God Is One, Part 1

Rev. Raymond M. Jackson

WE ARE DEALING WITH THE GODHEAD THIS MORNING, AND I AM TITLING IT GOD IS ONE. VERY FEW CHURCH-GOING PEOPLE OUT HERE IN THE WORLD WOULD EVEN ATTEMPT TO EXPLAIN THE GODHEAD; AND THOSE WHO WOULD TRY TO EXPLAIN IT WOULD BE TANGLED UP IN THEIR OWN WORDS, WITHOUT ANY WAY OUT. NATURALLY I AM REFERRING TO THOSE WHO ARE MEMBERS OF SOME DENOMINATIONAL CHURCH SYSTEM. WHY DO I SAY THAT? THE ANSWER IS VERY SIMPLE. IF THEY COULD PROPERLY EXPLAIN THE GODHEAD, THEY WOULD NOT BE A MEMBER OF A DENOMINATIONAL CHURCH. EVEN THOSE WHO CALL THEMSELVES ONENESS PENTECOSTALS STILL MISS THE MARK. THEY KNOW THAT THE TRINITY CONCEPT OF GOD IS NOT RIGHT, BUT THEY STILL MISS THE MARK WHEN THEY TRY TO EXPLAIN THE GODHEAD. THEY RENOUNCE THE TRINITY, BUT TURN RIGHT AROUND AND MAKE THE MAN JESUS WHO WAS THE CHRIST THAT WAS TO COME, THEIR GOD; AND A TRUE REVELATION LETS ANYONE KNOW, THAT EVEN THOUGH GOD WAS IN JESUS, AND JESUS POSSESSED ALL THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE FATHER, HE WAS NOT GOD. GOD WAS IN HIM, REVEALING HIMSELF TO THOSE WHO WOULD BE HEIRS OF THIS GREAT SALVATION HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON WOULD PAY THE PRICE FOR. LET US OPEN OUR BIBLES TO GENESIS 1:26, WHERE IT SAYS “AND GOD SAID, LET US (US IS A PLURAL WORD) MAKE MAN IN OUR IMAGE, AND WE WILL START THIS MESSAGE RIGHT THERE.

We are starting this message in Genesis and we will touch Revelation also before we are finished. Turn with me to Genesis chapter 1. The trinitarians have three scriptures here in Genesis they like to play on. They like to quote this scripture here in Genesis 1:26 where it says “And God said, Let us (us is a plural word) make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.” But when we come to verse 27, let us notice how it is worded, “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him; male and female created He them.” I want to say this morning, The word “us” here has got to be rightly understood. Us is used three times in the book of Genesis. We have got to understand what the relationship pertains to, what was going on, that made it necessary for God to speak in plural terms. I have always said this, God cannot say in Exodus that He is one, then turn right around and say certain things by the prophets or by the apostles that give people the idea that He is a trinity. God never was a trinity. He is not a plurality of persons. Please pay attention to what I am going to say in this message. First of all, God Himself is not a person. You show me a verse of scripture that proves me wrong; and I will apologize for saying this, but I am sure you cannot. Sure, I know what you can say, and every last one of those that speak in that way had it origination in the writing of Trinitarians. God is not a person. He is a being. He is invisible. He has never been seen by anybody and cannot be seen, because He is a SPIRIT. He is not limited to one certain spot, He fills the universe. He always was, and He always will be. Then we have these others, they have the idea that Jesus, the Son of God, pre-existed with the Father before all time. That is not true either. It is very strange, how some people will take one verse of scripture and say that is what the Bible means. It does not mean that at all. If God is one, then He means for the continuation of that thought to be carried all the way through the Bible. We have got to understand in what way God is dealing with the human race. What was He speaking in conjunction with over here? He was not speaking of a plurality of persons in the godhead. He is speaking in cooperation with His angelic beings, His created helpers. They are what make up the we part of certain scriptures. When I say that, some might say, Well I didn’t know that angels helped God. For goodness sakes, the Bible says in Hebrews that angels are ministering spirits sent forth by God, for what? Ministering to those that shall be heirs of salvation. Now if angels could be in that capacity, what about other angels being in other capacities throughout the universe. Because at the time this is said, God is not in the process of creating angels. They have been created before the prehistoric world. They were created, and then tested in the prehistoric era, long before the events which are stated, starting in Genesis 1:2 . When you get to Genesis 1:2, they have already gone through their test of faithfulness and obedience to their Creator. These that God is speaking in conjunction with, are the good, the righteous angels that remained faithful to their Creator when tested by Lucifer. They are the ones that are going to assist God in His next program, which we see starting in Genesis 1:27. That is what is going on here. God never was a plurality of persons, so there is no plurality in the godhead. The trinitarians make it that way, but He never has existed like that. They make the Bible say things it does not say nor mean. When God does speak in the plural, you can rest assured He is speaking in conjunction with angelic beings who are going to assist Him in a plan that is sovereignly His. It is not the angels’ ideas that are being manifested, it is God, the sovereign Spirit, that is fulfilling His plan. When we really get to know God and have a proper understanding of the godhead, we know He is a God that likes to share Himself with others of His creation. He did not have to use man to bring about salvation to His lost creatures, but the scriptures declare that He sent forth His ministers as a flame of fire. He did not have to do it that way: He could have used other means, but it goes to show that God wants to share Himself with man, through men, and with man. As God is saying this, keep in mind, that at this particular time when God creates them in His image and His likeness, you can rest assured those angelic beings are going to watch over these genetic laws that God sets in motion in His plan, when the time comes that man will replenish the earth. We can see, that when He does make man, He makes man after His image. The reason God brings angels into this, is because, when there were no angels, then God had to take of Himself an essence of spirit and separate it from Himself and give it separate identity. I hope none of you ever think that God, when He made angels, went off out here somewhere and got up a mixture of this and a little of that, mixed it up and now there is an angel. The Bible says, In Him we live, we move and have our being. Do you understand that? That means our whole spiritual being is derived from the essence of God. Well angels are the same way. So we have to realize angels did not create themselves. They were created by God. When God took a little essence of His own Spirit and separated that, He gave it an intelligence. He gave it a certain knowledge as to what to do, how to go about it, and such like. They are always going to minister in the spiritual realm throughout the universe. Therefore when we come back to this creation of man, these angels are going to assist God, and once these genetic laws go into operation, they will guard them. How many realize that? That is not the only time that the word us is incorporated in the Bible, but let us get it settled in our mind’s, it is the angels that the word us pertains to in all such uses. They are going to assist and help God carry out God’s reproductive plan, and once the spirit man and spirit woman are put here in this earth in a physical form, we know that Hebrews 1:14 says the angels are ministering spirits, Sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation. Once He has put them here, the man and woman, the spirit beings that they were, they were both in the one vessel of clay. Then when God saw that it was not good for man to be alone, (There is no need for me to read it to you, you know what the whole picture is.) He caused Adam to go to sleep. Then He (God) took out of Adam’s side a rib. From that rib He fashioned the woman’s body. Do not ever think God made a mistake when He designed the woman’s body the way He did. She was designed to eventually be a mother. I know what Bro. William Branham said in one of his messages. He brought out about the sex act, and said the sex act between man and woman was not the original plan, but rather, it was the spoken word. I have asked other people this, Who was supposed to speak the word? If the spoken word was the means by how propagation of life was to be brought about, who was going to speak the word, man or woman? I have never said Bro. William Branham made a mistake, but here again, is another statement he put out there, that has caused a lot of educated minds to go sky high and try to fly. I have always said this in these controversial matters, God allowed that man to speak as he did, and I assure you, it has fulfilled its purpose. That is why I come back to the fact, when He separated that rib, do not, in your mind just look at a bone. There was a little bit of meat hanging onto that bone as well. Everything was on there that was necessary for God to fashion another body of the same substance. It had all the characteristics of a feminine body because God designed it to be a mother, through which life would be propagated and brought into this planet to populate it.

