Will God Not Do His Very Best?

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Those who believe that God will thus be defeated by many souls, must surely be of those who do not believe He cares enough to do His very best for them. He is their Father; He had power to make them out of Himself, separate from Himself, and capable of being one with Him: surely He will somehow save and keep them! Not the power of sin itself can close all of the channels between creating and created.

George MacDonald (1824–1905)
“Justice”
Unspoken Sermons
(Originally published in three series in 1867, 1885, and 1889 in London by Longmans, Green & Co.)

The Resurrection of All

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For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive (I Corinthians 15:22).

Jesus’ resurrection was the first resurrection. Sometime in the future the resurrection of ALL will occur. Then – as we all remember back on this world and this life, with all of its problems – we will praise God for our new bodies and the new perfect world with a full awareness of His love and His mercy. The CONTRAST will provide us with a backdrop and understanding that will allow us to easily give Him praise forever!

Mike Owens

The Guise of Sinful Humanity

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We have been allowed to appear in the guise of sinful humanity in order that God may be able to use us to display His grace to others (Ephesians 2:7). As He has shown kindness to us, so He will show it to them. For grace is the basis of ultimate salvation (as was pre-determined, even before creation was brought forth); therefore, works have no place in this, and the way is opened for all to become God’s achievement, even as are the saints today (Ephesians 2:10).

John H. Essex (1907-1991)
“The Completing of the All In All”
The Pleroma: Paul’s “Lost” Teaching, Chapter 16, page 85
Bible Student’s Press (2021)

Our Response to Blindness

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The world is filled with blindness: relatives, friends, neighbors, co-workers. As impairing as physical blindness can be, this is not the one to which I refer. Instead, I speak of one far worse: spiritual blindness.

Most go through life groping in the darkness. Only those granted the spiritual eyes to see have any divine light. It is not hard to see the effects of such a condition all around us.

The blinded condition is as divinely ordained as is sight, for,

Who appointed a mouth for man, or Who appointed him to be dumb, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I Jehovah? (Exodus 4:11-12).

Listen as John’s Gospel (12:37-40) describes the true condition of unbelief:

But though He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on Him: that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke,
“Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”
Therefore they could not believe, because that Isaiah said again,
“He has blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; lest they should be seeing with their eyes, and should be understanding with their heart, and be converted.”

Those who “believed not” simply “could not believe, because” God had “blinded their eyes,” “lest they should be seeing.”

The reason for their blindness is certain; it is divine.

Without the imposition of divine spiritual blindness, all of those of Jesus’ day would have believed. Israel’s Messiah “had done so many miracles before them,” it took an act of God to prevent them from seeing Who He really was.

There is no need to be frustrated or irritated at the divine work of blindness among our fellow man. Faith will not belittle, make fun of, or mock them. The blind merely play their part in the divine drama.

Be careful that we do not fall into a carnal mindset: being demeaning, condescending, insulting, disrespectful and sarcastic toward those who are blind. All such reactions are childish and irresponsible.

Our response toward blindness is compassion, kindness, tenderheartedness, empathy and graciousness regarding their handicap. It has been thrust upon them, as equally as has been our sight.

For who makes you to be different from another? What do you have that you didn’t receive? Now, if you received it, why are you proud, as if you hadn’t received it? (I Corinthians 4:7).

By the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed on me was not in vain (I Corinthians 15:10).

(Check out our video on this title: Our Response to Blindness)

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
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Approachment vs. Appeasement

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In my book The Undoing of Adam and the Approach Present of God I discuss the true nature of sacrifice in Scripture. As with other sacrifices, the death of Christ, was a “gift” (or “present”) – yet in this case the gift was from God, whereby He “drew near” (or “approached”) alienated mankind. This is a very important truth to understand. This is approachment rather than appeasement, reconciliation rather than retribution, grace rather than works.

Nearly 300 times the Concordant Version uses the phrase “approach present.” It was not God Who was alienated from man, but man who was alienated from God. Calvary was God’s “approach present” offered for the purpose of reconciling mankind to Himself.

For in grace, through faith, are you saved, and this is not out of you; it is God’s approach present (Ephesians 2:8 CV).

