The Church
Age
|
THE PRE-CHURCH
AGE
(OLD TESTAMENT TIMES)
|
The Pre-Church
Age (Old Testament times)
was from:
Creation
until:
Pentecost.
, , Pentecost was
approximately two-thousand years ago.
0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000
The Pre-Church Age started when God quickly:
o created
the material that formed the universe
, , , All its structures are
temporary structures.
o made us
, , , Made us entirely out
of the material of the the universe.
o made us eternal.
, , , Made us eternal,
despite us still being made of the material of the universe.
We humans (Adam & Eve)
started off doing only
good-&-right.
So God had no reason to do
anything but good-&-right to us.
Then we, Adam & Eve,
responded positively to
Satan’s temptations
and so spiritually sinned
against God.
, , Perhaps see later section: 1) SPIRITUAL SINS.
Thus we
had become, at least potentially,
evil, dangerous, etc.
So
God had no choice
but to get us away from the tree of life.
We were already eternal.
But the fruit of the tree of
life would have made us
eternal and substantial (i.e. not like a ghost: Gen c3 v22). .
So God drove us out of the garden
of Eden. Gen c3 v23-24 .
, , Perhaps see earlier section: THE IMPORTANCE OF THE GARDEN OF EDEN
, , and
, , third cell
, , of earlier section: THE KINGDOM OF THE WORLD & THE KINGDOM OF DEMONS
, , and
, , perhaps see later section: WHY IS THE UNIVERSE
SECOND CLASS?. , , , , , ,
|
We increased in number.
And, at one point, to start
afresh,
God killed everyone with a flood;
everyone that is except Noah
& his family.
, , Though not actually everyone.
, , Perhaps see earlier section: THE FLOOD: Gen c6
– c8.
Then
God changed his mind about such solutions.
Gen c8 v20-22:
God declared that such solutions
could never engineer the
sinning out of us. my abbreviation
, , Certainly God appeared to
change his mind.
, , I reckon such apparent progressions of thought are purely for our
benefit.
, , See earlier section:
, , IT SEEMS AS IF GOD
DOES NOT FORESEE EVERY FUTURE EVENT.,,,
|
Then God made the Jews and interacted with them.
God made the Jews by:
Miraculously enabling Abraham, & his
wife Sarah,
though
both old, to have a second child, Isaac.
Gen c17
Then
Isaac and Rebekah had Jacob. Gen c25 v19-26
Then God renamed
Jacob Israel. Gen c35 v9-13
Then Israel and his two wives & their two hand
maids
had twelve sons (& a daughter).
Then the twelve sons became the twelve Patriarchs
of the twelve tribes of Israel. Gen c35 v16-29
God’s
relationship with the Jews was sometimes stormy
because of their
rebelliousness. Num c16
God
was also hard on the Jews’ enemies. Num c21 v1-3
|
So
the Pre-Church Age
was an age of God doing
both:
o good-&-right
and:
o bad-yet-right.
|
.
|
|
, , Perhaps see earlier
section: GOOD & BAD,
RIGHT & WRONG,,,
, , and second & third cells
, , of later section: GOD IS ALWAYS
CONSTRUCTIVE IN THE LONG RUN,,,
, , and
, , previous webpage: The good & bad that God does., , .
|
|
.
|
|
THE CHURCH AGE
|
|
The Church Age is from:
Pentecost
until:
Judgment Day.
|
|
The
Church Age
is an age of God doing
only:
o good-&-right,
God loving everyone.
|
.
|
|
, , Perhaps again see
links near end of previous section
, , and see
, , later section:
, , GOD DOES NOT CHANGE BUT HIS RELATIONSHIP
WITH US CHANGES, , .
|
.
|
|
THE BEGINNING OF THE CHURCH AGE
|
|
The beginning of the Church Age was
announced
by the Father
through his angels, at
Jesus’ birth:
Luke c2 v13-14:
And suddenly there was with the angel
a multitude of the heavenly
host
praising God, and saying,
Glory to God in the
highest,
and on earth peace,
good will toward men. KJV
|
|
The beginning of the Church Age was
announced
by Jesus
when he read from the, then 700 year old, book of Isaiah:
Luke c4 v18 (Isa c61 v1):
The Spirit of the
Lord is upon me,
because he hath
anointed me
to preach the gospel to the
poor;
he hath sent me to
heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance
to the captives,
and recovering of
sight to the blind,
to set at liberty
them that are bruised, KJV
, Although written, about Jesus, by
Luke,
, the above is: Isaiah’s use of
the word heart,
, inside the word brokenhearted.
|
|
Then,
of the next verse, Isa c61 v2,
Jesus read only the
first half
but not the second
half:
Isa c61 v2 (Luke c4 v19):
to proclaim
the acceptable year of the LORD,
and the day of
vengeance of our God … ctd KJV
Jesus read only the first
half
because only the first
half
is about the Church Age:
an age of God doing:
o good-&-right,
God loving everyone.
