What do you believe when you say, "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of Heaven and Earth?"
We must first define and understand what is meant by the terms here used. To create is to produce something out of nothing. The term world is used in Scripture in four different ways. It means:
1.
The structure, or frame, of the whole universe, comprising heaven,
earth, and all things which are in them. "The world was made by Him."
(John 1:10)
2. Worldly concupiscence (intense, obsessive desire; especially sexual desire --- sexual hunger, morbid passion.)
For
you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord
Jesus. For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that
you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess
his own vessel in sanctification and honor, not in lustful passion
(concupiscence), like the Gentiles who do not know God; (1 Thessalonians
4:2-5)
3. The ungodly, or unregenerate, who are in the world. (John 17:9)
4. Those who are chosen out of the world.
Speaking
to the Father about His disciples, Jesus said: "I have given them Your
word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world,
even as I am not of the world. I do not ask You to take them out of the
world, but to keep them from the evil one."
"They
are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in
the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also
have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that
they themselves also may be sanctified in truth."
"I
do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in
Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father,
are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me." (John 17:14-21)
Zacharias Ursinus
Uploading ....