GOD’S ULTIMATE INTENTION
For some time now the writer has been interested in “end time events”, and has put together several documents he chose to call Manuals. They covered topics such as –Deliverance-- The Kingdom of God----The Rapture---The End Times---The Jewish Feasts---etc. His intention was always to give a plain and simple, easy to follow, explanation of these sometime confusing doctrines or theories, based on his knowledge which came from studying scripture, along with books and teachings he had been exposed to over the years. In no way does he think his understanding is perfect or necessarily correct concerning these various topics. The intention was to help others, who perhaps had not been exposed, to as many different views as he had been, to come to a balanced, common sense conclusion.
Recently the writer took a book from the shelf entitled “The Ultimate Intention” by DeVern Fromke. It was published in 1963, and in 1974 it was reprinted for the seventh time. He borrowed part of the title name of this book to identify this document. In the introduction to the book by Pastor R.J.Stanley he makes the following statement, “Careful observation will disclose that the philosophical appeal of our current evangelistic endeavor is essentially selfish. -----Even our deeper life conferences are usually promoted on a man-centered level which suggests participants may obtain Christian victory and more profound blessings for their own heart satisfaction”. This statement more or less gives the author’s primary theme that the modern church is more "Man-centered" than it is "God-centered". His main argument is that God has always had a divine ultimate plan, or intention, from the very beginning of time. Even before He created the universe His intention was to create a race of beings that He could have intimate fellowship with. We see in the early part of Genesis, when He created Adam and Eve, that He had fellowship with them in the garden in the cool of the day. The fall, which came as a result of their disobedience, didn’t take God by surprise. He already knew what He would do to rectify the situation. The plan for the redemption of fallen mankind was always in the heart of God.
This book clearly points out what God’s Ultimate Intention has always been for mankind and what our perspective; as believers, should be. The problem has always been that we are basically selfish and man-centered in our perspective, instead of God-centered, as Pastor Stanley stated in the introduction. This fact accounts for most of the problems in the church down through the centuries. We in the evangelical circles have majored on redemption, or the salvation of fallen man, but always from a man-centered perspective. In other words we have told people that they must accept Jesus to be saved, but we usually stress what the benefits will be for them. Somehow we either have not known what God’s intention is, or else because of our lack of understanding of the true Gospel of The Kingdom of God, we have been guilty of preaching a gospel of salvation with the emphasis on man instead of on God.
In our Manual on the Kingdom of God, we pointed out some of the problems caused by certain confusion between the church and the Kingdom. This has resulted in the church proclaiming a gospel that is not the gospel of the Kingdom that Jesus and Paul both preached. Because of our man-centered perspective our gospel has catered to those things that people want to hear, instead of the true message of what it may cost to become a follower of Jesus.
It seems that today no one wants to hear what God’s word has to say about discipleship, and that there is a cost to following Jesus. Obedience to His word and submission to His delegated leadership seem to be a message that is not going out in most of our churches In some circles there has been a serious misunderstanding of the Biblical teaching on Grace. Someone has referred to it as “Hyper-Grace”, or grace taken beyond its scriptural meaning. I have also heard it called “Greasy Grace”, which may be a little crude, but it probably makes the point. People exposed to this kind of teaching apparently think that because God loves them, His grace will cover anything. There seems to be no fear of God in their understanding of Him. Some of the behavior you hear about makes you to wonder if they really know the Lord. There is a legalistic spirit that wants to judge what others do, which of course is wrong, but God does have a standard of holiness that He expects His children to walk in.
If we had more understanding of God’s standard of righteousness and a proper God centered perspective in regards to his ultimate intention for His creation, much of these problems would disappear. We hear very little in our churches these days, about holiness or sanctification. There was a day when these were common subjects, and topics of many sermons, but not anymore. When you read books or sermons from a century ago you realize just how far we have gone backwards in this area. The holiness movement of the late 1800’s set the stage for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the Pentecostal movement in the early 1900’s. Then the Charismatic revival swept through the denominational churches in the 60’s and 70’s, and later in the 80’s and 90’s when we saw the so-called Third Wave and then the Vineyard Movement arrive, sanctification didn’t seem to be much a part of any of them. There seemed to be a very “Casual” spirit come with these movements that made people think that holiness was “old fashioned” and now we could approach God any way we liked, and He would have to receive us because we were His children. This casualness brought an attitude of “familiarity with God” into some of our churches that was not healthy.
This book by Fromke explains very clearly what God’s intention has always been toward His creation. He placed mankind on earth so that He could have fellowship with us. Because He is Holy, and cannot look on sin, now since the fall, He can only fellowship with us humans if we abide by His rules. This should be easy for us to understand, but somehow it seems we have missed it. Of course we have an enemy, in Satan, who hates God with a passion. Because he can’t do any harm to God Himself, he takes out his hatred on the church. This probably accounts for most of the trouble in the church in the past 2000 years.
