GOD'S INVOLVEMENT WITH PLANET EARTH (part 2)

In Part 1 we covered the time from creation to the beginning of the church in the first century after the resurrection of Christ. The book of Acts records the activities of the early Church that Jesus began to build, or "call out" of the then Jewish world. All the disciples were descendants of Abraham, so the early Church was made up of only Jewish converts from "Judaism". Cornelius was the first non-Jewish believer, who heard the good news of the gospel of the Kingdom from Peter, after God had dealt with them both in a vision. You can read about it in (Acts 10:9-48). At the time the NT was written, there were only two classes of people, Jews, or the people of "The Covenant", and all other non-Jews were referred to as "Gentiles", or sometimes as "Greeks". Paul the Apostle, was born a Jew, but became a Roman citizen. He became one of the leading apostles that laid the foundation for the Church. He wrote most of the NT scriptures except the Gospels, Acts, and Revelation.

In Paul's letters to the early churches, we find most of our information on what the church should look like, especially in Ephesians and Colossians. In Ephesians he reveals the secret that the Church, which is the body of Christ on earth, whose head is in heaven, is really the dwelling place for the Holy Spirit of God. When Jesus returned to heaven after His resurrection, He sent the Holy Spirit back to earth to carry on the work of building His Church. He clearly told the disciples that not only would He, the Spirit, be with them, but He would dwell within them. We know that is exactly what happened when we read the book of Acts. Part of this secret that God revealed to Paul, was that both Jews and Gentiles would be made into "one new man", by the work of the Spirit. This truth was very hard for the Jews to accept, because they had been the "covenant people" for so many years, and thought that God would only deal with them.

This truth, that today God is calling "whosoever will" from every nation on earth to be part of His body, is the most important truth for believers in Jesus to grasp. Some Christians are like the Jews of Jesus' day, and think they have some special relationship with Jesus that not everyone can have. God is no respecter of persons, and His grace is free to all who believe Jesus is Lord!

Israel is still God's "covenant people", because He never breaks a covenant he has made. Some Jews will accept Jesus and be "born again" into the spiritual body of Christ, and some will not. When you study the scriptures carefully that refer to the end times, it seems that God will always have a remnant from His covenant people as an "earthly family" to re-populate the earth during the millennial reign of Christ, and on into eternity. When we read passages like Isaiah chapter 66, or Rev 21, we can clearly see an earthly people abiding in an earthly Jerusalem, at the same time, the "Heavenly Jerusalem" that God brings down from heaven to be the earthly abode for His heavenly people, the Church, who will be ruling and reigning with Christ. These two separate groups of people apparently exist together throughout eternity in the two cities called Jerusalem! One heavenly, and one earthly. This is part of the mystery that only God knows, and until He makes it known to us, we have to believe it by faith. (Deut 29:29, and Heb 11:1, 6)

We encourage you to be like the Bereans as recorded in (Acts 17:11) "And the people of Berea were more open-minded than those of Thessalonica, and they listened eagerly to Paul's message. They searched the scriptures day after day to see if Paul and Silas were teaching the truth". These two articles are only meant to give you a brief overview of God's involvement with planet earth, and encourage you to search the scriptures for yourself for further details!

Sincerely submitted.

Gramp