When the Bible began to be printed in the mid-1400’s so that Christians were able to read it for themselves, it changed the way men thought, and this changed the course of western civilization itself.
During the Dark Ages, the Church ruled supreme. No one was allowed to question its authority or its interpretation of Scripture, and if they heard God’s voice, it always had to be subject to veto by the priests. Hence, the law of God was always subject to the traditions of men, as it was in Jesus’ day with the scribes and Pharisees.
But when the “little book” of Rev. 10:2 was opened, the people valued it immensely, and soon it was understood that the Bible stood above monarchies, popes, and all branches of education, science, and technology (truth). Having discovered that church law (or canon law) had failed to align with the law of God, men did not merely condemn that which was false. They also searched for that which was true.
They searched for true government that would curtail sin and yet give liberty to the people. They pondered the idea of the long-forgotten Dominion Mandate, which God gave man in Gen. 1:26. Thomas Sprat (1635-1713), the first historian of the Royal Society of Science, called it “the Dominion over Things.”
Such study was known as Natural Science and Natural History. These were subdivisions of Theology, because they involved the study of God’s creation.
So men asked, “How do we relate to nature?” If man was to steward God’s creation, they asked, “What is the proper exercise of dominion?” They also looked at Gen. 1:2 and understood that the six days of creation were designed to bring the cosmos out of chaos into divine order. Hence, the proper exercise of dominion was to complete that process.
With that in mind, men began to study the laws of nature in order to understand what God had created. They believed that because man was created in the image of God, creation was understandable. Their desire was to manage nature by the will of God and to put it to work as God intended. This kind of thinking gave birth to science, technology, and inventions of all kinds. The advancement of western civilization, with science and technology, came out of the Book that was opened up to the people.
Science vs. Magic and Mysticism
For thousands of years, men observed facts but did not understand what they were observing. That which they did not understand was relegated to the area of magic or myth. They provided mystical explanations.
When things were explained in terms of magic, no real understanding of nature was necessary, for this satisfied them and prevented them from using scientific facts to change their environment or to improve civilization as a whole. Certainly, their knowledge did little to establish liberty among the people.
Aristotle, the great Greek philosopher, assumed that two stones of differing weights dropped from a cliff would fall at different speeds and land at different times. No one thought to actually test that view until Galileo (1564-1642), who discovered that the stones landed at the same time regardless of their differing weights.
The mythological, mystical, and magical explanations of nature in the past created a mindset that short-circuited any real scientific pursuit. Rain was explained in terms of a rain god, and nature was thought to be enchanted, rather than functioning on “laws of nature” that might be discovered.
Worse yet, men’s views often despised nature, causing men to go inward in order to withdraw from the world. Nature was a hindrance and thus their enemy. Matter was thought to be evil and therefore lacked meaning. Matter was said to be an illusion, and so it seemed to be self-evident that there is no point in trying to understand an illusion. They sought instead to escape matter to find truth.
Hence, men withdrew inwardly, thinking that this was spiritual and good. Despising nature, they could not develop science as a way of understanding the creation, even though many countries produced great mathematicians and even astronomers.
Paradise
The Bible sets forth a physical place on earth called Eden. It was “paradise” and the model for the Kingdom of God, the window through which heaven would come into the earth. The earth was to be an expression of heaven and the will of God, but this was to come as the earth progressed from chaos to cosmos.
In other words, paradise started out as a limited piece of real estate. Adam and Eve were called to increase the Kingdom until it filled the whole earth. If Adam had been able to do so, all things would have been put “under his feet” (Psalm 8:6). However, he failed, and so this calling was transferred to the “last Adam,” Jesus Christ (1 Cor. 15:45).
In our present study, we see that Paradise is not some other-worldly place, nor was it a psychological condition, nor even a spiritual condition as such. The landscape of Paradise is a combination of spirit and flesh, heaven infused into the earth.
The door to Paradise is, of course, Jesus Christ (John 10:9). But the path to Paradise defines the journey through time as the Kingdom progresses. The end of the journey is pictured in Rev. 21:2 as “the holy City, new Jerusalem,” descending to the earth as a bride—that is, to become “one flesh” (Gen. 2:24).
God saw fit to separate Eve from Adam in order to create unity, and this became the primeval pattern of the unity between heaven and earth. That is the goal of history in the divine plan of the Kingdom.
The plan is not for mankind to be divorced from the earth but for us to be heavenly creatures that are married to the earth. In this marriage, we are pictured as both the body of Christ (the Husband) and the Bride herself. This makes it a bit confusing, as it always is when we play dual roles, but it is important to understand that we wear more than one hat.
The body of Christ are those who have Christ as their Head. These are the overcomers who stand in relation to the earth or the church. But in that we are also giving birth to the Manchild (“Christ in you”), we are functioning as the Bride of Christ.
Thirdly, in that we are also destined to be manifested sons of God, we are the offspring of Christ and His Bride. We really wear three main hats, each presenting a different way of looking at things. We cannot limit ourselves to a single calling, for we are all of the above in different ways. By changing the subject, we simply change hats and play different roles on the stage of life.
