People Are Individuals Designed By God, Not Abstractions

A Study Outline

I. God designed people to be individuals, and treated with individual care, not to be “human beings” and part of a herd.

II. Satan’s governments on earth destroy the individuality of men because they must deal with people en masse, as abstractions, not as important individuals.

A. If people do not conform to the mould of society’s ideas they are coerced and forced to conform to the majority views and morals, with fear being the major force. Romans 8:12-15; II Timothy 1:7; Hebrews 2:14-15.

B. If people reject Satan’s ways, Satan will eventually try to destroy them, even as he caused Jesus Christ to be killed.

C. In Satan’s culture “you can be replaced”.

D. Read in Man the Unknown by Alexis Carrel, pages 235-237, 269-273.

III. Christians are part of the ecclesia (“called out ones”), and in God’s view are not lost amongst the many individuals He calls.

A. He treats each person He calls with individual concern. I Peter 5:7. If the God of all the universe cares for you personally, then you must have incredible personal value. In God’s culture “You cannot be replaced”.

B. Once God has begun working with you He will perfect and complete you until Jesus Christ returns. Philippians 1:6.

C. The Church (ecclesia) is built upon the Rock — Jesus Christ — and the gates of death — Satan’s forces — will not overpower it. Matthew 16:18.

IV. The saints are so important as individuals that God has bestowed special Spiritual gifts upon them through His Spirit, and has especially shown them how to love the brethren by serving and lifting them up within the Body.

A. Gifts of the Spirit are given to each of His called-out ones. I Corinthians 12:1-30; Romans 12:4-21; Ephesians 4:1-16.

B. These gifts are to be actively exercised to lift up the brethren. I Peter 4:8-11.

C. God’s perfect love removes the fear engendered by Satan’s governmental systems. I John 4:16-18.

D. Show love and compassion for one another. Ephesians 4:25-32; Colossians 3:9-17.

V. We as God’s people are to be separate from the world’s political and cultural systems, not carried along by Satan’s doctrines that operate around us, but unified with the brethren in a new life. Romans 12:2; Hebrews 12:1-3; I John 2:15-17; I Peter 2:9-12.

Paul W. Syltie — August 16, 2002