MOST CHRISTIANS... BELIEVE THAT TRUE RELIGION IS BEST DEFINED AS MAN’S SEARCH FOR GOD; THAT THE PRIMARY GOAL OF ALL FAITH AND THE SUBSTANCE OF ALL RELIGIOUS ACTION IS CENTERED AROUND THEIR QUEST TO FIND GOD. Most Christians believe that the Bible charts the course of this great search for God by man. ...  
     Actually, just the opposite is true.
        In reality the story of Man and His redemption is the saga of God’s quest for Man and all that God has done to bring man into lasting fellowship with Him. Specifically, the plot of the story of Man is the chronicle of God’s quest to adopt Man, make Man His heir, so that together they can share eternity as cohabiters of a blissful, utopic, perfectly secure paradise. Of optimum importance, as it turns out, is the Father’s search for a fitting and perfect Bride for His Son. The Bible hints at this most fundamental of all religious truths this way: “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong in behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.” ^{2 Chron. 16:9}
        The greatest promise of God's love toward man rests, of course, in His promise to send the Christ, the chosen One who would have the power to save man from death itself. God fulfilled the promise at the First Coming, when Jesus died and rose from the dead, and ascended ‘with healing in His wings’, back to the Father from whence He came. The ultimate purpose being to redeem Man from his guilt riddled life and to pardon him for his disobedience and sin; to give new life with eternal power. The healing and redeeming power of the blood of Christ is one of the mysteries of the faith. Like all mysteries of the Christian faith it can be fully comprehended and experienced only by those who have ears to hear and eyes to see. They can come to see and hear God, because they have a willing heart, are willing to listen and look. The ultimate purpose of the cross was to secure Man for God, to bring Him into God’s arms, to make an enduring and everlasting relationship truly possible, to make His religious quest a success. The ultimate in Man's relationship with God (and relationships with god have varying degrees of intimacy from one saved soul to another) is to be in perfect unity and divine oneness with God. How much of Christ abides in us, or we in Him? Christ in us, this is the hope glory we are told. How much hope do we have invested in Him as our Lord, not just our Savior, goes al long way to how much we love Him? That some have the abiding hope in them that when they see Him they will become like Him, more so than another Christian,is often evident even to an unbeliever or the skeptical eye. We are told that having this living hope in our heart and soul is a purifying agent. So we who are prospective brides hope and believe. Some live not by sight, but by faith for things yet unseen. To their spiritual detriment, not all of the saved share this hope. Still, Christ must have a wife.

The word, Christ, is the most meaningful and powerful word concerning Man and his destiny. It packs an abundance of meaning and all true hope is bundled in its profound promise. The word Christ means ‘the anointed one’ and carries with it the automatic implication that the ‘anointed one’ is from the ranks of Man. God is not anointed. God needs no anointing, from Him all anointings flow. He is the originator of all 'anointing'. Angels are not anointed with one thing or another, but are ministers of salvation, messengers and servants of God. Christ is Man (the seed of the woman). Christ is the only one able to pay the price of Redemption. The 'anointed' Man must be, is, Redeemer of Man. The Christ is a man, must be man. From before the beginning of time, before the foundations of the worlds were laid, this was a reckoned part of God’s plan of Creation. the first reality and fact concerning the need for a Bride. That the Son would take on the form and reality of being a man, meant He would have the needs of Man. As the great early doctrinaire of the Trinity, Athanasius, had so succinctly put it; “God became Man, so that Man might become God.” Because of this necessity of reality, the way by which man must be brought, through to the portal of eternal life, Christ had to proceed from the ranks of mankind. God so loved the world that he gave (to us) His only begotten son so that whosoever should believe on Him would not perish but have everlasting life. Christ left His throne of glory and became a man for our sakes, that we, his brothers and sisters, might live forever. To emphasis the manhood of the Christ and for this reason, Jesus Christ made it a point on several occasions to label Himself THE SON OF MAN. The mission and purpose of Christ dictates, even demands under God’s justice and truth, that The Christ be a man. God became Christ because it was an essential and indispensable part of His quest to bring Man into new heaven and new earth, wherein lies eternal salvation and righteousness.
        It was essential that God become man so He could be able to identify with Man in every way, not only in knowledge theoretical, but in every experience and temptation of fleshly actuality. Nothing can tempt God. So it behooved God to become Man. The Christ had to endure and overcome all temptations known to flesh. He had to weather the storms, storms which he came to subdue in behalf of Man. It was also an indispensable requisite that the blood of an innocent man be shed in order to break the bondage of Man, to make payment and to nullify the powerful temptations of sin which had subdued and made slaves of Mankind, and to which Man would always be prone until their hold was broken once and for all. The fact that Christ had to be Man is an essential element at play in the mystery of Christ, a mystery as all godly mysteries, which was held secret from the foundation of the world until the coming of Christ who began to unravel them and reveal them in secret parables to those whose hearts were able to be molded into perfection by His own powerful workings of love upon them.

