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Appendix B
– The Israel of God
“.
. . . For not all who are descended
from Israel are Israel. Nor
because they are his descendants are
they all Abraham’s children. . .
. If you belong to Christ, then you
are Abraham’s seed, and heirs
according to the promise.”
(Romans 9:6,7; Galatians 3:29)
Part
I
God’s
plan for the redemption of sinners is
intricate and beautiful. His
plan involves two aspects of
salvation: Justification and
sanctification. Justification
is an administrative process.
God justifies sinners and when they
appear in His courtroom, they appear
to be clean and sinless (just as
though they never sinned). On
the other hand, sanctification is a
lifelong process that involves
transforming a rebellious sinner so
that he can enjoy being close to God
and living with the holy angels.
There is no
question that God loves every person
on Earth. We are His
creation. The plan of
redemption is huge, intricate, and
beautiful. God determined from
the beginning of sin that certain
people whom He has chosen to be
trustees of His gospel will broadcast
His gospel to the world.
Because the plan of redemption has
transforming power, because it is
enormous in scope and purpose,
because billions of human beings
would appear and disappear on Earth
before the plan of redemption is
completed, God determined that His
trustees would be well-informed about
His plan and representatives of His
love.
God
Established a Trust
In simple
terms, a living trust is an
arrangement in which one person (the
grantor) transfers something of value
to a second person (the beneficiary)
through the efforts of a third person
(a trustee). Trusts are used to
distribute assets for a variety of
reasons. If a grantor is too
busy with other matters, if he is out
of the country, or if he is too ill
to take care of matters himself, that
grantor can establish a living trust
and turn the distribution of his
assets over to his trustee. Of
course, when a trustee agrees to
serve a trust, he makes a promise to
the grantor to carry out the
grantor’s wishes. Usually,
the grantor’s desires are
clearly stipulated in the trust so
that there can be no misunderstanding
between the grantor and
trustee. Typically, a trustee
is well paid for his services because
the fiduciary responsibility imposed
upon the trustee is significant.
A living
trust is different from a
testamentary will. A
testamentary will is a document in
which one person declares that his
assets are to be given to another
person or persons after he
dies. The major difference
between a testamentary will and a
living trust is that a will takes
effect upon a grantor’s death,
whereas a living trust can become
effective immediately, while the
grantor is alive.
I have
presented the essential differences
between a testamentary will and a
living trust so that you can see why
God established the plan of
redemption as a living trust instead
of a testamentary will.
God designed
the plan of redemption as a living
trust for two reasons. First,
God is changeless[1] and His
gospel is eternal.[2] Although
faith in God is expressed in
different ways and at different
times, the foundation of redemption
never changes. Faith
in God is an eternal prerequisite
because there is no other way that
finite beings can honor, love and
worship an infinite God of love.[3] God
established the plan of redemption as
a living trust so that the enormous
blessings and benefits of His eternal
gospel* could
be disbursed immediately to all
mankind (the beneficiaries).
*Note: The
eternal gospel is defined as a
comprehensive body of knowledge that
includes the truth about the Father,
Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit,
their love for created beings, their
judicial processes, the offer of
redemption, and the principles
underlying the wise and righteous
laws of God Almighty.
Second, God,
in His infinite wisdom, foreknew that
“servant leadership” was
the best way to disburse the
light of His eternal gospel
to those in darkness. Servant
leadership occurs when one brother
(that is, an enlightened trustee)
serves another brother (the
beneficiary who lives in darkness) on
behalf of a grantor (God). It
was God’s plan for the whole
world to witness a practical
representation of His love, as well
as a proclamation of light through
His servants (His trustees).
God wanted the world to discover that
whenever people see one of His humble
trustees, they see a glimpse of God
Himself.[4] To
make His living trust viable, God
gave His trustees many advantages
(intellectual, spiritual, and
physical). He also paid them
well and gave His trustees wealth to
carry out their task. From the
beginning of sin, God has used
trustees to disburse the benefits of
His gospel to His beneficiaries who
are in spiritual poverty and
darkness.[5]
Unfortunately, Bible history
indicates that as a body of people,
God’s trustees have been very
poor performers. They typically
end up in a hopeless state of
arrogance and ignorance.
Before we get
into the meat of this topic, please
keep this thought in mind. This
study consists of two segments.
The first segment focuses on
God’s use of trustees. The
second segment focuses on the
importance of being an heir of
Abraham. These two topics are
intimately related and very
important. I find these copies
are much easier for most people to
understand if “the big
picture” concerning trusteeship
is told first, making the concept of
God’s elect easier to
understand. Therefore, the
first part of this study will focus
on “the big picture”
concerning God’s use of
trustees.
Look at the
list below and notice seven groups of
trustees. After sin is
destroyed and Earth is made new, the
redeemed of all ages will serve as
trustees of God’s eternal
gospel. In other words, the
benefits that God (the Grantor) wants
distributed to His beneficiaries (the
whole universe) will never end and
the trustees who will deliver
God’s assets to the universe
will be those who overcame the
temptations of the world through
faith in God! Please consider
this list of trustees for a moment:
Seven
Groups of Trustees
- The
patriarchs
- The
family of Abraham
- The
nation of Israel
- The
Christian church
- The
Protestant movement
- The
144,000
- The
redeemed of all ages
1.
The Patriarchs
Ironically,
the first trustee of the plan of
redemption was Adam, the same man who
brought sin and condemnation upon all
mankind! God revealed to Adam
the essential elements of
redemption. In turn, Adam was
commissioned to teach his offspring
about sin and God’s plan for
redemption. The firstborn male
of each generation inherited the
privilege of becoming a servant
leader of the gospel. If each
trustee carried out his
responsibility, every household on
Earth would hear the gospel and
benefit from its provisions.
