
[*Ex.
19:6 1 Pet. 2:9,10
/ Eph. 1:11,12]. Together, they would comprise a multi-ethnic nation, a NEW nation, that was to be called
“
the church”
. The central figure of the church, it’s Head, was to be the
Word of God
, 2
nd
member of God’s Tri-unity, who was to
become the Son of God, Savior, and ultimately King of Kings over all the nations of earth! He was/is the Center, the Head of the
church! A major part of Christ’s earthly ministry was choosing and discipling men and women, so that when He was gone, they
might begin His
church –
which was to be an organization of Christ-followers that would serve His plan and purposes to draw
people to God with the gospel story of Jesus [Matt. 28:18-20 / John 12:32 / Ro. 8:28 / 2 Co. 4:14 / Eph. 4:11-13 / Ph’p. 2:13-16],
and to continue on doing this until His return [Lk. 19:12,13].
~
Israel
was supposed to have started that process, but unfortunately, as a nation, they failed at it utterly! Somehow, God from
before Creation, knew that they would! Thus, He moved on to the church. The church was His means to reach out to a world
that desperately needed Him! He chose His own people to reach people not His own!
2
~That was, and still is, the plan. The church part of this plan (the church age) has always included bringing/wooing
people from around this planet into loving relationship with Himself
[Isa. 24:14-16 / 26:18 / 45:22] to stifle the curse of sin that has fastened itself
to human DNA, and then to bind them together in the type of love fashioned
after His own
agape
love [Isa. 19:23-25 / Matt. 22:37-40]. This is God bringing
us back to the original state of creation when there was fellowship and love
between God and His newly minted sixth day creation.
One of the most fascinating elements of Biblical studies is to retrospectively
examine how the Creator pushed forward His plan to form His church
[*Isa. 25:1],
and how He accomplished it despite circumstances and events
which most often seemed to be careening hopelessly out of control! A quick
read of the Old Testament will soon reveal a chosen Hebrew nation fluctuating
wildly between obedience loyalty to God, and the abject disobedience and betrayal of
idolatry.
The bulk of the
Hebrew’s history with first their judges (national leaders, but not kings), and then their kings reveals that they were
largely ungodly men, prone to self-indulgence and paganism - and life would become hard for Israel! These hard
times were interspersed with an occasional leader who proved
mostly
, or
somewhat
loyal to the God of Israel.
Typically, as their leaders were, the people followed, and as a result, the Biblical account of the spiritual history of
the Jews seems typically aimless and meandering [Isa. 26:18]. They did not seem to be meeting God’s stated
objective of somehow being a blessing to the entire world by revealing the true God to the nations.
~This is nowhere more apparent than in the “captivities” of Israel
[*Isa. 5:1-7,13]
. Prior to each time the country
was conquered, the enthusiasm in Israel for the brand of paganism indigenous to the cultures surrounding them had
grown into a truly wretched state! To counter this, God literally directed invading armies to come in and overrun
Israel before this trend went any further [
*2 Chr. 36:15-20
/
Isa. 1:2-9 / 1:18,19 / 5:12,13 / 5:26-30 / 6:11-13 / Jer.
20:4,5
]
. These Assyrian and Babylonian conquerors plundered the land, not only of its wealth, but of its best
people, carrying them away to even the farthest reaches of their empires to serve as slaves
[2 Kings 24:10-19
/ 2 Ch.
36:14-21 / Isa. 5:13; 5:26-29; 6:12 / Zech. 7:13
].
In a superficial analysis of these catastrophic events, it is His
people’s seemingly endless seductions into Godlessness/idolatry and the sexually immoral lifestyles that came with
idolatry, that had the appearance of successfully thwarting the overall plan of the Creator! But the rebellion and
waywardness of the human race has never stopped God! He simply works within the context of a cursed world and
the depravity of man, taking all events that affect His plan, even the bad ones, and funneling them into His overall
plan to move it forward!
3
In captivity, not wanting to lose their Jewish identity, the captives returned to that which had always separated them from
other nations as a unique people, their faith in the True God and the practice of Judaism
[Ezra 7:1-6,13-28 / Neh. 1:9]. After a reasonable length of time in captivity, God finally acted to
raise up a
leader from among the captives. God caused this leader to have a favorable relationship with the
king [Ezra 7:6 / Neh. 1:11] enabling him to negotiate the release of that percentage of the Jews
who wanted to return to the land of their forefathers. However, both times that Israel’s captives
returned home, the larger percentage of Jews chose to remain in the foreign lands where they
had been disbursed. Over the years, the Jewish slaves had proven so invaluable to their masters
that they had won their respect and admiration, and in many cases, their freedom. These had
established themselves in positions of wealth, privilege, and influence, by wisely choosing
vocations that would best insulate them from the inherent insecurities and dangers of being alien
inhabitants of a foreign land. With skill, industriousness, and an understanding of economics, the
Jews had become successful merchants and traders, quickly making themselves indispensable to
the various economies of these foreign countries.
