Robert McLaughlin Bible Ministries The Angelic Conflict. Part 47. Something could not be discovered about God until the Church-age began. Sunday, March 19, 2006 Point 11. How God is Glorified in the Angelic Conflict. Paul said he was a preacher [kerux], 1TI 2:7, 2TI 1:11. In January of 1963, Victor Paul Furnish wrote an excellent article on prophets and apostles and preachers in a magazine entitled Interpretation. “A kerux was someone who had important news to bring. He often announced an athletic event or a religious festival or functioned as a political messenger as a bringer of some good news or command from the king’s court.” “He was to have a strong voice and proclaim his message with vigor without lingering to discuss it. The kerux’s most important qualification was that he faithfully represents or report the word of the one by whom he had been sent. He was not to be “original” but his message was to be that of another.” 1. Bible doctrine is the least publicized of priorities in this world because this is the devil’s world, 2CO 4:4. 2. Invisible heroes, like Bible doctrine, are the least publicized of heroes. They are unknown in terms of human history but are well-known in terms of the angelic community who are watching them. 3. Like Bible doctrine and like invisible heroes, the trial called the angelic conflict is the least publicized of all trials. This is the most intensified stage of the angelic conflict, the Church-age, because it is a time of invisible warfare. Stewardship - oikonomia - dispensation = a period of time, namely the Church-age. EPH 3:10 in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places [the elect and fallen angels]. Manifold - polupoikilos = the multifarious, many-sided, multi-faceted wisdom of God. It means having many facets, many factors, many dimensions. EPH 3:10 in order that the multi-faceted wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places [the elect and fallen angels]. What is the multi-faceted wisdom of God? It is the genius of omniscience applied in a plan of God for both man and angels. EPH 3:10 in order that the multi-faceted wisdom of God might now be made known through the church. Something could not be discovered about God until the church began. Professor Gunther bornkamm of Hiedelberg University defines eusebeia: “Christian faith and life, conduct in relationship to God, and manner of life.” Professor bornkamm - “In the pastoral epistles, eusebeia denotes a particular manner of life; eusebeia actually denotes the spiritual life of the believer.” The information about the wisdom of God in the Church-age radically changes their universe. 2CO 6:9 are unknown yet well-known, It is when a born again believer who could not live the Christian way of life in the energy of his flesh in a million years uses a problem-solving device from God in a crisis. REV 3:5 “To the winner, I will acknowledge his name before My Father, and before His angels.” 2CO 6:9 unknown yet well-known, The moment the pastor wants to be well-known rather than know well the scriptures, he’s done. JOH 12:43 for they loved the approval of men rather than the approval of God. 2CO 12:7 Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to buffet me - to keep me from exalting myself! Kolaphizo = to maltreat with violence and rude language, to persecute. 2TI 1:15 “You are aware of the fact that all who are in Asia turned away from me” 2TI 4:11 Only Luke is with me. Paul became the target of hostile pursuit by both humanity and evil angels because he was carrying and communicating and heralding and teaching the very doctrines that would reveal the destruction of the evil angels and the angelic conflict. God Almighty must do everything for man that is to be done to bring him back to his position from which he fell, but even more than that, to a place above that from which he fell. God, man, or the devil: these are the three possible sources of hope. Human history is the record of the attempts of mankind and Satan to do something for themselves. Why does an omnipotent all-powerful God permit the holocausts of human history? He permits it in order to demonstrate to the universe that neither Satan nor man can do anything for themselves or for each other. H.G. Wells - “Faced with what we see around us in the world, we are forced to conclude that either God has the power and does not care, or that God cares but does not have the power.” God both cares and has the power, but He is planning something which demands the coming chaos of man’s world in order to demonstrate to all that help is to be found in God alone. His greater purpose is for all of us to discover that there is nothing in life worth living for except Him. God does care but He knows that His care can only be manifest today to a select company of individuals who have accepted the principles that they are helpless without divine help. They are the ones who totally admit the principle of their own spiritual bankruptcy and have turned utterly to the Lord Jesus Christ as God’s one and only answer to their problems. JOH 17:9 “I ask on their behalf; I do not ask on behalf of the world, but of those whom Thou hast given Me; for they are Thine;” They do not recognize that there is a war on, and that God neither will nor can yield. RMBM :-)
Posted on: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 19:28:50 +0000
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