6c.
The Eternal Gospel
The following biblical texts show the available definitions of
"the Gospel". Is there a Big
Picture that contains all these definitions?
While the Big Picture I see is not specifically stated in any one text, it
is clearly supported by all the available texts.
1) Jn 3:16 - The gospel is
about God's love for us
2) 1Cor 15:3-5 - The gospel is about Christ's human life and
sacrifice
3) Mat 24:35 - The gospel is about everything Christ taught His
disciples
4) Mat 28:19-20 - The
gospel is about the "Kingdom of God"
5) Rev 14:6 - The gospel message is eternal (It affects more than humans and it applies
for all time)
6) Rev 14: 7 - There is a judgment coming when the gospel message
is to be implemented
My understanding of the eternal gospel message, is a logical
interpolation of the biblical texts, which consistently fits both the literal
and the intuitive interpretation of these texts. It shows that the gospel does apply to all
God's created, thinking beings for all time.
All of them were created by a loving God, Who wants to relate with them
happily ever after in the place we call the Kingdom of Heaven.
I believe that this message further supports the fact that God
could not merely do this upfront, because of the nature of free-will. The knowledge of good and evil happens to be
an essential ingredient if these created beings are to know that they are
morally free. If as the Bible says, the
wages of sin are death (eventually) and not merely a less than perfect, unhappy
heaven, then we can see why God does not want to leave it at this. God therefore first had a Plan of Salvation
for His angels. In order to arrive at a
perfect heaven with intelligent beings, who know they are morally free, God
must devise this temporary human stage.
Yes this puts humans in an undesirable position, so He institutes
from the beginning His Plan of Salvation for them. Human salvation required that God become a
man and die for us. This also shows all
humans that He indeed loves them. Now,
even though humans must die to prove the points, yet He can give them
everlasting life in a perfect heaven, if they decide they want it. They decide this if they can decide to
accept the sacrifice of the human Christ and in doing so they prove they want
to have a personal relationship with their Creator.
I say it is all there and that it fits the big picture presented
in the Bible.
The Eternal Gospel message is this: The Creator creates
thinking, free-willed beings to live happily ever after in a perfect kingdom of
heaven, with His Image. All those who
want a loving relationship with Him will be there, as long as His Plan of
Salvation is fully executed and remembered by them.
We can see that things are not perfect here and we ask, "Why
didn't God just create that perfect world and put all of us in there from the
start. Why is this big Sin Drama on Earth so essential?"
The fact is that free-willed thinking beings must know Good and
Evil in order to really be free (Ge 3:22-24). If they have to experience evil
to understand it, then they will eventually die, because the wages of sin are
death. The angels were created in a perfect world but as expected, sin arose
once they decided to experience evil. As that eventuality progresses, heaven is
no longer perfect (war in heaven). Once sin enters the world, the world must
eventually self-destruct. Every time God remakes heaven, the same drama happens
over and over again.
However, God has now implemented a plan whereby the Sin Drama is
playing out on this earth for all to see. They can then understand sin
vicariously by observing us and not need to experience it themselves. They will
know Good and Evil without sinning themselves and so Sin will never arise in
the new heaven. The kingdom of heaven * can remain perfect, (Na 1:9) even with
free-willed beings. All those who want a relationship with God will live
happily ever after with His Image.
The rest of God's message is this: Don't ever forget the Sin Drama
you observed on Earth and the lessons it taught; and sin will never arise again
anywhere in the kingdom of heaven. To ensure that they never forget what
transpired on Earth, He has instituted a sign for all time - the 7th day
Sabbath. In 6 days He created this stage for the critical sin drama to play out
on. Then He created a separate day just for all His created beings to remember
the significance of that creation. If they ever forget, then Sin will arise
again as it always did in His past creations with free-willed beings. This is
the only way it will work.
We who are suffering through this vale of tears wonder if we are
just test rats. How could a loving God do this to us?
God's Plan of Salvation for humans had to be designed into this
scenario from the start. Even though we die, yet He can give us everlasting
life if we want it. Then, to show us that indeed He loves us, He became human
and died for us (see section
3g) - There is no greater love than this, that a Man give up his life for
his friends (Jn 15:13).
Now we can see the full meaning of the eternal gospel message:
- God is the Creator, the eternal being.
- He creates thinking, free-willed beings throughout eternity.
- He always creates them to live happily ever after.
- He has a plan whereby that objective can be realized.
- The plan requires that humans decide to have a relationship with
the true Creator.
- The plan requires that all God’s thinking, free-willed beings
always remember the significance of the Sin Drama that played out on this
temporary Earth.
- God loves all His created beings enough to share any of the
grief they've had to go through to realize this ultimate paradise.
These messages are for all His created beings and they are
relevant for all time.
There is another point to make here, “Why is
this message called the GOOD NEWS?” This
refers to the fact that as Jesus told us we do not need to go through anyone to
talk to God – we can talk to God directly without anyone else involved in any
way. This is very good news. In contrast, all religions insert their
leaders between their members and God. This
is a way to control the members by giving themselves some authority over the
masses – and people go for this because they are inherently superstitious and
looking for someone to assure them of their beliefs. Indeed it is great news that all this
religious control is totally unnecessary.
_______
* Note: Sin is a cancer. Once it invades the host, the host is
unhappy. The cancer is self-destructive, but it will last until the host is
gone, and only then will it self-destruct. God had to isolate the good angels
from the bad angels while this drama is playing out on Earth. Otherwise they
too would eventually sin and self-destruct. While the drama is unfolding, part
of the Kingdom of Heaven is still not contaminated. After that drama is over
and Sin is abolished, the remaining angels and glorified humans are able to
remain "perfect" and can live happily ever after.
**Note: The angelic beings will never need to hide from God again, because
they have observed the entire human Sin Drama end-to-end. I believe this is important, since
paraphrasing this drama is sure to leave doubts. Hence, I feel it is essential that humans,
who will live forever after in the perfect Kingdom of Heaven with these angelic
beings, must themselves experience the entire Sin Drama. I believe this drama is archived for just that
purpose. I suggest that it is archived
in the New Jerusalem, which is where the Glorified Christ is now. When we, who choose Life, are raised on the
last day, we will join Christ in this floating city (a space ship of
sorts). For the next “1000 years” we
will review the details of that entire Sin Drama, so that when we land on the
New Earth we will have the full understanding of it that all the heavenly hosts
must have to live happily ever after.
Recognize that Sin arose in a perfect
world over the need to prove angels have free will. This proof required them to do things that
seemed fine to them, but were outside the will of a God, Who only wants ”good”
things for His children. Their initial
decisions were so benign that they could never imagine the ramifications far
down the road. Yet, God has seen it all
before and He understands the nature of evil so thoroughly that He can see the
inevitable consequences at the very onset.
This is the depth of understanding that comes only from witnessing the
entire sin drama play out on Earth as the good angels are doing. We must do the same during that 1000-year
millennium with Christ, so that we can enter the perfect kingdom of heaven with
those good angels and not bring sin into it.
Any Comments on This? Please email any comments to nasamike@nasamike.com
22 September 2001, Updated 14 September 2002