God’s Plan for Eternity

To Begin With …

Four basic truths about God that cannot be ignored and must be taken into account in all speculation.

• God is Omnipotent (all-powerful – He can do anything He chooses, and there is nothing He cannot do). Just remember this caveat, just because God can do something, that does not mean He has to do it.
• God is Omniscient (all-knowing – He knows everything. There is nothing that God does not know. He is aware of every action, decision, and choice of every person who has lived, is alive, and will live.) Just remember this caveat, just because God is already aware of what you are going to do, that does not mean He is making you do it. The point is that whether you choose to do or not do something, God is already aware of which choice you will make, but it is you who are making a choice.
• God is Omnipresent (all-existing – He is and can be anywhere and everywhere that He choose to be, in one place or everywhere all at the same time). Just remember this caveat – Just because God can be anywhere and everywhere all at the same time does not mean that He is. Where He is or is not is all up to Him.
• God is Perfect (The word “perfect” here, concerning God, means that He is incapable of error, failure, or defect, in other words, He always does the “right thing,” [does not “sin”] because He is the one who decides what the “right thing” is). Just remember this caveat, the word “perfect” is used in the Bible at several places with a different meaning from this one. Those definitions may not apply to God.

THE OUTLINE OF GOD’S PLAN

(this is not a complete list)

1. God wrote a book called the “Lamb’s Book of Life” and included into it the names of all those persons who would end up with Him at the end of His plan.
2. Those in this book, He elected to be saved and predestinated them to become like His Son, our Lord, Christ Jesus.
3. God created the Heavens.
4. He created Lucifer and all the other Angels.
5. God created an entity that has the capacity to enter other created beings and cause them to choose not to do “the right thing;” the Bible implies that this being is called “Sin.” Or, God created all, if not just some, beings with the propensity toward not doing “the right thing,” and this “propensity” is like a virus that can infect and manipulate the hosts; but it has to be invited to do so.“Sin” enters Lucifer (a perfect being) rebels against God.

6. One-third of all the angels join Lucifer’s rebellion.
7. Lucifer, and one-third of the angels, are thrown out of heaven, and his name (meaning “morning star”) changes to Satan (Accuser).
8. God creates the earth.
9. God creates Eden and plants the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in it.
10. God creates Adam.
11. God gives Adam dominion over all the earth.
12. God creates all the animals (including a talking serpent with legs).
13. God creates Eve.
14. God puts them into Eden, where He has the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, that He “does not want them to eat from.”
15. Eve listens to the serpent (that God gave the power to speak) and is deceived.
16. Adam is right there with Eve listening to the serpent and never interferes and stops the serpent from lying to Eve.
17. Eve offers Adam some of the fruit of the very tree from which he already knew He was not supposed to eat.
18. Adam eats from the tree.
19. Satan (who supposedly had possessed the serpent) gains authority over all the earth.
20. We are not told how Satan gains legal authority over the earth just because Adam did not do “the right thing.”
21. Adam and Eve are removed from Eden.
22. An angel is placed to guard the tree.
23. Adam and Eve have many children, and the earth begins to be populated.
24. God chooses Abraham to be the progenitor of the people He will elect as His own (Israel).
25. In time, God declares Israel as His chosen people).
26. Israel is taken through many trials and tribulations as God prepares them.
27. God places Saul as the first king of Israel (establishing the manner in which Jesus can claim legal authority to be King).
28. Israel ends up as 12 tribes.
29. Through the generations, Jesus is born.
30. Jesus begins His ministry at age 32 and dies three years later.
31. Jesus chooses 12 apostles.
32. Jesus disciples these men (along with some women) for three years and prepares them for ministry.
33. Jesus gets arrested.
34. Through His suffering, He took on all of our sins onto Himself and paid the price for us.
35. Jesus died on the cross.
36. For three days, He suffered the separation (spiritual death) from God that we deserved (spiritual death is to be separated from God).
37. On the third day, He arose, and by rising, He proved He was capable of also raising us into eternal life.
38. The Father placed all authority over everything under the feet of Jesus.
39. Jesus offered eternal Life with Him to all “who believe” in Him; this belief is demonstrated by living like someone who has given his or her life to God (as taught in the Scriptures).
40. Jesus offered forgiveness to all who ask for it, with the clarified condition that they will obey His “commandments” afterward.
41. The church is established, and the apostles are given charge over it.
42. Those who believe in Jesus are charged with the responsibility of “preaching the Gospel to all the earth.”
43. The Father uses those who believe in Jesus and prove it by obeying Him to draw others to Jesus so that they will also be saved.
44. At the right time, all the Gentiles who will be saved will reach their predestined limit, and then the Jews who will be saved also will be saved.
45. Believers will be given “signs” from God that the “end times” are drawing closer.
46. The Holy Spirit will remove Himself from the earth so that the Anti-Christ may come on the scene.
47. All believers will be “Raptured” (taken up to be with the Holy Spirit).
48. The Anti-Christ will reveal himself to the world in a spectacular manner (beginning the “Tribulation” period).
49. The Anti-Christ will establish a One-World Government, with control over all the finances and militaries.
50. At the three-and-one-half-year point, the Anti-Christ will violate the temple by sacrificing a pig on the altar and declaring himself as “god.”
51. Those who come to believe in Jesus during this period will suffer at the hands of The Anti-Christ and his followers, including some being beheaded.
52. At the end of the seven-year Tribulation period, our Lord Christ Jesus will return on the clouds.
53. A great war erupts between the Anti-Christ and his followers and God (God wins).
54. All who have believed in Him did not give up and died, and those who were Raptured will return with Him.
55. The Lord will establish His kingdom and rule the earth in power for one thousand years.
56. Satan and his angels will be cast in the “Pit” until the end of the thousand years.
57. Those believers who return with the Lord will rule with Him for those thousand years.
58. Satan and his angels are released from the “Pit” after a thousand-year period.
59. The last war between Satan and His followers against God will occur (God wins again).
60. The Lord will judge all believers for their “works” while on earth.
61. The Lord will judge all sinners for their sins and cast Satan and the angels who followed him into the Lake of Fire.
62. The present “heavens and earth” will be destroyed by fire, and new heavens and earth will be created for those who will be with God for eternity to live on, in, and so forth.
63. All who believed in Jesus and obeyed Him without giving up, and were judged faithful by the Lord, will enter into the new heavens and new earth and will reside there for eternity.