The Plan of God in human history (src: Ichthys)

Video

• Link to recording segments on Dropbox

Summary

TODO: Summary

Content

Audio clip from Ichthys

Summary points and follow-on topics

Summary points:

• We have mentioned the point before, but the fact that God’s sacrifice of Jesus Christ to save us was always part of the Plan should take our breath away. It was not some reaction to events that took an unfortunate turn, but was foreordained from the creation of the universe. God’s Plan for humanity always included sending Jesus to die for us to save us from our sin.
• And just as Jesus Christ is the center of human history, He is also the center of our individual lives too. For the point at which we believe is truly the critical point of every human life. This decision is truly why are here in this world.
• Some other topics that this brief section mentions:
  • Those who die as children (or remain children mentally) are automatically saved.
  • So-called “Natural Revelation” (Rom.1:18-23; cf. Ps.19:1-6; Acts 17:26-27)
  • Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. There is no other path. Compare John 14:6. We will talk about this more directly in the next lesson.

Follow-on topics:

• I think it is briefly worth examining the concept of breaking down history into separate divisions just as a general concept. Here are the divisions that we will go through the next few lessons here in SR5 = the specific divisions that Ichthys defines for human history:<!– — –>
• 1. The One Central Person of Human History
  • Jesus Christ<!– — –>
• 2. The Two Phases of Human History
  • Phase one: Shadow (anticipation of the Messiah and His sacrifice).
  • Phase two: Reality (revelation of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice).<!– — –>
• 3. The Three Wilderness-Pilgrimage Eras of Human History
  • Gentile era
  • Jewish era
  • Church era<!– — –>
• 4. The Four Ages of Human History
  • Gentile Age: Christ promised to all humanity in general as Savior.
  • Jewish Age: Christ promised to Israel in particular as Messiah.
  • Church Age: Christ having been revealed in Person in the (virgin-born) flesh in humility as the suffering Servant.
  • Millennial Age: Christ having been revealed in Person in the (resurrected) flesh in glory as the King.<!– — –>
• 5. The Five Dispensational Divisions of Human History
  • Gentile Patriarchy: from Adam to Abraham.
  • Jewish Patriarchy: from Abraham to Moses.
  • The Mosaic Law: from Moses to Christ.
  • The Church: from Christ’s first advent to His Second Advent.
  • The Millennium: from Christ’s return to the end of history.<!– — –>
• 6. The Six Chronological Periods of Human History
  • The Antediluvian Period: From the fall to the flood. Primary satanic target: true humanity.
  • The Postdiluvian Gentile Period: From the flood to Abraham. Primary satanic target: freedom and law.
  • The Jewish Period: From Abraham to Christ. Primary satanic target: the people and the nation of Israel.
  • The Church Period: From Christ to the beginning of the Tribulation. Primary satanic target: the truth of the Word of God.
  • The Tribulational Period: The seven years preceding the return of Christ. Primary satanic target: all of the above (humanity, freedom and law, Israel, truth) along with a particular emphasis on eradicating believers from the earth, as the devil employs any and all means available to him in the short time he has remaining.
  • The Millennial Period: The thousand years following the return of Christ. Primary satanic target: the rule of Christ (attacked after Satan is released at the end of the period).<!– — –>
• 7. The Seven Days of Human History
  • Days 1 and 2: The Gentiles: (ca. 4065-2065 B.C.)
    • Day 1: The Antediluvian Civilization
    • Day 2: The Division of the Nations
  • Days 3 and 4: Israel: (ca. 2065-2 B.C.) [the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity excepted; the seven years of the Tribulation still future]
    • Day 3: The Nation of Israel
    • Day 4: The Kingdom of Israel
  • Days 5 and 6: The Church: (ca. 33-2033 A.D.)
    • Day 5: Centralized Christianity
    • Day 6: Decentralized Christianity
  • Day 7: The Kingdom of God (the Sabbath Day): (ca. 2033-3033 A.D.)
    • Day 7: The Millennium<!– — –>
• So what to make of all this? I think a perfectly fair initial question is “Well, does the Bible actually teach all of this directly? Are we supposed to see this set of divisions from one through seven in human history, and teach it as black and white objective fact?”
  • To answer that question, I would say, well The Bible doesn’t not teach it. If you examine how Dr. Luginbill breaks things down here and try to follow the logic of the divisions, there is nothing particularly made-up, fanciful, or Procrustean in any of this (that is, there is not really anything which is particularly bent or twisted to “force” things to fit).
  • So I see nothing wrong with using this organizational framework to help us remember particular divisions in human history more mnemonically.
  • However, it is sort of another thing altogether to say something like “God clearly intended us to make these exact identifications for the numbers one through seven, and if you don’t directly teach this, you do wrong.” Personally, I don’t think it is impossible for the symbolism in human history to be intentionally neatly arranged in such a way by God (since God certainly does elsewhere use symbolism in representing chronological periods of history: for example, Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, as interpreted by the prophet Daniel in Daniel 2:31-45), but I also don’t see much in scripture that gives us leave to be terribly dogmatic about it. There is a sort of logic to human history being composed both of seven even divisions (i.e., the seven millennial days) and also divisible into seven separate patterns (i.e., the divisions of one through seven), given that seven symbolically represents completeness and perfection, and so the pattern definitely “fits” when viewed this way. Human history will be full and complete, after God’s Perfect Plan finishes.<!– — –>
• I should be clear that what I am speaking about here in all of this is primarily what to say to people who might be a bit skeptical of the idea of a sequence of divisions from one to seven, not the concept of the seven millennial days itself. The seven millennial days of human history are clearly and objectively taught in scripture, as far as I am concerned—they are plainly “there” in the Bible. Because, for example, the parallel between God’s seventh day of rest after creation and the Millennium is so blindingly obvious and impossible to miss.
• But the identification of patterns one through six is a bit less clearly obvious, as I see things. That does not necessarily mean that these are “not there” (or especially that we cannot make use of them as an expedient way to organize things mnemonically), but it does mean, in my thinking, that the point that we take a stand on most is the seven millennial days themselves, if people protest that all this seems too precise or contrived. If you are having problems understanding what sort of questions I think might arise from some parties, consider these cases:
  • If someone were to come up to me and argue that the Tower of Babel ought to be a dividing event in human history (perhaps explaining that it represents a dividing line between a one-world state/single language, and the creation of multiple nations/languages), well, I wouldn’t exactly disagree with that, since it is true. But then does it become part of the six-way split here? The five-way split?
  • How about splitting the Great Tribulation from the Tribulation itself? You can certainly make a case that it is qualitatively different in some ways. So does it merit its own division? How do you decide that?
  • Or what about the period of time between the creation of Adam and Eve and their fall (which Ichthys postulates to be 47 years, in its chronology)? Where exactly does this fit in the divisions?<!– — –>
• One might go on. The point in all this is not so much to challenge any of the identifications Ichthys has made here for divisions one through six (which I think are perfectly valid), but simply to point out that perhaps there are even more ways one might break things down, and that is perfectly alright. There is not a “wrong” way to explain God’s Plan for human history, as long as we keep our teaching anchored in the text of the Bible. I hope that make sense.
• So, the upshot of all of this, in my opinion, is that if the degree of “specificity” here seems “too high” to someone you explain these teachings to, you can tell them to just view divisions one through six as an organizational paradigm and roll with it, because these are certainly not not taught in scripture, so there is nothing wrong with organizing our thinking in this way… whether or not they buy that God intended for us to make these exact identifications.

Review questions

Coming soon!