But Cain, Adam’s firstborn son,
did not want to be a servant
leader. Cain was arrogant and
he followed the inclinations of his
carnal heart. Cain showed
disrespect for God by deciding, for
himself, how God should be worshiped.
He offered fruit instead of the
prerequisite lamb and God showed no
respect for Cain’s
offering. When God
acknowledged Abel’s offering,
Cain was outraged that God gave Abel
higher honor than “the firstborn
of mankind.” Later, Cain
killed his younger brother out of
jealousy.
When Adam and
Eve were 130 years old, Eve gave
birth to Seth.[6] By
studying Adam’s ancestry down to
the time of Noah and the flood, we
learn that with the exception of
Cain, the trusteeship of the gospel
was passed down to the firstborn of
each generation. These trustees
are called the patriarchs (or the
elders) because a patriarch is
respected as a person of experience,
a person having acquired wisdom and
understanding. Evidently, many
of Adam’s offspring followed in
Cain’s footsteps.[7] The
Bible indicates that the trustees
began to preach the Word of the Lord
(that is, they began to preach to
those who should not have been living
in darkness) when Enosh was born to
Seth.[8]
Corporately speaking, the behavior of
the world went from bad to
worse. By the time Noah was
born, most of the people on Earth
wanted nothing to do with God or His
redemption. When the flood
occurred, only one trustee remained
on Earth and ironically, Noah’s
family was the only beneficiary.[9]
Notice the
lineage of the ten patriarchs who
lived between Adam and Noah’s
flood:
Adam –
Seth – Enosh – Kenan –
Mahalalel – Jared – Enoch
– Methuselah – Lamech
– Noah
Two
interesting facts emerge about the
patriarch’s trusteeship.
First, there were ten
patriarchs. According to the
genealogical records given in
Scripture, the lifetimes of these ten
men covered a period of approximately
1,656 years. Ten linear
trustees suggest that the
Earth’s population before the
flood was quite small –
perhaps a few hundred thousand.
The second
element that stands out about the
trusteeship of the patriarchs is the
significance of being a firstborn
son. Evidently, God used the
special joy and affection given to
the firstborn son
as an object lesson to teach mankind
that one day, His only begotten Son,
the faithful and true Trustee of
Redemption, would come to Earth and
redeem us with His blood. As a
practical matter, the firstborn was
especially honored because they
practiced the maxim, “age before
beauty.” It was
understood in Bible times that the
firstborn would be more experienced
and wiser than his siblings and the
family gave a certain level of
respect to the eldest sibling.
God
Abandons the Patriarch Policy
Noah was the
last of the pre-flood
patriarchs. As far as we know,
Noah’s sons did not walk with
God as did their father. It is
astonishing that within a mere 150
years after the flood, Noah’s
descendants built a tall tower to
protect themselves from another
flood. It seems incongruous
that people did not believe
God’s promise that He would
never again destroy the world with a
flood! Noah’s descendants
even ignored frequent sightings of
the rainbow! God saw the rapid
degeneration caused by man’s
rebellion and He deliberately
separated the people of Earth into
groups by language. This simple
act caused mankind to disperse
throughout the world. Shortly
after the dispersion, God divided the
Earth. He pulled one land mass
into several continents and this
further isolated mankind from one
another.[10]
The Bible
traces the birth of Abraham from Noah
through Shem, Japheth’s younger
brother.[11] If I
have calculated correctly, Abraham
was about seven years old when Noah
died. If Noah lived out the
remainder of his life in the area
around the mountains of Ararat, then
it seems likely that Abraham did not
meet with the ancient patriarch. Noah
died at the age of 950 years and so
did the trusteeship and legacy of the
patriarchs that began with Adam.
2.
God Started Over With Abraham
After
Noah’s flood, God skipped over
nine generations that descended from
Noah to start over with a new set of
trustees. He looked down on the
Earth and found an open-hearted man
named Abram. Abram favorably
responded to God’s call and
invitation to be a trustee.[12] It is
important to also note that Abram
(later called Abraham) was not in a
biological line to receive a
trusteeship passed down to the
firstborn. In fact, it is
highly doubtful that Abraham was the
firstborn of his father, Terah, but
God was starting over and Abram was,
for the most part, an honest man.[13]
Abraham
walked with God and he became a
friend of God. After testing
Abraham’s faith, God purposed to
make Abraham’s
“non-existing” descendants
into a family of trustees. In
other words, God “dusted
off” the trusteeship of the
eternal gospel He originally gave to
Adam and implemented it again.
This time, however, the trusteeship
would not be passed along to the
firstborn son, but instead, the
trusteeship would be passed along to
Abraham’s family. Abraham
can be called “the father of the
faithful” because every
descendant who trusted in God as did
Abraham would be considered a trustee
of the gospel. Faithfulness was
far more important to God than
genealogical order. Notice the
progression of trustees traced from
Abraham:
These were
Abraham’s seven sons.
Notice that Ishmael was not
considered a trustee:
Abraham
– Ishmael – Isaac –
Zimran – Jokshan – Medan,
– Midian – Ishbak –
Shuah
His Wives:
(Hagar)
(Sarah) (Keturah)
Notice again
that the trusteeship was not passed
to Isaac’s firstborn son:
Isaac –
Esau – Jacob
Notice again,
the trusteeship skipped over Reuben,
Simeon, and Levi and passed down to
Judah:
Jacob –
Reuben – Simeon – Levi
– Judah
Notice again,
the trusteeship was not passed to Er,
the firstborn of Judah, for God
killed Er.
Judah –
Er
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