Chapter 15

Plan & Purpose

God, who dwells in eternity, views things from an eternal perspective and has an everlasting Plan which supersedes and surpasses in importance all others.  Only God sees the entire “picture”; we perceive but a small glimpse.  He alone, righteous and perfect as He is, can be trusted to make the correct choices for His Creation and His creatures.  No mind in the universe can comprehend the totality of God’s Plan except the Mind of the Father (which also is the Mind of the Son and of the Holy Spirit).

Within God’s Plan is included a purpose for each and every one of His creatures, whether it be an angel, a human, an animal, or an amoeba.  Life was given to each creature to fulfill a specific purpose in God’s overall Plan, the outcome of which was known by God before the beginning commenced.  According to evangelist Miles Monroe, on TBN’s “Praise the Lord” Show (tape #0122-92),

Life without purpose is a waste of time, an experiment; and life is too short for experimentation.  God sets an end before he starts the procedure to get there.  He begins with the end; then He backs up and starts the procedure to get to the end.  “Revelation” caused “Genesis” to start.  Every task we perform in life is something which is already finished [in God’s Mind and in the realm of eternity] that God wants us to begin for Him.

PART I:  FORMULATION of PLAN and PURPOSE

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God’s Plan

The “good” or “positive” purpose of something is the original intent in God’s Mind for which the thing was created; that is, it is the reason a thing is made.  God desired something, so He created this universe and everything in it to get what He wanted.  God takes full advantage of “evil” or “negative” purpose (a “counterfeiting” or “twisting” of good purpose by Satan) by simply making it part of His overall Plan.  God’s Plan includes the ultimate separation of all evil from all good, after which evil will remain out of His presence forever.  All who accept and trust in God’s Plan will be protected or saved from evil for eternity.

It is not one of God’s goals (as is Satan’s) to gain authority and power.  God is the Great “I AM” (see “YHWH or Yahweh, the ‘I AM’”: C-2, P-I), and He already has (and never will lose) absolute Authority and Power (see “Authority”: C-6, P-II; and “Power”: C-6, P-IV).  God does not desire fame.  All supernatural creatures (good and bad angels and demons, cherubim, seraphim, and others) are very well aware of God’s existence and preeminence (Mark 1:24; James 2:19; Rev. 7:11,12).  Eventually, a time will come when all people—even adamant disbelievers—will know of this (Phil. 2:10,11).  Nor does God desire wealth, as He already possesses the entire seen and unseen universe, which He created and sustains (Psalm 95:3-5, 148:1-13; Acts 17:24a—see “God, the personal Creator”: C-1, P-I; and “Creator, Sustainer”: C-6, P-III).

I believe that God’s underlying and greatest desire is to be loved, primarily by beings which never have seen Him in His full glory and who do not have to love Him.  Only human beings qualify under both of these categories; any love by us must be due to faith (see “gifts of the Holy Spirit”: C-6, P-IV; and “faith”: C-10, P-II).  We as humans know what it is to want to be loved, as well as to have our love rejected.  As such, we also are the only members of Creation who can understand the need for God to be loved and how deeply painful it is for His Holy Spirit (God’s “Soul”—see “Heart and Emotion”: C-6, P-IV) when His pure, unadulterated, intense Love for us is spurned (by ignoring Him, by not showing appreciation toward Him, or by replacing Him with other “gods”).

God wants us to be like Him (Matt. 5:48), which includes showing perfect Love for Him (and for others) as He does for us.  When asked which commandment is most important, Jesus replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30).  Eventually, all saints who truly love God will be saved from eternal darkness by the shed blood of Jesus (whom the Father sent to reconcile people back to Him).  Moreover, they will be transformed into perfect states of being (as was Jesus upon His resurrection), and they forever will choose to Love and serve Him like no other created being can—all part of God’s great Plan.

