Your Awesome Potential

Hebrews 2:5 describes the earth under the “subjection of angels” now, but makes clear that these angels will not rule over “the world to come.” Additional verses in this chapter explain what will happen after the fallen angels governing this world are replaced. Notice Heb 2:6 “What is man, that you are mindful of him?” Heb 2:7 continues, “You made him a little lower than [margin: inferior to] the angels; You crown him with glory and honour…You have put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that He put all in subjection under him, He left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see NOT YET all things put under him.”

Speaking of Christ, Heb 2:9 continues, and “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that He by the grace of God should taste death for every man.” And Heb 2:10: “For it became Him…in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.”

Did you grasp what is meant? These verses contain the promise of a staggering potential available to you and me. Christians are to inherit “all things” and be “crowned with glory and honour” through the calling of God and sacrifice of Jesus Christ—“the captain of their salvation.”

There can be no confusing what “all things” means. It states “nothing” ( Heb 2:8) will be excluded from this inheritance. Our Captain has delivered us now, with the whole world to be delivered later!

Isaiah 9:6-7 prophesies Christ returning to earth with the “government [of God] on His shoulders,” which will bring peace to a world in captivity filled with hate, confusion, destruction, violence, war, disease and death.

Finally, recall Matthew 4:9. The devil had offered Christ rulership over “all things” if He would fall down and worship him. We see that Christians are promised the same “all things”—but only on the condition that they worship the TRUE GOD and not their former captor—the god of this world!

The Full Picture

Herbert W. Armstrong ended his booklet A WORLD HELD CAPTIVE with:

“What, then, is the real PURPOSE of the Church? WHY did Jesus found the Church? Was it to repair the superstructure of the faulty and decadent BUILDING to which I have likened this present evil world? Was it to ‘save’ by conversion this sinning world of Satan? Was it to become divided into many divisions or branches, Orthodox, Roman Catholic and Protestant?

“The whole professing ‘Christian’ world has been deceived. All nations have been deceived. The ninth verse of Revelation 12:1-17 states this emphatically and plainly.

“God started His supreme mission and PURPOSE of reproducing Himself through the first human, Adam. But to become a begotten child of God, so that he might, on acquiring the spiritual character of God, be BORN into the divine FAMILY OF GOD, Adam was required to make a choice. He chose apostasy, rebellion, self-righteousness mixed with evil—the way of the kidnapper of the potential family of God.

“God said plainly to Adam, that on the disobedience of taking the forbidden fruit, he would surely die. His temporary existence and he died after 930 years.

“Study Ephesians 2:1-2. Satan, as prince of the power of the air, actually works IN—within the natural born children of Adam. Satan worked within Adam’s first son, when he slew his brother Abel. All Adam’s children have sinned. All, up to those living today, DIE.

“But, it was decreed at the foundation of this world—at the time of Adam’s sin that as in Adam all should die, so in Christ, the second Adam, the same ALL should be brought back to life through resurrection from the dead.

“The tree of LIFE was closed to all humanity until Christ the SECOND ADAM. He was born of his mother, the virgin Mary, of the Adamic human family. But her Son Jesus was fathered, not by MAN, a son of Adam, but by GOD. As a son of GOD, the tree of LIFE was opened to Him. But as a son of MAN, He, like the first Adam, was required to make a CHOICE!

“Satan tried to destroy him as an infant, but God moved to prevent that. Then, at about age 30, before He could preach a word of God’s message, the gospel, Satan attacked him head-on. In this temptation (Matt. 4:1-11), Jesus made his choice. He rejected Satan’s temptation and way of life. He chose God’s way, according to the Scriptures. He defeated Satan, commanding him to depart from him, and the defeated Satan slunk away. JESUS HAD QUALIFIED TO REPLACE SATAN ON THE THRONE OF THE EARTH! Thus, as Jesus said in Mark 1:15, the time was fulfilled and the kingdom of God was at hand.

“The SECOND ADAM had passed the test. He had overthrown Satan. He had qualified to replace Satan on earth’s throne and to RESTORE THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

“ Sin and rebellion had started with the one man, Adam. Righteousness and obedience leading to PEACE now started with the one man, Jesus Christ. He was the BEGINNING—THE FOUNDATION—of the altogether NEW ‘building’—the new world—the new civilization—the WORLD TOMORROW!

The Church Still Stands

“Jesus said He would build his Church. His Church was that new building—that new civilization—that new world, in embryo.

“He also said the Church would never die. The rains would fall (Matt. 7:24-27), the floods would come, the hurricanes would blow, but this NEW house built on the solid rock foundation would ALWAYS STAND!

“Jesus did not say ‘churches.’ Paul said they would all ‘speak the same thing’—no divisions. Where is that Church today?” (Read our booklet Where Is God’s Church? for the enlightening answer!)

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