Isr 133ff 11/27/91; Eph 1363ff; Eph 790ff; 2/5/78

DOCTRINE OF DIVINE ESSENCE (Part 2)

H. The Love of God.

1. Divine Love Related to Divine Essence.

a. God lives eternally and infinitely. God does not possess life as we do; He is life. God is infinite, eternal, unchangeable, unending life.

b. Part of God’s life is love. Any love that comes from the integrity of God is perfect love.

c. Love belongs eternally and coequally to each person of the Trinity—God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

d. 2 Thes 3:5, “And may the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the endurance [perseverance] of Christ.”

(1) To understand God’s love helps us to appreciate and understand what is available to us under the wisdom and power of God by way of love in the human race—love for God as personal love, impersonal love for all mankind, and the personal love for special individuals.

(2) The only way you will ever understand God’s love is to understand the pertinent Scriptures. This becomes the basis for the utilization of faith-rest mechanics.

(3) It is possible through the power of God to come to the place in our lives where we have the most fantastic happiness, tranquility, and contentment, and at the same time to have this fantastic love for God.

e. Jude 21, “Guard yourselves in the love of God.” The only guard for your life is in the love of God.

f. Divine love is compatible with all the other attributes of God. Divine love is a manifestation of all of the attributes of God.

(1) God is sovereign. Therefore, His love is self-motivated and compatible with the divine decrees and all other divine decisions in eternity past, time, and in eternity future.

(2) God is eternal. Therefore, God’s love exists eternally unsustained by Himself or any other source. There never was a time when God was not love. This love is unsustained by God or any other source, in contrast to human love which must be sustained by something. God’s love never had a beginning, but has always existed. Because God is eternal, He gives His divine love whether there is an occasion or not. This idea is almost beyond our grasp, it is so phenomenal. God does not have to have an object for His love to exist, although we as creatures do. Capacity for love is not related to an object and does not require an object. When an object does appear, capacity for love is ready for the relationship because of integrity and honor.

(3) Since God is holy and perfect integrity, the love of God possesses perfect integrity which includes incorruptible justice and immutable righteousness. This means that the love of God is also perfect and eternal virtue.

(4) God is immutable and unchangeable. Therefore, His divine love is unchangeable. It cannot be corrupted, frustrated, changed, or compromised by man’s failures, flaws, sins, human good, evil, or any other function of the sin nature. God has always had maximum love. Because God is immutable, His love cannot vacillate or change. This means that God’s love does not increase or decrease, improve or decline. Divine love remains the same and is always consistent with the other divine attributes. We do not earn or deserve the love of God; this is legalism. God’s love is never disappointed, frustrated, or distracted.

(5) God is omniscient. Therefore, divine love always functions in a rational manner, devoid of either emotional content or any other system of irrationality. Divine knowledge and omniscience does not cancel or change God’s love. God knows every thought that every person ever had throughout history. Many of the thoughts about God are not kind, but that doesn’t change God at all. God’s love doesn’t stop and turn away because someone insults or blasphemes Him. You don’t have the power or ability to change God’s love, because His love is perfect. Because God foreknew human failure, He did not cancel His love for those who fail. God does not condone sin, but He doesn’t stop loving the sinner. God does not condone legalism or human good, but he doesn’t stop loving the legalist and the self-righteous jackass who is full of his own self-importance. God has never canceled His love for His creatures, even though His creatures have other ideas about Him. (6) God is truth and veracity. Therefore, divine love is revealed and integrated into every category of Bible doctrine. Bible doctrine is the thinking or mind of Jesus Christ. Therefore, divine love is rooted in every form of knowledge which resides in His perfect, eternal, and absolute being.

(7) God is infinite. Therefore, all members of the Trinity are without boundary or limitation. God unites in Himself those perfections which belong to His substance, His person, and His essence, and this includes divine love.

g. By understanding God’s revelation to us about love, we can become masters of love rather than slaves to love.

2. Certain applications are made by faith as we begin to understand God’s love.

a. Since divine integrity is maintained by the sovereignty of God plus His incorruptible, immutable, infinite, unchanging virtue, God’s love can never be compromised or its capacity diminished or limited. Man’s sinfulness and failure cannot, and does not, change or effect God’s perfect, eternal, immutable love for us. Therefore, even when we are under divine discipline, it says, “Whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and skins alive with a whip every son whom He receives.” Even the discipline we receive is from His love. Even God’s pre-knowledge in eternity past of our sins and failures cannot cancel or diminish divine love.

b. Because God is perfect and absolute righteousness and integrity, His divine love cannot be prejudice or unfair; it is never discriminatory. Because God is holy, His love can only function in perfect virtue and integrity.

c. The combination of God’s perfect righteousness and immutability indicates that divine love is eternally consistent and revealed in the doctrinal content of the Scripture. This is illustrated by the salvation work of Christ on the Cross. Our Lord was judged for the sins of the world without any compromise of divine essence. All of us in the human race are benefitted by the fact that Jesus Christ was judged for our sins, and this is a demonstration of the love of God the Father. The issue in eternal salvation is faith because the love of God has provided all of the salvation work.

d. The combination of God’s omniscience and immutability means that God’s love can never be complicated by ignorance, silliness, or absurdities. God’s immutability means that divine love cannot change. Therefore, it does improve, decline, increase or decrease. The rejection of God’s love never results in any form of sinful or evil reaction from God. God’s love does not change. Divine love is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Divine love connected with the justice of God performs punitive action, but this does not change the love behind that punitive action.

e. The combination of God’s righteousness, justice, and love demands that we receive logistical grace, that we be kept alive whether we are winners or losers, that we receive the execution of divine discipline at certain points, and that we receive blessing at certain points. God blesses us on the basis of the fact we have His righteousness; we can never earn or deserve any blessing from God. All blessing goes from the justice of God to the righteousness of God. Punitive action does not imply any change in God’s love.

f. Because God is veracity and truth, divine love has perfect and eternal capacity which cannot be diminished or changed by any failure or flaw of an angelic or human creature. Divine love has perfect capacity for love. Human love must also have capacity for love, and capacity for love comes from the laws of divine establishment for the unbeliever and Bible doctrine for the believer.

g. Because God is infinite, He cannot be complicated with ignorance. The greatest complication in the Christian way of life is ignorance of Bible doctrine. Knowledge of doctrine is the whole issue in the Christian life, not your Christian service or works. Grace means you cannot work for anything. Bible doctrine is far more important than Christian service, because no Christian service counts unless it is divine good, and the only divine good comes from the motivation of the filling of the Spirit and Bible doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness.

h. Because God is immutable, His divine love cannot change. Because God foreknew every human sin and failure, it did not change, cancel, or diminish His love for us.

3. Characteristics of Divine Love.

a. Since God is love, always has been love, and always will be love, God does not fall in love, nor can God’s love be corrupted, compromised, or bribed by human works.

b. This means that God’s love does not increase or diminish, and it cannot be changed by our sin, failure, evil, legalism, self-righteous arrogance, or instability in all the ways mankind can be unstable. This means that God’s love is never frustrated, disappointed, or distracted.

c. God’s love is not sustained by attraction, rapport, or by any category of human merit or works, and not by any system of worthiness. In other words, God cannot be bought with good behavior.

d. Neither human good, morality, self-righteousness, or any system of Christian works attracts God to the believer.

e. Divine love is attracted to divine righteousness, because divine righteousness means incorruptible and perfect virtue. The believer possesses divine righteousness and therefore becomes the object of God’s personal love.

(1) As unbelievers, we are spiritually dead and the recipients of God’s impersonal love.

(2) But once we believe in Christ and receive the imputation of divine righteousness, personal love gravitates to divine righteousness so that now God loves us personally.

f. Since divine love is a part of the essence of God, God cannot be anything less than fair in the function of His love.

g. Because God is perfect virtue, His love is totally devoid of sin, human good, evil, and altruism. God’s love is free from hypocrisy, flattery, or any patronizing influence of legalism.

4. There are three categories of divine love.

a. Category one is God’s personal divine love. All three persons in the Trinity love the perfect righteousness of the other two members of the Trinity, since all three possess coinfinite, coequal, and coeternal righteousness. So God’s personal love is always directed toward perfect righteousness. In personal love, the virtue of the object is emphasized.

b. Category two is God’s love for His own righteousness, called divine self-esteem. God never feels threatened by what any creature does because He has perfect divine self-esteem. God the Father loves His own righteousness, God the Son loves His own righteousness, and God the Holy Spirit loves His own righteousness.

c. Category three is God’s impersonal love toward creatures. Impersonal love emphasizes the virtue of the subject, here being the perfect justice and righteousness of God. Since all the virtue is in the subject, God, the character of the object is of no consequence.

(1) God’s impersonal love is expressed in Jn 3:16, “For God loved the world so much that He gave His Son, the uniquely-born One, that whosoever believes in Him shall never perish but have eternal life.”

(2) Rom 5:8, “God demonstrated His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died as a substitute for us.”

(3) These verses say that God loved us as sinners and spiritually dead persons, so they refer to impersonal love.

5. Divine Personal Love.

a. Divine personal love emphasizes the perfection of the object. The object of divine personal love is divine perfect righteousness. Divine personal love is defined as divine love being attracted to divine righteousness.

b. Each person of the Trinity possesses divine personal love. Each person of the Trinity directs His personal love toward other persons in the Godhead who possess coequal and coeternal righteousness.

c. Believers are the recipients of divine personal love because they have the perfect righteousness of God. Since the Father’s righteousness is imputed to the believer at the moment of salvation, and since the Son’s righteousness is shared through the baptism of the Spirit, believers in the Church Age have a double portion of God’s righteousness. This is a part of being royal family.

d. The possession of divine righteousness means three things.