The difference between our desire for love and God’s desire for the same is that not one of us humans is truly and wholly worthy of the love we receive from others or from God.  Yet, God is completely worthy of our love, by virtue of the facts that 1) He has provided us with everything we have and need (Matt. 7:11; 2 Cor. 9:8-11) and that 2) He Loves us even though we are unworthy of true Love and even if we do not love Him back (Rom. 5:8; 1 John 4:9,10).  Our heavenly Father wants us, His children, to refer to Him as Abba (Mark 14:36a; Rom. 8:15,16; Gal. 4:6,7), the Aramaic term for “Father” or “Daddy.”  This is because He wishes to have a personal, intimate, two-way relationship with us.  He can give us immeasurably more Love and attention than any earthly father ever could.  God created the universe and everything in it to fulfill His ultimate purpose: to receive the never-ending, perfect Love of a select number of people to whom He, in turn, will provide Love, care, and protection forevermore.  “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28).

purposes of Jesus and Israel

It was in God’s Plan to reach out to the people of the world so that they could begin to fathom and comprehend His incomparable Love.  Thus, it was part of Jesus’ purpose to show finite people of flesh and blood how to “relate” to God and to His Love on their own level and also to provide them with eternal Life, something no one else could give.  Since everyone born must have a certain nationality, Israel was chosen to be the origin of the earth-born Messiah, Jesus (although, as God, He has existed from eternity).

It is a fact that the Jews are God’s “chosen” or “elect” people (Isa. 65:9).  Eventually, they will receive the literal inheritance which He promised to the patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  This does not mean that God loves the Jews anymore than He loves anyone else in the world; God loves all people equally.  It means that it was/is Israel’s purpose to bring forth the promised Messiah, the Savior of the world, and to be the nation which would receive the manifestation of His promises, so that God could be shown to be the Faithful and True God that He is (Rev. 19:11ab) to the other nations of the world.  How God has dealt and deals with Israel is meant to be an example to all the other nations of how He deals with all people.

It was part of God’s Plan for the Jews, as a whole, to reject Jesus, a Jew (on the earth), as their Messiah.  Seemingly, they should have accepted one of their own, who presented with all the proper qualifications, to be their Messiah.  Remarkably, they did not.  Had they done so, Jesus no doubt would have been thought of as the King of only the Jews; and no doubt there would have been much less acceptance of Him by the rest of the (Gentile) world than there is.  The thinking by other nations would have been, “Sure your Jesus is the Messiah.  You’re only saying that because he’s one of your own.”  The fact that national Israel generally has not accepted Jesus as Messiah throughout history, I feel, has made His Messiahship and Lordship more acceptable to non-Jews.  Since the annexation of East Jerusalem and other land by Israel in 1967, though, more Jews have come to accept Jesus as Messiah and Lord than throughout all of history up to that point.

It is erroneous to believe that God has forsaken Israel and the Jews and, due to their general rejection of Jesus as Messiah and subsequent dispersion among the world’s nations, that they somehow have forfeited their future, eternal inheritance.  To believe that some other group of people—for instance, religious Christians or Muslims—has been substituted for Israel and the Jews to receive the inheritance originally promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob is to believe that God is a liar and that His promises, clearly stated in the Bible, are not literal.  This is known as “replacement theology”; it is nothing short of anti-Semitism.  (Christians do have a glorious eternal inheritance through Jesus, but it is different from that which will be given to Israel at Jesus’ Second Advent to earth at the end of the 70th Week.)  God said,

If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed laws of heaven and earth, then I will reject the descendants of Jacob and David my servant and will not choose one of his sons to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  For I will restore their fortunes and have compassion on them (Jer. 33:25,26).

Because God has established His covenant with “day” and “night” and the “fixed laws of heaven and earth,” He will bring Israel back to Him and give the Jews everything He originally promised.  Passages such as this—along with Deut. 4:31; Jer. 30:18-22; and Micah 7:18-20—indicate that God, true to His Word, never will give what was promised to Israel to anyone else.  In the end, God will re-embrace literal Israel and the Jews, making a new covenant with them (Jer. 31:31-37; Heb. 8:7-13) and pouring out His Spirit upon them (Ezek. 39:29; Zech. 12:10a).

purpose of Satan

Satan (originally Lucifer) was created as a model of perfection, supremely wise and beautiful (Ezek. 28:12b), to be the purest example to the rest of Creation of the glorious creative ability of God.  God also anointed, ordained, and trusted him as a guardian cherub (28:14a) over all He had created.  Satan’s pride, however, caused him to deceive himself into believing that he actually could replace God’s Throne with his own (see “pride and downfall”: C-7, P-I) and claim God’s glory for himself.

