A Glimpse of the New Genesis

Richard J. "Dick" Hill

Description

We are born into God’s kingdom through the seed of the gospel, and we are baptized into the King by the Holy Spirit.

Most people approach the study of prophecy from the aspect of “when.” But what needs to guide our study is what Jesus had to say about His Second Coming.

He gave two signs of His return—“the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel” and “as the days of Noah were so shall the coming of the Son of Man be.”

In this book Richard J. “Dick” Hill, who has spent a lifetime in Christian ministry, explores how regeneration allows someone to be born into God’s kingdom. He observes that the seed of the gospel is absolutely necessary for new life (new genesis).

The author notes that not only are we born into the kingdom, but we are baptized into the King by the Holy Spirit at the same moment. The church is within the kingdom of God, but the church is not the kingdom of God.

God has brought Jew and Gentile together into one new man, the church. This mystery that was revealed by the apostle Paul was never mentioned in the Old Testament. God’s church will be snatched away in the fullness of time, and the dispensation of God’s grace for the Gentiles will be complete.

Sujets

• Religion
• Christianisme
• Philosophie et théologie
• Jews
• Christianity
• Noah

Informations

• Publié par: WestBow Press
• Date de parution: 06 avril 2023
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664296060
• Langue: English

Extrait

A GLIMPSE of the NEW GENESIS
 
 
 
 
 
 
Richard J. “Dick” Hill
 
 
 
 

 
Copyright © 2023 Richard J. “Dick” Hill.
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
 
 
WestBow Press
A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.westbowpress.com
844-714-3454
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Scripture quotations are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6642-9605-3 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-9607-7 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6642-9606-0 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2023905593
 
 
 
WestBow Press rev. date: 04/24/2023

CONTENTS
Introduction
 
Chapter 1       From the Days of Noah
Chapter 2       Ham, Nimrod, and the United Way
Chapter 3       God’s Safe Word into God’s Safe Womb
Chapter 4       Seed Is God’s Answer
Chapter 5       Born into God’s Kingdom
Chapter 6       A New Genesis
Chapter 7       Baptized into God’s King
Chapter 8       Peter Unlocks
Chapter 9       Paul Unleashes
Chapter 10     The Mystery of Christ
Chapter 11     Constantine Confusion
Chapter 12     Cognitive Contamination
Chapter 13     The Chiliastic Chaos
Chapter 14     Japheth’s Candles in the Darkness
Chapter 15     As the Days of Noah Were
 
