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In my book, God’s Plan for Heaven, Eternity and the Universe Explained, I show that God’s ultimate goal is to have a wife, which is all born-again believers. We are now the “bride” of Christ, and following the rapture and our 7-year wedding ceremony, we become the Wife of Christ. In Hosea 2:16, God says, “In that day – this is the Lord’s declaration – you will call me ‘my Husband.’” And verse 19 says, “I will take you to be my wife forever.” (Scripture from HCSB version)
You can actually reduce God’s plan to 8 words – GOD WANTS A WIFE FROM THE HUMAN RACE! When you look at God’s plan, it is all about Him wanting a Wife for Himself. The moment He created His first angel, the ball started rolling to accomplish His plan. Let’s examine how and why He does this, and it all begins “before” He creates “anything.” Here is why:
God is a Triune God consisting of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; yet, He is still ONE God. We know God has an incredible three-in-one Divine love Relationship “within” Himself, still being One God. When we look at God as only a Three-In-One “combined” One God, we can see that three-in-one “One God” is “ALONE,” at least, until He begins the creation of His sentient beings of angels and human beings. Before He does that, do you think One God is “lonely”? Maybe. It appears He is since He starts creating new relationships for Himself. He knows how incredible love is within His own Relationship, thus, He creates His angels to not only have this love relationship with Himself but also with each other, just like He later does with the human race.
It appears that the main role for God’s angels is to eventually serve mankind when God creates us. This is what they do throughout the whole Bible, mainly through Spiritual warfare. He obviously, knows one-third of His angels will sin and that He will then create a universe for His goal of finding a God Wife for Himself through a fallen human race.
What God does for the human race is what He also does for Himself. Let me explain. God created Adam, and then He created Adam’s wife, Eve, FROM ADAM. It is a two-become-one husband/wife love relationship. He later does the same thing for “Himself” with the born-again church human race. He creates His Church Wife FROM HIMSELF through the Holy Spirit in a two-become-one Husband/Wife love Relationship just like He did with Adam and Eve.
We already know that God’s created sentient beings, angels and humans, have free will and CAN SIN with that free will. There is “no way” God would ever have a God Wife who CAN SIN. That is why He connects His church to Himself through the Holy Spirit so that we can “now” become a two-become-one Wife “PART OF GOD” who has free will but will “never” sin, just as God will “never” sin. There is only ONE WAY to have free will and NEVER sin with it, and that’s by being God or being connected to God.
Being that we now know God’s plan is to have a Wife, it is important to look at how God “sees” the role of a husband and wife in a marriage relationship. I will capitalize the word Wife since any “connection” to God should be capitalized, in my opinion.
He explains this in Ephesians 5:22-32. Many of us are already familiar with these verses, and some of them can be controversial when dealing with human husbands and wives with a “sin nature.” For example, wives having to submit to their husbands bothers many women. Nevertheless, God shows us in these verses how HE and His Wife do marriage together.
I am going to quote Ephesians 5:22-32, and to view these verses from God’s perspective, I will add (God Husband) for husbands and (Church Wife) for wives to represent God Husband and God Wife in eternity. We will be looking at how God wants the role of husbands on earth to be the same as His role to His Wife in eternity, and He wants the role of wives on earth to be the same as His Wife in eternity. Doing it this way allows us to see both at the same time.
Ephesians 5:22-32 (HCSB) “Wives (Church Wife), submit to your own husbands (God Husband) as to the Lord, for the husband (God Husband) is the head of the wife (Church Wife) as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of the body (God saved us). Now as the church (Church Wife) submits to Christ (God Husband), so wives (Church Wife) are to submit to their husbands (God Husband) in everything.
“Husbands (God Husband), love your wives (God Wife) just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. He did this to present the church (God Wife) to Himself (God Husband) in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. In the same way, husbands (God Husband) are to love their wives (God Wife) as their own bodies. He (God Husband) who loves his wife (God Wife) loves Himself. For no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ (God Husband) does for the church (Church Wife), since we are members of His body.
“For this reason a man (God Husband) will leave his father and mother (God left heaven) and be joined to his wife (Church Wife), and the two will become one flesh (Church Wife being joined to Husband God through the Holy Spirit). This mystery is PROFOUND, but I am talking about Christ (God Husband) and the church (Church Wife). To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife (God Wife) as Himself (God Husband), and the wife (Church Wife) is to respect her husband (God Husband).
When we look at these words from the standpoint of God and His Church in eternity, it is clear God is showing us how our Wife responsibility will be with Him, and His Husband responsibility will be with us. And here is the coolest part: after our wedding, it appears we will be on an eternal “honeymoon.”
But last, and certainly not least, let’s go MUCH deeper. What I am about to say now may seem “controversial” to many, but when you analyze what it is, you will see that it lines up “perfectly” with scripture.
We know the Bible tells us that mankind is made in God’s image. Have you noticed how the Bible does “not” say angels are made in God’s image? Why is that? What is God’s image? We know God is Spirit, and we, too, are spiritual beings; thus, we can consider ourselves made in God’s image from a spiritual standpoint. However, an image, in this case, is an “exact replication or duplication” of God. God’s image is a lot more than just spiritual. It is a “duplication” of God Himself, as you are about to see.
God created a wife for Adam, and He has now created a Wife for Himself. Adam is human. God made Adam’s wife from Adam, and she is connected to or a part of Adam since she’s also human. Adam, as husband, is the head of their relationship. God has made His Wife also from Himself through the Holy Spirit, and we, too, are connected to and a part of God. God wants His Wife to be an “equal” to Himself in the same way Adam’s wife is his equal. Both have a husband/wife relationship. God is the Husband Head-of-His Wife relationship. He “LOVES” us, and we are to submit to Him with “RESPECT,” as described in Ephesians 5:22-32 above.
