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Was There a Divine Plan Behind History Part Two

DID GOD HAVE A MASTER PLAN FOR HISTORY PART TWO

 

There was a Divine intention that God has a fixed plan for the history of Isarel and the nations from one end of time to the other.

Rather than just popped in on some special  occasion, God was involved in what was going on in history.

Micah says Is this not in the context of a plan which involves many nations  simultaneously.  

God does have some long-range planning which counters the moves and planning of the total world community

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·       Isaiah 41:   ²⁶Who hath declared from the beginning, that we may know? and beforetime, that we may say, He is righteous? yea, there is none that sheweth, yea, there is none that declareth, yea, there is none that heareth your words.  Note 40 too.  Isaiah 42:9; 44:7-8; 45:21; 46:10-11; 48:3-6.

Even more important is the connection between the claim of God to have already announced, long before anything happened, the course of events, from start to finish and the fact that all this was in accordance with His “PLAN” and ‘PURPOSE”. As seen in Isaiah 46:9-11

·       ⁹Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,  ¹⁰Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:  ¹¹Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it

My plan shall stand.  I will accomplish all My purpose (note singular purpose) I have formulated it, indeed, I will accomplish it.

God is willing to stake, as it were, His whole character and claim to be the one umique God on the fact that He is able to speak and declare the future.

Note too God’s announcements are not random and lib comments on this and that, here and There.  They follow a premeditated plan which encompasses the start and finish of the parts and the whole.  All will take place as He has said.

GOD HAD A PLAN FOR ALL HISTORY.  ABRAHAM…….

1.      Genesis 12:1 and 3  ¹Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee:   ³And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

THE FIRST TERM TO SIGNIFY THE PLAN OF GOD

PROMISE IN THE N.T.  and  several words in the O.T.

·       Genesis 1:  ²²And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.  ²⁸And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

You see the word BLESSED used first. “to promise.”

The central action of God is formed in this term:

·       Genesis 17  ⁷And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.  ⁸And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

Israel became God’s special people: Threefold: I will be your God, you shall be My people, and I will dwell in the midst of you.   Exodus 4:22;  19:5-6; 20:45-46

THE CONTINUITY OF THE HISTORY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.  GOD’S SINGLE ON GOING PLAN.

·       “I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” “I am the God who brought you out of the land of Egypt.”  These terms used 125 times in the O.T.  Stress a continuity between the past, present, and future.  They are parts of God’s single ongoing plan.

Now to make this case of a unified plan to the entirely of the OT progress of theology, you would have to have the writers of the OT to have some interlocking moments in history made significant because of their content, and refer back to each other.

And the word or term that is used to interlock all the OT together is in the term “BLESSED”.

A “blessing”, a “given word,” a “declaration,” a “pledge,” or “oath,” that God Himself would freely do or be something for all men, nations, and nature.

TWO OLD TESTAMENT PASSAGES ON THE PROMISE:

So as with Abraham, God made a convent with  him in the present, but also and an oath to the future generations of the seed of Abraham.  Genesis 12:1-3. And with David in 2 Samuel 7:11-16.  

NOTE GENESIS 3:15.  ¹⁵And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. 

Here as we have stated in our lesson on Wednesday night. Here is a promise by God given to Adam and Eve and then continues throughout the O.T.  The promise to crush Satan and bring judgment on those who disobey, but at the same time bring someone who will crush Satan was given to Shem, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their descendants that a representative child continued to be both God’s visible guarantee for the present and a pledge for the future.

NOTE GENESIS 12:1-3  2  SAMUEL 7 AND JEREMIAH 31

The divine plan pointed to a SEED, A RACE, A FAMILY, A MAN, A LAND, AND A BLESSING OF UNIVERSAL PROPORTIONS – all GUARANTEED, according to Genesis 17, as being everlasting and eternal.

The Goal of the Apostle Paul is Our Thanksgiving

The Goal of the Apostle Paul is Our Thanksgiving: "The Goal of the Apostle Paul is Our Thanksgiving from the Desiring God blog."

Thanksgiving is a moment to express profound, deep, sincere and genuine gratitude to the providence of God for a year's worth of tender mercies that we have received from the hand of His benevolence. From his care, from His comfort, from His guidance, from His government of our lives, we are to take time to be grateful.
—R.C. Sproul

Washington, D.C.
October 3, 1863

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God. In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union. Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens. And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

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WAS THERE A DIVINE MASTER PLAN BEHIND THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS

Was there a divine master plan behind the course of human events

Old Testament Historical Theology

Part one

The text begs to be understood and set in a contest of events and meaning.

Historical studies will put the exegete (taking out of the verse) in contact with the flow of events in space and time. And grammatical and syntactical analyses will identify the collection of ideas in the immediate section of special period under investigating.

In every successful exegesis, there musts be some means of identifying the center or core of the canon.

Was there a divine master plan behind the course of human events, authorial selectivity of what was to be included or excluded and the claims for supramundane evaluation of what was recorded?

There is a connection of history and its canonical (conforming to accepted principle) significance . That is history in the OT follows a pattern that helps us understand why the Bible was written in the first place.

Events and facts, or statements should be viewed not as apart from the whole, but in some way making their contribution to the totality order of the whole context or situation.

THERE IS THE ISSUE: DID BIBLICAL HISTORY EXHIBIT A DIVINE PLAN? YES. History is important to the Divine plan that is laid out in the Bible.

