Befuddled by religious confusion, many caring people ask: If God is a God of love and mercy, why does He allow little children to starve to death in Africa? Why are children beaten, brutally murdered, kidnapped and sexually abused? Why do young children have their lives cut short by cancer and other diseases? Why do crime, greed, hatred, poverty, selfishness and violence have an iron grip on our world?
What about you? Are you in a fog about God? Maybe some of the horrible examples mentioned above have happened in your life. If so, have you questioned God’s good nature, love and mercy? Because of the evil in this world, or because some heart-rending tragedy has happened in your life, do you doubt God’s existence or believe that somehow God is against you? Do you think God is unfair? Do God’s actions in history confuse you?
Let’s understand God and the purpose He is working out in your life and mine.
Enter God’s Firstfruits
“And so God closed up the tree of life. That is, He made it inaccessible to man unless God Himself offered it. Unless God had a reason for choosing someone and giving it to them, no one had access to the tree of life from that time on,” Mr. Armstrong stressed in his sermon. On the surface this may seem quite negative. Actually God is working out an awesome plan demonstrating His supreme intelligence and unmatched power.
Since Adam’s tragic decision, God has called and worked with an exceedingly small number of men and women who dedicated their lives to living God’s way. Some of them are listed in Hebrews 11. Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham and Sarah are some of the most familiar examples of faith. Mr. Armstrong emphasized that God’s chosen were called to “special service preparatory for the Kingdom of God.” These men and women did what Adam failed to do: They rejected, resisted and overcame Satan and his ways, and followed the ways of God’s spiritual law. These saints endured incredible opposition and persecution from Satan’s world (verses 35-38).
Yet through their endurance to the end (Matthew 24:13) of their lives, God was able to build His holy, righteous character in them. These men and women have qualified to rule with Christ in His Kingdom when He returns to replace Satan (Revelation 20:4). In Bible language, these saints are called firstfruits (James 1:18). The term is borrowed from the late spring harvest season of ancient Israel. This season ended annually with a harvest festival known as the feast of firstfruits, or the feast of weeks.
This harvest festival takes place seven weeks from the weekly Sabbath occurring within the Days of Unleavened Bread and is always celebrated on a Sunday (Leviticus 23:10‑21). In the New Testament this festival is called Pentecost, which means count fifty. Pentecost is always 50 days from the aforementioned weekly Sabbath kept during the Days of Unleavened Bread. Spiritually this festival celebrates the work God is doing through His small firstfruits harvest, or Christ’s Church today. It is the firstfruits who are commissioned to spread God’s message into Satan’s world, even though most will not listen.
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