THE FALL OF MAN

Turn now with me to the 3rd chapter of Genesis. We can read in the 3rd chapter what has happened. The serpent has come along and talked to the woman. Why did he not talk to Adam? He knew he wouldn’t get anywhere with Adam. The reason I say this, is because the devil was behind all the talk the serpent creature was having with Eve, and he knew that this law of reproduction was not going to rule through man’s choice, but rather, it is going to come about through the woman. What do you mean by that Bro. Jackson? Young people, do not tell me you went to school in this godforsaken age and time, when sex is being talked about in the classroom so much, and you do not understand my statement. Let me say this, If God had never caused woman to have a period, she never would have had a baby. Now think on that. That is exactly why, when she sold herself to the serpent to do what she did, the devil knew the hour for the woman to make the choice was close. That is how he knew exactly when to strike. Then when they had committed the forbidden act, it was the woman’s choice. Now some may say, But the bible says Adam hearkened to the voice of his wife, meaning she did not come and put up a sad story to Adam. I will say this, When somebody harkens to you, it means you have to keep ding donging the same old thing all the time until you get your way. I am not here to talk on serpent seed, but when the choice has been made, then we find that God comes into the garden to communicate with them. They have partaken of the forbidden fruit, because Eve has sold the idea to her husband, so what happens next? We find here, that they are still in the garden. In the 22nd verse of the 3rd chapter, they are both feeling guilty because they have partaken of this intimate act for pleasure, which was forbidden, and they know they must face their Creator. They have done wrong, so what is going to happen? “And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us.” Now He is not talking about a trinity. He is talking about Himself and all those angelic beings that assist Him in whatever He does. Why did God include the angels, so that they knew as much about right and wrong as He did? Can you not see the prehistoric world, what it was for? It was a time when angels were tested. Was it not? In their period of being tested in that prehistoric world, they found out what was wrong and what was right and that is exactly why God made a choice back then. He judged those that had chosen the wrong way. They became known as fallen angels. But the others made the right choice, and they are the righteous ones. That is why they are in this picture, because these same angels that are assisting God in this new program, have already been tested and tried in their period, and they came out faithful to God in obeying Him. That is why God could say, Seeing therefore that man has become as one of us, he had a choice to say yes or no, but he made the wrong choice. So now when God is saying this, He is speaking to the angelic beings. Because they are down here on earth now, not spirit beings up there somewhere. They are down here on earth serving the Creator. Now these angels are going to assist God in the furtherance of man’s future propagation of life on earth. Therefore the term “us,” is not referring to a plurality of persons in the godhead. This is how God chooses to deal with man, once he has crossed the wrong line. God first drives him out of the beautiful garden of paradise. It sounds to the carnal minded man like God drove him out of a beautiful place where there was a beautiful gate of wrought iron, with a fence and everything. Adam and Eve were not driven out of a geographical spot on earth anywhere. How do you know Bro. Jackson? Simply because they remained right where God had put them, and right there is where it sounds like they were kicked out of, but they were still there and the garden was gone. Where did it go? We have a lot of religious people that read the Bible like a story book. Well I would like for you to remember what it says about the garden. God planted a garden eastward in Eden, Eden is the name of the geographical spot, but the garden is a little bit of heaven where the presence of God, angelic beings and all such were. God wanted His new creature to enjoy those benefits, but once sin entered the picture, God will not let them live any longer in that paradise setting of life, knowing both good and evil, having access to the tree of life, and at the same time having access to the tree of knowledge. You cannot live in this life, do wrong one day and do right the next day, and expect to go to heaven. You know that. It does not work that way. When God said, Seeing that the man has become as one of us to know the difference between the right choice and the wrong choice, he can no longer remain in this paradise setting. The Bible says, He drove him out. It sounds like He got behind him with a stick and said, get out of here. Right? Well the truth is, God just lifted the garden of paradise, which was a heavenly atmosphere that He had put there for them to live in, so up from that area east of Eden God lifted it and left Adam and Eve right where they were. The difference was, they no longer had access to that heavenly realm. Just keep in mind, that Adam and Eve did not leave that geographical spot of Eden, regardless of how it sounds. God just lifted that paradise, which was a little bit of heaven, and all that Adam saw from then on was the natural vegetation of the natural life around him. That is why I have asked many people before, Where did the tree of life go, if it is a tree that grew out of the ground? Where did it go? Well the truth is, it did not grow out of the ground: It was a beautiful law pictured there, symbolized in the beautiful paradise, but when God lifted that, it took the tree of life with it. You find that in the book of Revelation. But the tree of knowledge of good and evil was left here, and you are born with it in your mind. How many realize that? The point is, once again God said, Seeing that man has become as one of us to know good and evil, (man was now down here on earth in human form: he is not still just in his spirit form at this time. In the physical form, he has partaken of the forbidden fruit, (which was the intimate act just for pleasure instead of only for propagation; and God is dealing with him in his disobedience. I just have to say once again, God is not speaking of a plurality of persons in the godhead when He says us. He is speaking with these angelic beings that are going to assist Him in the furtherance of the future of this man, now that he has been put here in a body of flesh and already disobeyed his Creator. We know this, that from that moment on, sin began to propagate on earth. By the time we come to the hour that God looks and it grieved Him that He had even made man and put him here, hundreds of years had passed. That is when He began to deal with a man by the name of Noah. He told Noah to build a boat for the saving of his household and such. There is no need to go into long details. It rained forty days and forty nights and destroyed all life except what was on the boat with Noah. You everyone know that story, so turn with me now to the 11th chapter of Genesis, which deals with mankind on earth after propagation has filled the earth with its kind.

GOD DEALS WITH MAN ONCE AGAIN,

AS THEY HAVE DEPARTED FROM FULFILLING HIS WILL

We are going to look once again at a scripture where God speaks in the plural concerning Himself and those that are helping Him. The flood is over and the survivors which were on the ark with Noah are back on the soil of the earth again, and they have greatly multiplied. Therefore the time has come that God wanted them to move out and begin to subdue and replenish the entire earth, but they all got themselves together and said, Let us build a tower to heaven. We don’t want to be scattered all over this globe, we want to stick together. Well they started building the tower, and God could see that they would succeed in their ambitions if allowed to continue. You can read the whole story. God let them get so far with it, then He and His angelic helpers came to deal with them. Some people might ask, Why did God let them get so far, if He knew they were going to do wrong? God did not make them do anything: He simply gave them the choice to do as He had expressed when He said to Noah, “Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.” He wanted them to exercise that choice and put it into action to fill all the earth. I will say this, Once you put your thoughts in action, and there is a material realm around you that begins to prove that is what you thought and that is what you are doing, that speaks exactly what your motive is. Let us notice what God does this time to deal with man’s disobedience. We are in the 4th verse of the 11th chapter of Genesis, “And they said, (the human race on earth) Go to, (or get ready) let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name.” That has always been man’s highest achievement. It is just like this bunch of long haired scientists we have today with those play toys up there on Mars. They want to find water. To me, what is on Mars means no more than an old rock in my garden. It is very strange how we have a bunch of carnal minded people today, that put so much dependence on knowledge. Every bit of it is earthly, and cannot solve every problem. I am not running down a decent education. But I heard in the News the other night, that every one of our politicians are saying, We have got to be willing to spend more for better education. Brothers and sisters, I have heard that for sixty years of my life, and it is sickening. You miserable politicians and educators only have one thing in mind, trying to make things better for yourselves. You will bankrupt a society with your way of thinking. The more you spend, the more you want to spend. There is a rebellion within the young minds of children, that they will only be willing to accept so much. Because once you pass that deadline and you leave God out of your life and your future, then God is going to let you go haywire, if you will pardon my terminology. Well when God looked down and observed modern man of that hour, saying, Get ready, let us build us a city and a tower that will reach to heaven, He knew what they had in mind. They were going to ignore the command of their Creator and stick together and become a great kingdom and power to be reckoned with, which is just like our scientists and others today. They build little play toys and go up to Mars and see if they can find some water. If they were to find a little spot that was a trace where water had been, watch what I tell you, They will only come out with that much more of a scientific attitude, saying, Now we know that God did not create anything. That is all they are after, to try to have a scientific fact to throw in your face discrediting the Bible teaching of creation. That is why I have to say, Come Lord Jesus, let them see your hand at work. Natural mankind is always searching for some way to discredit the Bible teaching of Creation. Nevertheless as man has said, Go to, meaning get ready, and let us build us a tower that will reach heaven, we will see what God says about it. Verse 5. “And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, (They have their minds made up, you cannot change them.) and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.” That is just like our scientists today, leave them alone long enough, and they will bankrupt the society just to see what is on the other side of Pluto and all the rest of the planets out there. So as man said go to, meaning get ready, God also said in verse 7, “Go to, (it means get ready) let us go down, and there confound their language.” Brothers and sisters, I think this makes it simple to see that angelic beings were very instrumental in carrying this out. I believe once God has said that, He made the choice, they did not make the choice. He only said, get ready, because they are His servants. God could say to this angel, you will go to certain ones and you will change their language over night. And He points to another angel, you will go and change their language. Each angel is given a direct language dialect to see that the households he visits will definitely be different from that of others. I have said before, They did not come and change the husband’s language to be different from the wife’s language. That would be nonsense: families need to be able to communicate with one another. The point is, God had made the choice; and Angelic beings were assigned to assist Him in creating this state of confusion between the different groups. I can just see those angelic beings as they came down and went their way to carry out their assignments. They entered into certain households, and where these angels enter in, their presence affects the mentality of the people on earth, so that when they wake up the next morning, every member in that household is speaking the same language. But when they step outside that morning, to go about their daily activities, here is where they find out something has gone wrong during the night. The same men that had been working together, met in the street going toward the tower to go to work, but now they are all speaking a different dialect. I have to say, Those angels came down and assisted God in the choice He made to confuse their language, and they carried it out precisely, exactly according to the Creator’s instructions. My Bible tells me the day is coming, when God is going to return to mankind a pure language. That is going to be wonderful. We will not have to go to college somewhere to learn it from some professor. If God is the one that changed the dialects, He can change it overnight. Now we have used the word “us” and I have to say, In all of this there is not one thing that proves that God is a plural of persons. God Himself never was a person and never will be. He will always be a sovereign Spirit. If you read a passage of scripture somewhere where He is spoken of in the plural, it is because a trinitarian has translated it from the Greek that way. The pure fact is, God is never referred to in terms of plurality. How many times have you read, God is one? Well maybe it is only three times in the king James Bible, but how many times do you need to read it? Regardless of how some other scriptures may sound, GOD IS ONE, and He is not a person. He being a sovereign Spirit, is not limited as to where He can be at any particular time, because He is a Spirit that fills the entire creation. When you call upon Him in the middle of the night, regardless of where you are, He is there. His ministering angelic beings are always on the job like it says in Hebrews. Notice these two verses from the 1st chapter “But to which of the angels said He (GOD) at any time, Sit on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? 14Are they (the angels) not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” You can depend on that.

