Spir Dynamics 1686-7 2/15/2000; 764-779 1/30/96; Eph 971 12/31/88

DOCTRINE OF HOPE

A. Definition and Description.

1. The Greek word ELPIS originated with Socrates in the fifth century B.C. He founded a university called “The Academy.” One of Socrates best students was Plato (429-347 B.C.), who further developed the concept of hope in the Greek.

a. Socrates and Plato tried to develop a technical vocabulary to define the essence and definition of virtue. Hope was one the words he used for virtue. They had give technical meanings to words. He established a principle that it was better to know one’s ignorance than to be wrong.

b. There was a great controversy in Plato’s academy between the hedonists and anti-hedonists. The hedonists said the real thing in life was the stimulation of your emotions. The intellectual group of students said it was the stimulation of your thinking. In response to this controversy Plato wrote the Philebos. In the Philebos Plato said that Socrates taught that the best life always emphasizes thought over emotion as the criterion of life, and that the greatest thing that can happen is to be able to think and then to be able to express your thinking to others.

c. Plato concluded that the best of life emphasizes thought over emotion as a criterion for life. To Plato the supreme virtue was knowledge which produces virtue in the soul. Plato said that no one can be virtuous without knowledge and human existence is determined not merely by intellectual perception (which he called AISTHESIS and is equivalent to EPIGNOSIS), but by the ability to recall intellectual perception when you need it. This he called MNEME or the recall of doctrine when you need it. Plato added two words in his study of definitions. The first word was the Greek word ELPIS, which should be translated hope. The second word was the Greek word PROSDOKIA, which means, “expectation, confidence.”

d. In the Philebos Plato equates recall of the past with hope or expectation of the future. He does it with the same technique that is used in the word of God. You have to have a philosophy that looks forward to something better in eternity.

2. We have a eschatology that looks forward to dying and death, because we know that God has provided dying grace for those who go through the door of hope. You must have a personal sense of destiny about the future. You have learned that God decides the time, the manner, and the place of your death, and at the moment of your death you remain in a place of no more sorrow, no more tears, no more pain, and you will stay in the presence of God forever. In your thinking you go forward to the fantastic future that you have and bring it back into time with great strength and power to overcome your present problems. That is the mechanic of hope as a problem solving device.

a. Man’s own being determines what he hopes and how he hopes.

b. Expectation and hopes are man’s own projection into the future. If you have good expectation, it is because you know your future as a believer, and that projection gives you a fantastic edge on problem solving.

c. It is the nature of man to have good or bad expectations of the future. Therefore it is the nature of man to have either good or bad hope. Hope projects its own view of the future with confidence.

d. Hence, you have confident expectation as the biblical definition of the first category of hope. When you go through the door of hope it becomes absolute expectation.

e. The first door of hope is confident expectation about your eternal life. The second door of hope is confident expectation about your destiny, that is, your personal sense of destiny. This is one of the greatest problem solving devices of the spiritual life.

f. Walter Bauer defines the Greek word ELPIS (page 252) as “hope, expectation, prospect.” Merrill Unger defines hope in his Bible Dictionary (page 498) that “God is the source of all expectation of the future.” Kittel, Volume II, page 519, says that “that man either does or can hope is a comfort for him in a difficult present.”

g. When you have any kind of sorrow, you project into the future all the fantastic things you have. This takes you into a realm of thinking in your consciousness that brings you back into the present with confidence and strength.

3. Hope must be defined in two categories: confident expectation and absolute expectation with regard to the future. The difference between confident expectation and absolute expectation is your spiritual status. If you have walked through the door of hope (a personal sense of destiny) with God’s agenda, then you have converted confident expectation into absolute expectation.

a. Hope is confident expectation parlayed into absolute expectation about the future, when you begin to use the problem solving devices.

b. Hope as confident expectation is perception and metabolization of Bible doctrine through the filling of the Holy Spirit (life in the orientation envelope—grace orientation and doctrinal orientation).

c. Hope as absolute expectation is entering the door of hope on God’s agenda and fulfilling the adult spiritual life through the advanced problem solving devices.

d. There are three doors of hope.

(1) The Old Testament door of hope.

(2) The Church Age door of hope. Both of these doors of hope are the dividing line between spiritual childhood and spiritual adulthood. Both of these doors of hope depend on the volition of the believer in his attitude toward Bible doctrine. You cannot enter the door of hope without going through on God’s agenda.