We know we are connected to God through His Holy Spirit, but how does that work with us being connected to God? Connected how? How much are we connected to God? Is it 1 percent, 10 percent, 50 percent? The answer is we are connected to God in a WIFE to HUSBAND God relationship. We are His bride now and will become His Wife following our 7-year wedding ceremony when the rapture occurs.
How do we know all of this is true? Easy. All of this is what God has “said He wants” in His Word-of-God Bible, and God always gets what He wants. But it is a lot more than what God “SAYS” He wants. It is what God has “DONE” that proves it. This is the way everything ENDS! The Bible ends with no more human race and no more sin. We live in a new heavens on a new earth in “eternity” as God’s Wife, and the ONLY thing we know beyond that is God tells us that the things He has in store for us we cannot even begin to imagine now.
At this point in the Bible, the world would say “The End.” Born-again believers would say “THE BEGINNING.”
Maranatha, Lord Jesus
David Cogburn
The post Why and How God Desires Marriage for Himself :: By Dave Cogburn appeared first on Rapture Ready.
Anonymous
Link Hudson I found it in Espinosa’s book but there is more to this on another read. I will find it in the Apostolic Faith in due time
“[Seymour] ….appointed Julia Hutchins, Lucy Farrow, and Lucy Leatherman to lead missionary teams to Africa and the Middle East. However, by 1907 Seymour’s views began to change. The shift was driven by tensions that surfaced after Frank Crawford, Florence’s husband, informed Seymour that she was using her divine calling to justify not taking care of her family. As a result, Frank and their daughter Mildrid were left to fend for themselves—even when their daughter was sick and had a broken arm. He tried to bring about reconciliation, but was unsuccessful, Frank claims. As a result, he filed for divorce!
Seymour was genuinely divided about what to do. He had taught that a divorced person could remarry and remain in the ministry provided that they were not the cause of the divorce, did everything possible to maintain a biblical marriage, and met all of the biblical qualifications for the ministry. The straw that broke the camel’s back was Frank’s decision to divorce Florence because of “abandonment.”
Seymour now had a divorced woman on his pastoral staff—and one accused of abandoning their family to work in his Azusa Street Revival ministry. He knew that the holiness and reputation of the revival was at stake. After carefully restudying the Bible’s teaching on marriage, divorce, and remarriage, Seymour concluded that a divorced person could not remarry if their spouse was still alive, because according to the Bible this forced both parties to commit adultery since God did not recognize the dissolution of the first marriage.”
William J. Seymour and the Origins of Global Pentecostalism: A Biography and Documentary History 9780822376873
Gastón Espinosa With a Foreword by Harvey Cox
Duke University Press Durham and London 2014
© 2014 Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper ∞ Text designed by Chris Crochetière Typeset in Galliard and Trade Gothic type by BW&A Books, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data William J. Seymour and the origins of global Pentecostalism : a biography and documentary history / Gastón Espinosa, ed. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn 978–0–8223–5628–8 (cloth : alk. paper) isbn 978–0–8223–5635–6 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Seymour, William Joseph, 1870–1922. 2. Pentecostalism. 3. Pentecostals—Biography. 4. Pentecostal Churches—Clergy—Biography. I. Espinosa, Gastón. bx8762.z8s49 2014 289.9’4092–dc23 [B] 2013048705 Cover photos, top: William J. Seymour, author’s collection; bottom: Azusa Street Mission, used by permission of Flower Pentecostal Heritage Center.
This book is dedicated to Birgit Dickerman—“a Mother in Israel” —Judges 5:7
but it appears since your initial Azusa hypothesis has now failed you have hidden in refusal to continues this wonderfully constructed discussion ??? #ohWell
Anonymous
Oscar Valdez Bishop Bernie L Wade David Bundy this is Espinosa’s book quote I found for Link Hudson I am pretty certain there was more to it – especially from ppl who actually read Azusa’s paper and knew what they were talking about on the subject of early Pentecostals and divorce
Anonymous
it is a FACT John Mushenhouse and Philip Williams granny knew this well EARLY AZUSA Pentecostals almost always refused to get married knowing from the signs following AZUSA Jesus was coming soon and there was no time for marriage – some were married of course BUT after the earthquake prophecy fulfilled in San Fran Joseph D. Absher none of them wanted to marry – the 100 yr prophecy followed Bishop Bernie L Wade Roscoe Barnes III BUT when ol William married it was a BIG deal for ALL the missionaries he had sent around the world – his wife pastor was NOT a thing ever Peter Vandever
Anonymous
Troy Day sadly many played married from some of the gossip I’ve heard.
Anonymous
Troy Day yeah, I was raised amongst these Pentecostals teaching celibacy as necessary for being an overcomer. No expectation of college because Armageddon was just ahead.
Anonymous
Troy Day I do don’t claim to be an expert on Azusa Street or Seymour’s writings. If it were necessary to do so to be a useful servant of Christ, then maybe I would do so. I started a thread on Seymour’s ‘traditional view’ of marriage (no divorce and remarriage even for adultery) and whether other Pentecostals used to believe that, compared with the ever widening justifications for divorce and remarriage we see today. You responded with saying he had written about a missionary passport-marriage-divorce issue as if the post I quoted didn’t exist. That turned into a secondary source asserting Seymour’s views on divorce and remaining in ministry changed as he rethought the issue after a divorcece among his co-ministers.
I don’t know why you would want to make a snide comment about me in a post like this about not having read all of Seymour’snewsletters.. Is it to contrast with yourself for having read all of them?
Anonymous
Link Hudson ???
Anonymous
Troy Day cleaned up typos above