(pg 4 of 5)

The severity of the fall!
The original fall of the host of Heaven was serious business. It fired shock waves through time. The very character and nature of God was put on trail and is the very essence of our choice to trust in God the Father today. If you say today, "I don't know about a God that allows such things", but you refuse to live totally alone, how do you expect a God who is pure love to live alone forever and ever with no one to be the object of His affection? That would be hell for God, and you and me-- be honest. Experience has already taught us something about this and prepared our hearts to worship God for everything in this world.


Be advised, God had every right to create life, in spite of Lucifer and his minions. So, before we cast too many stones at God about why things are the way they are, we need to consider one more thing. He told us, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." (Hebrews 13:5) Right now, with the unknowns of tomorrow I choose to trust God. I have peace no matter what. Remembering that "all things will work for good for those that love God and are called according to His purpose." (Romans 8:28) You see, the Bible is no old dead book, but something that is alive through Christ. God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Without minimizing the suffering of those that have lost children, in the midst of it all, the Father is there with us. All we need to do is to ask for His companionship. If you the individual want to live alone, the Father will let you. But I promise you this, He is just and you are wrong for condemning God in your heart. That was Job's mistake. (Job 4:17)  How do I know this--because for the last twenty-five years of trusting Him--I gained experience? This faith in God does not diminish the severity of the original fall or the suffering today.  However, it does supply a way- through because Christ is alive, and He is with us through it all.


The Fall was going to happen no matter what!
There is an inference here. If God created Lucifer, time, and opportunity for him to fall, then the fall was inevitable. If God is a time traveler, or Time Is Within God, and the Bible clearly indicates that that is absolutely true, then the fall of: Lucifer, Adam, you and me, and everyone including Hitler, was foretold and inevitable. The Bible tells us that, "We were predestined to be the sons and daughters of God." (Ephesians 2:10) The doctrine of predestination implies that God inhabits every moment in time. Furthermore, "God knows how to save the righteous or those in right standing." And that is what allowed the suffering we see today--those that God can sift out of the fire--you and me the longsuffering fruit of the earth will be sifted. That is what this world is all about. So, why are we here? To grow up in His image and learn from our mistakes IE: gain experience, that is our purpose. To grow in the understanding of God, and to love Him is our purpose. People search the earth in places like Tibetan caves or chanting or doing whatever historically including believe it or not shaking to find the purpose of life and salvation. All along, it was simple faith in our maker that through His Son we are called whole and someday-- home. Our purpose, through that faith, was to learn of Him our Maker.

In relation to the matter of God knowing all moments of time before the events happen(ed), I suspect Father God knew no matter how many timelines He created for His creation, right down the middle was the best choice, and He justly made that choice for all of us. I find it ironic. The children of Israel left Egypt, went straight to Israel's now their homeland, refused to go in, then wandered around in the wilderness for forty years only to return back to where they were meant to be--the new nation of Israel. The shortest way through is right down the middle, and that is exactly what created the timeline that we know that includes human suffering through the ages. Don't think the example of the Israelites wandering around and returning to the point of blessings does not apply.

Straight down the middle is Father God's way of doing things; and, to be honest, mine and most likely yours as well. I have never wandered around much if I had a direction. I rarely walk on sidewalks; I just walk straight across the yard to the front door. This is how God looks at time and the chance of suffering. Until suffering is completely ended, the route Father God chooses for us all is right down the middle.

The Bible says, "This life is a schoolmaster unto Christ." (Galatians 3:24)The inference is clear. Without this life, we are going to have a real hard time understanding Christ in a perfect kingdom. The Bible also states, "With experience we have hope." (Romans 5:4) Again, after you survive this life, you will not turn back to darkness--ever. It is that simple. God is preparing you to NOT fail but to walk with Him forever. You survive this age, you will never turn away from Him. You will know--He is just. The need for that experience is what put Christ on the cross and you and me right where we are. Why is God in Heaven waiting so long since Christ said "It is finished"? Everyday one more soul listens to creation speaking volumes of the Father's love and witness Christians believing, by faith, in what cannot be seen. "Blessed are those that believe having not seen." (John 20:29)

The end of the thousand year reign of Christ and experience
Think about the end of the thousand year reign of Christ on the earth after the tribulation. The Bible says shockingly, that Lucifer will be "loosed for a time, a time, and a half a time." Then, after a thousand years of Christ will rule this world. God is going to let him go again!

This can be upsetting! I could handle the here and now, but it will happen again--for a time, a time, and half a time (or for a limited amount of time there will be suffering again on the earth.) The Bible goes on to say, that (paraphrased) "As many as the sands in the sea will march on the city of God and turn their backs on Him." The inference is clear again, mankind has the potential, without experience, no matter what God does to make a mess of things.

The Bible indicates that many will refuse to follow Lucifer, however, many will turn their back on God. Just like you and I, God wants to know--are you my friend or not? He gives us all time and opportunity, you decide. (paraphrased) "The tares and the wheat grow up together; some to be gathered and some to be thrown away." (Matthew 13:25)He said, in (Deuteronomy 30:19), "I sat before you blessings and cursing, now you choose, but as for Me, choose life."

But when do we choose wisely: when we choose to face the doctor who tells us to come in for a test, we choose wisely when we just thought life was perfect but it falls all apart, we choose wisely when we breathe our last breath, and when our child is gone and we are so broken inside all we can do is sit and stare at the wall, so then when we choose wisely--we choose life and trusting in God.

