Churchwork
12-06-2005, 03:28 AM
For an exercise, lets go all the way back before the big bang, and put ourselves in God's shoes.
He sees ahead 13.7 billion years man made in His image (even before the foundations of the world), which He breathes the breath of life into, some time after making the earth desolate because of the sin of fallen Lucifer and the fallen angels corrupting the demons they ruled over. They are utterly unredeemable as though to say if they chose to fall, they knew beforehand that there was not to be a redemption in store for them.
And He gives us awesome terminology to know He is right there with us as the Head of the church at the right hand of the Father.
He speaks about the Church and the Work for the Church. And yet the Church and the Work is dispensational only. Encapsulated within this dispensation of the Work and the Church is the Kingdom of Heaven which began with John the Baptist baptizing repentant believers. And this Kingdom of Heaven extends not just through this current dispensation of grace, but also permeates through the millennial kingdom reign of Christ and His overcomers.
It is not until the millennium ends (which has yet to begin) that the Kingdom of Heaven comes to end. And why is this so? It is because heaven and earth come together in the new earth. The New Jerusalem comes down from heaven and God and the Lamb become the center of the New City on the New Earth. The New Jerusalem can not come down till that time because the temple in Jerusalem is still on earth during the millennium.
So the Kingdom of Heaven has more too it than does the Church and the Work. But what of the Redemptive Design? It extends even farther because salvation has several aspects: (1) new birth, (2) overcoming, (3) regeneration of the world and rewards in the millennium, and (4) sinlessness in the new city and the new earth. Also, there is a (5) the new city leaving our solar system. The Redemptive Design began as soon as Adam sinned as Go was working the moment man fell, and God has been redeeming us ever since. The Kingdom of God extends from eternity past to eternity future.
You can think of 4 circles, each encased within the other. The center circle is the Church and the Work, the second larger circle is the Kingdom of Heaven, the third larger circle is the Redemptive Design, and the fourth, even larger circle is the Kingdom of God.
I have designed Biblocality Forums with this structure in mind by way of the main categories.
He sees ahead 13.7 billion years man made in His image (even before the foundations of the world), which He breathes the breath of life into, some time after making the earth desolate because of the sin of fallen Lucifer and the fallen angels corrupting the demons they ruled over. They are utterly unredeemable as though to say if they chose to fall, they knew beforehand that there was not to be a redemption in store for them.
And He gives us awesome terminology to know He is right there with us as the Head of the church at the right hand of the Father.
He speaks about the Church and the Work for the Church. And yet the Church and the Work is dispensational only. Encapsulated within this dispensation of the Work and the Church is the Kingdom of Heaven which began with John the Baptist baptizing repentant believers. And this Kingdom of Heaven extends not just through this current dispensation of grace, but also permeates through the millennial kingdom reign of Christ and His overcomers.
It is not until the millennium ends (which has yet to begin) that the Kingdom of Heaven comes to end. And why is this so? It is because heaven and earth come together in the new earth. The New Jerusalem comes down from heaven and God and the Lamb become the center of the New City on the New Earth. The New Jerusalem can not come down till that time because the temple in Jerusalem is still on earth during the millennium.
So the Kingdom of Heaven has more too it than does the Church and the Work. But what of the Redemptive Design? It extends even farther because salvation has several aspects: (1) new birth, (2) overcoming, (3) regeneration of the world and rewards in the millennium, and (4) sinlessness in the new city and the new earth. Also, there is a (5) the new city leaving our solar system. The Redemptive Design began as soon as Adam sinned as Go was working the moment man fell, and God has been redeeming us ever since. The Kingdom of God extends from eternity past to eternity future.
You can think of 4 circles, each encased within the other. The center circle is the Church and the Work, the second larger circle is the Kingdom of Heaven, the third larger circle is the Redemptive Design, and the fourth, even larger circle is the Kingdom of God.
I have designed Biblocality Forums with this structure in mind by way of the main categories.