(3) The third door of hope is your personal eschatology, your entrance into the eternal state.

4. The source of hope is perception of doctrine. Hope is not ignorance, uncertainty, or oscillation. Hope becomes the key to the function of the plan of God. 5. Without understanding hope, your doctrinal motivation and momentum is completely destroyed. The unbeliever has no hope. It is the monopoly of the believer. Eph 2:12, “having no hope and without God in the world.”

6. Hope is the monopoly of the believer who is positive to Bible doctrine. 1 Thes 4:13, “that you may not grieve with the rest who have no hope.”

7. All definitions of hope in the Bible include the word expectation, because hope is always projected into the future. Expectation means looking forward, bringing the future into your life under the principle of living in the light of eternity. Hope is confidence in the immediate and/or distant future.

a. In the Hebrew, MIDBAT means confident expectation; BATACH means faith or hope in the Lord, slamming your problems on the Lord; KESEL means confidence, hope, having hope from the content of your thinking.

b. In the Greek, ELPIS and ELPIZO means to hope, to have confident expectation.

8. Hope is absolute security about the future; therefore, it acts as a motivator.

9. Hope at salvation is found in Tit 1:1a-2, “...and epignosis knowledge of truth compatible with the spiritual life because of hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before times eternal.”

a. Anyone who believes in Christ shall never perish but have eternal life. Eternal life is imputed to the human spirit and you cannot lose that eternal life. Hope is the assurance that at the moment of salvation you have eternal life. This is permanent and absolute. The basis for hope is the fact you have eternal life.

b. The absolute solutions belong to God and the understanding of these absolutes depends on hope in your soul. Hope is confidence of eternal life. We believe in Christ with confident expectation, and as a result of learning doctrine we have absolute expectation. Confident expectation includes the assurance of eternal security, the cognition of dying grace, and the reality of resurrection.

c. Expectation means living in the light of the future. Expectation related to hope means confidence about the future. Expectation is the dynamic mental attitude when believers enter the door of hope with God’s agenda. Hence, expectation is a personal sense of destiny, the first tactical objective of the spiritual life.

d. The reality of the glorious future of the Church Age believer is based on inculcation and metabolization of Bible doctrine. There is no understanding of our glorious future apart from Bible doctrine. Cognition and application of this glorious future while on earth is optional, based on your personal attitude toward Bible doctrine. The option includes mastery of the mechanics of the spiritual life. You become aware that you have a personal eschatology which includes your dying grace, death, resurrection, and eternal life.

e. Hope as a problem solving device functions in present stress and adversity through recall of Bible doctrine pertinent to your future, so that the recall of your future comfort, tranquility, perspective, and solution to the present problem.

10. In the word of God there is no neutral concept of expectation. Your expectation is either good or bad. If it is nothing, you are in serious trouble as a believer. Good expectation originates from metabolized doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness. Bad expectation is the result of the four horsemen of apostasy: emotional revolt of the soul, locked in negative volition, blackout of the soul, and scar tissue of the soul taking over control of the soul. There is nothing more awful in suffering in life than to look at your life at the point of dying and have nothing but regrets.

a. Going forward means looking forward. You do not go forward looking backward.

b. If you are going forward, you go forward on God’s agenda. If you are looking backward, you look backward on your own agenda—the arrogance skills of self-justification, lying to yourself in self-deception, and self-absorption. This becomes the base of operation for your miserable life.

c. Postsalvation hope is parlaying confident expectation of eternal life and blessings into absolute expectation of eternal life and blessings. Confident expectation is developed in the orientation envelop of grace orientation and doctrinal orientation. This brings us to the door of hope—a personal sense of destiny or spiritual self-esteem, the first tactical objective of the spiritual life. We must walk through this door of hope with God’s agenda for our life in order to enter the integrity envelop of personal love for God and impersonal love for all mankind. God’s agenda includes faith, hope, joy, and peace.

d. God’s agenda is defined in part in Rom 5:1-2,5, “Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace (reconciliation) with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through Whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand [the orientation envelop] in the hope of the glory of God [moving from the orientation envelop through the open door of a personal sense of destiny on God’s agenda and arriving at personal love for God the Father]… and hope does not disappoint us because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the agency of the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Rom 15:13, “Now may the God of absolute confidence fill you with all happiness and peace (prosperity, tranquility, harmony) in believing (faith- perception) that you may abound in confidence by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

e. This door of hope is the first tactical objective of the spiritual life. It is the dividing line between spiritual childhood and spiritual adulthood. It is the first stage of the adult spiritual life. Behind this door is God giving to us exceedingly abundantly beyond all we could ask or be imagining. Beyond this door are five categories of the adult spiritual life, i.e., five categories of the greatest treasure that has ever existed in the history of the human race.

