God is a mystery to most people.
Learn about His eternal history, and the future He has in store for YOU, next, on The Key
of David, with Gerald Flurry.
Greetings, everyone.
This world is FILLED with religions.
But did you know that the God of the Bible says this world does not KNOW Him, it does
not know God?
He is a MYSTERY to them.
That's of course explained both in the Old and the New Testament of the Bible.
The Bible also states very emphatically that this world is far, far from God, spiritually,
dangerously far from God in that way.
And if you ask people about, "Well, when does this oldest time or the earliest time BEGIN
in the Bible?," most of them would tell you, well, they'd go to Genesis 1 and verse 1.
But that's not even really CLOSE to the truth, and it is THERE where the mystery really begins.
We have to go back to the EARLIEST time if we're going to sort this out and SEE why God
is a mystery.
There is cause and effect, and there is a reason why.
So let's take a look at that concept, and we'll begin in John 1 and verse 1.
John 1 and verse 1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was WITH God, and the
Word WAS God."
Now, this verse talks about the Word being WITH God, and that's a word that's actually
a VISION in itself.
It's just not a preposition that denotes place or space, but it refers to the closest relationship
two Beings could have, the Word and God.
That intimacy was there to illustrate to us how it COULD be and WILL be shortly on this
Earth.
But for eons and eons of time, God and the Word were living in perfect love and harmony.
And you look at this world and you see the difference, and you KNOW that God is a mystery
to this world because they may THINK they're following God, but where is the love?
Where is the harmony?
Where is the unity that God and the Word had for all eternity?
But the word "WITH" means just that; unity and a loving, close agape love relationship,
and that's God's own love.
But let's go back to that earliest time that pre-dates Genesis 1 and verse 1, and we'll
see where the mystery begins about God, and in a profound way.
And of course, if you start with the wrong premise, then you're going to get a very BAD
outcome.
There is no other way to express that.
But here let's read what it says in, well, first of all I guess I can just mention that
in this John 1 and verse 1 you could say, "Well, OK, how many Gods is God talking about
there in that first verse that predates all creation?"
When that timeframe was there, there was no angels, there was no universe, and there were
no men just the Word and God.
Now, you could say, well, I guess most or a lot of religions would say, "Well, there's
one God," or "There's three Gods," but in that verse, it's so clear, it's just as starkly
clear as it could be, it says there are two Gods, two Gods.
God and the Word, and they became the Father and the Son.
You can see, we'll show you that in these verses here.
The Holy Spirit is not a personage.
It is the POWER of God, and it is the POWER we need to become a Son.
I'll show you that in a moment.
But it talks in Acts about pouring out the Holy Spirit on men.
You don't do that with a personage.
You do it with the POWER God likens to water and oil and the like.
But let's go through that John 1, verses 1 through 4 and I want to show you something.
In" the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The same was in the beginning with God.
All things were made by him;" the Word, "and without him was not any thing made that was
made.
In him was life; and the life was the light of men."
Now here we have a time when God is explaining to us how we ought to have abundant LIFE,
we ought to have LIGHT to give to this world; that's what we ought to have.
And let's go on down to verse 14.
We just see here what the Word or the Spokesman has to say: "And the Word was made flesh,
and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,)
full of grace and truth."
Here you have, still you see God and the Word.
But what happened?
Something really TERRIFIC happens with God and the Word.
There's a BIG change here that has everything to do with your future!
And we HAVE to understand that or we're going no place spiritually.
Here is a quote from Herbert W. Armstrong in his book, Mystery of the Ages: "The Word,
then, is a Personage who was made flesh, begotten by God, who through this later begettal became
his Father.
Yet at that prehistoric time of the first verse of John 1, the Word was not (yet) the
Son of God.
He divested himself of his glory as a Spirit divinity to be begotten as a human person.
He was made God's Son, through being begotten or sired by God and born of the virgin Mary."
Now, how many people believe THAT?
See, how many people really BELIEVE that, where God and the Word became the Father and
the Son?
This is a MYSTERY to the world!
From the very BEGINNING of the earliest time in the Bible you see where they are getting
way off-track.
Can you count three Gods, as many people believe there are, making the Holy Spirit a God, which
it is NOT, and you can prove that very easily.
But you see, here's where God became the Father and the Word became the Son.
The Father and the Son.
And what is the purpose of all of THAT?
Why was THAT necessary?
Well, God is about to re-create Himself in MEN, that is if you look at the timeframe
here.
And in Hebrews 2 (I'll just mention this, paraphrase that) it talks about Christ "bringing
many sons unto glory," many SONS to glory.
Now, He's the firstborn of many brethren, and the only begotten of the Father in a woman,
and here He says He brings "many sons unto glory."
It's about bringing sons to glory, bringing you to glory, bringing us INTO the very Family
of God.
Father, Son, Sons, and we are, the firstfruits are, the bride of Christ, Husband, Wife, Family.
Notice verse 10 and 12 of John 1, I want to read that to you: "He was in the world, and
the world was made by him, and the world knew him not."
Now, the world didn't know Him, if you can believe that.
