Revealed Mystery of God's
Purpose for the Universe
How do we know the will of God and Purpose
of God for this world, the mystery is revealed
in Ephesians 1.

"Wherein he hath abounded toward us in all wisdom
and prudence; Having made known unto us the
mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure
which he hath purposed in himself:
That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he
might gather together in one all things in Christ, both
which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in
him..."  (Ephesians 1:8-11)




We feel secure as Christians, with meaning and purpose,
with awareness and more comprehension from Ephesias
1, how we are engrained in the eternal purpose of the
Only Eternal God the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ.  In
other words, WE ARE SOMEBODY IN CHRIST, and
somebody that The Father cared enough from even
before His foundation of the earth in creation, chose us
to be conformed to the image of His Son Christ.
   In that we couple our lives IN CHRIST with that
pupose, we can never be outdated even as Christ
seated at the right hand of God in heavenly places can
not be outdated, "far above all principalites (philosophies
and religions) and power and might (of nations and men
and spiritual wickedness in high places)--heavenly places
are higher and greater than high places--and higher than
all shifting dominions of nations and powers, and far
abover "every name that is named"--just think of that
Christ above every name to hear about or read in the
current news"; and never outdated even as Christ
Himself and God the Creator, as Christ is above "NOT
ONLY IN THIS AGE BUT ALSO IN THAT WHICH IS
TO COME." (Ephesians 1:20-23)
 And in light of that purpose, we would seek to update
Elton Trueblood, admittedly the Philopher of Religion of
the world's greatest generation, who also served the
govrnment in World War II, update him with physics and
Dr. R. A. Millikans who in his famous lectures at Yale on
"Evolution in Science and Religion" distinguishes
between ABSOLUTE TRUTH and UNIVERSAL
TRUTH.  Trueblood in his famous standard for
Philosophy of Religion, while summarizing very
adequately all the thoughts of philosoph and relgion up to
that greatest generation {his book studies by so many
college and seminary students for Philosophy of
Religions was written in 1957, espected to be outdated
for reasons to be mentioned below; however we must
correct him in that while he was consistent with Absolute
Truth, and wherein by the Bible we can distinguish that
from Universal Truth, Trueblood also IN CHRIST can
never be outdated.  My goodness only those foolhardy
ones  of Philosophy FROM Religion would outdate as of
no value the foundations of philosophy in Plato and
Socrates, likewise cast off all the Bible and Christ as of
no value because it was born before them.  One should
consider the words at this point of Charles Haddeon
Spurgeon who wrote in his Lectures to My Students, "Be
not such a wiseacre as to think you have nothing to learn
from the past."
  And it is much like in the study and applications of
science and math, if you think you are going to make
some contribution beyond the studies of the past, you
must first come-up on the physics of the past, classical
and modern. And what makes PFR so outdated is that it
has never come up to not only Trueblood, admittedly "A
Protestant Christian" with that viewpoint; but have not
come up to the mystery of the revealed word of God, of
the first century, from Paul and Ephesians 1,
representative of the whole NT as "the faith once for all
delivered to the saints"  (Jude 3).

  How can we be so confident that IN CHRIST we are
dealing with ABSOLUTE TRUTH?  For the very reason
in Ephesians 1:9  and 10, it is a revelation of the
previously hiden mystery of what God is all about in the
Creation and guidance to an end of this Universe--

NOTE:  Read choice and related quotations
from the Preface of Trueblood's PHilosophy of
Religion. Perhaps you can begin to
understand why the Philosophy of Religion
(POR) is to be preferred to the Philosopy
FROM Religion (PFR).