If you can do no more than bow your knee before a Holy God and bless Him with your last breath as Job--then do just that. This is extreme suffering, but it is an answer to a hard question. God is just and not unjust. I quote Job, after his wife said (with the loss of his homes and children), "Why don't you just curse God and die?" (Job 40:5) Job fell to his face and uttered, "naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked I will return, but blessed be the name of the Lord." (Job 1:21) Job in the midst of unimaginable pain just said, "Blessed is the name of the Lord." And shortly after that, all he lost was returned ten fold. So sometimes, when you cry until you can't cry anymore, it is just this simple, just bless the name of the Lord with your last breath and every breath in between.

If that is all you can do, God will do the rest. It is out of your hands. This is an eternal altruistic truth that has lived through the ages in the hearts of men and women that passed the test and said, "Father I trust you, and I love you"--having not seen His Glory. How precious this is? Consider how that faithful soul that chooses to trust God with his last breath condemns Lucifer and all his minions having lived in Glory and having fallen so far from that Glory.

Concerning those that refuse to trust God and who will refuse to trust God after the later reign, whom at the end of Christ ruling a thousand years will refuse to believe us when we will say, "You do that, you will die-- just bless the name of the Lord and remain quiet before a Holy God."- - I suppose no one can say Father did not warn them, I know I will. Yes, these truths are eternal and will carry right over into the thousand year reign of Christ and beyond.  

Even then, every being ever created in the class of our Maker must choose. For us, we will have learned our lesson(s) because we have been here and paid with our dearest blood, "as for me and my house we will stand." As the Bible continues, (paraphrased)"having down all to stand, (we) stand therefore." (Ephesians 6:14) But every being made in the image of God will choose good or evil. Is that part of the reason for the suffering we know today? Ask yourself. God in Heaven knows, we have time and chance now to choose. There is an end to human suffering. Human suffering is finite. Brace yourself, we are getting deeper still.

The children of God are finite not infinite.
If all the beings that live through the thousand year reign, after the tribulation, must choose to love God and trust Him, or not. Everyone ever created will choose life or death.

Yet, after the thousand-year reign the Bible promises "I will make all things new, a new Heaven and a new earth, for the former things have passed away." (Revelation 21:5) The Bible continues, "There will be no more tears." (Revelation 21: 4) Not before, only after the thousand year reign of Christ on the earth will there be no more tears. What does this mean? I have talked to many pastors and most agree that God will stop making children in His class or image.

We need to stop and think about living alone forever. Is that too much? How about deciding to never make a new face or the smile of a new born child--then you can glimpse at what I am saying.

Example: My wife would have continued to make beautiful babies until she was a hundred if we had not agreed one was fulfillment and enough. It is hard to understand God creating except in these mere mortal terms. God will stop doing the thing He loves the most--creating new life!

God will settle with a (paraphrased) "peculiar people, a chosen nation, a royal priesthood".. a very narrow band of survivors from all the thousands of years before--and that group, finite in number and certainly not infinite, will be all that is left forever and ever to keep Father God and His love company.

So when we start talking about condemning God for things being the way they are, I think we seriously need to sit back and consider, perhaps, just maybe, we don't have all the facts. If I am right, then God is waiting for us to catch up with Him in eternity and He is absolutely just. If the Father kept creating in His image, THERE WOULD NEVER BE A LIMIT TO HUMAN SUFFERING--and that is too much for the Father to accept. The only way all things can be made new with no tears is if the FATHER STOPS CREATING IN HIS IMAGE. Also, if the inference of a final finite number of the children of God is true, though not explicitly stated in the Bible, then how special is each and everyone of us that stands with Christ by faith?

Keep in mind this fact. Every being that has been ever created must have time and chance to choose life. Is this why things are the way it is?

(Titus 2:14) (1 Peter 2:9)

If you let it sink in, this is a seriously sad revelation. There are short term limits to suffering: Noah and the flood, the end of the tribulation, the end of the thousand year reign of Christ when humanity again turns their back on the Father, and the bounding of Lucifer and all of those that follow him through the ages. However, the final, long term, limit will be when the Father stops creating in His image and binds evil forever and ever from paradise.

I remember weeping with joy at the birth of my son because he was so beautiful and precious to me. It is hard to imagine Father God already knows the face of His last child. So, it was seriously, painfully, deep business the day creation decided to explore darkness. It is not over yet for mankind. For God, it was over when Christ said "It is finished".

However, for mankind there is a final limit--no more children of God. However, it is plain to see God is not just waiting for any old fruit of the earth. He is waiting for a ripened first fruit that has the experience the faith and the understanding to trust in Him no matter what. That fruit of the earth, the survivors, will last forever and ever to be the object of the Father's love. That first fruit will love God with all our: hearts, souls, and minds--we will keep the greatest commandment that hangs on all the laws and the prophets. (Matthew 22:37)

We will love God the Father forever with all our: hearts, souls, and minds because--He is just. So why the suffering? For you and me, I am saying; it is our fault! Yet, it is not our actions.

It is the fact we are the prize--the chosen nation.

If we trust in our Maker having not seen His Glory, to our Maker, the way we live choosing His character and His words over our own make us very special indeed.
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Sincerely

Mark Stewart