(1) Justification at the moment of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

(2) The believer is the object of God’s personal love after salvation.

(3) The believer is blessed and sustained through logistical grace which flows from the justice of God to the indwelling righteousness of God.

e. Divine love is attracted to divine righteousness. God cannot love us personally until we are saved and have His righteousness. This becomes the pattern for understanding personal love in the human race.

6. Divine Self-Esteem as Our Pattern.

a. Divine self-esteem is God’s love directed toward His own perfect righteousness. It is important to understand since God has provided for the believer a system of spiritual self-esteem.

b. Each member of the Trinity has perfect eternal righteousness, and therefore each person in the Trinity has divine self-esteem directed toward His own righteousness. No person in the Godhead ever feels threatened by another person in the Trinity. Divine self-esteem means that no person in the Godhead ever feels threatened by any form of creature failure, sin, or rebellion.

c. Divine self-esteem is the pattern for spiritual self-esteem, the first stage of spiritual adulthood in the royal family of God.

7. Divine Impersonal Love as Our Pattern.

a. Impersonal love always emphasizes the virtue, honor, and integrity of the subject.

b. In the case of God, He is perfect and eternal righteousness. Therefore, under the principle of impersonal love, God loves both fallen angels and unbelievers in the human race because of who and what He is, not because of who and what we are. God loves the spiritually dead person, who has no merit at all. Being able to come to God for salvation through faith in Christ does not depend on what kind of a life you are living.

c. God’s impersonal love depends upon who and what God is, never upon who and what mankind is.

d. Divine impersonal love is directed toward totally unworthy creatures, both fallen angels and homo sapiens in spiritual death.

e. Divine impersonal love is the pattern for impersonal love as a problem-solving device in the protocol plan.

f. Because God is perfect integrity, having the justice and righteousness which belong to divine holiness, divine love is devoid of unfairness, prejudice, and discrimination toward members of the human race who are under spiritual death. Spiritual death means total depravity, total separation from God, and total inability to do anything about it.

g. Therefore, God has to initiate love toward us. God loves both fallen angels and homo sapiens under spiritual death through the function of His impersonal love. That plus His divine self-esteem motivates the provision of our so-great salvation.

h. Rom 3:21-28, “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the Law and the Prophets [Old Testament], that is, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe (for there is no distinction between Jew and Gentile, for all have sinned and failed to attain the glory of God), who are justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; whom God has displayed publicly by His blood as the Mercy Seat through faith. This was a demonstration of His righteousness, because of the passing over of previously committed sins by the delay in judgment from God; for a demonstration of His righteousness at the present time in order that He might be righteous and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Where then is boasting? It is excluded. By what principle? That of works? Definitely not, but by the principle of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the Law.”

8. Scriptural Documentation for Divine Love.

a. Jn 3:16 teaches God the Father’s impersonal love for us. “For God loved the world so much [impersonal love for all mankind in the status of real spiritual death] that He gave His Son [deity of Christ], the uniquely-born One [humanity of Christ], that everyone who believes in Him [faith + nothing] shall never perish but have eternal life.” This verse teaches God’s love toward us in two ways.

(1) God gave us eternal life at the moment of salvation.

(2) God gave us eternal security at the moment of salvation.

b. Rom 5:8 teaches our Lord’s impersonal love for us. “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, that while we were yet sinners [objects of His divine impersonal love], Christ died as a substitute for us.”

c. 1 Jn 4:9-10, “By this, the love of God [impersonal love for all mankind] was manifest in our case, because God has sent His unique Son into the world in order that through Him we might live. By this, divine love exists [impersonal love], not because we have loved God, but because He has loved us and sent His Son to be a propitiation for our sins.”

d. 1 Pet 3:18, “Because Christ also died once as a substitute for our sins, the Righteous One [impeccability of the humanity of Christ] as a substitute for the unrighteous ones, but made alive by means of the Spirit [resurrection].”

e. Eph 1:5 documents divine personal love. “By means of love [God’s personal love], He has predestined us for the purpose of adoption to Himself through Jesus Christ, on the basis of the grace purpose of His will.”

f. Eph 2:4, “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He has loved us.”

g. Eph 2:7, “That He might show us in the coming ages [Millennium and eternal state] the surpassing riches of His grace in generosity toward us in Christ.” This generosity is a manifestation of God’s personal love.

h. Eph 2:10, “For we are His creation [new spiritual species], having been created in Christ Jesus for good of intrinsic value achievements, that we should walk by means of them.” This walk does not occur until we understand the three categories of God’s love.

I. The Life and Personality of God.

1. The Eternal Life of God.

a. God lives. Jer 10:10, “The Lord is the true God, the living God, the everlasting king. At His wrath the earth quakes, and the nations cannot endure His indignation.”

b. God does not possess life; God is life. 1 Thes 1:9, “You have turned from idols to serve the living and true God.”

c. Each member of the Trinity has eternal life, infinite life, and spiritual life.

(1) The eternal life of God is imparted to the believer through Jesus Christ as the only Savior.

(a) Jn 6:47, “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has eternal life.”

(b) 1 Jn 5:11-12, “This is His deposition—God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has [eternal] life; he who does not have the Son does not have this life.”

© The imputation of eternal life is one of the forty things that God does for any person at the moment of faith in Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit creates in us a human spirit as the target for the imputation of eternal life. The life we receive at physical birth is human life or soul life. Soul life is created and imputed at birth. Eternal life is given to us at the new birth. This is why we must be born again. The unbeliever does not have the life of God; he has a life created by God—soul life. Jn 3:36, “He who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who does not believe shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him.” Soul life means the human soul lives forever. But the issue is where the soul will reside forever, either heaven or hell.

(2) God is spiritual life. Jn 4:24, “God is a spirit. And they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in doctrine.” This is immaterial and invisible but real life. God is not only eternal life, but He is also spiritual life. There is no spiritual life until a person believes in Christ. If we have eternal life at the moment of salvation, we have spiritual life through cognition and inculcation of Bible doctrine. Spiritual life depends on Bible doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness.

(3) In eternity, we will understand to a far greater degree than we do now that God is infinite life.

2. The Personality of God.

a. God has always had personality. His personality is related to His eternal life.

b. God is a person, Ex 3:14. As such, He possesses mentality, self-consciousness, and self-determination.

c. God recognizes Himself as a person. As such, He always functions in a rational manner. God is not silly or absurd.

d. God is, to an absolute degree, all that constitutes personality.

e. God knows Himself to be beyond any comparison with creatures. As a part of His divine self-esteem, God never feels threatened by any creature or situation.

f. God is infinite, without boundary or limitation. He unites in Himself those perfections which belong to His life and to His person. Therefore, to an absolute degree, God is the ultimate in personality.

g. God recognizes His own glory and claims His glory in the interest of absolute truth. Knowledge is always a part of the personality of anyone. Because God knows everything and His knowledge is absolute, it is a part of His personality, and has a great deal to do with His confidence and with many of the mandates directed toward us.

h. God exists eternally, unsustained by Himself or any other source.

i. God is the cause of all existence outside of Himself.

j. Scripture.

(1) Isa 44:6, “Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, even the redeemer, the Lord of the armies, `I am the first and the last; there is no God beside Me.’”

(2) Isa 45:5-6, “I am the Lord, and there is no other; beside Me there is no god that men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one beside Me; I am the Lord and there is no other.”

(3) Deut 6:4, “Hear O Israel! Jesus Christ is our God; Jesus Christ is unique.”

(4) 1 Tim 1:17, “Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, to Him be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.”

3. The Eternity of God.

a. The term “eternity” as applied to God means that God has always existed; there never was a time when God did not exists. God has no beginning and no end. (We as believers have a beginning at the moment we trust in Christ, but we have no end.)

b. God is not subject to time. God is the cause of time, Deut 32:40; Ps 90:2, 102:27; Eph 1:4. God invented time so we would have a frame of reference. Time is designed for man’s convenience for man to orient to life in the simplest possible way.

c. Though without substance, both time and space are objects of God’s creation. Only invisible God could create something that is invisible and yet real.

d. God is not in time, but time is in God. God created the universe on which time and space are constructed. God transcends all creation.

e. Time, which is finite, is both succession and duration, while eternity, which is infinite, may be regarded by us as duration only. The only eternity in time is the gospel by which we have eternal life.

f. Time is a line of procedure. Eternity is a circle reaching into infinity.

g. God may conform to time if He chooses, but God is not subject to time; time is subject to God.

h. God is not subject to space; space is subject to God.

i. God could not be more or less than He is. God is the cause of space.

j. In relation to space, God is said to be immanent and transcendent.

(1) Omnipresence describes space in relationship to God.

(2) Immensity describes God in relationship to space.

(3) Immanence describes the indwelling presence of God in the universe.

(4) Transcendence means that God is prior to and exalted above the universe which He created.

k. God is perfect in character, intellect, and affection. God speaks the truth because God is the truth. God does not hold the truth as being something acquired, because God is truth from all eternity past. In God, all truth and every form of knowledge dwells in absolute form.

4. Man’s Point of Reference to the Personality of God.

a. God’s personality has a reference point. Before the fall of man, the reference point was love, because man was in a state of perfection. The only issue faced by the volition of his soul was obedience versus disobedience.

b. Once man disobeyed, his point of reference with God changed from the love of God to the justice of God.

c. God has provided through His justice either condemnation or blessing. We can choose either one. Negative volition brings condemnation; positive volition brings blessing.

d. God is perfect in His integrity and virtue. The virtue of God is not maintained by His will, but is His eternal and unchanging self.

e. God is invisible, personal, a living spirit, self-existent, eternal, and unchanging.

f. Intellectually, God is omniscient, wise, and faithful.