I believe God’s primary purpose for Satan is for him to attract all of those who are not capable of maintaining an unforced, passionate, continuous love for God for eternity future.  The way I perceive it, God first allowed an “inkling” of evil (initially, pride) to form within the deepest recess of Satan’s heart.  (Similarly, God placed the tree bearing the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden, in view of Adam and Eve.  It may be that Satan ate of the fruit of this tree.)  Once Satan discovered how attractive and appealing he was, God warned him not to entertain the thought, alluring as it was.  (God also warned Adam and Eve not to eat of the beautiful forbidden fruit.)  But Satan chose to disobey God; he allowed himself to become captured by and placed in bondage to his pride, a devastating evil.  By doing so, the tiny “snowflake” of pride eventually became a mammoth “avalanche” of greed, envy, lust, and malice.  (The fruit eaten by Eve and then Adam did not, in itself, instill evil into their minds.  They chose to receive the knowledge of evil by disobeying God (sinning), a byproduct of setting aside their faith that whatever God says is always best.  When even a little bit of faith leaves the mind (a sin), disbelief—which is a form of evil—immediately takes its place.  Once there, disbelief pushes out more and more faith, which is replaced by more and more disbelief, until the mind controls itself rather than allowing God to control it.)

The more Satan thought about how beautiful he was, the more resplendent he wanted to be.  The more resplendent he wanted to be, the more he deluded himself into thinking that he could be as magnificent as God.  And the more he deceived himself into thinking this, the more he believed that he actually could attain “Godship” and ultimately set his own throne in the place of the Throne of the Almighty God.  (Once Adam and Eve “tasted” of the concept of evil, they wanted to explore it to the fullest; the more they sampled evil, the hungrier for it they became.  This snowballed into a massive downfall, and mankind has followed the same path all the way to the present.)  Anything “mysterious” or “unknown” is captivating.  Without the wisdom to leave mysterious and unknown secrets to the Mind of God, Who can control them, we choose to investigate them and find ourselves in trouble, because we did not obey the Holy Spirit telling us to stay away from them.  “Evil” is like “supernatural plutonium” which contaminates any created being with whom it comes into contact.  The only “lead box” in the universe capable of containing its devastating effects is the Mind of God.

Satan hates unity because it is the key to power.  The greatest work of Satan is division, and ignorance is his greatest tool to divide people one from another.  For one thing, ignorance of his very existence deepens divisions among people, because they fail to join forces against him, their common enemy.  Also, Satan wants nothing more than for us to be ignorant of God’s purposes for us and for others.  Prejudice is ignorance of, and thus lack of regard for, other people’s purposes.  Satan loves prejudice, because harboring it can lead to attempts to disrupt God’s Plan by trying to stop others from fulfilling their roles in this Plan.  Furthermore, ignorance and prejudice can cause enslavement and bondage, which intensify division.

purpose of other angels

The increased fascination with angels over the past few years has had good and bad ramifications.  Those people who understand that angels are sent by God to help them in certain instances will not give praise nor thanks to these angels but to God Who sent them.  On the other hand, those people who merely are intrigued by the supernatural, and who fail to give the Lord proper acknowledgment for helping and sustaining them, will be more open to deception by evil angels posing as ministers of goodness and light.  Maybe one way to distinguish the difference is knowing that good angels always will reject worship and focused attention, while evil angels may welcome praise and veneration.

The main purpose of good angels is not to manifest their own love for God but, rather, to minister to and protect people as they fulfill their purposes in God’s Plan.  On the other hand, the function of evil angels, including Satan, is to draw away spiritually those people who truly do not love and trust God (and are incapable of doing so for an eternity) from the ones who do love and trust Him and will do so forever.

One way bad angels accomplish this is to tempt and entice people so as to “sift” out those who will not remain true to God (Luke 22:31).  Another way is to generate disappointments and disasters—for instance, abuse or abandonment within families; mistrust between friends; civil and ethnic unrest in places such as Beirut, Sarajevo, and Los Angeles; food shortages in Ethiopia and Somalia; and earthquakes in California, or hurricanes like “Andrew” in Florida and Louisiana.  Such personal and regional calamities cause many of the people experiencing them, as well as outside observers, to doubt God’s goodness and mercy, because they blame Him either for causing them or for not preventing them.  (Actually, God often allows calamities, because He wants people to depend on Him rather than to be independently self-sufficient by running their own lives.)