ISAIAH’S VISION

We will leave this setting and go to Isaiah, because it is necessary for us to get these visions lined out. Let us go to Isaiah 6. The reason I am choosing this route is because, when I get to a certain point with this, I want to show you something. This is a vision given to the prophet Isaiah, which is the first vision of its kind. “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and His train filled the temple. (Speaking of the angelic beings.) Above it stood the seraphims; each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of His glory.” I have said this, Isaiah saw this, but that is not how heaven looked at that time. I hope you understand me. It was a future tense picture of a scene, which as time goes on, God will add more to it. That is why I say that is not even how heaven looked in Isaiah’s day. Up until this time, no prophet has actually seen the heavens, how it appears, because God is invisible. How many realize that? This is a prophetic vision in process. It is actually telling through Isaiah, that there will be such a scene in heaven one day, once all the component parts are in place. Let me ask you a question and show you something. When you get to Revelation, all the component parts are there. The Lord Jesus is sitting on that throne. Isn’t He? You have these seraphims, these angels, one with the face of a man, ox, and so on and so forth. But notice in Revelation, there are four and twenty elders sitting on their thrones round about the throne of God. Isn’t there? Well how come they are not seen over there? That is why I have to say, that is not the way heaven looked at all at that time. You just have to realize that was a future picture of what one day, there will be in heaven just such a scene. It will be just like what Isaiah saw. A prophecy is always for the future. It is not present tense. Isaiah saw the glory of God and that glory of God was channeled to a throne, but do not ever think that glory exists and dwells in the form and shape of a man. Otherwise, if that is the truth, then why did John the Baptist say what he did, that no man has seen God at any time, save He who came out of the bosom of the Father, Him He hath declared. Whenever we read our Bible, we have to read it right, or you will hit a snag. We have to stop this thing of hanging on to one verse of scripture somewhere and saying, Well that is what the Bible says and that is what I believe. If that is your attitude I say to you everyone, You are hung up on a verse of scripture and you do not even know where it goes from there. The reason I am bringing this in, is because it is necessary, for that limits the vision which is not all there yet. Time will produce it. He had this vision in 758 BC.

A WHEEL IN A WHEEL

Go with me now to Ezekiel. Ezekiel was in Babylon in captivity, along with the other Jews at this particular time. You find this in the 1st chapter of Ezekiel, He described this glory of the Lord and he began to see this. He describes it as a whirlwind, like a cloud, and fire enfolding itself. He comes on down through there and deals with each aspect of it in a little more detail. He talks about the wings, but in this he sees a wheel, like another wheel in a wheel. You did not see that in Isaiah’s vision. Did you? You would not see that in Revelation either. It goes to show this is in a mobile setting, it is traveling. Where there were six wings, now there are four, but what has happened? The wheel has taken over, it is how the wing has manifested itself. All of this speaks of the fact that time is adding to the dimension. That is the best way I know to express it, because that is not the way heaven looked at that time. It is all pointing to the future. But this is showing a hundred and some years after Isaiah, when Ezekiel sees it, it has a little more incorporated in it. Now then, as he does see that, let us go on over here to Ezekiel the 26th verse of chapter 1. He has talked about all the wings, even here in all this he can still hear them saying holy, holy, holy. Well we hear that in Revelation also, do we not? Holy, holy, holy. Let us go to the 26th verse. “And above the firmament that was over their heads (He is talking about these angelic beings.) was the likeness of a throne, (Now it gets specific.) as the appearance of a sapphire stone: (We read that in Revelations also.) and upon the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance of a man above upon it.” That is pointing to the future tense, of the time when the immortal Christ who had not even been born in Ezekiel’s time. How many realize that? “And I saw as the colour of amber, (That is all in Revelation, all these colors and reflections of stones, that bring out the deity, the glory and manifestation of the being of God around this throne.) as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about. As the appearance of the bow that is in the cloud (You see that in Revelation also.) in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness round about. This was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell upon my face, and I heard a voice of one that spake.” The reason I read that is, it brings the throne out in more detail. It puts the likeness of the appearance of a man sitting, and that is pointing to the future tense of Christ. I want to say this, We have got those people that believe that Jesus pre-existed with the Father before all time. I am going to challenge you, In what state was He in existence then? What was His position? Because when we do bring Him from heaven down here on this earth, how come when we get over here in Revelation, He is now my elder brother. He became my Savior one day. Then He is coming to rule in the Millennium and He is going to be King of kings and Lord of lords. Isn’t He? Will that last forever? No, it won’t. It lasts for a thousand years. Then Paul has the last words on this. You will find it in 1st Corinthians the 15th chapter, that God Himself, who has subjected all things, all spirits, all powers are subject to Christ, and for a thousand years He will sit on an earthly throne in Jerusalem, and He will rule and reign over the earth. That is because He is actually executing the mind of the Father by this means. And Bride, that is exactly why you have got to be there with Him. No you will not refer to Him yet as your elder brother, but follow me, when He is all the way through the Millennium and then the dead, which are just the wicked dead, are raised, and hell gives up the dead, what does this do? This takes out of the crust of the earth all the wicked bodies that have been there from all time. Right? It takes them out of hell. Now don’t tell me you believe that hell did not pre-exist. It did pre-exist. I know we have some Advent people that believe when God made man He just took some clay and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Then you are just telling me that the man God made, all he is, is a bunch of dirt and hot air. I have a reason for saying that. When God breathed into the nostrils of that man that He has made in an earthly form, He imparted that spirit man that was made after His likeness. Don’t tell me God is hot air. God is a Spirit. If you call Him your heavenly Father, then you are a spirit also. You are just not air out here like you breathe. How many realize that? So we can say when that last judgment is finished, our time of ruling and reigning is finished also. Did you know, we are going to judge angels. How many realize that? Who said that? The apostle Paul. Well Bro. Jackson, why should we judge angels? Who in the world do you think has been haunting you all your lifetime, tempting you to drink, tempting you to use the Lord’s name in vain, beguiling you to do this and that? It is those dirty fallen angels, devils. They made their choice way back in the eons of time. But God has just allowed them to come back here again to try you and me. So when we look at this in the right setting, when Christ has delivered up the kingdom, now there is no more dead in the earth, hell no longer has an existence. Then what did Paul say? Then shall the Son deliver the kingdom, the authority that has been in Him for a period of time to do all of this, and now He returns all authority back to God the Father, that God may be all in all. Now you see Jesus as your elder brother. Then you want to tell me that He pre-existed before all time? What a glorious position He had then, to wind up in this little manger situation two thousand years ago. How many understand my thought? The Bible has a beautiful picture if we will let it speak to us, but when you get your mind all twisted up with some of these doctor of divinity thoughts you will just go in circles. I read this vision to show you something, so again I ask you, Where are the elders? Because, when I get in Revelations, John the Revelator was taken up into heaven. Did he not see Jesus sitting on the throne? Did he not describe all these likenesses to the rainbow and the sapphire stone and all that. Those are reflections of the deity of God, of His being, His Spirit around this, but that visible form that John the Revelator was seeing, that is the immortal Christ. Around this throne, John saw twenty four other thrones. Is that right? Why did Isaiah not see them? Why did Ezekiel not see them? Simply because the way had not been paved from hell to heaven for them to be there. How many realize that? When the day came, that Jesus went down into the lower parts of the earth and led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men, He took those old patriarchs of the Old Testament and took them to heaven to get ready for them to be on their throne positions. When Jesus went up that day, He was seen sitting on the throne, so now it is a vision being materialized in heaven. One by one, as the apostles were martyred, they took their positions around that throne. That is why I say, What was a vision back here, was not yet fulfilled. I will say this though, Jesus is not going to sit on that throne forever and ever. The Bible says that He is made a High Priest after the order of Melchizedek. You know, Melchizedek is not a high priest for ever, he is only an angelic being sent down here to characterize certain things that Christ was to fulfill once He takes that position. But we have to realize, Jesus only sits in the position of Mediator and High Priest for two thousand years. That is why, when He leaves that throne, He will not return back to be High Priest anymore. He is coming now to be King for another thousand years. Once that is fulfilled, and I will have to say you and I are living in the days when that is being fulfilled, because one of these days Jesus, when He breaks that last seal, He is going to step forth from that throne, and His days of intercession are over. He is ready to come to earth, and there is going to be seven thunders echo throughout this earth which will be known only to the Bride of Christ. Praise God! Now that explains these visions, so go with me back to Isaiah. In Isaiah 7,which is where we find a verse of scripture that a lot of trinitarians get hung up on. As Isaiah prophesies this, which is found in the 7th chapter, the 14th verse, the prophecy was to be fulfilled far, far in the future. “Therefore the Lord Himself (the sovereign Spirit which is God) shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call His name Immanuel.” Which means God with us. Out in the realm of Trinitarian religion today, they take this passage of scripture and say it proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that Jesus was none other than God the Elohim Himself. That is twisting the scriptures. When the angel is telling Joseph that he is going to be the husband of Mary and so forth, the angel explains this. I ask anybody, Just read the entire New Testament, nowhere do you see anybody walking up to this man and saying Good Morning, Immanuel. I have a reason for saying that. The word means God with us. But you do not see anywhere in the entire four gospels, where anybody was ever heard saying, Good Morning Immanuel. Well I ask you, if His name meant that, why did they not call Him that? It was because, from the human side, you see a man. But from within that vessel of clay, there was something manifested that worked through the vessel of clay to accomplish the purpose of God. If anyone, at that hour, did not have a revelation, they were not about to call Him Immanuel. You would say exactly what some said on that day, you are just a devil that came down here to pretend to be something. Actually the name given to Him was Jesus. Were there not other Jews in that hour named Jesus also? Yes. Jesus Barsabas was one. But there was only one with that name, where the name Jesus had a twofold meaning. That is why you had to know the man by divine revelation. That is why Jesus could talk like that, the words that I speak to you, they are not mine, meaning they did not originate with my own thinking. Sure, they are articulating sounds of my voice, but they are by the inspiration of God Himself, that has taken up His abode inside of me. That is why we have to realize, all through those three and one half years of the earthly ministry of Christ, some Jews could only see a man. They see Joseph the carpenter’s son and no more. But others did see something radiating from the man that let them know, He has got to be the Christ. That is why Peter could say what he did, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now let us take that thought and see where it leads us. So these people that want to say that Jesus pre-existed before all time with the Father, then I am going to ask you, When the time came that Mary, a virgin, never having known a man, was going to conceive, what did she hear concerning that? Sure the trinitarians will say the Holy Ghost overshadowed her and she conceived of the Holy Ghost. So here we go on that point with the trinitarians. So she gave birth to a little baby by the name of Jesus. How do they treat what was said to her by the angel that made the announcement? We will examine all of that.