Well, : "He came unto his own, and his own received him not.
But as many as received him, to them gave he POWER to become the sons of God, even to
them that believe on his name:" Now, here the world didn't know Christ, and yet it says
that those that did receive Him, He gave POWER, He gave the Holy Spirit to them, and the POWER
to become Sons of God.
It does take POWER!
It takes God's POWER to overcome and enter into God's Family.
It certainly does!
The world does not know Christ, though; that's what it's saying.
It does not know the Son of God; it doesn't know about really, about the Family of God.
They don't understand that, and it's right here in the very earliest time mentioned in
the Bible, by far.
So we have this power that God wants to give ALL of us, and if we receive Him and receive
this understanding, He gives us POWER, He gives us the POWER to become Sons of God!
What could be more important than THAT?
NOTHING to you or to me.
Let me read now what it says in John 17, verses 25 and 26..This is the prayer, Christ's prayer
the night before He was crucified.
Listen to what He has to say: "O righteous Father," He called Him Father, "the world
hath not known thee:" the world hasn't even KNOWN you, "but I have known thee, and these
have known that thou hast sent me.
(26) And I have declared unto them thy name," the Family name, and no mystery there, if
we understand that, "and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me
may be in them, and I in them."
See, they LOVED each other; for ALL eternity they LOVED each other.
And that's the way of life He's going to bring to this WORLD, to give us unity and harmony
and joy and happiness.
THAT'S what this world SHOULD have had for six thousand years, but we've REBELLED against
God.
We haven't wanted to let Him teach us.
Why?
Well, let me show you, just read a couple of scriptures to you.
I don't want to take up much time here, but Ezekiel is an end-time book, and it's for
this very time today, and it shows that the world has never REALLY known God.
And this is addressed to Israel, the nations of Israel in this end time, and if you don't
know who they are, you need our book on The United States and Britain in Prophecy because
it IS for our time and it's for our people today.
Verse 7 of Ezekiel 6: "And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know
that I am the LORD."
Now, you see here, God says He has to PUNISH people before they're ever going to KNOW Him,
and He repeats this expression almost identically over 50 times in the book of Ezekiel, "You
shall KNOW that I am the Eternal," or the Lord.
Verse 10: "And they shall know that I am the LORD, and that I have not said in vain that
I would do this evil unto them."
God says, "I will correct you if you don't listen to My Word."
And it's through this severe correction that the world gets to know God.
Can you believe that?
I don't need to read all of these, but it's just almost the identical expression and over
50 of them!
Now, you can read that in Strong's Concordance and see it YOURSELF.
But God is showing that man doesn't get to KNOW Him until after they suffer, unless they
get His message, unless they see what He wants and repent of that.
You can read that, more of those expressions in like Ezekiel 30 and so on, and see that
the same thing is happening.
This world does not know God.
But they're GOING to get to know Him.
God has brought us here to get to know Him, and know what He's doing, and know and remove
the MYSTERY about God.
We need and must KNOW God if we're ever going to become Sons of God and enter into the very
Family of God for all eternity, and live in that glory, as God says.
Verse 11 of Ezekiel 33 says: "Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure
in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn
ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?"
See, God doesn't want us to die.
He doesn't want us to be severely punished, to go through all these terrible trials just
because we haven't received Him.
He doesn't want that at all!
He wants to keep people from dying, He wants them to turn and turn and turn away from the
way that's causing all the problems!
That's God's love!
And of course, we should have been doing that all these many years, but that just didn't
happen that way.
God will turn things around for individuals or nations or whomever.
It says in Revelation 12 and verse 9 (I'll just paraphrase this), it talks about the
great dragon, the old serpent which is the devil and Satan, deceives the whole world.
Now, the whole WORLD is deceived by this DANGEROUS deceiver!
After all, if you're deceived like that, there has to be someone behind it, and it is that
old serpent, the devil, that has deceived the whole world!
And yet how many people believe that?
You see, this is why God is a MYSTERY.
We are DECEIVED!
We have been deceived by the devil because we've not stayed close to God or not allowed
God to get to show us how we can know Him.
Let's go back to John 1 and verse 18.
I'll mention something here.
It says: "No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom
of the Father, he hath declared him."
He has declared Him, verse 18.
God sent Jesus Christ to this Earth, the Father sent Him to this Earth to DECLARE the Father,
not Himself.
It doesn't revolve around Jesus Christ; it revolves around the Father!
That's what John 1 is telling us, and MANY, MANY other scriptures!
So the Son is in the bosom of the Father; they're just as close as two beings could
be.
And this is God, it's a closeness that we can't really even fathom, oftentimes.
But we ought to understand it better and better all the time.
It is a Father/Son relationship with all the love of God and all the unity and harmony
and peace that you could imagine!
And THIS is what God wants to give YOU!
Now!
He wants to give ALL of us this NOW, not next week or next year or ten years from now, but
NOW!
We need peace and joy and harmony NOW in this world.
Look at what's about to happen!
You have nuclear bombs just inundating this world, it seems, so many of them, so prevalent!
How are we going to deal with that?