(1) The stages of the adult spiritual life is the first category: spiritual self-esteem, spiritual autonomy, spiritual maturity.

(2) The second category is metabolized doctrine circulating in the stream of consciousness under the filling of the Holy Spirit. There are three stages of the second category: cognitive self- confidence, cognitive independence, and cognitive invincibility.

(3) The third category is virtue-love, the inventory of God’s treasure house in problem solving devices: personal love for God, impersonal love for all mankind, and occupation with Christ.

(4) The forth category is momentum testing—suffering for blessing: providential preventive suffering, momentum testing (people, thought, system, adversity testing), and evidence testing.

(5) The fifth category is the promotion status quo. When you go through the door of hope, you are in the status quo of being promoted by God: spiritual autonomy, spiritual maturity, maximum glorification of God.

B. God is the author or originator of hope.

1. Col 1:27, “(Church Age believers) to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ indwelling you, the absolute confidence of glory.” The fact that Jesus Christ indwells you is the basis and origin of hope two and hope three.

2. God is the author of our first hope. Titus 1:2, “in the hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before times eternal.”

3. God made a promise and is the origin of His own plan. Hope one is confidence that when you believe in Christ you have eternal life. Once you believe, you have the reality, shed hope one, and receive a new hope, hope two.

4. Doctrine always stands between the potential of having something and the hope or confidence that you will have it. Once you learn the doctrine, you have the hope.

a. For example, once you learn the pertinent doctrine, eternal life is no longer a hope but a reality.

b. Now you have a new hope, that of receiving blessings at the point of spiritual maturity. This hope is only a potential until you learn enough doctrine to make the hope real to you. Once you have learned enough doctrine, then the potential of blessings from God becomes a confident hope that He will bless you at the point of spiritual maturity.

c. When you reach spiritual maturity and are blessed, then this hope becomes a reality, and once again you must have a new hope. The new hope is hope three, the confidence of eternal rewards and blessings at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

5. The mature believer dies with absolute confidence of receiving reward in eternity.

C. Hope anticipates the function of the integrity of God on our behalf.

1. 1 Thes 1:3, “constantly bearing in mind your work of doctrine, and labor of love, and courage under pressure from hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of God the Father.”

2. Hope is cultivated through the intake of doctrine. Bible doctrine in the soul gives you confidence in the future and enjoyment of what God provides for you now.

3. Job 4:6, “Is not your respect for God your confidence? And is not your hope the integrity of your ways?” We have failure, but are related to the integrity of God. Your integrity comes from this hope, which comes from your respect for God.

4. Hope motivates function in the royal family honor code. Ps 71:5, “For you are my hope, O Lord God, my confidence from my youth.” David had doctrine parlayed into a structured system of confidence called hope.

5. Jer 17:7, “Happinesses to the man who puts his trust in the Lord and whose hope is in the Lord.” Faith-rest in the mature believer is a structured system of confidence called hope. 6. Rom 4:18, “who beyond the hope of sexual prosperity believed in hope, in order that he might become the father of many nations.” Abraham’s hope was a perfect example of hope as absolute confidence in a future expectation.

D. While God is the author of hope, doctrine is the source of that hope.

1. Rom 15:4, “For as many doctrines as have been written before, for our instruction they were written, in order that through perseverance and encouragement from the Scriptures we might have hope.”

2. Heb 11:1, “In fact, doctrine is the reality from which we receive hope, the proof of matters not being seen.” The reality of blessing for time and eternity is found in hope, which is confidence in the soul from metabolized doctrine.

E. The Working Equation of the Plan of God: X + Y + Z.

1. X [I/HL + I/AOS = P1 + D = H1] + (I/EL)

a. This is God’s plan for all unbelievers. X radical contains God’s will for the unbeliever.

b. Human life begins at birth; biological life in the womb is not human life.

c. The imputation of human life plus the imputation of Adam’s original sin to the old sin nature, both occurring simultaneously at birth equals the first potential: that being condemned we have the potential of salvation.

d. This means we are born in a totally helpless condition. We are under total depravity, totally helpless to have a relationship with God, and totally helpless to do anything about it. However, whenever we are in a hopeless situation, that is always a potential for divine solution.

e. This potential plus the pertinent doctrine, i.e., the gospel, equals the first hope: absolute confidence that once we believe in Christ, we will have eternal life.

f. The plus outside of the bracket represents the moment you believe in Jesus Christ, having faith and faith alone, adding nothing. That is the moment when God the Father imputes eternal life to the human spirit, which is created by God the Holy Spirit, called regeneration.

