WHAT IS GOD’S PLAN?
If you would ask 100 individuals what God’s plan was, you may find 100 differing versions of
their understanding of God’s plan for mankind. Some common answers would be that those who
are “Saved” will go to heaven and all others are “Lost”. A few who view God’s broad love
would place all into heaven. And there are those who have become discouraged with world
events who would question if there was an Almighty God and if so, what happened to His plan?
God’s ways are higher than our ways, His plans are broader, grander, more just and loving than
we can begin to conceive or even begin to understand. (Romans 11:33, 34) There was a plan
before the creation of Adam. There was a plan from the offer to Abraham to the exiting of the
Hebrews from Egypt and leading them back to the land promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
There was a plan with an exact time of the birth and death of the promised Messiah. And there is
a plan for the returning of that Messiah to bring about restitution of mankind from sin and death
for all the “Saved” and all the “Lost”. Yet if there is a plan, how can the truth of God’s plan be
found and be sure that it is not just some theory of man?
FINDING THE TRUTH
The Bible continues to be the Christian’s standard for measuring right and wrong, truth and
error. Yet, THE TRUTH—the promise by promise outline of God’s plan for humanity,
stretching into eternity—has not come easy for followers of the Master.
Anyone who has earnestly sought the deeper understanding of the Scriptures merely by reading
page after page, and chapter after chapter, can attest to the difficulties of finding THE TRUTH
by such a study. How varied have been the impressions gleaned by even its most ardent
students! History is well marked by the heated controversies of those men of valor, and who,
finding a truth, dedicated a lifetime to proving and setting it forth.
Who has not heard …
… of Luther’s stand on Justification by faith, leading to his bitter denunciation of the error of
indulgences?
… of John Wesley’s belief that special favor of the Lord comes to all men simply by their
acceptance of the blood of Jesus, thus opposing the predestination belief of Calvin, who limited
the grace of God to but a chosen few?
… of William Miller’s revitalization of hope in the promise of our Lord’s return?
… of others who went on to prove that the Bible taught that the dead are dead and “know not
anything” and that eternal torment is not the penalty of sin?
The Bible has contained, truth by truth, God’s plan of salvation. But through all the efforts of
past saints since the days of the apostles, THE TRUTH, as a complete outline of our Heavenly
Father’s drama of the ages, remained obscure until the time clock of the universe struck. Then
the secret of topical and chronological study of the Bible was revealed in a writing called, “The
DIVINE PLAN of the AGES.”
Indeed, GOD HAS A PLAN! By prophecy and promise this plan is woven into his Word not
chapter by chapter, but rather, as the Prophet Isaiah related, “precept upon precept; line by line;
… here a little, and there a little.”—Isaiah 28:10
Man sinned. Death, cessation of life, followed. Angels tried to solve earth’s dilemma, but the
Flood of Noah’s day erased the tragedy of their vain efforts. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob came
on the scene and, with them, the promise of a coming kingdom! But it did not come in their
day!
The Jewish nation and the Law followed, with special favors leading unto Christ. And with
the First Advent of our Lord, God’s great plan of salvation continued to unfold. Here was the
perfect life needed to erase the sin of perfect Adam before the blessings of the promised
kingdom could flow to humanity. Jesus’ life given, man was guaranteed a return “from the
land of the enemy”—death.
But 1900 years have come and gone, and still there has been no resurrection of the dead. Why
the long delay?
Another part of God’s plan was being carried out. A special heavenly call was sent forth,
selecting out of the world (both Jew and Gentile) a bride for Christ—calling out one here and
one there. The qualifications are strict and the candidates are few, as the Master proclaimed,
“Straight is the gate, and narrow is the way, …and few there be that find it.”—Matthew 7:14
These faithful few (still being called from amongst men) who sacrifice their lives as Jesus did,
will be privileged with him on high to lead the rest of humanity out of their graves and out of
despair, up a highway called “holiness” to a perfect life on earth, in answer to our mutual
prayer: “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.”—Matthew 6:10
Then, together, in that kingdom, will all men find and know THE TRUTH.