Thoughts on why Jesus Christ was not sent to earth sooner than 4,000 A.M.

by Joel Hendon⁽¹⁷⁰⁾ Red Star

http://hebronics.org/index.html

Since the scheme of redemption for sinful man was discussed and planned before the creation of the universe, many who read of these things now ask why did God see fit to delay that plan for some 4,000 years after the creation. It is a logical question and deserves study and effort to try and find the answer(s) to it.

There are however, numerous complexities to the entire plan and many of the possible answers are not clearly forthcoming via the scriptures. Thus we have areas that the answers are conjecture only.

First let’s see the brief scriptures which determine when things were put into motion:

(1) Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: (Acts 2:23)

(2) Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. (John 17:24)

Those two scriptures show that Jesus existed with the Father, before the creation and long before he was sent to this earth. There are others but those two should show that he did exist and that there was a counsel before the creation, obviously including the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Now, the only thing we have recorded that gives any idea of why Jesus came when he did is in this quote:

Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. (Galatians 4:3-5)

The thing that is unanswered is ‘why was that particular time...it?’ Why was that date considered by God as the fulness of time? The spelling of fulness is the old English version of ‘fullness’ and it means an amount of completeness, or in the case of time...the complete length or full length of time. So in the passage of scripture above, it simply means that when the appointed time arrived. So as all of the other points of the plan of salvation for mankind was determined before the beginning of time, so was the date of Jesus arrival here on earth.

But! That still leaves the question of ‘why then’? Why was it determined to be at four millennia? I have heard that it took that long for all the prophecies of his coming to have been made and fulfilled. But is that almost circular reasoning...why were all the prophecies given that had to be fulfilled? Not really. The answers lie somewhat ambiguous beneath the entire scheme of things as mentioned in the beginning of this article.

First of all, God’s purpose in the creation required massive tedious planning to achieve things as he wanted. He wanted man to have totally free moral agency. And, he wanted ample...even strong...factors involved in man’s surroundings that would test his nature. His capacity for love, for sincerity, and virtue. He wanted man to be well informed of his existence, and his power, yet leave room for doubt and question by those who prefer not to submit to a higher power.

And in his infinite wisdom, he knew full well that the majority of mankind would fail the test, but to instill in him any strong desire to know and obey God, would defeat the ability to be a free moral agent. Realizing all of these factors, God knew that man must be created, as he was, new with no background of knowledge to fall back on.

The trial of Adam and Eve only proved what God already knew and therefore, the long , drawn out plan for man was begun and assured of the precise results which God wanted. The laws, or covenants he made with man were for a purpose, not that God needed any man to comply with them, but to offer the alternative of being able to obey or not to obey. From Adam until this present day, facets of the commands given to man were not so much that they be fulfilled to the nth degree but the faith in, and utmost desire of man to obey God, were the underlying requirements.

Faith and obedience. So God’s plan included the selection of faithful Abraham to create the lineage to bring Christ to the earth. It included the captivity of the Israelites and their miraculous deliverance from that captivity. His miracles which he brought plagues upon Egypt and his miraculous leading of the Israelites across the Red Sea and destroying the Egyptian army behind them, were done for a purpose. Not only were they to instill faith in the Israelites themselves, but the Egyptians and even the rest of the world which would hear of this.

The disobedience of the Israelites brought on the writings of the prophets of old. In them they revealed the coming of the Lord, the messiah, and the establishment of his kingdom on earth, a spiritual kingdom...his church.

Now to the nitty-gritty of the fullness of time. Not only did God need the time to prepare the world with writings to show the coming of his son, there were other circumstances. Had he been sent during some of the ages, and especially before the prophecies, no one would have accepted him. Few did anyway, even with all the prophetic evidence in advance. Plus, there were ages that travel was all, on foot or camel. Even when he did come, there was little else, but there were ships, which Paul and others used quite extensively.

There are several reasons more that may have made this time the best for God to send his son. Understanding that God knew these reasons would exist at this time so it is possible they played a part in his divine reasoning.

Even though the early Christians met with extreme persecution, it still may have been the best time, seeing that Rome had unified much of the world under its government, giving a sense of unity to the various lands. Also, because the empire was relatively peaceful, travel was possible, allowing the early Christians to spread the gospel. Such freedom to travel would have been impossible in other eras. These factors did not always exist. Many nations, when free, would have slaughtered Jews or others who entered their lands

The Jews were eager with anticipation of the coming messiah, and hoped for him to free them from the Roman subjection. Had it not been for this factor, the number who rejected him may have been many times more.

Very importantly, under the Grecian captivity, the Greek language had been widely adapted in the lands and offered a much better opportunity to spread the gospel. It was the trade language and was spoken throughout the empire, making it possible to communicate the gospel to many different people groups through one common language.

Many of the people who had been, for a long time, worshipping false gods, were discouraged because their gods were not freeing them from the Roman captivity and were therefore, more receptive to a new doctrine.

All of these factors may have played a part in God’s plan, and yet again, perhaps none of them did. God, in his infinite wisdom knew when the time was best, and there is little reason to try and out-guess him.

Article submitted Sunday, April 17, 2011 & read 71 times.

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» left by Christofer French from Denver (1 year 21 days ago.)

All of those reasons were factors. The Roman world was much too sophisticated for its pantheon of dieties. The "gods had lost their power" and were ridiculed, much more than they were worshipped. The largest difference is the wonderful way that Christianity focused on the individual. If you believed in the ancient mythologies, all you saw was a "soap opera of fighting personalities". Where was there a place that the soul could find solace? As a large historical point, the destruction of the Temple by the Romans turned Jewishness and what would become Christianity into intellectual entities and not "temple based" religions as so much of the ancient world was conceived. As painful as it sounds, the destruction of the temple put all of these new ideas afoot, on the heels of Paul and so many others, the Roman roads became the circuitry of new thought, and allowed for hundreds of years of development. Wonderful article, Joel.

» left by Anonymous (1 year 20 days ago.)

Thanks, Christopher, for the very good comment. I appreciate it.

» left by Marijo Phelps from mountain meadow (1 year 20 days ago.)

Great Article Joel! Your house must be a library in its spare time?

» left by Joel Hendon⁽¹⁷⁰⁾ (1 year 20 days ago.)

Thank you Marijo for the kind comment. No, my library is not very extensive now. I once had shelves covering two walls full, but I gave most of them to some young men who were just entering the ministry. I now have a full set of Adam Clarke's commentaries, 4 or 5 versions of the bible, a good concordance, a Nave's Topical Bible and several books on other religions, maybe three dozen all together. But I don't need them. Man, you can find just about any book worth anything, on line. I have links to almost all notable commentaries and reference books plus every version of the Bible I know of. I'm so thankful that I lived long enough to get the World Wide Web after it got so very thorough. Unbelievable.

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