Paradise is the goal. It is the new heavens and the new earth that was mentioned in Isaiah 66:17 and seen again in Rev. 21:1. I do not think this should be understood as a new planet, but rather as a genuine New World Order.
Paradise will be achieved on a small scale at the first resurrection (Rev. 20:5). Those few who attain immortal life at that time will be given authority to subdue the nations to Christ during the Tabernacles Age. But even that age will end in a war against unbelievers (Rev. 20:7, 8).
Then the Great White Throne judgment will call for the arrest of all the dead, great and small, and they will have no choice but to appear in court for judgment. The law will subject them to masters (redeemers), for the law demands that they must be “sold” (put in mandatory subjection). Their new masters will be charged with the responsibility to teach them righteousness, as Isaiah 26:9 says,
9 … For when the earth experiences Thy judgments, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.
Authority and responsibility are given in equal measure. Those who rule and reign with Christ are not merely given servants to do their bidding; they are responsible to teach their servants righteousness by personal example. If they should fail in this, God would hold them accountable.
In other words, it is the job of the overcomers to restore the Paradise that was lost when Adam sinned. Perhaps a better way to look at it is to say that Adam’s sin prevented him from completing his calling to subdue the earth (Gen. 1:26) and bring forth the fruit that God required in the Fruitfulness Mandate (Gen. 1:28).
As members of the body of Christ, our calling is to be the expression of Christ in the earth and to do His will until the original purpose of God for creation is fulfilled.
Fulfilling Adam’s Calling
The calling of Adam was largely unknown or little understood between the time of the apostles and the opening of the “little book,” that is, the Scriptures. The Reformers saw this mandate not merely as a mystical quest for spirituality but as a calling to subdue the earth as a whole. Hence, they subjected all men and all governments, secular and religious, to the authority of the Word of God.
Monarchs and popes reacted to this with violence and force and succeeded in forcing their will upon those who were not as committed to the Kingdom task, but the idea could not be suppressed fully. Even as God revealed to Israel a progressive revelation of truth during their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land, so also were the same lessons relearned in the 500 years from 1517-2017, when the full authority was transferred to the saints of the Most High (Dan. 7:22).
With Martin Luther, the truth about justification by faith alone (Passover) was rediscovered.
With the Wesleys, the truth about sanctification (Red Sea) was rediscovered.
With the rise of Finney and other healers, the truth about divine healing (Marah) was rediscovered.
With the rise of David Livingstone, C. T. Studd, Judson, Carey, A. B. Simpson, and others who were willing to give their lives to spread the gospel, the missionary movements (Elim) were established.
The advent of Pentecost in 1900-1905 re-established the truth given at Mount Sinai at that first Pentecost when the people heard the voice of God.
With the Latter Rain Movement (1948-1952) came the first real taste of the fruit of the Kingdom, paralleling the return of the 12 spies. This movement brought in the major revelation of the feast of Tabernacles, divine government, and the restoration of all things.
But the revelation of the Latter Rain was rejected by most churches, though it was accompanied by great signs and wonders. Hence, the Kingdom did not begin in 1948 but had to wait for another 38 years (Deut. 2:14). The year 1986 was the 120th Jubilee from Adam. It was the year that the Jubilee ought to have been decreed.
However, no one knew, no one understood. But the divine plan had already made provision for this failure. We were given a Hezekiah Factor time of ten years’ extension, and having discovered the Creation Jubilee Calendar in 1991, we were able to declare the Jubilee in 1996, making it applicable to 1986, even as Isaiah did in Scripture.
I wrote about this in my book, Secrets of Time.
In 1993 we launched the Jubilee Prayer Campaign, with the opening battle on Nov. 21-29. This turned out to be a 13-year prayer campaign that ended Oct. 7, 2006 with a decree at Babylon, NY.
In September 2007 we began to receive revelation about something new that was being birthed. At first it appeared to be an Elijah ministry, but we soon discovered that it was actually an Elisha ministry. This Elisha ministry was then launched on April 12, 2009.
We are currently half way through this, but we are on the brink of entering the double portion that separates Elisha from Elijah.
While this is a long story, the point is that in the past 500 years God has reseeded the important Kingdom truths in the same order that He revealed them to Israel under Moses.
We who live at this end of the age should be aware of the progressive revelation of the Kingdom, so that we are able (as the body of Christ) to fulfill the original Adamic calling in ways that are specific to our own individual callings.
That calling is not merely to become inwardly spiritual but to subdue the whole earth. Not only should individuals prepare their hearts to manifest the glory of God, but these should also be concerned with outward things such as the land, the government, the judicial system, commerce, and farming or ranching.
Here is where our worldview makes a difference in our ability to subdue the earth. If Christians despise creation for any reason, they will seek to leave it and escape in a “rapture.” Eastern religious cultures, believing that matter was an illusion and unreal (maya), have sought to shut down the mind and rational thought, sending their conscious selves into a spiritual dimension through a door other than Jesus Christ. The Greeks thought that the devil created matter and that it was evil, so they too sought to escape it.