HOW DO WE EXPLAIN THE GODHEAD ?

When Jesus grew up to manhood, at age 30 He went to where John was baptizing and was baptized, and God the Father manifested Himself there at the river when Jesus was baptized. Remember, He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, He is the Son of God, He is the Son of man, yet after the experience at the river, God the Father, the Creator came down in the likeness of a dove, entered into Him and took over, and from then on, it was God the Father presenting, or manifesting Himself through the body of His only begotten Son. Brothers and sisters listen to me, There is no such thing as a trinity of persons in the godhead, because God the Father and God the Holy Ghost are one and the selfsame Spirit. The Holy Ghost is just another term for the Spirit which is God. When we speak of the Spirit of God in the Old Testament, it is bringing out that He is the Creator. From Him everything derives its life and existence. But as we come into the New Testament era, He is referred to as the Holy Spirit because it is how God is going to manifest His Spirit from then onward. Let me explain it like this, not to create another moon or another sun, but to deal with mankind, something that is already in existence, but needs to be changed. So He is referred to as God the Holy Ghost or the Holy Spirit, dealing with man to regenerate him. Just keep in mind, that the Holy Spirit and God the Father are one and the selfsame Spirit. Then when Jesus went to John the Baptist that day to be baptized and He came up out of the water, the heavens were opened immediately and an audible voice spoke to Him, (Luke 3:22) “The Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.” I want to say this, God the Father, the Creator, or the Designer of life and everything that exists always remains the same. He never did leave the heavens just to come down here and deal with lost mankind, and neither did he ever leave any place, because He fills all of His creation. He is omnipresent, meaning everywhere, all the time. Neither did the Son previously exist up there with the Father. He had His beginning in this life when He came forth from the womb of the virgin Mary, but religious people who have no revelation, speak of God as though He came down to earth and was born as a little baby. Let me just try to give you a very simple explanation of the virgin birth of Jesus, who is the only begotten Son of God the Father, the creator of all things. When Mary, still a virgin, was found with child of the Holy Ghost. That simply means that God, the Creator of all things, created a cell of life in Mary’s womb, she carried it to full term and delivered a son who had no earthly father, and no genetic mother. Therefore He had no attributes of fallen mankind in Him, so if you believe all things are possible with God, where is the confused mystery so many are unable to explain. Jesus was, and is the Son of God; and He is the Savior of all who believe, but there is no such thing as three persons in the godhead. Jesus is the only person of the godhead. When you hear a Trinitarian trying to explain the godhead it sounds pitiful. Brothers and sisters, it sounds like a carnal, intellectual doctor of divinity that has his mind all twisted up. I have to say, There is only one being in this universe that we can refer to as our heavenly Father, and that is God Himself. In Him we live, we move, and we have our existence totally in Him. When the Son of God was born, it was not a scene where the Son was up there standing by the Father saying, Now Daddy, is it time for me to go down? Is it time for me to go down now? He was already there in the mind of God from before the foundation of the world, but that was as far as His pre-existence ever went until the time God exercised that thought and created the cell of life in the virgin Mary. I am going to prove to you as we deal with this subject, God had already chosen Him to be a part of this plan before He even put Adam on this planet. How many realize that? He was not up there with the Father as a person, talking to the Father down through time, even in the Old Testament period when prophecies were given, he was still just a thought in the mind of the Father. I will say it again, He was not up there with the Father, talking with Him, helping Him create, He was only a part in the mind of God. God waited until the hour when He saw that it was time for the human race to have something visit them, to begin to turn man from his fallen, sinful way, back to his Creator. God knew from the beginning, when He would send forth His only begotten Son, who had never been in existence prior to His birth as a human being. He only pre-existed with the Father in His mind. Because God had already preordained that He would bring Him forth one day in process of time. As long as He is in the mind of God, He is still just a thought. When the time was at hand for our Savior to come into the world, think of this, God just spoke a creative word to place that cell of life in the wound of Mary. It is impossible to say something if it is not first a thought. How many realize that? Once I speak that thought in an expression, then it becomes separated from me. My point is, when God separated that little essence of life and that thought, and He sent it, it means He did not have to say, Now Holy Spirit, you go do this. If God the Father is omnipresent, if God is omnipotent, if God is omniscient, and we know He is all of that, so I ask you, Is He not already here? He does not have to wait to get on a fast moving train like a bullet to get down here. Do you understand me? Therefore when His Spirit was sent, not to create another planet, but to overshadow the virgin womb of a little Jewish lady, the angel Gabriel announced it to her. I want to emphasize the fact, that since God is the Creator, He created in that virgin womb the very essence of a life that in process of time brought forth a son to Mary and she named him Jesus. I am going to say this, He bypassed the egg of the woman, He bypassed the gene, the sperm of man, and He created the little essence of that fetus in Mary, completely bypassing all natural means of propagation. Just think of it like this, If God created the universe out of nothing, surely to goodness He can create in a virgin womb a little fetus. Can you dispute that? Once He did, He separates from His mind that thought He has perceived and held there throughout all the centuries before, just waiting for the day to manifest it. When He separates that thought to become a reality, the thought begins to become a materialized thing. Then He gives that life. Where did this life come from? Not through the egg of the woman, nor the seed of man. It came from God Himself because He is the author of all life. Naturally that fetus there in that virgin womb grew and took on form in the next nine months and entered into this realm of life just like all others do. Sure she is going to eat, she is going to drink. Her body will break down the food contents like all others. The elements in that food is transposed into the blood stream. As that little fetus automatically becomes attached to the walls of the womb, through the umbilical cord, some might ask, well Bro. Jackson, isn’t there a way for sin to be transmitted? Not at all. The only thing that was transmitted was protein, carbohydrates, and everything that is essential in producing a little body that will grow from a little fetus to take form as a little baby. Everything that the flesh is made up of was in the food that Mary ate. How many realize that? There were none of Mary’s genetics transmitted to the fetus. In other words, none of the very nature of that baby came from Mary: absolutely nothing that affected its nature came from her. Nothing from man affected its nature. Everything about it came from God. That is why you have your modernists today, they cannot explain anything about that virgin birth, because they want to disallow all that I have mentioned and just throw it away as though it is impossible. They will say, That just simply cannot be. Well, let them think that. About nine months later, when it was getting close to her time to deliver, God initiated another plan that was designed to fulfill prophecy. There was a decree made that all the world should be taxed. Some translations say that there should be a census taken. Nevertheless everybody had to go back to the place of their lineage, so Joseph took his wife and headed for Bethlehem. I have said many times, When they left Nazareth, Mary did not know precisely when the baby was to be born, because she did not know exactly when conception took place. How many realize that? That is why I have said, Had Mary known that she was to give birth in a few days after they reached Bethlehem, do you think she would have left and not taken anything with her for the occasion? Young mothers, I would think you would be foolish if you were expectant with a child, and you waste your whole span of nine months and never buy anything for that little baby. How many know what I am talking about? Mary did not know when she was going to give birth, so that is why she did not take anything along, when they went to pay their taxes. It was supposed to be that way. When they got there, every motel was full, every hotel was full. But there was a certain merchant that heard about their problem, he had a stable in a cave and gave them permission to use the stable. That is exactly where God wanted His Son to be born. That night, when Mary did finally give birth, I imagine she thought, Oh Lord, I have nothing to put on this little one. However hanging there on the wall of the cave, were some ox yokes and they had been padded with swaddling cloth. Across the fields sheep herders were abiding in the field watching over their flock by night. You know the story. The angels came down and gave the announcement, Rise, go into the city of David, for there is a Savior born, which is Christ the Lord. This is the sign that you will know him by: you will find Him wrapped in what? a new baby blanket? No, in swaddling clothes. Look in Luke 2:7-13, and we will read it. “And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped Him in swaddling clothes, and laid Him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn. 8And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.9And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid.10And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord.12And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.”

