The Father’s Plan for Man – Chapter 8, Part 4

​This week we’ll continue our review of chapter 8 in Isaiah Decoded – The God of Israel, King of Zion. In last week’s review, we saw that Genesis chapters 1 and 2 represents a spirit and a physical creation executed by the Father and the Son. These two events initiated the Father’s plan to evaluate how His creations – us – would respond to His truth so that we might become like Him.

---

​The Father’s Plan Overview
Last week, we looked at the beginning of the Father’s Plan for man that began with a spirit and physical creation and culminated with Adam and Eve being placed in the Garden and choosing to become like God to know good and evil – Genesis 3:22.  But this action, required Adam and Eve to descend into Mortality so they could experience good and evil for themselves. Once they respond appropriately to the Father’s truth, they could qualify for one of the Father’s eternal realms.

​Spirit Creation Physical Creation >

Mortality >

​Eternity

The Father's Plan also  provided an opportunity for those who followed their conscience - the Light/Spirit of Messiah (John 1:9) - during Morality to receive the fullness of the Father's Plan. This opportunity exists in a Spirit Realm after we die. Moreover, it will be during the Millennium that these will be resurrected and "walk out" the fullness of the Law/Gospel.

​Spirit Creation Physical Creation >

​Mortality >

Spirit Realm ​>

Millennium ​>

Eternity

Mortality and the Pathway of Truth
The Scriptures have set out a pathway of truth to follow during Mortality so that we might continue to become like God. That pathway of truth begins with the Light or Spirit of Messiah, which is given to everyone to know right from wrong – John 1:9, those who respond properly to the Messiah’s Spirit will lead us to the Law, which is God’s truth – Psalms 119:142, and an expression of the Spirit of Truth even the Holy Spirit. As we live the Law/Commandments and receive the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit guides us into all truth even unto a fullness in Messiah – John 16:13, Matt. 5:17. By going onto perfection and function as proxy saviors, we receive the image and stature of the full measure of Messiah, the Son, and receive His presence or second comforter – Ephesians 4:13, John 14:16. Finally, those who reach the full measure of Messiah and receive God’s power do the Father’s Will and Work – Matt. 12:50.

The Pathway of Truth

The Light of the Son ​>	The Law ​>	The Holy Spirit ​>	The Son ​>	The Father
​John 1:9	​Psalms 119:142	​John 16:13 Matt. 5:17	​Ephesians 4:13 John 14:16	​Matt. 12:50

Mortality and the Spiritual Categories of Man
Depending on how we respond to God’s truth in Mortality, we qualify for various spiritual categories that we see presented in the Bible, which can be organized into a Ladder to Heaven. Those categories include Seraphim/Angels, Son/Daughters/Servants, Zion/Jerusalem, Jacob/Israel, Babylon, Sodom/Gomorrah, Mahan and Perdition. We have already set out the requirements to reach these various categories in previous posts.

MORTALITY

Seraphim/Angels Does the Father’s Work and Will

​Son/Daughters/Servants Reaches the Stature of the Fullness of the Son

​Zion/Jerusalem  Have Pure Hearts and Clean Hands through the Holy Spirit

​Jacob/Israel Chooses between Good and Evil

​Babylon Succumbs to the Passions, Appetites, and Desires of the Natural/Carnal Man

​Sodom/Gomorrah Are Perpetrators of Violence

​Mahan Murders for Gain

​Perdition Rejects the Father and the Son

Spirit Realm
We saw in a previous post that everyone's spirit and consciousness continues after our mortal bodies die and go to a Spirit Realm. The Bible uses terms like sheol, prison, and paradise to label this spirit realm.

We also saw in a previous post that the Light/Spirit of Messiah - our conscience - is given to everyone to know right and wrong - John 1:9. 

Those who sin against this Light (conscience) in Mortality will suffer until the terms of justice are met and accept Yehovah-Yeshua as the Redeemer of humanity and are "saved". Hell is the designation for this place in the Spirit Realm.

(So if we have any unresolved feelings of guilt, we need to repair what damage we can and ask for forgiveness because God has set Mortality as the time to demonstrate our resolve to overcome evil even on a basic level.)

Though Perdition is slated to suffer for justice, they reject Yeshua's redemption and are unredeemable.
​
Those who follow their conscience - the Light of Messiah - and choose right over wrong go to a Paradise in the Spirit Realm and hear the fullness of the Gospel in this spirit paradise. Having received the fullness of the Gospel, these are resurrected and "walk out" the Gospel during the Millennium.