5. Distinctions Regarding God’s Attributes.

a. While distinction is made regarding the attributes of God, they are all part of the same divine being without conflict or destruction of the divine being. Are the attributes of your life in conflict? We have human attributes or flaws that are self-destructive, but God does not have any attribute which is self-destructive.

b. The attributes of God function as a unified whole without inconsistency or conflict. Human personality is characterized by inconsistency and inner conflict. The life and personality of God contain no inconsistencies and no conflicts in the possession of these eternal and infinite perfect attributes. This means contentment, tranquility, happiness, no inner conflicts.

c. While all three persons of the Godhead possess to the same degree these attributes, they are never in conflict, nor do they produce any schism in either God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit.

d. God is eternal and omnipresent. Therefore, God’s life is from within Himself. It is not anything that has a beginning in either space or time. God has no beginning and no period of growth. God is not young or old. God does not have a beginning or an end.

e. Although God is not limited by space or by time, or by the succession of events in time, He created all these things for our benefit and our frame of reference.

f. God sustains the changing realm of succeeding events and is conscious of every movement and every action in history. This reached its peak at the point of the Cross. Rom 5:8, “God demonstrated His love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died as a substitute for us.” This is the ultimate in the expression and function of God’s personality.

g. It is worth knowing about God’s life and personality, because He has found a way to share it with us, beginning with eternal life, and then in making this life meaningful and wonderful.

J. The Omnipresence of God.

1. Definition.

a. God fills space and time with His presence, sustains it, and gives it purpose and value. God sustains the changing realm of succeeding events and is conscious of every movement and every action of every person in history.

b. God is omnipresent and ubiquitous. He is the Lord of both time and history. Omnipresence relates to the fact that Jesus Christ controls history. Therefore, in time God’s purpose and plans are fulfilled. God does not negate time but fulfills it.

c. God is personally present everywhere. The whole of God is in every place.

d. God, in the total of His essence, is without diffusion, expansion, multiplication, division, and He penetrates and fills the entire universe. This is the subject of many passages of Scripture, Ps 139:7-8, 18; Jer 23:23-24; Acts 17:27.

e. God is ever present. He is not limited by space or time; He invented both of them and He is transcendent or above them. Of course, He recognizes space and time in our function.

2. Omnipresence Related to Space.

a. God is the cause of space; He invented space.

b. In relationship to space, God is immanent and transcendent.

(1) Immanence means that God indwells space.

(2) Transcendence means that God is prior to, exalted above, and the inventor of space.

c. The fact that God is both immanent and transcendent is taught in Jer 23:23-24 and Acts 17:27.

d. Omnipresence is the word which expresses the fact that heaven is God’s throne and the earth is God’s footstool, Deut 4:39; Isa 66:1.

e. Omnipresence is expressed in the fact that heaven cannot contain God, that He is actually far, far greater than heaven, 1 Ki 8:27; Acts 17:24.

f. Omnipresence includes the concept of locality. God is free to be local, as He was on the mountain with Moses or as the Shekinah glory in the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle.

g. Omnipresence also means God is the cause of space and indwells every bit of space.

h. Omnipresence is not pantheism, since pantheism denies the existence of the life and personality of God. Pantheism says God is in every object; it is a false doctrine.

i. God is present at all times, in all places, creating and sustaining both time and space. So not only is God the Son the creator of time and space, but He also maintains them. While the humanity of Christ was a baby in a cradle, the deity of Christ was maintaining time and space.

j. God is eternal and omnipresent. Therefore, God’s life is from within Himself; it has neither beginning nor end.

k. Therefore, divine omnipresence is both in space and in time, and totally outside of, above, and superior to space and time, since God created space and time.

l. If space and time are defined in terms of boundaries, God would exceed them to the point of infinity.

m. God created space; therefore, space is subject to God. God is also in every bit of space.

K. The Omniscience or Knowledge of God.

1. Introduction.

a. There are three categories of the knowledge of God.

(1) God’s self-knowledge is God’s knowledge about God which is infinite and eternal. God knows everything about Himself.

(2) Omniscience is God’s knowledge about creation, including both the actual (what really has, is, or will happen) and the potential or possible (what could have happened).

(3) Foreknowledge is God’s knowledge about believers only; i.e., His eternal knowledge of their thoughts, motives, decisions, and actions. There never was a time in all of eternity past when God did not know everything about you—every thought you would ever have, every motive that would be formed from those thoughts, every decision you would make from thought or lack of thought (which is impulsive), and every action which results.

b. Omniscience is the input into the computer of divine decrees. Foreknowledge is the printout from that computer regarding believers only. Self-knowledge is a part of divine self-esteem.

2. Scriptural Documentation.

a. 1 Jn 3:20, “God knows all things.”

b. The omniscience of God is the subject of Ps 139.

c. Peter said in Jn 21:17, “Lord, You know all things; you know that I love You.”

d. Heb 4:13, “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.” God doesn’t have eyes. This is an anthropomorphism, using the eyes to illustrate that God sees everything. No creature is hidden from His sight because God occupies every bit of space in history.

e. God is all knowledge, 1 Sam 2:3; Job 26:6, 31:4, 34:21, 37:16, 42:2; Ps 139:1-6, 147:4; Jer 16:17; Ezek 11:5; Matt 10:29-30. So many passages about the omniscience of God are in Job, because while Job was griping and complaining, it was brought to his attention that God knew his problems. God was aware of Job’s situation, and God was not indifferent to him.

f. God is infinite wisdom and understanding. Therefore, you cannot say that no one understands you, because God understands you perfectly at all times, even better than you understand yourself. 1 Sam 16:7; Ps 44:21, 147:5; Prov 3:19, 5:21, 17:3; Isa 40:13-14; Jer 17:10, 51:15; Nah 1:7; Matt 6:18; Rom 8:27, 11:33; 1 Jn 3:20. All these passages say that infinity related to the knowledge of God means there never was a time when God didn’t know everything that is knowable about every creature and every natural phenomena.

g. God knows the end from the beginning, Isa 41:6, 42:9, 43:9, 46:10; Acts 2:23, 15:18; 1 Pet 1:2. Do not try to live a life of deceit, you life will end in the sin unto death.

h. Note that many of the passages about the knowledge of God are written by Old Testament prophets. This is because Israel was always complaining that no one understood them and that God had abandoned them. Therefore, they needed to understand, as we do, that there never was a time and never will be a time when you will have a thought, motive, or make a decision or do something asinine that God did not know about billions and billions of years ago.

3 God’s Self-Knowledge.

a. God is eternal. This means that His knowledge is eternal.

b. God is infinite. Therefore, God’s knowledge is without boundary or limitation.

c. God’s knowledge is absolute and perfect. There never was a time when God didn’t know everything that is knowable, everything that could be known.

d. God is sovereign. Therefore, His knowledge is superior and in control at all times.

(1) God never had to learn anything; God always knew it all.

(2) God has always existed in infinity, and so God has always had perfect knowledge about everything, both about Himself and the universe. That combines God’s sovereignty with His infinity and eternity.

e. Time has nothing to do with God’s knowledge, for God has always known everything. Therefore, the future is as perspicuous to God as the past. We have to learn things; God does not.

f. Therefore, all of God’s knowledge is simultaneous.

(1) There never was a time when He didn’t know everything. There never was a time that anything that is knowable in history, in prehistoric times, or in eternity past was not always known to Him.

(2) We learn as creatures; God has never had to learn anything for He has always known everything.

(3) All of God’s knowledge is simultaneous knowledge. Simultaneous knowledge means it is not subject to time.

(4) There is no limitation to the knowledge of infinite and eternal God.

g. Since God as a person possesses self-consciousness, self- determination, and absolute and simultaneous knowledge of all things, He is absolutely perfect in His knowledge.

h. God’s knowledge is never irrational. This is in contrast to many people who have knowledge about a lot of things, but are irrational, theoretical, and speculative. God’s knowledge is absolute and simultaneous in eternity past.

i. God’s knowledge is compatible with His eternal nature, His sovereign will, His integrity, and His perfection. God’s knowledge is compatible with His eternal nature and with all His other attributes.

j. God is eternally Himself, and knows Himself to be beyond comparison in His absolute and eternal knowledge of things. He never feels threatened by any blasphemy ever uttered by a creature, angelic or human.

k. Because He is immutable, God has never changed; and God’s knowledge has never changed God! God is aware of all the changes in creatures.

l. God’s knowledge is never complicated by ignorance, absurdities, or emotional reaction. Ignorance hurts us more than anything else. The soul under control of the emotion blocks out knowledge. Absurdities block out knowledge.

m. God exists eternally, and is unsustained by Himself or any other source. Therefore, His knowledge is as unalterable as He is.

n. This means that God cannot change or be inaccurate in His knowledge. Divine knowledge is absolute truth.

(1) Not everything in the Scripture is divine knowledge. Some of it is revelation about Satan, about creatures, and about history.

(2) But in the midst of all this revelation found in the Scripture, there is absolute truth in which God reveals Himself to mankind up to the point of man’s finite limitations.

o. God’s knowledge precedes both time and space. Long before time and space existed, God had total, absolute, and complete knowledge about everything that would ever be related to time and space. Therefore, God’s knowledge is not subject to time and space.

p. God’s self-knowledge preceded the divine decrees in our logical understanding. Actually, God’s self-knowledge and the divine decrees are simultaneous as far as God is concerned.

q. God’s knowledge cannot be more or less than it is. Being absolute, it never increases or decreases, shrinks or expands.

r. Each person in the Godhead has always known Himself and the other members of the Trinity. Each person in the Trinity has perfect subjective knowledge about Himself and a perfect objective knowledge about the other persons in the Godhead. God has always known Himself. There never was a time when He didn’t know Himself and the other members of the Trinity.