WHY MARY HAD TO USE SWADDLING CLOTHES TO WRAP HER BABY

I notice young, expectant mothers once in awhile, how they go shopping and see a bargain, My that is pretty: I think I will get that for our little one. That is a natural thing. That is why I said what I did about Mary. Had Mary known when she left Nazareth, that she was going to give birth to that child while they were gone, I believe she would have taken with her what she had already collected for the occasion, things she already had laying in a drawer. The fact is, she left them behind and I believe I have given you a good explanation why. Those swaddling clothes were there, and please do not think I am foolish enough to say the oxen yoke had been used time and time again and the oxen had sweated and they are turned brown, and had hair all woven in them. Please, let us not get so carnal in our thinking. I have seen ox yokes. I know what they look like. But I have to say, This ox yoke had not been padded very long, and it was clean enough for what they used it for. You have to remember, God was directing and preparing the way for this prophecy to be fulfilled. Joseph took that yoke and began to unwrap it and they wrapped the little baby in that. Now to all you who want to believe the Son of God had been standing by and helping the father in creation, I want to say this, I do not see the life of this little baby that has just been born in a cave, in a cow stall, having been somewhere before time even started, with the Father, already as a human being, knowing all about what was going on, and helping the Father in creation. What an absurd thought! That kind of thinking comes from theology, in the mind of those who are void of true revelation. How many understand me? No. There was no reason for Him to be manifested at any time before He was. That is why the scripture brings out, He is God’s only begotten Son. So I have to say, When God brought Him forth, God brought Him forth to be a means of the salvation for lost mankind, and salvation and redemption for a lost creation. I have said that for a reason. When I said creation, that takes us right to Revelation. But I am not going to touch it this morning. Just keep in mind, when God sent Him forth, all of this had already been chosen of God in the plan of God, that when the time on earth was just right, and sin has accumulated to its rightful point and season, then God was going to fulfill all the types of what the Law was, that had been given to Israel by having the Passover lamb, now this baby is going to be God’s true Passover Lamb for the sins of the whole world. That was the beginning of the Son of God, as far as Him being a person. He grew to thirty years of age and then He was baptized by John. Then the Father, we will say, came down and anointed Him. In reality, God never comes down, because He is omnipresent, everywhere all the time. This was done like this for a purpose. Only at that time did God the Father, anoint His Son. Up until that time, He (Jesus) had not done one miracle. The Father had absolutely give His Son eternal life, but up until that thirty years of age He never did a miracle, He never went anywhere and preached a sermon. Yet He learned all along. He grew in stature, and in knowledge. He learned all about the things of God because He knew He had been sent, foreordained, chosen to one day be a means of God reconciling the world back to Himself. Through the Lord Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son, God inaugurated a redeeming process for lost mankind that is still in operation today for all who will accept it by faith . That was the beginning of the purpose of God bringing forth His Son. No other time in all prior time, did the Son have any purpose, any authority in the universe. If He did, why would God bring Him from such a place down here to such a lowly place, to redeem a bunch of dirty creatures like us, then one day to rule and reign with us, to lift this planet back up from death and hell, then one day when the last judgment is set, then He delivers all authority back to the Father? Have you ever wondered, what does the scripture mean, when Paul said that He would deliver the kingdom back up to God the Father, that God may be all in all? Now who is the greatest? I have to say, God is. How many realize that? God is the greatest: He is the sovereign Spirit that created all things. Look what He did, that through Him, (speaking of the Son) He might redeem you and me, reconcile us back to Him. I will say this, We were brought into existence because we were sprouts off the tree of knowledge. How many realize that? But our life has been changed, because He is the righteous branch off the tree of life, planted into the human family, in order to be a means to lift you and me back up here to a level and relationship, that we can all be sons and daughters of God through Him, not outside of Him, but through Him, back to God. I think it is a beautiful picture. We truly have something to rejoice about. We are on this subject, God Is One, and as I said earlier, I do not intend to leave any scripture out anywhere along the pathway of God’s word. The godhead has been one thing that Satan has, through the years, done his very best to confuse the believer’s mind about. That is exactly why, when you notice the little gospels of John written in 90 A.D., the godhead was already being challenged by Satan through his various agents, bringing on false prophets, teaching certain things that were contrary, and denying the godhead the way it was taught by the early Church apostolic fathers. The Church must of necessity get back out of trinity into the oneness of God, and if the Bride of Christ can absolutely get their mind’s settled on the fact that God is one, and that He never has been three persons, and never has been manifested in three different ways at the same time, she is moving in the right direction.

