God's Plan for Man and Planet Earth

By Elton Yutzy

The author has been studying the prophetic scriptures for over forty years. He postulates that the prophets not only give us a telescopic view into the future (ages to come Ephesians 2:7) but also a telescopic view into ages past (Ephesians 3:5,9). God is the only one who truly knows the end from the beginning thus his word is the only reliable

• Language: English
• Publisher: TOPLINK PUBLISHING, LLC
• Release date: Mar 15, 2018
• ISBN: 9781948779647

Elton Yutzy

Elton Yutzy has been married to Betty Kuhns Yutzy for 55 years. They have four children (One died at age 9), five grandchildren. He graduated from Cedarville College/University with a Comprehensive Bible degree. He is an ordained minister and pastored the Maranatha Community Fellowship Church for 36 years before steeping down to be an associate pastor. He wrote a weekly article for the local newspapers for 20 years. He was a chaplain for Loving Care Hospice for 15 years. He is presently involved with the Kairos prison ministry and teaching bible classes in the prisons.

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GOD’S Plan for Man and Planet Earth

Elton Yutzy

Copyright © 2018 by Elton Yutzy.

Hardback: 978-1-948779-63-0

Paperback: 978-1-948779-62-3

eBook: 978-1-948779-64-7

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Contents

Credits

About the author

Introduction

Chapter 1: Before the Beginning

Chapter 2: The Beginning of the Ages

Chapter 3: Creation Week: The Present Age Begins

Chapter 4: Man’s body, God’s Temple

Chapter 5: The Garden of Eden

Chapter 6: The Creation of Eve

Chapter 7: God’s Plan for Man

Chapter 8: The Fall of Man and the Curse

Chapter 9: The Effects of the Curse

Chapter 10: Conscience: God’s Moral Compass for Humanity

Chapter 11: Sons of God

Chapter 12: Effects of the Flood on Creation

Chapter 13: Rainbow Covenant

Chapter 14: Tower of Babel

Chapter 15: The Calling of Abraham

Chapter 16: The Blessing of Abram

Chapter 17: Predestination versus Free Will

Chapter 18: Calvinism versus Arminianism

Chapter 19: Israel – God’s Wife

Chapter 20: Idolatry – The Root of Sin

Chapter 21: The Times of the Gentiles

Chapter 22: Daniel’s 70 Weeks

Chapter 23: The Church Age

Chapter 24: The Destruction of the Temple Prophesied

Chapter 25: Let no one deceive you

Chapter 26: The Gospel of the Kingdom

Chapter 27: The Abomination of Desolation

Chapter 28: Armageddon

Chapter 29: The Times and Seasons of His Return

Chapter 30: Anti-Semitism, God’s tool to bring

Israel back to their land

Chapter 31: The Church And The Tribulation

Chapter 32: From Tribulation to Peace and Prosperity

Chapter 33: The Sheep and Goat Nations

Chapter 34: The Kingdom Age

Chapter 35: The First Resurrection

Chapter 36: The Wedding

Chapter 37: Characteristics of the Kingdom

Chapter 38: The Millennial Temple

Chapter 39: The Glory of the Lord Returns

Chapter 40: Reigning with Christ

Chapter 41: The Kingdom Economy

Chapter 42: Kingdom Justice – ruling with a rod of iron

Chapter 43: Travel in the Kingdom

Chapter 44: The Final War Between Good and Evil

Chapter 45: The Judgment of the Wicked Dead

Chapter 46: Predestination - By Decree or By Default

Chapter 47: Hell – Where Is It?

Chapter 48: The New Heaven and New Earth

Chapter 49: The New Jerusalem

Chapter 50: The Inheritance – Our Incentive to Work

Conclusion: Admonition to Christians

Credits

This book is the product of over 50 years of reading and studying. So many people and authors have contributed to my growth and understanding of the Bible that it is impossible for me to remember them. But in the final analysis I came to the conclusion the bible is the best commentary – and the only inspired commentary - on the Bible and can only be understood when accompanied by the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth (John 16:13; 1 Cor. 2:10-14). Thanks be to God for making His truth known and giving us His Holy Spirit to guide us i n it.

I do want to give a great big thank you to my loving and understanding wife for her support during my ministry and especially while writing this book. I spent over thirty days alone away from home working on the book while she stayed at home keeping things in order and supporting me with her prayers.

A special thank you to Ray and Regina Pettry for allowing me to use their home in West Virginia while working on the book. There was no internet access available there and the cell phone did not work. It afforded me a quit setting to be alone with God working on the book.