This facet of the mystery of Christ, namely the aspect which dictated Christ be a man and that as man He not be alone, makes up the main dimension in God’s quest for Man. Like a wheel within a wheel there was a developing and more specific quest within the general overall mission of God to procure eternal life for willing souls. As man, the Christ would not only identify in every way (save sin) with Man, He would also share directly in Man’s fate. He too would require having the innate needs of Man fulfilled in that part of His nature that is Man. Taking on a human form also meant tanking on Man's nature and as any human He had general, deep rooted needs which needed to be visited by God, filled by God's grace alone, and taught exclusively by the Holy Spirit. The Son of Man as the Psalm says, is visited, needs to be visited by God, visited by God’s wisdom, truth and mercy. When Christ identified Himself as Son of Man he was freely testifying that as man he needed to be visited by God just as all other human beings must be 'visited' by the living God. The prophet Isaiah reported this prophecy about the human nature of the Christ: "The Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings." (Is. 7:14-16) It is only reasonable then, that the Son of Man had to learn and be visited as a man, being equipped with the spiritual equipment of God as men are equipped.

Christ often went away to pray. When He went away to pray He prayed as a man, because He needed to be ministered to by God as a man. The Christ must be a man to be the overcomer, subduer of evil for Man. He was baptized in water and by the Holy Ghost because He needed the continual visitation of God to sustain His vigor of life and spirit, to endure the bucket loads of temptation thrown at Him from every quarter of life each and every day. Here is the reason why He suffered to be baptized, why he said it was only right for Him to do it. Not because he needed to be washed from sin - He had no sin - but because He needed to testify that He was a man like you and I, and that He needed visitation from the Father and The Holy Spirit in all things. He could have thrown this up in the face of Man, saying, that relying on the will of the Father and trusting that He visits us in every trial makes it possible to overcome sin, even for a man, you ought to have done this too! But Jesus did not. Rather, he forgave us our sin and had the right to forgive because He took on our nature and thereby confronted sin and condemned it in the process. And He was not only Man, but God with us.
        Part of the human nature is the need to tend things. Christ needs to have this part of His nature fulfilled. He has a flock to tend and care for. Part of human nature which must be fulfilled is to praise and worship the Creator. The man Jesus always delighted to do this. It fulfilled part of His deepest desire within his human nature. There are many such needs inherent in the nature of Man that must be fulfilled if we are to have a gratifying and happy life. So Christ the man needed, and needs, those things fulfilled as well. Among those necessities for happiness and fulfillment is companionship, for it had been established from the beginning that "it is not good for Man to be alone". This is one of the most important revelations of the whole Bible, this thing about not being alone. It is one of the first stated maxims of all Scripture, first declared in the opening description of creation. It is the first need of Man mentioned because it is the most vital and deep seated in human nature. This meant that The Christ, who is man, also would need a companion, need 'not to be alone'. The most proficient and perfect way to alleviate loneliness is marriage. It is an institution set up by God from the start. An institution meant to point toward eternal oneness, a more perfect eternal togetherness and unity of spirit between God and Man. It is a union in which two become one. How much closer, how much better off and 'not alone' can one be than in perfect marriage, where two become one? In other words, the Christ, being the Son of Man would not only save mankind from sin and its wages of death, but He also being man would carry the same needs of man into all eternity. The Father was committed to fulfilling His son's human needs even before the quest for Man commenced. The Savior would need a ‘wife’. A wife from out of his own ranks, from out of mankind, with whom he could be ONE. The wife, the fulfillment that He not be alone, because 'it is not good that man should be alone', as it turns out, is called in the Bible The Bride, and is identified by an angel in the final vision in Holy Scripture at the close of the Book of Revelation, as THE BRIDE.

