Broadlands Bible Church
August 31, 2022
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Thesis: A "Creature of Eternity" means that our perspective in respect to ourselves is that we are both dependent and everlasting.
Introduction: In our last study we reviewed what the ancients knew about God and His Plan for the ages. Then we briefly addressed three major facts that "a biblical perspective" puts close to the top of "issues" about which we need to be concerned.
This evening we are going to zero in on our most fundamental characteristics as objects of God's "existence, speech, and love".
- I. By Way Of Review: God IS, HAS SPOKEN, And LOVES.
- A. These are the basic requirements upon man to "please" God: Hebrews 11:6.
- 1. A biblical perspective requires "faith", and "faith" requires a legitimate revelation from God (which we now have in written form).
- 2. A "legitimate revelation from God" automatically posits the infinite existence of God (the "is" is the enduring present which always "is").
- 3. And the legitimate meaning of the legitimate revelation is that God "rewards" (the essential character of "Love") but He also "penalizes" (establishing the critical necessity of "pleasing God").
- B. These are very fundamental as aspects of "a biblical perspective" in regard to God.
- II. Man Is A Creature of Eternity.
- A. The revelation of a biblical perspective includes a legitimate understanding of very fundamental aspects of "a biblical perspective" in regard to man: He is an inhabitant of "eternity".
- 1. He is not "infinite", but his existence, once begun, is to never cease.
- a. There are multiple biblical texts and concepts that establish man's everlasting existence in a "context" of the issues of "life".
- 1) There is a distinction in the Bible between "everlasting existence" and "everlasting Life".
- a) The "context" of the issues of "life" is a critical context.
- i. "Life" is existence within "being" (what we are) and its downline realities of awareness, sensibilities (physical, emotional, and spiritual), and the cause/effect reality of "life" (primarily including the progression of events in a never-ending stream -- which we call "time").
- ii. This "context" includes the impacts upon us that "God's pleasure requires" (with "reward" for being pleasing to Him and "penalties" for not being pleasing to Him).
- b) This distinction is between what is going to be imposed upon those who do not "please God" and those who do: "existence" is fundamental to condemnation and "Life" is fundamental to entering into the glories of the Life of God (the point: all men will "exist" ages without end, but only some people are going to "live" ages without end; it is a matter of the quality of existence upon people of sensibilities).
- 2) The doctrine of "resurrection from the realm of physical death" is fundamental to verses like John 5:29 and Daniel 12:2 and, according to 1 Corinthians 15, is such a fundamental doctrine of "The Faith" that it is entirely inconsistent to call oneself "a believer" if the faith does not include resurrection.
- 3) The enduring existence of men, in both Heaven and The Lake of Fire, is plainly declared in verses like Revelation 20:4 and 20:10 when compared to Revelation 19:20.
- b. There is also the illogic of the sometimes popularity of the "doctrine" of annihilationism.
- 1) Annihilationism is, perhaps, the most comfortable "doctrine" of those who do not believe.
- 2) The urgency of the proclamation of "salvation" is completely undercut by such nonsense.
- 2. The "red herring" that God cannot be a "God of Love" if He is the author of unending torment.
- a. This is a total misunderstanding of "The Love of The God".
- 1) God's "Love" is the sum total of all of His declarations of what is valuable and what is true.
- 2) This "Love" has a very major aspect of "benefits" for those who consider what He values as "valuable" and "true".
- 3) But, this "Love" has the alternative aspect of "penalties" for those who place their own "values" and "truth" above His (in other words, God's "Love" includes His "Hatred").
- b. Thus, the Bible also presents a "perspective" of God that includes "explosive hatred".
- B. The "Gospel", Itself, Is Completely Undermined If Man Is Not Created Unto Everlasting Endurance.
- III. Man Is A Creature Of Eternity.
- A. This means that man will never be The Eternal Creator.
- B. This means that man will always be subject to The Love Of The Eternal Creator, both on the positive side as well as what men call the negative side.
- C. This means that man will be subject to the "pleasure" of God and not the "God" of what pleases.
- D. This means that there is nothing more critical to man's "existence" than his "understanding" of What God is as Who He is (He is The Original Person and He has certain immutable attributes).
- E. This means that it is critical to understand that "Life for those who believe Him" is His ultimate objective in Time and Eternity.