LOOKING DEEPER INTO A GREAT MYSTERY

We started this message with the word “us,” and I am determined to show you every reason why the word us and our image was used in Genesis 1:26. God was certainly not talking about a plurality of persons in the Godhead. He is speaking in conjunction with His angelic beings; and I cannot stress it enough, because Satan is so busy messing with the mind of every believer. I want to say at this time, that at the time He spoke the Word to Create a cell of life in the virgin Mary, God had already been in the process of bringing the planet earth itself, which has been judged, and has been frozen up for thousands of years, back into a functioning, useful planet. That is why in Genesis 1:1 it says, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, period, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the earth was without form and void. What does that tell you? Just that there was no life functioning, but it does not tell you that God has just now created the earth, He is slowly bringing it back into a relationship with other planets. He was not re-creating anything. He was reaching out and redeeming what He had formerly created and then judged, and now He is bringing it back, getting ready to use it again. That is why I have to say, When we talk about Jesus the Son of God, how God was manifested in the person of His Son, it is essential that we realize, God did not become a man. Let us just speak it the way the Bible shows it. We have too many who want to make it sound like whatever pleases the other people is OK, but the Bible shows us, not that God became a man, but that God was manifested through the flesh of His only begotten Son. Is that not what the Bible says? Did He just go hocus-pocus and there was some flesh? No, He was manifested in and through the person of His Son. That is the only way that God Jehovah, the Elohim, He who always was and always will be, the intelligent one, the omnipresent one, the all powerful one, was revealed to mankind. He had brought forth His Son for the sole purpose that He Himself, at a certain time of the Son’s life, could come down (as it is expressed in Matthew 3:16-17), and make His abode in Him. “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him: And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”. From then on, the Father manifested His deity-ship, His power, His attributes in and through the Son. At no time did God leave the universe though, because He, being a sovereign, omnipresent spirit, fills the universe at all times. If He is omnipresent, (and we know He is) He is everywhere all the time. He is sovereign, and unlimited, but He chose this to be a means because this man that He is now placing the fulness of His attributes in, His deity-ship in, is not a sinner like the rest of mortal mankind. He is a perfect man, born without sin. Therefore the Son of God became a man in physical stature and was baptized by John the Baptist according to the plan of the Father; and then the Father anointed Him by placing all the fullness of Himself in His Son. Let me say this to you, God, which is known as the Father, did not become a man. Neither did He who was to be born as the Son of God, ever become God Himself: He just simply had all the fullness of the most High God abiding in Him and expressing Himself through Him. You do not find the Son of God talking any other way. It is doctors of divinity in the Gentile world that absolutely climb the tree and use their ecclesiastical education to make things sound fantastic. I am trying my best to bring it out of all this bewilderment and confusion and help someone that is looking for an answer. I will say this, Jesus, as we know Him, before He was born of virgin birth, some have to ask, where did He exist? He existed in the mind of the Father. Yet we have those that insist that He was up there as a person before all time. No Brothers and Sisters: He was not anywhere as a person until the day He was born to the virgin Mary. That was His beginning as a person. In the first place, let me ask this question, If God is the Creator, (and we know He is) then what was Jesus supposed to be doing up there for thousands of years? Do not tell me He was up there before all time, when you are not able to tell me what He was doing? He was already in the mind of the Father, chosen and predestined before God created anything. God had already designed this era of time we are living in with Him in mind, but he was still just a thought in the mind of the Great Creator, that would be manifested in due time. God had designed the earth and then judged it; and has been redeeming it through time. He redeems it and bring it back out of that chaotic judged state. Then He puts a man here to repopulate the planet earth and to subdue it and have dominion over all other things pertaining to earth. Yet God knew that man Adam would make the wrong choice when he was tested. I was asked the question one time, Bro. Jackson, if God at one time made man perfect, what came about that caused Him to sin? You do not realize what all is involved. God did not make the man to sin, but He made man capable of making a choice. If He did not make him able to make a choice, then He did not make him a free moral agent. Do you understand that? If He had made him a robot, just to choose one thing, to do one thing, to live one way, then where is the response He is looking for in His family? What else can a robot do, other than what it is programed to do? We just have to say this, The Son of God, when He was born from a virgin womb two thousand years ago, that took Him out of the mind of the Father and brought Him forth as a manifested word that took on flesh. That is why it says in St. John, And the word was made flesh. It was not that Jesus was the WORD, the word that made flesh was the word of God the Creator. Yes, when the thought originated with God, His mind is sovereign, so as long as that mind, that thought was there, it was God, because it took God to think that thought. But when the time came that God separated that thought from His mentality and expressed it in the form that He had foreordained it to be, now we have God’s thought being expressed. Do you follow me on that? We find that it is God’s only begotten Son; and I have already explained why. It was because God had placed the cell of Life in the womb of Mary, and allowed His Son to be born into this world like all other boys and girls. Adam was a created son, but Jesus was a begotten Son. I am sure you everyone understand the difference between the two sons. Jesus was born of woman, but had none of her genetic traits, because she did not furnish an egg for him: she furnished all necessary nutrients for his development, but did not transmit any genetic substance. At this time I want to take you back to where we were this morning. I read where it says, Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear forth a Son, and thou shall call His name Emmanuel, meaning God with us. But we realize in Isaiah 9, starting in the 6th verse, this is referred to also. The other one is in the 1st chapter of Matthew, and it is referring to how His name would be looked to in His first advent, but when we go to the 9th chapter of Isaiah, we see this. “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God.” Notice again, the name, but we have to understand how that name came to be that. This is when He comes to be King of kings and Lord of lords and He will fulfill this role. But we can say this, When He comes in His glorified, immortal body, He is not coming to be a prophet again, to be a Savior again, He is coming to be King. This is when that kingly attribute of God the Father is going to be expressed in His Son, so that His Son can become the King of all the earth. Brothers and sisters, the Bride of Jesus Christ around this world, you are going to be part of that beautiful picture and it behooves us to have in our minds a little concept of what we are being made like unto, and for what reason. We are going to be the wife, but in what relationship? When this body we have is changed into immortality, then I have to say, God is going to impart into us, this immortal person that we are, knowledge, authority and all that we need, to fulfill our part; and all of that is depending on how faithful we have been to this calling during this period of time we have been called a child of God. The point is, for us to see how He will be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace, and so on and so forth. Is that literally the name that people will use when they walk up and speak to Him? Will they say to Him, Good morning Counselor? That is not it at all. It is the fact that they see God represented and manifested in and through Him. It takes that for Him to fulfill all of that. Now with this in mind, let’s look at this thing that gets people so carried away. Especially the Trinitarian minds that want to put Him up there before all time, before there was a star or anything. They put Him with the Father in creation. As I have said, I just have to ask, Then what was He doing? Was He just a little fellow? Here we come to the Son, if He is called the Son of God, at what time in eternity did He come into existence to be called the Son of God? By what means? Was He literally born by some means at another time? There is a lot to think about when people try to make the scriptures come down on their human level and materialize them. They get involved in a lot of carnal thinking. You cannot show me one place in the Bible where anything, not one star, not one asteroid or anything was created by Him. As I talk like this, keep in mind the fact that it was the New Testament apostles that wrote the biggest part of the New Testament that gives us the last answer. That is where the revelation, as it unfolds, progresses to development, to the objective and purpose that God has sent it forth for, in this dispensation of Grace where this all will materialize. With that in mind, go with me to St. John’s gospel.