While thousands chose to return home to start over amid hardship and deprivation [Isa. 43:5-7],
many more thousands
chose to stay rather than lose everything they had worked so hard for! Yet those who stayed on in their adopted
homelands did not want to lose their Jewishness. Jewish Synagogues were established in virtually every city of
significance in the known world. These synagogues became the social center of these outlying Jewish communities and
through the training received there, the exiled Jews remained bound together tightly in religious tradition and ethnic
identity. So in this way, even though they were still a part of their adopted countries, they kept themselves separate.
While the Old Testament scriptures mostly ignored these distant far-flung Jewish communities around the known world in
favor of following the unfolding story of the Jewish “remnant” resettling the land that God had given them, these far-flung
enclaves of Jewishness had not escaped
God’s
attention. They were to play the single most prominent role in God’s plan
to establish His Church! The people in the land came back to serve God’s plan also and provide an environment in which
God’s Son was to be born, to grow/flourish, minister, and be killed as a sacrifice!
~
The church expansion is begun!
[Acts 2:5-7, 40,41]
Full circle! An explosive start, Divinely engineered. This is a perfect example of God’s symmetry in the
midst of human chaos!
4
The narrative explores the creation, rebellion, and redemption of humanity as depicted through the Great Christian Doctrines, focusing on the Church's role in God's plan to reconcile the world back to Himself.
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Presentation Transcript
Panoramic The Story of God as seen through The Great Christian Doctrines The Doctrine of the Church Preparations Symmetry in Chaos 1
~The Bible tells us that when humanity was created, the human soul was created in sweet union and fellowship with the Creator/God - and life on this planet was really good. and rich, and safe for the first man and woman, as danger was not known to them. But Satan came along and planted lies about God in their heads So it wasn t long (we don t really know how long) and the lies took root, and the first man and woman rebelled against God, and went their own way and God let them, for fellowship with God was a choice a very real and consequential freedom that God had given His humans! But there was a great penalty that had to be factored in. God had warned them about it. They didn t believe Him, and they should have! So, need, hard toil, a hostile earth (danger), and the death-process attacked them for the first time! But more than anything else, they were alone,and they were lost! God withdrew, as they wished, and stopped providing for and protecting them. As their own leaders, they were lost in so many ways. By worst of all, they lost touch with God! For His part, God found future generation of humans to have become selfish, arrogant, cruel, (which rhymes with fool). Men made themselves into fools, who went so far as to make up gods out of their own fertile imaginations to fill the hole in their soul left there by the absence of the true God and source of their eternal soul (as I stated last week)! After the rebellion of the human race against God, they were expelled from the great paradise-like garden/park of Eden! For His part, God found future generation of humans to have become selfish, arrogant, cruel, (which rhymes with fool). Men made themselves into fools fools who made up mythical gods out of their own fertile imaginations to fill the hole in their soul left there by the absence of the true God and source of their soul (as I stated last week)! ~At that time, God put a plan into effect. He started out using one nation the Hebrews/Israelites/Jews/descendants of Abraham- but they were not the end game for God [*Gen. 12:1,2]! The Hebrew nation was an important part of an ongoing process in which the Creator/God was out to win the entire WORLD back to Himself! He would start with love! His goal was to ultimately create for Himself a kingdom, not of one location like normal, but of no specific location on earth - made of people/citizens from everywhere people called out from among all the nations for this special task of drawing even more people from around the earth to rescue them out of His judgment and for them to be transferred into the love of God and [*Ex. 19:6 1 Pet. 2:9,10 / Eph. 1:11,12]. Together, they would comprise a multi-ethnic nation, a NEW nation, that was to be called the church . The central figure of the church, it s Head, was to be the Word of God, 2ndmember of God s Tri-unity, who was to become the Son of God, Savior, and ultimately King of Kings over all the nations of earth! He was/is the Center, the Head of the church! A major part of Christ s earthly ministry was choosing and discipling men and women, so that when He was gone, they might begin His church which was to be an organization of Christ-followers that would serve His plan and purposes to draw people to God with the gospel story of Jesus [Matt. 28:18-20 / John 12:32 / Ro. 8:28 / 2 Co. 4:14 / Eph. 4:11-13 / Ph p. 2:13-16], and to continue on doing this until His return [Lk. 19:12,13]. ~Israel was supposed to have started that process, but unfortunately, as a nation, they failed at it utterly! Somehow, God from before Creation, knew that they would! Thus, He moved on to the church. The church was His means to reach out to a world that desperately needed Him! He chose His own people to reach people not His own! 2