Those firmly rooted in God’s Word and Spirit turn toward (rather than away from) their Heavenly Father in times of crisis, knowing full well that He will support and sustain them and that through Him their faith will become stronger and more unshakable by the experience.  They know that Satan, not God, is the instigator and perpetrator of all evil and that there will come a time when evil will be overcome and defeated.

At this point, let me state that I do not believe everything bad that happens (for instance, a hurricane’s devastation or a person’s death) necessarily is caused directly by Satan or by evil angels and demons.  However, I do feel that they are at least indirectly responsible for natural catastrophes, illnesses, and death.  For instance, I believe a hurricane is initiated by God’s allowing Satan or other evil entity to bring together the “ingredients” to form one in a particular location.  A cancerous tumor begins in a similar manner.  From the initial formation on, though, the natural laws of physics, chemistry, and biology can take hold and continue the growth process (propagated or not by the original perpetrator) until the fullest possible damage has been done—or until God intervenes, via faith and people’s prayers, to halt the deadly expansion or somehow to deflect or reduce its effect.

Although angels are not forced to love God, they have seen Him as He is, as well as Satan in all His splendor, and have made a choice between the two based on first-hand observation.  But the love, allegiance, and unquestioned service shown to God by good angels simply is not as valuable to God as these same qualities demonstrated by humans, who were made in God’s image.  This is because these angels have been “biased,” as it were, by seeing the incomparable Beauty and Majesty of God with their own eyes, whereas we have not.  (Of course, one-third of the angels have been deceived into voluntarily following Satan rather than choosing God, testifying to the devil’s superior ability to deceive by appearing to transform himself into an “angel of light”—2 Cor. 11:14—and by making tantalizing promises which he never intends, nor ever will be able, to keep.)

I believe that, initially, no evil was known by any angel; each one trusted God to know best about everything.  After Satan chose to receive the knowledge of evil, God could have chosen to destroy or isolate him.  But, then, what would the other angels and heavenly host have thought?  Might they have mistrusted God to know what was best and questioned His right to treat one of their own as He did?  If so, God had to prove to them that evil is something dangerous which only He adequately can contain within the protective chamber of His Mind—and that if it “gets out,” it adversely will affect anyone whom it touches.  Thus, it may have been certain angels’ purpose to accept, by choice, the knowledge of evil and to influence negatively the people of this world with it.  The resultant chaos and disarray would be evidence enough to convince the angels who never accepted evil into their minds that it is something to which no creature—but only God Himself—should be exposed.  This, in turn, would cause them to understand and accept why Satan and other evil angels, who always will choose to retain the knowledge of evil, ultimately must be separated from the rest of Creation for all eternity.

purpose of time

God created an interval in eternity and called it “time”; then He put us in the midst of it.  Time is shown to have a beginning at least twice in the Bible: where it is stated that 1) the grace of God “...was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time” (2 Tim. 1:9c) and that 2) faith in God and knowledge of the truth rest on the hope of eternal life which has been “...promised [by God] since the beginning of time...” (Titus 1:2).  Time was made for each of us to accomplish our individual purpose in God’s Plan; a time limit is attached to any purpose which is not within the infinite realm of God (heaven).  Once all the finite purposes of God in this realm have been fulfilled, “one-dimensional” time as we know it (that is, moving along in only one direction) will be eliminated, or else it will be modified into a form about which we do not yet know nor understand.

Incidentally, since we all are familiar with the “cause and effect” attribute of time, it is very easy for us to feel that God’s grace is dependent upon what we do to earn it (that is, what good deeds we must cause to happen to effect His grace upon us).  In fact, however, God’s grace—the freely given, unmerited favor and Love of God for us—was present even before time existed.  Therefore, there is nothing we ever can do to earn it, though we must reach out and take it—by accepting the blood atonement of Jesus Christ—to receive it.  “For [God] chose us in [Christ] before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight” (Eph. 1:4a).

Every nation has a purpose and a time.  The Soviet Union, for instance, has had its time.  Once a god-fearing nation, the people allowed ungodly leadership to take over.  They turned from God, He took His protective hand from them, and 70 years of oppression and economic disaster resulted.  Finally, God disintegrated the nation, and it no more has a focus on unity.

