The Dam

I have a confession to make!

I’ve been walking on the beach again!

A few weeks ago – as the schools’ summer vacation time began to wind down, I was walking on our local beach one morning, when I noticed that some children had been playing there.  With their basic “construction materials” of wet sand and pebbles, they had built a dam – for the obvious purpose of trying to block the water of a little rivulet from making its way down to the ocean.

Because of the uneven terrain of our local beach, hollows have been eroded into the sand.  When the tide is out, the rivulet normally flows, first, into one hollow, creating a small lake; then into a second hollow, making a second small lake; then finally into the ocean itself.

It was evident to me that the children’s efforts had been in vain.  Although they had made a valiant attempt to build the sturdiest dam that they were able, the water of the rivulet won the day.  Some of its water had incessantly washed against the dam, gradually eroding away the sand “mortar” that held the pebbles together; and some of the water simply rerouted and flowed around the dam.

And then… the tide came in!  The mighty waves of the ocean first swallowed up the second “lake.”  Then, as it progressed, it consumed the first “lake.”  Then the dam.  Finally, it completely swallowed up the beach part of the rivulet itself.

In my subsequent visits on the days that followed, I noticed that the pebbles of the dam were gradually being pulled apart by the rivulet and the ocean tides… to the point where now, a few weeks later, there is not even a trace of the children’s dam ever having existed.

As I sat and watched this day after day… (I know… I have too much time on my hands!... but that’s retired life for you!)... I began meditating on what was happening here, and I formed a symbolic picture in my mind of:

In this article, I would like to encourage you by reminding you, from God’s Holy Word that, no matter what Satan or his demons or his human allies do to try to stop them, the resurrection, the return of Jesus Christ and God’s Kingdom WILL come!

As God has been teaching us recently, the Kingdom of God has both a present and a future aspect.  Believe it or not, it also has a past aspect!  Let us take a look at these three aspects:


God’s Kingdom is within us, NOW!

First of all, Satan and his cohorts have partially failed right from the beginning in their attempts to thwart the coming of God’s Kingdom.  How?  Why?  Because God’s Kingdom has already partially come… with the arrival of the human Jesus Christ:

Now when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, "The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’  For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you."  (Luke 17:20-21)

This raises the frequently asked question: Did Jesus really mean “within you”?  Or did He mean “among you”?  It is not my purpose to enter into this discussion today.  Whichever one of these options Jesus meant – or even both of them – this does not negate the facts that:

That in the dispensation of the fulness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth––in Him.  (Ephesians 1:10)

We know that the Kingdom of God was inherent within the human Jesus; and therefore, if we are now in Him by His Spirit dwelling is us, then the Kingdom is inherent within us too.

Let us take a quick look at verse 11 too; because it dovetails nicely with some concepts we’ll be mentioning shortly – the concepts of our inheritance and predestination:

In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will.

Actually, the “within you or among you” argument is something of a moot point.  Why so?  Because God’s Kingdom certainly did not originate with the conception or birth of the human Jesus.  Rather, it was actually originated and prepared millennia prior to Jesus’ human lifetime.  As the Logos, He and God the Father began preparing their Kingdom way back in prehistory – at the time God’s Word calls “the foundation of the world”:

Then the King… {Jesus Christ}… will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:  (Matthew 25:34)

Notice again the mention of the word “inherit” in this context.  But before we move on to the inheritance discussion, let us read another scripture showing that God’s Kingdom was planned “from the foundation of the world”:

For we who have believed do enter that rest, as He has said: "So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest,’" although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.   (Hebrews 4:3)

God the Father and Jesus had completed the major part of their preparation work for their Kingdom eons ago!


God’s Kingdom is coming!

So we have seen that the Kingdom of God has both a past-tense, historic aspect – actually a pre-historic aspect – and a present-tense aspect!  It was in the human Jesus Christ through the indwelling in Him of an unlimited portion of the Holy Spirit (John 3:34); and it is in Jesus’ brothers and sisters through a smaller portion – an earnest, or down-payment – of that same Spirit (II Corinthians 1:22; 5:5).

The present-tense aspect for God’s human children is inextricably associated with both the past-tense and future-tense aspects… in that, through the indwelling of that same Holy Spirit that was in the human Jesus, we are heirs and inheritors of the riches of God the Father.  Let us go again to Ephesians 1:

That in the dispensation of the fulness of times… {N.B. This is referring to some future time!}… He… {God the Father}… might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in Him:  in whom also we have obtained an inheritance…  (Ephesians 1:10-11 KJV)

Please note, we have obtained it.  That is past tense and therefore means that we have this inheritance now, and that our ownership of the inheritance is present tense!  The inheritance and its associated blessings are as good as ours now.  But of course, we must still endure and overcome!  Continuing in verse 11:

Being predestinated … {there again is the pre-history part of the promise}… according to the purpose of Him who works all things after the counsel of His own will: hat we should be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ.  In whom you also trusted, after you heard {past tense!}… the Word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after you believed, you were sealed… {past tense!}… with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory.   (Verses 11-14)

At the time of the complete fulfillment of this redemption, “the earnest of our inheritance” will blossom into its entire fulness.  What will we be heirs of?  What will we inherit?