Endnotes
INTRODUCTION
Thousands of years ago, my favorite songwriter, a shepherd boy named David, maybe lying on a hillside, gazed up into the heavens and was humbled by his own insignificance. He wrote these words to one of my favorite songs:
O LORD , our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth, who have set Your glory above the heavens! Out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants You have ordained strength, because of Your enemies, that You may silence the enemy and the avenger. When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon, and the stars, which you have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet, all sheep, and oxen—Even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the seas. O LORD , our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth. (Psalm 8)
Man was created to rule with Jesus Christ over a kingdom and to live with God forever in a new heaven and upon a new earth. The weaker creature would be crowned with glory and honor. The weaker creature would be placed in rulership over Satan’s fallen world. The glory, honor, and power that Satan had stolen would be regained by the inferior creature living in servanthood, submission, and faith. In this way, pride and power would be rendered null and void. Years later, King Jesus would say, “The one who is least among you all, he is the greatest” (Luke 9:48).
God intends that man (created lower than the angels and, hence, lower than Satan), would achieve the highest position with all things in subjection under his feet (Hebrews 2:8). Thus, the weaker would achieve, by reliance upon God, a higher position than the far more powerful creature, Satan, had attempted to achieve through pride and power.
Out of the least, God will bring many greats. It was as a man that the Savior defeated the enemies of sin and death. It was as a man that the principalities and powers were silenced . It will be as a man that Christ will reign over the future kingdom of God upon this renewed earth.
This future kingdom is the subject of hundreds of detailed passages in the Old Testament. As Joseph Dillow wrote, “It is the glorious reign of the servant kings which extends to all the works of His hands. This may suggest that man will one day rule this universe.” 1 There is to be a kingdom where the lion will lie down with the lamb, universal righteousness will reign, and there will be no more war. All disease will come to an end, and the world of Satan will be placed under the rule of the Servant King and his servants (Hebrews 1:9; Romans 8:19–21; Revelation 20:1–6, 21–22).
God will bring back a small, seemingly unimportant Semitic tribe, Israel, and make them a nation and through them rule in His coming kingdom (Matthew 19:28; Luke 22:30). It will not be Greece or mighty Rome, Egypt or Babylon; it will not be Europe or Russia or China or the United States that will rule the earth. That future glory falls to Jews and to the mysterious group known as the church, or the servant kings who, like their Master, live in dependence and obedience.
Some may affirm my view of election but set themselves apart today by teaching that because of spiritual death, regeneration must precede faith. Which comes first: the gospel or life? There is no doubt that a sinner’s salvation must begin with God. But at issue in ordo seludis is which comes first: regeneration or faith in Christ? Dr. R. C. Sproul wrote that “at the heart of Reformed theology this axiom resounds, ‘regeneration precedes faith.’” 2 I do not hold this “regeneration precedes faith” view, but I do understand why this position is held.
Recall the story. Everyone who has a human father is conceived in sin and born dead in sin. Sin and death came through the death seed of our first father, Adam. God planted Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden and told them to freely eat from every tree but one, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God told Adam not to eat from that tree. It would bring death—spiritual death (Genesis 2:16). Death is a Bible word meaning separation. God actually said, “Adam if you eat from this tree, dying, you will surely most positively die .” It was as though God was saying to Adam that he would die not once but twice. He would immediately begin to grow old and die physically, but he would also die spiritually. His human spirit would be separated from God, no longer able to know Him. He would become lost in a slave market of sin.
We know how this happened. Satan, disguised as a beautiful serpent, slithered into the garden, deceived the woman, and she ate. Then she gave to her husband, and he ate. At that moment, their eyes were opened, and they knew they were naked (Genesis 3:7). They immediately began to die both physically and spiritually. They hid from God because they had been separated from Him (Genesis 3:9).
Adam was not alone when he died. Within Adam was seed—zillions of sperm seed. In fact, the potential for the entire race was in Adam, in his loins, in seed form, in his DNA at the moment he sinned. His seed became corrupt seed, death seed. Shortly afterward, he had relations with Eve, and Adam passed his corrupt sin seed to Cain, and then to Abel, then Seth, then Enosh, then Cainan, then Mahalel—and on and on it went. All became stained with sin because they all died (Genesis 5).
Paul said it:
Therefore, just as through one man [Adam] sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men [through fallen seed] because all sinned. (Romans 5:12)
All sinned within Adam the moment he sinned. Sin eventually passed down to us through our human fathers’ seeds. This line was broken only once when the Lord Jesus Christ was born. He had no human father, so he had no sin. This is the glorious worth of the virgin birth.
Therefore, all people are born dead in trespasses and sins. And “dead” means dead—not a spark of life at all (Ephesians 2:1–3; Romans 3:10–18). At issue is how God gives life to the dead sinner. God gives life through regeneration ( palin genesia , a new genesis), but regeneration must come through seed. Seed must precede regeneration. No seed, no regeneration. No seed, no life.
In the order of salvation, does God make dead sinners alive and then bring them the gospel, or does God guide the seed of the gospel to the mind of the dead sinner and germinate the seed, resulting in faith in Christ, and then regeneration comes? I believe it is the latter. The Word of God teaches this. Read closely Peter’s words.
Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever , because “All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withers, and its flower falls away, but the word of the LORD endures forever.” Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you . (1 Peter 1:22–25, italics added)
The gospel is God’s divine seed that brings the new birth (1 John 3:9). Paul wrote, “Does not nature itself teach you that long hair is a shame unto a man” (1 Corinthians 11:14). Nature also speaks God’s Word through the cycles of the seasons (Acts 14:16–17) and through the stars (Psalm 19:1–6). In His Word, God used nature to teach the weakness of man (Acts 14:15), the sexual deviation of both men and women (Romans 1:26),