2. Y [J1 + J2 = P2 + D = H2] + (I/BT)

a. This is God’s plan for all immature believers. Y radical is God’s plan for the believer to receive blessings in time which glorify God.

b. Judicial imputation number one is the imputation of all the personal sins of the human race to Christ on the cross and His substitutionary spiritual death.

c. Judicial imputation number two is the imputation of God’s perfect divine righteousness to the believer at salvation. This is the basis for justification, for logistical grace support, and for becoming the recipients of God’s personal love.

d. The sum of these two judicial imputations equals the second potential: to execute God’s protocol plan for the Church Age and become an invisible hero.

e. This potential plus the pertinent doctrine, the mystery doctrine of the Church Age, equals the second hope: absolute confidence that at the moment I advance to spiritual maturity, I am manufactured into an invisible hero and I become a member of the pivot. Then I will receive escrow blessings beyond my wildest imaginations from the justice of God, which glorify God.

f. The plus outside of the bracket is the point of the execution of the protocol plan of God, when you reach spiritual maturity, become an invisible hero, a winner, and the recipient of your escrow blessings.

3. Z [I/EL + I/BT = P3 + D = H3] = Plan of God.

a. Z radical contains God’s plan for the mature believer. It combines the two pluses in the above two brackets.

b. The imputation of eternal life (the plus at the end of X radical) plus the imputation of escrow blessings in time (the third at the end of Y radical) equals the third potential: to receive escrow blessings for eternity at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

c. This potential plus the pertinent doctrine, eschatological doctrine and specifically that which teaches about the Rapture, the Judgment Seat of Christ, and the distribution of escrow blessings for the eternal state, adds up to the third hope: the absolute confidence of the invisible hero that he will receive the most fantastic eternal rewards and blessings above and beyond the resurrection body at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

d. All three radicals, X + Y + Z, equal the protocol plan of God for the human race. These hopes are the anchors for momentum in the Christian life. These hopes, when acquired, give great confidence toward the present and the future.

F. Imputation is the basis for each of these hopes.

1. Hope is confident anticipation of reality before that reality occurs.

2. Once the reality occurs, the hope is replaced by that reality. Rom 8:24, “Now when a hope is seen, it is no longer a hope. So who hopes for what he sees?”

3. The hope of blessings for time is replaced by the reality of blessings in time received at the point of spiritual maturity.

4. The hope of blessings for eternity is replaced by the reality of receiving rewards and blessings at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

5. In each stage of the plan of God, there are two imputations which provide both the potential and the hope. The difference between the potential and the hope is perception of doctrine.

6. Doctrine in the soul through the function of GAP makes the difference between the potential and the hope. The potential doesn’t advance you. The reversionist has the potential of blessing, yet he does not have the hope of being blessed.

7. In X radical, the two imputations result in condemnation, providing the first potential and making possible the first hope. You must hear the gospel to make the first potential become a hope.

8. In Y radical, the two judicial imputations provide both the potential and the hope for blessing in time.

9. In Z radical, the two imputations provide both the potential and the hope for blessing and reward at the Judgment Seat of Christ.

G. When hope is replaced by reality, the believer advances in the plan of God.

1. Whenever a hope is replaced by the reality, the believer advances in the plan of God so that another set of imputations can set up another thrust in the plan of God.

2. The reality of salvation through faith in Christ replaces the hope of salvation, so that new imputations become pertinent in the gathering momentum of the plan of God.

3. The reality of spiritual maturity through maximum doctrine resident in the soul replaces the hope of the sixth imputation (blessings in time) with the reality of that imputation. Two more imputations then become pertinent to form the third hope.

4. The replacement of the third hope with reality awaits the resurrection of the Church. By putting these concepts together in logical order, you can conclude the reality of resurrection, future blessing, and eternity. Blessings and rewards for all eternity then become a reality without the use of illustration.

H. Hope, the Momentum Factor.

1. Hope is the momentum factor in the plan of God. This is because hope gives you confidence about a future thing. Doctrine gives you confidence about near and distant future things.

