From Eternity to Here

Rediscovering the Ageless Purpose of God

Frank Viola

• Publisher: David C Cook
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN: 9781434768704
• eBook ISBN: 9781434703996
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Ministry

Discover the sweeping story of God's eternal plan.
Deep within God's Word lies a wondrous story like no other. A drama that unfolded before time began. An epic saga that resonates with the heartbeat of God. A story that reveals nothing less than the meaning of life and God's great mission in the earth.

From Here to Eternity presents three remarkable stories spanning from Genesis to Revelation. Each story traces a divine theme that is woven throughout scripture. Seen together, they offer an extraordinary glimpse into God's highest passion and grand mission. What you discover will forever change your view of life, the church, and our magnificent God.

PART ONE

A FORGOTTEN WOMAN:

THE BRIDE OF CHRIST

Neither revolution nor reformation can ultimately change a society, rather you must tell a new powerful tale, one so persuasive that it sweeps away the old myths and becomes the preferred story, one so inclusive that it gathers all the bits of our past and our present into a coherent whole, one that even shines some light into the future so that we can take the next step.… If you want to change a society, then you have to tell an alternative story.

—Ivan Illich, Austrian philosopher

CHAPTER 1

THE HIDDEN ROMANCE OF THE BIBLE

I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know.

—Ephesians 1:18 NASB

Before the beginning, she was there. She is the most elegant woman in the universe. She is as ancient as God. She existed before angels. Her origins reach further back than antiquity itself. Yet she is forever young.

The word stunning fails to adequately describe her. She is as beautiful as the face of God. She is beyond captivating. She is hypnotic and magnetic. Most of us have never imagined the glory that she carries. Just a glimpse of her matchless beauty could win your heart and possess your being. She is incurably attractive.

This woman defines liberty; she embodies freedom. And she was made for love.

She stands at the very heartbeat of God’s eternal purpose. She is His highest passion. His holy obsession, even. She is the purpose of the very creation wherein you and I stand. And your Lord is out-of-His-head in love with her.

Yet despite her beauty, she has been utterly neglected. She has been forgotten. And with rare exception, she has been veiled to most of us. Herein lies my motive in writing the first section of this book: to give her center stage.

God’s Ultimate Passion

From the beginning, God has had a secret. Before time, the Almighty shrouded His high and holy purpose in a mystery. And He hid it in His Son. For ages, no one knew what that purpose was. It was deeply hidden in God. It was a secret—the secret of the ages (Rom. 16:25; Col. 1:26; Eph. 3:4–5, 9).

Adam walked with God, yet he didn’t know the mystery. Abraham was the friend of God, yet he didn’t know the mystery. Moses was the prophet of God, yet he didn’t know the mystery. Neither did David, Isaiah, nor Jeremiah.

The mystery was not only veiled to mortals, it was hidden from angels as well. Gabriel and Michael didn’t know it. Neither did Lucifer, nor his demonic hosts (1 Cor. 2:7–8; Eph. 3:9–10).

Why did God keep His purpose a secret for so long? Presumably because He didn’t want His purpose to be thwarted prematurely. God’s purpose embodies His dream, His passion, His very heartbeat. So He kept it veiled until the time became full.

Old Testament authors first proclaimed the sacred mystery in stories, types, pictures, and shadows. But although kings, prophets, and sages proclaimed it, they did not understand it.

And then one day, it happened. God pulled back the curtain and revealed the secret. He chose a man named Paul of Tarsus to unveil it to the world (Col. 1:25–29; Eph. 3:1–11). In Paul’s letters, especially Ephesians and Colossians, the apostle speaks of this mystery with great fervor. He virtually exhausts human language to convey its incomparable depths and unfathomable heights. Paul, along with other apostles and prophets of Century One, were “stewards of the divine mystery” (1 Cor. 4:1; Col. 1:25–26; Eph. 3:2–9).

On the day that God lifted the curtain and let the secret out, His enemy froze with terror. Satan never saw, dreamed, nor thought that such a thing could be possible. Although God revealed His mystery in the first century, it remains a secret to many Christians today. The Holy Spirit must open the eyes of His people in every generation for them to grasp it. In this way, the great prayer of Paul in Ephesians 1:17–23 is still being answered.

The divine mystery has everything to do with the woman I spoke of earlier. This amazing lady fills the pages of Holy Scripture. She shows up at the very beginning of the Bible; she appears all throughout the middle; and she’s there at the very end. The Scriptures give us an exalted view of this woman along with her immaculate Husband. Each book of the Bible pulsates with her fragrance.

The Eternal Drama

In Genesis 1 and 2, the Bible opens up with a woman and a man. In Revelation 21 and 22, the Bible closes with a woman and a man. The Bible opens up with a wedding, and it ends with a wedding. It opens with a marriage, and it ends with a marriage. It opens with a boy and a girl, and it ends with a boy and a girl.

Your Bible is essentially a love story.

In fact, it’s the greatest love story of all time. It is the classic romantic tale. Those who know me well can tell you that I’m a huge fan of love stories. My favorite movies are romantic films. These films have the power to evoke strong emotion, even pulling tears from the eyes of their viewers. Yet the most powerful love story that any human has ever crafted pales in comparison to the epic romance that runs throughout your Bible.

Please pay attention to this next sentence: Every love story that the minds of mortal men and women construct, every love story that has made its appearance in the pages of human history—whether fiction or nonfiction—is but a reflection, a pale image, a faint portrait, a scrambled version of the sacred romance of the ages.

God has authored the most incredible love story ever written. It is a story that has set the standard for all romantic literature to follow. Every great saga follows the story line of the hidden romance contained in Scripture. But none can trump it.

You and I were born into such a romance, the romance of the ages.

The heavenly romance that I’ve been speaking about begins in Genesis 2. Let us now revisit day seven of God’s creation and watch the drama unfold.

CHAPTER 2

A WOMAN INSIDE OF A MAN

On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work …Then the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” So the LORD God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him. So the LORD God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the LORD God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man. “At last!” the man exclaimed. “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’” This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.

—Genesis 2:2, 18–24 NLT

Creation is finished, but God isn’t. Not yet anyway.

The earth is filled with life. Plant life. Bird life. Fish life. Animal life. But Adam, God’s first human, is alone. Utterly alone.

The Sabbath ends and it is now Sunday, the first day of the week. It is day eight of creation. God now gives Adam a daunting task: to name all the birds and the land creatures. So Adam begins to name the animals. As each creature marches by, he can’t help but notice that each of them has a companion. Every animal has a creature just like it, yet different. Every life form has a counterpart.

The buck has his doe, the lion his lioness. Adam sees the tiger and the tigress in step, as well as the leopard and leopardess. Every animal and its companion marches past a lonely human who has no such counterpart.

The result? A painful anguish fills Adam’s soul. He realizes more than ever that he is alone, very alone. There is no one like him.

Of all the creatures that walked by Adam that day, none had a hand like Adam’s for him to hold. As each an...

Table of contents

• Preface
• Introduction: Disclosing the Divine Story
• Part ONE A Forgotten Woman: The Bride of Christ
• Part Two An Eternal Quest: The House of God
• Part THREE A New Species: The Body of Christ and the Family of God
• Afterword: One Man’s Journey into a Deep Ecclesiology
• Acknowledgments
• Bibliography
• About the Author