Apprising Ministries is pleased to present this teaching from our long time friend Dr. Bill Jackson of the fine work in the Lord called Christians Evangelizing Catholics:

God’s Sovereignty is eternal. There was never a time when He was not King, and a King must have a Kingdom. Unlike earthly kings, who win their kingdoms through inheritance or warfare, God created His Kingdom. Then he put his prime creation, man, in charge. Man as to have dominion over God’s Kingdom, the world which He in His sovereignty created.

God could have fashioned human beings that would automatically obey Him. But He knew that a kingdom held together by blind obedience does not satisfy the King (if that King is a benevolent Sovereign and not just a dictator).

The Saddam Husseins and Fidel Castros might be satisfied with a constituency that obeys without question, but our Sovereign God determined, though it would be costly, to build His Kingdom on Love.

He chose Israel with all their hangups and failures, and prove though their stiffnecks and hardened hearts that man, whose emphasis is upon things that can be seen in this world, would never complete God’s desires for a theocratic world.

Nevertheless, through the pages of history and prophecy we can see glimpses of God’s actions to begin a perfected kingdom on the earth. We read of Israel’s being called God’s Olive Tree (Jeremiah 11:16) and this type of the future kingdom being referred to in Romans 11 as Gentiles were grafted into Israel’s Olive Tree in place of unbelieving Jews who had been removed because of their temporary blindness.

We see God’s forming a new society – His Church, referred to as the household of God, the household of faith and the Body of Christ. We see this Church, regenerated people, to be God’s instrument as He prepares saints to be included in the Glory to which He is leading us.

During this dispensation, we are in “training for reigning.” Overcoming Christians and believing Israel will share in God’s coming kingdom on earth. The coming of his kingdom on earth is the first request of the model prayer of Matthew 6.

Our lives today are much like the Army’s basic training or Naval Boot Camp. A newly sworn-in soldier is part of the Army, but it is not until he has finished basic training that he is able to engage in fighting in a war, which was the primary reason for which he was inducted into the army.

We have majored in doctrine when the real purpose for our being apprehended by Christ was to make us Christ-like. The goal of many Christians is to know more about Him; Paul prayed that I might know Him.

Examine the goals for which you are striving. I met two young preachers in Texas some years ago, and asked them, one at a time, what their goals were for their Christian lives.

One said he would like to be pastor of the largest church in Texas, and if he has achieved that, he is probably being featured today in fundamental magazines and meetings.

The other young man said his goal was to be Christ-like. If he has achieved his goal, no one has ever heard of him. You don’t need to be a prophet to know what the eternal verdict will be.

Republished from: C.E.C. Journal
Editor, Bill Jackson
Christians Evangelizing Catholics