4. The Omniscience of God.

a. While divine self-knowledge is related to the other persons of the Godhead, omniscience is divine knowledge of all creatures, both angelic and human.

b. Under the concept of omniscience, all the decrees were simultaneously known by God and simultaneously decreed by God in eternity past. c. The true status of the divine decrees can be understood by familiarization with the omniscience of God.

d. Omniscience is distinguished from both self-knowledge and foreknowledge. Omniscience is the input into the computer of divine decrees. Foreknowledge is the output or printout regarding believers only.

e. Omniscience is defined as: God knows perfectly, eternally, and simultaneously all that is knowable about all creation, actual and possible. Actual knowledge about creatures is programmed into the computer of divine decrees, while possible activities are known by God but not programmed into the computer of divine decrees. Only reality is programmed into the decrees.

5. Omniscience and Time.

a. All of God’s knowledge is simultaneous; this is a very important principle. There never was a time when God did not know everything.

b. There is no limitation to the knowledge of eternal and infinite God. Every minute detail of both angelic and human history is completely, perfectly, and simultaneously known. Therefore, it is in God’s mind at all times. He doesn’t have to remember anything or learn anything.

c. Consequently, omniscience perceives the free as free, the necessary as necessary, together with all their causes, conditions, relations, and interactions as one indivisible system of things, every link of which is essential to the whole. God knows everything about you that is knowable, every thought you’ve ever had, your every decision, motive, and action; the same is true of billions and billions of creatures.

d. Time has nothing to do with God’s knowledge. (Time has everything to do with our knowledge. The longer we live, the more we should learn.) Therefore, the future is as well known to Him as the past.

e. The omniscience of God knows all the realities and alternatives of history for individuals, groups, tribes, and nations.

f. Both cause and effect, actual and possible, reality and potential have always been known to God. Such a knowledge almost transcends human comprehension.

g. The omniscience of God knows all the facts about every creature. Inasmuch as we are creatures, He knows all the facts about us. He knew them simultaneously in eternity past. He knew our thoughts, motives, decisions, and actions always. He also understands how they relate and interact with others in our generation.

h. The omniscience of God knows all that would have been involved in every case where a person’s decisions and actions might have been different from what they were. That means the omniscience and foreknowledge of God are related to the doctrine of the divine decrees.

6. The Computer of Divine Decrees.

a. There are two kinds of chips in the computer of divine decrees: the ROM (read-only memory) chips and the PROM (programmable read- only memory) chips.

b. In eternity past, each category was programmed. The ROM chips were programmed by the sovereignty of God. The PROM chips were programmed by the omniscience of God.

c. God invented the free will of man. Through His omniscience, He knew eternally and simultaneously how it would function in time.

d. The principle is that in human history, the sovereignty of God and the free will of man coexist by divine decree.

e. God’s knowledge of human volition actually has nothing to do with the actual function of our free will. He simply knew what we would do, what we would decide, what we would think, and what our motives would be in every given situation.

f. While the sovereignty of God programmed your ROM chip with a printout of election and predestination, He also programmed your PROM chip with your every thought, motive, decision, and action. This does not mean your actions were coerced by God; they came strictly from your free will.

(1) Election expresses the will of God for all creatures.

(2) Predestination is the provision of the will of God for all believers to execute the will, plan, and purpose of God in history.

(3) If you are believer in Jesus Christ, you have a destiny. Predestination is a part of that destiny. Predestination is what God provides for you so that you can fulfill your destiny and possess the problem-solving device of having a personal sense of destiny.

g. The ROM chips are defined as those chips into which unchanging data can be read, but into which no new data can be written. ROM chips are always programmed at the factory, analogous to eternity past. Therefore, the ROM chip is programmed by the sovereignty of God. The ROM chip contains the will of God for all creatures.

(1) Remember that it is God’s will that every member of the human race be saved. The fact that millions of people do not believe in Jesus Christ indicates that the computer of divine decrees also has PROM chips.

(2) This proves the principle that the sovereignty of God and the free will of man coexist by divine decree in human history. The ROM chip represents the sovereignty of God; the PROM chip represents the free will of man.

h. A PROM chip is a memory device containing fixed data that can be read but not altered. The PROM chip is analogous to the free will of man. The omniscience of God programs the PROM chips. Billions of years ago, there never was a time when God did not know every thought, motive, decision, and action of every person. He knew who would be winners and who would be losers.

(1) God invented free will and knew how it would function in each case.

(2) God invented the soul: “Let us make man in our own [shadow] image.” We have personality just as God has personality. Personality is a manifestation of the soul, i.e., of your self- consciousness, the function of your pre-cordal frontal lobes, the function of your volition, and the function of your emotion.

(3) While it is God’s will that everyone be saved, there are millions who remain unsaved. This indicates that God does not in any way coerce human volition.

i. In the computer of divine decrees, the sovereignty of God programs the ROM chip; the omniscience of God programs the PROM chip. The data in the PROM chip is entered after the device is manufactured.

j. God manufactured free will for both angelic and human creatures. God knew simultaneously and eternally how every human being would function in history, just as He knew how every angelic creature would function in prehistoric times.

k. Because all believers are in the protocol plan of God for the Church Age, there is a PROM chip with your name on it. The printout from your chip will read either “winner” or “loser,” depending on whether you have positive or negative volition toward the mystery doctrine of the Church Age. The printout is the actuality; its opposite was the possibility.

(1) If your printout is “winner,” that means your thoughts, motives, decisions, and actions were compatible with the protocol plan of God. It means you made daily decisions from a position of strength.

(2) If your printout is “loser,” you made daily decisions from a position of weakness, and your thoughts, motives, decisions, and actions were incompatible with the protocol plan of God.

(3) The omniscience of God can tell you what would have happened down to the end of time had your printout been different from what it actually was.

l. There is also as PROM chip which contained all the personal sins of history. The omniscience of God programmed this PROM chip; for all sin comes from human volition. The omnipotence of God called for the printout of all these sins and imputed them to Jesus Christ on the Cross, and every one of them was judged by the justice of God. This is the basis for eternal salvation, and the reason why you simply believe in Jesus Christ to have eternal life.

m. Within the omniscience of God, which programs the PROM chip, there are two categories of knowledge related to the free will of man chip.

(1) Actual knowledge deals with the thoughts, motivations, decisions, and actions of every individual in human history.

(2) Possible knowledge deals with the alternatives to thoughts, motivations, decisions, and actions which were not made and which are therefore not entered into the PROM chip.

7. God’s Foreknowledge.

a. Just as the sovereignty of God programs the ROM chip and the omniscience of God programs the PROM chip, the printout from the PROM chip related to the believer is called foreknowledge.

b. While election and predestination are printouts from the ROM chip, foreknowledge is the printout from the PROM chip.

c. Nothing can be foreknown until it is first of all decreed.

d. Omniscience programs the PROM chip (the decree), while foreknowledge is the printout of the PROM chip.

e. The foreknowledge of God makes nothing certain, but merely acknowledges what is certain regarding believers in Jesus Christ.

f. Foreknowledge is not related to the printout of sins; that printout is related to the omnipotence of God. Foreknowledge deals with believers only.

g. The printout of the ROM or sovereignty of God chip includes the five elective decrees, classified as modified infralapsarianism.

(1) The decree of God to create all mankind for the purpose of “bringing many sons into glory” (Heb 2:10) and thereby resolving the prehistoric angelic conflict.

(2) The decree of God to permit the fall of mankind as an extension of the prehistoric angelic conflict.

(3) The decree of God to provide eternal salvation for all mankind under unlimited atonement. This occurred with the printout of all personal sins and their imputation to Jesus Christ for judgment while He was alive on the Cross. Unlimited atonement is taught in 2 Cor 5:14-15, 19; 1 Tim 2:6, 4:10; Tit 2:11; Heb 2:9; 2 Pet 2:1; 1 Jn 2:2.

(4) Post-salvation motivation for the election of the Church plus the means of glorifying God. In eternity past, God the Father as the grantor deposited for every Church Age believer as the grantee greater blessings into escrow. The first thing God ever did for the believer in eternity past is the means of glorifying Him, Eph 1:3. As the depositary, Jesus Christ makes distribution of these greater blessings to winners only, both in time and at the Judgment Seat of Christ. The conveyance of these blessings to the winner and invisible hero is the means of glorifying God, Eph 1:3-6.

(5) The simultaneous decrees of election and predestination, the printouts of the ROM chip, Eph 1:4-5. The sovereignty of God programs the ROM chip.

(a) Election is the expression of the will of God for you. Equal privilege is provided by making every believer a royal priest, able to represent himself before God. Equal opportunity is provided by logistical grace support.

(b) Predestination is the provision of the will of God for you. Equal privilege is provided by placing every believer into union with Christ at the moment of salvation. Equal opportunity is provided in the divine dynasphere.

© Election and predestination provide both motivation and the means of execution of the protocol plan of God and subsequent distribution of escrow blessings.

(d) Other theologies state this fifth decree as being the decree to elect those who believe and to leave in condemnation those who do not believe in Jesus Christ, as per Jn 3:18 and 3:36.

(6) The decree to apply eternal salvation to those who believe in Jesus Christ. This decree includes both God-consciousness and Gospel hearing. The decree to save the elect through faith in Jesus Christ is found in Eph 2:8-9. With some exceptions (who are automatically saved), every person can come to the point of God-consciousness, where he is either positive or negative. If he is positive and wants to know God, he will be provided with Gospel hearing, no matter where he is.