EXPLAINING JOHN’S STATEMENT

John was the only apostle that wrote anything in this fashion. I am reading from the King James version, the English translation as the early translators translated it into the English language and we know they were all Trinitarians. Therefore certain phrases speak what the translators thought, how they looked at it. Well let me read this. I am going to read from the King James. (John 1:1) “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”Now keep in mind what we are dealing with, and look at that English word, “word.” I am going to ask you, try to imagine, In what form was the Word? Was it a person standing there? The Trinitarians will say yes. But God the Father is not a person. Oh they want to climb a tree when you say that, Now see, he has gone wild. No, I have not gone wild. God is a sovereign Spirit being, but not a person. When you refer to a spirit being, you take it out of a form, because a spirit has no viewable form. God does not exist in a form. He is a being that fills the universe. He is everywhere. He is not a person. Look up the word “person” in your dictionary. See what it means? First it says A living human being, then goes on to say it is something that has a form or shape, it is an object that can be seen or described. Therefore I have to say, Anyone ought to know, that before a word can be spoken, it has to first be a thought, does it not? So, in the beginning, at what time was this beginning we are talking about? Are we going back fifty billion years ago before the planets ever were made? No. This is going back to the beginning of the era when God is going to bring man on this planet. This does not go back beyond that, to the prehistoric world. When I say that, some people will say, Oh that crazy Jackson, who does he think he is? Well I challenge you who think like that and ask, Did you know those days in Genesis 1:2-3 were not days of twenty four hours? It starts out in the 2nd chapter, verse 4, saying, “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.” He called it generations, did He not? You certainly cannot take a day of twenty four hours and refer to it as a generation. You may think this is unrelated to proper understanding, but I am saying in this, where God is bringing the planet earth back, redeeming it out of that judged, chaotic dark stage, out of the void condition, you have to realize He is redeeming it, getting ready to activate it again, so that life can be brought forth and function here once again. What looks like to the natural, carnal mind as a creation, is actually a redeeming process as far as the earth itself is concerned. Let me now take that to Revelation 3:14, when Jesus is referring to John on the Isle of Patmos. Did you know, you and I are the people of the Laodicean Age? How many will accept that? This is the Laodicean Age; and we have already had the angelic messenger of this age. Right? Here, Jesus is appearing to John on the Isle of Patmos. “And unto the angel of the Church of the Laodiceans write; These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God.” That is not talking about the prehistoric world. He is the beginning of what we call the new creation of God. As we go along in this, I am going to show you why He is. He (Jesus) is God’s means of how He (God) is going to bring this planet earth and fallen mankind out of His judged sinful state they have been in for hundreds of years. If the Bible winds up saying, Behold there was a new heaven and a new earth, does that mean that God the Creator made a new planet? You know it does not. Well then, how come it says new? It is the way He has redeemed it and regenerated it, through the redeeming process of Christ living here, ruling here, restoring laws, things that fallen man had thrown away. That is why Paul could say in 1st Corinthians the 15th chapter, God has delegated unto Him, the authority to rule and restore, to bring back to the earth everything the earth has lost from its righteous state. That is why He will rule for a thousand years, sitting in Jerusalem. The population of the earth then, will go to Jerusalem once each year to worship the King. (Zechariah 14:16-17) It sounds like millions will do that, but it really does not mean that. I will put it this way, As the planet begins to multiply and populate, after awhile it would get next to impossible for every individual to do that, so then, these nations of people will pick representatives to represent them to the King of kings and Lord of lords. Saints this thousand years is definitely going to be a redeeming process, restoring all that has been lost since sin entered the picture. When the end comes, when you have the great white throne judgment, (We brought this in this morning.) He is absolutely going to destroy every grave, death, and hell will give up the dead, and that is the wicked that are being held there, and they will all be judged by the things found written in the books. When that process is completed, what does that do to the earth? There are no more graveyards, because none are needed. There is no more hell, because it has been done away with. All the wicked are cast into a lake of fire, (There is no one there yet.) My point is this, How was this all done? Did the Father make a new planet? He did not. He delegated authority into the Son, He who is the beginning of the creation of God, so it is not talking about a new star or a new moon. He is the very means that God has instituted His divine power through to redeem this planet, bring it back, restore it back into a divine relationship to God, so that there will be no more sin nor any traces of sin. When this redeeming process is over, we can say this, He is the beginning of a new creation by redeeming, reconciling, restoring back to a proper sinless state of existence. Then that is why Paul could say in 1st Corinthians 15, Then shall the kingdom be delivered back up to God the Father. Now this is the part that I want to discuss with these theologians. You make Him who is called by you, The Word, standing there by The Father’s side before all time, so I say to you, Then tell me what He was doing? You cannot! You just make it sound that way, but it was not that way. I can show you by the scriptures where He is going to be when the Millennium is over. The Bible says this, that is when we see a new heaven, a new spirit realm around the earth. That has nothing to do with Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, nor any other of those that are out there. Jesus has nothing to do with that. All of His potential activity is right here on this planet where sin developed. What did sin affect? Man. So that is the thing we have got to see about this thing of creation. I am saying this, At least Dr. Scofield does put in the footnotes, the English word “Word” taken from the Greek text, means logos. Well then, when you go to logos, what are you dealing with? Are you dealing with a person? You are dealing with a thought, You are dealing with the source of human reasoning. That is why even Dr. Scofield said, in the Greek logos, or the Aramic memra, that word sounds like memory, is the capacity to think, also used in the Targum, or in the Targum, it is the Hebrew, which means a thought. So I am saying this tonight, These people that want to put Him there with the Father before all time, before there was a star or anything, then I have to say, It is only their theology, their reasoning. It is very strange that they get out of the Bible, that He existed like this, but they cannot tell you what He was doing. I am going to take you to what the apostle Paul said about it. That is why I said all along, Any time you take one verse of scripture and try to make the whole Bible line up with that, if you cannot place that in a finished picture, so you can see it in a finished state, you are going to get lost in the process. As we look at this thought, the word, I have to say, Before God even started dealing with the planet, bringing it out of the dark ice age, the prehistoric world, God first had a plan. I am glad He did have a plan for all ages. Now let us go a little further with this thought. John said, “and the Word was with God.” If it is a thought, it cannot be anywhere else but with God. You see this building you are sitting in? The original building, I drew the plans for it back in 1967. At that time we did not have to have an architect. I was just a little country boy that drew them up myself and took them to Indianapolis to the Board of Commissioners. The man in charge said, Reverend, I wish all the plans brought in here were this good. Well I never thought I was a good designer, but I drew the dimensions, the depth of the foundation, everything. Until I put that on paper, that was in my mind. I could say, well we are going to build a church building, but if I did not tell you what it was going to look like, you could have said, Well it is in his mind to build it, but we don’t know what it is going to look like, until it becomes separated from his mind. Once I put it in a drawing, then I have separated it from my mind and it can be seen. When they approved it in Indianapolis and we brought it down here and we all went to work on it, then I can say the original building was first conceived in my own mind. That is exactly what we are talking about right there. Now, that thought was with God, and that thought was God, where else could it originate? It could not originate anywhere else. Now I want to show you how the apostle Paul looked at this.