The second
half
is about the next ‘age’, Judgment Day:
a day of God doing:
both:
o good-&-right
and:
o bad-yet-right.
, , Perhaps see earlier
section: FUTURE
BAD-YET-RIGHT. , , , , ,
|
.
|
|
PAUL
STARTS THE CHURCH AGE PROPERLY
|
|
Jesus had preached,
and practiced:
Love everyone, even your enemies.
So, later, what were God &
Peter doing –
killing deceitful people?
Acts c5 v1-10:
Peter, by the power of God’s Spirit,
punished Ananias &
Sapphira, for lying to God,
by making them drop down dead. my abbreviation
And,
later, what was God doing – killing king Herod?
Acts c12 v21-23:
God
killed Herod when Herod did not stop his audience
idolising him. my abbreviation
|
|
This is what makes
Paul’s epistles (letters) so valuable:
Paul finally, &
thoroughly, preached that
we, and God’s Spirit in us,
should love everyone
because,
until Judgment Day, that’s
what we, and God,
want to happen.
, By ‘we’, I assume that:
, , , we believe
, , , and that we have renewed our minds accordingly.
And, apart from, by God’s
Spirit,
making Elymas
blind for a while, Acts c13 v6-12,
Paul practiced what he
preached.
, God and Paul had to do that.
, , Perhaps again see
earlier section: GOOD & BAD,
RIGHT & WRONG,,,,,
, , and second & third cells
, , of later section: GOD IS ALWAYS
CONSTRUCTIVE IN THE LONG RUN,,,,,
, , and
, , previous webpage: The good & bad that God does.,,,,,
|
|
To conclude:
Peter started the Church Age, with a
bang. Acts c2 – c4.
But Paul, soon afterwards,
completed the start of the
Church Age:
with his epistles
and his
actions. Acts c8 – c28. , , ,
|
|
, Paul’s name was originally Saul.
, But, on becoming a Christian, he changed it to
Paul.
|
.
|
|
SO, WHERE DO TODAY’S BAD
THINGS COME FROM?
|
|
So, God does no bad in this Church Age, this
age we are in now.
So, where do today’s bad things come from?
I now give four sources (bold font):
|
|
1) Adam & Eve were the first people
to sin and thus gain knowledge
of both good and evil.
, Every generation
repeats that choice, that mistake.
, Perhaps see later section: THE
FIRST SIN.
That event made God
eject Adam & Eve out of:
the
miraculously tweaked, perfect, garden of Eden
containing
the tree of life
, We were already
eternal.
, But the fruit of
the tree of life would have made us
, eternal and substantial (i.e. not like a ghost: Gen
c3 v22). .
and into:
the
un-tweaked universe around it.
Hence many may find
life hard work, may get ill,
and all of us
physically die. Gen c3 v16-19
Perhaps also see later section:
WHY THE UNIVERSE IS
SECOND CLASS. , , , ,
|
|
2) Demons telepathically encourage us to
believe:
the potency of
our
sicknesses/problems/wrong ways/etc
that we see
more than we believe:
the potency of
Jesus’ self-sacrifice
in our place
that we don’t see.
Demons also work in non-verbal ways, material
ways:
Luke c13 v16:
And
ought not this woman,
being a daughter of
Abraham,
whom Satan hath bound,
lo, these eighteen years,
be
loosed from this bond on the sabbath day? KJV
, Perhaps see earlier section:
, HOW DEMONS ARE ABLE TO DO THINGS. ,,,
|
|
3) Your
own sins can cause bad things to happen to you:
John c5 v14:
Afterward
Jesus findeth him in the temple,
and said unto him,
Behold, thou art
made whole:
sin no more,
lest a worse
thing come unto thee. KJV
|
|
4) Combinations
of 1) 2)
& 3)
can also cause bad things to
happen to you &/or others.
a) You sinning:
could cause
demons to cause you illness or loss.
And, if you also embraced that sinning:
could cause
demon possession.
, Perhaps see later section: DEMON POSSESSION.
b) Demons outlive humans.
