THE ULTIMATE PLAN
The apostle Paul referred to himself as an apostle born out of season (1 Corinthians 15:8). Yet it was he who was personally and singly taught by Jesus Christ (Galatians 1:17). Paul before his conversion was called Saul. He was a pupil of Gamaliel a Jewish teacher of the law, and was a very devoted and active pharisee (Acts 22:3). Paul persecuted the followers of Jesus. Paul was a skilled and devoted man, no wonder why he was chosen by God the Father and Jesus Christ to bring the good news to Gentiles, kings and also to the children of Israel (Acts 9:15-16).
Having been exclusively trained by Christ for three years in Arabia, (Galatians 1:17), Paul had a good knowledge of God's plan to save humanity. In a letter to the Ephesians Paul wrote: “For He [God] has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of His will, according to His purpose which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fulness of time, to unite all things in Him, things in heaven and things on earth” (Ephesians 1:9-10, Revised Standard Version).
God has a master plan! And that plan is being carried out under the active leadership of Jesus Christ, who is called “the captain of [our] salvation” (Hebrews 2:10 King James Version).
Christ is in a sense, the “executive director” of the plan of salvation. He is actively carrying out the purpose and will of God the Father, with whom that plan originated.
Jesus Christ as God cannot lie so in talking to people whom He considers as outsiders (Mark 4:11), He must talk to them in parables so they can't understand the spiritual meaning as verse 12 clears for us.
In a sense Jesus Christ had classed or categorized people who obey and follow Him as those of the “inside” and the rest as outsiders. And He said to them, “To you it has been given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God; but those who are outside, all things come in parables, so that seeing today, true Christians are told to separate themselves from those who may see and not perceive, and hearing they may hear and not understand; lest they should turn, and their sins be forgiven them. “And He said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the Kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables: That seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest at any time they should be converted, and their sins should be forgiven them” (Mark 4:11-12). Jesus Christ does not mean He does not want to save these people, He knows their time is not yet come.
God knows those whom He had called. “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity” (2Timothy 2:19). What an inspiring and edifying verse. But let's not sit down and glory in this thought. We have work to do. The Apostle Peter says that we as God's chosen of today, we are being judged. If we want to make it to our ultimate goal which is the kingdom of God, we must actively judge ourselves. “For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God? And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?” (1 Peter 4:17-18). This judging is teaching ourselves of what God says in His word, the Bible. We are doing this so that we can also teach others in the millennium and forward (Revelation 20:4). These outsiders will be judged during the White Throne Judgement or the Last Great Day. We must understand that judging here is not sentencing but teaching. The billions of all people since Adam and Eve will be given God's spirit of power and understanding and taught God's perfect way before judged by sentencing.
This explain why only few have God's spirit now, they are the ones being judged now. It is very important to know that obedience brings understanding.
James explains that you must be “doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of a man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it, and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does”(James 1:22-25,NKJV).
We see, then, that applying what we have learned from God's Word is necessary, along with a humble approach. We must begin to live what we learn for God to grant us continued understanding.
If we refuse to accept the understanding God reveals to us, He ceases to give us more of it. God explains this principle: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you. .” (Hosea 4:6).
For us to understand God's word, we must first learn about and respect God's law. The psalmist summarizes this principle for us. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments”(Psalm 111:10).
Paul emphasizes this point in Romans 2:13: “For not the hearers of the law are just in the sight, but the doers of the law will be justified.” If a person studies God's word just to hear what it says, but not to do or obey what it commands, he is not pleasing God and cannot expect His help.
Sadly, many think Jesus came to do away with the law, but He denied this in the strongest terms. “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets,” He warned. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill. For assuredly, I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled” (Matthew 5:17-18). You will notice that at this time we are judging ourselves by learning and doing.
Jesus was explaining that all of God's commandments should be “fulfilled” in a more complete way than that taught by the Pharisees. He stressed that we should take into account the spiritual intent of the law and not just the letter. He showed that both aspects of law-keeping are necessary to truly obey God.
To those who follow God, but did not obey His laws, He said, “Not everyone who says to Me, `Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21). Christ expected His followers to deeply respect God the Father's commandments, as He always respected and obeyed them. His view was clear: “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love” (John 15:10). Christ's teachings upholds God's commandments. They do not do away with them.