~That was, and still is, the plan. The church part of this plan (the church age) has always included bringing/wooing people from around this planet into loving relationship with Himself [Isa. 24:14-16 / 26:18 / 45:22] to stifle the curse of sin that has fastened itself to human DNA, and then to bind them together in the type of love fashioned after His own agape love [Isa. 19:23-25 / Matt. 22:37-40]. This is God bringing us back to the original state of creation when there was fellowship and love between God and His newly minted sixth day creation. One of the most fascinating elements of Biblical studies is to retrospectively examine how the Creator pushed forward His plan to form His church [*Isa. 25:1], and how He accomplished it despite circumstances and events which most often seemed to be careening hopelessly out of control! A quick read of the Old Testament will soon reveal a chosen Hebrew nation fluctuating wildly between obedience loyalty to God, and the abject disobedience and betrayal of idolatry. The bulk of the Hebrew s history with first their judges (national leaders, but not kings), and then their kings reveals that they were largely ungodly men, prone to self-indulgence and paganism - and life would become hard for Israel! These hard times were interspersed with an occasional leader who proved mostly, or somewhat loyal to the God of Israel. Typically, as their leaders were, the people followed, and as a result, the Biblical account of the spiritual history of the Jews seems typically aimless and meandering [Isa. 26:18]. They did not seem to be meeting God s stated objective of somehow being a blessing to the entire world by revealing the true God to the nations. ~This is nowhere more apparent than in the captivities of Israel [*Isa. 5:1-7,13]. Prior to each time the country was conquered, the enthusiasm in Israel for the brand of paganism indigenous to the cultures surrounding them had grown into a truly wretched state! To counter this, God literally directed invading armies to come in and overrun Israel before this trend went any further [*2 Chr. 36:15-20 /Isa. 1:2-9 / 1:18,19 / 5:12,13 / 5:26-30 / 6:11-13 / Jer. 20:4,5]. These Assyrian and Babylonian conquerors plundered the land, not only of its wealth, but of its best people, carrying them away to even the farthest reaches of their empires to serve as slaves [2 Kings 24:10-19 / 2 Ch. 36:14-21 / Isa. 5:13; 5:26-29; 6:12 / Zech. 7:13]. In a superficial analysis of these catastrophic events, it is His people s seemingly endless seductions into Godlessness/idolatry and the sexually immoral lifestyles that came with idolatry, that had the appearance of successfully thwarting the overall plan of the Creator! But the rebellion and waywardness of the human race has never stopped God! He simply works within the context of a cursed world and the depravity of man, taking all events that affect His plan, even the bad ones, and funneling them into His overall plan to move it forward! 3
In captivity, not wanting to lose their Jewish identity, the captives returned to that which had always separated them from other nations as a unique people, their faith in the True God and the practice of Judaism [Ezra 7:1-6,13-28 / Neh. 1:9]. After a reasonable length of time in captivity, God finally acted to leader from among the captives. God caused this leader to have a favorable relationship with the king [Ezra 7:6 / Neh. 1:11] enabling him to negotiate the release of that percentage of the Jews who wanted to return to the land of their forefathers. However, both times that Israel s captives returned home, the larger percentage of Jews chose to remain in the foreign lands where they had been disbursed. Over the years, the Jewish slaves had proven so invaluable to their masters that they had won their respect and admiration, and in many cases, their freedom. These had established themselves in positions of wealth, privilege, and influence, by wisely choosing vocations that would best insulate them from the inherent insecurities and dangers of being alien inhabitants of a foreign land. With skill, industriousness, and an understanding of economics, the Jews had become successful merchants and traders, quickly making themselves indispensable to the various economies of these foreign countries. While thousands chose to return home to start over amid hardship and deprivation [Isa. 43:5-7], many more thousands chose to stay rather than lose everything they had worked so hard for! Yet those who stayed on in their adopted homelands did not want to lose their Jewishness. Jewish Synagogues were established in virtually every city of significance in the known world. These synagogues became the social center of these outlying Jewish communities and through the training received there, the exiled Jews remained bound together tightly in religious tradition and ethnic identity. So in this way, even though they were still a part of their adopted countries, they kept themselves separate. While the Old Testament scriptures mostly ignored these distant far-flung Jewish communities around the known world in favor of following the unfolding story of the Jewish remnant resettling the land that God had given them, these far-flung enclaves of Jewishness had not escaped God sattention. They were to play the single most prominent role in God s plan to establish His Church! The people in the land came back to serve God s plan also and provide an environment in which God s Son was to be born, to grow/flourish, minister, and be killed as a sacrifice! ~The church expansion is begun! [Acts 2:5-7, 40,41] Full circle! An explosive start, Divinely engineered. This is a perfect example of God s symmetry in the midst of human chaos! raise up a 4
