The central issue of the Kingdom of God is that of being born again.

Two separate races are involved in the Divine plan of redemption. Two kinds of creatures must be taken into account if we would understand what God is doing.

The first race is from Adam. Adam and Eve were the beginning of the race of human beings. The race of human beings consists of intelligent people who have souls somewhat similar to the Soul of God; spirits able to enter into union with the Spirit of God; and flesh and blood bodies.

The second race is from Christ. Christ is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, of a new race. The new race consists of life-giving spirits who have souls fashioned in the image of the Soul of God their Father; spirits that are in union with the Holy Spirit of God; and bodies that have the form to which we are accustomed but that have been fashioned from and filled with incorruptible Divine Life.

The first race is temporary and its environment is temporary. The second race is eternal and its environment ultimately will be eternal.

The Divine statements concerning man given in the first chapter of the Book of Genesis were not directed toward the first race except in an elementary sense. The concepts of being sons of God, of being the image of God, of being male and female, of being fruitful, and of having dominion always were directed toward the eternal race.

For example, the concept of male and female has significance beyond the earthly concept of gender. Reflection on the marriage of the Lamb and His Wife reveals this fact.

Why would God begin with a race destined to experience such agony, such horror, such a tragic history ending in destruction, if it were not God's intention eventually to save that race? What is the significance of the human race, the race that died in its founders?

God has at least four purposes in creating a first, temporary model of the Kingdom of God:

To provide the material form of the Kingdom, the stock on which the eternal branches are to be grafted.

To teach us of God's Being, Nature, and ways before we are permitted to enter the promised eternal world, and to begin the perfecting of our nature in righteousness so sin and rebellion are not brought into the new age.

To provide an arena in which the rebellious angels are able to demonstrate in the eyes of all God's creatures the end result of defying the Father; a poultice that is drawing to a head all the virulent poison of sin and rebellion found in the hearts of rebellious spirits so the corrupt mass can be confined in an appropriate spiritual prison for eternity.

To test the heirs of salvation before the true riches of glory, authority, and power are entrusted to them.

If any human being is to rightly judge himself and the meaning of his life; if he is to be able to establish any reasonable set of priorities; if he is to escape the blind, hopeless cycle of nature; if he is to avoid living as an animal in eating, sleeping, playing, working, and reproducing; then he must understand this present life and age are temporary. They are a means to an end. They can lead to unbelievable glory or to unbelievable suffering.

To be continued.