The Omnipotent Living God: His Plan Of Salvation

"I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." (John 14:5-6) esus is the only Way to Knowledge of God, as He said, because His Life witnessed God as God Himself would have taught and lived among us.  But men of good intentions throughout history have denied that fact when they attempt to set up a religion that separates some people from others based on their own self-righteous interpretation of the Bible's description of God. As a follower of the Good Shepherd, I know that Jesus said:  "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me..." (John 10:27) So when I read the Bible I listen to the words to see if Jesus would have taught them.  About God as Jesus witnessed Him, the Bible says: "Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." (Matthew 19:17) I see two lessons here: First, God is Good. Secondly, if I want to live forever, I must keep the commandments - as God does because He is Good and they are His Law. "God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:24 ESV) Jesus says those who worship God must do so in Truth. So far down through history our so-called "truths" about God have not brought us as a species any closer to Him that I can see. So we must not have it right yet. "He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love." (1 John 4:8) So God is Love. Now I have killed (animals on the highway) and I have seen death, and death under any circumstances - except perhaps at the end of one's life when only God could know what is Good to do at that point - is neither Love nor Good. Therefore: God is Good. God is Love. God keeps His Ten Commandments, the Spiritual Law of Heaven that accuses us so much when we don't have God's Spirit as Jesus did. These statements are completely consistent with Jesus' Life Witness of God to us as recorded in the Gospels. At no time did He break a Commandment, even when doing so could have saved His life and spared the world all of the suffering of the last 2000 years. Why do I say that? Because if Jesus had killed in order to fulfill His ministry as Messiah, which was to convert the world to God and put all kingdoms under God's footstool, He would have killed when He was threatened with death more than at any other time when God is said to have killed in the Bible. Because resorting to killing would have brought peace to the earth through violence quickly. If God would not kill 2000 years ago to bring us to Him, but instead chose that Jesus should lay down His Life for us in order to witness God's Love and Character to us as it is... ...Then logically and Truthfully God has never killed, because He does not change. "For I am the LORD, I change not..." (Malachi 3:6) There is a lot of human suffering that occurs on this planet. Much of it happens to innocents like children or people who've done nothing wrong. God (by definition) is omnipotent and omniscient, so if indeed 'God is Love', why does God let this suffering happen?   What's It All About? It's 'The Plan of Salvation': If you are familiar with the Bible, below is what the Bible says about the purpose of Creation, as I read it: God knows good and evil. God is Love. Good does only Good, according to the Bible. God wished to create interesting people like Him. God created two good - though dull - people with free will. Free will is good. God told the people, "Obey me and live forever, disobey me and the evil that results will kill you eventually". This is both true and good. The people disobeyed God, God did not force them to obey. To not force is good. Rather than force them, God waited for them to come around, to learn the lesson themselves that some of their free will must be subordinated to Him. This is good. Since the people otherwise would have taken forever to come around, God helped those who asked Him to help them, by teaching them good things through His Spirit. This is good. When asked, God responded by teaching the people the Ten Commandment Law by which He Lives, and by which He knows that people can live. This is good. However, since those whom He taught were imperfect, and were surrounded by nasty people and nasty circumstances, they didn't teach His Law correctly. The people tried to interpret and enforce His Law themselves. From their neighbors, they copied a way to "atone" for their imperfection under that Law through animal sacrifice. But it was no help, it just made matters worse over time. The guilt felt for sin remained. Unable because of their stubborness to prevent them, God tolerated these sacrifices and directed them to be performed in a way that would give the people hope by representing God's planned intervention. This was good. Nevertheless, through this system of keeping His Law under the authority of other people rather than God Himself, people got accused, oppressed, killed, and punished by other people, and as time passed they got severely depressed. As a result, the people prayed powerfully for God's intervention. When the people turned their Spirits towards Him in such a powerful way, God intervened. This was good.   The Intervention of Jesus Christ: God's intervention was the only intervention He allows Himself, because while He is the all-powerful Creator of the earth, God keeps His Own Law and lives forever. He has to. He cannot die being the One who holds it all together. God intervened through a special Man who obeyed God's Law in God's Spirit and with perfect Love, so that God could share the Full Measure of His Spirit with the Man, and in that way actually live among His creations through this Man. The Man became One with God's Spirit. Through this Man God gave teachings to people about how God's Law is kept in the Spirit when God is living among them, within them as He lived in the Man. Through God's teachings, the people are informed that they can also keep His Law in the same way someday (when they choose to), because they will all share His Spirit when God changes them to have perfect Love for Him. This was good. The Man died.  God raised the Man up from death again and took Him to Himself as an example of how He would raise all of humanity when the time comes that we have proven to ourselves that we need God. That we must have God in order to live as God intends for us to live. This was good. Since those people whom God taught through this Man were imperfect, and surrounded by nasty people and nasty circumstances, they didn't teach His teachings correctly... ...But God had anticipated this issue when He taught them through the Man. Knowing the people so well through the Love that only a Creator could have for His creations, He used very special teachings. This was good. Through these teachings, God used the people's imperfect input into the teachings themselves in order to help all people learn the lesson of life - which is to acknowledge God's necessary role among man - and help them learn it sooner rather than later, and with as little suffering as possible under the circumstances. By so doing He also allowed them to live life more abundantly than the people before them. This was good. Having been rejected the first time He intervened to save His creations, God will not intervene again until He is welcomed and His presence is requested. "For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." (Matthew 23:39) God respects our rights as His sons and daughters with free will. This is also good. Throughout the Bible, God takes responsibility for all things His creations do because He created them. As sons and daughters of God we will live forever with our knowledge of good and evil, as well as the compassion and mercy we have learned from it. Today we must finally take responsibility for what we do ourselves.  We must ask God to change us, that, now knowing good and evil, we will choose to do good only, as He chooses to do good only.   Ending A World Of Suffering: So who is causing the ongoing suffering we see around us today - now that we know the Gospel and can conceptualize God's Plan of Salvation through the teachings of Jesus Christ? I am just learning of my responsibility. I am experiencing only the first signs of that incredible Love that I have misunderstood for so long. That Love for God and all of His creation that will still the violence of storms and earthquakes. I've just begun taking responsibility myself, but I pray to be changed soon all the time. John said: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is." (1 John 3:2) "We shall be like Him". Jesus could heal, He could have stilled the wave or prevented the earthquake that cause the recent devastating tsunami. Jesus could perceive men's thoughts, He knew all about Nathanial before He even spoke with Him. He seemed to have shared conscious thought with God and all of God's creation. That power alone would keep us all honest with one another... if you think about it. :-) Then I could relay all of this to you, and you would know it is all as real and as True as I believe it to be - as I have felt it to be - as He has promised it is. Remember what the Lord said: "Behold, your house is left unto you desolate. For I say unto you, Ye shall not see me henceforth, till ye shall say, Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord." (Matthew 23:38-39)

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