POST-MORTAL SPIRIT REALM

Hell	Paradise
Sinned against their conscience - Light of Messiah	Followed their conscience - the Light of Messiah - choosing right over wrong
Suffer until the terms of justice are met, accept Yeshua as Redeemer and are "saved". Perdition rejects Yeshua's redemption and is unredeemable.	Hear and receive the fullness of the Gospel, are resurrected and "walk out" the Gospel in the Millennium.

Millennium
One of the primary reasons we see a Millennium is not only for Zion/Jersusalem to experience life and peace with their God, but to reconcile the truly righteous with their God apart from the degeneracies of a Fallen World.

MILLENNIUM

God, the Son Seraphim/Angels Sons/Daughters/Servants Zion/Jerusalem (Those who received the fullness of the Gospel in the Spirit Paradise)

Eternal Destinations
The Apostle John sets out one of Yeshua’s most important teaches about eternity in the third chapter of John. These verses in John chapter three describe three destinations for man who accepts the Father’s truth – Eternal Life, Everlasting Life, and being Saved.
 
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” – John 3:14-17
 
Moreover, we can correlate theses three destinations of man with the three grand keys of the Gospel in the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

ETERNITY

Realm of the Father ​​Eternal Life with the Father

Realm of the Son​ Everlasting Life with the Son

Realm of the Holy Spirit ​Saved with the Holy Spirit

The Unredeemable

Summary
We can now summarize the concepts that we have learned.

​
​This is how Dr. Gileadi sets out some of these concepts in chapter 8 – P. 310-315
 
Israel’s God Provides a Pattern for Life after Death
“Because the emperor is bound by the terms of the covenant to deliver only those who are loyal to his vassal—their savior—those who deny Jehovah, their Savior, merit no deliverance of any kind. Unlike the conditions for “salvation,” which involve keeping his law and word, people would at least have to acknowledge Jehovah as their Savior in order to be resurrected. While some who pass into the next life may take their time doing so, persons in the Perdition category never do. Of these, therefore, Isaiah says, “They are dead, to live no more [or, ‘not to be brought back to life’], spirits who will not resurrect; you have appointed them to destruction, wiping out all recollection of them.” (Isaiah 26:14.)
Because God gives his children their agency to choose between good and evil, those who deny God cannot escape the curse of death, neither physical nor spiritual death. After passing the “point of no return” in their descent down the ladder, such persons are completely unable or unwilling to make a course correction. Their physical death—when their bodies disintegrate into “dust”—is the type of their spiritual death in the “Pit of Dissolution.” Like physical matter, spiritual matter cannot be destroyed but can be recycled. For them, therefore, not only God’s redemption but their creation itself was a waste. The rest of humanity, however, will in due time come forth in the resurrection from the dead.
Types of rising from the dead include Elijah’s raising the widow’s son and Elisha’s raising the son of a woman who had been barren. (1 Kings 17:17–22; 2 Kings 4:17–35.) Although neither was resurrection in a real sense, each foreshadowed what would itself set a precedent for all time—Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. But Jesus’ resurrection was not just a type; it was the precursor of the physical “rebirth” of the entire mass of humanity. This was God’s answer to people’s experience of mortality—to aging, dying, and disintegrating into “dust.” Jesus’ victory over the grave was the signal event of all time, giving hope to billions, that they too would live again in the flesh in the flower of their youth.
While the resurrection of God’s people could begin with Jesus’ atonement for transgression, death could now also be abolished. Just as death came into the world with Adam’s and Eve’s transgression in the Garden of Eden, so the Atonement removed the consequences of transgression for all who ascend to Zion/Jerusalem and above. Thus, God’s covenant paved the way for his people to banish death itself: by doing away with transgression, they could avert covenant curses, and by the averting of curses, death could disappear. God’s people could achieve immortality while living on the earth. The “translated” state Enoch, Elijah, and John attained could become the common lot of humanity.
Because God’s law is eternal, it applies equally in this life and in the next, except that mortality is the best medium for ascent—for us to repent and return. By confessing Israel’s God as their Savior, even those on lower levels can at last be resurrected from the dead, though in a “resurrection of damnation.” (John 5:29.) God answers for their disloyalties in delivering them from death, which curse was a consequence of Adam’s and Eve’s transgression, not their own (see Figure 131). But God can’t save them from their own sins, nor from the effects of sin, so long as they refuse to repent. Those who chose evil, therefore, must still pass through “ruin,” “punishment,” “suffering,” “humiliation,” and “disinheritance.” The dynamics of life after death thus operate on similar principles as life here and now. But the change in circumstances requires that those on the Babylon level ascend to Jacob/Israel if they would experience resurrection. As noted, in this life, Jacob/Israel and levels lower disappear from the earth. In the next life, Babylon, too, disappears. Accepting Jehovah as one’s Savior pertains to the Jacob/Israel level. One must at least become a believer in God—must express that minimal degree of loyalty toward him—to take advantage of his atonement for transgression. Thus, God says, “To me every knee will bow and every tongue confess [allegiance],” if not in this life, then in the next. (Isaiah 45:23.)
 