8. Application.

a. Contradictions cannot exist in the protocol plan of God.

(1) Since God is perfect, His plan is perfect. Since God’s perfect plan for the Church Age is the protocol plan, contradictions cannot exist in the protocol plan of God.

(2) All contradictions in the experience of the believer are contrary to the protocol plan. In other words, when you function in the protocol plan, contradictions do not exist. When you reject the protocol plan of God and are negative toward doctrine, then contradictions exist in your experience. But these contradictions are not a part of God’s plan.

(3) Contradictions cannot exist in the protocol plan of God for the Church Age, because God is perfect in essence. Therefore, a perfect God can only design a perfect plan, i.e., the protocol plan of God.

(4) Once you see a contradiction in your life between the protocol plan of God and your experience, then the faith-rest drill can use the essence of God rationale to make a decision to eliminate that contradiction.

b. God is perfect in essence; therefore, God can only devise a perfect plan. God’s protocol plan is perfect as a reflection of His divine essence. In grace, the perfect essence of God has provided a perfect plan for imperfect persons; for we as believers continue to sin after salvation, 1 Jn 1:5-10.

c. However, contradictions do exist in the experience of believers for the following reasons.

(1) Ignorance and forgetting the mystery doctrine of the Church Age, which means ignorance of the protocol plan of God, the problem- solving devices, and the unique factors of the Church Age. When the rate of forgetting exceeds the rate of learning, then you have the worst kind of ignorance—inexcusable ignorance.

(2) By an act of volition, entrance into the arrogance complex: arrogance, jealousy, bitterness, implacability, hatred, self-pity, revenge motivation and function, slander, gossip, maligning, judging, self- righteousness, crusader arrogance, legalism. All these result in contradictions due to wrong decisions from a position of weakness.

(3) Sin and cosmic involvement in general.

(4) Blackout of the soul.

(5) Scar tissue of the soul.

(6) Reverse-process reversionism.

(7) The eight stages of reversionism.

(8) Moral and immoral degeneracy.

d. Losers contradict the protocol plan of God in their experience. Winners execute the protocol plan of God and become invisible heroes. The difference is daily attitude toward doctrine. Positive believers are consistent in the function of post-salvation epistemological rehabilitation. Negative believers (losers) are negative toward doctrine and therefore are left to their own devices, which are disastrous.

e. Remember that equal privilege and equal opportunity provide a basis for having no contradictions in your experience. Under election and predestination, God provides equal privilege and equal opportunity for all Church Age believers to fulfill His plan.

(1) Under the printout of election, God wills the highest and the best for each one of us. The equal privilege of election is your royal priesthood. The equal opportunity of election is logistical grace support and blessing.

(2) Under the printout of predestination, God provides everything that is necessary to attain His highest and His best under the protocol plan. Equal privilege of predestination is the baptism of the Holy Spirit resulting in a new racial species, a royal family of God, and a new destiny. Equal opportunity of predestination is your very own palace, the operational-type divine dynasphere, which is used under divine omnipotence to execute God’s plan.

f. Furthermore, the royal family of God cannot account for thoughts, motives, decisions, and actions in undefinable terms. That means you have to learn doctrine to account for what you are thinking, doing, deciding, and how you are motivated.

(1) The protocol plan of God has a technical, theological vocabulary which is necessary to understand God’s purpose and will for your life, and to further understand how you function under God’s plan.

(2) Only through consistent post-salvation epistemological rehabilitation can the believer understand the framework of the protocol plan, and its function and operation in terms of technical language.

(3) There is no such thing as a piece of machinery or the soul of an individual that doesn’t operate under a technical system. Technical language is necessary to understand how both function. Without technical language, you are limited in your thought and you have destroyed your own potential as an individual.

(4) Post-salvation epistemological rehabilitation is a technical term for perception, metabolization, and application of the mystery doctrine of the Church Age. Only metabolized doctrine has momentum in God’s plan.

g. There are three times when each member of the human race must grow up.

(1) When we are born, we must grow up and learn through vocabulary.

(2) When we are married, we must grow up by learning how to be a spouse; it does not come naturally.

(3) When we are born again, we must grow up through learning doctrine. Growing up spiritually means attainment of spiritual adulthood. That means we learn a system of doctrine in each phase of spiritual growth.

(a) Spiritual self-esteem is characterized by cognitive self-confidence.

(b) Spiritual autonomy is characterized by cognitive independence.

© Spiritual maturity is characterized by cognitive invincibility.

(4) Each one of these stages of spiritual adulthood is a graduated step in understanding the technical vocabulary and modus operandi of the Christian way of life.

h. Just as in law, medicine, music, engineering, military science, or any technical field or any professional activity, the individual must learn and understand a technical vocabulary. Biblical theology is no exception.

(1) Just as the human being is born without language or without any knowledge which renders that individual incapable of thought, so the born-again believer at the moment of salvation is incapable of thinking in terms of God’s plan. Therefore, technical language must all be learned. The most important decision we make daily is to learn some Bible doctrine that day.

(2) God’s plan does not call for ignorance. God’s plan is revealed in technical language which must be understood so that execution and function can follow.

i. The royal priest was never designed to walk on crutches. This means you cannot think or be motivated to make decisions or solve problems through the thinking, counseling, or advice of someone else.

(1) This is why God has given to the Church the spiritual gift of pastor-teacher.

(2) Under the privacy of your own priesthood, you learn the problem-solving devices from whomever is your right pastor. You use them in your own spiritual growth and in meeting the daily problems in your own life.

(3) No believer advances through the thinking of another believer. Momentum comes from metabolized doctrine in your own soul, from doctrine applied to your own life in the privacy of your own priesthood.

(4) Emotion is no substitute for the problem-solving devices of the protocol plan of God. Emotions are not tools of cognition nor criteria for the Christian way of life.

L. The Omnipotence of God.

1. Definition and Description.

a. The term “omnipotence” is used to describe the unlimited power of God. This theological term is derived from the Greek word PANTOKRATOR, which means all-powerful. It also comes from the Greek word DUNAMIS and other synonyms for power.

b. The Greek noun not only connotes the unlimited power of God, but emphasizes the doctrinal fact that God is always in control. God has never lost control in all of human history or in prehistoric times during the angelic conflict. God has invented free will in man, so that man can go negative or positive to God. From his negative volition, man can be out of control; but God is still in control of everything.

c. Omnipotence emphasizes the eternal supremacy of God’s power. God is infinite and eternal; therefore, His power is infinite and eternal.

d. God exists eternally in three persons who are coinfinite and coeternal. Each person of the Godhead has identical power which is classified as omnipotence.

e. God’s infinite and limitless power functions under the control of His divine volition, which we have classified as sovereignty. Divine sovereignty functions under infinite, eternal, and perfect virtue and wisdom.

f. In the function of His omnipotence, God is able to do anything which is compatible with His divine essence but nothing that is contrary to it.

g. God does not use His power to ever compromise with sin, evil, or human good, including the practice of Christian legalism.

h. The greatest delegation of divine power in human history is the grace provision of the omnipotence of God to every Church Age believer for the execution of God’s plan, purpose, and will for our lives.

i. Eph 1:19-20, “And what is the surpassing greatness of His power to us who have believed for the delegation of His superior power, which He put into operation by means of Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in heavenly places.”

(1) Never before the Church Age has God’s power been made available to all believers. In the Old Testament, only a few believers had the use of divine power.

(2) God has delegated more power to the individual believer in this dispensation than ever before in human history.

(3) The power of the Word of God in the stream of consciousness of your soul is infinitely greater than the power of the miracles and the manifestation called attesting powers of the Old Testament. There is no greater power for any person in the human race than the power of metabolized doctrine in the right lobe of the soul. Moses longed to see our day.

(4) The power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the same power available to you as a member of the royal family of God. The power of the Word of God has never before been delegated in history, but is now delegated to you as a believer. There has been a superior demonstration of His immutable power by the resurrection of Christ.

2. Divine Omnipotence in the Resurrection of Jesus Christ.

a. Our Lord’s physical death was unique. His human spirit went into the presence of God the Father in the third heaven. His human soul went to Paradise, a part of Hades, in the heart of the earth. His human body went into the grave. This is the only trichotomous separation in physical death in all of human history.

b. In our Lord’s resurrection, the omnipotence of God the Father returned the human spirit to the body in the grave, making Him an agent in the resurrection. The omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit returned the human soul to the body in the grave, making Him an agent in the resurrection.

(1) The fact that our Lord’s body went into the grave is taught in Lk 23:53.

(2) The fact that His soul went to the compartment of Hades called Paradise is taught in Ps 16:10; Lk 23:43; Acts 2:27; Eph 4:9. (3) The fact that His human spirit went into the presence of God the Father in the third heaven in taught in Lk 23:46.

c. The omnipotence of God the Father will be involved in our resurrection, 1 Cor 6:14, “Now God has not only raised the Lord, but He will also raise us up through His power.”

d. God the Father was an agent in our Lord’s resurrection by restoring His human spirit to His body in the grave, Rom 6:4; Eph 1:20; Col 2:12; 1 Thes 1:10; 1 Pet 1:21.

e. God the Holy Spirit was an agent in our Lord’s resurrection by restoring His human soul to His body in the grave, Rom 1:4, 8:11; 1 Pet 3:18.

f. The omnipotence of God the Son could have raised Himself from the dead, according to Jn 10:17-18, “For this reason, the Father loves Me because I lay down My life that I may receive it again. No one has taken My life from Me; I lay it down from the source of Myself. I have the power to lay it down; I have the power to receive it again. This mandate I have received from the Father.”

g. So while the deity of Christ could have raised His own humanity from the dead, there is no record that He did so. The reason is explained in the doctrine of kenosis.