When we read the Old Testament we can see how God tried over and over again to establish a relationship with mankind. He chose Abraham, made a covenant with him and gave him a promise that He would bless him and makes him a blessing to all nations. Later He chose Moses, to lead His chosen people out of bondage in Egypt and into the land He had promised to Abraham. Later He gave Moses some laws that the people promised they would abide by. When they failed to keep their word He gave them a system of sacrifices to re-establish fellowship with Him. They continued to disobey God and turn away from Him, and worship the false idols of their neighboring nations. God raised up Prophets to warn the people of what would happen to them if they continued in their rebellion. When they refused to listen, and continued on in their sinful ways, He allowed them to be taken captive by ungodly nations, and removed them from the land He had given them. After a period of time He allowed them to return to the land. They continued to break God’s laws and do their own thing, until finally at the end of the Old Testament they were once again in bondage, this time to the Romans.
God had given them promises through several prophets that He would send a deliverer to bring them back to a relationship with Himself. The New Testament gives the account of how this happened. This was always part of His ultimate intention, that He would send Jesus, His only begotten Son, to be the Savior of the world. This is the good news of the Gospel of the Kingdom of God that Jesus expects the church to proclaim to every nation. Through the faithful preaching of this gospel He has promised to save all those who put there trust in His finished work on the cross. The Holy Spirit then baptizes these people into the body of Christ, or the true church that Jesus said He would build. This experience of being placed into the body of Christ is the same as the new birth that Jesus explained to Nicodemas as recorded in (John 3:3) This experience is available for “whosoever will” and happens at the very moment they put their trust in the finished work of Jesus on the cross. This should not be confused with the baptism “of” the Holy Spirit which is an entirely separate experience. Some teachers have done this, and have caused much confusion.
At the moment of salvation, when we are baptized into Christ, the Holy Spirit is the baptizer. When we are baptized in the Holy Spirit at some later time, Jesus is the baptizer. At salvation the Holy Spirit comes “in” to our life to give us the assurance that Jesus is now our Savior, at the baptism “of” or “with” the Holy Spirit He comes “upon” us for power to live the Christian life. Prepositions are usually small little words but they can make a tremendous difference in the meaning of a sentence. We can easily see that “by”, “of”, “in”, “upon” or “with” are not the same words and give an entirely different meaning when used. We need to be careful to see which of these little words are used in scripture to describe the work of the Holy Spirit. If this had been done in the writing of many books that this writer has read, much confusion could have been avoided.
Another thing that enters into any discussion of this topic is the whole matter of “overcomers”. An excellent book on this subject is The Overcomers Way to Glory by Paul and Nuala O’ Higgins. They are a very unique couple who started out as a priest and a nun in the Catholic Church. After they were born again, they were married and have now been in ministry for many years. They have a good understanding of the Kingdom of God as a now, as well as a future thing. In one chapter they discus the overcoming life, and although it is good teaching in many ways, when compared with Fromke in The Ultimate Intention, you would have to say it is more man-centered than God-centered.
This is quite a common thing with many books or teachings in the modern church. The tendency toward man-centeredness is very noticeable, once it comes to your attention. This has been the root cause of many false doctrines that have plagued the church since it’s beginning 2000 years ago. Many of man’s theories that have been taught as truth would fall into this category. For example “Dispensationalism”, “Pre-Tribulation Rapture”, “Replacement Theology”, are a few teachings that have caused much controversy in the church. Each of these theories has at their very core this problem of being man-centered. Think about it for a minute and you will probably agree. Take the theory that the church will be raptured before the tribulation period, for example. This is certainly man-centered, and chooses to ignore plain scriptures, some the very words of Jesus, to try to prove that the church will escape suffering and persecution. As we mentioned in our previous document called The Believers Manual on the Rapture this theory that the church will escape the Tribulation would seem to be a combination of the theory of Dispensationalism and the Secret Rapture theory. Both of these are only some man’s theory and have little or no basis in fact.
Recently the writer read a little book by Dr S. P. Tregelles entitled The Hope of Christ’s Second Coming which was published in 1864. He was a Greek scholar who worked on several translations of the New Testament plus other scholarly works. He certainly knew the scriptures and points out in this book the errors in this theory, which had only then been recently introduced in 1832. He shows in various places that the scriptures they used to try and prove this theory actually said the complete opposite when they were properly understood. In other words the promoters of this theory knew very little Greek and their followers knew even less. That is often how wrong doctrines get started, by a misunderstanding of the original language. Unless we know exactly what the writer of a certain scripture meant by the words he used, there is no way we can properly interpret that scripture. The meaning of a scripture must be determined by the writer and never by the reader, especially if they have some preconceived notion of what they want that scripture to say to prove their particular theory. This one principle of Bible interpretation could prevent a lot of confusion, if it were faithfully applied.