How is anybody going to be able to deal with that?
They just keep proliferating these DANGEROUS weapons and nobody can stop it.
Maybe they think they can, but they don't stop it, anyhow.
God says to His own people, I'll just paraphrase this, too, Malachi 1 and verse 6: "A son honoureth
his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour?"
God is saying that to 95 percent of His own people; they've stopped honoring the Father.
If you don't honor the Father, you don' understand the very Family of God, God is a MYSTERY to
you, and that's what's happened to His own people.
And that's the greatest crisis of this end time; it really is.
See, family is a God-plane relationship.
Families were meant and are meant to hold the standard of the God Family.
"Be you perfect as your father in heaven is perfect."
See, raise it up to that standard!
It's a God-plane relationship.
You can't SAY that about any other family, only the human family because they have that
spirit of man in them and can connect with the Holy Spirit of God, and God can live in
them and give them the POWER to become sons of God and be born into the Family of God.
Christ didn't try to exalt Himself over the Father.
He said, "My Father is greater than I."
So God and the Word became Father and Son, and the Father is the Head of the Family.
That's the way it is!
But when you talk about father and son and sons and children and husband and wife--which
is a type of Jesus Christ and the Church, these are all terms of FAMILY!
God is a Family and He wants to bring mankind, billions and billions of people, into His
Family as SONS, and what are they going to look like?
Well, you can see, if you want to check Romans 1, verses 18 through 22, you can see that
men, God says, "They KNEW Me, but they suppressed the truth."
They KNEW and proved things about God!
But then didn't want to receive it.
That's the ATTITUDE of too many on this Earth.
The 28th verse says of that very chapter, says : "...they did not like to retain God
in their knowledge..." they just didn't WANT the knowledge of God, they didn't like to
retain it, the knowledge of God.
Something is wrong with man.
That's why God is a mystery!
Something is wrong with the way men treat God's knowledge, and failed and refused to
receive God.
That's where all of our problems come from.
Colossians 1 and verse 23: "If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be
not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard, and which was preached
to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I Paul am made a minister;" Now, the Colossians
was a strong Church, but then there were the Laodiceans there with them, and they turned
away from God in the time of Paul, and they're doing the same time in this end time!
When you talk about the Gospel, it's talking about the good news of the coming Family of
God!
The good news of the coming Family of God that's going to administer the government
to rule over this world for a thousand years, and then for ALL eternity!
That will bring all the good things that God and the Word had for all eternity before man
was created.
What a beautiful picture that is!
Verse 27: "To whom God would make KNOWN," make KNOWN, "what is the riches of the glory
of this mystery," God wants to make it KNOWN so He can remove this mystery of God, about
God, "the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope
of glory:" God makes the mystery manifest to His saints, you see.
And I'll tell you, when you think about these verses, it tells us we must really get rooted
and grounded in them and built up in these verses.
It is the most magnificent and wonderful truth you could ever possibly know!
We have a God Family vision that we absolutely must maintain!
Let me just read to you, I don't have time for a couple of verses here, but let me read
these to you.
This is the outcome.
This is what God wants for you.
Can you believe this scripture?
Can you really believe it?
Philippians 3 and verse 21: "Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like
unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things
unto himself."
You look at Ezekiel 1 and Revelation 1, and He says that your body is going to be fashioned
like unto HIS glorious body.
Can you believe that?
Can you really BELIEVE that your body is going to look like that?
You're going to be BORN into the Family of God if you remove this mystery and get to
KNOW God, now!
He's available and He wants us to get to know Him now!
I John 3 and verse 2 states: "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."
Do you mean God is going to appear in all that glory and we shall be like Him?
Well, that's exactly what the Bible says.
You see, it's ALL about the Family of God!
It's the good news of the coming Family or Kingdom of God that is going to administer
the government of God to this world and to the entire universe for ALL ETERNITY!
Now, THAT is what is coming very shortly to this Earth, and THANK GOD for that!
And thank God that we have a FUTURE like that in the midst of all this turbulence and terrible,
terrible world we live in!
Until next week, this is Gerald Flurry, goodbye, friends.
Jesus Christ came to Earth to proclaim the God family vision.
Request Gerald Flurry's free book The God Family Vision to learn how Christ declared
His Father, not Himself, as traditional Christianity teaches.
Learn how our Savior's time on Earth has been deliberately obscured, and what His true purpose
was.
Christ's message is the only one with real hope.
It is the true gospel that mankind has never understood.
It is about bringing God's government and peace to the Earth and to the whole universe.
Read The God Family Vision to understand how human beings can become part of this marvelous
future.
You will also receive a free copy of our booklet God Is a Family.
No subject has been more misunderstood than the very nature of God.
Most branches of Christianity believe that God is a trinity.
Is that true?
Can it be proved according to the Holy Bible?
Learn how the trinity doctrine actually destroys the vision of an everlasting God family.
Prove that God is not a trinity, but a family.
This truth makes possible the spiritual birth of human beings into that family!
All of our literature is available free of charge, at no cost or obligation to you.
Request The God Family Vision and God Is a Family today!
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