[TruthTalk] 2 of 7 - 'Foundation of The World'

[Chris Barr]

THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD   The phrase "the foundation of the world" occurs ten times in ten different scriptures. Each occurrence is in the New Testament as follows: Matthew 13:35 – "That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, ‘I will open My mouth in parables'; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world." Matthew 25:34 – "Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, ‘Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world’" Luke 11:50 – "That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation" John 17:24 – "Father, I will that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am; that they may behold My glory, which You have given me: for You loved Me before the foundation of the world." Ephesians 1:4 – "According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world" Hebrews 4:3 – "For we which have believed do enter into rest, as He said, ‘As I have sworn in My wrath, if they shall enter into my rest’: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world." Hebrews 9:26 – "For then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world has He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself" I Peter 1:20 – "Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you" Revelation 13:8 – "And all that dwell upon the earth shall worship Him, whose names are not written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" Revelation 17:8 – ". . . and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is" Just what momentous, cataclysmic, groundwork of history is meant by this ominous phrase "the foundation of the world"? The answer in light of ALL the scriptural references reconciled in harmony will shatter the very substructure of many popular beliefs. Is "the foundation of the world" the "creation of the earth"?   WORLD AND EARTH The word translated as "world" in this phrase is a word used for the "world system". This word is never translated as earth! The words translated as 'earth' in the New Testament are never translated from the word for 'world' in this phrase. The 'world' referred to in this phrase and the 'earth' are distinctively different from one another!!" This "world system" is what we are not to be a part of and what we are to be saved from. The god of this "world system" (II Cor. 4:4) keeps men in darkness. The principalities and powers of darkness are over this "world system" (Eph. 6:12). However, the earth belongs to Yah Veh (Ex.9:29; Ps. 24:1; 1 Cor. 10:26,28). The earth abides forever (Ecc. 1:4). Although the earth is spoken of in several places as passing away, the word from the Greek is actually passing from one state to another state; it is not passing away as in ceasing to exist. Psalms 102:25-27 and Hebrews 1:10-12 explain how the earth will "perish" by its being "changed". The current "world system" will end as YahShua restores the earth to its glory, and that last "world system" will take us into eternity. The current "world system" is the time that began when man entered into SIN. The phrase "the foundation of the world" relates to the original sin of man. The Greek word translated in this phrase as "foundation" establishes this point as well. The word "foundation" in this phrase is translated that way from the Greek only in the ten occurrences of the phrase "the foundation of the world". It comes from a word which means "to throw down" or "cast down". Nineteen other instances in which "foundation" words are found come from another completely unrelated Greek rendering that refers to a positive act of building up. When Adam sinned, that caused the fall of man from the way things were originally intended to be. The time when sin began in man is "the foundation of the world".