GOD'S PLAN OF REDEMPTION AND
THE DEFEAT OF ANTICHRIST IN SEVEN ACTS
by T.M. Smith
Prologue All the World is God's stage
G |
od's history concerns itself exclusively with Man and his redemption. Speculation about dinosaurs, prehistoric times, the cosmos, or nebulous theories, while perfect fodder for parlor conversation and great for scientific grants, are nothing more than tangents that veer Man away from history's true course. Concerning "The Redemption Play" that stuff, no matter how brilliant or imaginative, is like a heckler intruding in the flow of a great and riveting drama.
We should not be bothered in the slightest by the fact that God offers so little information about Creation before he sculpted Adam from the clay of the earth. As any audience automatically does, we must believe that the author will be faithful to supply us with each and every bit of information needed in order to understand the whole story and that nothing vital to our understanding will be withheld. In fact, not only should we be put at ease by the promise that we are being distributed information on a "need to know basis", we should be down right thankful. Unlike historians who struggle with the mental makeup of Joan of Arc's mother, or the preschool environment of Adolf Hitler, or the motives behind the Franco-Prussian War, we do not have to gum up our understanding of quintessential history with extraneous knowledge that has no impact whatsoever on God's straightforward plan of redemption. Instead, be blessed by it: knowledge is dispensed by God as a smart playwright carefully discloses his story act by act, scene by scene, in a well constructed manner for the clear unburdened understanding of his audience. It makes no more sense to introduce meaningless discussions or debates into God's real life drama than it would for a playwright to insert dialogue from some unrelated mystery into the middle of his tightly constructed love story.
The drama of the last six thousand years, detailed in the infallible words of the Bible, builds to its climax over seven acts. Written by God, the story has been acted out by a cast of hand-picked nations and individuals. The world is the stage, Mankind the audience. Called "The Redemption Play", it is produced and directed by God; every word is written under his influence (and recorded by his scribes, the prophets). The story, complete with a hero and a villain, a plot and subplots, themes and conflicts, treachery and suspense, with a dramatic climax and happy ending, is a simple story. It is a drama which gradually reveals the miraculous redemption of faithful men everywhere, while continually forecasting the final defeat of Satan, his rebellious angels, the Antichrist, and all faithless and rebellious flesh. The story ends with the establishment of righteousness, a New Heaven and a New Earth and eternal fellowship with God. The hope of Utopia, put in Man's heart by God, is finally realized.
All the World is God's Prophetic Stage
But for Man, redemption has been a painstaking process, called history. William Shakespeare was right when he noted that the whole world is a stage. He just was not aware that it is God's exclusive stage used for redemption's purposes. Israel, God's Chosen Nation, commands center stage. As one historian has noted, Israel and Jerusalem is the navel of the world. Jealous nations have surrounded her, trying to usurp her blessings and inheritance. The people of the earth are the "audience", seated in the theatre-in-the-round, gazing on as the fight over God's promised inheritance unfolds. The Jews, having been given the oracles and teachings of God, having been given the promise of salvation, having been given prophecy which reveals the history of Man from beginning to end, sit on the hot seat. They have taken the heat for our sakes. After acting out spiritual truths, after messing up, and after being blinded to the truth, our Hero appears and the truth about redemption is revealed. It is greater than any Greek tragedy ever could be for the gods are not defied in the end, but God saves and Man is reconciled once and for all to their redeemer. The Jews, being blind to the truth, are set "aside" for a time and the "audience" is invited to come on center stage themselves, to be partakers (along with the Jews who will eventually be restored) of the promised inheritance and the blessed utopia that awaits those faithful followers of God.
But none of this happens without a battle. To understand the nature of the fight God has warned us through the prophecies of the Jewish prophets. The Bible calls the Word "a lamp unto our feet". Prophecy is that part of His word that is the lighting for God's stage. Without prophecy's glowing footlights and beaming spotlights, without its stage lighting and back lighting, we the "audience" would be left in the “dark”. All of history's pertinent action would remain obscure, hidden in a pall of darkness and shadows. The truth about the Beast (Antichrist) would never be exposed. Like an X-ray, prophecy casts its penetrating light through the Beast's humanistic veneer so we can see past its deceptions and into its evil and malevolent heart.