So one human’s ‘legitimate’ hatred
of another human
could include his/her descendants.
Hence such a hatred could authorise a demon
to ‘legitimately’ carry
out that hatred: a curse.
, Perhaps see later webpage: Demons love laws.
Then, after the person
dies,
the demon could act
against the victim’s descendants.
Hence, in Mark c9 v14-27
(Matt c17 v14-18),
a child has a demon.
c) If you believe wrong
religious teaching:
o that God is unloving or weak,
o or that God has not Forgiven all sins
past
present & future,
o or that God is doing you bad
in order to
do you good,
then the demon will:
deliver your expectations,
work on
God’s behalf anonymously,
ensure that
your faith is rewarded
and that
God gets all the credit.
, Perhaps again see earlier section:
, HOW DEMONS ARE ABLE TO DO THINGS, , , ,
, See last three cells (starting Our account with the Father)
, of later section: THE TWO ACCOUNTS.
|
|
All your words matter.
We think of a
prayer, or a curse,
as having a
beginning and an end.
But God and
demons
don’t
switch on & off like that.
They
inspect all of our words
to see what
they can make of them.
Matt c12 v36-37:
But I say
unto you,
That every idle word that men
shall speak,
they shall give account thereof
in the day
of judgment.
For by thy words thou shalt be justified,
and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
KJV
|
.
|
|
If you are ill then I highly recommend
Andrew Wommack’s Audio Teachings:
In particular God Wants You Well
, You may find the first file a bit
slow.
and
Christian Survival Kit.
, You may find the first few files a
bit slow.
See the good results of Andrew’s
teachings
in Healing Testimonies, , .
|
.
|
|
THE FIRST BAD-YET-RIGHT ERROR:
“SURELY, JOB’S TWO TESTS
SHOW THAT GOD STILL DOES BAD”.
|
|
Job c1 v6-22: my abbreviation
Satan visited God, along
with the angels.
God said:
“Seen Job? What a good man.”
Satan said:
“Nah. He’s only good because you’ve blessed him.
Destroy it all and he’ll curse you to your
face.”
God said:
“It’s a deal. You destroy all he has.
But don’t harm Job himself.”
So Satan destroyed all that
Job had.
But Job did not then curse
God,
even though he thought it
was God who’d done it.
So Satan lost the bet.
my abbreviation
Job c2 v1-10: my abbreviation
Again Satan visited God,
along with the angels.
God said:
“Seen Job? He’s still a good man
even though you got me to harm him.”
Satan said:
“I got it wrong that
time.
But I bet he’ll curse you if you make him really
ill.”
God said:
“OK. You make him really ill.
But don’t kill him.”
So Satan made Job really
ill.
But Job still did not curse
God
even though he again thought
it was God who’d done it.
So Satan lost that bet too.
my abbreviation
|
|
The Old Testament
tells of many such instances
when God did bad-yet-right.
Perhaps see first
cell
of earlier section: PAST
BAD-YET-RIGHT.
But Job’s tests are not
such instances:
Job
did not know that it was Satan
who was behind his losses.
Nor that God would
more than compensate him
afterwards.
So, Job made an honest mistake when he
responded with:
Job c1 v21:
ctd … Naked came I out of my mother's womb,
and naked shall I return
thither:
the LORD gave,
and the LORD hath taken away;
blessed be the name of the LORD. KJV
|
|
So, Christians:
who see Job’s two tests
as evidence that God is still
The Taker, as well as The Giver,
are mistaken:
God wasn’t The Taker
then. Not overall.
And he certainly
isn’t a Taker now, not in this Church Age.
|
.
|
|
THE SECOND BAD-YET-RIGHT ERROR:
“SURELY, GOD DID BAD
BY BLINDING THIS MAN
BEFORE MAKING HIM WELL AGAIN”.
|
|
John c9 v1-4:
1 And
as Jesus
passed by,
he saw a man which was blind
from his birth.
2 And his disciples asked him, saying,
Master, who did sin,
this man, or his parents,
that he was born blind?
3 Jesus answered,
Neither hath this man
sinned, nor his parents:
but that the works of
God
should be made manifest
in him.
4 I must work the works of him that sent me,
while it is day:
the night cometh, when no man can work.
KJV
|
|
Verses 3 & 4 seem to say that:
God made the man ill
so as to get glory later
by making him well again.
Colouring the punctuation in red
helps show this:
3 Jesus answered,
Neither hath this man
sinned,
nor his parents:
but
that the works of God
should be made manifest
in him.