Figure 131 Resurrection of Repentant and Unrepentant Persons
Zion/Jerusalem—With Residual Effects of Iniquities
Jacob/Israel—With Residual Effects of Sins and Iniquities
Babylon—A Category Pending Resurrection
 
Like everyone else, those of Babylon who pass into the next life arrive there on the level they had reached in this life, only there they find themselves in the company of their own kind, with others on their own level. They remain in that disagreeable society until they recognize that repentance is their only way out. The hell they chose for themselves, with all who live there used to oppressing each other, remains their home until at last they acknowledge God and begin to turn their lives around. Only then can God commence removing the consequences of their transgressions and lift the curse of a broken law. Then, perhaps, they may still salvage what is left of their lives and ask God to re-create them.
Because spiritual ascent is an unchanging principle, even those of Zion/Jerusalem who pass into the next life find themselves in a provisional category. When Isaiah says, “As the new heavens and the new earth which I make will endure before me, says Jehovah, so will your offspring and name endure,” he is addressing a son/servant category or higher with whom God makes an unconditional covenant. (Isaiah 66:22.) Because ultimately the earth itself ascends to the son/servant level, that being a chief purpose of its creation, those of Zion/Jerusalem must ascend with it, or, in the end, go somewhere else. The earth’s physical transformation will keep pace with the spiritual ascent of its inhabitants.
On this same eternal principle, those of Zion/Jerusalem who pass into the next life may yet ascend from a conditional to an unconditional state of blessedness. By accepting a new set of terms each time we ascend—by embracing a higher law pertaining to a higher covenant—we may eventually rise to still loftier levels. However, there remains the distinct possibility that we may never catch up with peers who have ascended more rapidly than us. Because time on lower levels moves much slower than on higher ones, those who ascend advance faster than those whom they leave behind. That pattern resembles the rapid rotation of celestial bodies at the center of a galaxy relative to ones on the outskirts.
Those in the Zion/Jerusalem category—the first level of blessedness—nevertheless receive resurrection and “salvation,” which involves God’s forgiveness of their sins and his delivering them from evil. Those in the son/servant category, on the other hand—the second level of blessedness—experience resurrection, “salvation,” and “exaltation.” God makes unconditional his individual covenant with them and blesses them with “everlasting inheritances,” with thrones and dominions. Lastly, seraphs/saviors, who reach the third level of blessedness, differ from sons/servants in the degree of “exaltation” (see Figure 132). Like Enoch, Elijah, and John, they may also overcome death in this life if they choose.
 
Figure 132 Different States of Existence in the Next Life
Seraphs/Saviors—Resurrection, “Salvation,” Higher “Exaltation”
Sons/Servants—Resurrection, “Salvation,” “Exaltation”
Zion/Jerusalem—Resurrection, “Salvation”
Jacob/Israel—Resurrection, No “Salvation”
Babylon—Category Vacated after “Punishment”
Perdition—Spiritual Death in the “Pit of Dissolution”
 
Thus, heaven is not one big place, in which all are thrown together who get through the “gate.” Rather, the same spiritual levels that exist in this life, or that existed before it, exist there too. Because order and organization characterize the kingdom of God, those in the highest heavens minister to ones less high. How we lived our lives on the earth will determine which level or “mansion” we inhabit in heaven. What we sow, we reap; as we do to others, so it is done to us. Jesus showed the way in all things that are necessary for us to inherit “eternal life” or “eternal lives” (Hebrew hayê ‘ôlam). Everything about Jesus’ own life exemplified what Isaiah teaches about salvation from sin and ascent to glory.
Those who complete their journey, far beyond the Zion/Jerusalem level, will always call Israel’s God their Judge, Lawgiver, and King. He continues to fulfill these functions to all who ascend. Just as his “humiliation” was their humiliation—when they followed his model of descent before ascent—so his “exaltation” is their exaltation, for which glory they praise God through all eternity. In effect, the God of justice we so often observe in the Old Testament is the same God of mercy we find in the New Testament. Individuals who ascend comprehend the interplay of justice and mercy on their path to “exaltation.” They also realize that the final drama of human history depends on them for its happy ending.”