2. Hope is a confidence that keeps driving. Therefore, it is a dynamic of life.

3. Hope is unique to the believer only. Unbelievers have no hope.

4. Rom 15:13, “Now may the God of hope fill you with all happiness and prosperity by believing, that you may superabound in hope [3] by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

I. The First Hope: Eternal Life.

1. Condemnation must precede salvation. Therefore, the first potential, salvation, is converted into the hope of salvation by learning and understanding the gospel.

2. The Holy Spirit teaches the gospel and makes it a reality in the soul of the person who hears the presentation of the gospel.

3. Hope one is knowing that by believing in Christ you have eternal life. Rom 8:24 states the principle: “For with reference to that hope we have been saved.” When a person expresses positive volition at God consciousness, God provides the gospel. Gospel hearing converts the potential into the hope of salvation. And that hope is knowing that when you believe in Christ, you have eternal life.

4. Therefore when you believe, that is the first momentum in the plan of God. Common grace becomes efficacious grace when you believe, just as the reality of salvation replaces the hope of salvation.

5. Job 5:16, “the hopeless have hope.” Unbelievers are helpless to save themselves, but gospel hearing merits hope.

6. In Heb 7:19, the first hope is called “a better hope.”

7. Hope one is related to the divine decrees in Titus 1:2, “in hope of eternal life.”

8. Efficacious grace converts the reality of hope into the reality of salvation at the moment you believe. Titus 3:7, “made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

J. The Second Hope: Blessings in Time.

1. The second potential is the potential of the imputation of blessings in time, resulting in the glorification of God in time.

2. This is blessing which you never need to worry about losing. This is the potential for the greatest relationship with the Lord and total capacity for life.

3. Once we persevere in doctrine and grow to the point of personal love for God and spiritual self-esteem, then we have confidence of attaining spiritual maturity.

4. Y radical is where the believer advances in the Christian life from salvation to spiritual maturity. Because of the two judicial imputations, spiritual maturity is a potential for every believer.

5. Hope two is based on the imputation of divine righteousness. When God’s perfect righteousness was imputed to us, this became a standing order for us to advance to spiritual maturity.

6. Blessing is anticipated through hope. You also have security with your blessing. Once you receive it, you cannot lose it. This gives you the freedom to devote your attention to the Lord, the source of your blessing, and to other things you find meaningful.

7. Lam 3:20-25, “Surely my soul remembers and is humbled within me. This I recall to mind, therefore I have hope. The Lord’s gracious functions never cease, for His compassions never fail; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. `The Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, `therefore, I have hope in Him.’ The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the one who seeks Him.”

8. 2 Cor 10:15, “not boasting beyond our measure in other men’s labors, but with the hope that as your doctrine increases, we shall be within our sphere enlarged even more by you.”

9. Gal 5:5, “For we through the Spirit from doctrine are waiting for the hope [2] of righteousness.” Imputed divine righteousness demands fulfillment through the imputation of divine blessing at spiritual maturity and thereafter. The grace of God is exploited to the maximum at spiritual maturity.

10. Divine justice can only bless divine righteousness. Since you have a double portion of divine righteousness, you will have a double portion of blessing as a Church Age believer. Divine righteousness is the principle of divine integrity; divine justice is the function of divine integrity. So righteousness guards the justice of God, and justice guards the other divine attributes. What righteousness demands, justice executes.

11. God never removes blessing unless you lose the capacity through ignoring doctrine. Otherwise, the blessing God gives is secure. You are miserable with everything without capacity for life from doctrine. If you lose capacity you may lose the blessing. So God never gives unless you have capacity. God doesn’t give haphazardly or impulsively.

12. If you receive or give blessing by association, it will bring misery if there is no capacity. Blessing brings happiness and security.

13. The second hope is the next best thing to having the blessing.

14. The second hope is motivation to press on to that divine blessing waiting for you since eternity past, so that Jesus Christ can be glorified.

15. Rom 5:1, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, let us have prosperity.” That is a command!

16. 1 Pet 3:15, “But set apart Christ as Lord of your right lobe, always being ready to give a reason to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you.”

17. Matt 6:33 refers to the second hope, as does Rom 5:17, “they who receive in life this surplus from grace [the fulfillment of hope two].”