1. ¹⁰The LORD bringeth the counsel of the heathen to nought: he maketh the devices of the people of none effect. ¹¹The counsel of the LORD standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations. Psalms 33:10-11

2. ²¹There are many devices in a man's heart; nevertheless the counsel of the LORD, that shall stand. Proverbs 19:21

3. ¹⁹That say, Let him make speed, and hasten his work, that we may see it: and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw nigh and come, that we may know it! Isaiah 5:19

4. ²⁴The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it stand: ²⁶This is the purpose that is purposed upon the whole earth: and this is the hand that is stretched out upon all the nations. ²⁷For the LORD of hosts hath purposed, and who shall disannul it? and his hand is stretched out, and who shall turn it back? Isaiah 14

5. ¹⁷And the land of Judah shall be a terror unto Egypt, every one that maketh mention thereof shall be afraid in himself, because of the counsel of the LORD of hosts, which he hath determined against it. Isaiah 19

6. ¹O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. Isaiah 25

7. ¹⁰Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure: Isaiah 46

8. ²⁰Therefore hear the counsel of the LORD, that he hath taken against Edom; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the inhabitants of Teman: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitations desolate with them. Jeremiah 49

9. ⁴⁵Therefore hear ye the counsel of the LORD, that he hath taken against Babylon; and his purposes, that he hath purposed against the land of the Chaldeans: Surely the least of the flock shall draw them out: surely he shall make their habitation desolate with them. Jeremiah 50:45

10. ¹²But they know not the thoughts of the LORD, neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them as the sheaves into the floor. Micah 4

Joy is Spirutal; Happiness is by Chance Outline

AN EXAMINATION OF THE TRUE AND COUNTERFEIT OF CHRISTIANITY.

                         Philippians 3:1-3        Charles e. Whisnant                    July 11, 2010

PAUL’S MAIN THEME:  LIVING ABOVE THE CIRCUMSTANCES:  REJOICE.

Yet few Christians experience Christian joy in their daily life.

WHAT IS JOY:  “Joy is a supernatural delight in God and in God’s goodness.”

·       There is a difference between JOY and HAPPINESS.  Happiness is closely related to CHANCE.  Thus, if things work out in a way which we approve, we are happy; if they do not happen, we are unhappy.  Happiness then becomes circumstantial.  JOY is an inner quality of DELIGHT IN GOD.

DEPRESSION AND CHRISTIAN JOY CANNOT GO HAND IN HAND.  Depression is a lack of trust in God’s promises to do what He has promised.  Anger multiplied by self-pity = depression.

JOY IS A SPECIAL QUALITY OF THE TRUE CHRISTIAN.

Two groups of people: Those who know they are not Christians, but who think that the fruits of Christianity can be grown without the life of Christianity, that which comes from Jesus Christ.

·       Then those who are not Christians, but who think they are Christians.   They have not actually committed their lives to Jesus Christ, and thus cannot understand their failure to experience the fruit of such commitment.’

Thus, Paul is helping us see who is the true child of God: Philippians 3:1-7.

·       The false Christians 3:2 and the true in verse 3. Each has three character qualities.

·       Paul points out a clear distinction between the religious and the righteous.

·       Those who have an inward change and those who have an outward mark.

The Bible has a major theme, and a secondary theme:

1.     Major: The setting forth of the gospel according to Jesus Christ.

2.     Secondary: The matter who is a true Christian.

KEY: Once the Gospel has been clearly delineated, the goal is to see if you are in it. Matthew 7:21-23.

THEME:  Jesus, Peter, Paul, James, Jude, and John all confronted false teachers.

SO MANY ARE RELIGIOUS BUT NOT RIGHTEOUS.

THE TEXT:  Philippians 3:1-3

Three Christian duties are enjoined in this brief paragraph: We are to rejoice in the Lord; we are to beware; and we are to examine ourselves that we be of the true circumcision

‘Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.2699 (short and compressed in order to be brief.) For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.’

Philippians 3:1 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write  the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you ² Beware of the dogs beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision ³ for we are   the true circumcision, who worship)  in the Spirit of God and glory    in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh.

 

·        Paul uses this illustration of circumcision to illustrated  the difference between the false and the true Christians.

BACKGROUND ON CIRCUMCISION THEN IS NECESSARY TO UNDERSTAND WHAT PAUL IS SPEAKING ABOUT.

JEWISH PERSPECTIVE

·        From the Jewish mind, circumcision was a mark of identity into the covenant relationship with God. That mark affirmed their right to be called Children of God supernaturally. They believed by that mark they were secured with God, and that they would receive the Kingdom and the glory.

THE TERM CIRCUMCISION EXPLAINED

Circumcision (4061) (peritome refers literally to cutting and removal of the foreskin. Both the Old and New Testament also use the concept of circumcision in a figurative or metaphorical sense, 

·        God established the practice:  Genesis 17:1-14. For a sign, a spiritual reminder, which was this: “No where, or at no point, is a man’s depravity more manifest then in the pro created act.” Why? Man is a sinner by what he says, does, thinks, and in attitude. And at the root of his existence, where he creates, we know he is a sinner.  In that, what he creates he produces a sinner.  Which is the reason Jesus had no human father.  You do not see the deeds of sin, but the nature of sin passed on to the next generation.

What is the connection here?

·        When God said to cut away the foreskin, he was reminding them that man needed cleansed at the point of his body, and to be cleansed at the deepest part, the root of his being.

·        Man needed to be cleansed of his sin through a spiritual surgery at the very root of his nature.

SO WHAT WAS THE PROBLEM?

The Jews were committed to the ritual but not committed to the spiritual reminder.  Genesis 34; 1 Samuel 18:17-30; Jeremiah 4:4; Ezekiel 44:7 They could see the natural fleshly things but not the supernatural on the inside.  Religiously doing their duty on the outside, poorly not doing the spiritual on t