After Satan Was Defeated by Jesus How Did God Bring Adam and Eve Together Again

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I have been working my way through dozens of Bible and theology questions which people have submitted through that "ask a question" area in the sidebar. Here is one about why God delayed to send Jesus.

Why did God await and then long to transport Jesus?

I have answered like questions before regarding the apparent "delays" in God's timetable. For example, we have previously considered the question, "Why did Jesus wait three days to rise from the dead?" and "Why is Jesus waiting so long earlier He comes over again?" Obviously, those questions are different than this particular question, but the answers are similar, which is why I reference them here.

Then why did God expect to send Jesus?

As with many of the Bible and Theology questions I reply, I find it helpful to step back a lilliputian bit and get the big picture for this question.

The question is not just about why God waited and then long to transport Jesus, but about all the seeming delays in the redemptive plan of God. That is, why does God "await" to do anything?

Why Does God filibuster in anything?

I mean, if we pray for something, and God knows He is going to give us what we prayed for, why does He sometimes make u.s.a. wait weeks, months, or even years earlier granting the request?

At that place are, of course, a chiliad possible answers to this question. Maybe God'due south apparent delay had something to exercise with God'south perfect timing. Possibly God did immediately answer our prayer request, only Satan temporarily stopped united states of america from receiving God's answer (cf. Daniel ten:12-13). Possibly God was waiting for united states of america to be an reply to our own prayer, and nosotros were the ones who slowed Him down.

In that location are other possibilities as well, but these go to show that when information technology comes to delays in God's timetable, there is really almost no way to know why God does what He does when He does it.

God'due south Strange Guild of Events

Here is a basic timetable of God's major redemptive works in history, counting from the autumn of Adam and Eve in the Garden.  Note that in between each major event, there are larger periods of relatively uneventful history. (The number of years listed beneath is based on the the most conservative estimates. Obviously, at that place are more liberal estimates which extend these periods of fourth dimension out to tens of thousands of years.)

1. The Fall of Adam and Eve
2. Wait 2000 years
3. The Call of Abraham
4. Wait 500 years
5. Giving the Constabulary to Moses at Mt. Sinai
6. Wait 1500 Years
7. Ministry of Jesus
8. Wait 2000+ Years
9. (in the Hereafter) The Second Coming of Jesus
10. The New Heavens and New Earth

Plainly, God is not silent and is not inactive during these waiting periods, merely this outline of events is simply to show that God's plan of redemption does seem to occur in small steps spread out over long lengths of time.

Rather than that gild of events, nosotros oft call up it would take been nice for the order of events to follow this outline:

1. The Fall of Adam and Eve
2. Wait 20 minutes
3. The Decease and Resurrection of Jesus
4. Eternal Elation

Honestly, from a human perspective, this second order of evens would take saved a lot of horrible grief, bloodshed, death, sorrow, and sadness. Nobody would have ended upward in hell. There never would have been wars, or famines, or diseases. Adam and Eve would have sinned, Jesus would have immediately shown up to ready information technology, and that would take been that.

No Flood. No Hitler. No Atomic bombs. No raping of little girls.

That sounds like a much ameliorate plan, does it not?

Then why indeed was there a delay in God's redemptive plan? Why did He await so long to cull Abraham? Why did He wait and so long to give His law? Why did God look so long to transport Jesus? Why is He waiting so long to ship Jesus back?

Some Traditional Answers to Why God Waited Thousands of Years to Send Jesus

People take often wondered why God waited so long before sending Jesus. Here are three of the more common answers:

1. It only seems long to united states

The first answer some provide is really a non-answer. Information technology is one of those pat answers to hard theological questions which really does nothing to respond the question. Information technology is a Christian cliché: "God's timing is not our timing."

Those who use this kickoff answer quote 2 Peter 3:viii which says that with God, a day is like a g years, and a thousands years is like a mean solar day. So in other words, though it seems similar God took thousands of years to send Jesus, from His perspective, it just seemed like a couple days.