The conflict of "The Redemption Play" revolves around the Chosen Nation - Israel, and the Antichrist Empire - the Beast. The Hero is the Chosen Nation's redeemer, Jesus, and the villain is the Beast's leader, the Antichrist (The name Antichrist and Beast are interchangeable and apply to both the kingdom and the leader). Spiritual and military war is constantly waged over the promises God has made to Israel and her sister, the Church. Satan and the Antichrist persistently contrive to undermine those promises.
The Antichrist leader is synonymous with and inseparable from the Antichrist Empire. Early on, the Beast, with God's consent, devises a clever counter-gospel of unity (antigospel) designed to deflate the True Gospel of our Hero. Throughout the play, the Beast is a master of disguise, surfacing and resurfacing as a different government, a different people, or with a new twist on salvation, but it is always the Beast - the Anti Christ - searching out his primary objectives and trying to steal man's heart away from his Creator. Our Hero makes but one brief appearance in the middle of the play, until he returns home at the end to claim his throne and kingdom forever. But his presence is felt throughout the story. The Beast will do anything to stop Jesus' promised return. He will do anything to destroy the Jews and the Church. He will stop at nothing to nullify God's promises to them. The Beast is obsessed with visions of world conquest, he is driven to prove God a liar, and hell-bent on setting up his throne in Jerusalem so he can be crowned (along with his father, Satan) as "god" of this world. This is the recurring Antichrist theme of history, this setting up of the throne in Jerusalem and making himself "god" is the vision of the Antichrist.
But God, knowing the story from beginning to end (remember he is the author of a perfect plan) is always one step ahead of the Beast. God, in one of the great paradoxes of history, allows the Beast to grow to maturity. Through a four stage metamorphosis, like a giant bug, the Beast grows into an overwhelming force on earth, a force able to crush anything that dares oppose it. But just when it seems nothing can stop the Beast, God introduces a twist to the plot by splitting it in two, declaring that the Beast will be kept divided - partly weak and partly strong - until the end when he will allow it to come back together to fulfill the vision of the Antichrist. But the power of the Beast is so great that dividing it will not subdue it enough. So, while God is dividing the Beast he also introduces a competitor from the South, an upstart, who harasses, competes, and at times, humiliates the hulking, crippled Beast. In keeping the villain on ice, by division within and competition without, God buys time for salvation's work. Our Hero spreads his Gospel of Truth among the "audience" of the world; and many people through the age are snatched from the iron jaws of the devouring Beast.
Out from this world of nations - separated by bloodlines, geographical boundaries and ideologies - our Hero creates an invisible nation, the Church, a people called out from the "audience" of Man to be the heirs of God's promises. Not until this nation is built does God allow the Beast to be reunited for the dramatic climax of "The Redemption Play". In "The Redemption Play", God, the producer and director of all things, has provided the world with a clear acting out of the pitfalls and hopes of life. The only unknown variable in "The Redemption Play", the one matter of suspense - life's great X-factor - is Man's God-given right to exercise free will. Though the overall outcome of Man's destiny is predestined, nobody's personal destiny is preordained. The bible clearly states that god would have each and every man be saved (from Hell) and come to a knowledge of the truth (get to know Jesus, the Truth, personally), but that will not happen, and God knows this and knew it from the start of “The Redemption Play”. No man is exempt from making his own choice. God believes in freedom of thought and the freedom to express that thought, this is why god created man with the power of the mind and the ability to put it in to practice and make a reality of it. Look and see, listen and hear, make the choice: we either accept the Redeemer on his terms, or follow the Beast on his. Jesus remarked that one either will serve God or ‘mammon’ (meaning the world and its god). The Great Director of the Play of life warns us not to be swayed by the great and large majority of the "audience", whether their voice is religious or secular. The world, with its facsimile religions, with its nearsighted people, will always flow after the imposter in a torrent of admiration. That is our choice and we alone are responsible for making the choice. Only those of faith will follow what they "see and hear" from spirit of the Redeemer. As any on-looker of a great drama, one must look for its higher meaning and decipher the author’s greater message within the drama unfolding. God himself declared, "Enter ye in at the straight gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leads unto life, and few there be that find it." (Matthew 7.13-14) Those few who are seeking that hard to find gate which leads to eternal life, hopefully will have an easier time finding it because they read "The Redemption Play" seeking its spiritual points and profound lessons of life. For those who have already gone through the gate, "The Redemption Play" should provide comfort and courage as they continue along the strait and narrow way.
TO ACT 1: SCENE 1 >