The {Holy} Spirit itself bears witness with our… {human}… spirit that we are… {present tense}… children of God, and if children, then heirs––heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.  (Romans 8:16-17)

And if you are Christ’s, then you are… {present tense}… Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.  (Galatians 3:29)

That having been justified… {past tense!}… by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.  (Titus 3:7)

Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?  (Hebrews 1:14)

The English words “will inherit” as translated here in Hebrews 1:14 from the Greek verb mello-kleronomeo make it sound like it is in the future tense; but it is actually in the Greek “active present” tense; and therefore it might be better rendered, “”those who are inheriting salvation.”  Nevertheless, even with human inheritances, the fullness of the inheritance does not come immediately upon us becoming heirs.  The actual receiving of its benefits comes later.

Being heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ, the total inheritance has not been totally given to us yet.  Just an earnest – just a down-payment of the fullness of His Holy Spirit and the fullness of the associated blessings that we will receive in the future:

Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath.  (Hebrews 6:17)

And again, what exactly is the inheritance?  What is promised to us?

Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him?  (James 2:5)

These two verses show that, as well as being an inheritance, God’s Kingdom is also a firm promise to us from God.  And God does not break His promises!  If we were to pursue this sub-topic of the surety of God’s firm and reliable promises, we could take up many pages of information!

God’s people were chosen to receive this priceless inheritance and promise before the foundation of the world.  Back again to Ephesians 1:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He… {God the Father}… chose us in Him … {Jesus Christ who was the LORD or YHVH of the Old Testament and who was the Word or Logos of pre-history}… before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.   (Ephesians 1:3-4)

This is exactly what the term “predestination” refers to!

Of course, in order to receive this inheritance, as these verses clearly state, we must endure and overcome to the end!  We must be holy and without blame.  We must maintain our holiness and blamelessness until the end, and we must stay well away from all unrighteousness and the works of the flesh.

Does this mean that God’s promises are conditional?... on an individual basis?... depending on what we do with them?  Or is it a case of “once saved, always saved”?  Has Christ done it all for us?  Or does it matter what we do for the remainder of our Christian lives?  Yes, it most certainly does!  God is very clear on this:

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived.  Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.  (I Corinthians 6:9-10)

These people will not be there brethren!  They will not inherit God’s Kingdom.  They will be cut out of the promise!... out of the will!  Here it is again – in even more detail:

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.  (Galatians 5:19-21)

Our inheritance is conditional!  God’s promises to us are conditional!  That is what a covenant is.  That is what the New Covenant is.  It is a two-way agreement.  We must fulfil our side of the bargain and God will most certainly fulfil His side.  In fact, as we have already seen, He and Jesus Christ have already fulfilled the greater part – the hardest part of their side of it and have set the remainder of their responsibility into exorable motion.

Whether or not we individually fail to fulfil our side of the New Covenant “bargain” – whether or not we individually give up our crowns – Jesus Christ will return, the resurrection and the Millennium will take place, and the Kingdom of God will come!  The only thing is that, if we choose to give up our crowns, we will not be there to enjoy any of these blessings!  Their will will be done!  Their Kingdom will come!

Your kingdom come.  Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  (Matthew 6:10)

Because the English word “come” here is not in the Greek future tense, but in the “second aorist” tense, many modern Bible translations correctly render this as “Let your kingdom come” or “May your Kingdom come” giving the solid idea of a future certainty.  God’s Kingdom will come.  Jesus knew that it would come.  But He wants His people to relentlessly pray for its coming… that it will come as soon as possible!

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.  (Romans 8:38-39)

These verses speak of the impossibility of our separation from the love of our Lord Jesus Christ – unless, of course, we ourselves cause it.  But we may also apply these verses to the coming of God’s Kingdom.  We may say, without any doubt at all, that none of these things – not death, life, angels, principalities, powers, things present, things future, height, depth, nor any other creature – absolutely nothing can prevent the coming of Jesus Christ, the Resurrections, the Millennium, God the Father, and the Kingdom of God.


The Doxology

Like some of you, I was brought up in one of the major denominations of a professing Christian church which, as I came to discover in my mid-teens, is one of the immoral daughters of the harlot mother church.  During my years in that organization, its false ministers never taught me:

-   That I have the opportunity of rising in the First Resurrection,

-   That Jesus Christ is going to come – that He will literally and personally return to this earth,

-   That I have the opportunity of ruling with Him as a king and priest for a thousand years… then on into eternity,

-   That even God the Father will ultimately come, and that He too will dwell with men – or rather, with Spirit-beings that once were men!