Thanks to my friend Brian LeCrone, owner of LeCrone Communications, (http://lecronecom.com/) for designing the book cover.

For any questions or comments regarding the book visit http://eltonyutzy.com or email me at [e-mail]

Yours in Christ,

Elton Yutzy

About the author

The author graduated from Cedarville College (now Cedarville University) majoring in Biblical Studies. He spent the last forty years in the ministry pastoring at the Maranatha Community Fellowship church. He also was very active in the community. He wrote weekly articles for local newspapers for 20 years. He served as chairman of the Plain City church Fellowship for 12 years; He helped start the local chapter of Habitat for Humanity and served on the board several years. He served as volunteer chaplain for Loving care Hospice for 15 years. He has volunteered and served in the Kairos Prison Ministries since 2001 and is presently serving on the Kairos Prison Ministry local advisory board for the London Correctional Institution. He served as lead pastor of Maranatha Community Fellowship for over 30 years until he chose to semi-retire in 2009. In 2017, he retired from the church and presently stays involved in the Kairos prison ministry and teaching college bible classes in prison as his health per mits.

The author’s varied ministerial experience exposed him to many different pastors and community leaders with varied religious beliefs and doctrines; liberals and conservatives; Calvinists and Arminians; evolutionists and creationists. He has read many authors and read many commentaries seeking the meaning of the biblical text and how it relates to the issues facing the church in our day.

There are so many people, authors, pastors, preachers, and events that have contributed in one way or another to his understanding of the scriptures, it is impossible to recognize them all. But the one person and event that had the most influence, apart from the Holy Spirit, was his father’s words to the pastor of his church. One of the authors siblings had done something the church’s pastor thought crossed the line regarding the church’s standards. At the end of the conversation that took place at our house, the author overheard the pastor implore his dad to make his sons follow the church’s standards. His dad replied, regarding the church’s standards, You show me where it says it in the Bible and I will tell them, otherwise they can make up their own minds. That phrase – show me where it says it in the Bible – became the author’s lifelong modus operandi in developing his faith.

The most important person and guide to helping someone understand the Holy Scriptures is the Holy Spirit. Jesus promised he would sent his Spirit to guide us into all truth (John 16:13). The apostle Paul, who had the best religious education one could achieve in his day, could not understand the spiritual meaning of the scriptures he was taught until his conversion and filling of the Holy Spirit. Immediately he began to preach that Jesus, whose followers he was persecuting for preaching a false doctrine, indeed was the Son of God as he claimed to be (Acts 9:19-20). When filled with the Holy Spirit, Paul immediately understood the spiritual meaning of the scriptures

Paul stated it very clearly in his letter to the Corinthians that apart from the Holy Spirit no one can understand the thoughts of God and the meaning of the inspired words recorded in the Bible.

"It is written, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has known what God has prepared for those who love him. But God has shown it to us through his Spirit. The Spirit understands all things. He understands even the deep things of God. Who can know the thoughts of another person? Only a person’s own spirit can know them. In the same way, only the Spirit of God knows God’s thoughts. We have not received the spirit of the world. We have received the Spirit who is from God. The Spirit helps us understand what God has freely given us. That is what we speak about. We don’t use words taught to us by people. We use words taught to us by the Holy Spirit. We use the words of the Spirit to teach the truths of the Spirit" (1 Corinthians 2:9–13, NIrV).

The last sentence in verse 13 – We use the words of the Spirit to teach the truths of the Spirit – means the Holy Spirit teaches comparing spiritual things with spiritual. He is the one who guides us into the meaning of the Truth (John 16:13).

This is the method the author relied on in his study and in the writing of this book. He believes if the Holy Spirit can inspire fisherman, sheepherders, tax collectors and guerilla fighters, etc. into writing the scriptures, the Holy Spirit can guide the honest seeker today into understanding the meaning of the inspired scriptures.

The greatest hindrance to our understanding the scriptures is the childlike faith we have in accepting as true what our parents and church leaders taught us. We all should want to believe our elders. This is how tradition is passed on from generation to generation. When someone chooses not to believe what he is taught, he is classified as a rebel. Imagine what the reformers (Martin Luther, Menno Simons, Zwingli, Wycliffe, etc.) went through and endured when they did not conform to the established church doctrine. Where would the church be today were it not for the reformers who risked their very lives in standing up against the established doctrines of the church?