4 I must work the
works of him that sent me … ctd KJV
|
|
However, this is
silly,
and the concept doesn’t occur elsewhere in the Bible.
So I, and a number of Christians,
reckon that this passage is wrong
but can easily be made right
by changing the punctuation.
3 Jesus answered,
Neither hath this man
sinned,
nor his parents.
But, that the works of God
should be made manifest
in him,
4 I must work the
works of him that sent me … ctd KJV
|
|
We reckon that this
error occurred
because of unbelief in the scribes who had the job
of adding punctuation
to the original, punctuation-less, Greek text.
Perhaps see the first two cells
of later section: UNBELIEF IS A BREAK IN THE CIRCUIT.
, , , , ,.
|
.
|
|
THE THIRD BAD-YET-RIGHT ERROR:
“SURELY, GOD DID BAD
BY ALLOWING SOME PEOPLE TO REMAIN SICK”.
|
|
Jesus did not heal all
the sick people he got near:
John c5 v1-9:
Jesus
visited the pool of Bethesda
where many sick people lay.
(They were all waiting
for a rare moment
when the water moved,
all on its own,
and the first one in it
got healed.)
But, Jesus healed only one
of them, a cripple. my
abbn
, The last seven words of v3, and all
of verse 4, are, I reckon, forged.
, So I omit them in my abbreviation.
, Perhaps see earlier section: BIBLE VERSES THAT I OMIT, , , ,
|
|
In the above scripture: Jesus’ conversation
with the one sick person
that he did heal
indicates that he did not heal the others because
he could not heal them
because they had a fixation, on the
pool,
that worked like unbelief.
Perhaps see the first two cells
of later section: UNBELIEF IS A BREAK IN THE CIRCUIT.
The
others had no belief that Jesus could
heal them.
But they did have a belief
that the pool could heal them:
Such a fixation, in the
mind,
is like unbelief, doubt, in
the mind,
and needs to be switched
off.
|
|
That’s
why the Spirit led Jesus to only the patient
who had lain there for
thirty eight years
and whose attempts to get
into the pool
were now the most futile:
He would have had the
least fixation on the pool,
the least expectation
that the pool could deliver.
He would no longer automatically see, as inferior,
an alternative healing,
were it to come his way.
|
.
|
|
TO CONCLUDE: ALL THE BAD-YET-RIGHT THINGS
THAT GOD DID, IN THIS CHURCH AGE,
WERE EARLY ON
|
|
All the
bad-yet-right things that God did, in this Church Age,
were early on.
And these bad-yet-right things quickly became less harsh
as the Church Age progressed, soon to disappear altogether.
|
|
In chronological
order:
1st Acts c5 v1-11 (Perhaps read c4 – c5 for context.) :
Ananias
& his wife Sapphira
both sold a piece of
property
so as to give the money
to the work of the Apostles.
But they then kept part
of it,
and lied, said they’d
given all of it.
Peter then gave them
each a stern, short, lecture
after which they each
dropped down dead. my abbn
|
|
2nd Acts c12 v21-23:
And upon a set day Herod, arrayed
in royal apparel,
sat upon his throne, and made an
oration unto them.
And the people gave a shout, saying,
It
is the voice of a god, and not of a man.
And immediately the angel of the
Lord smote him,
because he gave not God the glory:
and he was eaten of worms, and
gave up the ghost. KJV
|
|
3rd In the following Bible text, Elymas the sorcerer
was actively impeding
the spread of Christianity.
So Paul miraculously,
temporarily, blinded him.
Acts c13 v11:
And
now, behold, the hand of the Lord is
upon thee,
and thou shalt
be blind, not seeing the sun for a season.
And immediately there fell on him
a mist and a darkness;
and he went about seeking some
to lead him by the
hand. KJV
|
.
|
|
BUT NOW, BAD COMES, NOT FROM GOD,
BUT FROM GOD’S ENEMIES
|
|
In this Church Age,
if a believer:
loves everyone,
has faith to forgive anyone,
, Luke c17 v3-5:
, Take heed to yourselves:
, If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke
him;
, and if he repent, forgive him.
, And if he trespass against thee seven times in
a day,
, and seven times in a day turn again to thee,
saying, I repent;
, thou shalt forgive
him.
, And the apostles said unto the Lord, Increase
our faith. KJV
and has no unbelief
(doubts),
such that they can command,
and pray for, miracles
, Mark c11 v22-24 (Matt c21 v21-22):
, And Jesus
answering saith unto them,
, Have faith in God.
