By John Larkins
As with all of God’s workings, His plan to rescue us from Satan after our parents sinned is well documented and explained by God’s messengers. Unfortunately for us, it is also ignored, criticized and rejected by many. This leads to extreme pain and suffering caused entirely by our own choosing, but, as usual, we blame God for our mis-fortune and damnation.
When asked if all would be saved, Jesus replied that the way to hell was broad and that many would follow it while ignoring The Way to heaven.
So lets look at the big picture. After our first parents were sent “East of Eden” to Earth, humans made many fatal mis-takes. One simple thing was apparent from the be-ginning – God punished disobedience. He simply required that we do what He said or built into our con-sciences. We did not have to be told that God made us male and female; He gave us our sex for us to reproduce human bodies so that He could give the child a soul. Thus, we would be fruitful and multiply. Because He created us in His image and likeness with love and kind-ness, God required our love and respect.
Humans, however, could not resist the temptation to try to be “like Gods.” For many thousands of years, God tried to mold us into His friends. This did not work. About 4,000 years ago, God began a new effort to teach us to be His respectable and responsive children. God would institute a fraternity of people to become an example of the people He wanted. He announced to Abraham that he would be the patriarch of a new numerous nation. Thus started the Israelites, who were sent to Egypt to reproduce. God eventually appointed Moses to organize the Israelites and convert them to His religion. Moses worked directly for God and produced a written account of what God wanted the Israelites to do and a record of how well they did the job. For example, God wanted them to accept Him as their king and be His people. But no, the Israelites petitioned Him to give them a man to be their king. And so, it was.
To reopen heaven’s gates to humans, a sacrifice commensurate with the grievance against God was required and had not yet been made. The religion God gave Moses was a way to interact with God, but not so much as to gain entrance to heaven. The book we call the Old Testament was replete with promises that a Redeemer would some day be sent to earth to lead us back to The Way to heaven.
Our calendar marks this event as happening about six anno domino, or about 2,000 years ago. Only the Son of God could provide a cosmic sacrifice sufficient to save us. Only by His coming to earth as the Son of Man born of a woman and by His torture and death, could we be saved from eternal damnation. Jesus Christ came and gave His life in a horrible crucifixion. His power resurrected Him and He arose back to His Father.
What concerns us now is how to benefit from Christ’s death and resurrection. His Father gave Jesus all power on heaven and earth. Prior to His death, Jesus spent three years training and inspiring 12 men to perpetuate the dispensation of grace that saves our souls. They were also empowered to forgive sins.
This perpetual process continues today through Jesus Christ’s one, only, apostolic and holy church. How else could all current and future people be taught, choose and demonstrate their choice of God over Satan?
Do you know The Way? Even though Jesus founded only one Church, starting with a church in Jerusalem that now includes over one billion members worldwide, there are about 35,000 organizations call-ing themselves “churches” today, which is just another example of men pretending to be God!
For the past 19 years, John Larkins has evangelized on the street, door-to-door, in tent revivals and in church situations. Contact him at johnlarkins@bellsouth.net.