And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the BRIDE, the Lamb's wife. (Rev. 21:9)

In all reality this is only an expression of a greater truth, that is, God Himself does not wish to be alone, He too wants a companion that is not a mere servant as the angels are, but He wants a companion with whom He is One. For we see in this, the final revelation of Scripture, that God does not wish to be alone either. It is not good for Him to be alone. He shall not cast off every friend, child, servant, or otherwise saved soul, but this will not stop Him from having an intimate one, a wife.

[The following section or 'chapter' of web-pages under the general section of the Bride is titled: God’s Quest for a Bride. It follows the path of God’s quest to locate a Bride for His Son, The Christ. We are told in Ephesians chapter five that The Son will groom His Bride Himself. God’s quest for the Bride and its epic story is hidden within the parables of the Old and New Testaments, as well as those things suggested in the similitudes and portraits of select people of the Bible. As with any mystery, the story of the Bride must be searched out and investigated. Each mystery must be sifted from the broader quest of God that is about Man’s salvation in general. In the end we shall discover that the mystery that is Christ and the church is revealed as God and ‘perfect’ Man (those with perfect hearts towards Him) being united in eternal matrimony as ONE forever. We should not suppose that every lost soul is doomed because they are not the Bride per se. Many millions no doubt shall find salvation and take their place among the saved in heaven, some as part of the Bridal party, others as members of the greater household of God. There is a place in heaven for those who are not intimately married to Christ. They have a different relationship with the Father and the Son, it too is eternal and secure. They will not have the same authority as the Bride or the same relationship with Christ. Over the years the patrons and stewards of God’s mysteries have argued, sometimes contentiously and vehemently over this idea of different degrees of relationship with God among the saved. Some are threatened by talk of degrees of intimacy. Even responsible, diligent stewards and benevolent preachers have argued over whether the Bride should be reckoned as the church or Israel. It is a controversy that need not have been reared. They have overlooked, or in some way not discovered or been enlightened as to the unveiling of the Bride in the last pages of the Bible. There, at Bible’s end, the Bride comes down out of heaven. An angel shows her to the apostle John. The Bride is clearly identified as the so-called Commonwealth of Israel – Jew and Gentile – her gates are the patriarchs of the tribes of Jacob, her foundations the twelve apostles of the church of Jesus Christ. The Bride is not one or the other, but both – those who have been perfected by Christ because they had perfect hearts toward God. They are plucked out of every age and epoch of the Quest for the Bride. They are Seth, Enoch, Abraham, Melchezidek, Elijah, David, Nehemiah, Peter, Paul and the pure and righteous saints of the Age of Grace, the Apostolic Age, the age of persecution, Medieval Times, Modern Times, the End of Days, all the martyrs – those who God searched out with eyes running to and fro over the whole earth, intent in His quest and looking relentlessly for those suitable prospects for the Bride of the Son of Man.

The path tracked is the one which we understand to have been taken by God in His quest for a Bride. It is, however, arbitrary in that we may have missed some stop-over points, some edifying details of the quest or even a whole segment, but we believe we have sufficiently traced the general story of God’s quest for a Bride as presented in the Bible so that it will help the heart of anyone inclined to love the idea of Brideship and aid them to more fully enter into its eternal blessings and provide a key for greater richness of life in the here and now, and not only the life to come. The saga of this quest within the quest for Man is laid out in the following order: 1 Promise – 2 Divorce – 3 Vision – 4 Faithful Fiancee – 5 Qualities – 6 Pure Bride – 7 Perfect Wife.]