God’s protective, prospering hand just as easily can be removed from the USA at any time He wishes—and it will be if we do not get back on the track of His Plan.  Our economy used to flourish because we, as a nation, acknowledged God.  No other nation on earth has reached the great heights this nation has known, and in such a relatively short time.  The USA still has a good “heart” (look at “Desert Storm” on behalf of Kuwait, the financial and material aid to Russia, and “Operation Restore Hope” in Somalia, for instance).  But such actions alone, without a faith in the one True God, are meaningless and fruitless.  We will not be blessed by deeds but by faith.

In the time that we have, we in the USA should be extolling God before the other nations of the world in return for all that He has done for us.  Instead, we are becoming “too intelligent” for God by saying things like “God is dead,” by removing Him from our society, by taking prayer out of schools (although, fortunately, this partially has been reinstated due to the work of people like Jay Sekulow, a Jewish-Christian lawyer and chief counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, or ACLJ, in Washington, DC), by considering taking “In God We Trust” off of our money, and by ignoring Him in our lives.  I fear that time is running out for America to turn around (2 Chr. 7:14) and serve God as He wants us to serve Him.

For God, the purpose of this limited “time segment” in which we presently find ourselves is to separate 1) those who can forever reflect infinite Love—which God has shown us by giving His (Jesus’) life for us—back to Him, from 2) those who are unable to understand and/or accept His infinite sacrifice and, therefore, are unable to appreciate the depths of His Love and to return it.  Jesus described this growing together of the “wheat” (those who will love God) and the “weeds” (those who cannot or will not love God) in a parable (Matt. 13:24-30,36-43—see “wheat and weeds”: C-14, P-I).

Whatever we were born to do here, we do not have an unlimited amount of time to do it (in future “reincarnations,” for instance, as Satan would have us believe—see “reincarnation”: C-9, P-IV); so it is important to figure out what it is that we’re supposed to do as soon as we can—and then do it.  There is adequate time, in our earthly journey, to discover God, understand and embrace His Plan of Redemption, and usually then to fulfill the good purpose He intended for us.  Most people seem to begin to find their purpose early on in life; however, it is never too late.  As long as one has a breath to breathe, there still is time to discover and to perform one’s role in God’s Plan.

people’s purpose

God, in the infinite past before this universe was even created, knew what each of us would be like; we were mere thoughts in the Mind of the Almighty God from eternity past.  (I do not believe that we ever existed in any physical or spiritual form before we were conceived in the womb; and I believe the idea that we were “with God in the beginning,” as only Jesus was—John 1:1,2; 1 John 1:1—is a concept originated and propagated by Satan to convince us that we have divine attributes or are even “gods” ourselves.)  God predestined each of us to have a purpose (Rom. 8:28-30, 9:21-24; Eph. 2:10) which would get Him the end He wishes to have.  His main purpose in making human beings is ultimately to collect a people unto Himself (Titus 2:14b; Rev. 21:3b) who are capable of and willing to Love Him above all else.  I also believe that another purpose of people is to demonstrate to good heavenly creatures—those who have not received the knowledge of evil—the catastrophic consequences of being exposed to such knowledge, which is best contained within the “vault” of God’s Mind.

While on earth, more than one purpose is determined for most people.  The actions performed to fulfill a person’s purpose may occur in conjunction with or in preparation for those done to fulfill another.  I believe that each person to ever live has been or will be given the opportunity to play a positive role in God’s Plan, the accomplishing of which will result in the receiving of rewards and treasures lasting forever (see “eternal rewards, heavenly treasures”: C-14, P-II).  Also, only performing one’s good purpose(s) will result in a feeling of real personal fulfillment, because God supports the undertaking; anything else is just a tedious or monotonous task providing little, if any, true satisfaction.  Understanding one’s good purpose is the initial key to effective living.  Without such understanding, one actually can become dangerously zealous for the wrong ideals.

Executing a positive purpose necessarily includes having an awareness of God’s Plan of eternal salvation.  In the case of those who hear and understand the Gospel message, it involves knowing that one is redeemed back to the presence of God only by the blood of Jesus, the world’s Messiah, on the cross.  It also is important to tell others of this fact.  (I feel one of the ramifications of our positive purpose is to “teach” angels the essential meaning and significance of the Gospel Plan, as they observe us, so that they too can share in the full knowledge of the Love and Compassion of God for all eternity.  See “comprehension of the Gospel through people”: C-8, P-III.)  In his letter to the Philippians, Paul urged, “...[C]ontinue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling [meekness and humility], for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Phil. 2:12c,13).

