Mystery of the Ages.PDF - Blow the Trumpet

the presence of humanity on the earth. And for the working out of that PURPOSE there isa MASTER PLAN. The CHURCH is an important part of that plan.Never lose sight of the setting that led up to the raising up of the Church. Keep inmind WHO and WHAT God is--the divine creating family, now reproducing himself inman.Bear in mind further: In order for Christ to RESTORE God's government over theearth, he would need with and under him a qualified and organized personnel of GODBEINGS--all having rejected Satan's false way and having proved their loyalty to thegovernment and righteous ways of GOD!God's CHURCH was designed in his supreme master plan to prepare thatdedicated and organized personnel of GOD BEINGS. The Church, then, became God'sinstrumentality for aiding him in bringing about the salvation to humanity.Remember God has set out a 7,000-year master plan for accomplishing hispurpose. We have stated that his purpose is to reproduce himself. But actuallyreproducing himself means converting the world from sin into God's righteousness. Itmeans instilling within God's potential children the perfect spiritual character of God.They would become finally born sons in the God family.And just as God has not created all at once, but in successive stages, so he isbringing salvation to the world in successive stages. The Church is a necessaryinstrumentality preparatory to, and in order to, bring salvation to humanity. Therefore,once again, let it be emphasized that the purpose of the Church is not merely to givesalvation to those called into the Church, but to teach and train those predestined andcalled into the Church as instruments God shall use in bringing the world to salvation.Church a "Teachers' College"Let us illustrate by an analogy. Many states in America have state teachers' colleges. Thestates could not start or conduct schools until they had first trained teachers for thoseschools. The Church may be called God's teachers' college to prepare rulers and teachersfor the kingdom of God when God does offer redemption and eternal life to the world as awhole.The CHURCH was planned to be God's instrumentality for calling predestinatedhuman beings out of this world to be trained for positions of leadership in the worldtomorrow, when they shall teach and train others. That is why in the New Testament, theChurch is called the firstfruits of God's salvation.All this necessitated certain vital steps--one at a time--in the procedure of God'ssupreme master plan!Now we remind the reader that the Holy Spirit was closed to humanity at the timeof Adam's sin at the very foundation of the world. It was closed to humanity as a wholeUNTIL Christ the second Adam should restore the government of God and unseat Satanfrom the throne of the earth. That fact is made clear by Jesus' statement in John 6:44,applying to this Church age, that no person could come to him except the Father that senthim draws them. That is why repeatedly in the New Testament those in the Church arereferred to as having been called or chosen. That is why the Church is called a chosengeneration. That is why predestination is mentioned twice in the New Testament--that the