God's Interventions In Secular History - Kenneth B. Alexander BSL, JD, Deacon

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that plan every day. God uses man/women to accomplish this plan. However He intervenes in the affairs of mankind when He finds it necessary. He uses what we call miracles, He uses Satan, He uses nations hostile to Him, He uses men of God (prophets and Kings), He uses secular leaders and all the tools in his arsenal when there is a need. But he does not come down soveringly to do the job delegated to mankind with his invisible hand always in the background. That is primarily the function of this Book, to show how God intervenes in history to accomplish His will. His workings on earth are more of a nudge in the right direction as He accomplishes full redemption for His people.

      When considering God and His plan for mankind after man’s fall from the Garden of Eden we must view secular and religious history in a completely new light. After the fall of man from Paradise in the Garden of Eden He, of necessity, subjected all of creation to a curse of futility. “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but  because of Him who subjected it, in hope” (Rom 8:20). We continue to live in that futility today but with hope that: “ …that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body” (Rom 8:21-23).

      The curse on planet earth will be defeated. We are deeper into the days of His Kingdom than even we ourselves realize. The sons of God have journeyed through the work of the cross and the baptism of fire on their way to the manifestation of authority. They have learned not to stop at merely identifying with Christ’s experience; they have learned the necessity of being identical participators with Him in His experiences. Because of this, man is able, with faith, to accept their progressive manifestation as Sons who possess His nature and all that goes with it. The curse on creation was imposed with the fall of man. Now with the coming of the manifestation of the sons of God, the curse will be lifted from creation. The eternal purpose of God is being worked out through His sons that are coming forth. Theirs is the destiny to see principalities and powers brought down, creation released from futility, and Satan crushed under their feet.

      God’s original plan was quite different. He wanted to create mature Sons like Christ but man was to proceed along another track to perfection. God’s original plan for man was that is he was to grow and flourish in a perfected state in a perfect world. Remember when God looked at creation on the 7th day after He had finished His work he made the following comment as to creation: “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very  good” (Gen 1:31). Original creation, the creation in which he set Adam and Eve, was perfect in every way. There was no sin; there was no offense. God intended to build upon this perfection using the perfect human beings that were the capstone of his creation.

      However when man, who he had been left in charge of this perfect world, sinned by disobedience he was faced with a decision. Either destroy all he had worked for or provide a way out for man to be able to return to the perfect land. Therefore cursed the serpent (Satan) and left open the possibility of another outcome by giving His creation the ability to choose God with their free will. When man chose disobedience over obedience God realized that the forces released by that decision could no longer exist in His perfect world; otherwise man would live eternally in a sinful state. He realized that if this occurred He would have no choice but to destroy the entire creation. As God put it: “Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, he might stretch out his hand, and take also from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever” [meaning evil would live forever]—therefore the Lord God sent man out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life” (Gen 3:22-24). Instead of destroying man, His mercy gave him another chance and set about to redeem him from the jaws of evil. But in the meantime He put man out of the Garden and into a world of futility to put limitations and controls over him until the coming of the Messiah.

      He subjected creation to futility but in hope that, through that futile creation, He could still work His will which was ultimately the perfection of man and creation. Romans 8:20-22 states: “For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now”. God confirmed this by what he said to the serpent in the Garden. I will put “ENMITY Between you [Satan] and the woman [Israel or Mary], And between your [Satan’s seed] and her [the woman’s seed Christ]. He [Christ] shall bruise [crush] you on the head, And you [Satan] shall bruise him on the heel” (Gen 3:15). Therefore God, at the point of Creation, prophesied the defeat of Satan through the seed of the woman—Christ.

      Enmity is positive, active, and typically mutual hatred or ill will-- syn enmity, hostility, antipathy, antagonism, animosity, rancor, animus meaning deep-seated dislike or ill will. enmity suggests positive hatred which may be open or concealed 〈an unspoken enmity) (Merriam-Webster, Inc: Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary. Eleventh ed. Springfield, Mass. Merriam-Webster, Inc., 2003). Through this enmity God promises the demise of Satan by being crushed by the seed of the woman-- Christ. Satan will put up a fight but will render a non fatal blow to Christ by biting His heel. So when God speaks of a creation it is subjected to futility but in hope this hope, expressed in Genesis.

      Futility was God’s way of tempering the evil that could otherwise be generated by a creation who would live forever in sin. He introduced death, limiting man’s lifetime and his ability to live forever in sin. He limited man in his evil endeavors by not allowing him to realize his dreams and aspirations connected with evil. So God, by making everything futile, had to rework His original plan and accomplish it through a creation ruled by principles of good and evil that Adam and Eve had unleashed by their disobedience. In His great omnipotence he chose to complete His plan through the same fragile instruments who caused the problem in the first place--man. He had to, in a sense, recreate mankind in the form of Sons of God who would themselves release creation from this divinely imposed futile state into a state of perfection and fulfillment He called it the Kingdom of God. So for the past eons this has been, and still is His purpose. How He has set about to complete it, through the maze of Satanically imposed evil, is a fascinating journey we will address here.

      Following the Garden, God set about to create a nation on the earth who would not be subject to the perversion around them. He set about creating a people who were His own, different from all other nations and religions on the earth and for that matter that universe. This nation would eventually become Israel (meaning “struggle with God”) and He would use them to restore Earth to a state of Perfection through great adversary and suffering. They would defeat the ”adversary” (Satan) and create the atmosphere for the return of Jesus Christ, the Lord and Messiah. God the father Himself would send His precious Son to earth to forgive the sins of his people and destroy the works of the devil. You may call this the long way around because a simple act of obedience in the garden would have made all this unnecessary but God in His infinite love, mercy and righteousness had a plan to bring man into a Paradise, despite what happened in Eden and called it the Kingdom of God.

      A Special Nation for Himself

      God’s purpose at all times during earthly history has been to set up a righteous nation set aside for Himself alone. Israel is and was to be His special people He could rule, love and bless. Although ancient Israel failed to live up to that calling, spiritual Israel under Christ’s New Covenant will be those who will walk perfectly in His word (Hebrews 8:7-13; Jeremiah 31:33 et seq). This spiritual nation will be called the Kingdom of God and will be an eternal Kingdom (2 Peter 1:11). As Christ told us to pray: “[The

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