OPENING UP A MYSTERY

Go with me to Ephesians the 1st chapter. Keep in mind, John, the apostle who wrote about this plan of God in his gospel, was a Jew. Paul was also a Jew. Who was his apostleship to be to? You and me. Right? Now we will let Paul talk and explain this word. Paul goes at it from this standpoint in the 3rd verse of chapter 1 in Ephesians. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, (He is giving all attention to God the Father, isn’t he? Who is He? He is the Creator. All things came into existence by Him and through Him and for Him. Then Paul goes ahead to say..) who ( referring to the Father) hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. According (Now he puts conditions there.) as He (meaning God) hath chosen us in him (In who? In Christ, when?..) before the foundation of the world, (That is not talking about the prehistoric world. It is the beginning of our era. Don’t come up to me and tell me you existed there also, I will say to you, Get out of here with that kind of talk. The only way you existed was in the mind of the Father. You were a part of His finished picture in His mind, before He even started doing anything. It is important that we read this down through here because we are reading from the writing of a Jew that had a revelation of how to point us pagan Gentiles to believe in something we had never been taught before.) that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love: (All of this was foreordained in the mind of God to be brought about through Christ in due time, before time started for us. That is how we have to look at it.) Having (having is a word that expresses a decision was made) predestinated (God, by His foreknowledge, saw you and me before we were ever fashioned in this earth. The God that I serve knows all things. What has been going on has not been something that is just thrown out here, and God has been watching over it to see what would take place. God saw this whole picture from beginning to end. So having predestined, foreknown, notice now, His point of making a decision. Having predestined, means He has come to a conclusion, He has finished His thought by looking at us, to place us in a pointed relationship.) us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ.” The word by here does not mean Jesus did it. God has done it through Him being the means. That is where many times the translators missed it, when it says that God has created all things by Jesus Christ. He did not create the planet earth by Jesus Christ. He did it Himself. You can not say God is a Creator, then turn right around and say, but the Son did it. How many realize doctors of divinity and religious teachers have messed up this picture for centuries? We have got to get a picture in our own mind that we can understand on the human level. I can say it like this, Before there ever was anybody, God first thought about a plan. So He predestined us, to be what? Donkeys? No. To obtain the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ. It is God adopting us back to Himself through His Son. Well what does the Son have to do with it then? God is going to send the Son forth to become a Savior, a life giver. Let me say this, It was not a matter of Jesus coming down here from heaven and making the choice to save you. (We have already explained how Jesus got here; and once He was grown, He did not walk up and down the road of life and say, I will save this one, and let that one go to hell. All this was in the mind of the Father. “According to the good pleasure of His will.” Now don’t tell me God sat down one day and He had a headache and He was all messed up. That is carnal thinking. I believe, as He looked at His picture, He had a plan. He looked straight through to the end and it pleased Him. In that, He was going to designate certain things to be, then He designed for certain things in the finished picture, to come through a certain process, but in the end results, it was all His choice that has accomplished it. “To the praise of the glory of His grace, (That takes it out of the plurality of minds. One mind thought all of this.) wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved. (Beloved picture, as God thought it.) In whom we have redemption through His blood, (Now here is what is meant, it was through the shedding of the blood of His begotten Son, that God was going to accomplish this, to appoint us to become adopted sons and daughters of God.) the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace. (God is a merciful God.) Wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence; (Meaning understanding. God does not ask you to go to college to learn this, He just asks us to have His Spirit in us, then be willing to let God take our mentality and break it down and put in us a picture of what He has designed. I will say this, Before He even spoke to bring the planet out of that judged state, God had first designed this whole plan for the ages. How many understand? Predestination was linked to His foreknowing the end before the beginning. He saw the whole picture, He saw the whole process. He saw what decision every person would make Therefore in the mind of God, it was already a finished picture, and He would do this and accomplish this by and through the means of Him sending a Son, His only begotten Son. He had to first be in His mind, then once that was in His mind, God delegates Him as being the means by which He is going to reconcile and redeem all this terrible sinful state, and lift some of us up out of that, back to Himself. Jesus first had to be a part of His thoughts. Then you and I had to be a part of that also. He also saw us to the end.) Having made known unto us the mystery of His will, (This was foreordained, and was prophesied by the prophets of old and in the Psalms. That is why Paul could say how that God had made known to him the mystery. But when we take this and go on down, notice this 9th verse, if we are a product of the mystery of His will, then it is according to His good pleasure. In other words, do not argue with God, He knows what He is doing. I am glad God took me out of the corn field, when I was a little old human mind that did not have my senses in tune with Him, and changed me completely. I never did want to be too religious. I have said a thousand times, God forgive me for ever thinking like that. When He did save my soul one day, He put a hunger in me and a desire in my heart to look at this book and see what it really says. You don’t learn it in a day’s time, but you have to start somewhere. The point is, He is doing this according to His good pleasure. Notice, He did not sit down and talk it over with the trinity bunch first. Notice what else it says…) according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself.” He (God) did the choosing, He designed it. Now please do not be telling Him He needs to change His mind. Cannot God do as He pleases? I am glad, that when God designed this whole thing He had you and me in mind. Let us go on down to the 11th verse. “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him (meaning God) who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.” Follow my expression, Before God said, Let there be light; and then separated the light from the darkness, and so on and so forth, God already had a completed plan in His mind. That finished plan made it necessary for Him to bring this earth out of its previously judged state. He did not do this, and then after He got it done, say, Let me see now, what I want to use it for. He already had a plan. That is what I want you to understand. He would need a new earth, but He did not make another planet, He brought the earth back out of that judged, chaotic state and put life here again, but life this time was different than the prehistoric life that existed. We know what happened back then, but that was known to God before all time also. All of this goes to show, God did all this after the counsel of His own will, His ability to make a choice, make up His mind, I will do what I want to do, and you theologians can go hang yourself, it is my business. (Says God, but this is my words) That is what Paul is saying about this word. So Paul could say you and I were absolutely chosen in Him before the birds started chirping. I like that. I have to say, that is when that logos in the plan of God begins to take on a position in this glorious plan of His. But God first brings forth His created Son Adam. He starts man out sinless and gives them a perfect garden where there is no sin, but total peace, but left him capable of making a choice, because it was God who made a choice, and because He knew what our choice would be, He therefore knew exactly how to predestinate us. He knew exactly the thoughts we would have, the choice we would make, and He knew how to go about His plan. All this was designed by God before the sun even rose the first time. Once God began to project out of His mind into activity, creation started. That is why I can see Christ where He said over in Revelation, He is the beginning of the creation of God. He is the means by how God has chosen to redeem and reconcile this sinful planet, and sinful people out of that state, renew the people and renew the earth. That is why this earth must be ruled by a man who sits with all the attributes of God imputed into Him. No wonder then, when the Millennial period is over and that last judgment is set, after the power of God that has been delegated to His Son has been used to redeem all things, the Son then (we could say…) returns all power and authority to the Father, that God may be all in all. This is after His immortal Bride has sat with Him, to rule and reign for a thousand years. This is exactly how the creation realizes redemption. Can you understand, it is redemption? You are going to be part of it if you are in the ranks of the bride. It is not that you are making another planet, but you are helping renew the earth by establishing new laws and authority, and in the end, judging everything that is in the grave and that is in hell, and that is cast away. What does that make the earth then? It is a new heaven and a new earth, is it not? When the Bible says a new heaven, get your eyes off of Mars. Did you know, there is not a man on earth today that can determine the destiny of Mars. Scientists can tell you where every one of those little specks are going to be a million years from now. Why? Because when God put them out there in space, everything functions precisely according to His plan. He does not need help out there. How many realize that? That is not the devilish world we are a part of. When Jesus said, Whatsoever you bind on earth, I will bind in heaven, is He talking about something out there on Venus? No. He is talking about the spirit world, that spirit sphere around this planet earth. That is where the devil and all his imps are. That is exactly where Christ is sitting on the throne right now. I used to think that anytime you talk about heaven, you are talking about something way beyond the stars. No. If you think like that, that is why I say, You are just star gazing. As long as you think like that, that is exactly what the devil wants you to think. The truth is, you do not have to worry about how that out there functions because God knows exactly where every one of those things are, and when He put them there, He had no intention of allowing the devil to mess them up. Right down here, is where the devil was given an opportunity to work again, because this is where he made a choice before, right here on this earth. Therefore I want to emphasize the fact, a new heaven and a new earth, does not pertain to the celestial bodies out there. They are in no need of being made new. Then when you turn to Revelation 22, what did John see? Behold I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth have passed away. Did he mean that Mars and Jupiter and all that have taken their flight? No. He is not talking about that at all. He is talking about this planet earth and this atmosphere around it, this sphere around the earth where spirit activity is. What did He say about the earth? There was no more sea. I like to talk about this. Oh Bro. Jackson, you are not a scientist. I know I am not, and you are not either, so do you wonder what John saw that caused him to write it that way? There has to be a logical explanation. That is why I believe, in the plan of God, one day when Jesus is delegated and He is manifested from the heavens, He will come to receive His Bride, and then, in process of time we are going to come settling back down here to begin that long Millennium period. I believe as He is the Redeemer, to redeem this planet back to the eternal Father, I believe during that thousand year reign there is going to be a magnetic pull of all this water. Two thirds of the earth’s crust is covered with it now, but I believe, before the ark, before the flood, there was no such thing as giant oceans. There were lakes and river streams of course, but if it rained forty days and forty nights, where did all that water come from? It plainly refers to the fountains of the deep, and that does not apply to a hole in the ground. It pertains to all that water out there in space that formed a vapor barrier around the earth. That is where the rain came from that brought about the flood of Noah’s day. Had sin not entered the picture and had God never had to curse the earth with a flood, that water would still be out there where it was before the flood. After this six thousand years, had there been no need for a flood, this earth would have been completely repopulated, and you would see beautiful vegetation everywhere, you would have had no storms, you would have had no oceans in the sense we now have them. This planet earth would have had a perfect climate. I hope you understand what I mean. So it was an act of judgment that brought all of that out of here and put it down here. If that Millennium reign is going to be a redeeming re-creating process, bringing about a new earth wherein there is no more sea, I believe God has a way to draw that water back up there without Him having to ask these long haired scientists to help Him. He will not be saying to them, Now are you gentlemen going to agree with me? Did you ever watch the sun at a certain time of the day, how it draws water? I know many of you have. Well if it can draw enough water back up, so that it can rain a few hours later, just think what a change you would see when the sun starts drawing water and it lasts for a thousand years. How many can see now, that redemption comes about as a result of a righteous rule? God has a right to rid from the earth a curse that was brought here by judgment. If at one time it was frozen up in ice and He got rid of the ice, then I believe that by a thousand years of righteous rule with righteous saints ruling, and the knowledge of the Lord covering the earth as the waters that cover the sea, then I believe no scientist has to make a giant water pump. God just uses the elements of nature to pull it all back out there and puts it right back as a vapor barrier. Then as the planet earth goes into the eternal age, that will be worlds without end, for a new heaven and a new earth. I really do not know why I got off onto that subject tonight, but I will have to say, If Christ is the beginning of the creation of God, it has got to be the means to bring about the redeeming of all that has been judged, so that we have a new creation. It is not creating another planet at all, it is the redeeming process on the things He has the capability of initiating and completing. Go with me now, to Ephesians 3. The reason I like the way Paul brings this out, he is the Jewish apostle that has the revelation to lay a foundation in the spiritual mentality of a Gentile people, that we would be able to know what God has designed before time and how slowly this comes about and materializes in the lives of the redeemed. Paul is saying here in the 3rd chapter, as he is telling again about this mystery, how that in other ages it was not made known, and we come to verse 9, Paul begins to explain it like this, “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery (Do you think he is talking to the whole human race? He is not. He is talking about the redeemed family of God. They are the only ones that are going to see it and understand it. All men see what is the fellowship, the world does not want to have fellowship with us, not in what we believe. We believe something they do not want any part of. Saints, you just see yourself sitting there in the pew, but this little congregation is forming a picture of something. You are reflecting a revelation of something the religious world has never had, and does not want. We did not ask for it, but He designed it for those who will receive it by faith. People around the world are listening in, they are hearing something, and many of them are wanting to know what is going on. One of these days the world will find out that we know something they do not know. So saints, let’s live it, let’s be thankful to God for it. In this 9th verse, the apostle Paul is speaking of how God wants us to see what is the fellowship….) of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, (Yes, though it is prophesied in the Old Testament, it was never revealed before.) who created all things (and the Trinitarians say,) by Jesus Christ.” Jesus Christ had nothing to do with the creation of the world. I am reading out of the Hebrew scriptures, the same verse, so pay attention, “And to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery, which for ages has been hid in Elohim, who created all things.” Now tell me, What does that say? It says God Himself created all things. God did not need help. When He designed this plan, He was not saying to the Son, Now Son, do you agree with this? No. There was no Son anywhere except in His great mind. If any of you want to climb a tree because of this, help yourselves, but I have to say, When you are dealing with one sovereign God, you are dealing with one sovereign mind that did all the designing Himself, all the planning, and everything. But when He brought the Son into existence, it is by the Son and through the Son, He has been redeeming and reconcile something back to Himself. It is all being done by this process that He sovereignly designed. That is redemption. I am thankful to God for that.