The apostle Peter wrote to people who desire to receive the Holy Spirit, a requirement for understanding the Scripture. “And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit [which] God has given to those who obey Him”(Acts 5:32). Faithful obedience to God's word is therefore necessary for all those who claim to be “insiders” or followers of Jesus Christ.
The many benefits of obedience will quickly manifest themselves to the doer. “Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good,” (Psalm 34:8). Jesus Christ said: “Whoever chooses to do the will of God will know whether My teachings come from Him or is merely My own” (John 7:17, Revised English Bible). An attitude of humble, willing obedience is the litmus test.
God's divine plan involves the establishment of the Kingdom of God upon this earth and the subjection of all things to Christ's government. Most insiders knew of this plan. It involves all people who have ever lived. However, many of them are already dead-and God is not the God of the dead, but of the living! Dead people can have no part in the Kingdom of God, so a solution had to be found for the problem of sin.
Adam and Eve were the prototypes of all humanity to follow. As they went, so went the world: “Through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). Sin is universal in the human realm: All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). Somehow the people of God had to be saved from the consequences of sin.
God's principal act of salvation for all mankind was prefigured in the greatest single event in ancient Israel's history-the Passover. Today however, most Churches of God have not followed the correct fourteenth day of Abib as Moses said. Most are two or three days late because of using the crescent moon. A late day for Passover is just like not observing it at all.
The Israelites had been in Egypt for centuries. To a large extent they had absorbed ancient Egypt's morally degenerate way of life. Ancient Egypt is used in the Bible as a type of sin (Revelation 11:8). Had it not been for God's merciful graciousness, the children of Israel would have died in sin.
But God devised a means by which they could achieve physical salvation from Egypt. The whole procedure is explained in Exodus 12. It prefigures the sacrifice of Christ.
Those who come under the blood of Christ will escape divine wrath: “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life” (Romans 6:23). It is by God's grace that true Christians may claim the blood of Christ. It is through faith in that blood that we are justified, though we are all sinners.
Each year the Church of God observes the Passover to symbolize and renew the covenant made by each called with God at the time of baptism. Each year we are reminded of our need for faith in Christ's sacrifice-the only means by which we can be justified in the face of our own sinfulness.
The “golden text” of the Bible say, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
But how does this sacrifice apply to all those who have already died and yet never even heard the name of Jesus Christ? Plainly, God “desire all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1Timothy 2:4).
Again, God's grand master plan comes to the rescue. Each of God's seven Holy Days and seven festivals pictures the divine plan of salvation. We have to remember that obedience to God's laws by always attending of keeping these days will make us more knowledgeable of their purpose. And it is the seventh or the last one in particular-the Last Great Day-that applies to those who have died before and never been called.
Right in the midst of the verse of Revelation 20 that describe the coming thousand-year reign of Jesus Christ on earth is a key statement depicting what is to happen immediately after the Millennium. Notice it in verse 5: “The rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished.”
So here's a statement that actually tells us when “the rest of the dead” (those not raised in the first resurrection as spirit beings) will live. It is immediately after the Millennium.
Verses 11 and 12 give more detail: “Then I saw a great white throne and Him (God) who sat on it.... And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books.”
Here John describes a prophetic vision of a general resurrection and a “great white throne” judgment involving most people who have ever lived on this earth. All will be given an opportunity for salvation-for eternal life in God's kingdom.
If you are a true called Christian and remain faithful until death, you will be privileged to partake of a “better resurrection” (Hebrew 11:35) when Christ will come for His chosen. But what about your friends and relatives (living and dead) who have known little or nothing of Christ, His Gospel and the Kingdom of God?
As members of the Church of God, who had been chosen by God at this time to bring back the truth once given to Moses, here's your future legacy! After reigning and ruling with Christ for a thousand years (Revelation 20:4-6), in a world of generation after generation of new people who have never lived before, you will then be privileged to see the resurrection of your ancestors, kinfolk and acquaintances. You will help teach them God's way of life.
Every human being is important to God! He is always willing to go after the one lost sheep. He is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).
This, then, is the vital meaning of the Last Great Day or the last day of God's plan of salvation. All of God's feasts from Passover in the first month until this Day of the seventh month are important. This is God's plan, the Ultimate Plan.
Sotero Sonza
1. Passover
2. Days of Unleavened Bread
3. Pentecost
4. Feast of Trumpets
5. Day of Atonement
6. Feast of Tabernacles
7. Last Great Day