, For verily I say unto you,
, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain,
, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the
sea;
, and shall not doubt in his heart,
, but shall believe that those things which he
saith
, shall come to pass;
, he shall have whatsoever he saith.
, Therefore I say unto you,
, What things soever
ye desire,
, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them,
, and ye shall have them.
KJV
then
the only bad thing a believer cannot avoid
is persecution.
And persecution is from
people, not from God.
, Mark c10 v29-30 (Luke c18 v29-30):
, And Jesus answered
and said
, Verily I say unto
you,
, There is no man
that hath left house, or brethren,
, or sisters, or
father, or mother, or wife, or children,
, or lands, for my
sake, and the gospel's,
, but he shall
receive an hundredfold now in this time,
, houses, and
brethren, and sisters, and mothers,
, and children, and
lands,
, with persecutions;
, and in the world
to come eternal life. KJV
|
|
To conclude:
Now
that we are well into this Church Age
God no longer does bad.
, Perhaps again see later section:
, GOD DOES NOT CHANGE BUT HIS RELATIONSHIP
WITH US CHANGES, , .
|
.
|
|
THE PROBLEM WITH BELIEVING
THAT GOD STILL DOES BAD
|
|
Even though, in this Church Age,
God does not do bad,
you may nevertheless think
that he has done bad to you.
Or at least has neglected to do
good to you.
|
|
Some
time may have passed since then,
and no-one can turn the
clock back.
So, it may be that God:
cannot give to you now
what he:
would have given you back then
had it not been
for a combination of:
1. the world
2. the flesh
3. the devil
(demonic
strategy, even through others)
4. your lack of
belief
(belief
that would have counteracted 1. 2. & 3. )
5. your unbelief
(your
unbelief counteracts your belief).
, Perhaps see the first two cells
, of later section: UNBELIEF IS A BREAK IN THE CIRCUIT.
, , , ,
|
|
.
|
|
God still wants to do good things in your life.
But, if you blame him for the past,
you would also resist receiving from him in the present:
You would resist receiving
good things from a human
if you blamed them, even
hated them.
Likewise you would resist
receiving good things from God
if you blamed him, even
hated him.
|
|
So, believe
that God:
Does no bad to anyone in this
Church Age
and owes you nothing.
Has loved you gigantically, by way of Jesus’ crucifixion.
And loves you still.
, , See sixth cell
, , (starting All this makes sense only if)
, , and the links within it
, , of later section: GOD’S
SOVEREIGNTY.
, , (This link does
not open a new tab.)
|
|
Indeed, Jesus’ Punishment in our
place
is God’s door
through which you get both:
Heaven in the
next life
and:
blessings in this
life.
The key to the door is
your faith.
, , , , Faith = belief
acting.
John c10
v1-10:
Verily, verily, I say unto you,
He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold,
, [a collective sheepfold, of several flocks,]
but
climbeth up some other way,
the same is a thief and
a robber.
But he that entereth in by the door
is the shepherd of the
sheep.
To him the porter openeth;
and the sheep hear his
voice:
and he calleth his own sheep by name,
and leadeth
them out.
And when he putteth forth his own sheep,
he goeth
before them,
and the sheep follow
him: for they know his voice.
And a stranger will
they not follow,
but will flee from him:
for they know not the
voice of strangers.
This parable spake Jesus
unto them:
but they understood not
what things they were which
he spake unto them.
Then said Jesus unto them
again,
Verily, verily, I say unto you,
I am the door of the
sheep.
, [the porter would lie down, in the gap,
would become the door]
All
that ever came before me
, [The
‘religious’ wicked (John c9 & Matt c23) and,
logically, demons.]
are thieves and robbers:
but the sheep did not
hear them.
I
am the door:
by
me if any man enter in, he shall be saved,
and shall go in and
out,
and find pasture.
The thief cometh not,
but for to
steal, and to kill, and
to destroy:
I am come that they
might have life,
and that they might
have it more abundantly. KJV
|
|
Mind you, the Christian life is
more than just
good things happening to you. Luke c12 v13-34
The Christian life is also
you renewing your mind
so that you have God’s Holy Spirit throughout your mind
so that, as well as God
miraculously doing good to you,
you miraculously do good to
others. John c14 v12 .,
, Perhaps see earlier section: WHY GOD’S WORDS HAVE POWER. ,
, , , ,
|
.
|
|
Home page
|
Next webpage:
Persecution.
|
|
|
|
|
|