K. The Third Hope: Eternal Reward.

1. The third potential is that of great blessing and reward at the Judgment Seat of Christ. Hope three is absolute confidence of receiving blessing and reward at the Judgment Seat of Christ because you already have the reality of the blessings of hope two, plus the necessary doctrine to produce hope three.

2. Hope three is always related to undeserved suffering, so that you are always blessed in undeserved suffering.

3. Hope three is the greatest structural and dynamic thinking which can exist in the soul of the believer. For example, in Heb 11, Abraham died in a tent, but he knew he had a home in heaven.

4. The believer who is cut off by the Rapture before attaining spiritual maturity will still receive eternal blessing because the omniscience of God knows what would have happened had the Rapture not taken place. No one ever loses blessing with the justice of God.

5. Hope three is part of the second a fortiori of Rom 5:12-17.

6. Resurrection is part of the confident anticipation of hope three, since blessing is imputed to the resurrection body.

7. Acts 23:6, “I am on trial for the hope, even the resurrection from the dead.” Acts 24:15, 26:6.

8. The third hope is the source of great happiness to the mature believer, since it makes eternity a reality, Rom 12:12.

9. Hope two and 3 are both found in Eph 1:18-19.

10. Hope three is reserved in heaven for the mature believer. Col 1:5, “because of the hope laid up for you in heaven, of which you previously heard in the word of truth.”

11. The mature believer anticipates this hope, Tit 2:13. The third hope is never an issue to the immature believer. No one really understands the third hope as a system of doctrine in the soul until he reaches spiritual maturity.

12. The mature believer constantly possesses this hope, Heb 6:18-20. The two immutable things are God’s promise and God’s person.

13. Jesus Christ is the advance guard because He has received a resurrection body. We will receive the spoils of His victory, 1 Pet 1:3,13,21.

14. The third hope in the soul of the believer purifies his motivation and perpetuates his spiritual momentum, 1 Jn 3:2-3. The glory of Jesus Christ is far greater than anything else we could possibly value in time.

L. Undeserved suffering provides impetus and stimulation for hope three, thus increasing momentum.

1. Undeserved suffering gives us concentration on hope three. Adversity is often designed for blessing. To the believer, adversity is often a blessing in disguise. Rom 5:2-5.

2. The third hope is defined in terms of confident anticipation, and is related to undeserved suffering in Rom 8:23-25.

3. Undeserved suffering stimulates hope three, Rom 8:35-37.

M. Hope Three is the highest motivation in life. Rom 12:12, “With reference to hope [3], be rejoicing; with reference to undeserved suffering, stand fast.” This is the highest point in the life of any believer, because he is able to face the worst of reality with the greatest of blessing, confidence, and dynamic thinking.

N. Hope as a Problem Solving Device in the Great Power Experiment of the Church Age.

1. Rom 15:13, “Now may the God of hope [confidence] fill you with all happiness [+H] and prosperity in believing, that you may abound in confidence by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

2. Eph 1:18-19 combines the great power experiment of the Church Age with confidence. “That the eyes of your right lobe may be enlightened [post-salvation epistemological rehabilitation] so that you may know what is the hope of His calling [confidence of our election], what are the riches of His glory [divine capitalization by our portfolio of invisible assets] of His inheritance for the saints, what is the surpassing greatness of His power to us who have believed for the working of His superior power.”

a. The execution of the protocol plan of God results in the glorification of God through the distribution of our escrow blessings. The first thing God ever did for us is the means of glorifying Him. The first thing He did in eternity past was to deposit into escrow greater blessings for you.

b. Because the Church Age is the extension of the great power experiment of the hypostatic union, the divine omnipotence of the Father, Son, and Spirit are available to each of us.

(1) We have the omnipotence of God the Father through our portfolio of invisible assets. His power comes into function in our lives as we learn and utilize these assets.

(2) We have the omnipotence of Jesus Christ through the preservation of history, giving us a day at a time. His power comes into operation in our lives by keeping us alive.

(3) We have the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit as we reside inside the divine dynasphere.

c. The working of His superior power is seen when we become what we were designed to be: invisible heroes, Col 1:10-12.