Those who hear the Gospel message and refuse it (and, thus, decline the opportunity to have a positive function), instead, play a negative role—a role which still is a vital part of God’s Plan in the sense that it designates that person as someone incapable of truly loving God and having an intimate relationship with Him for eternity.  It also can serve as a good example of the making of bad choices to those who are on their way to finding and fulfilling their own positive purposes.  Whether someone will perform primarily a good or a bad purpose in life is a balance of one’s own free choice and predestination by God (Joel 2:32ac; 1 Cor. 1:2), two seemingly contradictory concepts which both are simultaneously true and which can be understood completely only in dimensional realms higher than our own.  God has known, from eternity past, who would accept His Plan, as well as who would reject it.  God, who inhabits past and future eternity, knows beforehand who will choose Him and also whom He will choose.  (Terms like “past eternity” and “future eternity” actually may be meaningless; I only include them because it is easier for the human mind to think about everything in reference to “time.”  It would seem that time as we know it is not the same type of “time” found in eternity, where it probably is at least 2-dimensional and most likely is multi-dimensional.)

Ultimately, it is disastrous if one does not discover any positive purpose in this life.  Frustration and depression (even to the point of neurosis or psychosis), I believe, are symptoms of the deeply-rooted problem of having not yet realized and begun acting on one’s good purpose or having strayed from the right “track” (see “on and off the track”: P-II).  One might begin to feel that it would have been better if he/she never had been born—and, indeed, it may have been (as Jesus told Judas Iscariot—Matt. 26:24c).  Suicide is the result when someone goes too long without discovering one’s positive function in the Divine Plan; he/she has “existence” but, tragically, does not know why.  Only with the transformation and rejuvenation of one’s spirit by God’s Holy Spirit, through Jesus Christ, can real Life, and the true appreciation of it, be possible.  Real Life consists of ascertaining and developing our positive roles in God’s Plan, so as to glorify our Maker, and also of helping others to discover and fulfill their positive functions in their lives.

purpose of death

As Summer surely will begin, so it inevitably will end.  In like manner, a “season” has been determined between the time we are born and the time we die (Eccl. 3:1,2a).  Our time to perform God’s good purpose will run out at some point, whether we have accomplished the purpose or not.  At that time, we will die (or else be changed at the Rapture—see C-12, P-V).

People who make it clear that they refuse God’s offer of blood atonement and eternal Life through Jesus also, necessarily, reject the positive purpose God has laid out for them.  If they never will get on the right track of this purpose, they will be judged and held accountable and responsible, at the White Throne Judgment after the Millennium (Rev. 20:11a,12ac—see “conclusion of the Millennium”: C-13, P-III), for every sin they ever have committed.  For the people in this category who also have a negative effect on those around them, God often will cut their lives shorter than their lives otherwise would have been.  This is a merciful action by God in two ways.  It is merciful for others who would be harmed by these people were, they allowed to live longer.  It also is merciful for the people whose lives are being taken, because had they lived longer and accumulated more unforgiven sins, their eternal punishment would have been worse.

God frequently will extend the lives of those who have not accepted Jesus’ gift of redemption but who are not a significant threat to others around them.  This is to give them every possible chance to receive eternal salvation.  It is because our wonderful God is “...gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and rich in love” (Psalm 145:8), and He is “...patient..., not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9b).

For those who have welcomed redemption through Jesus’ atoning sacrifice, death may come for a variety of reasons.  It may be a relief from suffering.  In the case of those who have found their purpose in God’s Plan, it may be that God will take them because they already have completed their primary task(s) for Him.  Or death may come to those who have maximized their eternal rewards in this life and/or are at a state where they no longer are productive nor effective in glorifying God.  For whatever reason, I believe that death comes as a result of God’s great compassion, in every case.

I personally have no fear whatsoever of death.  It merely is the point of transition from this preparatory life to real Life.  I look forward more than anything to what God has in store for me in eternity.  Best of all, to be absent from this body and this world is to be present with Jesus (2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:21,23), the one Whose face I long to see!

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Copyright © 1998– by Ted M. Montgomery, O.D.  Most rights reserved.