This problem of man-centered teaching instead of God-centered can account for most, if not all, of the false doctrines that have been introduced in the church. The sooner we come to this realization, the sooner we will see real unity in the body. We need to confess that many doctrines we hold dear, and have defended and fought for, probably for years, are simply some man’s theory that cannot be proved. Remember a theory is just that, simply a theory or an idea about something, that is not truth until such time as it can be proved. Jesus declared “ I am the way, the truth and the life.” Unless a teaching agrees in every detail with the plain teaching of Jesus or one of the apostles, as recorded in Holy Scripture, we should beware and not be influenced by it, in the opinion of this writer. Psalm 119 verse 160 teaches us that “the sum of Thy Word is truth”. In other words only when we have complete agreement between all the scriptures pertaining to any topic, then and only then, will we have the truth and the truth will always stand in judgement of us, we must never stand in judgment of it.
When you consider any of these controversial so-called doctrines that we have been looking at in these various manuals, this principal must be applied. A good simple way of testing them is to see if they would apply or be accepted in any part of the world. For example, imagine trying to teach our Western doctrine on the Pre-Tribulation Rapture theory to believers in China or any of the “restricted access” nations. Many of these people would think they must have missed the Rapture because they are already suffering persecution every bit as bad as that described in Revelation. Another doctrine that would never be accepted in all parts of the world is the Prosperity doctrine that declares if a person has enough faith they should live in a big house and drive a Cadillac. Imagine how this teaching would make a believer in any one of our third world countries feel if they were told their economic condition was due to their lack of faith. The truth is that their level of faith probably greatly exceeds that of the Western believer who has been seduced by this doctrine of “name it and claim it”.
Any doctrine that cannot be accepted by the church in any part of the world is not a real doctrine, but is simply a man-centered theory that can never be proved. The sooner we accept this fact, and stop preaching these theories as if they were truth, the healthier the church will be and the Gospel of the Kingdom of God will be extended into all the world.
In Genesis we read that in the beginning when God, who is a Trinity, decided to make a race of human beings in His likeness, you might say He wanted to enlarge His immediate family. Not that Adam was included in the Trinity, but the Scriptures seem to indicate that God’s ultimate intention was to have an eternal companion for His Son. The creation of Adam was the first step toward this ultimate end. As we read through the Bible with this thought in mind, and lay aside all the man-centered doctrines that we have been exposed to over the years, we can see that from God’s perspective He has always had a plan. One book that has been a great help to this writer is “Destined for the Throne” by Paul Billheimer. He deals with this general theme that God always wanted a companion for His only begotten Son. His particular thesis is that the church is that companion, called the “Bride of Christ”, and is being prepared for her eternal role by prayer. He calls prayer “on the job training”, which gives prayer a completely new meaning to most of us. In the introduction to this little book he states “ redeemed humanity outranks all other orders of created beings in the universe. Angels are created, not generated. Redeemed humanity is both created and generated, begotten of God, bearing His 'Genes' or His 'DNA' Through the new birth a redeemed human being becomes a bona fide member of the original cosmic family, 'next of kin' to the Trinity.”
When you compare the teaching of this book, with that of the book mentioned earlier by Fromke, you can easily see that God certainly does have an Ultimate Intention for His Creation. This is something that has been hidden from man because God has seen fit to keep certain things secret until they are revealed through one of His servants. In (Deut 29:29) we read “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.” One of God’s servants, to whom He revealed many of His secrets, was the apostle Paul. The letter to the Ephesians mentions several of these secret things, especially about the church. A careful reading of this epistle with these thoughts in mind, about the difference between man-centered and-God centered teaching should answer most of our questions.
As mentioned before, most false doctrines that have come into the church over the years can be traced to this common root. Because of insecurity, or fear; and because we are all basically selfish individuals, we are easily influenced by some teaching that would seem to be in our best interest. Take an honest look at any of the man-centered theories we have mentioned and I’m sure you will agree.
In conclusion, yes there is an answer to the problems caused by the introduction of these false man-centered theories into the church. The answer begins by admitting that we have believed certain theories as if they were truth, when in fact they were only some man’s idea. Then we need to repent of our pride in thinking we were right and anyone who didn’t agree with us was wrong. Then we need to carefully read again these same scriptures with an open mind, not influenced by what we had previously been told they meant, and simply trust the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to us. This writer went through this procedure a few years ago and was amazed at the difference he saw in these scriptures. The little booklet called “Understanding Scripture at Face Value Plain & Simple” put out by Sign Ministries was a great help. It clearly points out certain principles that must be followed if we are to get God’s true meaning from His Word. May God bless you as you faithfully study His Word!
Sincerely submitted.
Dave Jamer