3. Rom 5:2-3, “Through whom also we have obtained that access by means of faith into this grace in which we stand; and so let us demonstrate the happiness of God in the hope [confidence] of the glory of God. And not only this, but also let us demonstrate God’s perfect happiness in adversities, knowing that such adversity brings about courage. And courage [perseverance] under pressure brings about proven character [spiritual adulthood], and proven character brings about hope [confidence]; and confidence never disappoints, because the love for God [spiritual self-esteem] has been poured out in our right lobes by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

a. Once you have the full use of +H in spiritual adulthood, understanding it in full and using it, then you direct it in confidence toward the glory of God.

b. As the great power experiment of the Church Age, this dispensation is our opportunity to demonstrate the known truth of Bible doctrine.

c. You cannot have capacity for life without courage. Fear is the mental attitude of worry, anxiety, and compromise. The more things you fear, the greater expands your fear until it destroys your mental attitude.

d. So as a result of this confidence, you have a mental attitude that cannot be broken by anything in life. Instead, it is the most magnificent attitude toward life.

4. Therefore hope or confidence is a problem solving device. It is constantly related to +H as a problem solving device. Therefore, Rom 12:12: “With reference to confidence, be rejoicing [+H]; with reference to adversity, be persevering, persist in prayer.” Again Rom 15:13.

5. Bible doctrine is the source of hope or confidence. Rom 15:4, “For as many doctrines have been written before for our instruction, they were written in order that through perseverance and encouragement from the Scriptures, we might have confidence.”

6. Hope or confidence begins to function at spiritual self-esteem. 1 Pet 3:15, “But set apart Jesus Christ as Lord in your right lobes, always ready to give a reason to everyone who asks you, to give an account for the confidence that is in you.” You must have that confidence before you can give an account. This is a part of the dynamics of witnessing for Jesus Christ.

7. The great power experiment of the Church Age has a better confidence or hope than the dispensation of Israel which functioned under the Mosaic Law. Every Church Age believer is given the necessary portfolio in order to become an invisible hero and have historical impact. Heb 7:18-19, “For on the one hand, there is a setting aside of the former commandment [Mosaic Law] because of its weakness and uselessness (the Law made nothing perfect), but on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better confidence through which we draw near to [have fellowship with] God.”

8. While in the Old Testament there was a form of hope, the termination of the great power experiment of the Church Age is also related to hope. 1 Jn 3:2-3, “Beloved [royal family of God], we are now students of God, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. However, we know that when He should appear, we shall be like Him [in resurrection bodies], because we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who keeps on having this confidence in Him purifies himself even as He is pure.” There is the great purity of absolute confidence.

9. Tit 2:13, “looking for the blessed hope [confidence], even the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”

10. The Rapture is now a confidence for us; in the future it will be a reality. Our enjoyment of our future is based upon the confidence we possess in the present. But that confidence comes from Bible doctrine. That confidence comes from fulfilling Moses’ writing of Ps 90:12, “So teach us to organize our days that we might attain a right lobe of wisdom.”

O. The Function of Hope in Historical Disaster.

1. The hope of a nation in crisis is related to the pivot of mature believers. The pivot is the hope of the nation in every historical disaster, Ezra 10:2.

2. If the pivot is too small and the spinoff of reversionists too great, then Ezek 37:11 applies: “Our hope has perished; we are completely cut off.”

3. Therefore, the hope of the reversionist is useless and powerless. Job 8:13-14, “Therefore the hope of the godless will perish.” Job 11:20, “And their hope is in the expiring of their soul.”

4. Historical disaster is always a reminder to the reversionist that he has rejected doctrine, and therefore has rejected the only true confidence in life. Lam 3:17-18, “My strength has perished and so has my hope from the Lord.” It is a tragedy for the believer to live on the earth without carrying around in his soul that fantastic third hope.

5. The unbeliever has no hope, 1 Thes 4:13.

P. Principles of Hope for the Client Nation.

1. You cannot buy hope. Hope is not for sale. You cannot peddle hope as a politician. No politician has a right to give you hope. Hope comes from God, not from politicians.

2. You cannot legislate hope. You cannot pass laws to give people hope. That is a misuse of law. Therefore, no government can give you hope.

3. Hope is the monopoly of the word of God. Hope is a system of absolute confidence. The only hope for deliverance in historical crisis depends on the invisible heroes or pivot of mature believers.

4. Hope in the nation depends on attitude toward Bible doctrine. As goes the Church Age believer, so goes the client nation to God.

5. Only those believers who execute the protocol plan of God and become invisible heroes can be a source of deliverance of the client nation from the five cycles of divine discipline.