The first “noble” truth of Buddha was that the world was a place of permanent suffering. This path required men to think of the world (and its suffering) as an illusion from which to escape. The Bible agrees that there is suffering in this world but treats suffering as an abnormal condition that requires a remedy—for “by His stripes, we are healed.”
Suffering, then, is not inherent in creation. It is the result of sin, which has a remedy and will ultimately be eradicated. The universe will not be divided up so that darkness and light may coexist for eternity. No, the disease that afflicts creation will be cured. Evil will be eradicated, and God will be “all in all.”
While there is something of value in all of these religious cultures, they all differ from the biblical Kingdom view. It starts with the assumption that a good God created all things and that matter is inherently “good” (Gen. 1:31). Sin came later and is therefore neither inherent nor permanent. The earth, then, is redeemable, and our calling is to participate in that work of redemption.
Our work is a subset of Christ’s work on the cross. We follow His example by crucifying the flesh and the old man (self), not to escape the earth but to glorify it, not to destroy it but to redeem it and restore it so that it can become what God intended from the beginning.
Christian Hindrances
Christians have not had much success in fulfilling their callings, because the church has absorbed much Roman and Greek philosophy which assumed that matter was evil. After the death of the apostles, many Christian thinkers began to interpret the Creation story as a lofty allegory, by which they meant a myth.
The Bible is history, but it is history with meaning that is based on spiritual laws and principles. As such, all of the types and shadows in Scripture are historical allegories, but they are not myths, nor are they just eloquent, imaginative ways of expressing deeper truths. No, Scripture is built upon a solid foundation of history which has deeper meaning.
Some Christian leaders, however, were schooled in Greek thought, and in their attempts to reach more people with the gospel, they thought it necessary to appeal to the thought patterns of Greek culture.
So the emphasis began to be built upon an escapist philosophy, holding forth the reward of retiring in heaven rather than of inheriting the earth and bringing forth fruit. Some viewed creation as an inferior, decaying image of a spiritual world, and therefore, to them, it was temporary. It was therefore not part of our eternal inheritance, and this curtailed any real improvements. After all, why build things that will soon be destroyed? Why get an education when we will soon leave this place? Why invent machines that would increase production and give men time to rest?
This held sway during the Dark Ages until the light of the word began to shine again in the world. This unbalanced philosophy led to slavery, poverty, and oppression for a thousand years.
The church lost respect for creation and gave it an inferior meaning to explain how a powerful God could be such a failure. Perhaps their view of eternal torment was the underlying cause of their destructive viewpoint. By not believing that God could and would actually restore all things to Himself, they were left with the bleak prospect that the devil would inherit most of creation and that God had no choice but to burn it up—or, if that were impossible, He had no choice but to burn it for eternity in hopelessness!
The Protestant Reformers received truth progressively. None of them possessed the whole truth, but they laid the foundations for what would come later. The truth about universal reconciliation began to be set forth around the year 1740, but it was based on a misunderstanding of the law of God. The salvation of all was based largely on the idea that the law had been put away and therefore there would be no judgment for sin.
This misunderstanding of the purpose of God’s law made them lawless, and soon universalists were teaching that all religious paths led to heaven. The Latter Rain Movement put it back on a biblical foundation and saw it in terms of the feast days—Tabernacles in particular. However, even they failed to do a serious study of biblical law.
For that reason, I believe, God called me to set forth the teaching of the restoration of all things that was not lawless but showed that He is restoring things by means of divine judgment—not by eliminating judgment. In my biased view, this teaching reverses the ancient problem of lawless mindsets that brought Israel into captivity and which later destroyed Jerusalem. The prophets in the Old Testament cried out against the lawlessness in Israel and Judah, and the New Testament agreed with this assessment. How much more should we speak out against lawlessness today, when we are on the brink of the Tabernacles Age, where the law of God will be established as the law of the land?
Secularist Philosophy
Most of the Protestant Reformers saw that the Dominion Mandate was to subdue the earth, and they believed that to do this one must understand nature and the laws of nature. This caused them not only to develop a study of natural science but also political science. Both sciences were subsets of Theology. Hence, Harvard and Yale were theological universities at their beginning and only later adopted the ideas of Atheistic Darwinism and Secular Socialism.
These materialistic philosophies sowed the seeds of chaos from which the Reformers sought to free the world. They forsook the wisdom of God and based their science on the limited rationality of the wisdom of men. We are now seeing the ripened fruit of such foolishness. J. R. R. Tolkein called it the land of Moria, using Paul’s Greek word for “foolishness.”
Socialism is foolishness, as is the theory that all things evolved from slime and that man is just an animal who has evolved more fully than monkeys. The motivation in secular science has evolved into a search for an alternate path to immortality. Rejecting the biblical path, they see the cross of Christ as foolishness, whereas we see the wisdom of the world as foolishness.