(1) Kenosis refers to the perfection of the humanity of Christ under great testing. During the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union, our Lord Jesus Christ voluntarily restricted the independent use of His own divine attributes in compliance with the Father’s plan for the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union, called the incarnation.

(2) Included among the divine attributes voluntarily restricted was divine omnipotence. Jesus Christ had the power to raise Himself. But while He had the power to use His own divine omnipotence to raise Himself from the dead, He relied instead on two categories of divine power: the power of God the Father and of God the Holy Spirit.

(3) This was compatible with the kenosis policy for the First Advent, in which Jesus Christ did not use any of His divine attributes, including His omnipotence, to benefit Himself, to provide for Himself, to glorify Himself, or to raise Himself from the dead.

(4) Under the kenosis policy of the First Advent, Jesus Christ did not use His divine power independently of the Father’s plan for the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union.

(5) However, during the First Advent and the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union, our Lord did continue to use His omnipotence to hold the universe together and to perpetuate human history.

(a) Col 1:16-17 says that Jesus Christ is the creator of the universe. “For by Him were all things created that are in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they are thrones or principalities or powers; all things were created by Him and for Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. Furthermore, He existed before all things, and by Him all things are held together.” This means that when Jesus Christ, at the point of the virgin birth, entered into the Hypostatic Union as undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever, exactly at that particular moment our Lord Jesus Christ was a baby in the cradle in His humanity, but in His deity He was using His omnipotence to continue to hold the universe together. Also, while He was on the Cross being judged for the sins of the world in His humanity, He was using His deity to hold the universe together.

(b) Heb 1:3, “He [Jesus Christ] upholds all things by the Word of His power.”

(6) So while Jesus Christ could have used His power to raise Himself from the dead, instead He relied upon the omnipotence of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.

h. The power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is now available to us. This is the major concept in the doctrine of omnipotence as it pertains to us.

i. During the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union, which includes the First Advent of Christ, His virgin birth, incarnation, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and session; our Lord continued to use His omnipotence to preserve the universe and perpetuate human history.

3. The Unique Function of the Omnipotence of God in the Church Age.

a. For the first and only time in history, God has made a maximum amount of divine power available to every believer. This power is available through thought. It is the thinking of Jesus Christ from eternity past.

b. However, this availability does not necessarily mean utilization. Whether you use this divine power or not depends upon post- salvation epistemological rehabilitation or the perception of Bible doctrine.

c. The power that raised Jesus Christ—the omnipotence of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit—is now available to every Church Age believer as a new spiritual species and royal family of God, 1 Cor 6:14; Eph 1:19-20.

d. The omnipotence of Jesus Christ, the divine power that holds the universe together, is also available to every Church Age believer. This is why the universe continues to operate. This is why history continues in spite of man’s evil, and in spite of anything man can do to wipe out the human race. Mankind cannot and will not be destroyed; this is guaranteed by the omnipotence of God. There is no weapon that man can invent that will wipe out the human race or destroy the universe. History will continue through to the end of the Millennium. Then God Himself will destroy the present universe after the Last Judgment.

e. The availability of divine power can be summarized under the three categories of omnipotence. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have equally the same eternal, infinite divine power.

(1) The omnipotence of God the Father is related to our portfolio of invisible assets. He provided this portfolio billions of years ago in eternity past. He is also the author of the protocol plan, and He constructed the divine dynasphere as the basis for executing that plan and having maximum use of divine power.

(2) The omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit is related to several categories of modus operandi in the Church Age. (a) Spirituality or the filling of the Spirit inside the divine dynasphere is the enabling power of the Holy Spirit for the function and modus operandi of the Christian way of life.

(b) The perception of Bible doctrine, Jn 14:26, 16:12- 14; 1 Cor 2:9-15.

© The function of the spiritual gifts of the royal family of God.

(3) The omnipotence of God the Son guarantees both the preservation of the universe, the perpetuation of human history, and the fact that Jesus Christ controls history. There will always be lots of people on planet earth regardless of any disaster.

4. Scripture.

a. Col 1:11, “Because we have been endowed with all power [omnipotence] from the superior power of His glory, resulting in fortitude [courage under pressure], steadfastness [stability under pressure], with happiness [+H, sharing the happiness of God].” Never before in history has every believer been endowed with this superior power of His glory.

b. Eph 3:16, “Now to Him who is able [omnipotence] to do infinitely more than all we could ask or imagine on the basis of the omnipotence which works for us.”

c. 2 Thes 1:11, “To this end, we always pray for you, that our God will make you worthy of your calling and fulfill every desire for integrity and the work of doctrine with power.”

d. 1 Cor 2:5, “That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man, but in the power of God.”

e. 1 Pet 1:5, “Who are guarded by the power of God through faith for a deliverance, ready to be revealed in the last time.”

f. 2 Pet 1:3, “Seeing that His divine power has given to us everything pertaining to life [life on this earth] and godliness [life inside the divine dynasphere] through metabolized [epignosis] doctrine of Him who called us to His own glory and virtue.”

g. Eph 1:19-20, “And what is the surpassing greatness of His power [omnipotence of God] to us who have believed for the delegation of His superior power, which [superior power] He put into operation by means of Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenlies.”

(1) The moment we believed in Christ, a delegation of divine power was made to us. Its utilization requires spiritual growth through perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine.

(2) The power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead has now been made available to us—to every believer.

(3) When seated “at His right hand in the heavenlies,” our Lord received His third royal warrant with the title “King of kings and Lord of lords.” Being without a royal family, the Church Age was inserted into human history for the calling out of a royal family of God.

5. The Christocentric Dispensations and Divine Omnipotence.

a. There are two Christological dispensations—the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union and the dispensation of the Church.

b. All precedence for the Church Age is taken from the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union. This includes the availability of the divine power. The prototype divine dynasphere was used by our Lord during the dispensation of the Hypostatic Union. The operational type divine dynasphere is given to us for use during the Church Age. Inside the divine dynasphere we are filled with the Holy Spirit. This eliminates the Mosaic Law as being the modus operandi for the royal family of God.

c. The greatest manifestation and utilization of divine power occurs in these Christological dispensations.

d. 2 Cor 4:7, “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels that the surpassing greatness of the power may be from God and not from ourselves.” The “treasure” is the knowledge of the glory of God, which is the study of divine attributes. The attributes are the glory of God. The surpassing greatness of this power must come from God; it is the use of His divine power, not our human ability.

e. Legalism is always operating on human dynamics and personality. Pastors and Christians by the millions never escape from using human power, and even call it divine power, because they never have enough of the whole realm of doctrine to do so.

6. Divine omnipotence is related to both the promises and the actions of God.

a. Isa 43:13, “Even from eternity, I am He, and there is no one who can deliver you out of My hand. I act, and who can reverse it?”

(1) That was a manifestation of God’s power to Old Testament believers. They could be delivered by God’s power.

(2) But the divine power given to us is for the greatest opportunity for spiritual growth and effectiveness ever given to individual believers in any time of human history.

b. Matt 19:26, “Jesus said to them, `With men, things are impossible. But with God, all things are possible.’” This is because God has unlimited, infinite, eternal divine power.

c. Mk 10:27, “Jesus said, `With men, it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.’”

d. Lk 1:37, “For no word of God is void of power.” (In the KJV says, “For with God, nothing shall be impossible.” But in the Greek, it actually says, “For no word of God is void of power.”)

e. God is all-powerful and limitless in His ability, Gen 17:1, 18:14; Job 26:7, 42:2; Ps 24:8, 93:1, 147:5; Isa 40:26, 50:2; Jer 27:5, 32:27; Rom 19:6.

f. God is infinite and limitless in His authority. Divine omnipotence is a manifestation of God’s limitless power and authority, 2 Chr 16:9, 25:8; Ps 74:13. 7. Divine versus Human Power.

a. There is a great struggle in the life of every believer— divine versus human power. The greatest flaw that can come to the believer is to substitute human power, human personality, or human dynamics for divine dynamics. This power is given to us through the metabolization of doctrine and circulation of that doctrine in the stream of consciousness.

b. In every dispensation, God has a plan, will, and purpose for all believers. In the dispensation of the Church, the plan is called the protocol plan of God. Protocol is the modus operandi of royalty. We are royal family of God.

c. God is perfect; therefore, His plan is perfect. The problem is that the Church Age believer is imperfect. After salvation, he is prone to sin, 1 Jn 1:5-10.

d. As Church Age believers and human beings, we do not have the power or ability to execute God’s protocol plan for the royal family.

e. A perfect plan can only be executed by a perfect power; we do not have such a power.

f. The only perfect power is the omnipotence of God made available to every Church Age believer as royal family of God through the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of Bible doctrine—the power of a thought circulating in the stream of consciousness of the soul.

g. The omnipotence of God is made available through life inside the divine dynasphere and consistent of the filling of the Holy Spirit and the perception of Bible doctrine (the function of post-salvation epistemological rehabilitation). There are spiritual skills and production skills.

(1) The production skills are in place at salvation; they include our spiritual gift and all that we have in our portfolio of invisible assets. However, without Bible doctrine all of our production is dead works. Therefore, the principle: spiritual skills must precede production skills for the performance of divine good.

(2) The spiritual skills are the filling of the Holy Spirit, metabolized doctrine resident in the soul, and the execution of the protocol plan of God for the Church. Spiritual skills plus the production skills equals the production of divine good.