6. Therefore, the only hope for the client nation is related to the three categories of hope in the protocol plan of God. (See point 5.)

a. Hope one is absolute confidence that when you believe in Christ you have eternal life.

b. Hope two is absolute confidence that when you reach maturity you will receive your escrow blessings for time.

c. Hope three is absolute confidence that at the Judgment Seat of Christ you will receive your escrow blessings for eternity.

7. Therefore, hope is a technical monopoly belonging only to the royal family of God.

8. The pivot of invisible heroes always support freedom institutions, e.g., military establishment, law enforcement, marriage and family life, government, evangelism, Bible teaching from prepared pastors, and missionary activity. Whether these institutions succeed or not depend upon the invisible impact of invisible heroes.

9. False hope permeates the nation where Christian degeneracy predominates.

Q. Jeremiah’s Absolute Hope.

1. The generals and princes of the Land hated Jeremiah because he had been warning the people about the coming of the fifth cycle of discipline. The generals and princes thought they could off set the fifth cycle of discipline by going down to Egypt for help. Zedekiah, the king of Israel, liked Jeremiah but was afraid of his generals and princes. The people generally rejected his ministry, just as they had done with Moses. Jeremiah was put in prison to try and shut him up. When that did not work, they put him in the sewage system of Jerusalem. Jeremiah had hoped that the people would respond to his message. But people came to hear him only so they could hate him more.

2. Hope is confident expectation parlayed into absolute expectation. You will never have any true happiness in life unless you hit the door of hope on God’s agenda. The door of hope is your personal sense of destiny, your spiritual self-esteem. When you go through that door of hope on God’s agenda, you have absolute confidence about the future. Hope is the personal eschatology you have when you deploy a personal sense of destiny on the FLOT line of your soul. Hope takes you to your personal eschatology as a problem solving device so you can meet present problems with tranquility.

3. Jeremiah’s absolute hope is found in Lam 3:20-26, “Surely my soul remembers and is humbled within me. This I recall to mind, therefore I have hope. The unfailing mercies of the Lord never cease, for His compassions never fail; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. My soul says, `The Lord is my portion, therefore I have absolute confidence in Him.’ The Lord is good to those who endure in the absolute confidence of hope for Him, to the soul who seeks Him. Good it is to wait and to be silent for the deliverance of the Lord.”

a. You do not learn doctrine through arrogance, but only through humility. God the Holy Spirit only controls the life of the humble believer. b. Jeremiah remembers because God ordered him to remember in verse 19.

c. The believer who puts both his personal injustices and national disaster in the hands of the supreme court of heaven will not be distracted from walking through the door of hope under God’s agenda.

d. The testimony of some of Jeremiah’s Bible class students is given in the following passages.

(1) Ps 119:116, “Sustain me according to your word that I may live and do not let me be ashamed of my hope.”

(2) Ps 119:49-50, “Remember the word to your servant in which You caused me to hope. This is my comfort in stress that Your promise keeps me alive.”

(3) Ps 119:81, “My soul faints for Your deliverance. I hope in Your word.”

(4) Ps 119:13-14, “I hate double minded men. But I love Your word. You are my hiding place and my shield. I hope in Your word.” (5) Ps 119:147, “I anticipate the dawn and cry for help. I hope in Your doctrine.”

e. Jer 31:17, “And there is hope for your future. And your children will return to your own county.”

R. The Other Side of the Door of Hope.

1. On the other side of the door of hope is the most fantastic spiritual life.

a. This spiritual life includes personal love for God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

(1) This kind of love demands a tremendous virtue. On the other side of the door is the spiritual virtue of the adult believer. On the other side of the door is the tremendous capacity needed to truly love God. This capacity is part of the agenda by which we go through the door of hope.

(2) Invisible God can only be truly loved by a capacity for love which is in the soul. That capacity comes when you have passed through the door of hope and entered into the unique advanced spiritual life.

(3) The love of the believer for God is the highest love that can exist and is quite different for the man and the woman. Spiritual virtue of the adult believer has the highest love for God. This love is without emotion.

b. This spiritual life on the other side of the door of hope also includes impersonal love for all mankind, sharing the happiness of God, and occupation with Christ.

2. This believer is a winner believer. He understands what Jesus Christ did in His hypostatic union with His spiritual life. He has executed the unique spiritual life of the Church Age. He has maximum spiritual virtue. He understands that the same spiritual life our Lord had in His hypostatic union has been given to him. He has spiritual self- esteem, cognitive self-confidence, the advanced problem solving devices. He has a happiness that does not depend on the circumstances of life and is, therefore, ready for momentum testing.

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