See the series here
While reflecting on this concept, The Lord took me on a revealing 5-scene tour of His perspective on this topic.
In the first scene I saw images of the church in which I ‘grew up’ in Norfolk, Virginia, where my parents had joined well before my birth. The focus sharpened on a string of men who, over my ~2 decades there, seemingly had ambitions of replacing the aging pastor, and reimagining that church per their personal visions. Whether, due to The Lord’s ‘callings’, or their impatience, one-by-one, they departed to start their own reimagined churches, some taking with them several members of the already small congregation. After ~30 years, my Father, a humble, tested and proven servant, became the next pastor, a role in which he faithfully served over 30 years.
In the 2nd scene, I saw a university friend who started a church, and was a long-term, faithful pastor to a small congregation. He embraced a man who was interested in ‘learning the ropes’, and serving this congregation. That man eventually captured the hearts of a large segment of the congregation, and convinced members to leave with him, to start his own reimagined church. My friend is still dealing with the fall-out from this …coup d’état equivalent.
The 3rd scene shifted to The Lord’s innumerable company of angels, organized in ranks and files, with different powers to perform assigned functions. Their core functions are to worship, honor, obey Jesus, The Loving, Gracious and Merciful Lord God over all created beings and things, and to benefit FULLY from His boundless GOODNESS. In the tour, I understood this was The Lord’s 1st ‘army-like church-type’. Angels were apparently given the gift of free will, just as humans were subsequently given. You know the story. At some point, Lucifer, a high-ranking angel, attempted a coup d’etat to reimagine Heaven according to his own desires, with him replacing Jesus on the shared Throne of God and Jesus. Lucifer convinced a third of all angels to rebel with him. They lost the battle, were kicked out of Heaven, and fell to Earth, and Lucifer became satan.
On Earth, they witnessed The Lord’s creation of humanity. The Lord’s plan for us was to be His 2nd ‘army-like church-type’, a unique type of created beings who, on a truly unique, heavenly planet, would love, worship, and obey Him (as the remaining two thirds of holy angels do), and to benefit FULLY from His boundless GOODNESS. You know the story. Adam capitulated to satan’s temptation to sin, and to reimagine life on Earth to his liking. In rebelling, Adam ceded his God-given authority over all things on Earth, to satan’s kingdom of devils and demons, who, with our help, have wreaked havoc on The Lord’s church-type plan for us.
But, as if to 'salvage' the loss from Adam's sin, The Lord allowed Adam and Eve to have a third son, named Seth, who pleased The Lord by the way he excelled in learning and applying righteousness to his lifestyle. We have no information on the extent of righteousness on Earth at that time. I intuit that group may have comprised The Lords 3rd 'army-like church-type’. Whether by direct teaching, or the 'demonstration effect', Seth's lifestyle positively influenced some of his descendants. Unfortunately, by the end of the 1st age of our history--the pre-flood age, the number of righteous people on Earth had dwindled to just one man, who was named was Noah, a descendant of Seth! (See: Genesis 6 and Luke 3:36-38)
So through faithful Seth, The Lord had preserved a foothold of righteousness on the Earth. And he allowed Noah to be the first righteous soul on Earth at the start of our 2nd age--the post-flood age.
The 4th scene shifted to The Lord and Moses on Mt. Sinai, shortly after the exodus of Hebrew slaves from ancient Egypt. There, The Lord summarized His plan for the nation that would become ancient Israel. Israel would be a set-aside (i.e., 'holy'), called-out people who would reflect and glorify The Lord by their lifestyles, as a testimony and demonstration to the surrounding, on-onlooking nations. In return, Israel would benefit from His boundless GOODNESS. In the tour, I understood Israel was to be The Lord’s 4th ‘army-like church-type’, a ‘nation church’. But even well before Israel settled into the promise land, some Hebrews had begun to reimagine and reshape The Lord’s plan to suit their sinful desires. This attitude greatly expanded after Israel settled into the promise land. As a result, she was subjected to a long string of warnings and ramped-up judgments from The Lord, eventually culminating in His decision to split the people in to two nations – Israel and Judah. Subsequently, He allowed the land to ‘vomit’ both nations out of the promised land via invasions of the Assyrian, Babylonian and Roman armies that killed, captured and scattered many. (See: Worship or Warfare (Series) for more on this 4th ‘army-like church-type’.)
Continued in Part 2