(3) The filling of the Spirit and the thinking of Bible doctrine in the soul is the delegation of divine power. This power is the thinking of Bible doctrine in the seven compartments of your stream of consciousness. The result of these two over a period of time is the execution of the protocol plan of God.

h. Life inside the divine dynasphere is tantamount to the first two spiritual skills: God the Holy Spirit controlling the soul, and from that, the perception of Bible doctrine. Hence, this is referred to as “the filling of the Spirit” in Eph 5:18, and “walking by means of the Spirit” in Gal 5:16.

i. Divine power for the execution of the protocol plan is made available through our relationship with the Holy Spirit and our attitude to Bible doctrine. The divine dynasphere is the place for the execution of God’s will, plan, and purpose through the omnipotence or power of the Holy Spirit under the two mandates of Eph 5:18 and Gal 5:16.

(1) Inside the divine dynasphere, the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit is available for the execution of the protocol plan.

(2) Outside the divine dynasphere, the believer functions under human power and human ability, which is classified as energy of the flesh.

j. Divine power and human power are mutually exclusive. Therefore, spirituality is an absolute; you are either filled with the Spirit inside the divine dynasphere or you are using some form of human power in the cosmic system. The use of human power and ability in the cosmic system by the believer is classified as grieving the Holy Spirit (Eph 4:30) and quenching the Holy Spirit (1 Thes 5:19).

k. Outside the divine dynasphere, the believer cannot execute the protocol plan of God because divine power is only available inside the divine dynasphere; otherwise, we are on our own.

l. The Christian way of life is a supernatural way of life which demands a supernatural means of execution. The supernatural means of execution includes three categories of available divine power.

(1) The omnipotence of God the Father related to our portfolio of invisible assets, the protocol plan, and the construction of the divine dynasphere.

(2) The omnipotence of God the Son related to the perpetuation of human history and the preservation of the universe.

(3) The omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit related to spirituality—or the filling of the Spirit inside the divine dynasphere, perception of Bible doctrine in the stream of consciousness, and the function of spiritual gift.

m. The Christian way of life is only lived by Christians who are residing inside the divine dynasphere. Outside the divine dynasphere, the believer functions under human power, human ability, carnality, and energy of the flesh.

(1) The believer leaves the divine dynasphere to sin. Sinning results in cosmic involvement.

(2) The sinning believer can only recover life in the divine dynasphere through the rebound technique, 1 Jn 1:9.

(3) Only through the use of rebound can the believer re- enter the divine dynasphere and again be filled with the Spirit.

n. The execution of the protocol plan of God depends on two factors.

(1) Residence in the divine dynasphere under the omnipotence of the Holy Spirit made available to all believers.

(2) Divine power in the soul constantly thinks. Consistent function of post-salvation epistemological rehabilitation under the teaching ministry of the Spirit while residing in the divine dynasphere.

o. In this way, the believer executes the protocol plan and glorifies God through becoming an invisible hero. Invisible heroes are manufactured by the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of Bible doctrine in the right lobe of the soul.

p. The omnipotence of God the Father provides the encouragement for the believer through His grace policy and the provision of our very own portfolio of invisible assets. The omnipotence of God the Son provides the historical environment for the Christian to execute the protocol plan through preservation of the universe and perpetuation of human history. The omnipotence of the Holy Spirit provides the enabling power to execute the protocol plan of God inside the divine dynasphere.

q. Human power and ability is no substitute for divine power. Human power is seen in various categories of legalism.

(1) The legalism of salvation by works which adds to faith alone in Christ alone as the means of salvation. If you have added anything to believing in Christ (such as making Christ lord of your life, inviting Christ into your heart, baptism, commitment, human behavioral change), you have not been saved by faith alone in Christ alone.

(2) The legalism of post-salvation works, such as keeping the Law, tithing, etc.

r. The pastor can only teach Bible doctrine. He does not have the power to force it on anyone. Whether a believer learns doctrine and fulfills God’s plan, purpose, and will for his life depends on his utilization of divine power. Any system or plan in life which demands execution requires power and authority orientation for compliance. No matter how great or brilliant a person may be, he must power and equivalent authority for the fulfillment of the plan of God.

s. Where is your authority? You authority is your own volition.

(1) Utilization of divine power is related to the believer’s volition and his priorities, motivations, and values in this life. Every challenge in life demands the equivalent power and authority for meeting and overcoming that challenge. The power for the execution of God’s plan resides in your royal priesthood and the function of your volition.

(2) Every believer must take the responsibility for his own decisions after salvation. This is the law of volitional responsibility. You can either sow to Bible doctrine and reap a magnificent life, or you can sow to the wind and reap the whirlwind. Under the privacy of your priesthood, you have equal rights with all believers for the execution of the protocol plan of God. You have the right to accept or reject the mystery doctrine of the Church Age.

(3) Self-determination cannot function in a state of ignorance, and ignorance will exist until the believer utilizes the omnipotence of God inside the divine dynasphere for cognition and inculcation of Bible doctrine. Without the omnipotence of God, self- determination is useless. The utilization of divine power demands learning the principles related to it.

(4) God decisions from a position of strength result in the utilization of the available divine power for the execution of His plan. Bad decisions from a position of weakness (rejection of or distraction from doctrine) results in failure to utilize divine power and becoming a loser. Losers are believers in a state of ignorance, Mt 22:29, “You are constantly being deceived, not knowing the Scripture or the power of God.” The spiritual adult uses the divine omnipotence for the cognition of doctrine.

(5) The law of equivalent power demands the filling of the Spirit and making the right decisions for Bible doctrine, especially under the conditions of stress and distraction. It demands the faithful function of the pastor to accurately teach Bible doctrine.

t. The illustration of divine versus human power is trying to run an automobile on sugar instead of gasoline or the human body on gasoline. The wrong fuel in the wrong system is a disaster. You cannot mix divine power with human power and have any momentum in God’s plan for your life. Substituting human power for divine power is disastrous to your spiritual life.

M. The Faithfulness of God.

1. Definition.

a. The faithfulness of God is related to the biblical revelation of Himself, the promises contained in Scripture, and His grace provision for us.

b. God’s faithfulness is eternally linked to His veracity. God is absolute truth, Deut 32:4. Veracity is manifest in all of His ways.

(1) God is always truth, Ps 86:15, 25:10; Rev 15:3.

(2) Veracity is manifest in His works, Dan 4:37.

(3) Veracity is manifest in His word, 2 Sam 7:28; Ps 119:142.

2. God is faithful to Israel. Deut 7:9, “Know therefore that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God, who keeps His covenant and His grace support to those who love Him and keep His commandments down to the one- thousandth generation.”

3. The Faithfulness of God to the Believer.

a. God is faithful in forgiveness. 1 Jn 1:9, “If we acknowledge our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” God’s faithfulness means there are no exceptions; no sin is too bad, heinous, or evil. God always does exactly the same thing on the basis of the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross.

b. God is faithful in logistical grace support. Lam 3:22, “The Lord’s gracious functions never cease; His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness.” We are sustained and supported daily by the faithfulness of God, regardless of whether we are carnal or spiritual, winners or losers. God is faithful to all believers in logistical support based on His righteousness and justice. God also sends blessings to winners and losers as a demonstration of His grace and faithfulness. God is faithful in keeping us alive and providing our basic needs.

c. God is faithful to us in testing. 1 Cor 10:13, “Testing has not caught up with you except the human kind; moreover, God is faithful who will not permit you to be tested beyond your capabilities, but with the testing, He will also provide a way of escape [problem solving devices], so that you may be able to endure it.” This is suffering for blessing and not divine discipline.

d. God’s faithfulness is based on the doctrine of election.

(1) 1 Cor 1:9, “God is faithful, through whom we have been called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Election is God’s desire to provide for every believer.

(2) There is no way God can ever be faithless to us. 1 Thes 5:24, “Faithful is He who calls you, who will also do [provide] it.” God will take your faith and make it effective for salvation.

e. God’s faithfulness to the reversionistic believer is the subject of 2 Tim 2:13, “If we are faithless, He remains faithful; He cannot deny Himself.” God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit indwell every believer at the moment of salvation. No member of the Trinity can deny Himself or another member of the Trinity who indwell us. You can renounce your salvation and enter into any kind of blasphemy you want to. But the first time you believed in Christ, God gave you forty things; you do not have the power to cancel them and neither does God.

f. God is faithful to the mature believer. Heb 11:11, “By means of doctrine, even Sarah herself received sexual ability for the deposit of sperm, though she was beyond the proper time of life for conception, because she had concluded faithful is the One who promised her.”

(1) Sarah was ninety years old; Abraham was ninety-nine years old. Abraham was sexually dead and Sarah was beyond menopause. But that did not keep Abraham and Sarah from believing that God keeps His promises. Rom 4:20-21, “He [Abraham] staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what God had promised, God was able to perform.”

(2) By circumcision, Abraham recognized God’s faithfulness and became a new racial species. There is no end to the strength and power and spiritual vigor that comes to the believer who understands the faithfulness of God.

g. God is faithful to the believer in the angelic conflict. 2 Thes 3:3, “But the Lord keeps on being faithful; He will support and guard you from the evil one.”

(1) There are many ways in which we are protected of which we are not even aware. There are many dangers around us as believers due to invisible demons. We cannot be demon possessed but demon influence comes from false doctrine entering our soul.

(2) Nevertheless, the Lord keeps on being faithful, and He supports and guards both the winner and loser from Satan.

h. God’s faithfulness is noted in His provision of escrow blessings. Heb 10:23, “Let us keep holding fast to the profession of our confidence without wavering. for He who promised us is faithful.”

(1) Billions of years ago, God the Father had you personally in mind and deposited into escrow for you blessing for time and blessing for eternity. Our Lord Jesus Christ distributes these blessings in both time and eternity to mature believers.

