If you take the first three chapters of the Bible and the last three, you have a complete story. Everything in-between these six chapters is about one essential theme—restoration. Restoring the creation from the consequences of the fall begins with redeeming it, which of course was done by Jesus on the cross. There was a long process leading up to and preparing for the cross, and now there has been one leading from the cross to prepare for its application.

The atonement sacrifice that Jesus made will result in the complete restoration of both man and the earth from all...

As we have been patiently laying a foundation for understanding our purpose in these times, and how our own purpose for which we were created is restored, what the Lord said in John 15:1-2 should be a most sober warning to every believer:

Last week we began our study of the four basic purposes for which God created man. They are:

1. to have fellowship with Him,
2. to cultivate the garden,
3. to be fruitful and multiply, and
4. to rule over the earth and all that is in it.

We also addressed how a main purpose of the church and church life, is to help restore these purposes in the lives of believers. Worship helps us keep the fires burning for restoring our ultimate purpose—knowing the Lord and having fellowship with Him. The ministries and gifts given to the church...

God created man in His image, and for four basic purposes:

1. to have fellowship with,
2. to cultivate the garden,
3. to be fruitful and multiply, and
4. to rule over the earth and all that is in it.

Man’s restoration will not be complete until all four of these purposes have been recovered. Our personal restoration will not be complete until all four of these purposes have been recovered. Before these can be applied rightly to the rest of mankind, they must first be recovered by the church. Now let’s look at how...

World War II remains the most devastating and costly conflict in human history. Including the war in China there were as many as one hundred million people who died in it. The physical damage is far beyond our ability to calculate. It was motivated by the some of the cruelest evil to ever manifest itself in mankind. Even so, as both the Lord Jesus and Paul explained, the things that will come upon the world at the end will be like birth pangs when a woman in labor. It is the nature of birth pangs or “contractions” to become both...