The danger in leaving the established doctrines is that man tends to do it his own way, often with some ax to grind. Some examples are Joseph Smith – Mormonism; Charles Russell – Jehovah’s Witness; Jim Jones – Peoples Temple; many TV and radio ministries today who are more interested in building their own kingdom and followers than they are in building the church for the kingdom of Christ and making disciples for Christ.

Thus, the author, questioning these religious incongruities, thought it best for him to go away alone with God, away from the daily noise of this world, and seek after God for answers to some of the most troubling issues he faced. A couple, Ray and Regina Pettry, let the author use their vacant house in the mountains of West Virginia where the author spent over 30 days alone without internet, cell phone service, TV or radio, prayerfully seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit while working on the contents of this book.

The author humbly submits this book for your prayerful reading and consideration of the things that came to the authors mind as he was seeking after God. Thoughts about creation – evolution; abortion; homosexuality; Calvinism – Arminianism; heaven – hell; God’s plan for the wicked, the righteous and the bride of Christ and last, but not least, his plan for planet earth.

It is the author’s hope and prayer that what is written in this book will cause the reader to think through his own beliefs regarding these issues. Where the reader disagrees (there may be many disagreements, no doubt) may it motivate the reader to earnestly search the scriptures for himself and know what he believes and why.

Introduction

God has a plan and purpose for everything he does. He knew the end from the beginning before he ever created anything. Everything he created, he created for himself. God is going to be glorified in what he does.

For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: (Colossians 1:16)

Does God have a plan for the wicked other than going to hell forever and ever? God, who created all things, is not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9; Ezekiel 18:23). God has a plan for wicked Israel (after he punishes them) to give them a future and a hope (Jeremiah 29:11-12). Does God have a plan for the gentiles after he has justly punished them?

My God knows everything from the beginning to the end and the end from the beginning. He never forgets anything because he is omniscient. God had a plan in mind for the earth and everything in it before he ever laid its foundation. That plan included Christ’s death and redemption for all people from the evil caused by Lucifer’s fall and Adam’s sin (Isaiah 14:12-14; Genesis 3:16-19; Matthew 17:11; Acts 3:21; Romans 8:21-23; 1John 2:2).

David wrote in Psalms 139:16 (NIV), Your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. Has God ordained the wicked and their evil ways? How do we reconcile the fact that God is not willing that any should perish but, according to Calvinist teaching, he has predestinated many to go to hell without a choice of their own. The Armenians believe that God, by default, has predestinated all who do not hear the gospel and repent of their sins will go to hell forever without giving many ever a chance to hear the gospel in this life.

Israel is the wife of God, the woman who brought his son into the world, (Revelation 12:1). Because of Israel’s adultery God gave her a certificate of divorce (Jeremiah 3:8; Isaiah 50:1). In the end God is going to forgive her and take her back. She will again become the apple of his eye (Zechariah 2:8). Once justice is served, mercy will triumph (Isaiah 16:5; James 2:13).

God’s ultimate plan for his new earth is to redeem and cleanse it (Romans 8:19-23) and move his own dwelling place from heaven above onto the earth below. Revelation 21:2-3 (NLT) reads, And I saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, ‘Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.’

God does indeed have a plan for every person he ever created. He created man to serve and glorify him. God has spoken and he will not go back on his word. He has sworn that at some point, every knee will bow to him and every tongue will confess allegiance to him (Isaiah 45:23).

This book is about God’s plan for all mankind and for planet earth in the ages to come.

Chapter 1

Before the Beginning

I believe in the BIG BANG theory. God spoke and BANG it happened. I don’t know how loud he spoke but it must have thundered. It didn’t take God weeks or years to accomplish his work. The same goes when he will create a new heaven and a new earth. He will say the Word and it will happen. It is not going to take Him thousands of years to create a new heaven and new earth after the millennium! If he can make a new heaven and earth instantly in Revelation 21:1, then he could also do it in Genesis 1:1.

Genesis 1:1 states, In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In the beginning of WHAT?

In the beginning was God. God had no beginning. He is eternal and always exists in the present. His name is I AM. I understand that I AM is in the verb form, is present tense, and means to exist. God does not have a past or a future. He lives outside of time and space, which he created, although he does inhabit time and space whenever he chooses.

Genesis 1:1 is the beginning of time or ages. The bible talks about ages (which means eons) past. In Ephesians 3:9 the apostle Paul writes that, in God’s plan, the mystery of the church was hidden from the beginning of the ages. (Note that ages is plural.) This has reference to ages past. Then in Ephesians 2:9 he mentions that in the ages to come….