Peter's point is valid in the context, but I don't think we can say that just because God is not restricted past time, this means that God doesn't comprehend fourth dimension, or that God doesn't care that nosotros struggle with how long His plan takes. I know that this is not what people mean when they say this, only to many, that is how it comes across.

To me, here is how this answer sounds:

"Oh, life is hard and you are wondering why God is taking so long to answer your prayers and set things right? Well, God'southward timing is not our timing."

This is a Christian way of proverb, "Life sucks; then you die. Deal with it." In other words, "Close upwardly. Nobody cares. Not even God."

God does care. He knows that although our lives are less than mere breaths before His infinite existence, the years of our life are often total of pain, hardship, trials, burdens, sickness, fear, and sorrow.

two. To teach humanity nearly the depth of our sin.

If Jesus had shown upwardly 20 minutes after Adam and Eve sinned, we never would have understood the depth and breadth of our sinfulness. Nor would we have understood how desperately nosotros need God. It could be argued that one reason Adam and Eve sinned is because they didn't fully comprehend how horrible it would be to alive life asunder from God.

Due to the long period of time in which we accept wallowed in our sin, we now know — exercise we ever! — how wicked, evil, and brutal people tin be.

One smashing benefit to this fashion of viewing God'due south filibuster is that information technology seems to exist supported by Scripture. Over and over again in Scripture we come across this cycle:

1. Human development (e.g., the Law, the State, Judges, Kings, Prophets, etc.)
2. Great expectations for homo utopia
3. Greater evil than e'er before

I similar this explanation, except that information technology seems like a bit of overkill. Pun intended. Practise we really demand thousands of years of bloodshed, rape, murder, torture, state of war, famine, pestilence, and illness to tell united states that sin is bad? I don't know… maybe we do. After all, human being history reveals that every and then often, people think that humanity has progressed to the indicate that worldwide peace and prosperity is just around the corner, that human utopia is about assured. Usually, not long afterward these rosy predictions of our futurity are fabricated, humanity enters into one of the most tearing and bloody eras of its history.

In fact, you tin can nearly predict future events based on how rosy of a picture is existence painted about that future. The rosier the film, the bloodier the hereafter. (This is one reason I am not a postmillennialist.)

3. To teach the angels about God's redemptive purpose

This idea comes from 1 Peter 1:12 and a few other verses which seem to bespeak that 1 reason God created humanity and is conveying out His redemptive programme is to teach something to the angels. Nobody really knows what God might be trying to teach the angels that they don't already know, but apparently, the angels are learning from watching how God deals with rebellious humanity.

Some have fifty-fifty suggested that God'south plan of redemption may somewhen include the angels as well! If so, the Bible says absolutely nothing about this …

Anyway, if God is teaching the angels something, so patently, it takes a long time to teach them.

4. To wait until the fourth dimension when the Gospel could spread the quickest

Sometimes, and specifically in connection to why Jesus came when He did, some people say information technology had something to do with the Roman empire. The Roman empire built roads and had a common tongue which allowed the message of the Gospel to spread more than quickly and with greater ease than it could have at other times.

I suppose in theory, this is somewhat true, but if God was waiting until at that place was a mutual linguistic communication and skilful lines of communication before sending Jesus, He could have picked no better time than right earlier humans decided to build the Belfry of Babel. In that location was just 1 language at the time, and information technology seems their advice was so good, there was nothing they could not reach. That is partly why the text says that God scrambled human communication (Genesis 11:6).

Furthermore, if God was really waiting for the quickest and most worldwide method of communication, He should have waited for Twitter.

Ha! I'm kidding.

Kind of …

Look, when we say that God waited to ship Jesus until there was a common tongue and a good road system, what we are also saying is that the simply part of the world that God really cared about was the part under Roman dominion (Well-nigh of Europe, Northern Africa, and Western asia). The rest of the earth did non have access to the Roman road organization, nor did they speak the mutual language of the Roman empire. So are we saying so that God didn't intendance well-nigh nigh of Africa, near of Asia, and all of North and South America?