Yet all is of God, Who conciliates us to Himself through Christ, and is giving us the dispensation of the conciliation, how that God was in Christ, conciliating the world to Himself, not reckoning their offenses to them, and placing in us the word of the conciliation (II Corinthians 5:18-19, CV).

Clyde L. Pilkington, Jr.
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[Note:] Not only is this important truth covered in The Undoing of Adam and the Approach Present of God (click; also see the order form under “Pilkington”), it is also covered in this video teaching at this link: Click

The Concordant Version can be ordered from: Click

New Divine Revelations Given to Paul

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There are some who question the need to “rightly divide” Paul’s Epistles, yet his change in allotments is a reflection of Father’s change in administrations (dispensations) which had to result also in new divine revelations given to Paul to share with Christ’s Body for their spiritual growth and maturity, eventually culminating in the revelation of Christ as Father’s Pleroma (fullness, or completion), and the revelation of the Body of Christ as Christ’s Pleroma for the eventual reconciliation of the Celestial Beings in the entire Universe (Ephesians 3:10).

Mark Peters

Bringing Home His Wandered Children

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Away with the thought that God could have been a perfect, an adorable creator, doing anything less than He has done for His children! … The idea that God would be God all the same, as glorious as He needed to be, had He not taken upon Himself the divine toil of bringing home His wandered children, had He done nothing to seek and save the lost, is false as “hell.” Lying for God could go no farther. As if the idea of God admitted of His being less than He is, less than perfect, less than All-in-all, less than Jesus Christ! Less than love absolute, less than entire unselfishness! …

It will be answered that we have fallen, and God is thereby freed from any obligation, if any ever were. It is but another lie. No amount of wrongdoing in a child can ever free a parent from the divine necessity of doing all He can to deliver His child.

George MacDonald (1824–1905)
“The Voice of Job”
Unspoken Sermons
(Originally published in three series in 1867, 1885, and 1889 in London by Longmans, Green & Co.)

The Word of Truth “Correctly Partitioned”

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This dispensation or plan by which God is now dealing with man is called the “Dispensation of the Mystery” (Ephesians 3:9; Colossians 1:25-26), because it was a secret purpose which God kept concealed in His own heart until He revealed it through the apostle Paul. It is also called the “Dispensation of Grace” (Ephesians 3:2), because it is based wholly and solely upon pure, unmixed grace.

Some have supposed that the mystery is merely that Gentiles would be saved; but this is no mystery, because Gentile salvation was clearly revealed and predicted throughout the Old Testament. The mystery is that God has opened up a new channel of blessing for the nations in place of Israel, and that God is now by His grace taking believing Jews and Gentiles and baptizing them by His Spirit into a joint-body, making them joint-heirs and joint-partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel (Ephesians 3:6).

Charles F. Baker (1905-1994)
God’s Clock of the Ages (1937)
(abridged excerpt)
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Robbed of God’s Glorious Jewel

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That in all He may be becoming first, seeing that the entire complement delights to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all to Him … (Ephesians 1:18-20).

It is because Christ is God’s Complement that “all” will be reconciled. If He does not reconcile “all,” that “all” will not be complete, and He is not God’s Complement. The full force of “complement” or “fullness” is denied by nearly every saint who bears His name. Only a tiny remnant dares to acknowledge Him as God’s Complement. All of the rest have been robbed of a jewel of far more value than any gem in any diadem of any potentate of Earth.

A.E. Knoch (1874-1965)
Unsearchable Riches, Volume 32 (1941)
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Rule and Reconciliation of Celestial Hosts

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Just as Israel will have two functions in the kingdom, so it will be with us. They will not only rule, but reconcile. They will be priests as well as potentates. Then it is that “the great commission,” found at the close of the Kingdom evangel (Matthew 28:19), will be fulfilled. They will make disciples of all nations and teach them in the ways of Jehovah. The complement of this will be our principal privilege among the Celestial hosts. Not merely to rule them by the power of God, but to win their hearts by the grace and love of God, of which we are the principal objects and examples.

A.E. Knoch (1874-1965)
Unsearchable Riches, Volume 42 (1951)
Daily e-Mail GoodiesRule and Reconciliation of Celestial Hosts