(2) Our escrow blessings are irrevocable. They will either remain in escrow forever or they will be distributed to you at the point when you reach spiritual maturity and at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

i. God’s faithfulness in suffering is taught in 1 Pet 4:19, “Therefore, let those also who suffer according to the will of God [suffering for blessing in spiritual adulthood] entrust their souls to a faithful Creator [Lord Jesus Christ] in doing what is right [in handling the problem].”

j. The faithfulness of Jesus Christ is emphasized at the Second Advent in Rev 19:11, “And I saw heaven open, and behold a white horse, and He who is mounted on it is called “Faithful and True,” and in righteousness He judges and makes war.”

4. These verses on the faithfulness of God are a reminder to you that the issue is not whether you are a winner or a loser but whether or not you are a believer. If you are, God is always faithful to you, no matter what your condition. He cannot be faithless; it is contrary to His essence.

N. The Happiness of God.

1. Definition of God’s Happiness.

a. God is perfect; therefore, His essence is composed of perfect attributes. Perfect God can only possess perfect attributes; e.g., perfect righteousness, perfect justice, perfect wisdom, perfect sovereignty, absolute truth.

b. Therefore, perfect God can only possess perfect happiness.

(1) God is eternal; His happiness is eternal.

(2) God is immutable; His happiness is unchangeable. There is nothing that can make God unhappy. Satan’s fall did not make God unhappy. The entire prehistoric angelic conflict did not make God unhappy. The original sin of Adam and the woman did not make God unhappy. The resultant historical conflict has not made God unhappy. No creature has the power to change the happiness of God.

(3) God is perfect, immutable, eternal virtue, composed of His justice and righteousness. Since God is perfect justice, His happiness is always related to being fair. Since God is perfect righteousness, His happiness is always related to perfect virtue and integrity.

(a) The principle is that there can never be true happiness without true virtue or integrity. True happiness is always related to virtue. Happiness and virtue can never be separated. Mankind, generally, does not know how to produce virtue and integrity. Man can produce morality without virtue or integrity.

(b) There are three categories of happiness in the human race.

(i) Minus H is temporary stimulation or pleasure.

(ii) Neutral H is derived from observing establishment principles. Ignorance of the laws of divine establishment preclude understanding anything that is truly great.

(iii) Plus H or sharing the happiness of God is one of the ultimate experiences of the Christian way of life.

(4) Since God is perfect integrity or holiness, His happiness is never built on the unhappiness of someone else.

(5) God is omnipotent. Therefore, God has the power and the ability to possess perfect happiness without any form of distortion. This means that God is fair with every member of the human race. God’s happiness does not depend on the use of God’s power.

(6) God is love. His happiness is expressed in three categories of virtue-love.

(a) Perfect personal love for the other persons in the Godhead and for all believers, since believers possess the perfect righteousness of God through imputation at salvation.

(b) Perfect divine self-esteem comes from God loving His own perfect righteousness and never feeling threatened. Therefore, He has the perfect confidence that accompanies perfect happiness.

© Perfect impersonal love for all mankind resulted in the efficacious salvation work of our Lord on the Cross.

(7) God is omniscient. Therefore, His infinite and eternal genius makes Him perfectly happy. Furthermore, God in His omniscience has found a way and designed a plan to provide happiness for the human race—the protocol plan of God with its problem solving device of +H or sharing the happiness of God. 2. Plus H is capacity for happiness.

a. Plus H is more than sharing the happiness of God; as a problem solving device for the believer, it is capacity for happiness. No one can ever exceed their capacity in anything. The problem with morality is that it has no capacity; virtue has capacity. Happiness is never happiness unless there is capacity for happiness. You can never exceed your capacity for happiness no matter how good you are.

(1) Success is not happiness unless there is capacity for success. Our success as believers must be related to Bible doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness through the filling of the Holy Spirit.

(2) Marriage, social life, and spiritual life are not happiness unless there is capacity for these things from Bible doctrine.

(3) Blessing does not translate into happiness unless there is capacity for blessing from Bible doctrine resident in the soul.

(4) Maximum misery and lack of capacity for life comes to anyone who converts the outside pressure of adversity into the inside pressure of stress in the soul. Stress in the soul results in sin nature control, fragmentation, and reversionism. No one can prevent the conversion of the outside pressure of adversity into the inside pressure of stress in the soul without help from plus H.

b. True capacity has to be measured. One of the areas for measurement is thankfulness. Thankfulness is a measure of your capacity for happiness. Thanksgiving or capacity for appreciation of Bible doctrine resident in the soul’s stream of consciousness is the index to your capacity. Capacity comes from one thing and one thing only—Bible doctrine. Thanksgiving or capacity for appreciation from Bible doctrine must come from the seven compartments of your stream of consciousness, where Bible doctrine must reside.

(1) Eph 5:20, “Always be thankful with reference to all things to God, even the Father, through the person of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

(2) 2 Cor 9:15, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift [Jesus Christ]!”

(3) 1 Thes 5:18, “In everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” You cannot give thanks in everything without capacity from the stream of consciousness in your soul.

(a) You cannot possibly truly give thanks to God in adversity if you have converted the outside pressure of adversity into the inside pressure of stress in the soul. Believers with stress in the soul have no capacity for thanksgiving, for life, for love, or for happiness. This is why people can change in a day.

(b) Anything that is God’s will requires Bible doctrine circulating in your right lobe and the filling of the Holy Spirit.

(4) 1 Thes 5:16, “Keep on rejoicing at all times.” You cannot use plus H and you cannot function under plus H without Bible doctrine. You develop plus H in your soul through doctrine and you maintain plus H in the soul through doctrine. Generally, the believer begins to use plus H at the point of spiritual self-esteem, but maximum effectiveness comes with spiritual maturity. We are commanded to be happy at all times, even in adversity. This concept is reinforced by Jam 1:2, “Think it all perfect happiness, my brethren, when you encounter various adversities.” This is the believer using God’s happiness to prevent adversity from becoming stress in the soul.

4. Principles of Happiness.

a. Other people can make you happy temporarily. They can also make you totally miserable. This is not so with God. God’s provision of plus H is His grace provision for a true and sustaining happiness in this life.

b. Plus H is a divine monopoly which is developed in the believer through consistent cognition and application of doctrine. There are five ways in which you can recognize plus H.

(1) Tranquility of soul. This issue is not the stimulation of the body; the issue is the soul.

(2) Contentment of soul. Contentment is facing pressure and keeping it outside.

(3) Capacity for life. Capacity is what you are inside, not the facade you present to others.

(4) The stimulation and enthusiasm factor. This may be classified as the invigoration of happiness.

(5) A fantastic problem solving device to prevent the outside pressures of adversity being converted into the inside pressures of stress in the soul.

c. Since God is perfect and eternal happiness, His happiness is related to His virtue, His integrity, His holiness. Therefore, plus H cannot be separated from virtue and integrity. This means that plus H is never constructed on the unhappiness of someone else.

(1) Too often human beings try to build their happiness on someone else’s unhappiness by making other people miserable or unhappy.

(2) The supreme court of heaven will deal with people who do this.

d. God’s happiness is based on who and what God is, never circumstances or who and what people are.

e. As a part of His grace policy to the believer, God has found a way to share His happiness with us. This is a happiness which is never dependent on others or on circumstances. It is a happiness which is thinking the mind of Christ—transferring the mind of Christ from the page of the word of God to the seven compartments of the stream of consciousness of your soul’s right lobe.

f. Therefore, the protocol plan of God for the Church Age includes plus H as a problem solving device. The believer who attains plus H not only possesses a problem solving device but attains the ultimate in human happiness.

(1) Ps 16:11, “You will make known to me the path of life. In Your presence is fullness of happiness; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Those pleasures far outstrip the pleasures of life.

(2) Ps 43:4, “Then I will go to the altar of God, to God who is the happiness of my happiness.”

(3) Prov 3:13, “Happiness belongs to the person who finds wisdom [metabolized doctrine in your stream of consciousness], even the person who gains understanding of doctrine [perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine].”

(4) Ps 31:7, “I will rejoice and be happy in your grace.”

(5) Jn 15:11, “I have taught you these things in order that My happiness may be in you, and your happiness may be fulfilled.” It was through the teaching of doctrine that our Lord gave His happiness to the disciples.

(6) 1 Jn 1:4, “In fact, we write these things so that our happiness might be completed.”

(7) 1 Thes 1:6, “You also have become imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much adversity with the happiness in the Holy Spirit.”

(8) Phil 4:11, “Not that I speak with reference to need; for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.”

(9) 1 Tim 6:6-8, “But godliness [spiritual skills] is a means of great profit, when accompanied by contentment. For we brought nothing into this world, and it is obvious that we can take nothing out of it. However, if we have food and shelter, with these we shall be content.”

(10) Ps 146:5, “Happiness belongs to those whose confidence is in the Lord.”

(11) Ps 128:1, “How happy is everyone who is occupied with the Lord, who walks in His ways.”

(12) Heb 13:5-6, “Let your lifestyle be free from love for money, and be content with what you have; for He Himself has said, `I will never leave you, nor will I ever forsake you,’ so that we speak with confidence, `The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid of what man can do to me?’”

(13) 1 Pet 1:8, “Whom having not seen, you love, and though you do not see Him now, but believe, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible, having received glory [the execution of the protocol plan of God].”

g. It is possible for you to have a happiness that far exceeds anything that anyone has ever understood or known about happiness in this life.

h. Plus H is found in two categories of the protocol plan: in the life beyond gnosis and in the life beyond dreams (when you reach spiritual self-esteem).

i. God has eternal and indestructible perfect divine happiness. He has designed a plan whereby you can have and share in that happiness.

O. The Grace of God. See the Doctrine of Grace.

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