-   That the eternal Kingdom of God is coming!

Whether or not those ministers even knew any or all of these truths, I do not know.  If they did, they effectively hid them from me!  Either knowingly or unknowingly, they taught me a pack of lies – lies about going “up there” to heaven if I was a good boy, and going “down there” to an ever-burning hell if I was a bad boy!

One of the biggest lies of the churches of this world – it is actually a series of big lies that are vainly repeated each Sunday at the end of each of their vainly-repetitive prayers (Matthew; 6:7).  It is called the Doxology:

Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost.
(Lie number one – that God is a Trinity)

As it was in the beginning… is now, and ever shall be,
(Lie number two)

World without end.
(Lie number three)

Amen.

Let us concentrate on Lies Numbers Two and Three.  Where did the churches get these ideas from?  Probably from a shameless wresting of the intent of two scriptures (II Peter 3:16) – one of which is a regrettable mistranslation in the King James Version (KJV):

Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.  Amen.  (Ephesians 3:21: KJV)

The term “world without end” in this verse was mistranslated from the Greek:  “aion-aion.”  The word “aion” can be translated as ever, world, evermore, age, eternal, always, forever, an unbroken age,  perpetuity of time, eternity, the worlds, universe,  period of time.  The NKJV corrects this KJV error quite nicely:

To Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever.  Amen.

Now here is the second source of this false doctrine which the Doxology’s misinterpretation twists around to say the exact opposite of what Jesus clearly said here:

For in those days there will be tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the creation which God created until this time, nor ever shall be.  (Mark 13:19)

The doxology’s twisting of this clear verse is a blatant misreading of God’s Word!  These false ministers – like the Scribes, Pharisees, Sadducees, and the corrupt Aaronic priesthood of Jesus’ human lifetime – are deceiving the professing Christian world into believing that “Our Lord is delaying His coming” (Luke 12:45) and that “Evil shall not approach, nor fall upon us”  (Amos 9:10).

With such lying words, false ministers vainly set themselves up as a “dam” to try to prevent the inexorable advance of the river of world events towards the end of this age – this age which they apparently love (in barefaced contravention of God’s Word – I John 2:15), because the world allows them to maintain their falsely-gained rank and status.

But why should we be surprised?  This idea constitutes a major lie by their father – the father of lies – who hates with a passion the idea of the return of Jesus Christ and the coming of the Kingdom of God.  Why does he hate it so much?  Because he knows so very well that, at the time of Christ’s return, he (Satan), his demons, and all his false ministers will have their power and authority stripped from them.

This world – this age or era – is not endless.  It will end!  Jesus said so repeatedly.  Things will not forever remain the same as they have been since the beginning.

Such false ministers do not seem to care what God’s holy Word says!  They unashamedly twist the scriptures in their attempts to make them appear to support their false doctrines.  But God will not be mocked (Galatians 6:7)!  Messing with Jesus’ words is messing with the very Word of God – and doubly so.  The written Word of God in the Bible and the personal Word of God – Jesus Christ Himself!  To do so will bring with it a very serious penalty:

And consider that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation––as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures.  (II Peter 3:15-16)

Through the apostle John, Jesus gives the same warning:

For I testify to everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds to these things, God will add to him the plagues that are written in this book; and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part from the Book of Life, from the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.  (Revelation 22:18-19)

Perhaps Jesus is referring here to this very same sin – the sin of trying to deceive God’s people (and the world) into believing that He is delaying His coming, that He is not coming at all, and that everything will continue forever the same as it always has been since the creation of mankind.

Why do I suggest this possibility?  Because of what He tells us in the very next verse – which happens to be the second to last verse in the whole of His holy Word - thus indicating its importance:

He who testifies to these things says, "Surely I am coming quickly." Amen… {So be it!!!}… Even so, come, Lord Jesus!  (Verse 20)

So let us remember that the river of time and of world events is marching inexorably on towards:

-   The end-times,

-   The great tribulation,

-   The resurrection of the dead,

-   The change of God’s people still living from temporary, human,  chemical existence to Spirit-composed children of God,

-   The return of Jesus Christ,

-   The Millennium,

-   The Great White Throne Judgment period,

-   The setting up of the New Heavens and the New Earth,

-   The coming of God the Father,

-   The wonderful eternity of the Kingdom of God.

The tide is coming in!  These events will take place!  Nothing can stop them!  Not a dam – certainly not a physical one – and not even a spiritual one!  Not Satan!  Not the false doctrines of the false churches of this world!  Nothing!

The tide is coming in!  Jesus Christ is coming!  He is coming quickly!  And He is bringing His Kingdom along with Him.

Even so, Come, Lord Jesus!

September 19, 2009

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This page last updated: February 29, 2012