How many ages have there been in the past? How many more ages are to come? Only God knows. What we do know is the first day of this present age began in Genesis 1:3.

The present argument between evolutionists and creationists regarding the age of the earth is a waste of time and energy. Paul wrote to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:4 to not engage in entertaining myths and argue about genealogies, which only produces doubt rather than faith. If the creationist could win the argument for a young earth, what has he won? If the creationist could prove beyond a doubt that the earth is only 6,000 to 10,000 years old, it would not strengthen my faith that God created it. If the evolutionists could prove beyond a doubt that the earth is a billion years old, it would not weaken my faith that God created it.

My faith is rooted in what God said in Hebrews 11:3 (NKJV): By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.

The Greek word for worlds is aion. Aion is plural and denotes ages or more than one age. The ages past, the present age, all future ages to come, and everything that takes place in each age are determined by the word of God.

Only God knows how many ages are in the past and how many he has determined for the future (Ephesians 2:7; 3:9). It is beyond my finite mind to conceive how an all wise, all powerful, all knowing God, who is gazillion earth years old, would sit around for gazillions of years doing nothing and finally decide about 6,000 years ago to create a universe with life on it as the creationists argue. My faith rests on the fact that God created the heavens and the earth regardless of when he created them.

I live in the present age. It behooves me to find out what God has done for me - a sinner who has come short of the glory of God - and what I must do in order for me to be saved from the penalty of my sins and get into a right relationship with him. Once that relationship with Jesus Christ is established, it opens the door of understanding the inspired Word of God. I believe Word was inspired by God through the Holy Spirit. We must be inspired by the Holy Spirit to understand it!

ANGELS - So when did God create angels? In Job 38:7, when God was questioning Job about how much he knew about the earth and its foundations, he asked Job, Where were you when the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? The angels obviously were present when God created the heavens and the earth, which initiated the beginning of time (Genesis 1:1). There is no mention of angels in the creation account recorded in Genesis 1:3ff. They had to have been created prior to Genesis 1:3. Therefore, I conclude that the morning stars and sons of God were created before God created the heavens and the earth.

Chapter 2

The Beginning of the Ages

Why would sons of God shout for joy at the creation of planet earth (Job 38:6-7; Nehemiah 9:6)? The angels were praising God around his throne before God created the earth. God created planet earth and let the angels inhabit with Lucifer being the head angel over it. Thus, God created the heavens and the earth and time began (Genesis 1:1).

In Ezekiel 28:12-15 (NKJV) we read, Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord God: You were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty. You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering: the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created. You were the anointed cherub who covers; I established you; you were on the holy mountain of God; you walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created, till iniquity was found in you.

Let us take note of the attributes of this king:

He was created, not born – v.13, 15. He was not a descendant of Adam and Eve.

He was the seal of perfection, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty –v.12.

He was the anointed cherub – v.14. (Cherub is a class of winged supernatural beings, which serve God in various functions. They guarded Eden when Adam and Eve were driven out of the garden).

He was in Eden, the garden of God. This is NOT the same Garden of Eden that Adam and Eve were in. (Please note the description of the precious stones and jewels that adorned this garden. Compare this with the description of the jewels adorning the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21:18-21).

He was perfect in all his doings until sin (pride) entered his heart - v. 15, 17. (None of Adam’s descendants are born perfect.)

I believe this is the same creature that Isaiah described in Isaiah 14:12-14. In Isaiah he is named Lucifer. He was also lifted up with pride. He said in his heart –I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will be like the Most High.

Then what happened? The king of Tyre in Ezekiel was cast out of the mountain of God as a profane thing - v.16 (and most likely the angels that sinned with him [2 Peter 2:4]). Lucifer, in Isaiah 14:2 was cut down to the ground, into the pit of Sheol, v.15. With his casting out, the earth trembled, v.16, and the world became a wilderness, v.17.

Prophecy gives us a window into the future. Here I believe God gives us a telescopic view into the past. In my understanding, the earth described in Ezekiel 28:13 as Eden, the garden of God, is the earth God created in Genesis 1:1. It was created perfect and adorned with jewels and precious metals, which we will not see on earth again until the new earth is created. These precious stones and metals are not mentioned in the creation account of the present age in Genesis 1:3ff. Neither are they mentioned in relation to the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve were.

Psalms 18:7–15 (NKJV) gives us