Ozwitness

There is one chapter in the Bible which summarises the future for those God has called and chosen. Not yet ALL those who have ever lived, for there are 2 distinct resurrections and we are here looking at the “”first fruits”” resurrection, Revelation 14:4, as against  the second resurrection of the ‘great white throne’ judgement in Revelation 20:11-12, which I will cover later.

That chapter is John chapter 17.  John 17:2 tells us who the chapter is about. They understand that Jesus’ teaching was from His Father, John 17:6-9, and now they keep Gods commands and belong to both the Father and Christ.

They are the called out ones and will be kept through God’s Name, John 17:11, as we read throughout the New Testament – ‘The Church of God’.  Christ has given them God’s word, but the world has then hated them, John 17:14, for it is not easy to be a true Christian in an evil world, John 17:15-18.

The next verses speak of  a mystery, and you can read about that in a recent article on this site entitled,  “”The Mystery of The Gospel””.  It explains  that Jesus and His Father are “”one””, as of one mind in all things, but now christ prays that these too may become ‘one’  with Himself and His Father.

This will occur fully when they are resurrected and marry Jesus Christ  before His Father’s Throne, on the Sea of Glass, in Heaven. Revelation 14:1-5, 15:2, 19:7.

They are now the children of God but will become the Bride of Christ and take His Father’s Name, as they join His family, Revelation 14, and rule with Christ here on the earth, Rev. 20:4. They  will remain close to their Lord and Husband for eternity, John 17:24, and share in His Glory.

These are not the beliefs of any denomination, but simply the plain words of God, John 17:17, which you may believe, or not, but your choice could determine if you will be in the better resurrection, Hebrews 11:35,  ‘Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection. NIV. Or, in the second resurrection, which we will examine next time.'”

Years ago I lived in a beautiful valley in NSW which contained many caves in which were found many aboriginal cave paintings, most of them very simple silhouettes of hands, boomerangs etc. formed by spluttering white clay from the mouth, but one quite separate cave contained a larger than life, impressive, coloured  painting of a man with arms and legs akimbo. This was understood to be  the aboriginal god Biame, the sky god of the Dreamtime – the Creator of all, and the guardian of the valley.

The difference between all the others and this one made me doubt that they were done by the same people. Was Biame painted by  an earlier race, like  the more figurative works in the Kimberly, which some anthropologists have suggested were produced by an earlier race, later wiped out by much larger and stronger aboriginals?

The fact is that ALL Australians arrived here from overseas, and we can’t know for sure when. The Bible tells us that ALL humans descend from Adam, and then Noah after the Flood,  when God created different languages to make Noah’s descendants spread out over the earth. Even today most races retain some knowledge of the Flood, and the Creator God. Is it a co-incidence that Biame, the sky god, was for the Aboriginals also the Creator? Could be that he is the same God worshipped by Christians?

The aboriginal people never had a written language, and knowledge passed on orally soon becomes confused, so it could be expected that they would forget more than the cultures which wrote down their history. At the time of Abraham in Babylon there were great libraries where records were kept on clay tablets and stone. Moses , one of Abraham’s descendants, wrote down the first five books of the Bible, as God instructed, and  Abraham’s descendants eventually gained the whole of God’s word.

That book tells us that Aboriginals are just as much God’s children as for example, the Jews.  Jesus said we ALL should pray to our Father in Heaven and that God’s words are Truth.  It is quite understandable that, without writing. Truth quickly became lost to confusion during the ‘Dreamtime’, when Satan could take advantage of the situation to insert a plethora of false gods into aboriginal culture, but  the one true Creator God is their Father, as He is ours.

The Jews and the rest of Abraham’s descendants in the Western nations largely kept god’s Laws and so developed Western civilisation, until, eventually, Australia was colonised.  But, like the Aboriginals,  They too eventually forgot God’s Laws , encouraged by the evolutionists  to reject the Bible.

The result was the same.  With the lack of God’s Laws they too began to degenerate. Society began to unwind. Like the Canaanites of old they began to sacrifice their children.  Millions of the unborn have been killed, torn from the womb. Broken homes, lawlessness, violence and murder now pollute the land, and perversions have become the acceptable norm, even here in Australia.

But God’s word is  still there and individuals can still prosper and be blessed by following it, for the rewards are as automatic as the penalties for breaking it. God’s word also contains God’s Plan for those who chose to obey – a future so magnificent, so stupendous that it is almost beyond our comprehension.

Next time I will attempt to summarise that Plan, but first, here is a clue:    ‘So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them’.  Genesis 1:27.”