That was why I was kind-of just half-joking when I mentioned Twitter. If God was waiting until the quickest form of advice was available to all the world, and then He could take waited until a worldwide system of instantaneous advice was in place … a system much similar Twitter.

So anyway, while I practice call up the Roman road system and mutual linguistic communication helpedthe spread of the Gospel, I don't think nosotros tin say that this was why Jesus came at the fourth dimension and place that He did.

5. To fulfill prophecy

Then at that place is the explanation that Jesus came when He did because He had to fulfill prophecy.

In that location is some truth to this, especially depending on how you lot sympathize the prophecy of Daniel'due south 70 Weeks (Daniel 9:24-27). It may be that Jesus had to come when He did to complete the prophecy given 490 years earlier.

Also, in relation to this, Paul writes that Jesus came "at the appointed fourth dimension" (Galatians 4:4). Other New Testament authors say similar things.

While there is truth with this reply, information technology really doesn't respond the question. All information technology does it move the question back. If Jesus came at that fourth dimension to fulfill prophesy, and so why did God prophecy that Jesus would come up at that time? Why didn't God move prophets to predict that Jesus would come a two thousand years earlier … or later? Why then? Why there?

(My! This post is getting long … Let's see if I can wrap it upwards.)

6. To wait until homo theological development had evolved to the point where we could understand Jesus

One final view is that God waited for so long considering flesh had  to develop socially and spiritually enough in order to empathize and receive the revelation of Jesus Christ.

This thought is based on the concept of progressive revelation, that God has slowly explained Himself and unfolded His plan and purposes for the world over time. The reason is that nosotros could not understand and grasp it all at once, then He has had to teach us flake by bit, one step at a time.

I am pedagogy my daughters math, and while I know Calculus, I cannot endeavour to teach them everything I know about math on day ane, from basic arithmetic all the way to calculus. Not only is there not plenty time to do this, they would not comprehend most of it, but would instead become overwhelmed and as a result, would not even understand the most basic concepts in math.

So as well, this theory goes, God had to slowly teach humanity about Himself and His ways, so that over time, we would grow and develop into the people He wanted u.s.a. to become.

Progressive revelation is a definite fact of Scripture, but I am a bit wary of this idea, for it seems to fall prey to what C. South. Lewis chosen "chronological snobbery." Lewis frequently criticized other scholars for thinking that just because they lived in 1960, they knew more than almost how the earth worked and what God was like than people who lived in say, 60 Advertisement. Just because we are further along in years, C. S. Lewis argued, does not mean nosotros necessarily know more. We may, in fact, know less.

Merely, for the well-nigh part, I recall this view has some merit, and does help explain what Jesus might have meant in John xvi:12 where He said He had much more to teach, just could non practise so considering they were not gear up to hear it. Verses like this are everywhere in Scripture (cf. Matt 13:10-13), which seems to indicate that God but provides further revelation after nosotros have incorporated His previous revelation into our thinking and practice (for the most role).

What is my view about why God waited thousands of years to send Jesus?

What is my view on all of this? I hold some strange mixture of all of the above.

Substantially, I believe that any we say most God's timing in sending Jesus is like to what we should say virtually God's timing in doing annihilation. At that place are a variety of answers at whatsoever given time, and any activity of God tin can have a variety of explanations.

I know, I know. Such an reply is not neat, pretty, and tidy. But then, life is not great, pretty, and tidy, and neither is theology. Theology, like life, is a large mess of guesswork and scrambled answers.

While I believe that faith in God includes organized religion in God'southward timing, I am non always certain we can understand God's timing …

How about you? Which of the answers above is most helpful to you? Which is least helpful? What did I leave out? Why practise y'all think God waited and then long to send Jesus for the redemption of flesh?

PS., This mail turned out be and then LONG (2500 words!!!), I will post something nice and short tomorrow (for my and yours).

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Source: https://redeeminggod.com/why-did-god-wait-to-send-jesus/

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